Former Auburn OL Cole Cubelic Heaps Praise on Tigers Center

Auburn Tigers center Connor Lew is more than just a glue guy. He doesn't just keep the locker room together. Many believe that the quarterback is the unquestioned team leader on offense.

However, ask any successful quarterback (or coach for that matter) how important their center is to the team. They will tell you, to a man, how much the center is the de facto voice on the team.

If the offensive line moves as one unit, then Connor Lew is the brain and heart of the operation.

Whenever Lew decides to move on to the next level of football, he will cap an astounding career. You do not see many true freshmen start at center in the SEC. With future NFL draft picks lined up on the other side of the line of scrimmage in the SEC, throwing a young player to the metaphorical wolves isn’t a recipe for success.  

However, Lew flourished, nailing down a starting spot and being the catalyst for the offense. 

Cole Cubelic knows what it takes to play center on The Plains. For five seasons, he toiled in the middle of the offensive line for the Tigers; he gave Lew the highest compliment on his Cube Show podcast.

“I think Connor Lew, right there with [Alabama center Parker] Brailsford and a couple more we're gonna talk about, [Florida center] Jake Slaughter we already have, have a chance to be the best center in the SEC. It’s going to be a dogfight to get that No. 1, first-team All-SEC center spot this year,” Cubelic said via his podcast. 

"There's 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 nastiness, the demeanor, plays the game in the way it’s supposed to be played.”

Think about that praise for a second. Slaughter is considered by many as the top center in the nation, not just the conference. And to think that the junior from Kennesaw, Ga., hasn't played for a winning team. 

That means he excels despite the struggling and nonsense all around him. If Auburn wins at least seven games this season and Jackson Arnold sees his name on various award watch lists, that will happen at the hands and feet of a player that occupies a position that is increasingly difficult to play.