Lets talk about clemson game

[BPI 0]

It's not entirely accurate to say we are starting freshman on the line. I know of one potential starter who is a true freshman. Greg Robinson is not a true freshman...There is a big difference between a true freshman and a redshirt freshman.....Miller or Westerman may start and they would be the only true freshman I know of.....Anyone know anything different please tell me.

On the other hand, our defensive line will be lightyears ahead of last year, and THIS will wil the Clemson game for us. IMO.

I agree that there is a huge difference between True Freshman and Redshirt. This will make a big difference in the O line this year. There is some experience as has been mentioned in Sullen, Slade, Dismukes. Robinson will be very good and the extra year on campus puts him well past freshman status.

Westerman is also a redshirt freshman, by the way.

Oh yeah...He sure is.

[lca4081345162963 0]

Clint Moseley was a Sophomore last year. He had been at Auburn as long as Gene Chizik had and had plenty of time to both learn the offense and practice with it. When the time came, he often looked about as lost as a freshman on the field. Why? Because he had no experience to speak of before 2011.

Greg Robinson is a redshirt freshman. He's been here since last summer, working out, going through drills, practicing, and learning the intricacies of playing offensive line. Mentally, he should be about as good to go as anyone. But the moment he steps onto that field against a Division I defensive end, he'll be about as wide-eyed as a true freshman. Experience matters, especially on the offensive line. I'm not saying Greg won't be a good or even a great OL for us, I'm just saying keep expectations in check. Its likely that Greg will go through his fair share of struggles at left tackle - which is as hard a position to play on the line as any - just like Westerman or Miller or Mack will when they play, and just like Sullen and Slade did last year when they were playing full time.

I definitely think there will be a big difference in talent and ability on the line this year, but I also think that there will be plenty of inconsistency and hardship as well, considering the youth that will be starting. We have to hope that Sullen, Dismukes and Slade can hold down the line with the youngins all around them.

Ryan

[BPI 0]

True....But the curve for a quarterback is a much steeper one than a lineman. Not that a linemans isn't steep. I agree that he does need on the field experience.

[jason4au 1]

I say watch game film from last year's orange bowl where West Virginia rolled up about 100 points on Clemson. Our problem last year was we were trying to merely outscore them, and it just so happened that they executed their spread better than we did. It's a different story this time around with us running a more pro-style attack, that if we execute correctly, will take the ball out of their offense's hands and give them less chances to score. We control the ball, we win.

[Guest jrljr]

I believe Greg Robinson is He's practiced against arguably two of the best DE's in the SEC. He knows what to expect. plus i believe the off the field stuff will motivate him even more and give him greater mental toughness!

WAR DAMN EAGLE GREG!  

Secondly I'm not giving up on Shon Coleman maybe having a significant role this year and most definetly in 2013!

For alot of the same reasons. Both we're studs coming out of HS. Both have had to deal with extremely difficult issues just to get on the field. They won't be lacking in talent or Motivation!

[Rednilla 5,449]

Clint Moseley was a Sophomore last year. He had been at Auburn as long as Gene Chizik had and had plenty of time to both learn the offense and practice with it. When the time came, he often looked about as lost as a freshman on the field. Why? Because he had no experience to speak of before 2011.

Greg Robinson is a redshirt freshman. He's been here since last summer, working out, going through drills, practicing, and learning the intricacies of playing offensive line. Mentally, he should be about as good to go as anyone. But the moment he steps onto that field against a Division I defensive end, he'll be about as wide-eyed as a true freshman. Experience matters, especially on the offensive line. I'm not saying Greg won't be a good or even a great OL for us, I'm just saying keep expectations in check. Its likely that Greg will go through his fair share of struggles at left tackle - which is as hard a position to play on the line as any - just like Westerman or Miller or Mack will when they play, and just like Sullen and Slade did last year when they were playing full time.

I definitely think there will be a big difference in talent and ability on the line this year, but I also think that there will be plenty of inconsistency and hardship as well, considering the youth that will be starting. We have to hope that Sullen, Dismukes and Slade can hold down the line with the youngins all around them.

Ryan

Did you REALLY just compare quarterbacking in the SEC to playing left tackle? You do realize that the left tackle doesn't touch the football, right? Mistakes are generally a little bit less magnified.

