Auburn Football: Are the Tigers Overachieving or Underachieving in 2011?

To start the season the Auburn Tigers were expected to be in the bottom half of the SEC. The Tigers not only lost Cam Newton and Nick Fairley, but they also lost 28 other seniors with them. The experience, or lack thereof, on this football team was a big reason for the lack of respect to start the year. So at 5-3, are the Tigers above or below expectations?

Auburn managed to earn a win in the season opener by the skin of their teeth, further solidifying to some that the Tigers were in for a very long season. There were even whispers that the defending national champion would miss a bowl game to finish 2011.

In August, the schedule that awaited the Tigers seemed like a daunting task to say the least for Auburn to be able to make it to bowl eligibility. October looked to be a gauntlet and has stood up to the billing for much of this season.

Following October, the Tigers face Georgia between the hedges and then host Alabama. Neither game will be an easy win for the Tigers, nor will the majority of the college football nation likely expect a win for the Tigers.

For now, Auburn is sitting at 5-3 and still ranked No. 23 in the BCS rankings. The Tigers are the only three loss team in the top 25, mainly because their losses all came at the hands of top-10 teams. The Tigers have also beaten the No. 13 team in the country.

The Tigers have struggled mightily at times this season despite their success. In the season opener it took an onside kick to enable the winning drive to take place. The Tigers required a goal-line stand to defeat the Mississippi State Bulldogs, a team that has severely underachieved according to preseason expectations.

Against the top 10 teams, however, the Tigers have lost by a total of 121-48. That is a deep margin to lose by in three games. What it has shown is that Auburn is not among the elite in the SEC in 2011.

The Tigers have struggled to find consistency on offense, utilizing three quarterbacks this season. The new starter is Clint Moseley, who couldn’t win the starting job initially, but has looked better than Barrett Trotter so far in his two games. In short, his performance against LSU was virtually impossible to grade outside of his composure factor.

A quarterback carousel is never a positive for a struggling team. On top of the struggling quarterback situation, Auburn finds itself as one of the worst defenses in the country. The Tigers have steadily improved over the past few weeks, but overall the performance has been less than acceptable.

Many of the Tigers' issues come from the inexperience and youth that is on the field constantly. Auburn has one of the youngest rosters in college football, where nearly 73 percent of the scholarship roster are sophomores and freshmen.

There have also been a string of injuries that have hurt the Tigers with 10 possible contributing players gone for the season. Auburn has battled the youth movement and the injury bug and has still managed to win five games.

Looking ahead to the remaining schedule the Tigers have a chance at finishing the season bowl eligible. In fact, the Tigers should finish bowl eligible. The Tigers hosts Ole Miss this weekend, then take a bye week before traveling to Georgia. The Tigers then return home to face Samford and Alabama.

With Ole Miss having yet another rough season in the conference and Samford remaining, seven wins seems attainable for the Tigers. Georgia has struggled throughout the season to find consistency, but the Bulldogs have played some good football lately. That will be a tough game to win on the road for Auburn.

With the losses that Auburn has faced over the past few years on roster and the youth that carries the torch for the Tigers today, has it become a fair assessment to assume that the Tigers have become overachievers this season? Although there are four games remaining, at this point the Tigers are sure to finish bowl eligible, and not many pundits gave them that benefit to start the year.

With at least 10 players lost to injury and a roster that only hosts around 74 scholarship players, Auburn has risen to the challenge in some of these games and pulled through wins when they likely shouldn’t have. Going into South Carolina and emerging victorious was the tallest mountain they have climbed.

That leads to the next question: is that a very tall mountain, or just a hill based on the letdown that appears to be coming in Columbia? South Carolina may still be in the top 15, but they are not a team that many expect to stay there.

Auburn has beaten only two other SEC teams. Mississippi State lost to the Tigers in the second game of the season, and Florida lost in Jordan Hare midway through October. Both teams have been worse than advertised, with Florida battling constant injury issues.

Even with the in-conference wins, Auburn may have surprised on the national level, but in my opinion, the Tigers are right on schedule for 2011. My preseason predictions for the Tigers had them winning seven to eight regular season games. In my article from May of this year, I pointed out the October schedule and how big it would be to finish 3-2.

This weekend’s game could finish with a win and allow the Tigers to do just that. As important as October looked to start the season, now the Tigers press on to November which is now a strong focus for the Auburn team.

If the Tigers can earn a victory in two of three games in the month of November, they will surely have overachieved this season. As of now, the Tigers appear to be right on schedule with a sure bowl game in their future and another winning season within reach for Gene Chizik and Co.