T-8 Days to Kickoff: We have a backup QB

Finally, we have a decision on the backup QB. Neil Caudle has been named. HOWEVER, is he the real backup QB or is he a "Blake Field" backup QB? Meaning when Todd gets hurt (and considering our line and watching Todd in the past I am pretty much assuming that is a "when" and not an "if"), are we really going to bring Caudle in or are we going to cave to fan pressure and the temptation of playing the new talented guy and bring in Rollison ala Kodi Burns 2 years ago? I am just asking...

Next we finally have an answers on a number of different players. First we now know what has happened with Montez Billings, well sort of. According to Bitter: "Billings, who sat out last spring, graduated in May but had an undisclosed NCAA-related academic issue he had to satisfy. Head coach Gene Chizik recently said the issue was in “somebody else’s” hands.". Um OK, I guess that sheds a little more light on this weird situation but I would sure like to hear exactly how the university allows you to graduate but you are still in trouble with the NCAA???

Next in the same article Bitter also states: "LB Adam Herring told us that he had surgery on his heel in December. That's the mysterious injury that's kept him out until this week." That solves that mystery but again I don't understand why the injury status of a second string or third string LB is top secret. To me I think it hurts the kid to not just say he is hurt.

I also caught this quote from Bitter: "Auburn probably will play anywhere from 10 to 15 true freshman this season by most estimations". Yeesh, thanks alot Tub.

T-9 Days to Kickoff: Do we all look that dumb?

OK, I only steer in this direction when there is something interesting to write about. However, I have to take at least one shot at this ridiculous story. That story would be the now infamous fishing trip Bama's 2 star offensive players took with their new best buddy who has never even heard there was a school in Tuscaloosa.

I mean this story is so ludicrous that I believe I would be saying the same thing about Auburn if they were floating this garbage. I mean they are really laying it on thick aren't they...

• First we hear this guy who owns the boat has a degenerative back disease and is really bad off.


• This guy hasn't been fishing for "seven years".


• He says ''I wanted to go one more time. If I can get a hook in one fish, I'll be happy".


• Next Scarbinsky writes "he said the charter boat captain was reluctant to let him take the trip because of his physical condition. He said they were supposed to travel 28 miles out but made it only six miles because he couldn't go any farther. He said the trip was possible only because Jones and Ingram physically carried him onto the boat and supported him while on-board."

So Bama's 2 best offensive players were simply doing charity work on their free fishing cruise. Then this guy who owns the boat and apparently a business in the state of Alabama swears up and down that he didn't know who Julio Jones was, is not an Alabama fan and does not even keep up with football.

OK, OK, so let's say to this point that somebody could believe that story (and I am sure there are many that do), here is the key point where it all falls apart... When asked how he met Bama's 2 star offensive players he "WOULDN'T DISCUSS HOW THEY MET". I bet he wouldn't discuss it. If this story was even close to as innocent and charitable as they are portraying it the guy could certainly talk about how me met these guys but he does not.

He goes on and on about how good a friends they are and how they have been friends for a "long time" blah blah blah but when someone asks this guy how they met he clams up faster than Nick $aban during a depth chart discussion. The story is completely ridiculous anyway but trying to float it without telling how they met takes the cake.

Of course like most things Bama gets away with, just picture if Auburn tried to float this whopper? Finebaum and his minions would have weeks of material.

T-10 Days to Kickoff: Offensive depth chart

Please oh please give us another one like this guy...

Jay Tate has now taken his shot at the offensive depth chart. Thanks to him for putting this together because I haven't really seen anybody else doing it and the coaching staff sure isn't going to do it for us. Not to mention we have a "Big Snacks Berry" usage! That always brings a smile to my face as I blogged about a few days ago. Here it is with my comments below...

