How Much Impact Could Will Muschamp Really Have on Auburn Defense?
When Gus Malzahn announced this past winter that former Florida head man Will Muschamp was going to be named the Tigers new defensive coordinator, cheers went up around The Plains.
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Before Muschamp became a head coach, he was known as a defensive genius from the Nick Saban coaching tree. His reputation took a huge hit when he was the head man down in Gainesville. Obviously, it wasn’t a big enough hit to keep him from getting another job.
Now that Muschamp is the new DC at Auburn, a lot of people are picking them to win the SEC, but how much impact will Muschamp really have in his first year? While the Auburn Tigers defense ranked nearly dead last in the conference in total defense, the Gators defense only was slightly better ranking 9th in total defense in the conference.
Muschamp’s Gators did rank better nationally as the 15th ranked defense in the country giving up an average of about 330 yards a game and only allowing 21 points per game. That’s a heck of a lot better than Auburn who was 64th in the country, almost giving up 400 yards a game.
However, in some of their bigger games last season, Florida did give up 30 points or more four times and three of the four were in loses. One of those loses was to Alabama which end up being Blake Sims’ coming out party. He and Amari Cooper burned the Gators secondary, which Auburn knows all too well.
But anything that Muschamp brings to this defense, has to be a heck of a lot better than what they produced last year. The Auburn defense has been a weak link for years. I’m not saying the Auburn’s defense won’t be better because I believe it will be, but for those who think it will be significantly better over night, might be disappointed.
Even a slight improvement still might be enough to carry Auburn to a national championship.
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