The 4 Position Group Battles Shaping Alex Golesh’s Year 1 at Auburn

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It's Springtime, and we aren't planting flowers.

We are talking about position group battles, and which four will shape this Alex Golissees

in number one.

Welcome on into the Auburn Express, powered by the War Report.

Turn this on, turn this up, and we will turn it out.

I'm your guy, Ike Jones, in here.

Do you want a little Auburn Spring Football one week in the books under Alex Golissees?

Week two, starting this weekend.

What we want to talk about is the four position group battles that I feel like will shape

year number one under Alex Golisse.

What are going to be the ones that I'm going to be keeping a particular eye on?

And maybe you should too.

The ones that I feel like have the most intrigued.

Let's get in here and talk about it.

I want to start it.

Listen, we know who QB number one is.

I think the QB two battle is intriguing, and I think a lot of people are going to be

very interested in that.

But I am not going to talk quarterback today on today's show.

So if you are here, expecting to hear about that, I might have already told you a reason

why you should turn this off.

I think we need to start this squarely in the trenches.

Alex Golisse has been very consistent in the idea that Auburn Football is going to run

the football and they are going to run it a bunch.

I could talk about running back, but I think no matter who wins the running back, one,

two, three, because I do think there are going to be three running backs that are going

to get the lion's share of the carries this season, depending upon injury, I think there

is enough depth there that you can go four, five, six in that room.

I'm not going to talk about that one today either.

It's the guys that are blocking for the quarterback and for that running back room that I think

are going to be most important.

I'm going to center the beginning of the conversation right there in the trenches, offensive

line.

Let's talk about the guys that are going to shake that position.

Connolly, gone.

Jeremiah Wright, gone.

I can sit here and rattle off names of guys.

There is no returning starter from last year other than Kale Ellis who played some starting

reps when Connolly got hurt last season.

That's going to be returning for the Auburn Tigers up front.

There's going to be a brand new crop of four to five if Kale Ellis is able to work his

way into that starting rotation or in that starting group that are going to be out there

for the Auburn Tigers.

Let's talk about this offensive line room because I think that is really what it's going

to be.

How the Auburn Tigers do this season offensively is going to be largely dependent upon how

well that offensive line group is able to gel quickly and able to get acclimated to the

things that are necessary.

The biggest thing that plagued Auburn from an offensive standpoint last season was their

inability to be efficient in the drop bet game.

When they were running tempo, I think the offense looked a lot better.

When you got in the post freeze era last season offensively and you talked about when Derek

Nick's was truly the offensive play collar starting with that Vanderbilt game, the offense

was able to produce way more yards, way more efficiency offensively.

It was because they were running tempo.

When they went into that drop bet game, regardless of who the play collar was, Auburn was not

really a good football team offensively from a run blocking standpoint, they were okay,

not great.

They weren't dominant up there unless the team was just not a good rush defense ala arc

and saw where they were able to run the ball up and down the field on that team.

They had their moments where run blocking really looked good.

If you look at PFF statistics, which I'm noted as quoting those things, I feel like

that's the most even way to judge teams across a spectrum is to look at the same grading

scale.

Not just look at statistics, because statistics are going to be deceptive because that determines

or that's a little bit more dependent upon who the caliber of competition was.

Statistics aren't going to always bear the thing, but I do think that analytic metrics

are a little bit better, and then you can look at comparative competition to see those

things.

Anyway, when you look at the offensive line numbers for Auburn, they were good, not great.

They were a good running team, not great running team.

They were a less than average pass defense or excuse me, pass blocking offense last year,

and particularly in third and long scenarios, when you got them into situations where the

run wasn't really a great option, this team wasn't good at keeping their quarterbacks

safe.

That's going to be a thing where you do have a mobile quarterback again this year in

Byron Brown, but how well is this offensive line going to do at allowing him to play the

quarterback position from the pocket, or if he has to escape the pocket?

How much time is he going to be able to buy?

Is it going to be a situation where, as soon as he snaps the ball, there's somebody

immediately applying pressure to him, or are they going to give him a little bit more

time and be able to decipher where the blitzers are coming from that sort of thing?

I've watched a ton of tape on this offensive line, particularly the Coles, Coles Skinner,

Coles Best, the two offensive linemen that are coming over from USF, and trying to determine

how well did they navigate those sorts of things in this system, because you're going

to have the same system, whether it's going to be different personnel, how you teach those

things.

