SEC about to finish off Auburn's tradition?

Is this a picture of Mike Slive?

Continuing the theme from my last post, this latest news has our roller coaster going down and I mean REALLY DOWN...   The news is the SEC possibly stopping the Auburn vs. Georgia game, the best football rivalry in age and stats-wise in possibly all of sports, as a continuous series.  Yes, I mean reducing "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry" to Auburn vs. Vanderbilt level.  Think about that.  I am trying not to completely lose it on this but if they cancel the Auburn vs. Georgia series then what is the point?

If we do not move to the East and they do this, it is just not Auburn football anymore!  They have taken Tennessee from us, then Florida and now maybe Georgia?  All for Arkansas, South Carolina, Texas A&M and Missouri???  I understood all the arguments I am hearing now when the SEC expanded the first time.  There was also a good reason, to get the SEC championship game which I love.  Now it seems like we are splitting into two conferences and our only continuous games will be Arkansas, Bama, LSU, Texas A&M and the two Mississippi schools and then playing our real rivals every few years. This is the last test for Jay Jacobs, he lets this happen and finishes throwing away our tradition except for playing the stupid Iron Bowl he will in one way ruin Auburn football forever.

I would gladly give up the Bama game for Georgia.  I would gladly join the SEC East and get all our old rivals back and give up the Iron Bowl.  The Iron Bowl is not an enjoyable game and is only good when the game is over and you have won.  Of course even our latest and maybe greatest win in the series cost us a large part of our tradition at Toomer's Corner.  I actually enjoy the Georgia game.  I look forward to it.  I enjoy the lead up to it and the game (most of the time) and everything about the rivalry.  I know they will never cancel the stupid Iron Bowl but I just wanted to make a point.

Putting Auburn in the East or going to a nine game conference schedule seem to be the only way to save this series.  However Bama has stopped our move to the East and no one wants a nine game conference schedule even though they want to expand again???  All these morons running this conference seem to have no clue what they are doing.  You expand to 14 teams but act like a nine game conference schedule (which the Big 10 and Pac 12 already play) in a crazy idea?  Did they think this thing through at all?

I mean how stupid do you have to be to mess with the most successful conference in college sports?  You have won six national titles in a row and even had both teams in the game this year.  Yet you are dumb enough to drastically change it because "everyone else is expanding"?  Again there was a reason for going to twelve teams, what is the reason to go beyond it?  Just a little bit more money to the pile of it you are already making?  And then to do it you kill two of the greatest rivalries in the SEC in Auburn vs. Georgia and Bama vs. Tennessee?  To add two middling Big 12 schools out of the SEC geographical area?  Staying within the defined geographical area is one of the reasons the SEC has been so successful in my opinion.

It is just pure greed.  I am all for making money but when you start sacrificing the things that made you successful you are making a big mistake.  Mr. Blutasky from the Georgia side probably says it better than me.  Please hit the link and read his comments.  This is such a big deal because it is not something that can be undone or will get better with some time.  We hire a bad coach or a series of bad coaches, we can recover in time and have.  We have some bad recruiting classes, we can recover and have.  We go on NCAA probation, we can recover and have.  We stop our longest running rivalry and reduce it to the same as Auburn vs. Vanderbilt and I do not think we can recover.  We will have lost something very precious that we will never be able to get back again. 

State of the Program - Roller Coaster Ride

For the last two signing days since I started this blog I have done a "signing day review - state of the program" post.  The national "state of the union" is always around this time as well and it just seems like the perfect time to do it for a college football team.  It is the end of a complete cycle of college football starting with spring practice through the regular season and then the all important recruiting season.  You really have a good pretty good feel as to where the program is since most big fans have been into it almost daily for six months.  You have seen your team play an entire season and know the latest batch of recruits coming in.

The first thing I want to say which is also the theme of this post is that I have learned more than ever before how much being an Auburn fan is a constant roller coaster ride.  Up and down, up and down, up and down...  It never ends.  It also seems like it is getting worse.  Certainly all football seasons are like this but the supposed "offseason" has become even worse.  Just look at the small sample size of the month of January on this blog: the Chick-fil-a Bowl was an up, losing Michael Dyer was a down, hiring Brian Van Gorder was an up, Bama winning was a down, and on and on it goes.

There are a lot of things that have happened since my last post that I have been wanting to comment on.  Unfortunately they started coming so fast and furious that I thought I would wait till this annual post to cover them all.  Of course then I had to wait till I had a considerable amount of time to write this.  However I will try to keep my takes as tight as possible so this does not turn into "War and Peace" which could also be a good title for this post as well...

