Fly War Eagle
Fansided

Auburn football: The best player from each team on the Tigers’ 2020 schedule

By Cole McCauley

Detailed view of Auburn Tigers helmets (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Detailed view of Auburn Tigers helmets (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 12
Next
Members of the Alcorn State Braves (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images)
Members of the Alcorn State Braves (Photo by Michael Chang/Getty Images) /

Auburn opens up their 2020 season with what should be an easy win. Alcorn State may be an FCS school which generally means a lower level of talent but, the Braves did win nine games last season and won their second-straight SWAC conference title — you don’t do that without some pretty solid talent.

Leading the pack for an offense that averaged 33.6 points per game last season is senior quarterback Felix Harper. At 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, Harper may not look like a traditional QB but make no mistake — Harper is an absolute superstar.

As a RS junior in 2019, Harper completed 60.4 percent of his passes for 2,954 yards, 33 touchdowns and nine interceptions. But Harper can make plays on the ground too. He added six additional TDs last season with his legs.

For his efforts, Harper was named the SWAC Offensive Player of the Year and was one of the four finalists for HBCU Player of the Year.

Even more impressive is the fact that Harper entered the season as No. 2 on the depth chart but only stepped in when 2018 SWAC Offensive Player of the Year, Noah Johnson went down with an injury in the third game of the season.

Honorable mentions: Lazarious Pinder and Qwynnterrio Cole

Sam Howell #7 of the North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)
Sam Howell #7 of the North Carolina Tar Heels (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

A marquee, neutral-site matchup against a talented UNC squad should be must-watch TV and the reason why is, even though the Tarheels only won seven games last season, they have the personnel to be dark horse contenders in the ACC this year.

Like Alcorn State, the impressive North Carolina offense is led by sophomore QB Sam Howell. Not only was Howell the best freshman quarterback in the country last year, he was also just one of the best QB’s bar none.

The former Florida State commit showed from day one that he was special and last season he completed 61.4 percent of his passes for 3,641 yards, 38 touchdowns and seven interceptions while also adding one more TD on the ground.

Howell beat out Clemson superstar Trevor Lawrence in terms of yards per game (280.1) and passing touchdowns in the ACC. In fact, Howell’s 38 passing TDs ranked fourth in the entire FBS last season.

He’s only going to get better as the Tarheels return the majority of their offense from last season. If they’re not careful, Auburn could very well have their hands full with this sophomore signal-caller.

Honorable mentions: Chazz Surratt and Dazz Newsome

Home/Auburn Football