When it comes to Auburn football and the players with the most to prove during the 2016 season, a popular — and good — pick would likely be senior wide receiver Tony Stevens. After all, he stands 6-foot-4, weighs 205 pounds, and was a consensus four-star recruit in the 2013 high school class with Rivals ranking him among the top 100 players in the country.
It certainly seemed like a big moment when, just a few weeks shy of Signing Day, Stevens flipped his commitment from Texas A&M to Auburn. But the Orlando, Fla., product has accounted for just 267 yards and two touchdowns through three seasons.
It is true that the upcoming year is huge for Stevens, particularly with Auburn desperately needing wideouts to step up – and step up in a major way.
There is a void — which doubles as a golden opportunity for Stevens — that hasn’t been filled since Sammie Coates departed for the NFL after the 2014 season and the behavior of D’haquille “Duke” Williams cost him millions during the 2015 iteration.
But in spite of the above, the player with the most to prove — and with the most untapped potential — is junior running back Racean “Roc” Thomas.
Like Stevens, Thomas was tabbed as ultra-talented by both the Tigers coaching staff and the recruiting services. Thomas was ranked out of Oxford (Ala.) High School as a top-15 player nationally in the class of 2014 by both Rivals and Scout.
Though it’s been just two seasons, the services, Auburn, and Thomas himself all had higher expectations for the consensus five-star than 475 yards on the ground, 227 yards through the air, and four total touchdowns.
In fact, after two years at Auburn, it’s possible that Thomas is more associated with his fumble on the first play from scrimmage in the 2014 Iron Bowl — where, thinking it was an incomplete pass, he gave up on a lateral from Nick Marshall — than anything positive on Pat Dye Field at Jordan–Hare Stadium or anywhere else.
While not a prototypical every-down back — and not likely to get many touches as one at Auburn in 2016 due to the rise of Jovon Robinson — the potential is there for Thomas to provide more of something the Auburn offense was missing terribly last season – explosive plays.
It will take Gus Malzahn — who also has much to prove this season — getting his offense back to hitting on all cylinders. Should that occur, Thomas could provide quite the spark in the speed-back role previously staffed in Malzahn’s attack by Onterio McCalebb from 2009 to 2011 and Corey Grant in 2013 and 2014.
During those years, McCalebb would build the bulk of his career numbers that would leave him — in what will likely surprise many — at No. 10 on Auburn’s all-time rushing list. McCalebb ran for more yards on the ground in a Tigers uniform than Stacy Danley, James Joseph, James Bostic, and Lionel James.
At primarily speed-back, McCalebb and Grant ran for more than 3,000 yards, averaged almost 7.0 yards per carry, and posted 27 touchdowns.
McCalebb and Grant appeared to have more straight-line speed, but Thomas is quicker, and on the buck sweep, a speed-back specialty, that is at least as important and, in the open field, it may be even more-so.
It speaks to his big-play ability that, despite Peyton Barber, Jovon Robinson, and Kerryon Johnson having a combined 407 carries to just 43 for Thomas, it was Thomas who had the longest run from scrimmage last season.
And while, to his credit, McCalebb worked himself into a solid option out of the backfield, catching 32 balls for over 300 yards in 2011, Thomas is a more natural receiver than either McCalebb or Grant. It was Thomas who had the second-longest reception of 2015 for Auburn, only five yards shy of a 56-yarder by Ricardo Louis, despite only hauling in 11 of the team’s 179 receptions.
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It’s going to take Thomas putting in the work, of course — and it’s going to take some luck.
Malzahn has to recapture the magic, and Thomas’ abilities would best be maximized alongside a quarterback of John Franklin III’s skill-set, working off of a zone-read attack.
But no matter the quarterback, Thomas will need to do the work necessary to tap into his sizable potential.
And unless the latest round of highly touted prospects like Nate Craig-Myers, Kyle Davis, or others show up on campus ready to dominate out of the gate, it seems that, if Auburn football is going to reach its own potential to improve on last season, they are going to need Thomas’ promise to be realized.