Following the Leff plan

CULLMAN | It took Robert Leff more than four years to claim a starting spot at Auburn, but he made the most of it as a fifth-year senior in 2016 earning second-team All-SEC honors after starting 13 games at right tackle.

Two years later, offensive line coach J.B. Grimes sees another player on a similar track.

“You know, right now, I thought Bailey Sharp made some really good strides and tested very, very well at the end for Ryan Russell,” said Grimes of Sharp’s play during spring practice. “Bailey Sharp, in my opinion, can be like a Robert Leff who, for a long time, didn’t play a lot of football at Auburn. But he came on his senior year now, and really, it started with his junior year when we put a tight end jersey on him and we really, in 2015 in, he was pretty good coming in, and we were running the football because we were struggling throwing the football back then.

“I see Bailey as being that kind of guy. He’s developing. He’s just got to cut it loose and play. And if he’ll do that, then Bailey can be fine.”

Sharp, listed as 6-foot-5 and 307 pounds, has played in six games as a backup the past two seasons after redshirting in 2015. He will enter his junior season as the backup left tackle to Prince Tega Wanogho, who was one of the team’s most improved players this spring.

Grimes didn’t do a whole lot of position swapping on the offensive line during 15 spring practices so right now Sharp would substitute directly for Wanogho at left tackle in the event of an injury.

"Today, it would be Bailey. Today. That could change in the middle of camp, but today it would be Bailey,” Grimes said. “The thing you’d really have to debate there is how well they could make that transition to the other side, and Bailey’s already been there. That would be a good discussion you’d have as an offensive staff. It’s a good question. You always have contingency plans and as you get closer to actually playing a game, you really think about those contingency plans.

“Right now what I’m trying to do is get guys used to playing next to each other. For me, that’s a real big thing. That’s really important to getting those guys used to double-teaming a guy and passing off twists together and communicating with all those types of things. I really want to get them solidified on that as quickly as we possibly can.”