Auburn QB hoping for turnaround against Arkansas

The struggling Frazier faces a vulnerable Arkansas secondary on Saturday that other quarterbacks have been picking apart to the tune of 400 yards lately, give or take a few. Auburn (1-3, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) and Frazier haven't shown anywhere near that kind of capability but there's not too much shame in faring poorly against the likes of No. 20 Mississippi State and No. 4 LSU.

There's less respectability in failing to perform in a battle between the nation's 114th-rated passing offense against the No. 117 pass defense.

"Kiehl the past two games has played a lot better and grown a lot from where he was against Mississippi State," Tigers tight end Phillip Lutzenkirchen said. "Kiehl has played a lot better, and we need him to keep progressing and play even better, especially against Arkansas. We'll do different things to help him out but I think his head's in a good place and his confidence is in a good place going into this game."

Frazier, who committed five turnovers in Starkville, Miss., was able to focus on preparation and improving last Saturday even as Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel was firing away for 453 yards against the Razorbacks (1-4, 0-2) in a 58-10 victory. Gary Nova of Rutgers threw for 397 yards against Arkansas and Louisiana-Monroe's Kolton Browning had 412 passing yards.

Frazier spent the open date studying some of offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler's former pupils at Michigan, especially Chad Henne but with a little Tom Brady and others thrown in.

It was all about the basics, like tempo, his drops and timing. Frazier thinks that extra work can pay immediate dividends.

"We kind of went through our first four games and kind of compared my footwork to old big plays that coach Loeffler had had," said Frazier, who's an Arkansas native. "Just kind of the comparison, my footwork was a little slow and made the timing off. It made me look a little timid in the pocket because my read wouldn't be open when I got to the top of my drop because I wasn't doing my footwork right, so that's just something we've got to fix from last week to next week.