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11 minutes ago, Beaker said:

Well, Gus is not the coach, so I hope Hunter gets a lot of carries in games 1 and 2.   Helps recruiting also...

Sidenote: Tank needs to ride the bench to the point he is pissed by the time we go to Penn State.   And Shivers does not need to be run into the ground as RB2 (al la Gus ball).   Gonna be a long season and very physical (Harsin kinda  ball). 

 

 

Agree we need to limit Tank until State. Good news is Bobo has a history of actually rotating his backs and not running one or two into the ground a la Gus. We'll need all three of those guys, and probably Ingram as well. I'm excited to see some ground and pound football again. Line up under center and "let em know you're in the ballpark" as Bobo said at his press conference. 

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8 hours ago, au302 said:

Agree we need to limit Tank until State. Good news is Bobo has a history of actually rotating his backs and not running one or two into the ground a la Gus. We'll need all three of those guys, and probably Ingram as well. I'm excited to see some ground and pound football again. Line up under center and "let em know you're in the ballpark" as Bobo said at his press conference. 


 

Why Bryan Harsin's Auburn football offense might differ from what you'd expect | Toppmeyer

Blake Toppmeyer
USA TODAY NETWORK
 
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Bo Nix’s first snap of Auburn’s spring game last month probably puzzled some observers whose only knowledge of Boise State’s offense under Bryan Harsin were late-night SportsCenter highlights.

Nix took a snap from under center – yes, that’s still allowed – executed a play-action fake and completed a pass to tight end Tyler Fromm.

No Statue of Liberty handoff? No presnap spin moves by wide receivers? No reverse pass to the quarterback?

In truth, those plays at Boise State were the desserts of Harsin’s offense that features a sturdy diet of meat and potatoes.

 
 

“Everyone thinks it’s just trick plays and stuff, and that’s not really it at all,” said B.J. Rains, the Boise State beat writer for the Idaho Press who covered Harsin’s seven-year tenure as coach of the Broncos.

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“It’s a pretty balanced offense. For all the big numbers (posted by Boise State quarterbacks like) Kellen Moore and Brett Rypien, they had a 1,000-yard rusher every year he was at Boise State as the head coach” before the truncated 2020 season.

That’s good news for Tank Bigsby and Shaun Shivers, who could emerge as the SEC’s top running back duo after Harsin was hired as Auburn’s coach in December to replace Gus Malzahn. The Tigers also returned their entire starting offensive line.

 
 

College football’s path to a national championship in today’s era calls for an elite passing attack, and whether Nix progresses as a third-year starter under Harsin will be the most influential factor in Auburn’s record this season.

But the value of a 1,000-yard rusher shouldn’t be overlooked. Auburn last had one of those in 2017, when Kerryon Johnson led the SEC with 1,391 yards. That also happens to be the last time Auburn reached 10 victories.

Jay Ajayi topped 1,800 yards in Harsin’s first season as Boise State’s coach and then became a fifth-round NFL Draft pick. Subsequently, Jeremy McNichols and then Alexander Mattison each had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons under Harsin before getting drafted.

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Most SEC coaches express a preference to spread carries among two, or ideally three, running backs. But Harsin didn’t shy away from relying heavily on a feature back at Boise State.

In all but one season during his tenure, Boise State’s leading rusher had more than twice as many carries as its second-leading rusher. Three times under Harsin, Boise State had a running back top 300 carries in a season.

 

That probably isn’t a sustainable number in the SEC, which hasn’t had a running back reach 300 carries in a season since Alabama’s Derrick Henry and LSU’s Leonard Fournette hit that mark in 2015.

But look for Bigsby to increase last season’s average of 13.8 carries per game.

Presnap shifts and motions are a staple of Harsin’s offense, and tight ends play an important role.

“You’ll see some sort of shift or motion on pretty much every play,” Rains said. “Sometimes, two or three different motions, where they’ll motion into one formation and then motion again into something completely different. Their whole goal is to find a mismatch with the presnap movement.”

Throughout Harsin’s tenure, 53.8% of Boise State’s plays were runs. That includes quarterback scrambles and sacks, which count as rushing attempts. Such a percentage would have ranked eighth in the SEC last season for percentage of run plays.

