Auburn returns a big chunk of their roster from a year ago, but then so does Louisiana Tech. Back the Bulldogs plus the points on the road at the Tigers on Saturday.
Auburn beings a new era as Gene Chizik takes over for Tommy Tuberville this season. This year he gets a nice hunk of players back from last season's 5-7 disappointing team but we have our questions still about Auburn today.
The players he has on the offensive side of the ball aren't built for new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahns system. It will take a couple of years of recruiting some new players to fit their scheme that will bring excitement back in Auburn in a couple of years. Very similar to how Rich Rodriguez's players weren't built for his system with the Michigan team he took over last year.
It all starts under center with the questionable Chris Todd who has yet to flourish as he is off of a rough season last year with a 5-6 TD/INT ratio and completed 55% of his passes. He will be without last year's leading receiver Montez Billings who is suspended for four games, a big blow to an already thin receiver corps. In their debut under Chizik and Malzahn there may be some growing pains running the offense in the first game or two.
Lousiana Tech matches up very well with Auburn here. They bring back 16 starters from a team that opened their season against Mississippi St. and won outright 22-14 as dogs last year. They bring back a very athletic Front 7 that held opponents to just 3.1 yards per carry last year, which will make it interesting to see how Auburn's top back Ben Tate does against them. That Front 7 is led by All-Wac Defensive Tackle D'Anthony Smith who had five sacks last season. Their secondary is rock solid as well and an unproven QB like Todd running a new system without his top target may be vulnerable here. The La Tech defense is led by a pair of ball-hawking safeties, Deon Young and Antonio Baker, who combined for 174 tackles and eight INTs last year.
On the offensive side of the ball Lousiana Tech brings back their leading rusher Daniel Porter who had nine TDs and 1164 yards rushing in 2008, and a beefy, experienced O-Line that has an average weight of 300+lbs opening holes for him. Ross Jenkins is behind center and as a sophmore last year, he took over the job for the last eight games of the season and performed well with a 7/3 TD/INT ratio, and we expect nothing but improvement from him this season. Jenkins has a couple of solid targets to work with, including leading receiver Phillip Livas who had 43 receptions last season and gets back a Top 50 WR recruit Cruz Wiliams, a 6-3 playmaker who was injured in his freshman campaign.
Derek Dooley has his best team at Tech since taking over three years ago and they should have no problem competing with Auburn in this one; take the points.
Free Pick: Louisiana Tech +13½ (-110)