Auburn Football: Five Reasons To Believe Auburn Can Win the BCS Title

This is happening way too early. People, not just in Auburn, but across the nation are talking about the new top BCS team in the land. Heading into the Ole Miss game this Saturday in Oxford, Auburn has a tough test ahead.

This week the Tigers face a Houston Nutt-led squad that has become known for the upset. Never a top dog in the conference, Nutt’s teams always seem to find that magical game one time in the season that ends up being his “marquee” win.

Auburn has plans not to let the upset happen, but many things loom in the minds of the fans and national college football pundits alike. This is an Auburn team that has yet to see a bye week, and has played a tough stretch of football that has included South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU and a sometimes-impressive Kentucky.

The one positive that Auburn has maintained throughout the season is that the majority of games have been played at home. The one struggle that Auburn has had came on the road.

This game is on the road. Oxford is not an easy place to win, but who knows?

Even though this week is the first step towards the title, just like every week, let’s take a look forward, and take a look back, to see the reasons why Auburn can be a title winner this year.

1. The Meat of the Schedule Has Passed

Auburn had a tough stretch to start the season and that looked to be the place that you could easily find a loss. With the season’s second game coming on the road against Mississippi State, this schedule looked to have a rough patch.

Following MSU was Clemson, and then South Carolina. A break followed with ULM, but the schedule opened right back up with a road game against Kentucky. Then an explosive Arkansas came to town, followed by a tough and dangerous LSU.

No matter how you slice it, this schedule has been tough. No other team in the country can claim to have beaten this level of competition week-in and week-out while remaining undefeated—except for Auburn.

With that being said, the schedule is impressive, but this week it takes a little bit of a break on the Tigers. Ole Miss is an SEC team, and on any given day an SEC team can win, but I don’t see a loss for Auburn here.

Following the Ole Miss game, the Tigers have a home game against UT-Chattanooga, so the Tigers should get some rest going into the Georgia game.

With a bye week before the Alabama game, Auburn will be traveling to Tuscaloosa having given their bodies a well deserved rest. Even though Alabama will have come off a win against first-year program Georgia State, they will still have played a game.

The 'Bama game will no doubt be a tough contest, but look for Auburn to come out with a win and head to Atlanta for the SEC Title Game in the driver’s seat to the crystal ball.

2. Everything Has Fallen Into Place

When you sit back and watch the 2004 Auburn Tigers football team, you might find yourself surprised that they were not the national champions that year. Yes, the Tigers got left out. We all remember.

This team has proven to be something special for Auburn. What they have done so far has defied the odds by playing lights out in every game so far this season. Starting off 22nd in the polls, they were getting some love from the early season pollsters, but not much.

Even so, this team has won a lot of close hard-played games. Cameron Newton has been at the forefront of every conversation about college football seemingly every week this season.

Newton has brought a breath of fresh air to the Auburn team that university has not experienced since the Cadillac and Ronnie days.

Do you remember the Four Horsemen shirts that everyone had with Smith, Jacobs, Brown and Williams? Auburn had a love for those players just like they do now. The Family lost its way for a bit, but Chizik and Co. have brought back focus, and the wins have come accordingly.

So far this season, all previous No. 1's have been upset. Auburn has climbed the polls with wins, but also because things have happened that needed to happen.

The college football gods did not look favorably upon the '04 team, but they seem to be smiling now. Call it whatever you want, but something special is happening in Auburn and it seems to be catching on across nation as well.

3. Auburn Has a Nasty Front Seven

One thing that has proven to be special for this defense so far has been the front seven. Nick Fairley, especially, has shown that people really need to take him seriously.

The ability of this defensive team to stop the run consistently has helped the Tigers survive so far, and will down the stretch as well.

I don’t know of a larger test through the air that you could face than Auburn has in the past eight games. South Carolina and Arkansas have NFL talent at the receiver position. Mike Hartline has turned it on for Kentucky so far this season, and Randall Cobb is a special player.

These teams did pass successfully against the Tigers. Arkansas lit it up through the air with a backup quarterback. The guy played lights out and hit all of his throws, but he still shredded a defense that should never have let that happen.

Despite the secondary woes, the front seven goes to work and smacks the runners right in the mouth on every play. Limiting a team’s running game and forcing the pass is a great and proven defensive strategy.

Am I suggesting that bad secondary play is a scheme? Of course not. But having a solid run defense carries more weight than shutdown corners and getting gashed for 400 yards a game on the ground.

The other thing that forcing the pass does is help this defense use its apparent strengths by rushing the passer and forcing bad decisions. This week against Ole Miss the ability to scramble and throw on the run is something that Auburn will have to monitor in Masoli, but no other team they will face this season has a dual-threat at quarterback.

4. Auburn Has Multiplicity in Its Offense

Auburn has made it into the national spotlight this season on the back of their amazing offensive play. Cameron Newton has received most of the praise from around the country, and is the Heisman front-runner at this point. But, these Tigers have more than one weapon on offense.

Just ask LSU.

Onterrio McCalebb put the Bayou Bengals away with his 70-yard scamper in the fourth quarter. Michael Dyer added another 100 on 15 carries. Despite Fannin’s unfortunate fumble-itis he has added a dimension to the offense as well.

Playmakers on the outside like Darvin Adams, Terrell Zachery, and Emory Blake have proven to be a handful as well when Newton is forced to pass. The Auburn receiving corps is extremely good at blocking the perimeter as well.

Even though Newton gets the majority, if not all of the headlines, this offense is talented. Take them for granted, and one of these guys will scorch you for 70 up the sideline. What Newton brings to the table outside of his intangibles and talent is a wow factor that must be watched closely.

When opposing defenses try and focus on Newton to stop the wow factor, Auburn and its speedy backs and playmaking receivers burn up the field.

Look for Auburn to continue to grow its repertoire even more as the season continues.

5. Run the Gauntlet, Win the Title

It is hard to deny, even on a down year, that the SEC is a powerful conference. The crystal ball has been a mainstay in SEC trophy cases for the better half of the past decade. There is no doubt that the talent in this league, and the opposition it faces on a weekly basis, make SEC teams that much better.

If a team is good enough and fortunate enough to finish the gauntlet that is the SEC regular season undefeated, and win the SEC championship game, there is no doubt they deserve the opportunity to prove that they are the best team in the land.

Even a once-defeated team out of the SEC on any given day is more than likely better than any other conference elite. The SEC is that special.

No, the WAC is not this strong, and anyone that tries to argue that is crazy. The Mountain West and the Big Ten are not this powerful. At least not yet anyway. Maybe conference expansion will help some balance come back to college football.

Until then, the SEC is sure to enjoy the power conference ride. If a team proves that it is good enough to win in this conference it is special. Look to the past and gaze on the crystal to prove that. With that being said, Auburn has found its chance.

Auburn has put itself in the driver’s seat this season, and has stumbled upon something very special. This week they are No. 1. All the Tigers have to do is keep on winning.

That’s easy for Boise to say, but all that seems to matter now from the national media elite isn’t strength of schedule or the quality of opponents, but simply who they feel is the best team in the country.

I don’t quite know what they are feeling in the studio but it sure isn’t the bone-chilling hits in the SEC. If so, they wouldn’t question No. 1.