Auburn's Gene Chizik not using youth as excuse

Auburn coach Gene Chizik says his young team can't use youth as an excuse for bad play.

"We're in Game 4. We have no more new players. We don't even breathe that word," Chizik said Sunday. "Our expectation is we coach them better."

Chizik is dealing with Auburn's first loss in 18 games after falling to Clemson 38-24 Saturday. The Tigers led 14-0 before fading away.

Chizik said, his voice rising: "Make sure everybody understands: This starts with us as coaches."

Also, he said, "I'm not one bit happy with the performance. We certainly have to coach them better. And we have to play better. The standard hasn't changed.

"We're going to spend a great deal of time this week examining every inch of the offense, defense, special teams." from a personnel standpoint and an Xs and Ox standpoint.

"We're disappointed, obviously, in the outcome. I feel like there are some things that are extremely fixable, in terms of looking at everything.

Auburn fell to 117th nationally in total defense along the way. The Tigers will try to fix things this Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium when they play Florida Atlantic, which is 120th nationally in offense.