08/28 at 10:12 PM

Lee Ziemba knows just one player on Arkansas State’s roster — maybe. And he knows there are bigger, tougher and more important games ahead on Auburn’s schedule.

But Saturday’s primetime kickoff will mean so much more for the cornerstone of Auburn’s veteran-heavy offensive line.

It’s not just because Ziemba passed up opportunities aplenty at the next level to return to Auburn for his senior year. That’s what has made this entire season significant, not just the first game.
Arkansas State, though, was the first school to notice the young left tackle from Rogers (Ark.) High School. A scholarship offer from the Red Wolves arrived in Ziemba’s mailbox midway through his sophomore year, the first of “about 30.”

It was the only team he ever made his “favorite” on the video game NCAA Football ’07.

“It was just neat getting that first scholarship offer,” Ziemba said. “You always have a soft place in your heart for the first school that offers you.”

So much has changed for Ziemba since that first offer.

Ziemba got bigger and better, and by the time he was a senior, he was considered the top-ranked high school player in Arkansas and the No. 4 offensive lineman in the country. He settled on Auburn weeks before Signing Day, opting to join an offensive line supervised by the old-school Hugh Nall, his chief recruiter.

His first offensive coordinator was Al Borges in 2007. He liked Ziemba the way he was, big and strong. His second in 2008 was Tony Franklin, who wanted him leaner and faster.

An entire coaching overhaul came in 2009, bringing in Gus Malzahn at offensive coordinator and Jeff Grimes as his new, direct supervisor. Both wanted the Ziemba of old, a big mean left tackle that could have the offense built around him.

One constant remained throughout all the turnover: Ziemba stayed healthy and kept starting. If he starts all 12 regular season games this season, he’ll set an Auburn record for most starts in a career.

Benchmarks like that are one of the many reasons why Ziemba came back to Auburn for one more year.

“He and I talked a lot about what his goals were, what he was trying to accomplish,” Grimes said. “He talked a lot about being an All-American, being the best tackle in the country and doing all those things, being a great leader for his team and doing things that would separate him from all the other people that play his position.”

To do that, Ziemba has undergone a transformation that, like Auburn as whole, is designed to make him go from good to great.

“I’m sure he would say that he’s got a lot of stuff that he can work on, as do most players who want to be the best player at their position in the country,” center Ryan Pugh said. “I don’t think he’s worried about anything else but making sure that he’s the best he can be every Saturday of the year.”

At 6-foot-8 and 319 pounds, Ziemba doesn’t typically have to worry about an opponent out-sizing him. That advantage has allowed him to largely dominate his area of the field by simply toying with his opposition, standing tall and wide as his quarterback enjoys the peace of mind from a safe blindside.

He just hadn’t been shielding defenders with the best possible technique and body control. That realization signaled an entire tactical overhaul during the spring, a challenge Ziemba embraced.

Days after the A-Day game, Ziemba was named Auburn’s most improved player by his coaches. It’s an award that’s not typically bestowed upon someone that is already established as one of the best on the team.

“He went from here to there,” Grimes said, moving his hands from eye-level to well above his head. “He made a huge jump in terms of his technique and his body control and his focus. That certainly carried over to this fall and we’re expecting him to play that way on Saturdays.”

Ziemba describes the changes he’s made to his body positioning with the detailed expertise of an offensive line coach.

Ever since he was in high school, Ziemba had a tendency to lunge at his defenders. This caused him to duck his head into an awkward position and, in turn, put himself in a poor stance.

It didn’t matter much when he did it in high school. He simply manhandled his inferior opponents with ease.

In college, of course, the margin for error is so much smaller.

“He’s an aggressive kid, so he wants to go knock everybody out on every play,” Grimes said. “In real football, that doesn’t happen.”

One bad step or one lunge can set off a chain reaction of terrible events that can inevitably end with the quarterback’s face buried into the ground.

“I had been bad at that,” Ziemba said. “It made it really tough. If you didn’t just physically dominate a guy, you’d get thrown off that block and you weren’t sustaining your blocks very long.

“Just bad habits and things like that. I think we’re finally getting that corrected.”

The transition was harder than it sounds. Ziemba is taller than most linemen, so there are, as coach Gene Chizik would say, more moving parts.

The focus of Ziemba’s spring and summer focused solely on the area of his game that few outside observers would notice, even if they were told to look for it specifically.

“It’s just repetition,” Ziemba said. “We did so much that if you do it right every time, it becomes a habit just like anything else. Just like putting on your seatbelt when you get in the car.”

Ziemba is considered by most scouting services as a top 10 offensive tackle heading into the 2011 NFL Draft. For a player as established as Ziemba, there’s not too much he can do during his senior season to show scouts something they don’t already know, Grimes said.

Unless, of course, he “goes from being a good player to a great player,” he said.

“That’s certainly what his goals are,” Grimes said, “and certainly what they’re looking for.”

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