 
 

Kentucky was the SEC’s most run-oriented offense in 2020, with 64.2% of its plays staying on the ground, while Mississippi State had the most pass-oriented offense, running on just 26.8% of plays.

Auburn rushed on 52% of its plays last season, marking its lowest percentage of run plays throughout Malzahn’s eight-year tenure.

Harsin’s Boise State offense tilted toward the shotgun but included an ample dose of under-center plays, and Auburn will embrace a similar mix. That’s in contrast to Malzahn, whose spread offense operated almost exclusively from the shotgun.

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“Somebody told me one time, 'You’ve got to let them know you’re at the ballpark,’” offensive coordinator Mike Bobo said this spring. “And sometimes, there’s not a better way to do that than to get under center and run power.”

There’s also value in a coach knowing what he has and what he doesn’t.

Auburn has what should be one of the SEC’s best running attacks, and Harsin’s track record suggests he’ll embrace that. 

 

 

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Whoops, looks like the bunch here hating Malzahn's practice of using a feature back may have to stay in the fetal position.

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Modern day prophet or just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if a couple strands might stick???

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13 hours ago, au302 said:

Agree we need to limit Tank until State. Good news is Bobo has a history of actually rotating his backs and not running one or two into the ground a la Gus. We'll need all three of those guys, and probably Ingram as well. I'm excited to see some ground and pound football again. Line up under center and "let em know you're in the ballpark" as Bobo said at his press conference. 

I'd be shocked if Tank doesn't get 15 touches in each of the two first games.  I'm sure we'll blow out both teams, but we're gonna need reps on offense.

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20 hours ago, au302 said:

Agree we need to limit Tank until State. Good news is Bobo has a history of actually rotating his backs and not running one or two into the ground a la Gus. We'll need all three of those guys, and probably Ingram as well. I'm excited to see some ground and pound football again. Line up under center and "let em know you're in the ballpark" as Bobo said at his press conference. 

A la Gus and Harsin according to the story posted here. Ha, wonder who wins that tug of war.

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56 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

A la Gus and Harsin according to the story posted here. Ha, wonder who wins that tug of war.

I’m hoping Bobo keeps the carries low, even though CBH has run his top back a high number of carries. Bobo knows that doesn’t work well in a long SEC season, and we’ve seen with Kerryon Johnson how that can ruin an otherwise great season.

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19 minutes ago, toddc said:

I’m hoping Bobo keeps the carries low, even though CBH has run his top back a high number of carries. Bobo knows that doesn’t work well in a long SEC season, and we’ve seen with Kerryon Johnson how that can ruin an otherwise great season.

I think the carries will be spread around as long as they see it working on the field. If we get behind the chains too many times, Tank to the rescue.

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2 Tigers make PFF's top 50 players for 2021 season

ByNATHAN KING 117 minutes ago

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Bryan Harsin has monumental QB decision in front of him

Two of Auburn's biggest stars need to produce at a high level in 2021 for the Tigers to achieve success on both sides of the ball.

As crucial pieces for Auburn's offense and defense, respectively, running back Tank Bigsby and Roger McCreary have not only been constants on preseason All-SEC listings over the past month or so — they could also be the team's two best players overall.

That's what Pro Football Focus thinks. PFF this week unveiled its top 50 players for the 2021 college football season, and Bigsby and McCreary both made the cut.

Bigsby's spot on the list — No. 17 overall and the top-ranked running back — came as no surprise after the rising sophomore graced the website's first team preseason All-America team last week. Bigsby's is PFF's sixth-best player in the SEC this season, behind LSU cornerbacks Derek Stingley (No. 2) and Eli Ricks (No. 7), Georgia safety Tykee Smith (No. 8), Alabama cornerback Josh Jobe (No. 15) and Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam (No. 16).

"Bigsby finished the 2020 season as the fifth-most-valuable first-year non-quarterback in the country, per PFF Wins Above Average (WAA)," wrote PFF's Anthony Treash. "For those who don’t know, running backs actually do matter in college football. The 2020 four-star recruit who ranked 40th nationally, according to 247Sports, was easily among the most elusive ball carriers in college football last year. His strong contact balance was on full display as he came away with the fifth-most broken tackles per attempt (0.34) in the FBS.

