Auburn’s Nall focused on current players

By Robert Rousseau  |   Monday, June 16, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Auburn Tigers
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Auburn Tigers offensive line coach Hugh Nall certainly knows his stuff. After all, he was formerly a four-year O-lineman for the Georgia Bulldogs, even winning a national championship with them in 1980.

Of course, that by itself is hardly the pedigree for a good line coach. However, after serving as a Georgia student assistant, Nall went on to coach the offensive line at Georgia Southern (1981-84), Texas Christian (1989-92), and Mississippi (1995-98) before joining the Tigers in '99. Heck, he even was named associate head coach while at Texas Christian and worked with the defensive line from 1993-94.

Now that’s pedigree.

Still, some have been all over him the last couple of seasons because of the Tigers’ poor line play. On the flip side, it should be noted that he has coached guys like Marcus McNeill, Ben Grubbs, Tim Duckworth, Ben Nowland, Kendall Simmons, Monreko Crittenden and Danny Lindsey while with the Tigers. Regardless as to whether the criticism is fair, this is a world focused on what people have done lately.

And lately, Nall’s units haven’t been that great. The good news is that Auburn is bringing back some significant talent on the line this season. Also, it seems Nall -- as opposed to recruiting -- has really been focused on coaching the line these days. When you look at the recruiting numbers over the past couple of seasons -- something that everyone knows Nall does well -- it seems as if the line's play may have caused him to leave championing high school students to others a tad.

During the 2006 and 2007 seasons, Rivals named Nall one of the top 25 recruiters in the nation He was largely responsible for bringing in guys like Lee Ziemba, Kodi Burns, Adam Herring, A.J. Greene, Kyle Coulahan, and Chris Zinn in 2007. However, in 2008 Nall was perhaps a little less active on the recruiting trail, only securing Andre Wadley, DeRon Furr, and Jermaine Johnson. Thus far in 2009, Nall hasn’t secured any verbal commitments.

Could that just represent a short period of bad luck? Sure. Again, though, this may also be the kind of good news that doesn't look like it at first. After all, Nall is a senior line coach who's now being asked to learn a new offense under coordinator Tony Franklin. Further, he has a solid young nucleus on the line with which to work this season -- perhaps more talent than he’s had over either of the past two years.

Those are good reasons for Nall to be working toward improving his understanding of the offense and working on utilizing the players he already has, not chasing new ones.

Regardless, expect Auburn’s line play to improve in 2008; it would be hard for it not to. And when that happens, whether Nall, James Willis, or anyone else is involved, look for more high school linemen to choose Auburn.

Recruits love to play for a successful offense. It's that simple.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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