"1" (quarterback): Chris Todd, Tyrik Rollison/Neil Caudle, Kodi Burns, Clint Moseley
"4" (tailback): Ben Tate, Onterio McCalebb, (Eric Smith), Dontae Aycock
"3" (utility back): Mario Fannin, Gabe McKenzie
"9" (outside receiver): DeAngelo Benton, Darvin Adams, Kodi Burns, (Montez Billings), (Tim Hawthorne)
"2" (outside receiver): Terrell Zachery, Emory Blake, Quindarius Carr, Travante Stallworth
"5" (utility receiver)
When they go big: Tommy Trott, Philip Lutzenkirchen
When they go small: Darvin Adams, Anthony Gulley, Kodi Burns

RT: McCain, AJ Greene, (Aubrey Phillips)
RG: (Byron Isom), John Sullen, Jorell Bostrom, Andre Harris
C: Ryan Pugh, Bart Eddins
LG: Big Snacks Berry, John Sullen, Jared Cooper
LT: Lee Ziemba, Vance Smith

QB... I think I pretty much covered that here and I covered the backup issue here. Not much else to say... We will see what happens...

RB... Thanks Eric Smith, now if we have an injury at RB we will be about as thin there as the rest of the team. Coach Luper says the running game will be "one of our strengths". Hmmm... again we will see what happens... However I do have to say that I have always liked Ben Tate. He has been one of the only consistent parts of this team over the last few years. I think he is a good solid back however I don't like him as much running out of the shotgun formation. I hope Malzahn has cured his tendency to take the shotgun trap outside where he tries to beat defenders to the corner rather than following his blocking. He just isn't that fast and that pretty much never worked last year. I also look forward to finally seeing McCalebb as well after so much hype.

"Utility" or "H" or whatever back... I know Malzahn is a better coach than Tony Franklin (heck I might be a better coach than Tony Franklin was last year) however everything we have heard so far this year is nearly EXACTLY what we heard last year. "It is all about tempo", "It is fast", etc... Now on top of that we are starting Chris Todd at QB for the second year in a row. Again it looks a lot like last year even though the offenses are supposedly different. SO... the way that Malzahn can prove to me it is NOT like last year is to play the BEST PLAYMAKER on this team, Mario Fannin. GET THE MAN THE BALL. We do that and I will automatically give a lot more props to Malzahn and this offense.

Outside WRs... Without Billings and Hawthorne this looks about right. I think we have the best two at the top in Benton and Zachary. As I have said before I have always thought Zachary was better than he was given credit for. I hope Benton is near what he has been hyped to be. I am not sure about the rest of those guys. I hope one or two steps up and stands out but after a decade of Greg Knox I just don't expect good surprises from the WRs. Hopefully Coach Taylor will turn that around. I also really hope Hawthorne makes it back. The guy has just been snakebit from day one and I would sure like to see him have some success.

Utility Receiver... Well IF Mario Fannin plays a lot this position will not get as much PT. I really don't know how this position and the H-back will play out. Will Trott and McKenzie get a lot of snaps or not? I don't know but I would much rather see two big senior players get in than a freshman or sophomore small-ish WR.

The OL... Well we have 4 good solid linemen. I am just going to have to see it to believe it on McCain. However he is at least a senior and been around for awhile. I mean how bad is your depth when you have a true freshman as the backup at TWO spots (!!!). What the heck happened to Jared Cooper? Can Bart Eddins not play guard? Good grief. That is topped off by having a converted-DE and a converted-TE backing up your tackles (!!!). Again, I have never seen a major college team with this few options at OL. And again what the heck was Tuberville doing the last 2 years? Other than pinning his hopes on Jermaine Johnson? What a complete disaster. The top four linemen are juniors. We BETTER get busy recruiting some guys to take their place and so far I have not seen anything big on that front. Please review this and hope we can turn this thing around. I have said once and will continue to say it, I will get pumped about recruiting when we have some big-time offensive tackles committed...

T-11 Days to Kickoff: 2009 like 1993?

Track'em is finally back with a vengeance with 2 good posts on Sunday. The latest by Jay Coulter is good fodder for discussion since as discussed in my last post we are more or less in a holding period.

Coulter compares this current team and new coach with the situation in 1993. Fellow Track'em poster Acid Reign also weighs in in the comments section. Good stuff. Since I graduated from Auburn in 1992 and saw every single game Auburn game home and away from 1991 to 1993 except at Texas '91, at Florida and Bama '92 and at Arkansas '93 I had to comment.

