Having never met anything about which he would not whine and complain, Tummy Tuberville has had himself quite a career. Whether it’s moaning about the BCS, or just how gosh darn hard the over-hyped SEC may be, Tommy always finds a way to play victim despite having won 5 of the last 7 SEC West championships. (Note to Tommy: That doesn’t sound like a very balanced division.)

This year may be different. And while we probably ranked Auburn this high on mostly reputation, it looks like there’s a 50/50 chance that Auburn’s domination of the SEC West could come to a bit of an end as they look to have just 12 returning starters, including probably the least experienced offensive line in Tommy’s tenure. They also find themselves playing at Florida, LSU, and Georgia this year - a bit trickier than last year’s set-up, thru which they went 11-2.

Offense: Brandon Cox figures to start at QB this year, as he did last, but to say the guy is injury prone is an understatement. A career 59% passer, Cox is still trying to fill Jason Cambell’s big shoes. They have a bevy of talent at RB (as they almost always do), and a talented, though not easily recognized, squad at receiver.

Defense: Keep an eye out for a guy named Quentin Groves. He’s just 4 short of the Auburn all-time career sacks record. Still, despite some real talent on this squad, they need to shore up their rushing defense a bit, looking particularly week in 2006.

Special Teams: A BIG question mark. In sum, they must replace a kicker that had 51 touchbacks in 66 kick-offs, a punter with a 45.7 yard average, and a place kicker that hit 20 of 24 with a long of 55 last season. Watch these stats closely this year.

Facts:

• The Tigers return 5 starters on offense and 7 on defense.
• They barely beat Nebraska in the Cotton bowl last year (score: 17-14)
• Last year, they won 5 games by a TD or less.
• In 2006, the Tigers beat National Champs Florida 27-17, but lost to unranked Georgia 15-37

HLS Top 25 Meta:

• Highest spot on a HLS Ballot: 12
• Lowest spot on a HLS Ballot: 20
• Average ranking on HLS Ballots: 15.5

Why Alex Trebek Loves Them:

• Auburn University is the first land grant colleg in “the South.”

Around the Web:

• Football Saturday in the South
• The Auburner

HLS Tracker 10 Forecast Technology Says:

Expect a lot of whining. A lot. Having to play LSU, Florida, and Georgia all on the road is the perfect storm for the sort of person like Tommy Tuberville. There’s no denying that those 3 teams are and should be quite good, but, ya know what, Tommy, a lot of teams not named Michigan have to play tough teams during the season. We can’t all schedule Akron. I doubt Tommy can win another SEC West championship this year, unless that “enormous parity” in the division spells out a lot of teams beating each other in poorly played football games.

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