re: Upgrades and Downgrades from 2014 to 2015 (Auburn)

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Secondary: Same

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Our secondary will be better

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Auburn

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QB: Downgrade
RB: Upgrade
WR: Downgrade
TE: Same
OL: Upgrade

DL: Same (probably better pass rush but worse vs. run
LB: Upgrade
CB: Upgrade (addition by subtraction)
S: Upgrade (better coaching more experience Tray Matthews)

K: Upgrade
KR: Downgrade
PR: Downgrade

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Arkansas. While I sound like a homer, I think most of these are logical. You'll see a lot of upgrades, but they're primarily based on depth and coaching.

QB: Modest Upgrade. BA is 5th year senior, trend of progression, and he actually has a QB coach now.

RB: Moderate Upgrade. More experienced and more available backups that won't be redshirting, new RB coach should fix our ball security issues...his M.O. New OC that loves throwing to his backs, which we never did under Chaney. I expect our backs receiving yards will sky-rocket under the new OC, which is why I think they improve so much. They're just going to have more opportunities to gain yards.

Fullback/H-back: Modest Upgrade. More experienced returners and a couple redshirts (medical or otherwise) return to the talent pool. Stud freshman Cantrell will probably contribute immediately.

WR: Modest Upgrade. Keon Hatcher is a lot like BA, he's gotten better and better every game his career. I expect a nice senior season from him. Jared Cornelius and JoJo Robinson give us something we haven't had for awhile. If our big WR Edwards (6'6") puts it all together, this group could be a big suprise in the SEC. While I expect this unit will be more productive numbers wise with fewer drops, it also wouldn't shock me if they continued to underperform.

TE: Same. Hunter Henry and AJ Derby were awesome together. Sprinkle had some big catches sprinkled in as the 3rd TE. Sprinkle has to step up, but he's a big time athlete. We'll have tons of depth at this position but most of it is unproven. I fully expect one of the TEs to step up and replace Derby, be it Sprinkle or one of our many freshmen.

OL: Modest Upgrade. Bring back a lot of experience. We lose a senior starter in Brey Cook but we bring back loads. Brian Wallace will most likely be the new starter (big time recruit). Talent is a strong suit for this unit. We'll probably rotate So. Ragnow with Sr. Smothers at C, as we did last year.

DL: Moderate Downgrade. There's no way to argue that we aren't worse off at this position with the loss of Philon and Flowers. We have a lot of experience coming back at DE and DL, and we bring in some guys that can contribute as freshmen/JUCOs. I tend to think that Robb Smith's scheme makes our DL better than they might read on paper, so I don't expect a huge dropoff in production even though the perceived talent is dropping.

LB: Modest Downgrade. We lose Spaight, who was a monster, but we actually have some good, young talent at this position. We bring back Ellis who will be a junior. He's All-SEC potential. Josh Williams had some big games last year when called upon. Eugene and Hackett were big hitters on special teams last year. Ramsey looked nice in limited action before injury.

CB: Modest Upgrade. We return 3 experienced CB's that were damn good. I would expect they'll continue to improve.

S: Modest Upgrade. Should be faster than we've been in years now that Turner has graduated. The young guys that rotated last year all had moment, but Coley looked like a wrecking ball. Kinda think he's going to be a bit of a star next season in our secondary instead of the status quo, "solid player."

K: Moderate Upgrade. We redshirted an stud kicker last year. We were pretty bad last year. I expect him joining the mix will increase our production two-fold.

KR: Modest Upgrade. It seems that they've finally figured out that Keon Hatcher isn't an appropriate replacement for Korliss Marshall. Alex Collins looked great once he took over. We also have 2-3 more RB's that could rotate back there just with the way the roster played out.

PR: Moderate Upgrade. Once Jared Cornelius won this job our PR team was pretty salty. A full year (hopefully) with Cornelius returning punts should land us in the top part of the league.

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Auburn

RB: Upgrade

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I seem to remember before last season you were all saying the same thing....

"we can bring anyone in"
"Tre was great, but product of system"
"We have 4 guys to rotate now"

blah, blah.

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I seem to remember before last season you were all saying the same thing....

"we can bring anyone in" "Tre was great, but product of system" "We have 4 guys to rotate now"

blah, blah.

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I don't get your point.

Auburn was #2 in the SEC in rushing and had the SEC's leading rusher.

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Auburn was #2 in the SEC in rushing and had the SEC's leading rusher.

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I was about to add this

So a 6-6 / 7-5 type team.

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The numbers prove us right.

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Yup, your average ypc was down almost a yard and your record was a big downgrade. Great coaching....

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They averaged almost 80 yards per game less and almost a yard per carry less....

Point is pretty clear...you thought it would be better and it was worse.

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You will probably bring up rushing numbers after the 2015 season without taking into account the quarterback's involvement or the offensive line.

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You will probably bring up rushing numbers after the 2015 season without taking into account the quarterback's involvement or the offensive line.

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No. I am not saying Auburn doesn't have a great running attack. The point is that you thought it was an upgrade last year and it wasn't. You think it will be an upgrade this year, it wont be.

Again, not saying you are a shite run team or that you are going to be, but simply talking about the poit of this thread...