Auburn Spring Practice
Auburn defensive coordinator Will Muschamp works with players during spring practice Tuesday, April 14, 2015, at the Auburn Athletic Complex in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/ jbennett@al.com)
Confidence breeds success in football.
Auburn's defense learned that lesson the hard way in 2014.
"We hit a wall," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "We lost some confidence."
The Tigers ended the season with a thud, allowing a school-record 31 points or more against the final seven Power 5 opponents on the schedule. The Tigers failed to beat their final four big-name opponents and Malzahn, following a 55-44 loss to rival Alabama, fired defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson and quickly hired Will Muschamp to remedy the problem.
The struggles last season stemmed from the lack of a pass rush, resulting in less than two sacks per game (98th nationally) and Johnson taking chances to generate pressure elsewhere on the field. The approach rarely worked and opponents took advantage with great success.
Amid the struggles, the players took a hit mentally, too.
"I feel like we lost confidence as a team in general and on our defense, we lost confidence," All-SEC cornerback Jonathan Jones said. "We have to be able to maintain that confidence and handle adversity."
That's where Muschamp comes in. He's the last coordinator to lead Auburn to a top-10 finish in scoring and total defense (2007) nationally. In the seven seasons following Muschamp's departure, Auburn finished in the top 30 nationally on defense only once (2008). Even the Tigers' national championship team in 2010 failed to crack the top 50.
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Muschamp's rebuilding project started in the spring with a confidence-building performance at the A-Day game, where the 24-14 score hardly resembled the results of a 58-3 scoring fest in 2014. Safety Tray Matthews, a Georgia transfer, was heavy with the hyperbole following the scrimmage.
"The defense is going to be one of the greatest defenses I think the world's ever seen coming out of Auburn University," he said. "We're going back to the old defense back in the day."
Defensive end Carl Lawson's return from knee surgery should provide a spark at defensive end, and so should the addition of newcomer Byron Cowart, the nation's No. 1 end on the prep level.
The Tigers also have plenty of experience at linebacker, where Kris Frost and Cassanova McKinzy return after weighing a jump to the NFL.
"I'm more confident now than I feel like I've ever been," Frost said. "Going into my senior year, knowing the things that I know and being older, I feel like I'm more mature, as well as our team being more mature. We have a whole lot of upside to our team and I know when me and guys like Cassanova, when we move on to the next level, those guys are just going to fly. ... This year I feel like is going to be extremely special."
Much like Malzahn's first season as coach in 2013, wounds need to heal and scars need to be erased.
"I wasn't here last year, so I can't really speak upon what happened last year, but I will say our guys, right now, they're pretty confident in their abilities, they're pretty confident in our scheme and them understanding what we're trying to do and when we're trying to do it," secondary coach Travaris Robinson said. "They'll be fine."