Auburn Tigers Linebacker Eugene Asante Ready to 'Up the Ante' on Oklahoma Sooners

The Auburn Tigers have put themselves in a hole after losing to the Arkansas Razorbacks, and linebacker Eugene Asante knows they'll need to step it up against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Auburn Tigers linebacker Eugene Asante has 10 tackles on the season as Auburn hosts the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday. / John Reed-Imagn Images

The Auburn Tigers (2-2) are going into an important game against the No. 21 Oklahoma Sooners. Both teams are coming off home losses to SEC foes. Auburn to Arkansas, and Oklahoma lost their SEC debut to No. 6 Tennessee.

Auburn finds themselves in a must-win situation as it prepares to play the toughest portion of its schedule with three consecutive road games after this week. After facing the Sooners, Auburn travels to No. 2 Georgia, No. 11 Missouri, and finally to Kentucky.

Senior linebacker Eugene Asante has been a leader for the Tigers both on and off the field over the past two seasons. He has 10 tackles on the season, and his message to his teammates who are discouraged by the team’s recent performance is simple.

“I say this, I think in terms of our preparation we have to up the ante,” Asante said. “We have to go harder than we went before, and we got to play complete football games as demanded out of us.”

Asante remains confident that Auburn has what it takes to be a successful team this season.

“We have all the resources to be a great football team,” Asante said. “As players we have to evaluate ourselves and look at our day-to-day lives. How much are we putting into this? I continue to try to convey that to guys. If you think you’re doing enough, you’re not.”

Asante elaborated on his mindset heading into the Oklahoma game and how he is trying to lead the team in that area.

“I think our mindset is to develop upon the games we’ve played in, understand the mistakes that we’ve made as a team and trying to learn from those mistakes in every form of the game,” Asante said. “Defensively, offensively, special teams wise. We need to put ourselves in a position to win.”

Auburn's defense has put them in position to win every game this season. However, third downs plagued the Tigers in their 24-14 loss to Arkansas. When Asante speaks of understanding the mistakes, lack of focus.

Redshirt freshman Sylvester Smith summed it up after the loss on Saturday.

“On third-and-longs, we just have to be more locked-in,” Smith said. “I think that as a player you hear third-and-long and think it's kind of easy to not be a 110% locked into the play because its third-and-long, but that comes back and bites you sometimes. You have to play every down like it’s a fourth down. We need to be more attentive to those situations.”

A win on Saturday would go a long way towards righting what's wrong with Auburn. But a loss sending the team to 2-3 with the Bulldogs on the horizon is a daunting possibility.

Asante and the Tigers go head-to-head with the Sooners inside Jordan-Stadium at 2:30 p.m. CT. ABC and ESPN+ will carry the television broadcast. ESPN considers the Tigers 2.5-point underdogs to the Sooners on Saturday.