5 questions for the Outback Bowl

[aubiefifty 18,230]

247sports.com

5 burning questions for Auburn in the Outback Bowl

ByBrandon Marcello

11-14 minutes

 

Manage

TAMPA, Florida — Auburn and Minnesota are in the Outback Bowl trying to use it as a platform to spring into the future.

Things are fresh and exciting in Minnesota, where coach PJ Fleck's fiery personality is a hit with fans and has captured the attention of the college football world. Auburn, meanwhile, is heading into a new decade and the eighth year of the Gus Malzahn era trying to take the next step toward national relevancy. The Tigers are relevant, yes, but they haven't been quite consistent as a nine- or 10-win team. Malzahn believes they will be on the right track with a 10th win Wednesday, which would give the Tigers their second 10-win season in three years and the third season of 10 wins or more in the Malzahn era.

Both programs have something to prove in the first football game of the 2020s. The game might also set the tone for what to expect from both programs in the 2020s.

What must No. 12 Auburn (9-3) do to be successful? Here are five questions we have for the Tigers heading into the Outback Bowl.

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Auburn is no stranger to facing incredible passing offenses with future NFL stars at receiver. The Tigers faced two of the best units in LSU and Alabama, and split those two games with a 3-point win and a 3-point loss. Minnesota presents a different challenge with two elite receivers, each of which have owned the school’s receiving yards record at some point in their career.

Rashod Bateman and Tyler Johnson have combined for more than 2,200 yards this season and have scored 22 touchdowns through the air. The 6-foot-2 receivers are dangerous, but they also make the Gophers’ offense somewhat one-dimensional as the remainder of the team has only 34 catches for one touchdown. If Auburn can slow down Johnson and Bateman, the Tigers win. If Minnesota hits a few big plays and gets chunk yardage when needed with the duo, it will be a long afternoon for Auburn’s defense.

Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for nearly 3,000 yards., and was downright nasty in the upset of Penn State while completing 18 of 20 passes for 339 yards and three touchdowns. All games start in the trenches and whether a team can slow quarterback pressure. This will be paramount Wednesday for Auburn.

Auburn’s offense scored an impressive 34 points against a good Alabama defense, but four of those drives ended in field goals of 40-plus yards by Anders Carlson. He had missed six straight field goals beyond 40 yards before the Iron Bowl, and it may be important for him to do so again in some tough spots on a torn-up field at Raymond James Stadium, where his older brother missed a field goal in overtime in the 2015 Outback Bowl.

Auburn scored three touchdowns on offense against the Tide, which was its exact average on offense heading into the regular-season finale. The difference, of course, was Carlson stepping up outside the red zone to kick field goals. Has Auburn’s offense improved? Yes, in a sense, after Carlson converted four trips into 12 points, but there’s much more room to improve.

The good news for Auburn is receiver Anthony Schwartz is healthy after suffering a knee injury on the first play of the Iron Bowl. Eli Stove is said to be OK, too.

Auburn’s offense came to life in the bowl game last season with an incredible 63 points, including 56 in the first half, against Purdue last season. This Minnesota defense is much, much faster and better than the Boilermakers’ crew in 2018. Minnesota allows an average of 22.4 points per game, ranking 34th nationally. Statistically, this is the sixth-best scoring defense Auburn will face this season.

The heartbeat of Auburn is in the trenches. It's not an offensive player, and it's not at a skill position. The reason Auburn has managed to win nine games against an incredibly difficult schedule is because of the production of defensive tackle Derrick Brown and defensive end Marlon Davidson.

Two of the better defensive linemen in Auburn history have been magnificent all season. They're the only group to try and have success with a three-man front against undefeated LSU. They're the only duo in the SEC to combine for seven (!) player of the week awards. Brown is a unanimous All-American, the Tigers' first since 1990. Davidson might be underrated and that's saying something as a potential mid-round draft pick.

Auburn can win this game many ways, but the easiest way is by leaning on the duo that combined for 25 tackles for loss and 11 1/2 sacks. Brown is a once-in-a-generation player. The folks at Pro Football Focus reported Monday the star did not miss a single tackle on 42 attempts (!) this season. That is incredible, especially in the SEC.

The Tigers have to make quarterback Tanner Morgan's life uncomfortable in the pocket.

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck has been successful during his career because of his adjustments. Gus Malzahn has been successful because of adjustments, particularly setting up plays and lulling defenses to sleep with certain looks early in games, only to flip the script in the same look in the second half in big moments.

Auburn's defense under Kevin Steele has notoriously been better after the first few possession of a game, and that's because of coaching and adjustments.

To put it simply, there's a reason why Minnesota has not won 10 games since 1905. And there's a reason why Auburn advanced to two national title games and three SEC title games with Malzahn on the Auburn staff over the last decade.

The two opposing coaches know they have been the key ingredient to those turnarounds, too.

"One thing I appreciate of the people I've been able to surround myself with is they've allowed me to be me, and I think for coach Malzahn, he's exactly who he is," Fleck said. "I think when you get real people who are able to coach the way they truly believe in and who they are as people, I think it just turns out natural in terms of your culture, right, and your players.

"From the outside it might not look that way because you might not get it, might not understand it, and I said it before, if you're not in our program, not in our culture, I might seem a little different or odd or you might not get it, and I tell people all the time if you're not 17 to 22 you probably won't get it. That's our demographic, and that's who we are focused on.

"But again, a lot of respect for coach Malzahn and what he's been able to do because he's one of the best offensive minds in college football, in the whole game of football, and that's well documented, and it's been a lot of fun to be able to dissect him as a coach and be able to break him down on film and be able to find things that he does. There's always things you steal. Coaches are thieves. We've watched so much film we're saying, hey, next year we'd like to do this. We don't have an offensive coordinator right now, so I have a lot of power that way. Hey, we're going to make sure the next guy that comes in we're going to do this, this, this and this. But it's a lot of fun."

Auburn quarterback Bo Nix is quite inquisitive, and he hasn't slowed down with a new offensive coordinator. Former Arkansas head coach Chad Morris is on board as the offensive coordinator, and has spent most of the last three weeks developing relationships with players. Nix has peppered Morris with questions, but the newly-hired Auburn coach has mostly spent his time silent in the meeting rooms.

1COMMENTS

He has been a sounding board for Malzahn over the last few weeks, and Malzahn says Morris will be in the press box dissecting the Minnesota defense on game day, but what, if any, influence has Morris had on the game plan? It's not like Malzahn and Morris had time to draw up a lot of new plays for this game. Was Malzahn asking for a fresh perspective over the last few weeks, or did he just want his offense to improve upon the strengths and weaknesses of the regular season?

The safe bet is Auburn will wait until the offseason to implement Morris' ideas, but what's the harm in adding a wrinkle or two for the bowl game?

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[AUBourne 425]

Making goals of 10 win seasons when they now play 13 games a year? JABA.

[alexava 6,974]

6th question....what time is kickoffs? I’ve seen 11:00- 12:00 and 1:00. Central. Eastern. 

[LKEEL75 2,567]

13 hours ago, alexava said:

6th question....what time is kickoffs? I’ve seen 11:00- 12:00 and 1:00. Central. Eastern. 

Game time is high noon CST on ESPN

[alexava 6,974]

5 minutes ago, LKEEL75 said:

Game time is high noon CST on ESPN

Yes thanks. My cable information/ menu function is working right this morning. Dvr set and I don’t think it lies.