Bigsby Near Bottom Among SEC Running Backs in 2022

[AUINSY 2,228]

Auburn’s offense has a crack in its foundation. The Tigers spent all offseason talking up the idea of building their offense around star running back Tank Bigsby, but the team has been unable to get its preseason first-team All-SEC back going through the first half of its schedule. The run game has struggled to find its footing, and Bigsby’s numbers have been mired in mediocrity six games into the season.

“That’s the key to what we have to do up front is just not give up penetration and get those backs a chance to get started,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “They’ll do something with it.”

To this point, though, Bigsby hasn’t been able to do much with the ball in his hands.

The junior is 12th in the SEC in rushing this season, with 345 yards and four touchdowns, but he’s 15th in the conference in rushing yards per game (57.5). He ranks 111th nationally in yards per carry (4.37), but he’s averaging just 2.94 yards per carry in four games against Power 5 competition, which is 36th among SEC rushers this season and the worst among qualifying SEC running backs. The only SEC players with a worse rushing per-carry average against Power 5 teams this season are quarterbacks: Texas A&M’s Max Johnson, Missouri’s Brady Cook and South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler.

In those four games against quality competition — Penn State, Missouri, LSU and Georgia — Bigsby has averaged just 36.75 yards per contest. His numbers against Power 5 opponents have gone down in each season; he averaged 6.04 yards per carry and 83.4 yards per game in 2020 when he was the SEC Freshman of the Year, and last year those numbers dropped to 4.25 yards per carry and 78 yards per game against Power 5 opponents.

Bigsby has not had a 100-yard rushing performance since Auburn’s season-opener against Mercer, when he ran for 147 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. His last 100-yard game against an FBS opponent was last year’s loss at South Carolina, when he had 164 yards on 22 carries.

His 19 yards on 10 carries (1.9 yards per attempt) last weekend at Georgia marked his worst rushing performance since his college debut in 2020, when he ran for just 15 yards on six carries (2.5 yards per carry) in a win against Kentucky. Against the Bulldogs, four of Bigsby’s nine carries went for 1 yard, no gain or a loss of yards. A week earlier against LSU, when he ran for 45 yards on 12 carries, five of them gained 1 yard or fewer (two more carries picked up just 2 yards).

As Harsin aptly put it between those two games, it has been a lot of “feast or famine” for Auburn in the run game of late, and the substandard numbers don’t just fall on Bigsby’s shoulders; it’s about how the offensive line does in front of him, too. Too often, Bigsby faces first contact behind the line of scrimmage and has to shed defenders just to produce a short gain.

“Penetration slows the backs down,” Harsin said. “And depending on the run scheme -- whatever it is, there’s different schemes -- but you don’t want to give up penetration. That’s what’s happened to us at times. As far as adjusting, blocking is a fundamental of the game, probably the most important one. That goes back to footwork, that goes back to aiming points, it goes back to what the defense is trying to do to you, it goes back to how you prepare yourself each and every week -- how we get our guys prepared.… You’ve got to be better up front; you don’t want to give up penetration.

“It’s not always that you’re moving and denting that defense all the time. But it gives your backs a chance when they can get to the line of scrimmage and be able to see and find a window. Sometimes it’s 2, 4 yards, but then you get some really good push, and it can be 8 or 18, it can be big runs.”

Those bigger runs have been harder to come by. In its four games against Power 5 opponents, Auburn has just three runs of at least 20 yards and no carries of 30-plus yards, though the Tigers do have 17 carries between 10 and 19 yards during that stretch. Bigsby has just three of those runs of 10-plus yards: a 12-yarder against Penn State, a 14-yarder against Missouri and a 23-yarder against LSU.

Overall, though, Auburn’s 4.1 yards per carry this season is 76th among FBS teams and on pace to be the program’s worst mark since the dreaded 2012 season (4.07 yards per carry). Any time you draw comparisons to that season, it’s suboptimal, but this year’s Auburn team seems to be doing so more and more this fall—and this time, it’s regarding an aspect that was supposed to be this offense’s strength, its foundation, in Year 2 under Harsin.