I remember last season, there was a lot of talk about the way in which Auburn was setting

slide protections last year as an offensive line, and they just didn't do a really great

job.

They just slide one way and teams would basically fake like the blitz was coming from one direction

and then actually bring pressure from another way, so when they slide the protection left,

blitz is actually coming from the right quarterbacks toast, right?

How well is Auburn going to be able to navigate in this new system under this coaching staff,

the exotic blitzers that may be coming from teams once they start to figure out the way

in which Auburn sets their protections, are they able to adjust those things?

How well is Auburn going to be able to pass protect?

How well is this team going to be able to be efficient in the run game or in the quick

pass game on first and second down to put them in more optimal, third down positions?

That's going to be super important.

A lot of that starts with this offensive line group.

When you look at this group, you've got guys in here, the aforementioned Kale Ellis,

Derek Plas, who has by all accounts shown well, the transfer over from Miami, shown well

early in this season.

He's a sophomore coming over 6, 4, 3, 10, going to be able to play multiple positions along

that offensive line, but hopefully going to be able to be an offensive tackle for this

team.

Kenneth McMahon is another guy, 6, 2, 3, 20, transfer over from Akron, 500 plus snaps last

season.

Now Plas only had, he had less than 20 snaps last year, so there's not a lot of P4 production

there for that young man.

Strand is another guy coming over from Oregon State, got a lot of snaps over there.

He figures to be a guy who can move to the outside, therefore you Joe Simmons, another guy

who could potentially play on the outside of 6, 5, 3, 22 guy, but coming from James Madison,

a lower level school, is he going to be able from an athleticism standpoint, be able

to step up and play at that position, already talked about the goals that came over from

USF.

Stanton Ramil, another guy who came in with a lot of expectations, but Alex Skolis talked

about in one of his press conferences last week, Ramil, is a guy who's battling with injury

right now.

He's not even going to be factoring into the position battle, particularly at the offensive

tackle position, which is going to be super important for the spring.

So he's not going to be a guy who they're going to really have the ability to figure out

what they have in him until they get into the fall more than likely.

So that's a wrinkle that I think a lot of fans aren't not excited to hear about, but

Ramil's not even going to be factoring into that situation.

You got Parker Pritchett, who is the true freshman, Bear McWhorter, another true freshman,

Wilson Zero, another true freshman, Mason Mathis, a true freshman that are going to be

coming in.

And then you get TJ Hedrick, the transfer over from Ole Miss, and then you got a couple

of guys who are on the squad, didn't get a lot of playing time last season, or were

walk-ons, but were offered a scholarship as the walk-on program is going away in John

Henry Flat, Cade Barnett, Harrison Clemer, and then you get Ty Buster, Jacobi Ward,

and Jack Lehrer, guys who were all redshirted last season, and we'll have an opportunity

to go out there and compete.

But who are going to be the five?

I think that the two coals have a very good opportunity, particularly at the center position,

and then you get Ty Buster probably factoring in, but those are your interior linemen,

but who are they going to be the guys that have an opportunity to play on the outside

for you?

The transfer over from Oregon State, I'm going to be able to do that, and Jacob Strand

is McManus plies, right?

That's the position group battle, I think that's going to be the most crucial to figuring

out, because I think they're solid on interior offensive linemen.

I liked what Kale Ellis was able to do as an interior offensive lineman, even though

he won't be playing center, likely that's going to go to one of the coals there.

But Auburn has a lot of work to do on that interior offensive line, and I'm looking

forward to seeing what happens with that position group battle.

So that's number one for me.

All right, let's move on to what I think is going to be another interesting one for

this off season, and I think that's going to be the tight-in room.

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One of the reasons why Coach Hugh Freeze was not able to play as much 11 and 10 personnel

as he wanted to and really college football coaches all over the country have been going

more to these heavy packages is because your offensive tackles have been struggling in

past protection and your ability to be able to set those protections or even run block

effectively has been severely limited because of how great some of these in these past

rushers have been all over college football.

So they've had to play more heavy packages, more to tight in personnel, which means there

are left less wide receivers on the field unless you're going to take a running back off

of the field completely, right?

I think that not think again, looking at the tape, I know that Coach Golis and this

offensive staff really wants to be in a 12 person, excuse me, an 11 person now grouping.

So they're going to want to tight in on the field.

Who are going to be the guys that consistently can play that position that also allow you

to be multiple in the ways in which you're attacking defenses?

So when we look at this tight in room, it's going to be one that I'm looking at and

keep in an eye on how well can those tight ends be able to pick up this system and who

are going to be the guys really getting the snaps there?

