SEC Football: The 2008 Auburn Overview

The 2007 Auburn Tigers found themselves finishing with a 9-4 record and a 23-20 Chick-Fil-A Bowl victory over #15 Clemson. While this was a nice finish to the 2007 season, Tommy Tuberville was not satisfied.

A lackluster offensive performance in 2007 left Tommy yearning for more and he replaced Offensive Coordinator Al Borges with Tony Franklin, the former OC at Troy. Why was Borges replaced you ask? Well, Auburn ranked 53rd in the NCAA in rushing at 156.92 yards per game and 103rd in passing at 178.23 per game. That is enough to drive any head coach crazy that also has a defense that winds up the season ranked 6th in the country in total defense at 297.92 yards per game. I am sure the "what ifs" were racing through Tubervilles mind.

So why Tony Franklin? With less talent on board, Franklin produced the 16th ranked offense in the country at Troy with an average of 452.83 yards per game. The additional benefit is that Franklin is also already familiar with recruiting in the region and could hit the ground running. Franklin comes from a spread offense environment and like so many teams, Auburn is converting quickly.

Why go to the "spread" one might ask? For one thing, it is the most current "hot offensive philosophy" and for another, it tends to take full advantage of whatever the defense presents, maximizing offensive performance. It is this offense that Franklin coached at Troy. Combine that with the fact that they have returning QB Kodi Burns, who can be a dangerous run/throw option for Auburn, and you begin to understand. Burns numbers weren't all that great last year as a freshman, though he gained considerable experience. So, to insure they had a "spread" kind of guy available, Auburn went after and signed JC transfer Chris Todd from Hutchinson, KS JC. I couldn't find any numbers pertaining to Todd's performance last year, but be forewarned......he transferred to Hutchinson after a year under the tutelege of Mike Leach at Texas Tech. Do you think that Leach would have signed him as a QB if he thought he didn't have promise in his system? This kid threw for over 10,000 yards in his high school career at Elizabethtown, NJ. As a senior, he threw for over 3,000 yards, 38 TD's and led his team to the state championship game. Burns has not been dominant in terms of passing, though he creates a real run/pass threat. Still, with the conversion to a "spread offense", could it be Todd who supplants Burns as the starter? Time will tell.

Auburn's entire starting offensive line returns and this will present real problems for SEC defenses. Though light by SEC standards, their Offensive Line will average 290 per man in weight and 6'3.5" This means they should be very agile with the ability to move. Their big man is Lee Ziemba, a sophomore at 6'8" and 288 who will be protecting the QB's backside on passes. He hails from Rogers, AR and this is a kid destined for the NFL. Arkansas lost him to Auburn during the Houston Nutt tenure but that might be expected as both of his parents are Auburn alums. This offensive line will be among the best in the SEC.

Auburn returns 7 Wide Receivers with experience, the best being Rod Smith with 52 catches last year for 705 yards. They also return Montez Billings...28 catches for 321 yards and Robert Dunn with 19 catches for 211 yards. You can expect that Auburn will "air it out" this fall with their new offensive philosophy and they have the receivers in place to make it happen. They also return two TE's that combined for 15 catches for 143 yards.

On Defense, well, Auburn will be tough on defense with only 4 starters to replace. But they have to find answers along the defensive line with the loss of Pat Sims at DT and Josh Thompson at NG and they will also have to find answers in the secondary with the loss of Eric Brock at SS and shut down corner Patrick Lee at CB.

The loss of Will Muschamp to Texas will be felt but he is being replaced by Paul Rhoades who comes to Auburn from Pittsburgh where he had the 5th ranked defense in all the country. Not much of a step down overall but I bet Rhoades finds the SEC to be significantly more challenging than what he experienced at Pitt.

All of this being said, I expect to see Auburn, Arkansas and Alabama to fight it out for #2 in the West behind LSU. It is a tough call. All three are going to be very good and improved, especially Arkansas. They will surprise a lot of people.

Can't wait for the season kick off and this is.....just my take from outside the lines.