Auburn Football: Biggest Concerns Facing Tigers This Spring

After a 2011 season that ended up 8-5 and an offseason that was a bit odd to say the least, the Auburn Tigers opened up spring practice today on The Plains. This Auburn squad is not the same team that won a national title two seasons ago, as head coach Gene Chizik has done some staff shuffling between the 2011 season and the 2012 spring. Obviously, new offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler is the big change on the offensive side of the ball, and the pro-styled coach looks to make sense of the quarterback position at Auburn. 

On defense, Brian VanGorder has been brought in to fix a unit that was absolutely woeful at times in 2011. The 2010 defense was not great under Ted Roof, but they managed to get stops when the team needed them and had the monster that was Nick Fairley.

In 2011, with no such monster, the defense could not make plays, could not get off the field and gave up some 30 points a game to their SEC opponents. With VanGorder comes his long-time running mate Willie Martinez. Auburn fans got excited about the two being reunited, but ultimately this is VanGorder's show to run. Martinez is not a miracle worker, his plus comes in knowing how VanGorder wants the scheme taught.

Where Auburn will see one of their biggest concerns addressed is the linebacker position. Ted Roof is gone both as defensive coordinator and linebacker coach, and that allowed Tommy Thigpen to slide into the linebacker coach spot and assume control of the unit.

Thigpen is a heck of a linebackers coach. He teaches the game well and his players play downhill football and get off blocks—something Roof's unit failed to do time and again during his stint. 

There is so much room for growth on the defensive side of the ball, and with defense being a pressing concern for the Tigers, spring is the time for Brian VanGorder to see what he has on his roster. Chizik has been working to bring in talent and the time is now for his first couple of recruiting classes to prove their worth.

Gene Chizik is a defensive guy at heart and in all of his stops—from GA days at Clemson through Auburn and Texas—he placed a premium on playing good defense. Expect this concern to be addressed as Auburn takes a step to playing the SEC caliber defense their fans expect.

Offensively, we've mentioned Scot Loeffler, and the man who did 10 years at Michigan in their pro-style scheme is going to really work on teaching his quarterbacks the game. Last year, the Tigers' quarterback situation was awful, to put it bluntly. Combined, the unit threw for some 2,022 yards and the two returners vying for time, Clint Moseley and Kiehl Frazier, boast a disappointing 5-to-5 touchdown to interception ratio.

Loeffler's work is cut out for him, as neither of the quarterbacks looked fully comfortable in Malzahn's system, and bringing in a new system with more reads and decisions is sure to push what they can digest.

Toss the quarterback uncertainty in with the departure of the Tigers' best player from a season ago, Michael Dyer, and what Loeffler has is an offense that has no true identity.

Onterio McCalebb takes the reins for the offense, and the guy who has been a "change of pace" back through his career gets to prove he is capable of toting the ball fulltime for Chizik's team. Kiehl Frazier does have the ability to be productive running the ball from the quarterback position, a great trait under Malzahn. But with Loeffler, the quarterback as a runner is not nearly as important of an element. 

When you look at Auburn through a wide angle lens, you see a team that gave up a boatload of points, was inept offensively, went through massive coaching changes in the offseason and lost their best player. Simply put, they look like they are in utter disarray. They're not.

This is a team that did get to 8-5, beat all the teams they were supposed to beat and then beat one team, South Carolina, that was better than them. Their losses were to the ACC Champion, the SEC Champion, the SEC East Champion, the BCS Champion and an Arkansas team that finished ranked fifth nationally.

The point is, last year, regardless of how ugly it looked, this team largely did what they were supposed to do. Spring ball is a chance to build on the small successes from a season ago—most notably the bowl win and beating South Carolina—and push forward in a more traditional good defense and pro styled approach.

There are concerns at every level for the Tigers and plenty of opportunity for everyone on the roster to step up with the new coordinators just looking for bodies that can play.Standout tight end Phil Lutzenkirchen is out after shoulder surgery and a couple other players were not on the field to start the day for various reasons. Fixing the problems is job one, and there are a lot of problems to fix if Auburn wants to get back to competing with the rest of the SEC West for division titles.