• Going up...  LSU's dumbness is Auburn's gain.  I want to continue to illustrate the roller coaster theme I introduced earlier.  Again we started the year on an up with the the Chick-fil-a Bowl, then losing Michael Dyer for good was a down, hiring Brian Van Gorder was an up, Bama winning was a down and then we were due for an up.  Of course like a real roller coaster not all the ups and downs are the same size.  The up we got shortly after Bama's horrific win was Les Miles' dumbing it up and thus causing a very good offensive tackle prospect in Patrick Miller (and an early enrollee) to switch to Auburn at the last minute.  We also gained an All-American fullback in Jay Prosch but of course I wish the kid's mom was well and he did not have to transfer to Auburn but from a pure football standpoint it is a good thing for us.

• Going down...  The hiring of Scott Loeffler as offensive coordinator.  As usual unlike seemingly most Auburn fans I did not think this was a great hire.  It might turn into one but I thought we could have done much better.  Obviously we tried on several others and struck out.  I thought the entire process was handled poorly.  I do not think you can wait that long, strike out and then go with your C-list guy that you could have had a month ago.  It ended up not hurting us on offense recruiting -wise but I think we are very fortunate that it didn't.  I also do not like the way the presser was handled including Chizik's and Loeffler's inane comments toward what we will use for our base offensive set.  Back to Loeffler, he has only been a coordinator anywhere for one season.  We would be better off not having his NFL experience on his resume and for the record BEING A GRADUATE ASSISTANT does not count toward "coaching Tom Brady".  If I hear that line again I am going to scream.  Finally, passing over Trooper and Luper, our best recruiters, for this position could hasten their departure from the Auburn program.

• Going up...  Auburn's expectations going into final stretch on Signing Day from being on so many big-time prospects' final short list.  The anticipation was high.

• Going down...  The horrific first 12 hours of Signing Day where Auburn was completely shut out and was being embarrassed nationally.  It all started around midnight before Signing Day when safety Patrick Moore chose TCU over Auburn (I mean really?).  Then the hits continued the entire next morning as Auburn lost out on DT Eddie Goldman, CB Ronald Darby, DE Leonard Williams, LB Kwon Williams, etc...  Auburn adding lightly regarded QB Jonathan Wallace seemed to signal the panic button had officially been hit.  I sat in my car at lunch listening to the carnage wondering how bad it was going to get.  This particular dip on the roller coaster ride was tough.

• Going up...  Five star offensive tackle Avery Young signs with Auburn and stops the bleeding.  As I said above, I was about as down as you could get football-wise till this news came in.  My gosh we needed something good to happen and it finally did.  Auburn would add another big time tackle in Jordan Diamond a few days later rounding out a great offensive recruiting class.  The other really good news out of signing day was Auburn suffered no defections and signed all the guys that had already committed.  That is no small feat in today's recruiting world.  Kudos to Trooper, Luper and Grimes for shoring things up on their side of the ball.  After the smoke cleared, we still need another good tackle and linebacker on defense but put together an outstanding class on the offensive side of the ball.  We got good players at every single position on offense including these sorely needed tackles.

• Going down...  The lack of people commenting on Auburn athletics that have a backbone.  As I have stated before, one difference between Auburn and Bama used to be that Auburn fans would for the most part have a more realistic view of their team and coaches as opposed to the homers across the state.  That is no longer the case.  In the name of "not wanting to write anything negative" it appears no one will post an honest opinion about anything on an Auburn site.  If anybody dares do it on one of the many Auburn message boards they are crucified.  It is amazing how just like the "tolerant left" politically, many of these "positive" Auburn posters will tolerate no dissent.  I am pretty sick of it.  The longer I live the more I realize that football coaches (and those in athletic administration) are not the smartest people in the world.  I am not going to blindly pledge my allegience to Gene Chizik and Jay Jacobs for all of time.  I, like many people, am a college graduate who has worked in my industry for almost 20 years.  I believe I, like many people, am qualified to give an educated opinion on how a business or football program is run.  I, like many people, have also played, coached and watched sports almost my entire life and again feel like I am qualified to give opinions on them.

• Going up...  Phillip Lolley "steps down" as Auburn's cornerbacks coach.  All I can say is FINALLY.  After watching Auburn's secondary get shredded over and over the last three seasons this is welcome news.  This news also proved my previous point as even Jay Tate was saying how great Lolley was.  The FACTS say different as Auburn has had one of the worst pass defenses in the nation for the last three seasons and this is the second time Lolley has "stepped down" as cornerbacks coach.  This along with replacing Ted Roof with Brian Van Gorder is just huge.  Auburn might actually field a decent defense, in all areas, for the first time since Will Muschamp's final season in 2007.

