MAILBAG: NIL Update, can Tank Bigsby win the Heisman? How many wins does Auburn need?

Our second Auburn Daily Mid Week Mailbag is up and running.

It's early August, Auburn football is about to start fall camp to prepare for the season and it seems like most of the questions that were submitted for the second edition of the Auburn Daily Mid Week Mailbag are about Auburn basketball. 

Bruce Pearl's Tigers looked fresh and aggressive in the first game of the three-game trip in Israel and the play of the four newcomers got a lot of fans excited. In August. It's still unbelievable what Pearl has built this program into. 

I'll touch on some of those basketball questions but we have to start with football. Here we go. 

Can Tank Bigsby win the Heisman? - Mr Mischief

© Mickey Welsh / Advertiser / USA TODAY NETWORK

I love this question. Sadly, the answer is no. But it's fun to speculate how impressive of a season he would need to take home the biggest award in college football. 

The last running back to win the Heisman was Alabama's Derrick Henry in 2015. Before that, it was Mark Ingram in 2009, and Ron Dayne in 1999. They don't hand it out to running backs too often. 

In Henry's Heisman season, he was just shy of 2,000 rushing yards and had over 20 touchdowns. It's going to be hard to see Bigsby getting that much space in this offense. 

Bigsby has the talent to have any level of production but most of the guys blocking for Henry had decent stints or are still in the NFL. I'm not sure if Bigsby will have that in 2022. 

How many losses, minimum, would make Harsin’s seat hot? - Daxel

Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

I think 7-5 keeps Bryan Harsin at Auburn. 

I'll also predict that Auburn finishes 7-5 or better this season. This team really believes in what they can accomplish this season. 

Still, at 7-5, it makes that bowl game matter more than normal. I think a lot of Auburn fans would sigh in relief if Auburn found a way to get eight wins this season. That number allows you to go into the offseason with a proof of concept and haul in some talent moving forward. 

Who was your favorite freshman from Tuesday's game vs Israel u20s? -croc22

© Landon Bost/Naples Daily News/USA TODAY Network-Florida / USA TODAY NETWORK

I think most Auburn fans will fall in love with Chance Westry's style of play early in the season. Heck, it could happen before the Tigers return from Israel. 

His length and ability to score from anywhere on the floor is impressive. He also seemed to catch the trend of having to play aggressively on defense to earn playing time. Sometimes freshmen have a hard time catching on to that. 

Will Auburns new strength and training program make leaps and bounds in year two for these players? - CorkscrewTyler

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

This is one of the things I'm looking most forward to this fall. The heights and weights listed for a bunch of the Auburn team dramatically jumped up this offseason. Linemen who have been on campus for several years saw their bodies change. 

Auburn's offensive front got pushed around when they faced superior teams in the trenches last season. Hopefully, the extra 20 pounds added to most of their frames puts that to an end. 

Who would win in a dodgeball game. Auburn Football or Auburn Basketball? - TrillyB

Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

This is fun. 

My first thought was the football team because they could put the quarterbacks out there and use that accuracy to get the basketball players out but I wonder if they would be able to move enough to get the balls and avoid the attacks from the basketball team. 

My gut says if there were five rounds, representatives from the football team, I think they'd take three. 

Sneaky MVP: Jaylin Simpson

How big is the gap between Auburn NIL efforts and the rest of the SEC? -Blue42

Lance Dawe/Auburn Daily

I think Auburn has made a lot of ground in the past few weeks. The newly branded On To Victory seems to have generated some momentum on the NIL trail. 

Most of the key players on the team appear to be signed and there's a belief this has started to help influence recruiting. I think it will be a larger part of the 2024 class than the 2023 class based on a source I spoke to earlier this week. 

All of these questions were taken from our Discord. It's free to join and chat with over 1,000 Auburn fans. 

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