And no, left tackle is not the hardest position on the line. Center is. The center has to snap the ball while simultaneously fending off a defender with only one hand until he can get his snapping arm back up to block. Pretty sure we had a true freshman who did a fair job at that position last year; don't know why it would be so hard to believe a tackle or guard could do as well, especially when they had a full redshirt year instead of just spring practice.

Now, there is no guarantee that there won't be growing pains; there likely will, as a matter of fact. But to say that Robinson's time going against some of the best defensive ends in the conference during practice for the last year is the same as Moseley running the scout team offense in 09 (when he would employ the opposing team's playbook) and then sitting third string behind Cam and Barrett as a redshirt freshman...well, that's just a bit misguided.

[chimesAU 89]

Keep in mind our Oline has been practicing again an extremely talented Dline. Also, Clemson will have 4 new starters across their Dline( who I'd bet aren't as talented or as experienced as our Dline) for our guys to "warm up " against. I'm not saying we're going to go out there and bulldoze them,but our young Oline should hold the advantage.

[keesler 5,990]

A W is a W, but I hope we embarrass Yabba Dabba Dooofus. 

He certainly acted like a jerk when they won last year.  I wonder if he is too stupid to realize he insulted Clemson and pissed off Auburn at the same time with that 'beating Auburn by a bammer alumnus' crap?  All he wanted to do was make it a bammer victory in some way that Auburn's winning streak was stopped... bama had nothing to do with it, it was Clemson that ended it.

I thought this same thing springer. I'm wondering if this should be locker room motivation material. For the Clemson game, Chiz should give his normal pregame pep talk...and end it with a looping video of Dabo spewing that standard Bama class. That should ignite our boys passion like they were about to play in the IB.

Give Clemson a taste of the best rivalry in CFB. They'll give up by halftime.

Why do our players need locker room motivation?  It's the first game of the season in the GaDome on national TV, the big stage.  Enough said. 

I believe a team should be able to block out the distractions and get down to the buisness of doing their jobs and dominating the opponent without some crap quote from a coach that beat our team LAST year. 

[keesler 5,990]

True....But the curve for a quarterback is a much steeper one than a lineman. Not that a linemans isn't steep. I agree that he does need on the field experience.

Gonna be tough, the QB's learning a whole new system, set of plays, terminology.  The Oline will be learning right along with them though.

[guerra aguila 0]

Were a 5 pt underdog, how can that be when their losing 3 guys on the OL and 4 on the DL..?

I expect Clemsons offense to be very potent, their defense was worse than ours last year and I still see this being a great first game test, I think we are the better team.

Only time will tell.

[agent_jack 28]

Did you REALLY just compare quarterbacking in the SEC to playing left tackle? You do realize that the left tackle doesn't touch the football, right? Mistakes are generally a little bit less magnified.

And no, left tackle is not the hardest position on the line. Center is. The center has to snap the ball while simultaneously fending off a defender with only one hand until he can get his snapping arm back up to block. Pretty sure we had a true freshman who did a fair job at that position last year; don't know why it would be so hard to believe a tackle or guard could do as well, especially when they had a full redshirt year instead of just spring practice.

Now, there is no guarantee that there won't be growing pains; there likely will, as a matter of fact. But to say that Robinson's time going against some of the best defensive ends in the conference during practice for the last year is the same as Moseley running the scout team offense in 09 (when he would employ the opposing team's playbook) and then sitting third string behind Cam and Barrett as a redshirt freshman...well, that's just a bit misguided.

Respect your opinion Red but I disagree.

Now granted, your center is the one making defensisve reads and line adjustments, but in this new QB driven league, if your QB can't stay upright you're done. Nine times out of Ten, if your QB is right handed, your left tackle is probably gonna be responsibe for stopping the defense's premiere rusher. Just my humble opinion

[dpwspringer 0]

Last year Clemson was especially pumped for our game:

-- defending BCSNC coming to their house riding the longest current winning streak.

-- they lost the year before on a missed do-over fg where they made the first one but got a nick-picky penalty.

-- their coach is full of bammer and wanted the win for bammer so bad he couldn't stand it.

This year I think it will be Auburn that is pumped.  Clemson won't have a clue about our offense, defense, starting qb, starting rb, etc.  Auburn will know what Clemson does on offense and has seen the blue print on how to stop it.

[lca4081345162963 0]

Did you REALLY just compare quarterbacking in the SEC to playing left tackle? You do realize that the left tackle doesn't touch the football, right? Mistakes are generally a little bit less magnified.

