Auburn Preview
October 20, 2008 06:19 PM | General
October 20, 2008
AUBURN GAME NOTES
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is taking on an Auburn team this Thursday night at Milan Puskar Stadium looking to turn around its season.
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| West Virginia's Noel Devine, coming off a career-high 188-yard performance against Syracuse, is facing an Auburn defense ranked 11th in the country giving up just 13.1 points per game.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The Tigers have a disappointing 4-3 record including a 2-3 mark in SEC play, but when you closely examine their scores you see nine points separating them from a 7-0 record. Auburn’s losses have come by five points against then No. 6 LSU (26-21), by one point to then No. 19 Vanderbilt (14-13) and most recently, by three points to Arkansas (25-22).
Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville fired his offensive coordinator Tony Franklin three days before the Arkansas game, indicating at the time that he would assume a more active role in the offense. Franklin was brought from Troy last December to install the spread. Tuberville, who has had five offensive coordinators in his 10 seasons at Auburn, has always preferred a more conservative, smash-mouth style of play to go along with a smothering defense.
Having an extra 12 days to get ready for West Virginia should help the Tiger offense. Steve Ensminger has taken over the offensive coordinator role and is adopting the plays that he prefers to use. Will that mean more I-formation? Will that mean a continuation of the spread? Will sophomore quarterback Kodi Burns continue to run the Auburn offense?
Those are questions Bill Stewart said his defensive staff has to be prepared to answer.
“I don’t know and that’s what makes the game so exciting,” Stewart said. “From what we’ve heard Kodi Burns is going to be the quarterback. He can break your defense down in a matter of seconds. He can also pass the ball. They’re going to run the spread and I’m sure they will jump into the I-formation a little bit and try and come in and smash-mouth us.”
Burns has played in five games and has completed 17 of 42 passes for 198 yards. He has thrown three interceptions. Junior Chris Todd has appeared in all seven games and has completed 86 of 156 passes for 903 yards with five touchdowns and six interceptions. Todd was 3 of 10 for 18 yards in limited action against Arkansas.
In the past, Auburn was well known as a team that used a strong running game to open up the play action pass. Ben Tate is Auburn’s leading rusher with 533 yards and an average of 4.4 yards per carry. Brad Lester and Burns are the only other players to rush for more than 100 yards so far this year.
Rodgerious Smith is Auburn’s leading receiver with 21 catches for 212 yards and a touchdown. Robert Dunn shows 15 catches for 172 yards and two scores. Although Tim Hawthorne only shows three catches, one of them went for a season-long 58 yards against LSU.
“Hopefully we can run with their receivers because they are darn good ones. They are fast, big and very explosive,” Stewart said.
After producing 406 yards of offense in the season opener against Louisiana-Monroe, Auburn’s offense has progressively gotten worse. In its last two losses against Vanderbilt and Arkansas, Auburn managed just 208 and 193 yards respectively.
“They just haven’t been hitting on all cylinders and we’re in the same boat,” Stewart said.
What did get Stewart’s attention in the Arkansas game was that despite having difficulty moving the football on offense, Auburn was still able to score 22 points.
“They scored on a kickoff return from (Tristan) Davis and that helped them,” Stewart said. “We watched the film and you look up at the scoreboard and you see 78 total yards and then you looked up a little later in the game and it said 83 yards and they were up 20-16 at that time so they can score a lot of ways.”
Defensively, Auburn is as good as usual. The Tigers have a physical front four and a fast back end that has limited teams to just 272.7 yards per game. Former Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes is now directing Auburn’s defense; last year, it was Rhodes who devised the scheme that held West Virginia to less than 200 yards of offense in a 13-9 Panther victory.
“They have a tremendous defensive coordinator in Paul Rhodes and we all know what he did against us last year with the University of Pittsburgh,” Stewart said.
The best way to attack an attacking defense is to go right at them but Stewart isn’t sure his team is equipped to do that this year.
“We’re going to try and do what we do best and try and mix it up,” Stewart said. “We have those quick hitters. It’s just a matter of when we get those quick hitters can we knock them off the ball? That’s going to be the key.”
The Tigers have produced 49 tackles for losses, 14 sacks and 12 turnovers through seven games. Defensive end Antonio Coleman leads Auburn with five sacks this year and now shows 13 ½ for his career. Coleman also has 28 ½ career tackles for losses. Six different players have intercepted passes this season including a pair by defensive lineman Sen’Derrick Marks, a preseason All-America candidate. Marks shows nine tackles for losses and a pair of sacks in seven games.
Safety Mike McNeil is the team’s leading tackler with 39 total stops. Sophomore safety Zac Etheridge is second on the team with 34 tackles.
Auburn has one of the best third-down defenses in the country giving up just 25 first downs in 110 attempts for a 22.7-percent success rate. The Tigers are 11th nationally in scoring defense, giving up 13.1 points per game and are ranked 14th in total defense.
“They have an even front, come at you – come downhill. They play a lot of man coverage, a lot of cover zero, man-free and maybe a little cover-three deep,” Stewart said. “They’re attacking. They’re like us. They are fun to watch if you like defense.”
Auburn is playing its first non-conference road game in five years. It is the latest non-conference road game for Auburn since facing Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on Oct. 27, 1979. The Tigers have also not played this far north this late in the year since facing Villanova in 1941.
The long term forecast for Thursday night’s game has temperatures dipping into the high 30s. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville has been to Morgantown before as Miami’s defensive coordinator.
ESPN (Rece Davis, Lou Holtz and Mark May) will televise the game nationally. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm. MSN’s radio coverage begins with the Mountaineers Today at 7 pm. Fans can access the MSN broadcast on the Internet through MountaineerTV on CBS College Sports and on satellite radio on Sirius channel 126.
No tickets remain.
Briefly:
“Pat has done very well. He was flying around (Sunday) night. He’s ready to go,” Stewart said.
“He has emotions like everyone else. To play against a team from his state that’s kind of big,” Stewart said. “He wants to look good. It’s a national TV game. I won’t have to say anything to him.”
