Cole Cubelic ranks Auburn’s O-Line No. 3 in SEC: 'It's been a long time since we've had a discussion like this'

Former Auburn offensive lineman and current college football analyst for ESPN Cole Cubelic released his top five SEC offensive line rankings. Auburn landed at No. 3 in his ranking. His entire ranking:

5. Florida
4. Alabama
3. Auburn
2. Texas A&m
1. Georgia

Cubelic went in-depth on why Auburn’s offensive line is his No. 3 best offensive line unit in the SEC and one step above Alabama’s.

Introduction, reasoning for ranking

Cubelic admits that he’s worried about ranking Auburn’s offensive line in the top five as he has been burned by this before. However, he thinks this group has the most potential of any Tigers’ offensive line room in a while.

“My No. 3 offensive line headed into the 2025 season in the SEC is the Auburn Tigers. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a discussion like this. Point blank, I’ll be the first one to admit it: it’s obviously not a comfortable conversation because there have been a few of them along the way that we all sort of bought into and thought about and said, ‘Maybe, probably, could be…’ This is the one that looks like it has the most potential.“

Connor Lew one of the best centers in the SEC?

Cubelic shifts to Auburn starting center Connor Lew, comparing him to other top centers in the SEC.

“So, you have Connor Lew back at center and your middle three all had over 730 snaps last year. That’s left guard, right guard, and center. That’s a lot of reps together. Now, you’re in year two of the system, you have a better understanding of what it’s going to ask of you, how you’re going to operate in it, what details are going to need to be taken care of in order to be successful.

“I think Connor Lew, right there with (Alabama center Parker Brailsford) and a couple others we will talk about (Florida center Jake Slaughter) have a chance to be the best center in the SEC. It’s going to be a dog fight to get that No. 1 first-team All-SEC center spot this year. There are four or five that I think have a chance to be really good football players. Lew is great: he’s athletic, he can get out in space, he can climb to the second level, and he’s got that nasty, the demeanor–plays the game in the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Jeremiah Wright is a tone-setter

Cubelic is a big fan of veteran offensive guard Jeremiah Wright.

“Jeremiah Wright has the weight down a little bit, under control. He’s coming back for one more year. He needed it. Also, playbook, understanding of the offense is more on-point with him. He is a tone-setter. He is the one who can set the attitude, honestly, for the entire offense. He can move your ass out of the way. He can be a mean ‘mfer’ when he’s out there on the field.”

Depth at tackle, Xavier Chaplin

Cubelic calls the additions of Xavier Chaplin and Mason Murphy upgrades over what the Tigers had a year ago. He likes that Dillon Wade can help at tackle if needed. He likes Tyler Johnson. He sees a good situation at tackle–for the first time in a long while.

You have Dillon Wade, who has elite athleticism at his size, has played tackle. So, if you get in a bind and you need him to go to tackle, he has the ability to do that. But, you should be good at tackle for the first time that I can maybe remember since I was in school.

So, your middle three should be fine, then you get the tackle, you bring in Xavier Chaplin from Virginia Tech. Big, tall, long, long arms. Now, he doesn’t have great lower body flexibility, he’s got a clean pass set, a good punch, he does begin to turn his waist to the sideline just a little bit too quickly in pass pro sometimes. Sometimes, he tries to get away with winning in pass pro with his eyes instead of his body and that is not going to help. But, I think he’s a solid football player who has played a bunch of football against high level competition.

On the other side of that, you’ve got Mason Murphy from USC–a guy that moves well and moves well laterally. You could see him moving to being a guard at the next level, but he’s got great reps at tackle and I think he’s going to be better–I think both of these guys are upgrades from what Auburn had last year–specifically on the left side. That ain’t even close.

Then you take Tyler Johnson, who was coming on late last year at tackle. Then, Izavion Miller, who has played both tackles, you have real depth at both tackle spots and you don’t have to swing them. So, Tyler Johnson could get all the reps either at left or right. Izavion Miller could get reps at just left or right all the way through.

There are not a lot of teams that can say so and so is our second right guard, so and so is our second left tackle and go across the board that way. You might have one or two, maybe at center or one of your tackle spots, but usually your best offensive lineman is next up and he might be your No. 2 left guard or No. 2 right tackle. Your starting left guard might be your No. 2 right tackle. All of the sudden, it’s a two-for-one when a guy gets dinged up.

Having two tackles, that at any point, can come in on the left and one come in on the right, if that is the way coach Jake Thornton wants to go, could be absolutely massive for this Auburn football team.

It is a team that should have the options out wide to draw a lot of attention and give them lighter boxes. Now, are they going to be as good at running back? No. Are they going to have as much at tight end? Probably not–that’s one of my bigger concerns for the team. But, you’ve got a mobile quarterback that is going to widen those defensive ends, widen those linebackers and bring extra attention to the perimeter along with a good group of receivers, which should really open things up for them to win the numbers in the box often–that is advantage Auburn offensive line.

I look at this group having depth in a lot of different places. Really Bradyn Joiner, the only one with a ton of experience is gone, but you bring in two tackles that were better than what you had. Now, that continuity has to grow and they have to find that. But, I’m going to use a little bit of a projection here and say that I think that group gets it figured out and is a top three offensive line in the SEC this year.”