And no, left tackle is not the hardest position on the line. Center is. The center has to snap the ball while simultaneously fending off a defender with only one hand until he can get his snapping arm back up to block. Pretty sure we had a true freshman who did a fair job at that position last year; don't know why it would be so hard to believe a tackle or guard could do as well, especially when they had a full redshirt year instead of just spring practice.

Yeah I did compare them. I never said the positions were the same, just that the situations are. And mistakes are easily magnified by a sub-par OT protecting a QB's blindside or trying to blaze a path for a runningback.

I'll admit that Reese did a fair job at center last year - for a freshman. He struggled mightily throughout the year adjusting to the speed of the game but he certainly grew as time went on. Greg or any other freshman tackle will have to adjust as well. No its not completely uncommon for a reshirt freshman to start at tackle, but its certainly not ideal, regardless of the recruiting hype surrounding the player. Few times have any such players panned out and been headbusters right off the bat - Andre Smith comes to mind. Even then, those teams had growing pains. You say you expect Greg to perform as well as Reese because the position is less techincally challenging. Well there's no guarantee that Greg is the same level of talent that Reese is either. I mean, we all hope he is but plenty of highly rated guys don't pan out.

This line's full potential probably won't be realized till 2013. And I'm not saying that we won't be better in 2012, just that to expect us to start manhandling SEC D-lines from day one because our redhsirt freshmen practice against Lemonier and Ford is "misguided."

Ryan

[douggwilliams 61]

Last year this was one of the games we had a chance to win.  It got away from us and I think depth hurt us here and the rest of the season.  We ran out of gas, but we were in it late.  They were a pretty good team.  We need to hit Watkins at the line and not let him get off and get some pressure on Boyd and we can beat them walking away this year.

[Rednilla 5,449]

Did you REALLY just compare quarterbacking in the SEC to playing left tackle? You do realize that the left tackle doesn't touch the football, right? Mistakes are generally a little bit less magnified.

And no, left tackle is not the hardest position on the line. Center is. The center has to snap the ball while simultaneously fending off a defender with only one hand until he can get his snapping arm back up to block. Pretty sure we had a true freshman who did a fair job at that position last year; don't know why it would be so hard to believe a tackle or guard could do as well, especially when they had a full redshirt year instead of just spring practice.

Yeah I did compare them. I never said the positions were the same, just that the situations are. And mistakes are easily magnified by a sub-par OT protecting a QB's blindside or trying to blaze a path for a runningback.

I'll admit that Reese did a fair job at center last year - for a freshman. He struggled mightily throughout the year adjusting to the speed of the game but he certainly grew as time went on. Greg or any other freshman tackle will have to adjust as well. No its not completely uncommon for a reshirt freshman to start at tackle, but its certainly not ideal, regardless of the recruiting hype surrounding the player. Few times have any such players panned out and been headbusters right off the bat - Andre Smith comes to mind. Even then, those teams had growing pains. You say you expect Greg to perform as well as Reese because the position is less techincally challenging. Well there's no guarantee that Greg is the same level of talent that Reese is either. I mean, we all hope he is but plenty of highly rated guys don't pan out.

This line's full potential probably won't be realized till 2013. And I'm not saying that we won't be better in 2012, just that to expect us to start manhandling SEC D-lines from day one because our redhsirt freshmen practice against Lemonier and Ford is "misguided."

Ryan

Funny how you deleted the third paragraph of my quote. I'm not saying there won't be growing pains. Matter of fact, I said there probably would be. No, it's not ideal to start a freshman ANYWHERE, much less on the line.

But this isn't quarterback. Yeah, I understand the necessity of having a strong LT to protect your quarterback's blind side. I know all about Lawrence Taylor and that big sack a couple of decades ago. But again, it's not quarterback.

The positions simply aren't the same. If you don't get that, I don't know what else I can say to convince you. Tackle is critical, no doubt. But his responsibility is blocking assignments, meaning he has to pick up blitzes. The quarterback does that too. He also picks up coverage patterns and spies and robbers, and then when he's throwing the ball, he has to read the coverage as it progresses while avoiding the rush as it pursues after him.

That does not mean that quarterback is more critical, because any one chink in the armor can bring about disaster, but it does mean that there is more going on at quarterback that you have to keep up with at tackle. It's not NEARLY the same thing.

