2. Defense wins championships in college football
The Auburn Tigers are known more for their offense because of having an offensive-minded head coach, and Cam Newton winning the Heisman Trophy from the quarterback position. However, the Tigers’ defense was ranked 5th in the S&P+ defense rankings.
The Tigers held Clemson, Missouri, Mississippi State, Georgia and Alabama to 17 or fewer points on the season on their quest to beating two No. 1-ranked teams. The Auburn defense will have its work cut out against UCF’s high-powered offense but with Scott Frost moving on to Lincoln to coach the Nebraska Cornhuskers, the totality of what has happened in Orlando remains to be seen for the Peach Bowl.
Auburn’s defense was led by linebacker Deshaun Davis and “Buck” Jeff Holland. The former logged 75 tackles on the season and the latter had nine sacks and 12 tackles for loss.
Auburn has been at its best when it has had explosive defensive linemen and Derrick Brown logged 8.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks at 6-foot-5 and 316 pounds. The Auburn 2-deep should remain in-tact for 2018 as it was quite young in 2017.
That youth was masked by defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. He has worked around the NCAA with stops at Auburn, LSU, Alabama, Florida State, Baylor, Nebraska, Tennessee and Oklahoma State. That’s quite the resume for the 59 year old defensive coordinator from South Carolina.
While Auburn does lose many players to leaving early for the NFL Draft, they’re only graduating four from the two deep and three are starters in linebacker Tre Williams, and defensive backs Robert Stephen and Matthews Tray. Auburn should reload as usual signing four-star studs like Zakoby McClain, Christian Tutt, Jamien Sherwood and Michael Harris.