Auburn’s Marks must show more consistency

By John McMullen  |   Friday, August 22, 2008  |  Comments( 0 )

Auburn Tigers
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As the season approaches, hopes remain high for the Auburn Tigers.

A consensus top-20 team, most preseason prognosticators have the Tigers nestled around 10 or 11. They're slated to be a top-tier club that's a notch below perennial powerhouses like USC and Ohio State as well as SEC rival Georgia.

If Auburn is to take the next step and be mentioned in the same breath as the big boys, everything has to fall into place.

On defense that means the team's top player, junior tackle Sen'Derrick Marks, must be dominant from the opening snap.

The preseason accolades are already piling up for Marks -- who was named to the watch lists for the Bronko Nagurski Award and Outland Trophy, and he was a Playboy Preseason All-American. Most recently Marks was named as one of 35 "players to watch" by the Walter Camp Football Foundation for its player of the year award.

Lofty praise indeed for a defender who already has started in 26 consecutive games during his career, tallying 82 tackles, including 20 for loss and 5.5 quarterback sacks.

As a sophomore in 2007, Marks registered 43 tackles, nine tackles for loss, a pair of sacks, seven quarterback hurries, two pass breakups, a fumble recovery, a forced fumble and an interception. He also blocked two kicks.

That is a lot of big-play production from a defensive lineman.

Still, there's room for improvement. Head coach Tommy Tuberville would love to see a more consistent motor and a better understanding of the team's pass-rush packages by Marks.

Although the 6-foot-1, 288-pound Marks is a bit undersized, he possesses the speed and quickness to be a difference maker. Talent and consistency are two different things, however, and for the Tigers to be a national contender, Marks has to figure out how to match his prodigious talent and athletic ability with the consistency true superstars are able to show each week.

He also must step up and seize a leadership position on a defense that got off to a slow start in recent practices.

"We made a lot of mental mistakes," Tuberville said after a recent scrimmage. "The effort looked like it tried to be good. We looked like we were running with leg weights on, but there were some good things. We made some plays and I thought defensively we stepped up about the middle of practice. We played well on defense and then we just kind of lost our concentration."

Tuberville's words were clearly a message to a talented defense that has a penchant for taking plays off every now and again. That's a definition that has also fit Marks to this point in his career,

Whether that can be fixed by August when the Tigers welcome Louisiana-Monroe to Jordan-Hare Stadium is up for debate. And only Marks and company hold the answer.
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the...
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