OFFENSE
The offensive 'battery' will be almost completely new. With Leard, Daniels, Johnson and Evans gone, it's time for a new set of stars to develop and emerge. The wide receiving corps is still solid and the Offensive Line is still very good.
Early on we will be testing a new quarterback - Jason Campbell who is touted as 'The Man' until the end of the 2004 season - unless he were to leave early. Campbell is in a position to quarterback the Tigers for 4 years just as did Stan White in the early 90's. In some ways, this season has the feel of the disastorous 1998. I don't expect the same result however. Campbell should perform better that Gabe Gross. He had a good spring and has been excelling in recent scrimages. Should Campbell falter, Tuberville will probably insert Daniel Cobb who had a lot of JUCO experience and was tagged the started until mid-August.
With Heath and Rudi gone, everyone's talking about Cadillac Williams and he is certainly on track to be a future star. But let's not forget some of the other backs like Ronnie Brown, Cassinious Moore, Brandon Johnson and Michael Owens and others who have yet to be unleashed such as Nebraska transfer Chris Butler. We will have a decent running game - maybe 100 yards a game on average - enough to keep us honest and not rely on the pass excessively as we did in Leard's junior year.
Among the wide receivers, getting Deandre Green back in the lineup will help quite a bit. There are several unsung heroes waiting to emerge out of this young group of receivers such as Marcel Williams and Tim Carter who will double as a speedy kick returner. The Tight End position is led by Lorenzo Diamond and he is looking to have a good season.
The once maligned Offensive Line has now matured into a very good group that is anchored by LE Kendell Simmons. He is one of three seniors on the line that will be nissed in 2002 and wil have to be replaced. I personally believe that the O-line was partially responsible for Rudi's success last year and this year they should only be better. Some of the young talent will find holes to run through. Injuries must be avoided for the line to perform well. The backups include 4 redshirt freshmen and one true freshman.
DEFENSE
The Defense should be decent but there is very little depth and room for injury. They need to stop the other team - especiall y early and give the new offensive weapons a chance to get settled in and a lot of 3 plays and out will not be good.
The Defensive line is dominated by sophomores but one of them is DeMarco McNeill who led the team with 67 tackles last season. The sophomore class is so good that there are 2 backups who happen to be seniors. The line must be successful in stopping the run and putting pressure on the QB for the Tigers to succeed in 2001.
The Linebacker Corps is very young - only one member is a junior and there are no seniors left from Bowden's last recruiting class. The best player in the corps is sophomore Dontarious Thomas who had 58 tackles last year. Again, injuries will be a problem. All backups are freshmen or redshirt freshmen.
A trio of juniors hear the defensive backfield. Again, Bowden's last recruting class is absent, here. Travarious Robinson missed Spring practice with a shoulder injury but he is back and ready to play.
The kicking game might be the best in the SEC. Damon Duval has matured into one of the best kickers in the country. His punts often cannot be returned. He also has been able to pin opponents deep near their own endzone. There will be at least one game this year we win by a field goal and his punting will help us win the field position game.
PREDICTION - How Will the Tigers Do in 2001?
Sacrificial Lambs: Ball State, La Tech (predict 2 of 2) - If Auburn loses either of these games it will be a very long season.
Should Win: Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Arkansas (predict 2.5 of 3) - We will probably win all three of these, but any of these could spring an upset if things fall all wrong for us and all right for them.
Even Money: Ole Miss, Alabama, Georgia (predict 1.5 of 3) - We could win all three or lose all three. That's why I split the difference on my prediction. All these teams have question marks as does Auburn. We'll just have to see what happens when they play the games.
Could Win: LSU, Miss State (predict 1 of 2) - These two teams are the class of the SEC West right now, but recently we've had success against LSU in Baton Rouge and Miss State at home we have somewhat of a chance.
Won't Win: Florida (predict 0 of 1) - Like in 1996, Auburn will probably get pummeled by the best team in the nation. Enou'f said.
Based on the above logic (adding up the predicted number of wins), I predict that the Tigers will go 7-4 get into a bowl game. Bettering that will be very difficult but if things break right we could land at 8-3 but probably no higher. Which bowl game we'll receive a bid for is not easy to predict. There may be several teams at 7-4 and 8-3 and bowl officals will be looking for good travel teams and exciting matchups. Auburn is a favored team on both accounts and we normally get into a better bowl than we otherwise deserve sometimes. This is why we've suffered some of our recent bowl game losses like Penn State and Michigan. We will probably get something like the Peach or Cotton or even the Outback. If we slip to 6-5 that leaves the Independence Bowl as a likely scenario.
OFFICIAL JOE'S TAKE ON THE TIGERS PREDICTION:
7 WINS + 4 LOSSES + PEACH BOWL = #22 Ranking at the Season's end