Heading into the 2015 season, Jeremy Johnson was the quarterback everyone was talking about. The Auburn player was predicted as a Heisman trophy candidate. Instead, Paxton Lynch is the quarterback on everyone's mind as the Memphis star looks to up his draft status with one more win as the Tigers take on Auburn in the Birmingham Bowl.
With NFL Draft a few months away, Lynch is being predicted as potentially the first quarterback taken off the board. The Tigers went 9-3 with several big wins on the season thanks to the arm of the quarterback. Memphis has come a long ways from the teams that went 4-8 and 3-9 on the season. With Lynch under center they quickly improved to 10-3 in 2014 and now 9-3 in 2015. At one point the team was ranked No.13 in the country and now Lynch is the quarterback in the spotlight as the Tigers aim to hand Auburn their third straight postseason loss.
Lynch will end his college career having set records in passing yards with 3,670 and touchdowns with 28 on the season. The quarterback has yet to declare for the NFL Draft as a junior, but with his head coach Justin Fuente headed to Virginia Tech to replace Frank Beamer, many believe the quarterback is headed out this season. Thanks to the quarterback, the Memphis offense ranks 13th in total yards per game and seventh in scoring with an average of 42.7 points per game. With Will Muschamp out in Auburn, the Tigers' defense could be in for a long night against Lynch and his trio of wide receivers.
The Auburn defense was supposed to be unstoppable this season with Muschamp taking over and instead they gave up an average 421.8 yards per game and ranking 90th nationally. They also ranked 12th in the SEC with 232.2 yards per game. The Tigers defense was ugly, which caused Muschamp to leave and somehow get hired as the head coach at South Carolina.
The Tigers offense was also not great. The team dropped four of its last six games. Johnson may or may not get the starting job. He lost it to Sean White who then suffered a knee injury. Johnson played against Alabama while being forced to rely heavily on Peyton Barber and Jovon Robinson who rushed for 976 yards and 513 yards respectfully. With the quarterback play inconsistent, the best thing the Tigers can do is run the ball as much as possible. Both Barber and Robinson have showed they can carry the offense when needed. Memphis has a decent defense that can give Johnson a headache. Running the ball will give Auburn a chance to stay in the game.