When you look at this tight in room, you're looking at Xavier Newsom, the transfer over

from Howard 107 snaps last season Hunter Usley, who is a sophomore this season, Jonathan

Eccles, the guy over from USF, another guy who I think you would think would factor in

heavily there in that room, but is working through an entry right now.

So he's not available.

Now he's a guy who doesn't need to relearn the system.

He was there last season and played not a lot, but enough in that system last year to be able

to pick it up and understand the things that he needs to do.

So he'll be able to get acclimated more quickly to this, but I think it's going to be interesting

to see who's going to be the guy that steps up in his absence as he's there just kind of helping

guys through that from a film standpoint, mental rep standpoint, trying to get through that.

Jake Johnson is going to be the senior leader in that room as he going to have a strangle hold

on that position. Very athletic, able to adjust to multiple systems as he's been at multiple schools

in his career, Texas A&M, North Carolina, and he's factored in well in his playing time and his

ability to do things in those systems. Is he going to be able to step up and be the guy?

Hunter Haring is another guy who transferred over from UL Lim. He's got some good experience

in this style of offense, playing a little bit more of the spread stuff. So he's played some H

back stuff in his time in a very run-friendly offense that he was doing there at UL Lim. So a good

run-blocking guy will take a look at some of these PFF numbers and how these guys factory and

went to I get into those rooms specifically later during the summer. Then you had DJ Broughton,

True Freshman, Arles Bordingham. I think it's going to be a very interesting one. He's a guy who

originally started his career at Florida was a very good pass catching tight end big body guy. He is

65 to 25 as listed right now. Excuse me, 63. I'm looking at Broughton. Apologies for that.

63 to 50 guy there for Bordingham. So he's a big receiver, but he's got a big tight end,

but he's got some good receiver skills. He did that really well for Florida that freshman season.

He's going to factor in, I think, heavily into that rotation. And then you got Ryan G,

or Ryan G, a guy who is 65 to 61. And really is kind of like another tackle out there on the field.

He and Jake Johnson, I think, are the guys 66 to 40 who are more alike and are going to factor

heavily into the way in which this team, as mentioned before, Alex Skolish wants to be able to

run the football and how this team is going to be effective in the run game. Particularly when you

have a quarterback who's going to be running a lot of QB power, some quarterback sweep stuff,

you need that tackle and that tight end to be able to be versatile. And so the pulling action

coming from different directions, whether that's the tight end or tackle, especially with the split

flow action that they might be doing in the the the veer things that they do there.

You'd have to be able to block on the edges to be able to get those speed sweeps that they

want to be able to do, or if they're going to be throwing the quick game action to the outside

out of an RPO look, you have to be able to do all of those things effectively. Seal those edges

and allow yourself to have those advantages on the exterior that you get from those wide splits.

Tight end factors in heavily to that, not to mention their ability to be able to catch the ball

in the flat. Typically they're not doing a lot of seam route stuff and what I'm seeing from the

offense. So it's more of the flat routes or the little quick hitch routes that they're hitting

to those tight end. So you need the big body guys that can present a target to their quarterback

and be able to be there and you know get those third and short situations where they want to be

able to throw the football. So tight end room I think is going to be super important into the

way in which this offense operates and I'm looking forward to seeing who is going to be really

the top three guys in that room because I think from a rotational standpoint they're going to play

two guys and you need a third guy that's going to be there to be able to be your if you if you

want to have the option to have a more pass catching type in there to threaten defenses in that

way. I think boardingham fits in perfectly with that but you need a guy that's going to be able to

do that and stretch defenses and affect those linebacker slash safeties in a very real way or impact

them in a very real way. So looking forward to seeing what that tight end slash H back room is going

to be looking like for the Auburn Tigers next year. So this offense can keep it rolling offensive

line and tight end. Those are my offensive groups that I'm going to be paying close attention to during

the spring. Second half we'll talk about two of the defensive rooms that I am going to be looking

forward to seeing the battles with but before we do that just want to get a quick word from our

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level of skill or training. We've got plenty of we've got plenty of skill and training over here

at the war poor and talking about what we want to see because listen I don't need a whole bunch of

skill to tell you what I want to look at and what I want to see is these position group battles and

we'll get back into this talking a little bit about the defense and I think one of the things that's

going to be super important for this team this year is going to be their ability to get after

the quarterback. The secondary is a group that I thought was going to be the strength of this

defense last year didn't turn out to be the case and I don't think that that's because this

secondary group all of a sudden wasn't talented. I think it was because of the lack of the past rush.

