AUBURN TIGER BLOGGIN

On March 22nd we asked several questions about Auburn’s football team, and what answers we might get from spring practice. Let’s see what we might have learned.

Starting as we did with questions is the offense.

At wide out Auburn seems to be the deepest and most talented. Returning two starters at wide receiver and with no less than four backups with game experience, this unit looks to shine 2010.

The offensive line returns the most game time experience of all the Auburn positions on offense. Three seniors that have started all of last year’s game save two, add up to a very good line returning. The question surrounded the right tackle spot left empty by the graduation of Andrew McCain. The answer came as a surprise of somewhat. Two new linemen started the spring battling it out for rotation and playing time.

Clint Moseley and Rozell Gayden are the two men who have had their shot this spring to impress the coaches.

The question at running back was whether Mario Fannin could handle the job. The answer quite simply is YES! Yes he can indeed. Coach Luper has stated that Mario will get over a thousand rushing yards if he stays healthy. The big plus is Coach Luper also said Mario did not fumble once all spring. That’s impressive!

It appears the question of tight end/ H-back will be played by committee depending on the situation and play calling. Several names appear here, Eric Smith, Robert Cooper, and Phillip Lutzenkirchen.

As far as quarterback goes, whooboy! Cam Newton did not play much in A-Day competition. Barrett Trotter played very well, as did Neil Caudle and Clint Mosley. We still have no specific order of dominance at this position.


Now, on to the defensive questions.

At defensive back we may not have any definitive answers until late into fall practices. On a positive note some of the younger players are stepping up with impressive spring play. Ikeem Means is one name that was mentioned often.

We may actually have more questions at linebacker now than pre-spring. Eltoro Freeman is a big question mark after being called out by Coach Chizik. In a rare media response, Coach Chizik said Mr. Freeman, and one of the defensive backs, Mike McNeil, “need to step it up”.

So as we visit the pre-spring questions some answers have been emphatically answered, while others have not been resolved fully. Clearly some issues have been kept private for team sake, and others need to be answered with hard work. Let’s get to work men; the season is around the corner.

WAR EAGLE!