The Dye-Gest: Auburn Faces Challenging Schedule

Published Feb. 9, 2011 8:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

By Pat Dye
AUTigers.com
February 9, 2011

It is not hard to see why the 2010 Auburn football team had great leadership.

First of all there was a senior dominated offensive line that had been through a tough season two years back and was especially hungry to have success.

The team also featured veteran receivers like Terrell Zachery, Kodi Burns and Darvin Adams, who were all great leaders.

Then a new quarterback comes into the mix and Cameron Newton was unquestionably a great leader so everything fell into place for the offense.

On the defensive side of the ball those players might have had some questions about how they were playing, but as the season went along they kept improving and making key plays when games were on the line. By the end of the season there was great leadership on that side of the ball, too, with seniors like Josh Bynes, Zac Etheridge and Zach Clayton stepping up as leaders. I would put Aairon Savage into that category, too, before got hurt and had to miss most of the season.

As the season went along the chemistry got better and better on defense and I think by the end of the season that group was playing pretty close to its potential.

Coach Gene Chizik's Tigers defeated Oregon 22-19 in the BCS Championship Game to give the Tigers their first unbeaten season since the 2005 Tigers won all of their games.

The catalyst to the 14-0 season was the older guys changing the mindset of the team and the younger guys buying into the goals of the older guys who weren