Let me say first that I do not think much of Terry Bowden now. I think time told the story on Bowden and it was not a good one. It seems to get worse every time he opens his mouth. However as much as he has tried to destroy his legacy at Auburn (and pretty much succeeded), nothing will take away how awesome and magical the 1993 season was at that time.

I do think Coulter is right and there are alot of similarities although I think that when you look a little closer there are alot of differences as well. I started on a big entry really comparing the two teams but then as I start revisiting 1993 for info on the comparison I dropped it. Instead I am going to post what I wrote about the 1993 season way back then. It was a magical season that nobody expected. We didn't have any depth and all the players that did step up were not expected to step up. We can say now how good that team is in hindsight but before that season started nobody thought we would be real good.

Since I went to every game that season but one I decided to create a giant poster with all the ticket stubs and pictures from all the games. When I finished I kind of wanted to write something to put on it and this is what I wrote...

-----------------------

WHY I LOVE SPORTS

The 1993 Auburn team started about as low as a team could start. They were shackled with: NCAA probation that prevented them from having anything to play for and being seen by anybody except the spectators, a new coach with no big-time experience, the loss of the greatest coach in Auburn history, a team that had not been ranked in 2 years, a team with supposedly no "talent" like a quarterback who was a "loser", a middle linebacker that was barely 210 pounds, a reciever that was supposed to be all mouth, a secondary that had lost their best player for the season, two senior fullbacks who were washed up, and with defensive and offensive lines that were "below average".

Basically, the same team that had endured two straight seasons of losing, two straight seasons of controversy, and two straight seasons of complete frustration. A team that was picked by almost everyone to have a losing record. And finally a team who's cross-state rival had just won a national championship. But with a new "Attitude" brought in by the new coach and put into action by the players, this team achieved perfection. This team went 11-0, the first Auburn team to ever do it. This "Attitude" was simply about believing in yourself, setting goals, working hard and persevering to achieve those goals, and not worrying about things you can't control.

To accomplish what they did this team prayed before and after every game; they started the season by beating a team that had crushed them the year before; they beat a team in a place where they had not won in over 50 years; they, in maybe their closest game, stopped a team on 4 plays at the goal line; they beat the 4th ranked team in the nation by coming back from 10-0 and 27-14 deficits and finally winning on a last second field goal in one of the greatest games I have ever seen; they won in below freezing weather; and finally pulled out one more mracle to beat their cross-state rival in maybe the biggest game ever played in Alabama.

There were so many reasons this season was special but one of the best was seeing little known and rarely used players step up and make their contribution: a tiny senior defensive end that makes 2 huge sacks against Florida; a little used senior defensive back makes a goal line interception to stop Georgia; a senior cornerback who's career had fallen short of all expectations gets to start due to injuries in the last game of his career against Alabama and makes 8 tackles; and finally a back-up quarterback who comes in (due to an injury) on 4th and 15 down 14-5 against Alabama and throws a 35 yard touchdown pass to bring Auburn back.

But it was also great watching: the quarterback, who had persevered through so much criticism, step up and help lead the team to victory, a bunch of linebackers who were supposed to be a weakness become a strength, a reciever become an all-SEC big time player; a secondary become one of the best in the nation, 2 fullbacks finish their career by contributing so much, the offensive and defensive lines become dominant, and finally an MVP tailback who just would not be stopped. Of course, these were just college kids, just regular people, and they had some luck but what they achieved and how they they did it showed why I love Auburn and I love sports.

Jeff Sallas
Class of 1992
Auburn University

T-12 Days to Kickoff: It can't come soon enough...

I have in the past got mad at all the other blogs about not posting much during the weekend and vowed I would be different... Well my first weekend into it and I do the same thing (-:

Well we are now under two weeks till the kickoff of the 2009 SEC football season. I think this weekend marked the point where everyone from players to fans are ready to play a game. A lot of chatter this weekend but not a lot of substance. The newsworthy notes from this weekend seem to consist of:

1. Eric Smith's arrest. Not much to comment on. The guy got in trouble, has lost his spot, will now serve his punishment and now probably won't contribute this season. Luckily it is at the one spots on the team where we actually have some depth.

