Auburn Football: Team Awards after First Third of Season

Most Disappointing – T.J. Neal

As mentioned before, coming into this season we had no idea what the linebacker position was going to look like. It was by far the most inexperienced unit on the Auburn football team.

However, incoming senior transfer T.J. Neal was thought to be able to come right in and add some much needed experience to a young group.

He had 109 tackles for Illinois in 2015, which was more tackles than all the other linebackers on Auburn’s team combined before the season started.

Many thought he would make the transition over to the SEC, pick up 100 tackles again and improve is stock for the NFL Draft.

I was shocked when the first depth chart was released to see that not only was T.J. Neal not at middle linebacker, but he wasn’t even the clear starter at strong-side linebacker.

Then after the Clemson game in which he got very little playing-time, he went on rant on Twitter, leading him to be suspended for the Arkansas State game.

Now four games into the season, T.J. Neal is basically an afterthought in this Auburn defense with just 1 tackle to his credit.

There is still a chance that Neal could have a major impact on this defense the rest of the way, especially if a starter gets hurt, but there is no denying that he’s been a major disappointment for this team after transferring over from Illinois.

Honorable Mention:

Marcus Davis: 13 catches, 100 yards, 7.7 yard average, 0 touchdowns

Byron Cowart: 2 tackles and 1 forced fumble

Next: Daniel Carlson