"The 6-foot, 204-pound freshman was the third-highest-graded ball carrier in the FBS behind Javonte Williams and Khalil Herbert before suffering an injury in Week 12 against Tennessee."

The No. 1 recruit in Auburn's 2021 class, Bigsby kicked down the door a few games into his true freshman year and solidified himself as the Tigers' lead back. He rushed for 457 yards and five touchdowns during a four-game stretch midseason before sustaining a lower-body injury against Tennessee. After a couple games with a limited role, Bigsby exploded in the regular-season finale against Mississippi State, rushing for 192 yards — the most by an Auburn freshman in an SEC game in program history. He passed Bo Jackson for the second-most single-season rushing yards by a freshman in Auburn history in the process.

During the regular season (Bigsby did not play in Auburn's bowl game), he was the second-leading rusher (834 yards) in college football among freshmen, behind only SMU's Ulysses Bentley IV. 

Auburn's defense received a huge boost for the 2021 season when McCreary, who snuck in at No. 49 on PFF's list, spurned the NFL draft in January and decided to return to school. Last year, he pulled down three interceptions, broke up six passes, was Auburn's fifth-leading tackler and earned the 15th-best pure coverage grade in the nation among Power Five cornerbacks.

"It doesn’t matter if he’s playing press-man or off-zone, McCreary is seemingly always at the catch point and making plays," wrote Treash. "He has forced tight coverage on 48% of his targets the last couple of seasons, the sixth-highest rate among all FBS cornerbacks. And he has continuously gotten better with tracking the ball and playing the catch point in that span.

"He did have an incredible rep in press against Ja’Marr Chase in 2019 that resulted in a pick on Joe Burrow, but he also lost his fair share of reps too. That was cleaned up in 2020. He went from allowing 14 of 32 tight coverage targets to be caught in 2019 to just three of 15 in 2020. Overall the last two seasons, McCreary has tied for the seventh-most plays made on the ball among Power 5 cornerbacks with 19 while tying for ninth among that group in passing stops made on the outside with 15.

"He’s fast, fluid, has great feet and is scheme-versatile. This Auburn secondary is among the most talented in the country with McCreary leading the way, and he is more than capable of producing at an elite level in 2021 ..."

McCreary's NFL draft stock was seemingly in the mid-round range after a successful junior campaign, but now he has a chance to improve his skill set and add to Auburn's recent run of successful cornerbacks in the pros next year. The Mobile, Alabama, native was named third team preseason All-SEC by PFF last week behind Stingley and Jobe.

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12 hours ago, toddc said:

Modern day prophet or just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if a couple strands might stick???

I just don’t agree with ASU regarding all the recruiting findings. What’s going to happen there? But I like calling these teams sleepers. 

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My dream scenario is for tank to have 4 carries for a total of 320 yds in the first 2 games combined, then on to the regular season slate lol

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9 hours ago, Maverick.AU said:

My dream scenario is for tank to have 4 carries for a total of 320 yds in the first 2 games combined, then on to the regular season slate lol

I'd love to see our offensive line actually dominate and get push against cupcake teams

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20 hours ago, Maverick.AU said:

My dream scenario is for tank to have 4 carries for a total of 320 yds in the first 2 games combined, then on to the regular season slate lol

That wold be a pretty solid ypc 

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Why Bryan Harsin believes the Boise State blueprint will work at Auburn

ByBRANDON MARCELLO 2 hours ago

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College football players more prone to critical coverage in NIL era

AUBURN, Alabama — Bryan Harsin is never far from Boise. The Auburn coach is an ardent believer in carefully-crafted plans, hard work, accountability, and one-on-one instruction and mentorship wrapped in blanket of understanding and empathy.

