Film At 11: Auburn Offense
If You Can’t Hire The One You Love – Because of a BTS Coaching Search Power Struggle Ripped From the Pages of a ‘Succession’ Script– Love The One You Hired
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Editor’s Note: No Auburn Defense Film at 11 this week because until I slip and fall in the right place I have to keep my 9 to 5 – a job that had me on the road in BFE last week. Planning Offense and Defense Film at 11’s for Iowa, Ohio State, Maryland and Michigan. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Relationship Tip No. 1: Honeymoon with Akron.
No, not in Akron…unless you got some weird, out-there industrial plight and architectural decay fetish (hey dude, no judgment here). Honeymoon with Akron, perhaps the softest of several OOC schedule-filler marshmallows from the MAC.
That’s what unwanted, unwelcomed, 8th-choice, not-from-‘round-here new Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin arranged Week 1, and 60 minutes and 60 points later Cupid’s arrow pierced the deep-fried hearts of Auburn’s meddlesome, never-satisfied, impossible-to-deal-with boosters…well, for one week, at least.
In the most prolific offensive debut in Auburn history, Harsin and new OC Mike Bobo called plays and pulled levers that amassed 600+ total yards, tallied the most points (60) in a game since 1971, and scored on their first eight possessions. Embattled and often erratic Tigers QB 10-Bo Nix – think Sean Clifford but with better hair – completed 20 of 22 throws vs. the zipless Zips, good for a single-game school record 90.9 completion percentage that really should have been 95.5 percent if Tigers WR 5-Kobe Hudson didn’t Featherstone this dot late in the second quarter.
28 First Downs. 9.9 Rush Yards per Carry. 66.7 percent 3rd-down Efficiency. Zero Turnovers. 11.0 Yards per Pass Attempt. 7 “Chunk” Plays of 20+ Yards. You can’t deny, from a statistical standpoint, Auburn was impressive against its only FBS foe of 2021 (Week 2 Auburn beat SWAC member Alabama State 62-0 – a game we chose not to scout because of quality of opponent).
You also can’t deny that Auburn’s only FBS foe of 2021 stunk, losers of 22 of their previous 23 games prior to Week 1.
Therefore, in addition to burying our nose in Auburn-Akron film, we also sampled the Tigers’ 2020 All-22 film and used PFF’s grades from last season as a crutch when determining personnel strengths and weaknesses.
Starters
Updates: Upgraded Penn State DE 17-Arnold Ebiketie to ‘Potential All-Big Ten’ because through two weeks he’s played like one – 11 tackles, team-high 3 TFL, a sack, and 6 hits on the quarterback according to PFF (no one else on the defense has more than one). Also, probably didn’t need to slap a “playing hurt” red cross under 1-Jaquan Brisker – we’re sure he’s fine – but we did.
Formations
Pray Kristi Malzahn knows the Heimlich maneuver. Because if her husband/newest Florida Man, Gus, had enough scratch left from his $21 million contract buyout from Auburn to shell out $6.99 for an EPSN+ membership, then there’s decent chance he choked on his scattered/smothered/covered/chunked Waffle House hashbrowns when his former players lined up in this formation:
Count along…that’s one, two, three tight ends on the line of scrimmage and a fourth, 47-John Samuel Shenker, cameoing at fullback in this prehistoric, dust-on-the-bottle, I-Formation.
In the first half vs. Akron, Auburn’s personnel packages and formations spanned the spectrum from 5-wide empty sets to multiple tight-end formations like the one pictured above. On more than half its snaps, Auburn operated out of the shotgun but mixed in plays out of the Pistol, I-Form and Ace formations, as well.
During the competitive-enough-to-leave-in-Nix portion of the contest, Bobo kept Akron off-balance by mixing it up on standard downs – the Tigers first-half, first-down, non-2-minute-drill splits were 10 runs and 7 passes – and running out of traditional pass sets while chucking it deep out of under-center, beef-filled alignments like this one:
13 Personnel. Two Tight Ends stacked strongside. Another TE neighbors Tigers RT 59-Brodarious Hamm (All-Name Team). The play-action hypnotizes Akron safety 1-Randy Cochran Jr., thus opening the middle of the field in what was supposed to be Cover 6 coverage (I think), while Auburn’s 8-man pass pro lets Nix set his feet, step into the throw and deliver a strike between Akron’s two deep defenders.
