By Brant Daughtry
It took us a while. But we’re back.
It’s finally football season again. The air will soon start to cool down, and Saturday’s will be dominated by either tailgating and attending a game, or by plopping down in front of the TV and enjoying a full slate of games for a whole day. What a joyous time of year it is.
But if you’re reading this, you’re probably an Auburn fan. And you’re probably excited for the year. As a fan and student myself, I’m also excited. There’s been a lot of change at Auburn this past offseason, and most of it good. It’s time to dive in and see how this new-look Auburn team fairs against it’s week 1 opponent.
The Bulldogs are led by Connell Maynor, a former North Carolina A&T quarterback who’s been around for a while, and been consistently moving up the ranks of coaching. He was named head coach at A&M in 2018, where he turned a perennial doormat into a very competitive team, as they now regularly compete in the upper half of the SWAC. He has a conference record of 21-12 as a head coach, a winning percentage no other A&M coach has managed. In 2020, A&M went undefeated and won the SWAC championship and the Black College Football National Championship. While most of that team is now gone, it illustrates the kind of coach Maynor is. His guys are always ready and he gets the most out of them.
The starter for the Bulldogs was only recently announced. It’ll be former Georgia State and UT Martin contributor Cornelius “Quad” Brown IV who takes the first reps. Maynor has already said though that the backups, Aveon Smith from Miami (OH) and Xavier Lankford will also get reps. Brown has the most experience in college football though, so he’ll likely get the largest share of reps.
From an X’s and O’s standpoint, they run a lot of power spread stuff, or at least they did last year. Most of the time, they’ll have a tight end in the formation, and they try to run it behind him. Lots of pistol sets also, trying to get the running back downhill. It’s a physical brand of modern football, but one that Auburn should matchup well against.
On defense, they come out in a 3-3 formation most of the time, but it looks more like a 4-2 with one of those linebackers setting the edge. More pretty standard stuff. That outside backer, whoever it’ll be, will be a really good athlete and should probably be the focus of Auburn’s protection. They’re also not afraid to blitz, so not over-committing and keeping heads up will be key in keeping Payton Thorne and the other QB’s upright.
Look, it’s a paycheck game. This is a lot more about Auburn than Alabama A&M, and the Tigers are favored by near-50 for a reason. They should win on talent alone. But what a reason to show off that talent. I expect Auburn to come out and put on a show this weekend, and Auburn fans should come away happy as long as things don’t go wrong an everyone stays healthy.
This preview is pretty bare-bones, such is the nature of a week 1 matchup and the fact that I’m back in class and don’t have a ton of time. But we’ll get back into the swing of things here soon, and I expect I’ll have a lot more to say about Cal next week.
