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Writer's pictureAhmed Ghafir

Scouting Maryland's bowl opponent: Auburn's offense

Maryland heads to Nashville today as they prepare to face Auburn in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Saturday afternoon. After taking on two ACC opponents in bowl games the past two seasons, the Terrapins will get to see how they stack up against an SEC foe. Auburn finished the season 6-6 in what was a rollercoaster year one under Hugh Freeze. Everyone remembers the Iron Bowl this season in which Auburn had fourth-ranked Alabama on the ropes until Jalen Milroe converted a 4th-and-31 into a touchdown to stun Tigers' fans. A valiant effort by Auburn, however, it came off the heels of an embarrassing performance after being humiliated by New Mexico State the week prior in a 31-10 loss. The Tigers have been the tale of two cities this season but are a formidable SEC foe.

As of Tuesday morning, Auburn remains a seven-point favorite over Maryland, but how do the Tigers fare against the Terps? In this article, we dive into Auburn's offense against Maryland's defense.

OverviewOpt-outs/transferred: QB Robby Ashford, WR Ja'Varrius Johnson, Omari Kelly, Malcolm Johnson Jr., Jyaire Shorter, TE Tyler Fromm Key Stats (SEC ranking) Rushing yards per game: 198.4 (3rd) Points per game: 27.3 (10th) Total yards per game: 355.5 (10th) Passing yards per game: 157 (14th)

Auburn's running game

The key to Auburn’s offense is their run game. Auburn ran for just over 198 yards per game and five yards per carry over the entire year. At quarterback for the Tigers is Payton Thorne, a name that may seem familiar to Terrapins fans as he suited up as Michigan State's starting quarterback last season. Thorne does not possess the best arm talent but is involved in the run game. Due to their lackluster pass game, Auburn relies on the run to get them where they need to go. The run game starts with junior running back, Jarquez Hunter. Hunter finished the season with 865 yards on 146 carries along with 7 touchdowns on the ground. Hunter averaged 5.9 yards per carry on the season. What made Hunter so successful was not only his own talent but the system he was in. Auburn head coach, Hugh Freeze, utilizes a zone run scheme similar to what you see from Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers at the pro level. Freeze tries to dial up gaps for his running backs through misdirection, motions, crack blocks, and pulling linemen.

What makes this scheme so successful is the personnel. Auburn will almost always have two tight ends in the game. One of these tight ends is usually senior Luke Deal. Deal is exactly what you are looking for in a blocking tight end. He has size, speed, and blocking ability to create room for his running backs. Auburn has most of its running success on the outside zone on off-tackle runs. Deal will motion before the play to generate speed to block defenders on the edge of the tackle box to create room for his running backs. Sometimes the tackles also join the tight ends in swinging across the line of scrimmage. Once the offensive lineman and tight ends are coming across, they set the lane for a patient running back to fly through for big gains. Auburn will use a lot of bunch formations to set up their zone run plays. This drags more defenders towards the line of scrimmage so they can set up their outside zones. Bunch formations close to where the ball is snapped also creates many misdirection possibilities. Auburn will bring speedy receiver, Ja’varrius Johnson in motion to create misdirection for their run plays. However, Johnson has since entered the transfer portal and will not play. Maryland is going to have to stay disciplined to stop this running attack. It will be key for players such as Donnell Brown and Kellen Wyatt to set the edge against these crack-back blocks. Perhaps red-shirt freshman, Neeo Avery will slot into this role as well.  If they stifle the swinging blocks, players such as Beau Brade and Caleb Wheatland can come in and make a play. It is great news for Maryland that Brade is opting in for the bowl game as his style of play is perfect to combat what Auburn is going to try to do. Auburn is going to scheme open runs but a player like Brade can fill those gaps and make it frustrating for players like Hunter. Linebackers such as Ruben Hyppolite will be challenged to stop Auburn’s tricky run attack, but the task will also be placed on younger players such as Mike Harris and Daniel Wingate. The absence of Jaishawn Barham could be difficult for Maryland to overcome in the run game, but time will tell if the young Terps are up for the task.

Below I inserted a typical play where the tight end and tackles are swinging to the other side for crack-back blocks.

An X-factor in Auburn’s run game is quarterback Payton Thorne. Thorne is sneaky athletic as he ran for 520 yards on 125 carries this season. The threat of the quarterback keeper is another wrinkle that makes this Auburn rushing attack so unpredictable. Thorne had his best games on the ground against Alabama (57 yards) and Arkansas (88 yards). Thorne found a lot of success on quarterback keepers during the fourth quarter against Alabama. Maryland's defensive line will have to stay disciplined as the threat of the pull by Thorne is real. Again, this will fall on edge defenders such as Wyatt and Brown as they cannot over-pursue the running backs with the threat of Thorne keeping it.

The entirety of Auburn’s offensive line will be available for the bowl game. The unit is a big, physical group that helped the team run for 245 yards against Alabama. Leading the line is their senior captain right guard, Kam Stutts. Stutts is flanked by his fellow senior guard, Gunner Britton to make for a scary interior. Despite having a strong interior offensive line, Auburn does not find much success on run plays up the middle. Auburn would rather Stutts and Britton to pull and get out into open space to block for outside zones. Maryland held up very well on inside runs by Michigan in their week 12 matchup. Defensive linemen such as Jordan Phillips and Tommy Akingbesote have been used to playing some of the best offensive lines in the nation. After Maryland went head-to-head against Michigan, Penn State and Ohio State, the line has proven they're battle-tested heading into a matchup against Auburn. Contributors such as Tre Colbert will have a chance to make one last impact in the run game while returners such as Daniel Owens will get more reps than usual. Maryland was top 30 in the country in run defense, and it is going to need all of it to compete with Auburn.

