Auburn football wants to have 6 receivers and... 3.5 running backs?
Alex Golesh and his staff have a vision of how many skill players they'll use in their rotations. Let's try to sort out those races so far in camp.
AUBURN — If spring practice and summer work are all about getting familiar, fall camp all about finding separation.
Alex Golesh said last week that his new-look Auburn offense is “further ahead” than he expected at this point in the preseason. He attributed a lot of that to the fact that players don’t go home in the summers anymore — they stay on campus and go through OTAs, working as much ball as possible without it being organized practices.
There will always be room to improve with technique, as well as the Xs and Os. That will be the case any time a team takes the field. But for the next several weeks, as the Tigers get closer to the season opener against Baylor in Atlanta, a crucial goal is identifying who you can actually trust when the games start counting soon.
And the two position groups on offense with arguably the most opportunities available are running back and wide receiver. The quarterback job has been locked up by Byrum Brown, of course. Offensive lines want depth but don’t really rotate. And it’s unclear right now just how many players Auburn wants to employ at tight end.
But Golesh has been on the record recently as saying exactly what he prefers in his rotations at running back and wide receiver. The latter group is pretty straightforward, as he detailed before SEC Media Days in Tampa last month.
“In a perfect world, you want to play six and possibly package a seventh and an eighth guy with some unique things,” Golesh said. “Inevitably, with injuries, you want to have eight that you feel really good about, where you are constantly rotating six.”
When it comes to running back? Well, Golesh gave a rather unique answer when I asked him about his preferred running back rotation last week.
“I think in the perfect world, I’ve always told our offensive staff you need three and a half ready to go into a game,” Golesh said last Tuesday, prior to the start of fall camp.
Three… and a half? Did Shaun Shivers get an extra year of eligibility somewhere?
“Naturally, those guys take a good beating,” Golesh continued. “Like, you gotta go into the season with five, and then as guys get banged up, you want to have three and a half. I say three and a half. We’ve always looked at it as two guys that truly rotate drive to drive, and then a third guy that’s ready to sub in at any point.”
So, it’s five? Or four? Or is it two — and an extra third?
“I would say we want a whole number four, not three and a half,” Auburn offensive coordinator Joel Gordon said a few minutes after Golesh ended his press conference.
The good news for Auburn is that it has the numbers to be able to answer whatever type of question it wants at running back this season.
The Tigers have four different players who were leading rushers at FBS schools last season, plus two more backs who are entering their second seasons on the Plains.
“You need three-and-a-half, four guys that are complete backs, ready to roll,” Golesh said. “And I do think there’s enough depth in there for us to have an elite run game behind those guys. The quarterback’s a good ball carrier, too, so it should add up.”
The same level of confidence can be found in the receiver room, even though there are only a couple of true upperclassmen with experience there.
“I think it’s feasible,” said wide receivers coach Kodi Burns, who came back to his alma mater after working with this offensive staff at USF. “I think the goal is build depth, right? We gotta develop these young guys. We have guys with experience. But, at the same time, it’s all about development in this camp. And as we continue to grow each and every day, get detailed even more and more every single practice, that’s the goal is to get really two-deep at every single position.
“When you’re an 11 personnel team, and you’re two-deep at every position, that gets you about six. And we’d like ideally anywhere from six to eight. So as we get two-deep at every position, every single year at some point — knock on wood, you wanna be injury free — but injuries happen. So that’s where number seven and eight build your depth on your roster at the receiver position.”
Auburn still has about a month to go before it has to line up for real against Baylor, so there is plenty of time for players to make moves and challenge for spots in these shifting rotations.
But you can already start to see where the separation is forming at both running back and wide receiver. While nothing is set in stone yet and there’s no real “depth chart” yet, it’s not hard to project what feels locked up and what is still up for grabs out there.
As the Tigers go through their first off day of fall camp Monday, let’s break down where things stand at these two spots on the field, based on what we’ve seen and heard recently. And we’ll start with the clearer number to hit: The receiver one.
