Nick Brahms ‘solid’ in 1st start of season

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Nick Brahms ‘solid’ in 1st start of season at center

Posted Nov 03, 8:47 AM

5-6 minutes

Auburn Football

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

Nick Brahms knew that, eventually, his time would come. It wasn’t until Wednesday, however, that the redshirt sophomore found out that his time would come this weekend.

Brahms made his first start of the season on Saturday against Ole Miss, replacing Kaleb Kim — who started the first eight games of the season at center — in the lineup during Auburn’s 20-14 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“I think I played decent,” Brahms said. “I’m going to go look at the film. Obviously, I always go back to the film, because it’s never as bad as it seems, it’s never as good as it seems. But I feel like a played pretty decent.”

Brahms was being modest with the media after the game, but teammates and coach Gus Malzahn sang his praises for his performance in his first start since Oct. 20, 2018. With Brahms commanding the communication along the offensive line and handling snaps, Auburn turned in one of its better total offensive performances of the season (507 yards, 5.63 yards per play) —despite the Tigers only finding the end zone twice and settling for 20 points against the Rebels.

“Nick, really, with his snaps, he was very consistent,” Malzahn said. “… I think he did a solid job. We didn’t have any bad snaps. I think he did a good job of ID’ing things. You know, we had 500 yards of offense. You know, of course, 500 yards of offense and 20 points, they don’t really equal up. OK? And that just tells you we had some missed opportunities. And then offensively I think we were 12-of-21 on third down, and that usually equals a lot more points. We moved the ball. We just didn’t get it in the end zone enough.”

The most important aspect for Brahms was that consistency with snaps, especially after a couple of errant snaps by Kim in recent weeks proved costly. The redshirt senior was benched in the fourth quarter of Auburn’s 23-20 loss to LSU last week following a snap that sailed past Bo Nix for a 20-yard loss when Auburn was trying to rally from a late 10-point deficit. Brahms took over for the final three drives of that game, and then Malzahn reopened the competition at center this week in practice.

Brahms and Kim split first-team reps at center during Tuesday’s practice, but things changed on Wednesday. The coaching staff gave Brahms all the first-team opportunities that day, signaling an opportunity for the redshirt sophomore to make his first start of the season.

“Kaleb is one of my best friends, but, you know, it’s like next guy up,” Brahms said. “You can’t miss a beat. I have to be the same as Kaleb basically with the calls and everything like that, making sure everything is on the same page, as far as that goes. Making sure everybody is on the same page is a huge deal on the offensive line. I felt like we did that tonight, too.”

Brahms’ presence on the line also helped Auburn cut back on penalties, which was huge for the team after pre-snap infractions and other flags plagued the offense in Death Valley last week. After Auburn committed eight offensive penalties for 40 yards — including five false starts — against LSU, the offense did not commit any penalties on Saturday against Ole Miss.

The line’s ability to avoid pre-snap penalties helped Auburn’s offense get in tempo early and avoid getting behind the sticks for much of the night.

“I think he did pretty good,” left tackle Prince Tega Wanogho said. “He did pretty good. He’s real confident, and that is all we need as a unit. And I think he did pretty good.”

Brahms believes he handled the opportunity well. When he was thrown into the starting lineup in the middle of last season, he admits he was somewhat nervous given it was his first real opportunity to play and how important a role the center plays in the offense. That experience last season, he said, was huge for him. It helped him “keep the nerves down” against Ole Miss, and he felt more at ease this time around while getting the entire line on the same page.

It will be up to Malzahn, but Saturday’s effort — at least to the naked eye — seemed like enough to secure Brahms another opportunity after the bye week.

“We did great,” Nix said. “We had great quarterback-center exchanges. We didn’t really have any problems there. He plays a big role in our offense and he does a good job.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.