One more:
Play fake to the jet motion draws eyes into the backfield and causes a coverage bust over the top. The closest Akron pass rusher is 6 or 7 yards away from Nix when the ball leaves his hand. The closest Akron defensive back is in Dothan, Alabama.
Philosophy
TBD.
If pressure forges diamonds, then Auburn’s offense under Harsin and Bobo – the co-architects of this still-amorphous 2021 system –remains a big ol’ lump of coal through two weeks because, frankly, Akron and Alabama State failed to put up a fight. Hard to know what works and what doesn’t when everything works.
The playbook is very un-Malzahn-y, though. That’s clear.
Pro-style attack. Less RPO. Less Zone Read. More downhill runs. Zoloft Tempo. Neglected tight ends suddenly have a role that should expand over Harsin’s tenure (assuming Auburn’s Queen of Hearts big-dollar boosters possess the patience to forgive forgivable losses…Spoiler Alert: they don’t) as he recruits the type of athletic do-it-all’s Auburn never landed in the past because Malzahn’s offense wasn’t designed for tight ends to do it all….or anything, really.
Since Malzahn’s firing on Dec. 13, 2020, Auburn starting tight end 47-John Samuel Shenker has had the ball thrown his direction 9 times in three games – the NYD Citrus Bowl and 2021 Weeks 1 & 2. Last year, minus the bowl game, Shenker ran 167 routes and was targeted 9 times. So, business is boomin’…comparatively. That said, Auburn’s slow-footed tight ends aren’t going to keep Penn State DC Brent Pry up at night as their average depth of target through two games has been well under 10 yards. But for now, against inferior competition, they’ve proven to be trustworthy checkdown options in the passing game and surprisingly proficient blockers in the run/pass game whether inline or flexed wide.
Here, backup tight end 86-Luke Deal rudely moves Akron DE 9- Jeslord Boateng from the C gap to the B gap, opening an undisturbed hole for 4-Tank Bigsby on this cartoonish 16-yard gain.
Later that same drive, on 1st and Goal from the Zips 19, 47-Shenker Kung Fu grips Akron DB-29 Jalen Hooks during this screen for six. According to PFF, 4 of Auburn’s 6 highest-graded blockers in Week 1 were tight ends.
Lion Tamers
So why do they call him Tank?
Answer:
Ah, makes sense.
The highest-rated RB recruit of the Malzahn Era since forgettable 5-star supernova Roc Thomas signed in 2014 and flamed out in 2016 after dropping a series of melodramatic tweets, 4-Tank Bigsby was given that moniker not because he fixed water heaters in the summer as a teenager or because he was a diehard early 2010’s Philadelphia 76ers fan but because he was a rambunctious two-year-old…which is kind of a flop backstory for such a top-shelf nickname.
Not that anyone cares when you can Red Rover through arm tackles like this:
Compiling 834 yards rushing on 138 carries in 2020, Bigsby Wally Pipp’d (or wait, maybe it’s Lou Gehrig’d?) injured starting RB 8-Shaun Shivers in Week 2 vs. Georgia and never relinquished the role. PFF ranked Bigsby as the fifth-most valuable non-QB true freshman in the country and the third-highest graded ballcarrier in FBS behind current NFL rookies Javonte Williams and Khalil Herbert.
Because of Bigsby’s uncanny power for a sub-210 pounder we read several lazy scouting reports that labeled him as a one-cut runner…which just isn’t true. Bigsby doesn’t possess run-up-the-Kingdome-tunnel-on-MNF speed like Auburn legend Bo Jackson but his lateral quickness and stop-start-stop-start ability trends more Cadillac Williams than Ronnie Brown.
RPO. Nix counts the numbers in the box – five gold hats vs. five whites – and determines pre-snap he’s giving to Bigsby on the inside zone. Auburn RG 58-Keiondre Jones gets whooped 1v1, causing Bigsby to detour wide on his third step – roughly a yard removed from receiving the handoff. The quality of this illegal recording sucks, but you can still see the clumps of sand from the backfilled drain lines pop up from underneath Jordan-Hare’s natural grass surface when Bigsby changes direction – a good corroborating indicator of the powerful torque/force generated by his lower half.
