One of the most anticipated spring practices in memory has begun on the Plains of Auburn and for the first time since before Jason Campbell's sophomore year has the starting quarterback position been this up in the air.Fitting that four candidates have emerged to replace three-year starter Brandon Cox behind center, Kodi Burns, Chris Todd, Neil Caudle and DeRon Furr. Like this year's presidential election, the favorite at the end of each practice could change depending on which way the wind is blowing. Though WRAS believes that two will emerge after the spring and head into fall as co-number ones, sophomore Kodi Burns and junior Chris Todd.
Burns was picked by Coach Tuberville as the number one candidate to be the starter heading into the spring and deservedly so as he showed flashes during the season, especially during the Chik-Fil-A Bowl. To come in and play as well as he did, beginning with the Mississippi State game, with not many repetitions during fall camp shows he is a great talent but raw in areas. No one doubts his athleticism but can he throw the ball with the accuracy demanded of the offense that hopes to keep defenses off-balance?
Todd looks to be the perfect fit for Coach Tony Franklin's Spread Eagle System with solid accuracy, good size at 6'2" and 212 pounds and decent speed as he was clocked at 4.7 in the 40 yard dash. WRAS hasn't seen Todd in action yet but likes his knowledge of the offense and work ethic as he has stayed after practice throwing with a wide receiver even after 200 reps during practice.
One thing WRAS knows for sure, the gameplan of the Clemson game will need to be more two-dimensional during the 2008 season. When Cox was in, Auburn threw the ball, when Kodi was in, Auburn ran. If Todd is not able to run the ball with consistency then he will not hold on to the job, same with Kodi if he is not able to command the offense at 100% as Coach Franklin needs.
The goal of the Spread Eagle is to keep defenses off-balance and not being able to substitute while running from very similar looking sets. To do this adequately defenses need to not be sure what play will be run no matter which quarterback is in the game. Combine that with the number of plays Auburn plans to run and the hits that the quarterback position will take this year leads WRAS to believe that a two-quarterback system will be in place, but only time, spring and fall practices will tell.
photographs by Todd Van Emst and auburnsports.com
3 comments:
I'm REALLY not a fan of the "spread eagle" moniker. 3 years of Brandon Cox as a starter will do that! Too often, he was splayed out on the field like a broken pretzel. "Spread Eagle" sounds too much like an anemic offense that "assumes the position," which is NEVER a good thing against SEC defenses. Why not something simple, a non-girly name like the "shotgun?" We Auburn folk can identify with that. Most of us have one. (I'm partial to military stocks and long, extra-capacity magazines.)
And so, no more of the "Spread Eagle." I prefer "Elephant Gun," myself. Aimed at SPUAT, of course!
I think we'll see Kodi on top. He's run the spread. He was in command, doing it, in the Peach Bowl, against the number six defense in the nation. He's made his freshman mistakes. You need a scrambler, when the D decides to bring 7 or 8, against your 5 linemen. As long as we don't see the panicky Burns, like we did at Homecoming last year, and he can set his feet and make good throws, it's Kodi's race to lose.
Chris Todd is an enigma. I've not seen him play. Clearly, Franklin is high on him. On the other hand, Todd has NOT faced a back seven like he'll see this spring. Our returnees there can break on a ball like nothing Todd's ever seen before. He's going to get pressured, and he's going to have to find a way to fit balls into covered receivers. It's going to be a learning curve. And you KNOW Tubs/Rhoads isn't going to take it easy on him!
Believe it or not, I still think Caudle has a chance to make some noise. He ran a spread attack in high school, and was a good runner. The key is for him to stay healthy. Can he still run, on repaired knees? Kid had an arm, too, at least till his falling on his shoulder last August. He's totally green, as far as the SEC. Just like Chris Todd. Caudle may be one of those guys like Michael Henig over at MSU. Talented, but bad injury luck.
Furr ran a quality offense over at Briarwood, last year. For a highly respected Christian private school, they had a NASTY team. Brutal. Furr was, too. He won't back down, but he's also less experienced than the rest of the candidates, and has plenty of athletic upside to get on the field early, elsewhere. We DO have a serious depth issue at safety, and were willing to play a true freshman backup, last year (Mike McNeil)...
Should be a fun game to watch. As always, I'll DVR the A-day game, and obsess over it all summer!
War Eagle! Elephant Gun!
Not to be mean, and I figure you guys were waiting for an Auburn person to point it out...
That banner at the top doesn't look like Shug and Wire. It looks to me like Thatch and North College!
acid reign-
we came up with spread eagle as a combination of the spread offense and war eagle.
elephant gun is great and may have to use that a little bit, especially during alabama week.
also, couldn't find a pic of wire road and shug jordan drive so we went with a pic of campus. next time i'm in auburn i'm going to take some pics of WRAS and try that out.
thanks for the comments and keep reading!
war eagle,
WRAS
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