During his postgame press conference from the depths of Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox said there are no “sacred” coaches or players within the Golden Bears’ program.

“The only sacred thing is the football,” said Wilcox, whose Cal team marched into Auburn and snatched a 21-14 win from the home team on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Auburn offense treated the ball as if it were all but sacred as quarterback Payton Thorne tossed four interceptions and running back Jarquez Hunter committed a fumble, bringing Auburn’s turnover total to five to Cal’s zero.

“You cannot turn the ball over five times and expect to beat really anybody,” Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze said to open his brief post-game press conference.

Auburn’s first turnover of the night came early in the second quarter as a pass from Thorne ricocheted off the fingers of freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman and into the hands of Cal defensive back Nohl Williams.

Cal went on to capitalize on that first interception as it needed just two plays to drive 21 yards, find the endzone and take a seven-point lead.

The four other turnovers came bunched together later in the game.

With just seconds left in the third quarter, the Auburn offense took possession of the football at its own 34-yard line, only to give it right back to Cal as Thorne was picked off by Cal’s Ja’ir Smith.

Following the interception, Cal’s offense inched far enough into Auburn territory to feel comfortable lining up for a 55-yard field goal, but the Bears’ kicker couldn’t split the uprights — giving the Tigers another break.

But Auburn’s struggles with ball security weren’t over.

After taking over possession with more than 12 minutes to play and trailing by a touchdown, the Auburn offense ran one play before committing another turnover — this one coming via Hunter’s fumble, which Auburn tight end Luke Deal said wasn’t the senior running back’s fault.

“Jarquez’s fumble, one of the five turnovers we had, he’s pretty beat up about it. But I’m going to be man enough to sit here and say I missed the block on that,” said Deal. “So I’ll take that and be accountable on that one.”

The Cal offense went on to cash in on Hunter’s fumble, scoring from 36 yards out two plays later to stretch its lead out to 14 points.

Desperately needing to find the endzone, Thorne and the Auburn offense orchestrated a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 2-yard rushing touchdown from Thorne, which brought the Tigers back within a touchdown.

And despite getting two more possessions — one with more than two minutes to play and one with less than 30 seconds to play — the Tigers never flirted with scoring as they ran just three plays and committed another pair of turnovers as Thorne tossed two more interceptions.

During Thorne’s second-to-last interception, he fired a pass towards freshman wide receiver Cam Coleman, who had gotten banged up the play prior.

“Cam was hurting and we needed to get him out, but the clock was running,” Freeze said. “I wish we could have gone to the other side, but I don’t think (Thorne) had any idea he was hurting.”

Asked about the play, Thorne confirmed Freeze’s suspicions and admitted that he had no clue Coleman had been hurt.

Meanwhile, Thorne’s fourth and final interception, which ended up being Auburn’s last offensive play, was the result of he and KeAndre Lambert-Smith not being on the same page.

“The last one he was expecting (Lambert-Smith) to run a bang post and he was going to put it on him,” Freeze said of Thorne’s last interception. “That’s something we’ve got to get cleaned up. That really should have been the route.”

During his postgame press conference, Freeze said he didn’t want to comment a ton on Thorne’s performance before taking a look a the film, adding that Auburn’s offensive line also struggled to protect the fifth-year quarterback.

However, while the reasons might be aplenty and vary from turnover to turnover, everyone knows a performance like Saturday’s won’t win the Tigers very many games.

“Five turnovers won’t win you a football game. It won’t. That offensive performance definitely will never win you a football game,” Deal said. “Proud of our defense and the way they fought. But, man, it’s just embarrassing offensively whenever you work so hard and your defense works so hard and your culture works so hard to remain together, and you just put a product out like that.

“That’s just something we’re extremely embarrassed of and something we’ve got to flip very quickly because we’re getting into SEC ball very soon.”