2. The Saturday Scrimmage. Again not too much to comment on. The scrimmage was pretty much a situational run-through. The team and coaches practiced dealing with different situations including injuries, the hurry-up offense, etc...

3. Trooper Taylor giving info on the WR depth chart. According to Bitter the starters today would be Terrell Zachery and DeAngelo Benton with Darvin Adams or Tommy Trott playing the inside depending on the formation call. The next three is a little more hazy. It appears right now it is Kodi Burns, and one of the rest between Emory Blake, Travante Stallworth, Anthony Gulley, Derek Winter and Q Carr. I don't think Mr. Pierre-Louis is in the mix now with his late start. WHO KNOWS what the heck is going on with Montez Billings??? We sure could use him but apparently he hasn't been cleared by mean Gene to play. I just don't get what the deal is.

On the positive side, I really hope Zachery holds his spot and gets some touches this year. I have always thought he was better than most perceived him as. Hopefully the offensive depth chart will really start to take shape soon. The starters on the OL are clear but the second team behind them is not. The RB position is pretty clear. It will be Tate and McCalebb. What will be interesting is the H-Back deal and Mario Fannin. It will be interesting how much of the time we will have the H-back in the game as opposed to a 3rd WR. Bitter also writes a good article on the H-back position.

I would like to bring the offensive depth chart into focus and comment but other than that we are pretty much there. We just have to wait 11 more days till kickoff...

T-15 Days to Kickoff: Backup QBs, Injuries and Depth Charts

The latest and greatest out of Auburn appears to be the backup QB situation, our defensive depth and as always the exact injury situation...

BACKUP QB: It seems obvious they would really like Rollison to be it. Bitter posts Malzahn stated he doesn't want him to redshirt if he can contribute and that Malzahn said "You don't want to waste anybody, and especially if they're talented ". However it appears they are still looking. It doesn't appear from this perch though that they are going to go on this extended research project and then come back and say Caudle is #2.

To me however that still seems the best course of action. I would think the playbook and game planning they do for Todd would be very similar to what they would do with Caudle. It would seem they would do a lot of different things with Rollison. It is hard to believe that Rollison, even being very talented, would be a better option as a true freshman than a 4th year junior.

We have been burned doing it before. I think if we would have brought in Blake Field instead of Burns (as a true frosh) against Miss St in 07 we would have won the game. I was definitely not super impressed with Blake Field but the guy had been under Borges learning the offense for 3 years and had been the backup for 3 years. While he probably wasn't going to beat top notch SEC competition I think he could have gotten it done that day against State. The super-exciting new guy is not always the right option. Sometimes the old boring "waiting for his chance" backup QB is the best option for winning football games.

Also worth noting is that Kodi Burns still doesn't appear to be going gently into that good night. According to this article by Woodberry, Burns is a little frustrated at WR and is still working at QB after practice. We also have Malzahn saying yesterday that he is still a QB at heart. It sure doesn't sound like this situation is wrapped up as neatly as everyone tried to make it sound last week...

INJURY UPDATE: Well well well, according to Bitter maybe mean Gene is giving out actual injury info to ESPN. According to ESPN's Chris Low's blog, Hawthorne will be out at least 4 weeks. Nice to hear but what the heck? The guy won't give the Auburn beat guys and the loyal fans jack on injuries but ESPN sends somebody in and we get actual injury info? Also in the article Low says that Savage is out for the season and McNeil will be out till midseason. WHAT IS THE HARM TO THE TEAM ABOUT DISCLOSING THIS INFORMATION? I think our opponents have already figured it out. Like Bitter says, this is not particularly surprising but nobody down this way had "seen or heard anything definitive until now about how long they might be out."

DEFENSIVE DEPTH CHART: Unlike the control freak to the West, I like working from a depth chart. I still don't understand the problem with knowing where you stand and giving the player a goal of moving up. As for the starters I don't think many players at this level ever have the mindset "well I am a starter and I can slack off". Anyway, Tate took his shot at the defensive depth chart and he looks right on to me for the most part. Here it is with my comments below...

