When it comes to Auburn football’s prospects in the upcoming 2021 season, most people point to what the team is capable of from an improvement standpoint. Not often enough are the Tigers’ triumphs from the 2020 season highlighted.
Which makes sense. The 2020 campaign had enough things go wrong for a major coaching staff facelift to be necessary by the end of it.
That said, there were highlights all over the Tigers on all sides of the ball. Wide receiver duo Anthony Schwartz and Seth Williams hauled in over 100 receptions combined and now project to hear their names selected on Day 2 (or 3) of the NFL Draft at the end of April. Jamien Sherwood improved the holes in his game and is now projected to be a Day 2 choice himself. K.J. Britt impressed enough at the Senior Bowl to get looks from the New York Giants, Chicago Bears, and Philadelphia Eagles.
Smoke Monday stood out as a defensive leader, and Nick Brahms shined for Bo Nix’s five-man front.
Then, there was Tank Bigsby.
A man named Tank can only be a weapon of war for a historical Power 5 powerhouse that just produced an NFL starting-caliber RB in Kerry Johnson in 2018. In 2020, he was just that, averaging six yards per carry and scoring five touchdowns in ten games for Auburn football.
Tank’s TD tally and downhill dominance in the running game as a freshman helped boost his profile as one of the top sophomores, and Brad Shepard listed him as an honorable mention in his list of top returning sophomores in 2021:
"Even with COVID-19 robbing most programs of spring practice (and swaths of the season) in 2020, that held true once again. Plenty of freshmen became household names, and those guys are going to be superstar sophomores in 2021.There are just too many elite players to include everybody in a top-10 list.Your top group may include players such as Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, receivers Kayshon Boutte (LSU), Marvin Mims (Oklahoma) and Bru McCoy (USC), tight end Michael Mayer (Notre Dame), running backs Tank Bigsby (Auburn), Deuce Vaughn (Kansas State) and Zach Evans (TCU) or offensive tackle Peter Skoronski (Northwestern)."
As you can see, the list of those that didn’t make the top 10 is a murder’s row, but when you have 130 schools between 10 conferences (and a few independents scattered in), arguing on behalf of Tank against Shepard’s list of top-tier talent from Division I FBS football is a fruitless endeavor.
What isn’t is staying glued to the T.V. this fall to see Bigsby take another step towards being the next great Tiger to go from Auburn football star to fantasy football hero in the NFL.