Auburn Football: 5 bold predictions for the 2017 season

2. Auburn will finish the season ranked in the AP Poll top-10

Football in Alabama is an institution, and its even better when both Alabama and Auburn are doing well. After failing to reach double-digit wins in the past three seasons, this will be the year Auburn finally returns to national dominance.

Auburn is ranked the No. 12 team in AP preseason Poll. As the season progresses it’s entirely possible that War Eagles will continue to climb up the ranks. The team has an incredibly challenging schedule this season, with games against Clemson, LSU, and Texas A&M. But the one game that may make or break Auburn’s chances of making the College Football Playoff is their Week 2 game against Clemson.

Last season, Clemson defeated Auburn in week one by a score of 19-13. While star running back Kamryn Pettway didn’t appear in the game, the week one loss to Deshaun Watson’s squad  effectively made the remainder of the Tiger’s season a series of elimination games. One more loss eliminating them from playoff contention, a goal that they ultimately fell short of with a 9-4 record.

Auburn is a team on the rise. Clemson will be without its leader, Deshaun Watson and a number of other high-profile players like Mike Williams and Cordrea Tankersley who left the team for the NFL draft in 2017. If Auburn is able to pull an upset in its week two away game, the Tigers’ playoff chances could come down to the final game of the season: the 2017 Iron Bowl against Alabama.

While both sets of fans will adamantly deny it, it’s no fun to watch one team consistently steamroll the other. Great rivalries are built on great games, and this season’s Iron Bowl could be one of the best in a recent memory. Playing against Nick Saban’s Rolling Tide squad is never a walk in the park, but a surging Auburn could shock the world and pull off a stunner in Alabama.

Regardless of the outcome of the Iron Bowl, expect Auburn to end the 2017 season with double digit wins for the first time since the 2013 season.