March 26, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- As J.B. Grimes looks to retool an offensive line that lost four seniors from a year ago, the young men standing across the line of scrimmage from his players are not making it any easier on them.
It's not been easy on the running backs either. Sure, JaTarvious Whitlow broke off a big run in Saturday's scrimmage, but he had to reverse fields just to find a crease. Plus, head coach Gus Malzahn hinted that it came against the second-team defense. Good luck finding any running room against Auburn's first-team defensive line.
There's a reason the defense fared better in Saturday's scrimmage. It starts at the line of scrimmage with one of the best defensive lines in the SEC.
"The defense did pretty good," defensive lineman Marlon Davidson said. "(We) got some good things on tape, and it went as we expected with us coming out being physical, making tackles, effort and everything. It's how we normally do it always."
Davidson is joined up front this spring by Dontavius Russell, Derrick Brown and Nick Coe. Between them, they finished with 174 tackles, 26.5 tackles for loss and 12 sacks a season ago. But what they do goes behind the number of tackles or sacks. They affect the whole defense by taking on double teams and getting pressure on the quarterback.
"It helps a lot," linebacker Darrell Williams said. "Coach T-Will (Travis Williams) always tells us, `Take advantage of those guys because those guys will be gone soon, and you don't get a chance to play behind good guys like that all the time, taking up double teams and stuff like that.' It's good. It lets you play more freely. They free you up a lot."
The hope is that Auburn's defensive line will also improve the offensive line and help Grimes find the right combination up front.
It might not look that way this spring, but going against players like Davidson, Russell, Brown and Coe every day in practice will only make the offensive linemen better and more equipped by the time the season gets here and they're going toe-to-toe against Washington's defensive line.
"You know the saying `iron sharpens iron?' It's good competition every day," offensive lineman Marquel Harrell said. "Those guys are some of the best defensive tackles in the country, especially in the SEC, so going against those guys every day -- you're going to get better. You have no choice if you want to play."
"We do have one of the best defensive lines in college football," added Malzahn. "There's no doubt about that. But at the same time, we always strive to have one of the best offensive lines. That's the goal. We'll just see how things are moving forward."
So while the offensive line might struggle at times this spring, don't forget that they might not go against a more talented defensive line all season.
As for the defensive line? They'll just keep doing what they're doing.
"We're more experienced now with me, Dontavius, Andrew (Williams), Derrick and Nick Coe, and we all got years under our belt," Davidson said. "Now we all know how it'll go down in a game. Everything is going to come easy to us because we've already been through that. It's just like another day."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf