Auburn football.

[tampaboi07]

http://cfn.scout.com/2/633859.html

[crambone]

This is a football.

[Guest]

This review makes Auburn sound a lot less frightening.  Sure, they're great in some areas, but not so much in others... and problems in the kicking game sound familiar.

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QB -  Strength: Smart, accurate passers. Cox, for the most part, is a good decision maker and can be deadly accurate when he gets into a groove. Field and Caudle each fit the system. 

Weakness: A runner. No one outside of Burns offers even a hint of a rushing threat. On this team, the running backs carry the ball.

Outlook: Cox looked great in spring ball making everyone better around him. While he won't always have to carry the offense with such a strong running game to rely on, he'll have to step up his game against the top teams on the slate and start to bomb away deeper. Expect him to come up with his best season yet.

RBs -  Strength: Depth. Tate and Fannin can start and the ground game won't lose a thing. The same goes for Stewart if he's needed for a short period of time.

Weakness: A proven workhorse. It won't be running back by committee, but it might have to be. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Can anyone carry it 25 times game in and game out?

Outlook: The running back factory will keep cranking them out. While Lester and Tate might not be Cadillac and Ronnie Brown, they'll be excellent. Stewart is the occasional banger to balance things out. This will be the overall running game Tiger fans were hoping for last year.

WRs  -  Strength: Overall speed. Billings can fly, Rodriquez can move, and the tight ends all provide matchup problems. Stretching the field likely won't be an issue.

Weakness: Number one receiver. Auburn doesn't have one. Smith is a textbook number two, although he looked great in spring ball, Rodriguez and Dunn haven't shown they can carry the passing game, and Slaughter isn't going to be quite ready yet. The corps isn't going to scare anyone in the SEC.

Outlook: Much will be made about the receiving corps being a major weakness; it's not that bad. While it might not be special by any stretch, there are more than enough options for Brandon Cox to work with. The tight ends alone are enough to get excited about.

OL -  Strength: Potential. There's enough good young talent to mix in with veterans like Dunlap, Hart and Green to piece together a good front wall.

Weakness: Starting experience and sure-things. Dunlap has to play like an All-SEC star at left tackle, and everything else has to fall into place.  Playing good pass rushing teams like Kansas State and South Florida right away could be a problem.

Outlook: While it's easy to panic with the loss of four starters, outside of Grubbs, they're replaceable. It might be a young group, but it'll be really, really good ... next year. The key for assistant coach Hugh Nall is to find the right combination of talents, and to figure out how quickly he wants to go with the youth movement. There will be a point in the season when everyone will realize Ziemba and Berry need to be starting somewhere.

DL -  Strength: Overall quickness. By design, the line is fast and athletic, but this year's group doesn't sacrifice on the size. Getting into the backfield won't be a problem.

Weakness: Experienced reserves. There's no questioning the talent among the backups; there's just no experience. Three redshirt freshmen will have to play prominent roles in the rotation.

Outlook: Considering all the quickness, and a talent like Groves, the front four didn't get to the quarterback as much as it should've. That should change this year with the expected emergence of Coleman and Marks into top-tier players and with Groves almost certain to crank out ten sacks. With Thompson leading the way, this will be a good group against the run, too.

LBs -  Strength: Options. With or without Blackmon, there are several above-average players that aren't necessarily interchangeable, but are all good enough to form a good rotation. The coaching staff will have plenty of options to play with. The backups are almost as good as the starters, however ...

Weakness: The backups are almost as good as the starters. Again, taking Blackmon out of the equation, this is a good corps, but not an elite one. As always with Auburn, size is going to be a factor against the power running teams.

Outlook: It's a typical Auburn linebacking corps with trumped up safeties manning the spots with an emphasis on speed, athleticism, and more speed. The rotation will be good and the production will more than be there once the season gets underway. If Blackmon is back, the linebackers go from a plus to a major strength.

DBs -  Strength: Experience. Brock, Savage, Wilhite and Lee all have been through the SEC battles and aren't starting from scratch. They know what they're doing, and they need to hope they can form a cohesive unit that doesn't make mistakes.

