Auburn football has to give star running back Tank Bigsby more touches
Tank Bigsby is the best player Auburn has on the offensive side of the football.
In the blowout loss to Penn State, Bigsby only touched the ball 11 times. He had nine carries and two receptions. He had 39 yards on the ground and 38 yards through the air. This means Bigsby gained seven yards per touch.
This leads fans to wonder: why in the world did Auburn's best offensive weapon only touch the ball 11 times?
Bryan Harsin was asked about Bigsby's usage in the post game press conference "I think the obvious is that we got behind," Harsin said. "We had to throw the football. I mean, that's really what it came down to."
Between the start of the game and the time Penn State went up 21-6, Auburn ran 41 plays. Of those 41 plays, Bigsby only touched the ball on eight of them, meaning Auburn's best player got the ball 19% percent of the time when the game was still close.
This raises the question, why didn't Coach Harsin get the ball to Bigsby more when the game was close, especially when he was averaging seven yards a touch?
Comparing this to another former SEC bell cow running back sheds some light on why Bigsby needs to get the ball more. Najee Harris touched the ball on 29 of Alabama's 79 offensive snaps in the 2020 National Championship against Ohio State. Harris touched the ball on 36% percent of the play in Alabama's win.
In 2019 with the Wisconsin Badgers, Jonathan Taylor touched the ball 24.7 times a game. Breece Hall, former Iowa State Cyclone and current New York Jet, touched the ball 24.1 times a game at Iowa State in 2021.
These two players were the focal point of the offenses, and their touches per game prove that. Shouldn't the star running back see this kind of usage for a program like Auburn? Especially considering the Tigers want to play smash-mouth football?
The numbers show that if you have a stud running back, he needs to get the ball 20 times or more every game. Through three games, Bigsby is averaging a measly 15 touches a game.
Not only is not getting Bigsby the ball hurting the team, it's also hurting Bigsby. He is a second or third-round talent, but with the usage the coaching staff has given him, he will plummet down draft boards. His lack of usage could eventually cost him millions of dollars. After deciding to stay at Auburn and stick with Coach Harsin, Bigsby deserves more touches to show scouts what he is capable of and being the high draft pick that his talent deserves.
If the coaching staff wants to turn this thing around, it needs to start with getting the ball to Bigsby a lot more as the season goes on because good things happen when Tank is fed the rock.
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