re: Is it consensus that this is Auburns year again?

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Auburn has a pretty difficult schedule next year with having to play at UGA and at Bama. Even at Miss St. could be a challenging game if Dak stays healthy.

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This is true. Our schedule next year will be one of the toughest in the country. We could very well have a better team and a worse record.

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On the other hand they have a returning starter at qb and most of their oline returns. They should have good receivers and a good dline. Will their secondary improve? Will their running backs maintain the same level of success?

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I think people are forgetting that you almost always have the biggest improvement from year 1 to year 2 under a new coaching staff. Not only do we return all but 1 OL, the two battling for the job are both very good. This was arguably the best O Line in the SEC last year, and there wasn't a single Sr on it, and two were underclassmen - Avery Young and Alex Kozan were both RFr. Dismukes and Slade were Jr's and Robinson was a RSoph. So returning 4 of them and plugging in Coleman or Miller is going to keep that level of play right there, if not better in the second year.

The only great player our D Line doesn't return is Dee Ford. I think Lawson will be better when it's all said and done, and possibly Daniel too. We'll be as deep as we've been on the D line this year since Tuberville was coaching. Last year we had to move Eguae inside. He was a decent DE playing DT at about 270 lbs. We had Lawson, Adams and Daniel all getting significant time as true freshman. We'll have five seniors - Wright, Blackson, Whitaker, Bradley and Owens, along with the three sophs, get a couple ready to play juco's to help out and this D line is going to be really strong, imo.

Every position group I look at, I think will be better than last year, with the exception of kicker and punter - both of those guys are RFr. Hopefully that won't bite us in the arse. Even RB. If nothing else, there won't be any drop off there. I think we can probably be better with the OL we'll have and the help of some better WR's to help keep the D honest.

I think we'll see a pretty big jump in LB play this year with Holland gone. McKinzey and Frost were playing out of position last year, and they've switched this year and I think McKinzey is going to be a stud in the middle. Garrett and Therezie at Star are going to be playmakers. I just see either improvement or better players across the board at pretty much every position.

So, are we the consensus? I would say yes just due to what we've got coming back, but in this league you can go down on any given Saturday if you don't show up ready to play, especially in the west. I do think this coaching staff has these guys prepared way better than the last one did, and that is mentally and physically. It'll be hard to find a better conditioned team in the country. The overall attitude on the team last year was a big improvement from the years before, which is half the battle for a lot of these kids.