Who's Ahead for New-Look Auburn Tigers, Offense or Defense?

The Auburn Tigers have a slew of new faces on The Plains, including new head coach Alex Golesh. Golesh brought some friends from USF with him to Auburn, so even though the faces are new, there’s still familiarity between coach and players.

Auburn also retained defensive coordinator DJ Durkin and returned several key players from last year’s team, including linebacker Xavier Atkins.

The defense is usually ahead of the offense in the spring, but with Golesh bringing quarterback Byrum Brown with him from USF, does that give the offense an advantage over what would normally be a getting to know you period in April?

“There's certainly a lot of familiarity defensively with the guys, but there's also a handful of guys that hadn't been in the system that are learning,” Golesh admitted at his press conference on Friday.

“Offensively, there's a bunch of guys that are familiar with the system, but certainly not everybody, and certainly not upfront.”

A New Look Offensive Line

Auburn’s offense is going to be made up of almost entirely new faces. Golesh referenced the offensive line where three potential starters weren’t at either Auburn or USF last year: Offensive tackles Stanton Ramil (Michigan State) and Jo Simmons (James Madison) as well as guard Jack Leyrer (Stanford).

While the defense has a natural edge over the offense early in the season, Golesh’s equalizer is quarterback Byrum Brown. It’s hard to get a true feel for how he’s doing in practices because no one is allowed to touch the quarterback.

“When the quarterback's not live, and naturally you're going to protect that guy, it's a little bit deceiving because, especially, a guy like Byrum, where part of his game and a big part of his game is, the fact that he can move in the pocket; he can create with his feet; he can extend plays. Naturally, a lot of that gets blown dead pretty quickly, and rightfully so.”

Quarterbacks are like kickers; until the lights come on and the stakes are high, it’s tough to get a feel for how good they are. While Brown is new to Auburn, he’s not new to Golesh or college football.

“You really don't know what a young guy is made of until it's live in the moment and whether things are going well or, or things are not, you see a guy take over a game, and great ones do.

“I think Byrum is in that mold.”

Defense Causing Problems

Golesh admitted the talent on the Auburn defense has made it hard on his offense.

“The other piece of it is what we do defensively and how we do it and, the talent we have over there, it creates a lot of challenges,” Golesh said. “I would tell you for this offensive staff, they've had some long nights trying to, without overly game planning, because you're still in an install phase.

“Then you're playing a defense that's one, complex, but two, maybe schematically a little bit ahead, just because there's inevitably less to install, it's not always gonna match up.”

Golesh appreciates the challenges his defense presents to his offense. He knows they’ll make the other unit better, and he knows they’ll cause problems for the opposition in the fall.

“But that's what you want. You want it to be really, really hard.”

The Verdict?

So, who’s ahead, the offense or the defense this spring for Auburn? Like a lot of tough questions, there’s a gray area, and it can vary day to day.

“I'm not avoiding the question to tell you one side's ahead of the other,” Golesh said. “I think we've had days where it's been back and forth, and they've both sides have made each other better.

“And honestly, from a head coach perspective, that's what you want.”

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