All the preparation, training and offseason work Auburn has done to prepare for the season is done. When Saturday rolls around, the only thing on the Tigers’ mind will be Clemson.
The looming question of the summer has been answered, as Sean White will take the first snap at quarterback for Auburn after being named the starter earlier last week, beating out Jeremy Johnson and John Franklin III.
With that hurdle cleared, the offense can focus on a “disruptive” Clemson defense that was among the best in the country. Although there’s a lot of turnover on that unit — since nine starters either graduated, declared for the NFL Draft, or both — that hasn’t necessarily made it easier for offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee to prepare a catch-all game plan.
“From a personnel standpoint, there’s some questions," Lashlee said. "The thing is, they beat everybody so bad last year, the guys that are now starting in place, and they lost some good players — the two D-ends, the two safeties, that corner, those are some really good football players — but the guys that are playing safety for them, the guys that are playing D-end, the guys that are playing corner now in place of those guys, played a lot of football last year because they were up so many times that they got in and played a lot, so there’s a lot of film on them."
“So while maybe they don’t have a lot of experience being ‘the guy,’ they’ve played a lot of football, and so you expect them to be much better players even a year later. And from a schematic standpoint, I mean they just played for the whole thing, so I don’t think they’re going to overhaul a lot," Lashlee said. "They were a really, really disruptive defense last year, and we expect them to be the same this year.”
Add in last year’s runner-up in the Heisman race, Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson, and Auburn will have its hands full against a team that has its sights set on that golden trophy they so narrowly missed out on last season.
But don’t expect the bright lights to faze the home Tigers, because, at least according to Lashlee, they’ll be locked in and aware of what it will take to pull the upset.
“Well, you feel pretty good usually going into that first game, once you get into game week they’re going to be pretty locked in, pretty focused,” Lashlee said. “I think we ended the week well last week...Just mentally, you want them to be crisp. Execution, in this first game, you can rep it till you’re blue in the face till you play it against some good people, you usually learn a lot. So for us to be able to play fast and be able to execute at a high level is going to be key.”
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