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Offensive Preview 2007 Quarterbacks. Auburn fans are worried about the quarterback position after Brandon Cox put in a C+ season last year. He pulled through on several occasions and led us to some huge victories. One could argue that no other team in the nation had a better pair of wins than Auburn’s against LSU and Florida. But there were also times when Brandon Cox couldn’t turn the momentum around and we watched Auburn slowly circle the drain against Arkansas and Georgia. If you are expecting the same Brandon from last season, then you have another thing coming.
Fans tend to underestimate how much playing through an injury can slow a player down, which shouldn’t be as much of an issue this season. We can look forward to Brandon having a much bigger season this year, as he looked significantly (and noticeably) healthier at the A-Day game this spring. Al Borges has mentioned that Brandon Cox is now pushing 215 pounds (that’s 15 pounds more than last season!) and nothing bad can come from that. Cox is healthier, faster, and stronger than last year. We can also anticipate Brandon getting a good bit of media exposure after he wins a few big games, seeing how the media loves good looking quarterbacks. I know what you’re thinking, “Is this picture photoshopped?” Yes it is. I made it appear that Brandon Cox’s face is superimposed on my body. Sorry for misleading you.
Offensive Line The only thing that you will hear from the press (we don’t count as part of the press… but thanks to all who might have assumed that we did) about our offensive line is that we only have one starter returning out of five, (our only returning starter being King “Me” Dunlap). This is delightfully misleading, seeing how there is only a slight drop in experience for the new linemen, while the drop in talent is practically absent. One of the new starters, Tyronne Green, didn’t play last season because he was behind Ben Grubbs, whom is now projected to start for the Baltimore Ravens. Leon Hart is called by Al Borges as the “Ultra Sub” whom used his versatility last season to sub in for almost anywhere in the O-Line. Jason Bosley, was forced to start in place of Joe Cope for most of the season after Cope’s serious injuries. Bosley has played in big games, namely Florida, and how did we hold up in that game? On top of all that, we still have King Dunlap, who stubbornly tends to rip defensive linemen in half (vertically… think about it), instead of simply pushing them to the ground. Our line will have 4 games to mesh together before they face the D-Line of Florida, whom have reloaded their All-SEC squad from last year with more NFL talent, and then another two games before facing the LSU D-Line, whom are good enough to make the Dallas Cowboys’ O-Line look foolish. But don’t worry, the talent level and the experience of our offensive line is not nearly as bad as the daggum’ LIBERAL MEDIA will lead you to believe! Tight Ends and Receivers Now we are getting into an area which Auburn fans are a little less confident: our receivers. Since the loss of Courtney Taylor, we are looking for a new go-to receiver and hoping to increase the productivity of our #2 and #3 receivers. Right now we are looking to the Rod Smith, Robert Dunn, and Prechae Rodriguez (continuing a long tradition of Auburn wide receivers whom we’re not really sure how to pronounce his first name) as our top three guys. Rod Smith will likely take the bulk of the receiving load, seeing how he banked even more touchdowns last season than Courtney Taylor, while Dunn and Rodriguez will use their valuable playing time from last season to give Brandon Cox more options to throw to. Even though it seems like we are starting practically from scratch at wide receiver, Al Borges has gone on to say we have more experience at wide receiver this year than last, since all our receivers this season have had some playing experience. On the other hand, we have the tight ends. It is no understatement to say that Auburn may have the best depth at tight end IN THE NATION. Last season, Cole Bennett was a pre-season All SEC candidate, until he suffered a nasty ankle-break early in the season. Now he’s back in full force (with a medical redshirt) and joins the trio of beastly tight ends with Tommy Trott and Gabe McKenzie. You can look forward to some pretty sweet multi-tight end formations this season from Auburn. Runningbacks I don’t think anyone outside of Auburn will believe me when I say our ground game will be better than last year, given the loss of Kenny Irons. Not only will our ground game be better, it will be MUCH better. Last year we fed the ball to Kenny, who may have been the best running back when he’s healthy, but he was playing each game wearing enough athletic tape to keep the Titanic afloat… I can do better. How about this: Kenny was wearing enough athletic tape to make King Tut jealous! No… How about this: Kenny was so beat up, his legs looked like stretched out California Raisins! Ehhhh forget it. Anyways, I feel that Brad Lester outperformed Kenny on a regular basis last season, but got the ball less because Kenny was our “go to” guy despite his injuries. Brad Lester will be better than last year, and I can’t wait to see Ben Tate feed linebackers his shoulder pads this season.
And on top of everything, we still have Al Borges calling the shots. I’m still waiting for the sextuple option to be unveiled Coming soon: Defensive Preview! War Eagle! By the way, check out the going prices for Kansas State tickets from our sponsor |
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As with every season, Auburn has almost too much depth at runningback. Should Lester go down, we can still have a beastly two dimensional running attack with Ben Tate and Tristan Davis, who averaged about 9 yards a carry last season, or bring in our new redshirt freshmen Mario Fannin, who is rumored to be able to make mothers of opposing defenders cry. And on top of all that, we still have Carl Stewart, who is one of the most underappreciated players that Auburn has had in the past 4 years. Stewart has been moved to fullback, since he is just as good at clearing out linebackers as he is at running over them. This year is the same as every year at runningback: we ROCK. 