“Ultimately your game is going to come down to what the guys do up front — the fundamentals of how they play and block,” Harsin said. “…There were some good things that we did do. Now we have got to get all 11 guys doing that together. I think that is the key moving forward, really focusing on that, but our guys work very hard at it. They will get better at it. We are not where we need to be. We have got to go back to work this week to improve in those areas.”

 

https://www.al.com/auburnfootball/2022/10/auburns-poor-run-blocking-has-tank-bigsby-mired-in-mediocrity.html

 

[AUINSY 2,228]

I think I feel worse for Tank than any other person in the Auburn football program right now. This young man deserves better. And even so, he still had the spirit to buy the entire team some Beats headphones. It's nauseating that a preseason first-team All-SEC back ranks essentially at the bottom of the SEC in rushing 🤢🤮 Does he stay a senior season? Transfer? Go to the league b/c NFL franchises know there's major problems here and they're willing to get a good value pickup in the draft?

 

 

Edited October 11, 2022 by AUINSY

[Tiger 8,833]

Tank would be a legend in any other era of AU football. It's a damn shame.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

I really hate it for him that he did not transfer to UGA.

[CoffeeTiger 5,227]

Seeing how well leaving worked for Bo so far, I wouldn't judge Tank at all if he decides to test the portal. 

I'd love for him to stay at AU and enjoy his time here, and do his best here, but I also realize staying at AU right now might not be best for his potential professional career. 

[DAG 34,034]

12 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Seeing how well leaving worked for Bo so far, I wouldn't judge Tank at all if he decides to test the portal. 

I'd love for him to stay at AU and enjoy his time here, and do his best here, but I also realize staying at AU right now might not be best for his potential professional career. 

Dude is going to the NFL.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

26 minutes ago, CoffeeTiger said:

Seeing how well leaving worked for Bo so far, I wouldn't judge Tank at all if he decides to test the portal. 

I'd love for him to stay at AU and enjoy his time here, and do his best here, but I also realize staying at AU right now might not be best for his potential professional career. 

If we're being honest with ourselves, all of our upper classmen would be better off transferring.  We're in for a multi-year rebuild.

[Eagle-1 3,821]

He gone. 

NFL more than likely, either way I'd bet a certain valued part of my anatomy that he won't be playing at Auburn next year.

If we don't play this upcoming coaching change with a lot more intelligence than we have in the past I suspect we may lose a ton of other underclassmen.  

Edited October 11, 2022 by Eagle-1

[woodford 3,678]

1 hour ago, dyehardfanAU said:

I really hate it for him that he did not transfer to UGA.

Seriously. I wouldn’t have even been pissed at that. 
 

If he can’t run because of no blocking, I wish they would incorporate him more in the passing game. Get him in space and let try to make some plays. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

Just watch the offensive line in the Georgia game. They are literally falling down, missing blocks completely, and not even looking at oncoming defenders.

They look like the 5 stooges. And tank is behind them. 

[AUINSY 2,228]

1 minute ago, gr82b4au said:

Just watch the offensive line in the Georgia game. They are literally falling down, missing blocks completely, and not even looking at oncoming defenders.

They look like the 5 stooges. And tank is behind them. 

I saw someone post a video of 5-10 seconds and an AU o-lineman literally did this. I believe he was on the right side of the line. He stood up in his stance, and immediately turn to his left to look at a guy the center was blocking and let the d-lineman come right at the QB 

[keesler 5,932]

2 hours ago, dyehardfanAU said:

I really hate it for him that he did not transfer to UGA.

I feel like J. Hunter has seen exactly what has happened to Tank and he will be portal bound when the season is over.  Hunter has promise and other teams will be scouting him and recruiting him and he’ll be gone.

I have compassion for Tank because he never got to shine at Auburn.  