SDE: Mike Goggans, (Antoine Carter), Dee Ford

DT: Mike Blanc, Zach Clayton, Derrick Lykes

DT: Jake Ricks, Nick Fairley

WDE: Antonio Coleman, Nosa Eguae, Zach Clayton/Cam Henderson

SLB: Craig Stevens, Jonathan Evans, Ashton Richardson

MLB: Joshua Bynes, Harris Gaston, Wade Christopher

WLB: (Eltoro Freeman), (Spencer Pybus), Jonathan Evans, Ashton Richardson

CB: Neiko Thorpe, Demond Washington

CB: Walt McFadden, Harry Adams

FS: (Mike McNeil), Daren Bates/Mike Slade, T'Sharvan Bell

SS: Zac Etheridge, Drew Cole/Slade, (D'Antoine Hood)

Well the SDE looks good with a solid two-deep there. Goggans appears to me to be a better option on first and second down against the run and then we can bring in Antoine Carter for pass-rush situations ala Groves early in his career. At the other end as long as Coleman is healthy we are good. Hopefully whoever is sent in to give him a rest can at least be adequate.

At defensive tackle, compared to other positions on the team we are good, but I would not call us strong. Jake Ricks is solid and experienced and probably the best we have. Mike Blanc has been continually hyped but has still not really proven anything on the field or been able to stay healthy. Zach Clayton is a gamer but I still don't consider him a true DT. I still think he is more of a DE no matter how much they bloat him up or what they list his weight as. Derrick Lykes, NickFairley and Nosa Eguae have not played one down in a real college game so no matter how hyped they may be, you have to be a little bit suspect. Hopefully at least one will be the real deal. I really hope my man Tracy Rocker can coach them up.

At the much talked about LB position we will at least be solid unless we have an injury. We might even have a shot to finally improve this position if Ted Roof can coach up his position. No bitter swings at James Willis because he went to the enemy but the LB position simply has not seemed strong for a while. I am ready to see one of our LBs really stand out in a game. I have taken to calling Craig Stevens "The Invisible Man". He may be doing something good but most of the time you never see him or hear his name called. It is going to be about as ugly as it gets if any of these guys get hurt. I mean look at the list of young no-names we have behind these guys! You simply are not going to win many football games if we have to play any of those guys much.

Secondary... wow. I mean we go from having Savage and McNeil in the spring and feeling pretty good about these positions to hanging by a thread. Neiko Thorpe looks to be a SD Marks-type breakout player. McFadden and Etheridge are hopefully solid. Etheridge has a ton of experience and I was really high on him but like the rest of our defense really seemed to fade at the end of last season especially against West Virginia. But hey at least he helped set Deron Furr straight last year, we just don't need guys like him around about now...

All in all this is a solid-to-good first string defensive unit with absolutely no depth whatsoever. Considering a tough schedule and having to play 11 weeks in a row it is hard not to imagine things going south. It will be miracle if the defense that starts against Bama resembles this one. However hopefully we will at least get Mike McNeil back something during theseason. All-in-all though this defense is not championship caliber. Hopefully they will be winning-season caliber.

That is where I come down. When I have analyzed an Auburn football this past decade I have been comparing us against the standard of an SEC West champ. I have always asked do we have the talent and what it takes to be a championship football team. I have been holding us to a high standard because pretty much every year of this decade we have had the talent and a realistic chance of winning the West. This is the first year since 1999 that I would say we do not have a realistic chance of winning the West. Unfortunately the most important season for these coaches this year is going to be recruiting season...

T-16 Days to Kickoff

Ahh… after getting that last post off my chest I feel that I am up-to-date. So let’s go around the horn here 16 days and some odd hours till kickoff…

1. Phillip Pierre Louis is back... so I guess Tony Franklin will be happy to hear that too.
2. Freshman Dee Ford is back at DE after a week at LB even though we are still razor thin at LB. Only conclusion is he must have just not fit in at LB at all. I would much rather had him, a bigger guy, playing it than moving a safety in which it appears they are looking at too.
3. We have more true freshmen popping up all over the field with true freshmen safety Darren Bates running with the first team over sophomores Mike Slade and Drew Cole and hot off the presses true frosh John Sullen subbing in for Lee Isom.
4. Finally we have this news: “There were a ton of folks on the bikes (or as this area is called “Muscle Beach” (I love that)). Among the more new or notable injuries: RB Ben Tate (unknown), WR Terrell Zachery (left leg), DB Neiko Thorpe (unknown), WR John Cubelic (unknown), DT Jake Ricks (left knee), DL Zach Clayton (unknown), OL Byron "Lee" Isom (unknown).”

