As a way to unify his players, and maybe sell a few T-shirts, Gene Chizik typically has his teams carry a motto into its upcoming season.

The one established this summer by strength and conditioning coach Kevin Yoxall has embraced the elevated expectations Auburn will face in Chizik's second year.

Eight ain't it.

"Eight ain't it because eight (wins) ain't going to get you nowhere," senior linebacker Josh Bynes said during SEC Media Days. "It will get us back to the Outback Bowl or the Champs Sports Bowl, something like that. That's not what our plan is this year."

The plan for Auburn last season was just to reclaim bowl eligibility one year after missing out on the postseason for the first time in nine years. Despite a dearth of depth caused by unprecedented attrition over the previous five years, Auburn raced to a 5-0 start, struggled at the midway point, but did more than enough, finishing 7-5 and landing a spot in the New Year's Day Outback Bowl.

In one of the more entertaining bowl games of 2009, Auburn escaped with a 38-35 win over Northwestern to finish with eight wins and a surge of momentum.

That won't be good enough for the Tigers this season.

"There's obviously been some big expectations," Bynes said.

With a huge senior class, a hot-shot junior college transfer quarterback in Cameron Newton, 15 returning starters and a 30-man signing class that is expected to provide depth at a number of positions, there are tangible reasons why Auburn should expect better.

Kick in a favorable schedule that features eight home games and three winnable road games (Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Kentucky), and some have gone as far as to predict the Tigers and Alabama to both be undefeated for the Nov. 26 Iron Bowl.

Chizik wouldn't go that far during his time on the podium at SEC Media Days, but the buzz around his program, which has his entire stamp on it at this point, is certainly at a different level of intensity.

"At this time last year, we were trying to figure out who our football team was," Chizik said. "We were trying to break the huddle. Now, we're trying to really focus on being a great football team."

A quarterback has been named -- an absolute rarity around Auburn over the past few years -- and there are few position battles that have to be settled before the season opener against Arkansas State. Outside of what appears to be a one-sided battle between junior college transfers Brandon Mosley and Roszell Gayden at right tackle, the next-most intriguing battle could be at punter.

That's how far Auburn has come in a year. Now, 2010 will be about how far it can go.

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