Auburn's D-line working to make up ground on 60-sack goal
AUBURN– Defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding made a goal with the Auburn defense this year to record at least 60 total sacks.
With three games in the books, the Tigers have recorded just four sacks on the year. Against Penn State, the defense didn’t have a single one. If divided equally among the 12 games, the defense should be producing five sacks per game to reach their goal.
The closest Auburn came to this was against San Jose State, when they recorded three sacks.
Derick Hall, Keionte Scott, Eku Leota, and Marcus Harris have each contributed one sack this season.
Harris brought up the goal of 60 sacks in his press conference on Wednesday and he seemed to have full faith that the defense could still reach the goal.
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“…As a defense we have a goal on how many sacks we want on the year and we’re not accomplishing that right now, but I feel like we’ve got the guys that are going to get to it and keep working,” Harris said. “We’re not going to give up on that. We’ve still got a high standard for sacks and we’re going to get that by the end of the year.”
When asked what he thought the defense needed to do to be able to get back on track to reach the goal, he talked about getting ‘back to the drawing board.’ Harris said that they needed to remember how the defense produced sacks last season and basically repeat those actions.
“As a defense, we set that goal, so we’re trying hard to get that,” Harris said.
With nine games left in the regular season, Auburn’s defense will need over six sacks per game to reach the goal of 60. Of the nine opponents, Georgia, Western Kentucky, Ole Miss and Missouri are all ranked nationally in the Top 25 for fewest sacks allowed so far this season, making this an extremely tough challenge for the Tigers.
