The Tiger's off-season has seen more changes than Joe Paterno's years of coaching, with Head Coach Tommy Tuberville resigning after 10 seasons and new Head Coach Gene Chizik trying to instill a throwback, no-nonsense style of football.
Chizik has talked a lot this off-season about what it means to be an "Auburn man" and is big on enforcing team rules and what he expects of his players, hoping it will create a disciplined squad.
This will be Chizik's second coaching job at Auburn. He previously served as a defensive coordinator from 2002-04, helping the Tigers to a perfect 13-0 record in 2004 and a 30-9 record overall.
Along with Chizik, the Auburn faithful will be focusing their eyes on new Offensive Coordinator Gus Malzahn, the Tigers' fourth offensive coordinator in the last three years.
Malzahn brings with him a strong record, but one big difference between Malzahn and former coordinator Tony Franklin is that Malzahn will have a unified coaching staff supporting his system and a head coach who vowed not to interfere with his system, Franklin did not.
The Tiger offense will be led by senior Chris Todd who signed with Auburn out of junior college and was troubled by his passing shoulder last year.
He won three of the five games he started and finished the year with 86 of 156 completions for 903 yards, five touchdowns and six interceptions.
Although Todd did not throw in the spring game due to surgery in December, he was learning Malzahn's offense and worked hard in the fall practices, winning the job over Kodi Burns, Neil Caudle and Tyrik Rollison.
Todd will be accompanied by a great backfield as Auburn's top two rusher, and four of the top five return in 2009.
Senior Ben Tate led the team for the second year in a row with 664 yards rushing in 2008 and enters his season ranked 14th in school history with 1,959 rushing yards.
He needs just 227 yards to move into the top 10 in rushing in school history and 852 to be in the top five.
On the defensive side, Auburn will return seven starters from last year's team which ranked 14th nationally in scoring defense (18.0) and 29th in total defense (317.8).
The Tigers will need to replace two players on two interior linemen as tackle Sen'Derrick Marks left for the NFL and Tez Doolittle completed his final year of eligibility.
The secondary should be strong as they just had one departure, Jerraud Powers, who also departed for the NFL.
The returning defensive backs include junior safeties Zac Etheridge and Mike McNeil who led the team with 75 and 65 tackles last season.
Other returning starters on the defensive side include junior end Michael Goggans and senior cornerback Walter McFadden, while DT Mike Blanc, DL Zach Clayton, DB D'Antoine Hood and DB Neiko Thorpe all started at least one game last season.
The Tigers will be put to the test this Saturday when they face the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and second-year head coach Derek Dooley. Expectations for the Bulldogs are high this year after going 8-5 with a 17-10 win against Northern Illinois in the Independence Bowl, their first bowl win since 1977.
Head Coach Derek Dooley mentioned what a challenge it is for his team to not only play, but also prepare to play, Auburn.
"The atmosphere is a big issue," Dooley said at a press conference Monday. "We have traditionally not played well against these types of opponents on the road."
Along with trying to prepare the players for a rowdy crowd, preparing them for what to expect play wise was even tougher, Dooley said.
"They have a new head coach and new coordinators on all fronts and we had to try and get film from all over the country to try and get an idea of what we are up against," Dooley said.
Louisiana Tech returns 17 starters including four first team All-Western Athletic Conference players.
The Bulldogs come into Saturday's game with quarterback Ross Jenkins looking to improve on last year's success.
He'll play behind an experienced offensive line with first team All-WAC running back Daniel Porter and receiver Phillip Livas.
When it comes to preparation, Dooley said he just wants his team to go into the game sound on all phases, play their best and execute.
Tech was picked to finish third by the coaches and fourth by the media in the WAC preseason polls.
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