It is worth noting that Auburn utilized backup quarterback, Robert Ashford, in running situations but he entered the transfer portal and will not play.

Auburn's passing game

Auburn had a lot of deficiencies with their pass attack throughout the season and only threw for 157 yards in the air a game, ranking dead last in the SEC. After unsuccessfully prying Taulia Tagovailoa heading into the season, Freeze turned to Thorned as he threw for 1,671 yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Thorne is inconsistent as a passer with many of his throws being off the mark. Thorne does not take many shots down deep and usually keeps his passes before the sticks. His arm talent is nothing to write home about as both his power and accuracy leave a lot to be desired.

On top of mediocre quarterback play, a big portion of Auburn’s depth in the receiving corps exited the team via the transfer portal since the conclusion of the regular season. Four receivers entered the portal with Ja’Varrius Johnson’s departure leaving the biggest void at the position group. The fifth-year senior had a strong finish to the season and led Auburn’s wide receivers in yards and touchdowns this season. Starter Malcom Johnson Jr. also transferred out but was not productive. With the dust settled Auburn has just seven scholarship receivers available for the bowl game, and two of them—Nick Mardner and Kassidy Woods—haven’t caught a pass this season. I expect Auburn to go into heavier personnel more often. The Tigers don’t exactly want to live and die with a thin receiving corps in what has already been an inconsistent passing game this year.

Speaking of tight end involvement, there will be a fair amount of it in the passing game. Junior tight end Rivaldo Fairweather, who Maryland finished runner-up for out of the portal last offseason, led Auburn in both receiving yards and touchdowns and is more of a big-bodied receiver as he usually lines up in the slot. Despite being Auburn’s receiving leader, Fairweather only had 349 yards receiving and did not eclipse more than 62 yards in a game. Auburn will look for mismatches in the Terrapins' secondary to get Fairweather open. Terrapins safety Glen Miller has proven to be a physical defender who has been playing the slot and I expect Miller to be tasked with guarding Fairweather as he looks to grow his role into next season.

Although Auburn’s passing attack is not prolific, they still execute their route trees to scheme receivers open. The Tigers use a lot of delayed rub routes out of their bunch formations to get receivers open. They will start in a bunch formation, and this will force at least three defenders over to that side. The receivers, now all bunched up, will go separate directions, and delay their routes to get open. This confused defenders and worked numerous times against Alabama.

This play displays how the Auburn bunch formation creates openings for the receivers. Caleb Burton delays his slant route as two Alabama defenders take his teammate running a go route. The Terrapins are all going to have to be on the same page, especially if man coverage is the call against a bunch formation. Usually, a zone coverage call is more suitable to defend these types of plays. With many transfers in the secondary for Maryland, players such as Lionell Whittaker and Perry Fisher must be ready for delayed routes against the Tigers.

Auburn also does very well at “rub routes” and in man coverage, their skill players have been trained well to set up pick-plays to disrupt players. In this play, Ja’Varrius Johnson is in motion and is drawing man coverage. He ends up running a wheel route while his teammate is running a slant from the slot and disrupting the Alabama defender just enough to leave Johnson wide-open for the score. Maryland defenders need to be aware of this scheme from Auburn. Safeties Dante Trader Jr. and Beau Brade have to either invite contact to get a flag called or be athletic enough to avoid the pick and still defend the receiver.

Overall, Auburn’s offense has been inconsistent all season. The Tigers' receiving core was already thin but losing even more weapons did not bode well for the pass attack. The run game is going to be leaned on heavily for the Tigers for the majority of the afternoon. Maryland’s run defense was starting to become a strength towards the end of the season, especially against Michigan. The key for Maryland is Beau Brade. Brade leads the team in tackles and will have no lack of opportunities to make more against Auburn. Auburn’s zone run scheme will often get to the second level of the defense, with Brade’s speed to fill the gaps the senior could have a career day to end his Maryland tenure. With departures such as Corey Coley and Gavin Gibson, Maryland’s secondary is thin going into the bowl game. Joining Ja’Quan Sheppard and Tarheeb Still will be Lionel Whittaker and Perry Fisher. The two will certainly get a lot of looks as so far, they are the second and third corners on the depth chart for next season. Fortunately, Auburn’s weak passing attack got even weaker with the departure of their best receiver Ja’Varrius Johnson amongst others. Quarterback Payton Thorne also does not strike much fear into opponents. If Maryland can limit Auburn's success on the ground, the offense has a chance to outlast its SEC foe with multiple quarterbacks potentially taking reps for the Terps. https://open.spotify.com/episode/2Dq3JZnhHg4djlEoSF19yl?si=fe75327c0ac043da Related Links VIP: bowl prep, OL developments, confidence in vet (+)Young Terps: fallout from early signing period | OL development | basketball’s first road winBilly Edwards Jr. ready to lead Maryland’s QBs vs. AuburnDJ Glaze becomes second Terp to accept Reese’s Senior Bowl invitationJosh Kaltenberger ready to begin journey as Maryland’s next center

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