The offensive line has about run out of stories. I know this keeps coming back to the same five guys. That is because they are the only unit still writing the plot.
Furman was beat at birth. Kennesaw was beat at birth. Georgia Tech made them work a little and still let Tennessee run the ball downhill without much resistance. Those games told you nothing except that a Power roster can bully people who do not belong in the same building.
Texas told you the other thing. Best front they will see unless this year turns into a playoff team. Ugly tape. Ten sacks. Most walked out with a sentence ready: well that was the number 1 team Texas.
Auburn does not let you use that sentence.
They are 3-1. They have a pulse. They just took the Vanderbilt game because they blocked a punt and the defense finished. They hung around with Florida. They are not last Saturday. They are not a Group of Five bye week either. They sit in the middle of who Tennessee has already played. That is the whole point of this game for the five guys up front.
Watch the first handful of series. Not the final score. If Tennessee is in third and long early and often, the line already lost the inch. If Bishop and Morris have holes to run through, this offense can look like a plan again. The skill players are not the mystery. The pocket is.
If they can move a middle tier SEC front in Neyland, last week stays what it was. A collision with a defense built to hunt. If the pocket still collapses on early downs, stop dressing it up. That is not scheme. That is not a freshman. That is five guys getting moved in their own building by a defense that is not special. That will warn of the serious problems to come and probably not the year we were hoping to see on Rocky Top.
Before the year I said this was the one Heupel could not drop, and the reason was the staff on the other sideline. More on that Here. Alex Golesh is back in Neyland in year one at Auburn. He used to run this offense. He knows where the protection is supposed to slide. If his group owns the afternoon, that is not a random October loss. That is the old coordinator walking into your house and taking it. The line is how you keep that from becoming the story. Auburn isn’t going to put up points in bunches on this Knowles defense. If The line moves people, the Vols win this one.
Turnovers will matter if this thing gets sloppy. Tennessee has given it away three times, all on the ground. Auburn is even. Six given, six taken. Five of theirs came through the air. Weather may have an impact in this one. That is a plot point. It is not the inch.
The inch is blocking. Saturday is the first time the excuses do not fit. Blow Auburn off the ball. Give Brandon a clean pocket.
Or settle into what’s going to be a tough watch the rest of this season.