By the way , there is a HUGE difference in the level of preparation that Robinson has had in a year before this than in the two years that Moseley had before starting last year. Robinson was going up against some of the best in the SEC as a freshman, doing exactly what he will be this year. Moseley was running the scout team offense, meaning whatever the opposing team ran, as a freshman in 09, and then was third team behind Cam and Barrett in 2010. You really think there's a comparison there?

One other thing: Moseley was a three star prospect out of podunk, Alabama. Greg Robinson was a high four to five star prospect out of Louisiana who is widely regarded as one of the top offensive linemen in his class. No, there is no guarantee that his talent will transfer as well as Reese's did, but then, every starter gets their first start sometime, right?

[aujdub 0]

Why do our players need locker room motivation?  It's the first game of the season in the GaDome on national TV, the big stage.  Enough said. 

I believe a team should be able to block out the distractions and get down to the buisness of doing their jobs and dominating the opponent without some crap quote from a coach that beat our team LAST year.   

They don't need it, but you'd be naive to think the LR motivation speeches don't work -- for at least the first quarter. I'd bet EVERY football team from HS to NFL partakes in pregame and halftime locker room motivation.

[YaBoyMaxWeezy 0]

Did you REALLY just compare quarterbacking in the SEC to playing left tackle? You do realize that the left tackle doesn't touch the football, right? Mistakes are generally a little bit less magnified.

And no, left tackle is not the hardest position on the line. Center is. The center has to snap the ball while simultaneously fending off a defender with only one hand until he can get his snapping arm back up to block. Pretty sure we had a true freshman who did a fair job at that position last year; don't know why it would be so hard to believe a tackle or guard could do as well, especially when they had a full redshirt year instead of just spring practice.

Yeah I did compare them. I never said the positions were the same, just that the situations are. And mistakes are easily magnified by a sub-par OT protecting a QB's blindside or trying to blaze a path for a runningback.

I'll admit that Reese did a fair job at center last year - for a freshman. He struggled mightily throughout the year adjusting to the speed of the game but he certainly grew as time went on. Greg or any other freshman tackle will have to adjust as well. No its not completely uncommon for a reshirt freshman to start at tackle, but its certainly not ideal, regardless of the recruiting hype surrounding the player. Few times have any such players panned out and been headbusters right off the bat - Andre Smith comes to mind. Even then, those teams had growing pains. You say you expect Greg to perform as well as Reese because the position is less techincally challenging. Well there's no guarantee that Greg is the same level of talent that Reese is either. I mean, we all hope he is but plenty of highly rated guys don't pan out.

This line's full potential probably won't be realized till 2013. And I'm not saying that we won't be better in 2012, just that to expect us to start manhandling SEC D-lines from day one because our redhsirt freshmen practice against Lemonier and Ford is "misguided."

Ryan

Funny how you deleted the third paragraph of my quote. I'm not saying there won't be growing pains. Matter of fact, I said there probably would be. No, it's not ideal to start a freshman ANYWHERE, much less on the line.

But this isn't quarterback. Yeah, I understand the necessity of having a strong LT to protect your quarterback's blind side. I know all about Lawrence Taylor and that big sack a couple of decades ago. But again, it's not quarterback.

The positions simply aren't the same. If you don't get that, I don't know what else I can say to convince you. Tackle is critical, no doubt. But his responsibility is blocking assignments, meaning he has to pick up blitzes. The quarterback does that too. He also picks up coverage patterns and spies and robbers, and then when he's throwing the ball, he has to read the coverage as it progresses while avoiding the rush as it pursues after him.

That does not mean that quarterback is more critical, because any one chink in the armor can bring about disaster, but it does mean that there is more going on at quarterback that you have to keep up with at tackle. It's not NEARLY the same thing.

By the way , there is a HUGE difference in the level of preparation that Robinson has had in a year before this than in the two years that Moseley had before starting last year. Robinson was going up against some of the best in the SEC as a freshman, doing exactly what he will be this year. Moseley was running the scout team offense, meaning whatever the opposing team ran, as a freshman in 09, and then was third team behind Cam and Barrett in 2010. You really think there's a comparison there?

One other thing: Moseley was a three star prospect out of podunk, Alabama. Greg Robinson was a high four to five star prospect out of Louisiana who is widely regarded as one of the top offensive linemen in his class. No, there is no guarantee that his talent will transfer as well as Reese's did, but then, every starter gets their first start sometime, right?

Our LT or QB haven't proven anything.....and we are banking on potential.

