Auburn Team Preview: 2010 Season

Gene Chizik's first year was a successful one. Auburn started out 5-0 but things quickly took a turn for the worst and ended the season 8-5 with a victory over Northwestern Wildcats in the Outback Bowl. Year two under Chizik plans to be even better. Auburn could easily win 9 games on their schedule, if they don't slip up like they did last year to Kentucky. Before they can talk about winning it all starts and ends with incoming transfer Cameron Newton at Quarterback. The JUCO transfer might have more mobility than Chris Todd did but his smarts and accuracy are not as good as Todd's. Gus Malzahn has plenty of weapons to plan his offense around starting with runningback Mario Fannin, but the Tigers also have one of the best kept secrets in the SEC, wide receiver Darvin Adams. The defense will need Josh Bynes to led them but expect plenty of incoming freshman to receive plenty of meaningful minutes due to lack of depth.

2010 Schedule and Predictions
September 4 Arkansas State W- 42-0
September 9 @ Mississippi State W- 35-14
September 18 Clemson W- 28-27
September 25 South Carolina L- 20-21
October 2 Louisiana Monroe W- 42-14
October 9 @ Kentucky W- 28-24
October 16 Arkansas L- 7-28
October 23 LSU L- 14-21
October 30 @ Ole Miss W- 38-24
November 6 UT-Chattanooga W- 56-0
November 13 Georgia W- 35-28
November 26 @ Alabama L 24-33

2010 Predicted Results- 8-4 Overall, 4-4 SEC Fourth Place in SEC West

2010 Projected Depth Chart

Offense
QB- Cameron Newton
RB- Mario Fannin (pictured right)
RB- Onterio McCalebb
WR- Terrell Zachery
WR- Darvin Adams
TE- Philip Lutzkirchen
OT- Lee Ziemba
OT- Shon Coleman
OG- Mike Berry
OG- Byron Isom
C- Ryan Pugh
K- Wes Byrum

Defense
DE- Antoine Carter
DT- Mike Blanc
DT- Nick Fairly
DE- Michael Goggans
LB- Craig Stevens
LB- Josh Bynes (pictured left)
LB- Eltoro Freeman
CB- Demond Washington
CB- Nieko Thorpe
FS- Mike Slade
SS- Darren Bates
P- Ryan Shoemaker

2009 Stat Leaders
QB- Chris Todd 198-328 cmp-att, 2612-yds, 60.4 comp%, 22-6 td-int
RB- Ben Tate 263-car, 1362-yds, 5.2-ypc, 10-td
RB- Onterio McCalebb 105-car, 565-yds, 5.4-ypc, 4-td
WR- Darvin Adams 60-rec, 997-yards, 16.6-ypr, 10-td
WR- Terrell Zachery 26-rec, 477-yds, 18.3-ypr, 5-td

2010 Recruiting Recap

Top 3 Recruits
Shon Coleman OL *****
Michael Dyer RB *****
Camercon Newton QB *****