So after this roller coaster ride over the last two months and over this past year, what is the state of the program?  Things certainly have changed a lot.  Obviously coming off conference and national championships with a top five recruiting class in the house the state of the program was pretty good.  I gave kudos to Chizik the last two years for keeping the coaching staff together (obviously I meant our good assistants).  Unfortunately, right after I wrote that we lost Tracy Rocker to the NFL.  That was a big loss as Rocker had been an exceptional position coach.  The staff then came apart after ending the season but as the season proved, things needed to change.  Defensively at least, we are much better off now with Brian Van Gorder and whoever he hires in the secondary than we were with Ted Roof and Phillip Lolley.  Offensively, Gus Malzahn was the perfect guy to coach Cam Newton but his offensive style was never going to be a long term solution in the SEC.  I am not sure how much we upgraded in Loeffler but it was time for Malzahn to go.  Therefore I think overall we are better right now coaching-wise mainly because of the defensive changes.

As for the player-side, as I stated above I did not think things looked too good for most of the last three months.  However after the dust cleared, things look a little better.  First, again I thought we were able to hopefully add quality players at every position on offense especially offensive line which is where it all starts.  Defensively things were not near as good as we only signed seven defensive players and desperately needed a one more good recruit at both tackle and linebacker.  We should be better at both of those positions next year but we are still short on depth.

At the very least, after analyzing our roster as it is right now, our numbers look a lot better.  Our roster looks to have about the right amount of scholarship guys at each position.  Last season as I pointed out in this same post the situation at defensive tackle was dire with no experience and no depth.  It looks a little bit better this year but now we need some of these guys to start performing.  That is pretty much where we are at on the offensive line.  We have depth but no experience.  We were there last year as well and we saw that depth was meaningless if no one was good enough to play against good SEC teams.  We are in the same boat this year again.  We have a lot of young guys but somebody is going to have to produce.

Final words...  The state of the program is good but right now we do not look like a strong contender to get to Atlanta and that is the measuring stick.  The schedule is easier but like last year we are once again breaking in a nearly all-new offensive line and quarterback.  IF we can get decent play from the offensive and defensive lines, and that is a big IF after watching them get destroyed this last season then I think the biggest question mark is quarterback.  In my opinion it is all about Kiehl Frazier.  Scott Loeffler's job in my opinion is getting this guy ready to play.  I think Frazier should have been redshirted.  People need to remember that Frazier was the best mobile quarterback prospect in the entire nation and the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year.  We needed to replace Cam Newton (who we thought we would have for two years when we signed him) and we went out and signed the best mobile quarterback in the country to replace him.  Clint Moseley is not the answer and neither is a true freshman.  Our short-term future, in my opinion, lies in the hands of Kiehl Frazier.

GEAUX TIGERS

Jay Coulter at Track'em has been one of my favorite Auburn bloggers for a long time.  Unfortunately we have not agreed on much this year but he is back on top with this jewel he posted earlier today...

"The Choice is Clear Tonight...  I have many close Alabama friends. I know more than a dozen who are in New Orleans right now. Why do so many of them feel obligated to ask who I'm pulling for tonight? In their heart of hearts, do they honestly believe I could even remotely pull for Alabama?

Let's review: Their fanbase has poisoned our trees; they've spent a year trying to ruin Cam Newton and takeaway Auburn's national title; and they continue to recruit in ways that would make the Corleone's proud.

Yeah, I want Alabama to bring home the state's third consecutive national title in the same way I want another colonoscopy. You should feel the same way. If not, then get some help."

AMEN Jay.  I really cannot say it any better than that.  The only thing he left out is apparently Mr. Updyke is quite the celebrity down on Bourbon Street where Bama fans are stopping him for pictures and autographs.  Apparently felony vandalism against Auburn affords someone celebrity status in Bama circles.  I can't really articulate how pathetic that is.  I also think it is funny that Mr. Updyke is on death's door when talk of him going to jail comes up but he is perfectly able to party it up down in New Orleans.

Come on LSU, please spoil the party and keep Auburn the last team win a title in this state because if Bama loses tonight they will not even have a division title to show for this season.  GEAUX TIGERS!!! 

IT'S A HOME RUN!!!

I will admit it, I hit bottom this weekend.  With rumors of mediocre-to-horrible coaching candidates like Kerwin Bell, Ron Cooper, etc...  I thought there was no way we were going to land anybody any good at either coordinator position.  I thought Chizik had lost it and was about to go down like the Titanic with two awful hires.  Somehow someway like Kirk Gibson so long ago now, Chizik and Auburn parked one in the bottom of the ninth to bring Auburn back.  I think Brian Van Gorder is a phenomenal hire.  The best part of Mark Richt's career was because of this guy.  Georgia hasn't really been the same on defense till maybe this year since this guy left.  His record at Georgia speaks for itself and his work with the Falcons is not half bad either.  It was a lot better than the Dolphins' defense when you-know-who was down there.  Hopefully he will wake up some of these brainwashed recruits to the fact that $aban and Co are not the only path to "The League".  I am so excited.  Great job Chiz.  Great job Auburn.  War Eagle!

The Sad Case of Michael Dyer

I believe it is official, Michael Dyer has left the Auburn football team.  It is just sad to me all around.  I mean compared to truly real-world bad things it is nothing but in the context of the Auburn football team it is sad.  Once again I think Jay Tate said it best...

"Why would Dyer leave rather than remain at Auburn and fix what’s broken?

We may never know the answer.

We know Dyer was on his way to immortality at Auburn. He broke Bo Jackson’s record for rushing as a freshman. He was one of a handful of Auburn backs to be named a first-team All-SEC performer. He was the featured back for a national championship team. Had he played his cards right, Dyer would have been a truly beloved player — forever associated with the program’s greatest single season.

Players train and grind and hope and pray to be in that position. Dyer was there."

As Tate points out, he could have been a legend at Auburn who truly is "Running Back U".  He broke Bo's freshman record, he was the national championship MVP, he put up over 1000 yards rushing in his first two seasons, etc...  As Tate said he could have been a truly beloved player and owned most all of the career rushing records at Auburn if he had stayed.  NFL careers are short but being an Auburn legend is something that could last a lifetime and always provide employment.  Finally, as Tate points out there are thousands of players who would give anything to be in Dyer's position and he has decided to just throw it all away.

First, I hate it that this kid appears to be making some bad decisions that will hurt him in the long run.  I definitely understand when some kids transfer but it sure looks to me like Dyer has less room to complain than anybody else on Auburn's team.  Second, this is going to hurt Auburn.  Yes it looks like we have some reinforcements coming in to help at running back but I do not think we have anybody coming in as good as Dyer.  I think the sunshine pumpers who say Dyer is no big loss should take another look at his accomplishments.  That stuff does not happen every day.  Finally it just takes a little bit away from when you rewatch the national championship game and see his MVP performance.

Auburn will move forward and be successful and Michael Dyer might as well but I think both would be better off together.  I just wish Michael Dyer recognized that. 

Chick-fil-a Bowl Review

Ahhh... my favorite breakfast in the world, a Chick-fil-a biscuit and an orange juice.  The Chick-fil-a Bowl was a lot like that this year as Auburn defeated Virginia 43-24.  I was there to witness it in Atlanta this weekend and had a great time.  Obviously I am thrilled Auburn played well and it is always so much better to end your season on a win.  However after reading some of the comments on the this game elsewhere I have to set the record straight.  Auburn really did not change any this game.  They still had the same problems they had all year long.  Auburn was more successful because we had better football players.  Football is a pretty simple game.  As former coach Pat Dye said: "there are no miracles on the football field".  Obviously you have upsets and such but for the most part the teams with the best football players win.

Auburn had more good football players than Virginia and they played well.  I wonder what Virginia's game plan on defense was exactly?  It was obvious Ontario McCalebb was our biggest playmaker especially on turf and they seemingly had no plan at all for him.  They let him get outside, they fell for the statue-of-liberty play and the double play action.  To me it is pretty obvious we would run all this misdirection stuff to get McCalebb the ball in space.  I think I would have always kept my eye on him and tried to force the ball inside on the read option.  But hey all the better for Auburn.

Barrett Trotter came in and played well subbing in for Clint Moseley when he got hurt although the way Moseley was playing I think Trotter would have come in anyway.  The bomb to Blake was the prettiest pass of the season but again it was off a double play action that we would have not had time to run against the big boys in the SEC this season.  It also did not require a read from the quarterback.  I do not know why they did not run a few plays like that for Frazier this year.  A bomb where he does not have to make a read but just chuck it and if it gets intercepted it is just a punt.  Frazier was given one pass play during the bowl and it was ugly as he had plenty of time but could not make up his mind and ended up scrambling.  I am really starting to worry about Frazier and throwing the ball.  I hope our new quarterbacks coach can get him ready.