Despite averaging 10.0 yards per carry this season, Bigsby is still adapting to Harsin’s scheme. In high school and with Malzahn in charge last year, Bigsby never took a handoff from a QB under center and never was asked to follow a lead blocker, like a fullback. As you’ll see below – where instead of riding 47-Shenker’s backside for an easy score Bigsby misses the hole and has to muscle across the goalline – it’s still a work in progress.
Red Halo (Problem Areas)
10-BO NIX, QUARTERBACK: Not claiming we’re Billy Mays, but this is a pretty terrible third or fourth take (judging by the hunk of chicken sandwich already missing) of an ad read, right?
Note: Don’t ask what’s up with the 23-second remix at the end. I’m as lost as you.
Bo Nix’s retro Ice Man haircut, pun-friendly first and last name, and 53 wristbands intrigued marketers willing to overlook his Year 1 to Year 2 regression as Auburn’s starting QB, because he’s absolutely cashed-in on NIL deals despite being as charismatic as a book of carpet samples.
Bojangles Chicken. Milo’s Sweet Tea. Dr. Trey Aquado’s “Bo Nose” Rhinoplasty ad campaign at the East Alabama Surgery Center (not real, but it should be…you’re welcome, doc.)
It’s Bo Time, indeed.
But what does Bo Time entail? Well – on the field, anyway – Bo Time has been the ultimate tease for Auburn fans: Crumbs of the spectacular followed by full courses of the stupefying.
Behold:
This one play vs. South Carolina last season encapsulates everything you need to know about pre-2021 Nix. 3rd and Forever. South Carolina rushes 4 and generates no heat. Nix leaves the pocket away, almost runs himself into a sack, sucks the deep safety back into the play, launches the ball off-platform (a self-created degree of difficult enhancer) and somehow parks this rocket of a throw into a compact space between defenders. Unreal.
In two games, it feels like Bobo and Harsin are still several weeks away from truly breaking this talented wild horse, but clues have emerged on film that many of the bad habits Nix exhibited under Malzahn – leaving the pocket prematurely, staring down receivers, ugly mechanics that yield uglier off-target throws – have been partially tamed, at least.
Love the way Nix manipulated the top-of-screen deep COVER 3 corner on this touchdown.
Eyes start in the middle of the field. Safety climbs the mountain. COVER 3. Nix knows he’s got a Cover 3 beater seam in the slot, but he’s patient enough to ensure its success. Instead of locking in on his intended target and not deviating away from it, Nix glances at WR 80-Ze’Vian Capers juuust long enough to make Akron DB 12-Charles Amankwaa honor the curl near the sideline. Once Nix is confident his arm strength/ball velocity can outrace Amankwaa to the spot, he looks back at the seam and fires. The best part of this whole sequence? Nix’s feet. Active. Alert. But not anxious.
Last season, Nix left the pocket on 32 undesigned runs (scrambles). Against, Akron he bailed once but only after 4 or 5 Mississippi on this particular play:
Nix wasn’t hurried and, other than this accurate tight-window 3rd-down throw, his receivers weren’t covered…because, Akron.
68-AUSTIN TROXELL, LEFT TACKLE: Shame on us for singling out Troxell. Both starting guards – one a 2-Star transfer from Akron, ironically — deserve the Red Circle of Shame, too, but my plane to PA boards in 35 minutes. Sorry, Austin.To make up for it, we’ll show this touchdown clip where Troxell and an unflagged hold by 71- Brandon Council (the aforementioned 2-Star) open a hallway-size hole that enables Bigsby to hotdog it 15 yards shy of the pylon.
Actually, Troxell graded out incredibly well Week 1…because, Akron. But trust us, he’s bad.
PFF gave Troxell the lowest Pass Pro grade of any starting tackle in the SEC West in 2020. Because we’re poor and host our site on WordPress, we don’t have the bandwidth to show you Troxell’s extensive catalog of yelling ‘Watch Out!’ but these two clips vs. Alabama should get our point across without causing machines to smoke.
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