Caldwell's Monday morning qb column

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Jason Caldwell's Monday morning quarterback column

Jason Caldwell

4-5 minutes

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Looking Back

There were some good things from Auburn on offense, defense and special teams in Saturday night’s opener vs. Mercer that can be built on. One of those is the play of Ja'Varrius Johnson. He’s a legitimate big play threat who can be a huge asset for this offense as they get into the meat of the 2022 season.

Who else is going to join him from this group of wide receivers? That’s the biggest question for me after game one. Auburn got Tar’varish Dawson a couple of targets and Shedrick Jackson is going to be solid for the Tigers, but Koy Moore has the look of a guy who needs more attention.

On defense I’m not sure where he winds up, but Keionte Scott has to be in the lineup for this football team when the game is on the line this season. My guess is we’ll see him at the nickel with Donovan Kaufman at safety a whole lot more as they get into the season. Scott is explosive as a punt returner and showed up in his limited time on defense against Mercer. With teams using the middle of the field more and more while spreading things out, being very good at the nickel is a must if you want to try to slow things down. Scott could give Auburn something it hasn’t had in quite a while, someone who can match up with a team’s best receiver when he moves inside.

As for the quarterback position it’s going to sort itself out, but I think it’s going to take at least another week for that to happen. San Jose State is a far cry from Penn State and the Southeastern Conference, but the Spartans will have a plan for Robby Ashford now that they have seen him in action. How well he runs the offense and executes from within the system is going to be really important moving forward. He will still be a threat in the run game and maybe Auburn can become more of a zone read offense with him moving forward. No matter what, Ashford is going to have to continue to show teams the ability to throw the ball. If he does that consistently then it will be tough to keep him off the field.

Around the League

For people who aren’t believers in recruiting rankings, I point you to the Georgia Bulldogs. Individual recruiting rankings are absolutely debatable in terms of how one player is going to perform in his career, but it’s the depth of talent in recruiting classes that makes the difference. That is what Georgia has shown the last few years and especially against what my guess is will be a solid Oregon team.

Georgia had 15 players taken in last year’s draft and has had 31 drafted the last three years alone. You would never know it by watching the Bulldogs play and the talent on the field. Kirby Smart has made recruiting the number one priority and it’s paying off in a big way. I’m not sure anyone thinks he is the best head coach in the country nor is Stetson Bennett the best quarterback, but when you’re loaded on both sides of the ball it makes up for a lot of issues.

The same is true of Alabama. The Tide will be tough to beat again because of an explosive offense and a defense loaded with talent.

Don’t sleep on Tennessee in the league this season. We’ll get a better idea about the Vols after this week’s game at Pittsburgh, but after watching the Panthers this past week I think they’ll be hard pressed to score enough points to hang with Hendon Hooker and the Vols. They’re going to make things interesting in the league this season with Florida, Alabama and Kentucky all coming to Knoxville.

110COMMENTS

We’ll find out how good Cincinnati is as they get into the season, but that was a solid win for Arkansas at home. The biggest SEC win of the week came for Florida at home against Utah. I had reservations about the Utes and I still think Florida is an 8-4 team, but for a program already with some good energy on the recruiting trail, Saturday’s win was a big deal for the Gators.

That brings me to LSU. The Tigers added a new coach and a new quarterback, but it’s the same LSU at the line of scrimmage that we saw last season. Unless that changes this season won’t be much different in year one of the Brian Kelly Era. Dropping back to throw the ball almost every play isn’t a recipe for ultimate success in this league.

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