The 2012 Auburn Tigers Football Team Thread

[AuburnAlumni]

Yezzir!!



Well, anyone who caught the ADay game saw that Kiehl Frazier looks light years ahead of where he was as a true freshman last year. He was excellent in the spring game and looked very confident both moving in the pocket and throwing the football. He is far and away the leader for the starting QB position.

Running Back U is just fine at the tailback position sans Dyer. We actually have the most depth in the Chizik era now with Blakeley, Corey Grant, Tre Mason, and Onterrio. That's not including Jovon Robinson, who will be on campus for Fall drills. Blakeley looked outstanding in the spring game and is a Dyer clone in the way he looks on the field. Very shifty through the hole as well.

The biggest addition IMO to the running game is Fullback Jay Prosch. This dude is a monster. He powercleans 400 pounds and it showed as he was blowing up some folks in the spring game. He's going to be a huge help in the run game, and, most importantly, his presence allows Lutz to focus solely on being a TE and not a hybrid TE/FB.

The WR position will be interesting to see. We have one proven star in Emory Blake and several highly rated youngsters around him. Sammie Coates had some nice catches in the spring game, but he also had some freshman errors. He needs to be more consistent in his catching, etc. but he has the speed and size to be a great compliment to EB on the other side. Trovon Reed had a very nice spring game and looks to be much more comfortable at WR now. Quan Bray will be a nice slot guy for us. I'm really anxious to see JaQuay Williams and Ricardo Louis in the fall. Williams is another big WR that has speed so it would be nice to see him show up ready to play.

As we know, we have the best Tight End in the country. Now that Prosch is here to be the fulltime FB, Lutz will be much more of a threat in the passing game full time. Loeffler loves the Tight End in his offense and should be getting the ball to Lutz a ton this year.

The Offensive line is probably the deepest from a talent standpoint, maybe ever. Three straight years of Top 5 OL classes have filled the cupboard. Reese Dismukes has transformed his body from last year and has gained that invaluable starting experience from last year. Greg Robinson, Chad Slade, John Sullen, and Eric Mack will make up the starting 5 most likely. Christian Westermann is fighting Mack for that guard spot. Patrick Miller and Shane Callahan are getting valuable experience as early enrollees and then you add guys like Avery Young, Jordan Diamond, and Alex Kozan coming in the fall. Coach Grimes has got to be smiling with the selection of talent he'll have to work with. I think this will be a very formidable SEC O Line when our starting 5 get some playing experience together.

Defensively, we are very strong in two areas (DL/Secondary) and spotty in the third (LB).

Everyone returns on the DL and it showed in the ADay game. Our DE spot is nasty. Nosa Eguae, Corey Lemonier, Dee Ford, Craig Sanders, LaDarius Owens..we have as good a rotation at End as anyone in the league. All with experience. Jeff Whitaker, Kenneth Carter, Angelo Blackson, Devaunte Sigler, and Gabe Wright are a solid group at tackle. Tyler Nero will probably get some reps as a true frosh this year as well. We have so many bodies on the DL and all are talented and experienced now.

Van Gorder likes his Front Four to be more active and not just take up gaps for the LBs. I think our Front Four is fully capable of being a top tier unit in the SEC this year.

LB is spotty IMO. Holland is solid at MLB, but with Jawara White having a career ending neck injury, we are thin behind him in experience. Chris Landrum looks to be the next in line at MLB. Darren Bates looked good in the Spring game at OLB and should be as he is now a 4th year starter on Defense. Kris Frost is obviously talented but he needs to really learn the LB position before he can be a consistent force. Cassanova McKinzy should get some reps at MLB this fall as a frosh.

Other than QB, this is the one area that I think everyone is really anxious about come fall. The ability to be very good is there, but we'll have to see.

The secondary is loaded. Absolutely loaded. T Bell, Whitehead, Rose, Therezie, Mincy, Florence, McNeal, Davis. We have a ton of depth, experience, and talent this year. Coach Martinez really improved their ball skills this spring as the A Day game our secondary was very aggressive, stayed in position, made great plays on the ball, etc. It was night and day. I expect that to improve even more. I also expect freshman Josh Holsey to get some reps, even with all of the depth, because he's that good.

Everyone is back on special teams and everyone already knows how good both our punter and kicker are. There won't be many kick or punt returns by our opponents in 2012. There won't be a better special teams unit in America next year.

It's an even year so we get our favorable schedule back. Arkansas, Georgia, LSU, Texas A&M all come to Auburn. Our toughest road game is at bammer. Then you add Clemson to start the year in the Georgia Dome which will be somewhere around 50/50 ticket split or slight favor to Auburn. In the SEC, that's as favorable as you can hope for in regards to home/away.

I've said this several times. Our entire season depends on the QB spot IMO. I firmly believe that Van Gorder will have our defense, which is both very talented and experienced now, in the upper echelon of the SEC. We'll have the upper hand in Special Teams against every opponent we face IMO.

It all comes back to Frazier. If he looks as confident and accurate as he did in the Spring game, we have a chance to win the SEC (and by default, another MNC).

Kiehl has an All American level talent at WR in Emory Blake, an All American talent at TE in Lutzenkirchen, and a stable of talented backs to hand the ball off to with an All American FB blocking in Jay Prosch. The O line is deep and loaded with 4 and 5 star talent. It all depends on Kiehl.

I'm definitely excited and, after a year of growing pains by starting so many freshman, we have a very deep and experienced squad coming back.

[Cheatham01]

Great write-up! Football season can't come any sooner! WDE!

[Sportsforever]

I saw in the news today that a Grad Assistant died right before the game Saturday (23 year old young man named Bagwell?). Anyone have more details...that is tragic.

[Sportsforever]

So seriously, what is going on at Auburn? When you lost to the tire fire that is Arky, something has gone seriously wrong. Has losing the coordinators had that big of an impact?

[Amoo316]

The only reason Head Coaches are more important then Coordinators is because Head Coaches choose who the coordinators are. That said, Auburn's offense was in total disarray before Gus got there and will be until the find a OC who fits their talent or finds talent to fit their OC.