Auburn's defense

Why compare them to Bama?? I would just like to hear what the aubbies think....F Bama

I'm using Bama as the standard. A comparison to Ole Miss or some other shitty defense would be useless.

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How do you guys think that your defense compares to Bama's this coming year?

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We both have very good Defensive lines, corners and linebackers. Bama has the edge at safety and nickle

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I agree that fans are generally unrealistic in terms of the sum of the parts, but they know what areas are strengths and which ones ares question marks.

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This is true. Besides, it's pretty well on the reader/listener to decide if a fan's opinion is out there or not. Some will be but others will be spot on about things.

All and all there are plenty of fans from various teams on tRant that I trust to know more about their own team than the various sports pundits and talking heads. There are over 120+ teams in D1 and sports media is expected to cover them all. Even if you only cover a conference there's just not enough time in the day to be thorough in your research and also put out articles and voice opinions on every team.

Well the strength should still be the line, even with the losses of Carl Lawson and Montravious Adams. Marlon Davidson on the end, who had a great true freshman year, should be a stud. He was a better all around end than Lawson (Lawson the better pass rusher). Great depth of 4 and 5 stars in the middle (watch out for Derrick Brown- this guy will have a HUGE year) like Dontavious Russell. Also keep an eye out for Paul James the third at edge rusher.

Linebackers return Deshaun Davis and Tre Williams, both of whom had pretty good seasons last year. Our line backer play last year was easily the best we had since 2010. This should be a solid group who is serviceable.

Our weakness would be secondary. Don't get me wrong, we have some great players, but depth is a concern. Safety will be Tray Matthews in his senior year. He came along way last year, as evident in the LSU game, where he wasn't afraid of tackling Fournette like he was in 2015 . Nick Ruffin on the other side has a lot of experience, but isn't the greatest. Behind them, it's a lot of meh . Carlton Davis at corner is easily one of the best if not the best in the sec. He had a stellar freshman year and was given all sec honors, but had a dip in production last year. This wasn't really his fault... opposing QB's avoided throwing to him this past year. Javaris Davis is also a great player, coming into his sophomore year. They are pretty proven starters, and behind them is great backups, and some promising talent.

We should be pretty good in limiting points per game, just like last year. Great depth on the line, which I think is the most important spot. This will be Steele's second year, and hopefully he can maintain the success we had last year. We improved greatly in every category defensively under Steele.

Our weakness would be teams that have a gunslinger qb that can throw over the top, even under pressure.

Edit: and for your question, no, we won't be as good as bama. I don't think anyone will be. They consistently get the best talent on d and have a defensive mastermind at HC and DC.

We DO return more proven players than they do, as they lost a lot of their starters. I think we will be a top 25 defense again, with maybe a slight drop in performance. Not bama level though

We've both had some good D-lines over the past decade but the one element that Bama seems to have over everyone, not just us, is their LB play.

The difference this year (and it began last year) is that Auburn finally has a LB corps that looks and plays like an SEC caliber group. That hasn't been the case since the early 2000's when we had Karlos Dansby, Dontarious Thomas, et. al. We've finally got a complete group of guys that are big enough and can run, and we have depth. Thanks to Travis Williams.

We have good corners, but we are pretty thin there. Hoping for good health. As someone else said, we may be a little weaker at Safety and Nickel than Bama, LSU, and some other teams.

We're like every good team not named Alabama. If we stay healthy at some key positions, it could be a very good year. If not (like last year) we could fall off.

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I think the question for Auburn will be can they get enough pass rush. They've got some good players on the Dline but I don't know if they have a pass rush specialist.

They should be pretty stout against the run though. I don't think they are teaching the Jake Holland tackling technique anymore on the plains.

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But we return everyone in the secondary, but are one injury from disaster there at the safety positions.

We return all our LB's who were also solid and expect them to get better with another year in the system and playing together


The D line needs to revamp but has potential, but all defenses in the league can say that.

Should be a Top 30 Defense again

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pretty much on point. I think we will miss Monty Adams in the middle the most. Lawson was a good one and a difference maker when he was healthy but Davidson is really good to take his spot.

that has more to do with how bad the offense was, the defense was constantly on the field with all the 3 and outs