Unknown, unknown, etc… I understand there are times when coaches have to be vague on injuries or simply cannot disclose the information. But the injury information dissemination policy by Chizik is pretty much bush league. I mean it kind of started in the spring when Mike McNeil went down. The guy was seen screaming and grabbing his leg and the ambulance had to come and take him away. About the only thing Chizik would say after that was he “took it like a man”. It continued when rumors of Aaron Savage's injury this summer leaked out and Chizik would not address them. You then throw in the weird situations surrounding Montez Billings, Gabe McKenzie and a host of others that Chizik gives weird answers too and you really wonder what the heck is the deal here?

The topper though has to be this whole Eltoro Freeman deal. The guy is riding a bike with a CAST on his hand but… Chizik said Tuesday that it's a tweaked hamstring that is keeping him out of action (???).

Alrighty then, so with that said, it is going to be hard to tell what the official depth chart will be till the team takes the field on September 5th. Of course since we can't even get some flunkee in the AD to compile and hand out basic stats on the scrimmages why should we expect any kind of depth chart to be released... However we do know who is starting at QB!

So… you can break it down anyway you want (and it has been broken down very well here but we are pretty much dangerously thin at just about every position on the field except (knock on wood) RB and I guess QB???

The JCCW brought up what I consider the biggest danger area on the state of Auburn’s team today and that area is the absolute disaster area our OL recruiting has been the last couple of years. EVERYTIME ANYBODY asks me about what I think of the team I bring this up, every freaking time. I simply have never seen any other big time program in this situation at the OL.

I mean Tub flirted with this kind of danger several times in his career at Auburn but was always able to pull a rabbit (or rabbits in this case) out of his hat when he needed it. Case in point would be McNeil, Reddick and Palmer in 2002 and Ziemba and Pugh in 2006. He was not able to do it before he left and neither could Chizik do much this year. Now we HAVE to pull something out this recruiting season and there appears to be nothing really great on the horizon.

This is why I have not gotten fired up about the Limo Gambit or the Big Cat Weekend. This is why I have not gotten fired up about all these big 5-star RBs and WRs giving us some love. DOES IT REALLY MATTER IF WE DON’T HAVE ANYBODY TO BLOCK FOR THEM???!!!???

I will get excited about recruiting when we have a big-time LT commit….

I saw another thing that I thought was amusing and that is Chizik’s continuing obsession with the players lining up their helmet perfectly during warm-ups. This is from Jay Tate on Monday…
“It's business time: Chizik doesn't like mess.That's the primary reason behind three players leaving the program this summer. The coach has instituted a reasonably strict dress code and holds his players to reasonably lofty behavioral standards. He also demands that helmets be lined up almost perfectly during warm-ups.No detail is too small.It was reasonable to assume the no-frills aura he created upon arrival would wane as fall arrived. That was an errant assumption. Chizik is as guarded and focused as ever these days.We'll soon see if Auburn's new tone, set by the head coach, makes a difference on the field.”

Honestly I love order and having everything in it’s place but this is ridiculous. For those who have forgotten this was one of the weird things that was brought up in Chizik’s evisceration by the Cyclone report after leaving Iowa St...
“And when he made the players spend 20 minutes of the first spring practice of 2007 precisely lining up their helmets, you wondered if a real life Captain Queeg hadn't taken over the ISU football program.”

I REALLY think we have more important things to worry about…

Finally, after all this doom and gloom I figure I need to post one thing positive… There is one thing that will bring a smile to my face and force a chuckle from me every time. It is usually only seen on Jay Tate’s HABOTN blog. It is any reference to current OG Mike Berry using his nickname “Big Snacks”. Mike “Big Snacks” Berry, that is just too freaking funny…

Where did it all go wrong?