Dismukes is gonna be a stud this year,  because he started a full season in the SEC... He was the #1 center in the nation coming out of HS and got chewed up and spit out last season, but it's gonna pay dividends. There aren't any other QBs or OL on the roster that have started a full season other than Sullen, who will be muche improved from last season, he looked great in the A day game.

[Rednilla 5,449]

Our LT or QB haven't proven anything.....and we are banking on potential.

Of course they haven't, and of course they are, but we aren't talking about their potential. We're talking about the learning curve necessary to play the position with no prior experience.

Dismukes did have some rough patches last year, and he will be better this year for it, but that's the entire point: we have an experienced anchor at center, which makes it far easier for inexperienced players to step up and make an impact.

[BPI 0]

Not to mention Slade and Sullen. We are not nearly as wet behind the ears as last year for sure.

[collector527 0]

Well they beat the crap out of us last year and return some of the best skill position talent in the country.  That is why we are underdogs. That and the fact that we are, while talented, still young and inexperienced. We have a new qb probably plus rankings and predictions still go by what a team did the previous year and until people see how well we actually play and  their oline play bad  they will like them because if thier online plays well they could win the ACC.

[keesler 5,990]

Our LT or QB haven't proven anything.....and we are banking on potential.

Of course they haven't, and of course they are, but we aren't talking about their potential. We're talking about the learning curve necessary to play the position with no prior experience.

Dismukes did have some rough patches last year, and he will be better this year for it, but that's the entire point: we have an experienced anchor at center, which makes it far easier for inexperienced players to step up and make an impact.

Another learning curve has been thrown in the mix -- a whole new offense under a new coach.  Line assignments, angles, patterns are gonna change with the new offense.  I'm excited to see how these young guys execute.

[AuburnNTexas 7,366]

There are questions for both teams. They have major losses in O-line and D-line. We will have at least 2 new starters in O-line and D-line was not stellar last year. I think we have superior talent in both Lines so I think we will be better there.  I think we have better RB's on Paper they have more returning talent at QB and receiver.

Last year they beat us pretty good. From outside looking in I can see why they picked them as the favorites. Luckily for Auburn the game is not played on paper and we have two different teams from last year.  

I think if we get all of our players healthy we have potential to be a really good team this year if not better. Having a game like this early against a quality opponent who also has some question marks is good and could go a long way in determing if we will be a good to great team.

My hope is obviously that we win, the D really steps up and the O looks good on the run, O-line is better then adequate with flashes of greatness and flashes of inexperience so they realize they can be good but they have to improve every week.

I know talent wise we should be good but let's be realistic lots of young players and a new system on both O and D. Let's come out of this with a win and use it as a stepping stone to become (Paraphrasing here) "All We Can BE"  

War Eagle

[chimesAU 89]

Not to mention Slade and Sullen. We are not nearly as wet behind the ears as last year for sure.

I definitely think this years line will be an improvement over last years. The guys who do have experience are much more talented than the few who had experience last year, imo. The guys who will be relatively inexperienced are more talented than the guys who played with little experience last year( not counting Dismukes).

Of course we'll just have to see how it all shakes out when they're thrown into the fire...

[BPI 0]

Offensive line - Improved

Defensive line - Greatly Improved

Linebackers - Improved

Running Backs - Improved (Yeah I know Dyer is gone but we are way deeper)

Quarterback - Improved

Kicking - Improved

Recievers - Improved

Secondary - Greatly Improved

Why on earth would anyone predict us to lose 5 games this year ? Schedule is waaay more favorable this year. Bama will be down. Arky will be down (coaching issues) LSU will be about the same. Jawja will be about the same.

You will see more improvement from Auburn in one year than any team in the conference....Just my opinion.

[lca4081345162963 0]

Why on earth would anyone predict us to lose 5 games this year ? Schedule is waaay more favorable this year. Bama will be down. Arky will be down (coaching issues) LSU will be about the same. Jawja will be about the same.

Agreed for the most part, though I would say that runningbacks and O-Line are at a mostly level status until we see what they can do on the field. I think at worst, Auburn is an 8-4 team this year. It depends on how the other teams turn out. Arkansas definitely looks like a more winnable game with the coaching issues. Georgia and Alabama are big unknowns IMO, they could be really good or really mediocre. The LSU game is the one that will decide heavily the fate of the season. If we win, we're in good position to challenge for and win the West.