As far as size, from what I’ve read around the blogosphere, our OL is gaining weight. That was a major area of concern last season. Why Franklin thought we could go toe-to-toe 265-285 pounds against 325 pounds is a mystery. Sure, velocity can add some, but you aren’t going to get any appreciable velocity differential from one or two steps.

Leg strength matters in offensive linemen. And one of my nitpicks against Miss St is that their OL was fat. Yeah, they were big, but they were fat and huffing and puffing after awhile. Still, mass is mass, and even a strong well-conditioned guy is going to be puffing after pushing 325 around every play.

Our ball carriers are looking good. Anytime you can get a lot of guys at a position, then rotations will work in your favor. And I hope we employ the put-everybody-in-at-once strategy that worked for us in 2004.

Tubby would usually only put Cadillac in, and then to give him a rest he’d put Ronnie Brown in. Way too predictable. We made our best gains when both were in because the defense could not load up on one guy.

Now, add to that kind of thinking a dual-threat QB and even if he can’t throw great, you have the defense waiting an extra second or two before committing to a line of attack.

Just because you don’t have a great passing QB, you can still capitalize on misdirection, options, and reverses. Heck, something as simple as a pump fake followed by a keeper can make hole for three or four yards.

…..but sometimes he throws some non-sequitors out there, such as his statement that he couldn’t see Trooper Taylor being a strategist. Based on what?

…..And then there’s the fact-checking thing. In the Roof piece, he states that Roof played for Georgia tech, and that they went 1-2 against Auburn in 1984, 85 and 86. NO. Roof was 0-3 against Auburn. That was the Bill Curry era, and he never beat Auburn. In 1984, we outscored Tech in a wild one at Jordan Hare, 48-34. It felt almost like a loss in Atlanta in 1985, as Tech was getting the best of us much of the game, but then Bo Jackson shook off about 3 tackles, turned the corner, and went the distance. We eeked it out, 17-14. Auburn smacked Tech pretty good in Auburn, in 1986. 31-10.

…..As to Auburn’s size, we’re actually bigger at linebacker (starters, anyway) than we’ve been since Carlos Dansby and Dontarrious Thomas played in ‘03. Still not at the 235-240 range you’d like, but in this day of chasing little scat backs and slot receivers, I think we’ll be ok.