Auburn has high hopes for 2018 and while they return plenty of talent from a season ago, they aren’t without question marks. They can’t afford not to find answers in a loaded SEC West that allows practically no margin for error.
2017 Record: 10-4 (Conf: 7-1)
2018 Returning Starters: 13/22 (Offense: 7/11 | Defense: 6/11)
Returning Leaders:
2018 Outlook
In spite of the rumors swirling at the end of the 2017 season, Head coach, Gus Malzahn, repeatedly told members of the media that he wanted and planned to be at Auburn in 2018. He kept his word and then some by agreeing to a seven-year, $49 million contract extension just days after Auburn’s 28-7 loss to Georgia in the SEC Championship.
Christmas came early for Malzahn and the Tigers when Tennessee elected not to hire Kevin Steele, thus allowing Auburn’s second year DC to return for a third season as a member of Malzahn’s staff in 2018 as well.
For the first time since 2014, Malzahn’s second year as head coach, he leads a team to spring ball returning both his starting quarterback and defensive coordinator from the previous year. In addition to Steele and quarterback, Jarrett Stidham, Auburn also returns its top five receivers from 2017, along with several key players from the nation’s No. 12 scoring defense.
That kind of continuity usually spells success but not necessarily in the SEC West. Auburn’s 2018 schedule includes home matchups with LSU and Texas A&M and they go on the road to face Washington in the season opener and finish the season with trips to Athens and Tuscaloosa. To surpass the level of success they saw in 2017, they’ll likely need to win at least four of those five games and will have to do so without the services of running back, Kerryon Johnson who shouldered the load offensively in key wins over Georgia and Alabama a season ago.
Auburn enters the spring and the 2018 season as a playoff contender but they’ll need an All-American-caliber season from Stidham and a handful of players to step up on both sides of the ball to meet their lofty expectations.
Stidham, who stole the show in last year’s spring game, is not expected to play this weekend as he recovers from offseason shoulder surgery. With wide receivers Eli Stove and Will Hastings also sidelined until at least early fall, standouts from this spring will likely come from the running game and defensive side of the ball.