I think we are in big trouble if Frazier is a bust.  It is obvious that Moseley and Trotter even though he played well are not the answer.  Trotter still held the ball too long and other than the one bomb most of his completions were simple swing passes.  I do not think Trotter took a big leap.  I think Trotter and Moseley have showed us what they can do and I do not think they are going to get a lot better than that.  I think they can beat the lesser teams and will continue to struggle against the big boys.  I believe Auburn's only hope for drastically improving the quarterback position is again playing much better up front.  Even in this bowl game AJ Greene was repeatedly beaten.  As I have said all season we are desperate for Robinson and Westerman to be good players and help this line.  Right now it appears next years starting line will be: Robinson, Westerman, Dismukes, Sullen and Slade.  I mean after watching another night of our current line they have to be better but if they are not a lot better then next season will look a lot like this season.

On defense, the everyone carried on for two weeks about Gene Chizik coordinating the defense.  I have heard many say that the defense looked a lot better.  Again I disagree, we still gave up over 400 yards of offense to Virginia.  We made some stops but Virginia is not a juggernaut and once we got the lead they were one dimensional and again we had more good players.  On the positive side we saw a couple of big plays from Gabe Wright and Angelo Blaxson who we also need to step up big next year.  Like the offense if we can improve the line the rest of the defense will be much better.

However it was nice to see this team even with all their warts end on a good note and play about our best game of the season.  It almost makes me want to install turf at Jordan Hare as our best games the last two seasons have been on turf at the Georgia Dome.  It has definitely been one of the stranger seasons I have seen at Auburn.  Finishing 8-5 should be considered very good for this team and this coaching staff.  I said that at the start of the season.  Unfortunately getting blown out and being non-competitive against every good team we played (other than South Carolina) and seeing some possible long term problems crop up pretty much took all the joy out of finishing 8-5. 

We were able to get rid of Ted Roof who I still think was a large part of our problem but if our defense continues to be mediocre it is now on Chizik.  He better do the coaching or hire somebody who can get the job done.  I am also glad to see Malzahn go.  He was a critical part of last year but I just do not think his offensive philosophy will work long term in the SEC unless you can line up a Cam Newton or Tim Tebow every season.  I certainly hope we get away from the hurry-up-no-huddle as again it just kills your own defense and is also just is not a long term solution in the SEC in my opinion.  Now it is time to see who we will hire to lead the offense and defense.  Again, I think these hires will obviously be the most critical of Gene Chizik's coaching career and I will say again, choose well coach choose well.   

What if the shoe was on the other foot?

So Auburn loses their third high profile commitment to Bama under dubious circumstances in less than a year. The sound you are hearing? That would be crickets chirping. But hey I am an Auburn grad and a homer right? I am just being biased getting ticked off that nobody is even paying any attention to this right? Uh, wrong. Let us take a gander at what we would be seeing if the shoe was on the other foot...

"NCAA starting Auburn investigation after firestorm of criticism

AP Auburn, AL - The NCAA opened a full investigation on Auburn University in the midst of overwhelming controversy after three recruits reneged on their commitments to the University of Alabama and signed with Auburn. It all started in February of this year when Brent Calloway, the top player in the state, who had been a Alabama commitment suddenly committed to Auburn and then was allowed to leave school and remain sequestered for a week so Alabama coaches could not even talk to him. Pete Thamel of the New York Times is reporting that an anonymous source has said that he was spotted at Disney World wearing Auburn gear during this time.

Next Cyrus Kouandjio, the top offensive lineman and according to some services the top player overall in the entire country committed to Alabama on ESPN on signing day but his commitment was never received. He then quickly backed off and committed to Auburn a short time later even though he had commited to Alabama on signing day on national TV. In that time the athletic department of his high school received a large "anonymous" donation. ESPN's Joe Schaad is reporting that an anonymous source has said the money has been tracked to a Lee County location.

Those two unbelievable last minute switches stoked the fire but things exploded this week when again the best player in the state of Alabama and a longtime Bama commit, TJ Yeldon, suddenly changed to Auburn and had his high school coach release a statement about that just hours before the dead period for recruiting started which prevented Alabama coaches from even talking to him. Yeldon who was planning to enroll early is now an Auburn student and his recruitment is over.

Alabama shock jock radio host Paul Finebaum was quoted as saying "three high profile players who were committed then all three switch right at the very end under dubious circumstances?  Come on it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out something stinks here."  Finebaum's show has been more and more explosive after each recruiting defection.  Finebaum also insinuates heavily that explosive new evidence against Auburn will come out any day."

Some tongue-in-cheek there but ""three high profile players who were committed then all three switch right at the very end under dubious circumstances" is absolute fact.  However there is no uprising since it is Bama getting the recruits but I have no doubt that the fictional article above would be pretty close to what would happen... if the shoe was on the other foot.