Weakness: Talent level. Is Wilhite an SEC caliber number one corner? Can Brock be the steady leader who sets the tone for the secondary? There's not an Irons-type of star in the bunch, at least until McNeil hits campus.

Outlook: Auburn's receiving corps is mediocre, yet it burned this bunch in spring ball. Uh oh. In time, the production will be there and the overall stats aren't going to be as bad as many fear they'll be, but this isn't going to be a lock-down unit unless several young players play well right away.

ST -  Strength: Kickoff returns. Davis is explosive while Lee will be a great option in time. Dunn should be a bit better on punt returns; he can't be much worse.

Weakness: To beat this into the ground ... placekicking. Shoemaker will be a fine punter as long as he's consistent; Auburn has the athletes to help him out in coverage. There's no one on the roster who'll hit 20 of 24 field goals like Vaughn did.

Outlook: Forgetting that the Tigers won't get six of nine on field goal attempts from 40 yards or more, all they need is someone to hit everything from 40 yards and in. If they find someone who can handle the pressure and do that, the special teams won't be all that bad. The coverage units are decent, the return game is fine, and the punting will eventually be good.

[Guest]

A couple more quotes:

...Helped by a big pass rush from Quentin Groves and company, expect the Tiger pass defense to control games and force teams to try to run on the smallish front seven. ... Hmm... Their weakpoint on defense is the run. Our weakpoint on offense is the run.

Senior DE Quentin Groves. ... one of the nation’s most fearsome pass rushers with the potential to be a double-digit sack man if he gets some help from the other side. Few ends can change a game like he can.  -- Thankfully Groves will be going up against RT Walter Walker... however we may need a TE or the RG to double team him from time to time.  If USF could control Elvis Dumerville two years ago, then Groves won't be impossible to handle.

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The DL will have fun against the smaller OL... heck, their starting right tackle weighs in at 262 lbs - that's more like a tight end.  To be sure, they have a future NFL lineman in their LT (Dunlap), but Buie, Selvie, Robinson, and others should be able to get to their QB (Cox) and rattle him... especially since their receiving corps is average at best and we have one of the best set of DB's in the country.

These are two fairly similar teams... talent, gameplan, game management, and execution will all be critical to winning here.  It could be the team that makes fewer mistakes wins (or the one that makes the last mistake loses).

[usfbulls2004]

Seems like an average top 25 college football team.

[gurlybull]

I love that it says don't be too shocked if South Florida pulls an upset, at least they're giving us some good credit

[Joe]

Auburn could be really good or really average. I think in the end they're a borderline top 25 team that goes 8-4 in the regular season.

The SEC West is tough. LSU is probably a top 5 team in the country, much less the SEC West. Arkansas still has the best backfield in the country and a pretty good and underrated defense. Alabama has a new coach in Saban who will have some pretty good talent that Mike Shula was able to acquire.

This is why I think they'll have a tough year.

@ Florida

@ LSU

@ Arkansas

@ UGA

The first three are in 4 weeks. Add Kansas State, USF, Alabama and you have one of the tougher schedules in the country.

Of course, last year people said the same thing about Florida's schedule...

[tampaboi07]

Bottom line is Aub is very beatable this year.

[twillybull]

This should be a great game. 

Did anyone notice his "grades" for each unit on defense are very similar to ours... DL = 8, LB = 8, DB = 7.5. vs Our ratings of DL = 7.5, LB = 8 and DB = 9.  Auburn brings a very good defense to the table, but so do we.  Will Auburn have the best D we've ever played against?  No.  I say we've seen tougher in the past, but it will probably be the toughest we see this season.

On paper, this matchup looks very close.  I would say (again on paper) advantage Auburn due to their apparent running game strength and home-field advantage.  I really don't see them winnning this one through the air unless we have a total breakdown. 

[Joe]

The only defense in the last 5 years that was better than Auburn's this year was PSU in 2005.

Auburn is a running team that will use Lester and Tate to pound the ball and look to use the play action to go over the top. The key will be minimalizing the running game and recognizing the PA.