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Rodney Garner


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I am so glad the fans don’t run the asylum like Tennessee fans do! 

 

Rodney Garner proving he's more than just an ace recruiter for Auburn

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Auburn associate head coach/recruiting coordinator Rodney Garner talks to players Saturday, Sept. 9, 2017, during the second half at Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, S.C. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)(Julie Bennett)

From his perch in the coaches booth, Kevin Steele radioed down to Rodney Garner as Auburn's defense walked off the field with 2:29 to play in last weekend's Iron Bowl.

Holding on to a 12-point lead against the nation's No. 1 team and the Tigers' biggest rival, Auburn defense forced its third straight turnover on downs, this one to clinch a second win in three games against the top-ranked team in the College Football Playoff rankings.

"Rodney, you need to tell those guys they just made that series real, real easy," Steele told Auburn's veteran defensive line coach.

Those guys, of course, referred to Auburn's front four on the defensive line, a unit consisting of starters Jeff Holland, Dontavius Russell, Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson, and key rotation pieces Nick Coe, Andrew Williams and T.D. Moultry.

"Everything we do starts and ends with the guys up front, run and pass," Steele said. "Everything we do. They are a talented group. They work very hard.... They are a well-coached group with a lot of talent and they play hard."

The productivity and effectiveness of Auburn's defensive line has helped spur the nation's No. 9 scoring defense and No. 11 total defense, as the Tigers have gone 10-2, won the SEC West and are one win away from earning a berth in the College Football Playoff.

A lot of that success traces back to Garner, who is in his fifth year back at his alma mater and is quietly reshaping his reputation, proving he's more than just a relentless recruiter.

"Man, it's something that you know, I've very conscientious of," Garner said before the season. "I would love for people to go and do the research, look at all the guys I've coached, guys that went to the league, guys that graduated, all those different things and acknowledge that. if you really just sit down and look at it, it's a bunch of guys. But obviously being in college ball, recruiting is such a life blood of what we do. So you still have to be a good recruiter."

***

Garner has helped put 32 players, including six first-round picks, in the NFL during his 28-year coaching career, which spans stops at Auburn, Tennessee and Georgia.

Despite that, he had largely been known for his prowess on the recruiting trail. In his five seasons back at Auburn, he has been responsible for landing five-star prospects Derrick Brown, Montravius Adams, Carl Lawson and running back Roc Thomas, as well as four-star recruits like T.D. Moultry, Markaviest Bryant, Marlon Davidson and Dontavius Russell, among others.

"To me, you can evaluate him any kind of way you want to," said Pat Dye, who coached Garner at Auburn from 1985-88. "He's a good recruiter because he's a good man and people sense that about him. He looks after them when they come to school and stays involved with the families, does all the little things that a lot of people wouldn't do from a standpoint -- calling the mom and dad, calling the high school coach -- he's more than just a recruiter and more than a coach. He's more like a father figure to all of them."

For as much attention Garner gets as a recruiter and a closer -- he has closed the deal on several key recruits on National Signing Day throughout his career -- he likes to point to what he does with those players once they get to campus. On his Twitter account, Garner likes to tout the hashtags #GroomedByGarner and #BuiltByG to advertise how he develops those recruits at Auburn.

It's a long list of success stories, the most recent of which is Lawson, who has been among the NFL's most productive rookie pass rushers this season after totaling nine sacks as a redshirt junior at Auburn last season.

Garner's coaching philosophy is, if nothing else, rather simple: Coach 'em hard, love 'em harder.

It's admittedly not for everyone. Different players respond differently to his intense mannerisms on the field, but every player meets Coach G sooner or later in practice, and each of them tends to respect him like a father figure. Freshman Tyrone Truesdell learned firsthand what that was about during fall camp, when he was on the receiving end of one of Garner's intense tirades. Brown learned that same lesson a year prior, when he was a freshman in fall camp.

Not long after Truesdell became acquainted with Garner's tough-love coaching persona, and following a defensive line meeting about trusting the process, the freshman was eating breakfast with Brown and defensive graduate assistant Charles Moore at the wellness kitchen on campus. Truesdell looked up from the table and said to the other two, "now I get it; now I understand what (Garner's) trying to get done."

"My thing is that I try to apply to them the way I was brought up," Garner said. "Everybody knows I love coach Dye. That is my second father. He raised us and he raised us on toughness and pushing us to levels that we didn't think we could get to, but the thing he always did too, I always thought he loved us harder than he ever pushed us.

"That's the thing I really try to apply to my guys. ... You can't push them if they don't know you love them. They have to know that first if they got any question about this man's motives then it's not going to work."

It's the same coaching style Garner has had throughout his career, dating back to when he coached Richard Seymour for three seasons at Georgia from 1998-2000. Garner credits Dye for instilling that philosophy in him when he was first on the Plains in the 80s.

"He pushes them to the limit," Dye said. "He's the guy they play for. Let me put it this way: When he's on the field, they're his men. When he goes off the field, they're his babies."

***

Even Tray Matthews wasn't expecting this from the defensive line, certainly not after losing Lawson and Adams to the NFL.

Auburn had to replace its two best defensive linemen and two most productive pass rushers from a year ago -- the cogs in Steele's defense. Adams and Lawson combined for 74 total tackles, 22 tackles for a loss, 13.5 sacks and 39 quarterback hurries.

