Is Auburn's Defense Turning the Corner?

As I watched Auburn do battle in Manhattan last Thursday night, struggling to move the ball, relying on a stout defense, fighting for the young life of an undefeated season, I had déjà vu.

I realized I had already watched this game before. In fact, I had watched many more just like it.

From 1999 to 2008, Tommy Tuberville carved out a legacy as one of Auburn football’s greatest coaches. He had eight winning seasons, coached an undefeated SEC championship team, and posted a 7-3 record against Alabama, winning an Auburn-best six Iron Bowls in a row.

How did he do it?

The staple of a Tommy Tuberville team was a bruising running game combined with a dominant defense. It’s how he posted seven records of eight wins or better in his time at Auburn. And a 20-14 score wasn’t very unusual to see with Coach Tubs on the sideline.

All of a sudden, the déjà vu made sense. I was watching an Auburn game from the Tuberville era. The offense was struggling, and while it moved the ball when it mattered, it was the defense that saved the day.

Many, if not most, of the games Auburn won under Tuberville were won in such a fashion. He branded Auburn football as tough, physical, and disciplined. No bells and whistles, just smashmouth, hardnosed football.

So as I watched the Auburn defense emerge victorious over Jake Waters and the Kansas State offense, the inevitable question came to mind: is Auburn’s defense finally good again?

It’s a question I’ve been disappointed to find the answer to in recent years. Ever since the less than pleasant departure of Tommy Tuberville after the 2008 season, Auburn’s defense has never quite been the same.

Since the 2009 season, Auburn’s defense has never had a better scoring defense than its 2010 mark of 24.1 points per game. The national championship season also produced Auburn’s best total defense since 2009, giving up 368.4 yards per game. And since Tuberville left, Auburn’s turnover margin has never been higher than plus-five.

Needless to say, the effort has been quite lackluster by comparison.

This year, however, Auburn’s defense appears to be turning the corner. Through three games, the Tigers are giving up 16 points a game (tied for 13^th best nationally) and 310.7 yards a game (23^rd nationally). Their turnover margin is plus-three, and all of this points to a drastic turnaround for a defensive group that has been highly criticized for the past five seasons.

Could this really be the year that Auburn’s defense finally returns to an elite level? A level that so many Auburn fans grew accustomed to during the Tuberville era, and so many times yearn for again?

These early indications tell me that it could be. Through three games, I’ve seen the best tackling, gap play, and intensity that I’ve seen out of Auburn in years.

It pained me to watch a once mighty unit get shredded by the ever-evolving offenses of college football, never seeming to have everyone covered, missing tackles in the open field. Through three games, at least, it seems those days could be behind us.

And for the rest of the nation, that’s a frightening notion. The last thing an Auburn opponent needs is a suffocating defense to go along with a virtually unstoppable offense.

That kind of defense has been the missing piece of the puzzle, the one thing keeping Auburn from being truly elite in its successful campaigns the past few years. And now, Ellis Johnson might have them at that level.

At the very least, he has them headed in the right direction. And that should scare the rest of college football.