Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante wore a baby blue-colored silicone bracelet on his right wrist during Saturday’s game against the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

Written on it in red lettering were the words, “Be better than yesterday.”

Asante says the bracelet was given to him with the story that it honored a 19-year-old young man who died in a car accident. After the teen’s death, his family found a note of his that talked about “being better than yesterday.”

The message was a simple one that Asante knew he could apply to being a better human being, Christian and man, he said Saturday.

But it wasn’t by happenstance that Asante wore the wristband in Saturday’s game against the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.

The Saturday prior the meeting with the top dogs, Auburn fell on the road to Texas A&M in what was the Tigers’ second sloppy performance away from The Plains. Auburn looked all but sharp in its first road game of the year at Cal in Week 2.

Nonetheless, Asante and the rest of the Auburn football team knew they didn’t play to their standard in College Station.

While Asante’s bracelet told him to “Be better than yesterday”, he also used the message to push himself and the rest of the Tigers’ roster to be better than last week.

And anyone who watched both games can testify that Auburn was, in fact, better than last week as it kept the No. 1 team in the country on the ropes for four full quarters, falling to Georgia 27-20.

“I think we came out and executed a little bit more and just put our best foot forward,” Asante said.

The Auburn offense — which didn’t score a touchdown in last week’s 27-10 loss to Texas A&M — looked vastly different in front of its home crowd Saturday.

All week, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said he intended to be much more involved in the offense when Georgia came to town after expressing his frustration with Philip Montgomery’s play calling from the week prior.

Before the game at Texas A&M, Auburn saw success with its RPO approach – only for it to be abandoned in College Station.

“If we don’t see more RPO plays, I’m going to have a heart attack,” Freeze joked Thursday on his weekly Tiger Talk radio appearance.

Needless to say, the RPO play calls returned against the Bulldogs on Saturday and helped the Tigers’ offense generate a balanced attack.

Auburn outgained Georgia 173 yards to 145 yards in the first half and took a 10-10 tie into the locker room. And all 10 of those points were score by the Tigers’ offense after it only mustered three points against the Aggies the week before.

“I was really active in the plan,” Freeze said after Saturday’s loss. “I approved every call that was on the call sheet.”

The Tigers’ passing attack was still far from brilliant against the Bulldogs. But that was probably a mix of Freeze wanting to play to Auburn’s strengths while also respecting what the Georgia defense was giving him and the Tigers to work with.

That said, Auburn’s offensive line appeared more cohesive in its effort on Saturday.

After giving up 15 negative plays and five sacks to the Aggies, the Tigers allowed the Bulldogs to tally just eight tackles for a loss and no sacks.

“I think we knew all along, we knew that Texas A&M game wasn’t our standard,” Auburn offensive lineman Kam Stutts said. “Came into practice this week and continued to just try to get better. Push ourselves. I think we showed a little bit more of what we’re capable of.”

With the help of the offensive line, Auburn’s rush attack also put together an encouraging outing against Georgia.

While quarterback Payton Thorne led all rushers with 92 yards, 61 of those came on one carry in the first half.

Junior running back Jarquez Hunter toted the ball the most on Saturday, tallying 59 yards on 19 carries and a touchdown. Meanwhile, USF transfer Brian Battie added 35 yards on eight carries and backup quarterback Robby Ashford rushed for 33 yards on four carries and a touchdown.

Auburn averaged 5.1 yards per carry against Georgia – a mark better than last week’s 3.5 yards per carry.

Defensively, the Tigers were able to continue to create turnovers on Saturday.

Against Texas A&M last week, Auburn scored its only touchdown as Asante returned a fumble recovery for a touchdown.

On Saturday, the Tigers tallied two turnovers – one fumble recovery and one interception. And though the defense didn’t take it upon itself to punch in a score, the Auburn offense had enough rhythm to make good on its end of the bargain and score off of both turnovers.

“We needed some of that to win this game,” Freeze said. “We preach when a break comes our way, score. I think we scored points on both of those. Those were huge.”

Perhaps the biggest improvement from the Tigers came somewhat silently.

After committing 10 penalties – some questionable and some on purpose – against Texas A&M, Auburn was called for just one penalty for five yards against Georgia.

And even better, they didn’t come in critical moments that pushed the Tigers out of field goal range or into 3rd- or 4th-and-long situations like they did last week.

“Coming off a road loss where we did not play particularly well, I felt they had a great week of practice, a great week of prep,” Freeze said. “Hopefully what’s revealed from that is they see that they can go toe to toe with some of the nation’s best.”

If Asante has permission to speak for the rest of Auburn’s roster, the Tigers know the potential they have after hanging around with the No. 1 team in the country.

“I think certainly it’ll give us a confidence boost,” Asante said. “We can be the team that we say we want to be, regardless of outside opinion, outside of the media… it does not matter. We can be who we think we are, we can be who we believe we are.”

And to keep doing that, he and the Tigers will have to keep referring back to that baby blue bracelet and work towards being better than yesterday.

The good news now is that Auburn has two weeks to do that as it draws a bye week before hitting the road to visit the LSU Tigers.

“We’ve just gotta continue to pick each other up and get ready for LSU over the bye week this week and ultimately put our best foot forward for LSU,” Asante said.