Auburn Football: 5 storylines to follow during 2018 spring ball

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: Jarrett Stidham
ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 01: Jarrett Stidham /
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(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
(Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

2. Will Auburn find a pass rush?

The Auburn defense needs to secure a strong pass rush in order to take the pressure off of the young defensive backfield. Auburn finished 25th overall in 2017 in sacks with 37 total over 14 games.

The 2.64 sacks per game isn’t a bad stat, the Tigers will just need even more of an output until the defensive backfield gets acclimated to each other. With Jeff Holland taking his ten sacks to the NFL none of the returning Tigers even had five sacks in 2017.

Junior Marlon Davidson will have to finally get his production numbers up after starting the previous two years for Kevin Steele’s defense. Davidson picked up 3.5 sacks 6.5 tackles for loss a year ago.

Returning are interior linemen Derrick Brown and Dontavius Russell. Brown and Russell shared 15.5 tackles for loss in 2017 and the two big defensive tackles will have to increase their pass rush for Auburn to hold off Jake Browning and the Huskies passing game at Mercedes Benz Stadium in the season opener.