Auburn opened the gates of Jordan-Hare Stadium and opened his playbook to show off everything he learned during the past four weeks of spring practice in the annual A-Day survey.
On Saturday, the team kicked off the Bryan Harsin era with a setback for an attack. Anders Carlson kicked it off while Tank Bigsby showed his speed as he blew past his teammates for a touchdown. The return of Auburn brought back several kicks for touch during the altercation.
While the team was confronting itself, coach Harsin offended his first team against the defensive players and the defense of the first team against the rugby players. For the sake of clarity, the first team attack and defense is referred to as “Auburn”, while the backup attack and defense are referred to as the “Tigers”.
Some of the names were familiar and it was no surprise to see what it was like with the first team. The attacking line, backs and backs, for example, looked a lot like last season. But others, such as the broad receivers and the secondary, looked very different because they replaced the key starter.
The game features explosive plays from the first team from each side. As Harsin said before the game, a good game on the one hand is a bad game by the other side, as you said before the game. Nevertheless, there were still some valuable take-away:
Defense is deeper than offense
With the attack of the first team against the defensive rugby and vice versa, it is not a surprise that the numbers were skewed. However, the way they skewed has one side much further than the other side.
While the attack of the first team beat the rugby defensive players, they did not dominate it, while the attacking defense locked up the attacking backup.
After the first quarter, Auburn’s defense held the Tigers negative. There were not many explosive plays of the offense. Although it improved in the following quarters, the numbers were still at a level that would not be competitive in a real situation. The Tigers attack ends with 122 yards.
On the other hand, the Tigers defense held its ground. Although it was against the appetizer, the Tigers defense made big plays, such as the forced whisper of Kamal Hadden in the first quarter. That kept the Auburn attack up to 304 yards, which in a real game is strong enough to give a chance to win.
The difference between the defense and the attack is not surprising – the defense is usually present this time of year.
Definitely not the transgression of old
It immediately became apparent that this was a very new Auburn offense when Bo Nix went under center in the first series of the scrimmage. Although he did not take every play below the center, the fact that he does it at all is a change in pace.
Before the ball was cracked, there were still signs that this offense was different. Last season was the fact that the offense of former offensive coordinator, Chad Morris, had a tight end to almost every play. The attack of Harsin and Mike Bobo had one, two and even three fixed points on the field at the same time.
After the offense got underway, the differences just kept showing. The wide receivers use the entire field rather than driving a handful of routes. Bigsby was the first career on the field, but Shivers changed frequently. When he did, it showed how this new offense really fits Shivers’ downhill style. Meanwhile, Bigsby played a bigger role in the receiving end than previously runners-up.
Tank Bigsby will be the key
This is not crucial news, as Auburn has lost its top three wide receivers. But A-Day has highlighted how much Auburn will rely on next season’s return.
Although the first team defended its offense against the rugby players, the receiving corps did not dominate. Backs Shivers and Bigsby were the most productive players, and Bigsby was clearly the star out of all 11 attacking players.
Bigsby led the team in rush years, although he made less hasty efforts. He finished with 64 yards on seven cars, averaging 9.1 per carry. He also played prominently in passing and made two catches for 22 yards.
The receivers have a while to develop before the season starts, but there is no change to the fact that they have little SEC player experience. Although Bigsby is also young, a true sophomore, in terms of starting experience, he is a veteran. He was tested by some of Auburn’s toughest opponents and still found ways to make an impact.
The threat from Bigsby will greatly help to open up the passing game to the young receiver corps. With a shallow room behind him and Shivers, it’s important that Bigsby stays healthy and improves.
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