Ole Miss Football: Auburn Preview with Fly War Eagle

We previewed Auburn with Jake Mastroianni of Fly War Eagle to discuss the game on Saturday.

What has changed for Auburn offensively since the beginning of the season?

Things have just become a lot simpler. At the beginning of the season Gus Malzahn was trying to do too much and be too cute.

We ran a lot of plays behind the line of scrimmage that defenses were ready for, and it put us in a lot of bad spots.

Since Rhett Lashlee took over play-calling duties I think he simplified the playbook for Sean White, and developed a plan around the personnel we have.

White has proven that he can be accurate in the short passing game, and our offensive line has done of great job of run blocking.

This isn’t the type of offense Auburn fans are used to seeing under Gus Malzahn, but it works with the personnel we have in place at this time.

Along the same lines, how has the mood on Gus Malzahn’s job changed within the past month or so?

We all know that winning cures everything, and since the win over LSU there hasn’t been much talk about Gus Malzahn’s job security, or lack thereof.

It goes along with the first question, I think he realized that what he was trying to do with the offense wasn’t going to work with this personnel, so he turned things over to Lashlee.

That realization has saved his job for the time being.

Is this the best defensive line at Auburn you can remember?

I certainly think this is the best defensive line that I can remember. The groups including the late great Quentin Groves, as well as the 2010 team that included Nick Fairly, were pretty good as well.

However, I haven’t seen a group like this in a long time. We all knew coming into the season that Carl Lawson could be a first round draft pick, and he has certainly played like it lately.

Freshman Marlon Davidson looks anything but a freshman out there. He has been highly impressive to me this year.

Defensive tackle Montravius Adams might be having the best year of all of them though. Not only has he plugged up the middle to stop the run, he’s proven that he has the speed to get after the quarterback. He has 22 tackles, 6 tackles for a loss and 3 sacks.

The three I just named have combined for 18 tackles for a loss and 12 sacks.

The guys backing them up – Dontavius Russell, Derrick Brown, Devaroe Lawrence and Byron Cowart – are really good players too, they just get overshadowed.

So yes, this is the best Auburn defensive line I can remember. It’s full with a lot of youth and talent.

After Roc Thomas left and Jovon Robinson was dismissed, did you see the running game being this good?

I honestly did not. I had my concerns about Kerryon Johnson as he’d yet to carry a full work load in college football. But after seeing him run hard against Clemson those concerns quickly went ahead.

And then the highlight reel run he made against Arkansas State definitely put my mind at ease. He’s a freakish athlete and will be another great Auburn running back.

This big surprise is Kamryn Pettway. He was basically being labeled as an H-back before the season started, but he looks like Jerome Bettis out there. It’s been quite incredible watching him run all over Mississippi State and Arkansas these past two games.

Don’t forget that we also lost Malik Miller, who was third on the depth chart, to injury earlier in the season.

We are definitely thin at running back, but the ones we have are more than good enough to get the job done.

How do you see the game playing out on Saturday?

I did my preview this afternoon, and I think this is a very similar matchup to what we saw against Arkansas last weekend.

Ole Miss is really good on offense, particularly throwing the football, but they struggle to stop the run.

If we can get enough pressure on Chad Kelly like we did against Austin Allen, I think our defense limits the big plays that Ole Miss relies on.

Then our offense just has to pound away on the ground, work the clock and convert touchdowns when in the red zone.

I’ll admit that I was a lot more scared of this game coming into the season, but I think Auburn matches up really well with Ole Miss.