He picked up those traits and molded his own coaching philosophy from his 25 years as a coach and player alongside Boise State greats Chris Petersen, Dan Hawkins, Dirk Koetter, Justin Wilcox,Andy Avalos and others. It’s a blue-collar approach with a personal touch. Petersen calls it his "Built for Life" philosophy. Others have adapted it, but it was mostly tweaked, perfected and handed down by four head coaches from the same coaching tree over the last three decades at Boise State, a program that evolved from college football’s Cinderella into a powerhouse in the 2000s and 2010s.

The philosophy may seem to be filled with platitudes, but the actions behind those words has provided remarkable results.

Harsin echoes the words and wisdom of those coaches in every conversation. His plans are clear. His approach always mapped out. The touchstones unchanged. The approach might seem repetitive, even banal, but it works. After all, the Boise State blueprint led the Broncos to three major bowl games (all wins) and top-5 rankings while averaging 11 wins per season in the 2000s, including a Fiesta Bowl and two 12-win seasons in Harsin’s seven years as the head coach.

“I got a chance to work with some of the best people in the world in what we do,” Harsin told 247Sports from his office overlooking Auburn’s practice fields.

Harsin’s background — his upbringing, if you will — is what makes the decision to leave his alma mater for the SEC last winter so fascinating. He left stability and 10-win seasons at Boise State for a program that has recorded consecutive double-digit winning seasons only once in its 119-year history. The 44-year-old has lived his entire life west of the Mississippi River. Nineteen of his 21 years in coaching have been at Group of 5 schools and he has never coached in the SEC, where patience and job security are rare commodities.

So, why Auburn? Why now?

The new challenge, along with an opportunity to compete for a national championship every year, appealed to Harsin, but he wan’t actively interested in the gig until Auburn athletics director Allen Greene shared his sales pitch in December. Greene, who first met Harsin in a swimming pool in 2015 (yes, a swimming pool), left Harsin with one direction at the end of their conversation: “Google the Auburn creed.”

A few minutes later, Harsin was gobsmacked. The first line was probably all he needed to read.

“I believe that this is a practical world and that I can count only on what I earn. Therefore, I believe in work, hard work.”

The creed, written by George Petrie, the first coach of Auburn's football program, induced goosebumps. The Auburn Creed, written in 1943, reaffirmed the morality Harsin developed during his 23 years as a player or coach at Boise State. “A lot of the things in there are what we talked about at Boise and I had been apart of that for a long time,” he said. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

Harsin was no longer just interested in Auburn. He needed Auburn.

“I wanted to be at Auburn and I hadn’t felt like that about any other opportunity. I love Boise. I love that program — I still do — but with this one, I was excited. I was genuinely excited about it.”

Harsin believes the Boise blueprint melds perfectly with Auburn's ideals. It's here, in the heart of SEC country, an Idaho kid believes he can build a championship contender with the Boise blueprint serving as the backbone supporting the body of the Auburn Creed. But, again, will it work? He's an outsider, after all, and at the first sign of failure those same words of morality will be chalked up by critics and naysayers as nothing but banal sounds uttered by another coach from the assembly line.

Harsin carries this message into unfamiliar territory, 2,171 miles away from those who understand and revere the principles. Now it's up to Harsin to convert the uninitiated into believers, just as he was converted as a backup quarterback at Boise State in the late 1990s.

It wasn’t until Harsin’s junior season as a backup quarterback at Boise State that he was properly introduced to the blueprint developed at Cal-Davis by the likes of Jim Sochor, Bob Foster and Bob Biggs — and adapted by dozens of players and assistant coaches, including Hawkins and Petersen, who played and coached at the California school. Boise State had been successful as a Division II program, but the program was on shaky ground heading into its second year as a Division I school. Houston Nutt guided the program to a 5-6 record in its first season in Division I and left the program for Arkansas in December 1997.

The program was in disarray and a collapse seemed possible. The next coach had to be the right hire.

“We were going down a bad path early,” Harsin said. “We were not a very focused team, like we should have been. Our program changed (with Koetter). We got stronger, disciplined and we got tough.”

Boise State turned to Koetter because, in part, of his familiarity with the program. He coached high school football in Idaho and as an offensive coordinator at Oregon he had attained the credentials, know-how and connections on the West Coast to lead a burgeoning program. Harsin caught on to Koetter's philosophy quickly and it strengthened his desire to be a coach.