[NoALtiger 3,873]

There won’t be any use in transferring and taking another year of wear & tear imo. He’ll be off to the league and AU would have provided him very little for his efforts. This is not the career that a back of his ability should have had at the University Formerly Known As RBU.  

[EagleEye67 1,945]

31 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

Just watch the offensive line in the Georgia game. They are literally falling down, missing blocks completely, and not even looking at oncoming defenders.

They look like the 5 stooges. And tank is behind them. 

Have no fear, Mr Friend is on top of the situation 

 

/s

[JDUBB4AU 5,138]

Tank the rest of the year Tank. Harsin had every single chance to get the support you need . Instead he sat on his ass and didn’t raid the portal. Biggest waste at RB in AU history. Once a gain another bad stat

worst passing

worst rushing

worst turnover margin

worst 3.rd down D

should I go on ??

Tank deserved so much more 

[Sizzle 3,920]

3 hours ago, DAG said:

Dude is going to the NFL.

Seeing how this season is going for him. He should probably stay another year in college and transfer. Depending on what scouts think of him he’d probably lose money in the draft slipping down draft boards 

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

34 minutes ago, Sizzle said:

Seeing how this season is going for him. He should probably stay another year in college and transfer. Depending on what scouts think of him he’d probably lose money in the draft slipping down draft boards 

That is my concern for him as well.  He should be putting up 1200+ yards behind a good OL and building his brand.  Instead, he got hoodwinked into returning to this dumpster fire.

[AUx 3,016]

2 hours ago, EagleEye67 said:

Have no fear, Mr Friend is on top of the situation 

 

/s

The Friend line is a lot like the Maginot Line, just without any barriers at all.

Edited October 12, 2022 by AUx

[gr82be 14,506]

2 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

Just watch the offensive line in the Georgia game. They are literally falling down, missing blocks completely, and not even looking at oncoming defenders.

If we could have just kept Georgia out of their 3rd down package we would have demolished them. 🙄

 

[keesler 5,932]

14 minutes ago, dyehardfanAU said:

That is my concern for him as well.  He should be putting up 1200+ yards behind a good OL and building his brand.  Instead, he got hoodwinked into returning to this dumpster fire.

Tank could transfer to several SEC programs and show out at their feature back.  Put him behind a seasoned oline full of future NFL’ers and some talented support and he could jump up to 1st round status.  

[cbo 7,979]

Tank has been done wrong by Auburn. If I were him, I'd sit out the rest of the year and transfer to the school with the best OL I could find. 

I think he will probably head to the NFL, which is understandable. Even if he loses some front end cash. I expect him to do very well in the league. 

[Mikey 16,777]

1 hour ago, keesler said:

Instead, he got hoodwinked into returning to this dumpster fire.

Only if you call getting $150,000 in NIL money being hoodwinked.

We all wish his year, and the entire team's year was going better. But Tank was paid very well to stay. He knew who his blockers would be and chose to take the money and stay at AU anyway. I feel sorry for him, but to say he was "done dirty by AU' isn't true. The decision was his.

[Systems 177]

When I think of Tank, I think of empty promises (from coaches so he didn't transfer after CBH year 1) and wasted Heisman-level talent (running behind this bad OL and pass-from-behind offensive game plan). I hope he makes a fortune and a great career in the NFL. 

[DAG 34,034]

2 hours ago, Sizzle said:

Seeing how this season is going for him. He should probably stay another year in college and transfer. Depending on what scouts think of him he’d probably lose money in the draft slipping down draft boards 

The problem is RBs have a limited shelf life, in college and the NFL. It is not like QB play. He could make that money on the back end of his NFL career. Also, I imagine NFL scouts know what he is more than capable of based on his film, See Alvin Kamara. 

Edited October 12, 2022 by DAG

[milehighfan 1,240]

This OL, for the most part, has been playing together going on 3 years now. Not only do they NOT look like they have played together that long, they don't look like they have known each other three years. I can't believe Tank didn't bolt like Nix did.