Auburn Football: Can Clint Moseley Lead the Tigers Past LSU?

Auburn needed a spark last week against Florida offensively. At halftime, they called on Clint Moseley. The Tigers had stalled out on multiple drives in the first half and had continued their downward spiral to ineffectiveness on offense. Entering the season, the defense was supposed to have the problems, not the offense in 2011.

The Tigers started the season with a less-than-stellar performance against the Utah State Aggies, but looked to have some promise as a game-ending drive was needed to earn the victory. The offense looked efficient when it needed to and Auburn came out victorious.

Auburn continued to struggle offensively throughout the first half of the season winning a big game at South Carolina with defense. The Tigers followed up the win at South Carolina with a road loss to Arkansas.

The offense provided its worst performance of the season against the Razorbacks and looked lost on almost every down. There were numerous issues that stood out for the Tigers, but the most glaring problem has been the quarterback play.

It is easy to put the blame on the quarterback as he receives the majority of the attention, but typically there is a wealth of blame to spread across to all 11 offensive players. Lately, Barrett Trotter was a big part of the issue, and there was no hiding that fact.

Midway through the Florida game, the Tigers coaching staff noticed what the masses had already seen from the stands, the Tigers needed a change at quarterback.

After halftime, Clint Moseley emerged from the locker room to take snaps as the first team quarterback against the Gators. It was a change that, so far, appears to be the right one.

The Tigers head into a big conference contest this week as they travel to No. 1 LSU on Saturday and having a first time starter at the helm is not the ideal situation. For the Tigers, the hope has to be that Clint Moseley will continue to bring the spark that appeared in the second half of the Florida game.

Auburn needs leadership on offense, and as of late, there has been an apparent lack of it, Moseley will bring rejuvenation to the team but whether he will be able to lead the Tigers to victory in Baton Rouge is still looking to be a long-shot.

Moseley enters his first start as an Auburn quarterback against one of, if not the best defenses in the country. LSU has lost two defenders to suspension this week, but even with those losses, the Tigers are still extremely talented in the secondary.

For Auburn to beat LSU, it has to bring something new to the table offensively or the Tigers from Baton Rouge will key on the Tigers strong points and make it a very long night for Auburn. Moseley is the key to Auburn having success at LSU.

Moseley Must Add Deep Threat

Moseley will need to be extremely accurate, selective with his throws and complete some vertical routes. His pass completion to Quindarius Carr last weekend was a boost of confidence to Moseley, but also to his teammates.

Barrett Trotter won Auburn four games as the starter, but he lacked a deep threat with his arm, or he could have simply chosen not to attempt the throws. Either way, the deep threat is a must for Auburn to gain an edge and to keep the LSU defense honest.

LSU knows that Auburn can run the ball effectively, so their goal will be to stack the box and force the pass from an inexperienced quarterback. Every team has approached the Auburn offense the same way. Stack the box and stop the run, dare the Tigers to throw and expect incompletions.

The Tigers had not thrown a deep route and had been very limited with their offensive options until Moseley entered the game. Now the Tigers can attempt to balance the offensive load and enable rushing lanes where they are needed.

Moseley Must Run

Clint Moseley will not set any 100 meter records in his lifetime but he does have a better set of wheels than Trotter. Moseley has a bigger body as well and will look to use that this week against LSU.

I wouldn’t expect a ton of rushing attempts from Moseley, but there should be enough that the LSU defense will have to protect against the option keeper play. Adding this one wrinkle opens up a wealth of opportunity for the Auburn offense.

Auburn runs a lot of misdirection and confusion in the backfield, but without a rushing threat at quarterback, the advantage is negated as the defense has no option man to keep them honest. Up until this change at quarterback, every defense knew to read the motion man on the Auburn jet sweep.

Look for Moseley to likely have one or two gains on the ground but to mainly be used to decoy the option sweep.

Moseley Must Stay Composed

One of the glaringly obvious reasons that the Tigers coaching staff went with Barrett Trotter to start the season was for his level-headed play. Moseley had gained a reputation as being a very passionate football player, and he admittedly has shown that emotion for better and for worse.

At times, having an emotional leader can hurt a team, and that is what the Tigers coaching staff wanted to avoid. They didn’t want Moseley to drain the team of confidence when he hit a personal low. Moseley appears to have come a long way with the mental aspect of the game and has handled this transition very eloquently.

How Moseley handles Death Valley this Saturday will be the true test of composure. There will undoubtedly be some emotional stresses versus LSU, and there will be times that Moseley will have his composure challenged.

Moseley will not win this game or lose this game by himself. This is a team sport, and you win and lose as a team. Moseley does have the key to success this week however. He will be asked to start his first game on the road and in the most hostile environment in college football. His leadership will need to be off the charts for this game.

Auburn will have to play sound defense and perform seamlessly on offense to earn a victory against a very good LSU football team. At the end of the day, how Moseley leads this team on and off the field this Saturday will be a big determiner in not only this game, but Auburn’s near future.