Auburn football: It’s not Kam Martin or bust in Tigers’ backfield for 2018

With less than two weeks from the Sept. 1 season opener against Washington in Atlanta, it looks like the Auburn football team is handing the first opportunity in the backfield to Kam Martin.

Gus Malzahn hasn’t announced an official starter for the Week 1 matchup, but Martin exited spring practice as the frontrunner and has appeared to hold onto it throughout fall camp despite the best efforts from redshirt freshman JaTarvious Whitlow, freshman Asa Martin and freshman Shaun Shivers.

When you look at Martin’s body of work in his first two seasons at Auburn, four games jump out at you:

• Oct. 22, 2016 vs. Arkansas: Martin ran seven times for 80 yards with a 51-yard touchdown run.
• Nov. 19, 2016 vs. Alabama A&M: With many starters getting some rest before the Iron Bowl, Martin carried 21 times for 176 yards with TD runs of 18 and 17 yards.
• Sept. 2, 2017 vs. Georgia Southern: Ran 14 times for 136 yards with a 36-yard touchdown run.
• Nov. 18, 2017 vs. Louisiana-Monroe: Ran 12 times for 83 yards with a 1-yard scoring run and caught one pass for a 41-yard touchdown.

That’s just four games, but it provides an adequate snapshot of what Martin is capable of doing when given the opportunity.

But we know what you’re thinking. Outside of that 56-3 blowout win against Arkansas in 2016, what has he done against SEC opponents?

So we added up the numbers and found this over the two-year span:

Carries: 51
Yards: 297
Yards per carry: 5.8
Touchdowns: 1

In the two games against Georgia last season and one against Alabama, he totaled 10 attempts for 36 yards. What can you read into that? Not much.

But what you can take away from this information is this: Martin has big-play potential. In an effort to improve his pass blocking and role as a runner, he added around 10 pounds from last season to this season (from 182 in 2017 to the 193 he’s listed on this season’s roster).

Another good thing about this situation is that everything isn’t on Martin’s shoulders. The competition for carries entering the 2018 season has been fierce. Whitlow will get carries. Asa Martin likely sees the field early in the season. Shivers is too fast to not find situations to give him the ball. Then you also have Malik Miller, who’s been slowed by an injury this fall. Don’t forget about freshman Harold Joiner, who stands 6-4 and 214 pounds, or sophomore Devan Barrett, who slid over to receiver, but could still see time in the backfield.

Each of those running backs eventually could be Auburn’s lead back, whether it’s this season, 2019 or sometime beyond.

The future is bright on the Plains. We just wrote about how loaded Auburn football is at wide receiver. And quarterback is getting into a better spot depth and talent-wise than it’s been at any time under Malzahn.

Look at running back now, where the Tigers are deeper than they’ve been in years.

Malzahn, offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and running backs coach Tim Horton have all types of options that fit different situations.

That should be fun to watch in 2018.