“Bryan was always interested in how and why we did things the way we did,” Koetter said.

Boise State was quickly successful, winning 10 games in 1999 and 2000 while running away with the Big West title and the school's first two bowl victories. Koetter left for Arizona State following his third season, and the Broncos' administrators were not keen on making another mistake. They turned to Hawkins, the Broncos' offensive coordinator. He kept the blueprint but strengthened connections with players and united the roster, Koetter said. Hawkins turned to Oregon (again) and hired Petersen, a close friend and Koetter's receivers coach while both were at Oregon, as offensive coordinator, and Bob Gregory as defensive coordinator. That's when the program started to take off, winning four straight WAC championships.

Hawkins proved Boise State was not a flash-in-the-pan. “We believed we could win,” said Harsin, who served as the Broncos' tight ends coach in the Hawkins era.

Like Koetter, Hawkins left for a bigger gig at Colorado, paving the way for Boise State to stay in-house with its next hire after Petersen had orchestrated record-breaking seasons as the offense's play-caller. Petersen, however, was reluctant about the job and the extra duties. He was set on following Hawkins, his longtime friend and teammate at UC-Davis, to Colorado. In the end, Petersen was convinced by his colleagues to become the Broncos’ head coach. They knew what so many would later discover in the ensuing years: he was among the best leaders, thoughtful mentors and innovative coaches in the country.

What followed is football history — 92 wins, two undefeated seasons capped by wins in the Fiesta Bowl, five conference titles and four top-10 finishes in eight years. Boise State's model has been emulated by nearly every small-school program since.

“We wanted to help our guys create a vision and value system that could be a framework for the rest of their lives,” Petersen said earlier this year. “It’s about using the platform of sports to focus on principles of success, character development and life skills. It’s about teaching and coaching great beliefs, great habits and great execution in all areas of life.”

Petersen perfected the system at Boise State, and used those same principles to win a Pac-12 title while leading Washington to its first appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Special doesn't begin to describe Petersen, said Koetter, who coached alongside him at Oregon, where they also lived on the same street in Eugene. It wasn’t until the tail-end of Petersen's stay at Boise State that Koetter finally bumped into someone comparable to his friend.

Koetter was pondering his future after being fired by the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2011. He needed a job and Alabama had a gig. Nick Saban was interested in talking to Koetter about an opportunity on the Tide's staff. The interview went well and Koetter instead landed a coordinator job with the Atlanta Falcons, but that's not what was memorable. What was memorable from the conversation was Saban's demeanor and clear intent.

“Saban knows what he wants in a program. The same can be said for Chris Petersen,” Koetter said. “He knew what he wanted and that was a process. It didn’t happen the first day. When he took over for Hawk, he did the same stuff we did at Oregon and the same stuff we did at Boise as assistant coaches. He really evolved to be the visionary of the program.”

Eight years later, Petersen’s fingerprints remain at Boise State and at programs across the country. Four of Petersen's assistant coaches are now leading three Power 5 programs and Boise State.

An important part of Petersen and his assistant coaches' success is built on player development. Again, it seems like a buzzword scribbled on every coach's resume. “Everybody says they do that, but you have to do the things that it takes to develop talent,” Koetter said.

The perception (real or not) was that Boise State’s coaches turned 3-star recruits into 5-star players. Boise State's Kellen Mooreis the winningest quarterback in college football history (50-3 in four years) but as a 3-star prospect he was part of a 2007 signing class ranked 63rd in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite.

“Was that development? Were they underrated at that time?” Harsin asked. “I want guys that love ball.”

And what about Leighton Vander Esch, a walk-on linebacker who played eight-man football in high school and became a first-round pick in the NFL Draft in 2018?

“We had the blueprint and we laid it out for him,” Harsin said. “And he did all the work and hit all the checkpoints and did everything necessary and then some. ... You’ve got to trust your evaluation. “

That doesn’t mean Harsin will constantly search for diamonds in the rough at Auburn. After all, the recruiting trails in the SEC are much wider than those at Boise State. “We’re going to go after the best players in the country,” he said. “They also have to fit the culture and the things that are important to us, and whatever is important to them.”

