Paul Finebaum weighs in on Ron Roberts impact at Auburn

New Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze has begun his hiring process and recently filled in some empty coaching positions on his staff. One of those positions is defensive coordinator, where he’s hired former Baylor defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Ron Roberts. Roberts has been coaching under Dave Aranda at Baylor for the past three seasons, which made college football analyst Greg McElroy present the question to Paul Finebaum, can Roberts have a similar impact on Auburn as Aranda did during his time at LSU?

“Greg it’s hard to imagine anybody having that type of impact, but you’re right, he’s got a good reputation,” Finebaum said.

Aranda was the defensive coordinator for LSU for four seasons, helping lead them to a National Champion victory in 2019 before becoming Baylor’s head coach. Roberts comes from the same coaching tree and could be bringing those successful and proven principles to Auburn, that according to Finebaum have not exactly always been present within the program.

“I think the key to Auburn is what they’re doing now, they’re getting the right people in place because I think it’s pretty obvious in recent years, at least in the Harsin years, the right people were never completely in place,” Finebaum explained. “Malzahn had some good coordinators at times, especially on defense with Kevin Steele.”

Auburn’s defense could definitely use a jump start, ranked the second-worst scoring defense only behind Vanderbilt in the SEC this season giving up 29.5 points per game. Baylor held opponents to 26.6. points per game this season, but held them to just 19.2 per game a year prior when the Bears had one of the nation’s top defenses and won the Big 12 Championship.

“I think it’s a really good start, but if you’re going from the Dave Aranda tree however you want to classify it and the Art Briles tree on both sides of the ball you’re bringing in a heavy load at Auburn,” Finebaum said.

Finebaum is referring to Freeze’s recent offensive coordinator hire Philip Montgomery, who was most recently the head coach at Tulsa. Montgomery also spent time at Baylor for eight seasons under Art Briles before becoming Tulsa’s head coach in 2015. He led Tulsa to four bowl game appearances and one conference championship during his eight-year tenure.

Freeze’s hiring so far has been on the right track according to Finebaum, but only time will truly tell if he found the right men for the job once the 2023 season gets underway.