Auburn Football: Is The Defense Ready To Break Out In 2010?

While Auburn fans were excited and mostly pleased with the Auburn offense and its direction for the future, they were just as concerned for the defense. It simply wasn't! You know. It wasn't aggressive enough. It wasn't effective enough....... .

Coach Gene Chizik had brought the Tampa 2 defense to Auburn when a defensive coordinator. It was the most effective defense at Auburn over the last decade. When he arrived back as head coach, most Auburn fans thought defense was the last thing to worry about. 

The Auburn football team set records in 2009. One of those records was for the least effective defense in Auburn history. This was not what Auburn expected when Gene Chizik hired defensive guru Ted Roof to lead the Auburn attack.

The reasons for this lack of effectiveness were many and varied. The main reason was simply too many serious injuries to too many starters. Antoine Carter, Aairon Savage, Mike McNeil, Zac Etheridge, Nosa Eguae and these are only the defensive players that are coming back for 2010. There were a number that had to be medically retired from football.

The linebacker corps was really decimated by injuries that were too severe to allow for the player to return. Auburn played most of the season with four linebackers. This is a fact Auburn fans would like to forget. The Auburn secondary was filled with true freshmen.

Enough of water over the dam. It is easy to see why the Auburn defense might have had some issues in 2009. Now we must look forward to 2010. What will the Auburn defense be like?

As I mentioned before Gene Chizik is one of the experts on the Tampa 2. It turns out Ted Roof is also familiar with similar defensive strategy. For those wondering what this is, a fairly elementary description is here.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampa_2

With this information already known, we add in the move of Daren Bates to linebacker. He is undersized at just over 200 lbs., but he hits like a train, and plays the run extremely well. It doesn't hurt that he is another defensive player that runs a sub 4.5 forty. 

Now let us look at the players that were recruited to play in this system:

Linebackers

 Jessel Curry 6'2 215 lbs. 4.5 forty, 320lbs bench press  

 Jawara White 6'2 220 lbs. 4.5 forty, 315lbs bench press

 Jake Holland 6'1 230 lbs. 4.5 forty, 350 lbs bench press  

 Ladarius Owens 6'2 225lbs 4.49 forty, 285 bench press

Defensive End

 Joel Bonomolo 6'3 245 lbs 4.6 forty, weight training off the charts.

 Craig Sanders 6'4 230 lbs. 4.6 forty, bench press exceeds 405 lbs  

 Justin Delanie 6'5 225 lbs. 4.5 forty, weight room beast

 Corey Lemonier 6'5 225 lbs. 4.8 forty, working on strength and conditioning

Contrast this with the current Auburn lineup, Josh Bynes, Harris Gaston and Craig Stevens run the forty in the 4.7 range and are in the 240lbs to 250 lbs range. ElToro Freeman fits right into the recruited group on weight and speed as does Jonathan Evans. 

What this shows is a quicker much more dynamic capability added to the 2010 Auburn defense. It gives the capability to play a 4-3 defense as well as switch to the Tampa 2. There is another element that one could imagine as well.

With Nick Fairley and Jeffrey Whitaker available at Defensive Tackle, both have size and are very dominant type players. Either one could play nose guard on a 3-4 set. Michael Goggins and Antoine Carter both have the size for a 3-4 defensive end. 

While we know the 4-3 will be utilized as will variations of the Tampa 2. The 3-4 is simply speculation at this point, but the option is there. This gives Ted Roof every type of player he will need, to run what ever set he thinks is best. 

This will allow the Auburn defense to be adaptive to every team they face. The best set to exploit the vulnerability of the opposition offense can be fielded and utilized. If the opponent makes adjustments, so can the Auburn defense.

I think the primary Auburn set will take advantage of speed and aggressiveness, to put overwhelming pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The only Auburn opponent for 2010 with an experienced offensive line is Georgia.

This should severely discourage the passing game. The extreme speed on the exterior of the Auburn defense should take the outside corners away from the rushing attack. This will force the battle to be won and lost in the center of the Auburn defense. 

That is where these defensive tackles will be waiting:

Nick Fairley is a 6’5 293 lbs.  He played in all thirteen games in 2009 and was showing good signs of dominance toward the end of the season. He is big and strong.

Mike Blanc is a 6’4 288 lbs.  has played in thirty seven games for Auburn. He has been solid and dependable.

Zach Clayton is a 6’3 281 lbs.  has played in twenty seven games for Auburn. He has prov-en a solid rotation player.

Derrick Lykes  is a 6’2 284 lbs  has been used as a rotation player in thirteen games.

Jamar Travis is a 6’0 308 lbs was used as a rotation player in ten games.

These players have benefited from experience and worked extremely hard in conditioning to get better for 2010. 

True Freshmen (Coming in the fall if there are no issues)

Jeffrey Whitaker is a 6’3  295lbs., incredibly strong recruit. He should challenge for a starting spot by the end of the 2010 season.

Kenneth Carter is a 6’5 267 lbs., recruit that will need to work hard in conditioning and put on 20 or thirty pounds. He is strong and extremely quick for his size. 

The opposition will have about 2.1 seconds before he literally feels the defensive pressure closing. This should really improve the sack total as well as tackles for a loss for the 2010 season. It is going to be difficult, if not impossible for 300 lbs. offensive linemen to block the speed coming from the defensive ends on any regular basis.

The Auburn linebackers coming in will be faster than the average fullback, and as fast as most running backs. This will make picking up the blitz difficult at best. They will also have the speed and quickness to cover the short pass. 

While all of this will not work every time, it will be hard for offenses to put together a string of successful plays. The chances of the plays that are not successful being a loss of yardage, or interception, are much higher.

This type of aggressive defense should be the perfect match for an offense that will put points on the board early and often in every game. The coaching staff is recruiting new players based on a change in the defensive strategy.