Auburn Football: 10 Reasonable Goals for the 2012 Season

Auburn is closing out the spring practice session this week and looking to build reasonable goals for the 2012 season. Auburn has a lot of young talent and two new coordinators that will guide that talent this coming year.

After a spring session that was built around teaching, the Tigers must build reachable goals for summer progression and, finally, fall development. Auburn has a lot of growth that still has to happen on both sides of the ball.

Building reasonable and attainable goals will help mold this team into an effective winning unit. Here are 10 goals that, if achieved, will help make the 2012 season a success for Gene Chizik and the Auburn Tigers. 

1,000-Yard Rusher

Curtis Luper has successfully prophesied three seasons' worth of 1,000-yard rushers for the Tigers with Ben Tate in 2009 and Michael Dyer in both 2010 and 2011.

This spring, Luper hasn’t made a 1,000-yard claim just yet, but it may come eventually. The Tigers have four very talented backs that will push for the starting job and a very talented freshman in Jovon Robinson that will appear this fall.

OC Scot Loeffler was running the Temple offense last season. Temple chose to run the football over 70 percent of the time. Loeffler isn’t afraid to run the football.

With an offense that will rely off of a successful rushing attack, Auburn will need to have a 1,000-yard rusher this season. With the talent that will be in the backfield this fall, there isn’t a reason to believe this isn’t a reasonable goal for the Tigers offense.

One Starting Quarterback

The quarterback is the leader of the offense. Without that leadership, it is very difficult for an offense to find an identity.

Last season, the Tigers battled to find consistency from the quarterback position, which obviously affected the offensive consistency. The Tigers tried to use Kiehl Frazier as a Wildcat option, but it was not nearly as successful as the Tigers would have liked.

This season Auburn will need to find one guy to guide the offensive ship. I don’t doubt that OC Scot Loeffler feels the same way.

All signs are pointing in Frazier’s direction right now, but a long summer session waits for the Tigers. By fall camp, I would expect a firm leader to be named so that the Tigers could go about the business of building offensive chemistry and finding leadership from the position. 

10-Win Season

Auburn has had one 14-win season and two eight-win seasons under Gene Chizik. This year the Tigers have a much easier schedule than a year ago, hosting a number of big-name games.

The Tigers will have the first roster in the Chizik era that will carry a full 85 on scholarship this season but will still be battling the youth bug at a number of positions. The team as a whole has received a ton of experience in the past two seasons, however.

Auburn is poised to finish this season with 10 wins. The Tigers host LSU and Georgia, as well as new SEC West foe Texas A&M, with the toughest stretch of the season coming with consecutive road games to Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.

Auburn pushed through a treacherous schedule last season with newcomers at almost every position. Take this year’s more accommodating schedule and experienced talent, and the Tigers have a recipe for a 10-win season.

80 for 80

Trooper Taylor is known for his statements and one-liners, but the "80 for 80" campaign may be the best quotable line yet.

In an interview to start spring practice, Taylor said this season he had an "80 for 80" campaign, meaning he had high hopes for rising senior Emory Blake, who wears jersey No. 80.

Blake is by far the most proven talent on the field for the Tigers at receiver, and this season Blake will be looked to for leadership and big plays. For that to happen, the Tigers must find additional threats from the outside.

If the Tigers settle on a quarterback early and secondary options are found at receiver, the "80 for 80" campaign will be attainable.

Wrap Tackles

It’s hard to even guess at what happened to basic tackling fundamentals for the past few seasons in Auburn, but last season it reached a laughable level. The Tigers were terrible at wrapping up the tackle.

Tackling seems simple, but it is one of the more difficult skills to build and maintain. It is easy to want to strike the opponent and inflict as much painful force as possible, but wrapping the tackle is far more important.

With new DC Brian VanGorder in charge of the defense, Auburn isn’t likely to look much, if anything, like it did a season ago.

Tackling will not be an issue. The Tigers need to make this a priority when they take to full pad days. Auburn can’t face the terrible tackling woes that plagued it a season ago. 

Improved Secondary Play

Not only did HC Gene Chizik go out and grab one of the best defensive coordinators in the game when he snagged VanGorder, he also acquired Willie Martinez to coach up the secondary.

Martinez and VanGorder coached together at Georgia, building some of the most feared defenses in the SEC in the early 2000’s.

Adding Martinez to the staff gave the Tigers one of the best secondary coaches in the college game and a coach that understands how VanGorder works. Martinez will add a technical but passionate approach to the secondary, likely bringing a shutdown defense with him.

Martinez walks into a great situation with a load of talent found in the Auburn secondary. Auburn should improve markedly this year in the defensive backfield. 

Win Two of the Big Four

Auburn faces an easier schedule this coming fall than it did a year ago, but the “Big Four” will always find their way to the Tigers schedule.

Auburn faces off against LSU, Arkansas, Georgia and Alabama every season. This year, they get three of the four at home, only traveling to Alabama. Winning two of the four appears very attainable.

Auburn looks to be another year away from true contention in the SEC, but winning two of these four games will help put together a good season for the Tigers.

Beat Clemson

Starting the season with a win in Atlanta is almost a must for Auburn. It was absolutely embarrassed a year ago at Clemson, losing in a game that appeared to begin the backwards skid for the 2011 season.

This year Clemson returns virtually every member of the ACC title-winning team. Auburn will have to face off against the same guys that scorched it a year ago. The good news is that Auburn will return 18 starters to the lineup and a host of talented backups.

I would expect Auburn to rely heavily on the rushing attack in the first game of the season to earn a victory, but I project the quarterback play by both teams to be the most important factor in this year’s opener.

Auburn will need to pressure Tajh Boyd consistently, and the Tigers will need a starting quarterback to carry this team through what will be a very tough game. The team with the fewest turnovers and penalties will win this game.

If Auburn wants to build a successful season, it starts in game one.

Balance the Offense

New OC Scot Loeffler did not have a balanced offense at Temple. Over 70 percent of the play selection for the Owls was a run a year ago.

A portion of the decision to rely so heavily on the rushing attack was the weakness found at the quarterback position. It also may have been working well enough to keep pounding the rock.

No matter the reason, the Tigers will need to find a balance offensively. The Tigers should be very effective with the rushing attack this fall, but matching that will a solid play-action passing game that will make the Tigers very potent.

Not only will the Auburn need balance in play selection, but it also needs to show balance with touches. Look for the Tigers to incorporate a number of names on offense as the season progresses. Getting the ball to multiple athletes in a game helps keep legs fresh and defenses guessing. 

Find a solid No. 2 at MLB

Finding a solid No. 2 for the middle linebacker position may seem like an odd goal, but with the importance placed on the middle linebacker position in the new Tigers defense, having a solid backup option to Jake Holland is a must.

Holland has battled with ankle and wrist injuries in the past two seasons, having someone ready to come off the bench in case of injury and for relief is a necessity.

Auburn is not particularly thin for bodies at linebacker, but it is one of the least experienced positions that the Tigers will carry heading into the 2012 season. With the recent career-ending injury to Jawara White, the Tigers are facing a major concern with the depth at middle linebacker.

Building depth at the middle linebacker position is a must this offseason for the Tigers. 

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