Auburn football listed as a team to watch for a bounce-back season in 2023
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Auburn has the potential to break through into contention in the 2023 season, and Athlon Sports recognizes this potential. The site mentioned Auburn as one of its five teams to watch in the 2023 season.
Auburn along with another SEC school, Texas A&M, are mentioned. The reason A&M is on the list is similar to that of Auburn, a revamped coaching staff along with key acquisitions in the portal lead to a potentially promising Aggie season. Specifically for the Aggies, new Offensive Coordinator Bobby Petrino will look to work his magic on Conner Weigman and the rest of the A&M offense.
Auburn under the helm of a completely new staff that is headed up by Hugh Freeze was tabbed for a rebound season due to the SEC experience that Freeze has and the aggressive acquisitions they have made during the portal windows.
Freeze and staff managed to grab the third-best portal class in the country according to 247Sports. The headliners of the class are Rivaldo Fairweather, Payton Thorne, Brian Battie, and a handful of offensive linemen that all look to start for the Tigers. It is hard to imagine that a 5-7 team that won two of its five games with an interim head coach could turn it around in just one year, but with this new age of college football, it has become clear that a one-year turnaround is not a pipe dream.
The coaching improvement itself will also lead to a much more improved on-field product. Freeze and Offensive Coordinator Philip Montgomery got their man in Payton Thorne and will look to scheme around his strengths and lead to a much more improved offense compared to the Harsin-led offense that ended up with one of the worst scoring offenses in the SEC. The defense under new Defensive Coordinator Ron Roberts will also look to improve from their bottom-half finish in both stopping the run and total points allowed.
The list rounded out with Miami, Nebraska, and Oklahoma being listed as the non-SEC teams expected to perform well following a letdown season in 2022.
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