Harsin realizes life is different in the SEC. The spotlight is brighter, the pressure more intense. Heck, the first question he fielded at his introductory press conference was about the Iron Bowl.

Harsin chuckled in his office this summer while recalling that surreal moment.

“They've been the most consistent team,” said Harsin, who admires the Tide. “There's a team you can look at, and they have a model for for success. Now, that being said, you've got to be who you are. That's the one thing when I first got here, I made it clear we're gonna focus on Auburn.”

Auburn has won in spite of Alabama's incredible success through the years. The Tigers own three wins against the Tide since 2013, the most by any team in the conference. They have appeared in two SEC Championship games (one win) and played for a national title during that time, too.

Yes, it's possible to win here — and win big.

Like the Auburn Creed declares, it's work — hard work — that remains a constant force in Harsin’s life.

On a late afternoon in May, Auburn's athletics building is quiet but Harsin is busy studying in his office. His large desk is strewn with papers. A computer monitor with film of an Ole Miss game is frozen on the screen. Across the room is a board pinned with several pieces of important papers and pictures. One sheet on the board stands out: a recent interview with Petersen about his life as a coach and now a professor. The refreshingly honest and open interview about the challenges of being a leader is required reading for the staff at Auburn, which is composed of SEC veterans and a few assistants from Harsin's time at Boise State.

19COMMENTS

This is the blueprint.

“We’re going to get families and players that are going to feel [Auburn],” Harsin said. “There will also be guys we bring into this program and people are going to go, ‘Where the hell this guy come from?’ This program, how we develop our players, this culture, and the people in the program are going to be what helps build the ability to sustain success.”

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Excited about the defense this coming season. We have a lot of talent and experience in the back 7 of the defense. If we can find some ballers to play on the DL then we should be a lot of fun to watch. 

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10 hours ago, toddc said:

 

I’m more hype for this group than anything else. I’ve seen some videos of Roger and usually he’s low key but he’s focused. Definitely gonna have a great year and prove even more he’s a top draft pick. Then Tennison with his tenacity and a player like Dreshun who is only gonna play one year but chose us for that one year. I expect him and Roger to be lockdown. Kaufman gonna be a pleasant surprise and Simpson and Smoke will only get better. Also let me not forget about Pritchett!

 

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I love seeing Bo with the take charge attitude baby.

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5 minutes ago, toddc said:

I love seeing Bo with the take charge attitude baby.

Potential coaching in his future fore sure. 

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Nix, Bigsby, McClain named to watch lists

ByJASON CALDWELL 3 hours ago

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Can Bryan Harsin's Boise State Blueprint Work In SEC? (Late Kick Cut)

With the kickoff of Southeastern Conference Media Days comes the kickoff of watch lists for the national awards around the country. On Monday that started with both Bo Nix and Tank Bigsbynamed to the Maxwell Award watch list and ZaKoby McClain on the watch list for the Bednarik Award. More watch lists will continue throughout the week with more Auburn players likely to be added in the future.

A two-year starter for the Tigers at quarterback, Nix returns with 4,957 passing yards under his belt. The junior has thrown for 28 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while also adding 701 yards rushing and 14 more scores. Nix will be in Hoover on Thursday representing the Tigers at media days along with junior linebacker Owen Pappoe and new head coach Bryan Harsin.

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The returning starter for the Tigers at running back, Bigsby was the SEC Freshman of the Year a season ago when he ran for 834 yards and five touchdowns. Playing in 10 games, Bigsby had 15 plays of over 20 yards a season ago with eight coming on kickoff returns and seven rushes. His rushing total was second all-time at Auburn for a freshman and it was the second-most for any freshman nationally a season ago.

Coming on strong when an injury to K.J. Britt opened the door for a full-time role as a starter for the Tigers, McClain had a monster junior year in 2020 at linebacker with 113 tackles. Maybe best known for his 100-yard pick-six in a win over Alabama in 2019, McClain enters the season with 172 career tackles and four forced fumbles.

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