THE LOWE DOWN

Auburn’s prestigious RB spot up for grabs

Matt Lowe

April 15, 2015 at 4:01 pm.

 

Roc Thomas is a candidate to grab Auburn’s No.1 tailback position. (John Reed-USA TODAY Sports)

The Auburn running back position is one of the most heralded in college football.

From Tucker Frederickson to James Brooks to Bo Jackson to Lionel James to Stephen Davis to Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown and most recently Tre Mason, the Tigers have a long history of producing great runners.

But now that Gus Malzahn is at the controls of the Auburn program, the Tigers running back spot is producing in a way that it never has.

Just two years ago, when Malzahn’s crew went 12-2 and came within seconds of winning the national title, Auburn became the first team in SEC history to lead the nation in rushing (328.3 yards per game). Mason finished with 1,816 yards that year, which broke Bo Jackson’s single-season rushing mark of 1,786 yards set in 1983.

“Our offense is very versatile,” Mason said following the Tigers win over Missouri in the 2013 SEC Championship Game. “There’s so many different ways we can get players the ball using our other weapons, our receivers. We have a lot of talented running backs. (Malzahn) finds ways to get us the ball, and (the offensive line) opens up some of the biggest holes I’ve ever seen.”

Last year was more of the same for the Auburn ground game, which led the league in rushing for a second consecutive season. Cameron Artis-Payne, who backed up Mason in the Tigers historic worst-to-first run, finished third on the school’s all-time single-season rushing list after amassing 1,608 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground. His 123.7 yards per game led the conference and he was a Doak Walker Award semifinalist.

This year, it’s still too early to tell who will emerge as the de facto tailback on the Plains. Highly-touted 2014 signee Roc Thomas, who earned playing time as a true freshman a year ago and flashed elusiveness, is in the mix. So is bruiser Jovon Robinson, the top-ranked junior college running back in America according to Rivals.com, and Peyton Barber, a player Auburn fans have heard about but have yet to really see.

“I feel like everybody has a shot, everybody has a time, everybody has an opportunity,” Robinson told auburntigers.com. “I want the best for me obviously, but I feel like it’s a team effort. It’s Auburn’s shot.”

Whoever is given the keys to the Malzahn Ferrari (hey, when a position is producing like this it isn’t exactly a Pinto), he will be running behind an offensive line that returns three starters and quality depth. The Tigers should also benefit from the return of mauling guard Alex Kozan, who started every game and earned freshman All-American honors in the Tigers run to the national title game but was injured (back) prior to the 2014 campaign and was forced to miss the season. Kozan is a difference-maker when he is healthy.

“Our offense is based off a power running game,” Malzhan told me an interview following his first spring as the Tigers head coach. “All that stuff we do in the backfield doesn’t matter if we can’t line up and run it. That’s what we want to do first and foremost.”

In Auburn’s upcoming A-Day Game, Thomas, Robinson and Barber will get a chance to show what they can do in front of the home fans. And you can rest assured that the AU faithful will be watching closely. The reason: they know a tailback will emerge and put up numbers. But the question remains: which tailback will that be?

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