I just don't think that Auburn was able to generate effective rush on quarterbacks last season

that allowed for those DBs because they were playing a lot of zero coverage, a lot of single

high stuff on those third and long situations in order to do that effectively you need to make that

quarterback uncomfortable. Auburn wasn't making quarterbacks uncomfortable enough last season so

I'm going to be looking at the book position that's going to be out there being able to disrupt

on a consistent basis. Again the guys who were the major contributors in that room not with Auburn

this season right when you look at guys like a Mars Williams who though he was injured was a really

good past rush guy wasn't necessarily full-time buck but he definitely was able from the defensive

end position to be able to apply pressure. You talk about Keveron Crawford who was one of the most

effective immediate impact guys off of the edge for last season and then you talk about Keltrick

Falk on the other end as a defensive end those were your major past rush threats last season for Auburn

but speaking of the buck position specifically you've got a lot of guys who are talented in that room

not a lot of production so it's something that I want to be able to see from that edge room this season

J.J. Falk, Dishon, Womack I think is going to be a heavy contributor there. Jared Smith is now in

that buck room so he's a guy that is going to be I think really an effective past rusher he has

all of those skills and those abilities Nate Johnson the transfer over from Missouri

to Quest Wilkes the true freshman loved what I saw from his freshman take going to factor in heavily

there and then the guy I really want to focus in on right now in terms of in that room hasn't had

a lot of opportunities the sky is the limit because of his versatility as Joe Phillips Joe Phillips

there in that room six to he's the smallest guy in that room at six to two forty five hasn't had

a lot of snaps in his Auburn career but the reason why I really like Joe Phillips is because of what

I know that this defense wants to do with the book is sometimes they want to bring some pressure

right and they want to drop that book linebacker it's a linebacker position that edge guy into coverage

Joe Phillips has the ability to be a coverage guy right he's got the speed he's got the athleticism

to be able to cover out there in space and he has the strength speed and athleticism to get

downhill and get to a quarterback so he's a guy that has the versatility that you need to be able to

see the question is whether or not he's just going to be like a password specialist or a third

long guy or if he's going to be able to come in on first second down and play against the run and

really set the edge that's one of the things I think underrated about key run Crawford was his

ability to really set the edge as an outside linebacker for this team in that defense last season

who are going to be the guys that are going to be able to be three down guys really right like a

is it going to have to be a situation if you're running against a team that's doing a little more

up tempo stuff not letting you substitute who's going to be a guy that you can trust to do all the

things that you can trust to go get after the quarterback and be able to drop him back and

coverage if necessary if you want to play that kind of stuff on those third down situations

who's going to be a guy who's going to be able to set the edge against the run and and be

effective on first and second down and put you in a position where you can get into third down

and be more exotic with how you want to bring those pressures it's going to be super important

for that book edge position for Auburn in this season to be way more productive with the number

of sacks purys pressures QB hits that they're able to produce this season that allows your defensive

backs to be in better position in those situations to have to be able to close out on short routes

rather than these you know the slants that they were getting killed on last season how well are

you going to be able to get that quarterback off their mark and not feeling as comfortable

stepping back and throwing that pass how much are you going to be able to do a better job of not

allowing quarterbacks to escape contain and extend plays that put your defensive backs in bad

positions those are the things I'm going to be looking forward to from that edge slash buck

position in this coming season now the last position I think that is going to be super

interesting for me to be able to take a look at is going to be the safety because I think there's

a lot of talent in that room not to say that there's not a lot of talent in these other rooms and

there's going to be a lot of fierce competition I just think that it's a little more obvious

who the starters are going to be in that cornerback room in that lineback room along the interior

defensive line they're going to shuffle guys they're going to shuffle guys in the linebacker

cornerbacks are going to get shuffled quite a bit safety's though they will go they will get

rotated the big thing that I'm looking for to see from this safety room is who's going to be the

guy that's going to be your secondary cubie right like who's going to be the quarterback of that

secondary getting guys lined up properly the guy that's going to be able to be more of that ball

hawk safety that's able to patrol the back end and not give up those big plays and really

kind of some of and who's going to be kind of your enforcer guy in that safety room we run

through this safety position and you look at the guys who are tabulated there the guy who's the

best communicator in that room again is a guy who is injured right now in champ Anthony you don't

know really what the timetable for getting him back is but he is absolutely a general out there

when it comes to that safety position so you won't have him available Jack Luttrell who is a

