The Auburn football team is experiencing almost the worst-case scenario so far in the 2022 season. Fans spend each week wondering if it will be head coach Bryan Harsin’s last game, and in every matchup so far it’s like the Tigers have taken one step forward but two steps back.
The Tigers’ offense has been struggling so badly this season in part because the offensive line has not been very powerful. They have had a hard time establishing an identity, and both the rushing and passing games have been unsuccessful at different times throughout the season.
However, this past weekend at Ole Miss finally seemed to provide a breakthrough for the offense. With so many players battling injuries, there has been a lot of shifting at the line of scrimmage. Starting center Tate Johnson, the replacement for the medically-retired Nick Brahms, suffered a season-ending injury, and Austin Troxell and Alec Jackson are injured, as well.
Holes on the roster gave junior offensive lineman Jeremiah Wright an opportunity, and he made the most of it in Oxford. Wright was originally recruited by Auburn football as an offensive lineman but switched over to the role of reserve defensive tackle before his first season in 2020.
He did not see game action in 2021 while recovering from surgery but roared back into action this past weekend with the highest run-blocking grade of all the o-linemen, according to PFF. With sub-par performances so far from many of the other linemen and two weeks to prepare for the Tigers’ next opponent, it’s likely that we’ll see Wright putting in the work once more against Arkansas when Auburn hosts Arkansas on October 29.
With three games still to be won if the Tigers want to make a post-season bowl game, there is a lot of work to be done, but having Jeremiah Wright on the offensive line is clearly helping a lot.