Despite losing those two, however, there has not been a drop-off in play from the Tigers' defensive line. In fact, the unit has gotten even better this season under Garner.

"These guys are amazing," Matthews said. "They're great. They're very fast to be so big, like Marlon Davidson, Jeff Holland, the interior with Derrick Brown and Dontavius, they're second to none. They're so big and can clog up any gaps. Very strong and physical. They're definitely one of the best defensive lines I've ever played with."

Auburn's defensive line has been one of the most disruptive in the nation this season. The unit has accounted for 43 tackles for a loss, 23.5 sacks and 49 hurries, and it has served as the foundation for one of the nation's most relentless defenses.

That has included two dominant performances against the nation's No. 1 team in a span of three weeks, as the defensive line manhandled the offensive lines of Georgia and Alabama to help the Tigers clinch the SEC West and set up a rematch with the Bulldogs this weekend in Atlanta.

"They're a very talented group," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "We knew we had a chance to be pretty good up front this year but what they've done is they've gotten better each week. They're just playing with that edge and that confidence. They've been controlling the line of scrimmage and we're going to have to continue to do that."

That has started with Garner, who has pushed the defensive line to its limits in the wake of losing the likes of Lawson and Adams. Holland is having a breakthrough season at Buck, the Tigers' crucial hybrid defensive end position, matching Lawson's sack total from a year ago with at least two (and possibly three) more games to play. Russell and Brown are having career years, Davidson has picked up where he left off after his strong freshman season and Coe is limiting opposing teams to a 6.9 percent success rate on plays during which he made a tackle.

Collectively, those players are producing what Malzahn called the best defensive line he has ever had.

Offensive lineman Austin Golson, who has gone up against nearly every defensive lineman in practice, believes Auburn's front four is the best he has gone up against -- a list that includes Clemson, Alabama, LSU and Georgia, among others. Their play  has Golson wondering why none of Auburn's defensive linemen is up for any awards this season.

Another win Saturday against Georgia will at least get them one: the SEC championship. If the Tigers can pull off another big-time performance against the Bulldogs, much of the praise will fall to the defensive line -- and in turn Garner, who can put a stamp on perhaps the best coaching performance of his career and cement his reputation as more than just an ace recruiter.

"I'll tell you what, he coaches all four of the front four at Auburn, and you can make your own judgment," Dye said. "There ain't no question he deserves to be known for more than his recruiting."

 

 

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1 hour ago, Barnacle said:

There are posters on this forum who don't think he's a good developer of talent. I've still yet to see one of them explain what makes them think that. 

Ikr...I remember reading the “fire garner” a lot at the end of the posts...Garner is legit. His unit is playing great...

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Love Garner! This defensive front is so strong 1-8. 0 drop off when second team comes in. Taking 5 stars and they're playing great. Taking 4 and 3 stars and they are playing just as great!

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The offensive line is up for an award for best in the nation but the defensive line isn't? I don't get that...

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Rodney Garner deserves a lot of love. Kudos to him for recruiting in and coaching up what is probably the best D line in the nation right now. Those guys are giving everything they have to dominate and disrupt the line of scrimmage. Absolutely Love watching them play.

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4 hours ago, Barnacle said:

There are posters on this forum who don't think he's a good developer of talent. I've still yet to see one of them explain what makes them think that. 

There are posters on this forum who always point their fingers at the Coaches no matter the situation.  I wish they would not claim to be family!

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46 minutes ago, WFE12 said:

The offensive line is up for an award for best in the nation but the defensive line isn't? I don't get that...

That's one's easy... there isn't an award for best defensive line... only a pile of individual awards.

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2 hours ago, Barnacle said:

There are posters on this forum who don't think he's a good developer of talent. I've still yet to see one of them explain what makes them think that. 

That's because A4E never explains himself.

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Let's be fair though -- the line has been producing at an elite level the last 2 seasons. Prior to that our rush with the front 4 left much to be desired even with multiple future NFLers on it. We didn't see that change until Muschamp came in, and then under Steele that continued to trend in the right direction.

Not saying Garner is not doing a fantastic job, because our line is down right scary now and Garner leads that unit and deserves all the credit he receives for it, but lets not forget how underwhelming our pass rush was prior to 2016. I was worried he had lost his mojo but on the other side of things Ellis Johnson wasn't making anyone look good.

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54 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Let's be fair though -- the line has been producing at an elite level the last 2 seasons. Prior to that our rush with the front 4 left much to be desired even with multiple future NFLers on it. We didn't see that change until Muschamp came in, and then under Steele that continued to trend in the right direction.

Not saying Garner is not doing a fantastic job, because our line is down right scary now and Garner leads that unit and deserves all the credit he receives for it, but lets not forget how underwhelming our pass rush was prior to 2016. I was worried he had lost his mojo but on the other side of things Ellis Johnson wasn't making anyone look good.

it just took him time to get his guys in place and time to develop a pipeline...he has always been an elite DL coach IMO...

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Agreed, we had great individual players on the line prior to last year but it was the last 2 years where we finally had players at all 4 positions that can hold their own. Outside of Holland we don't have an elite pass rusher outside of young Moultry who is coming along. But on passing downs we basically go with 3-4 DEs on the line and its the combination of all the solid pass rushers that make this line so hard to contain. 

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3 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

That's one's easy... there isn't an award for best defensive line... only a pile of individual awards.

Wow I wonder why not? If there was I would give us the slight edge over Clemson I think.

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