Auburn Tigers Football 2011: Friday Tiger Tidbits Week 1

Every Friday, I will comment on recent news and changes around the Auburn Tigers football program. Friday Tiger Tidbits will run throughout the season and cover news, rumors and expectations for the coming Saturday. Your comments are appreciated.

Auburn began fall practice yesterday with a lot of new faces and names on the field. Auburn will face numerous challenges in the next four weeks as the season approaches, but the coaches appear to have a good grasp on what is at stake.

Returning as defending national champions is something that will be on the back burner, as the Tigers have a lot of work to do on the field to be competitive this season.  The good news for the Tigers is that there is a wealth of talent still on the Plains.

With only two days of practice completed, the breaking news has yet to begin to flow as to who will get the starting nod at quarterback or at center. There is some news and topics that have been drummed up in the past few days through the start of practice, however.

Recruiting paying dividends

Auburn signed two consecutive top five recruiting classes in the past two seasons, and all but one of those players is on campus in an Auburn uniform. Signing 57 guys and still having 56 on the roster shows a great effort by the coaches to find guys that will qualify, and it shows the effort that the players are putting forth on the field and in the classroom.

Keeping guys on campus is a big task for coaches, but qualifying an entire signing class is quite a task in and of itself. Auburn needed everyone to qualify, and they did. Expect some true freshmen to contribute early and often this season.

Recruiting 2012

Auburn is off to a fast start on the recruiting trail for 2012, with commitments from big name players like Zeke Pike, T.J. Yeldon, Javon Robinson, Ricky Parks and more. A recent commitment came from defensive lineman Tyler Nero.

Auburn is in position to finish well within the top five again this season if the trend continues. A recent visit by Dorial Green-Beckham, listed as the No. 1 player in the nation by Rivals.com, had the Plains buzzing and goes to show the level of popularity that this coaching staff has this program at.

There are numerous players left on the board for Auburn that the staff feels very good about. Look for some more commitments to drop soon before the season. At this point, Auburn has 13 commitments of which nine are four star rated by Rivals.com.

Freshman contributors

With the veteran losses that Auburn faced last season, there isn’t a doubt that freshman will have to fill gaps and make an impact on the 2011 season for the Tigers. The most obvious position is the defensive line spot, where Auburn lost three major players from a year ago on the interior.

Look for players like Angelo Blackson and Gabe Wright to make an instant impact in the rotation behind Kenneth Carter and Jeffery Whitaker.

Another position that is likely to use freshman will be the running back and slot back positions. I would expect to see Tre Mason earn some carries this season as well as Quan Bray out of the slot position. Michael Dyer and Onterrio McCalebb will get the majority of the carries but won’t be able to carry the load alone.

Other positions that could see freshman involvement may be the secondary with Jonathan Rose, Erique Florence and Jermaine Whitehead. The offensive line may also see some freshman reserves in action this fall, with Greg Robinson and Christian Westerman looking every bit the part of college lineman so far.

ESPN and Year of the Quarterback on Campus

ESPN will look to continue their year of the quarterback series this season, and part of that will be an piece focused on the development of the Auburn quarterbacks. All three quarterbacks will be wearing microphones during practice going into game week against Utah State.

This will be a great exposure for the Auburn program nationally. The television special will also give Auburn fans a unique look inside the quarterback competition that is going on through fall camp.

USA Today/ Coaches Poll Released

The preseason USA Today/ Coaches poll was released today. The Auburn Tigers were listed as No. 19 in the first preseason poll. Some will assume the ranking to be too high, while others too low. At the end of the day, the preseason rankings are merely guess work based on past performance of returning stars.

With Auburn being ranked No. 19, it marks the lowest ranking of a defending national champion since Minnesota was the reigning champion in 1961. It also obviously marks the lowest ranking by a returning champion in the BCS era.

Auburn joins its SEC brethren in being one of the five teams in the top 25 from the SEC West. The division consists of only six teams.

Scholarship players hard to find

When Auburn released its fall practice roster, there were 105 players listed. Only 71 of those are currently on scholarship. 56 of those on scholarship are from the last two recruiting periods. That means that puts nearly 80 percent of the Tigers on scholarship within their first two years on campus.

Look for Auburn to hand out some scholarships during fall practice to those walk-ons that have weathered the storm in the past and who will likely be contributors. Last week, I covered some possibilities for scholarships, and it appears to be a likely scenario for some of the better players in their third year in the program.