Luttrell excuse me coming over from Arizona not a lot of snaps for him but a guy who could

factor heavily into that as a junior coming over from Arizona last season Fred Gaskins I think

is the first guy that's going to pop off because he's a guy who's had a lot of experience now

unlike the guys on the offensive side in the USF he isn't a guy who's coming over with his

coordinator right like he's somebody who's learning a new system and he's got to figure out whether

he factors in heavily in that but he's got a ton of snaps to be able to offer you

and he's a guy who goes out there and plays strong and fast and able to really be kind of a

an enforcer in the back end the guys that I think are going to absolutely factor in immediately

though and Kwan Fagans he is the quintessential sideline the sideline safety he's got the speed

he's got the athleticism to do all those things he's coming in at six foot one ninety one

played well in his snaps last season is he going to be able to take that next step

in this defense Caleb Harris a guy who you know by all accounts had a disappointing season his

sophomore year but I think he's a guy who played a lot better than people gave him credit for it

especially considering he was playing through injury last season and he was out there he was one of

if I if I if memory serves me right I'm not looking at this right now someone can go and tell me

you're absolutely wrong about this he was the highest graded secondary player as far as NFL

rating on the Auburn secondary last season so as much as people felt like he struggled last year

or he didn't live up to the expectations he did a lot of the things that he was needed to do last

season I think he only gave up two touchdowns all last season and he's a guy who when he's healthy

is a short tackler he's good at being where he needs to be in this defense and I think he's he's

he's looking I think to have a bounce back season this year so that competition is going to be fierce

right there at the safety position when you factor him in Sylvester Smith had one of the best

seasons he's had as an Auburn tiger he's coming up on his junior campaign loved what he did

and he's going to absolutely be a guy who can be a safety slash nickel player for Auburn this season

he is one of the enforcers there he if there's a big hit that happened in the safety position I

guarantee you Sylvester Smith was one of the guys that was doing it like he was just out there

with bad intentions a lot last year looking forward to seeing what the junior season for him is going

to be like as he continues to grow in this defense in year three Eric winters air winners solid as a

true freshman last year really came in box safety downhill play the run really well wasn't great

as a past defender what really solid really solid past defender last year looking forward to seeing

what the growth for him this year is going to be like um he of the freshman contributors I believe

had the most snaps just above what Anquan Fagans had he had 258 last year Fagans had two 26 last

season so he was the highest contributing guy from a safety position as a true freshman last year

for Auburn looking forward to seeing what he does now the rest of these guys and what makes

this super interesting for me right is there's still super talented guys that I haven't mentioned

like you've got Wayne Henry who's the true freshman I don't know that he's going to get a lot of

snaps just because of the guys that are in front of him but the next two names Shadrick Tutel who I

think you know coming over from community college absolutely a great athlete right there I think

he's going to factor in heavily probably a little bit more in special teams and he will as a safety

player but the one I haven't mentioned yet and I think this is the most interesting prospect of all

of these is Jacobi Matthews didn't play last season but understands this system because he came

over from this system in Texas A&M decided to stick around for his final season of eligibility here

at Auburn I thought he was going to come in and really revolutionize what they were able to do last

season from the safety position and give them some experience in this system he's got another

opportunity to do that again this year he's a guy that was a four-star guy coming out of high school

and I had high expectations for him coming over in the transfer portal last year didn't see the

field last year is this the year where he gets his sea legs under him and he's able to really go

out there and impact what Auburn is doing from a defensive standpoint for a group again as

safeties last DBs last year that was real they were they were getting beat they were out there

getting beat a lot you know I already talked about what they needed from a pass rush standpoint but

can they have the correct coverage and be the kind of enforcers that make it a little bit more

interesting for those wide receivers coming across the middle of the field those are the things that

I'm going to be looking forward to listen offensive line tight in you gotta block it up front if

you're going to do the things you need to do offensively and then how do you get after the quarterback

slash make that quarterback uncomfortable that's going to start with your pass rush and that's going

to be the back end with those safeties those are the rooms that I'm most looking forward to as we get

into this spring the position battles that have a little bit of intrigue for me not to say that

those are the only ones but those are my top four I definitely want to hear from you guys who do

you think will be the guys that stand out in those rooms are there are other position group battles

that you're particularly interested in as we get into this spring that's it man I'm about to

get out of here once again thank you guys so much for jumping in which boy I Jones day as we get into

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