Chris Todd is our starting QB. For the SECOND straight year, Chris Todd is our starting QB. Sorry I know the news is a week old but I am still playing catch-up. It was just another shocking development in a long line of shocking developments. I was asking a friend and fellow Auburn grad a few days ago "where did it all go wrong?". Where did the train go off the tracks? I mean things were seemingly going very well just a few years ago. I remember sitting in the stands with my son in November of 2007 watching us notch #6 in a row over Bama and $aban. It was his first Auburn/Bama game and it went much better than mine which was in 1984 (and about the maddest I ever got at Pat Dye... kick the field goal and get the LEAD coach!!!... )

Anyway, back to that lovely night in 2007... There was Tub hugging all the assistants including Al Borges and the players soaking in another hard fought win over the Tide. We had hit a few rough patches in 2007 but had righted the ship, finished 8-4 and again notched #6 against Bama. There was happiness and just a sweet satisfaction over the entire stadium...


We were bringing a ton of people back for the 2008 season and it appeared would keep our 2 coordinators together for a 3rd season. This looked like a team ready to make a serious run at the SEC title. The sun was seemingly shining bright on the Plains. That when the avalanche started. Here is the timeline of shocking developments for me...
1. Jay Jacobs and Tuberville start a ridiculous childish battle against each other with Auburn being the loser.
2. Al Borges is fired and Tony Franklin is brought in.
3. Auburn wins the Peach Bowl and Franklin is given all the love when the offense really didn’t score any more points than they had all season and the defense is what really won the game.
4. Jay Jacobs runs off one of the best defensive coordinators in the nation in Will Muschamp and Auburn is now back to breaking in two new coordinators.
5. Auburn recruits Chris Todd out of JUCO and we have to endure a ton of sunshine pumping about Franklin and the spread throughout spring and fall practice plus the ridiculous “QB race” between Kodi Burns and Todd.
6. Chris Todd is made the starter.
7. Tony Franklin, Chris Todd and the whole ridiculous offense go down in flames during the 2008 season.
8. Tommy Tuberville and his longtime staff go down in flames as well bottoming out in the 36-0 massacre in Tuscaloosa.
9. Tommy Tuberville is fired/quits, whatever you want to call it, 5 million dollars richer while doing a Terry Bowden-esque job recruiting his last 2 recruiting classes (which at this point produced nearly zero offensive linemen and defensive tackles). And of course in Tuscaloosa, $aban starts his recruiting run that he is still on.
10. Jay Jacobs then performs one of the most pathetic and embarrassing coaching searches ever.
11. Auburn hires Gene Chizik as head football coach
12. Chris Todd is made the starter AGAIN.

While he has hired a seemingly good staff and kept his mouth shut I am still just flabbergasted that at this time it appears most people are now thinking Chizik is a good coach as documented at the JCCW . I mean don’t we at least need to see the guy coach a few football games first?

He is going to have to do A LOT for me to forget a head coaching career record of 5-19, a 10 game losing streak, an 11 game road losing streak and finishing 2-14 in the Big 12. Yes it was Iowa St but while it is a lower tier job they have been to FIVE bowls this decade which is better than several SEC teams. It is not quite the "wasteland" many AU fans make it out to be. Bottom line for me, winners win even at tough spots or at least they do better than Chizik did. So for the record, I am still not on the Chizik bandwagon till I see some proof on the field, actually make that a LOT of proof on the field. And of course that brings us back to the future…

Chris Todd starting... again. The JCCW did a great job outlining Todd’s deficiencies. However let’s be real clear here, Todd was AWFUL last year. He was slow, weak-armed, indecisive and a "statue in the pocket". He wasn’t particularly accurate or seemingly strong at anything. I know, I know, I am just a stupid fan and Gus Malzahn is now somehow the greatest OC we have ever had but all I know is I watched the 3-2 embarrassment against Miss St. I saw how bad our offense was against UT and Vandy. Do we really think all of that was due his arm problems and the coaching? Wouldn’t a good QB have shown SOMETHING in those games? I think so and that is why I see another train wreck in our near future.

However if somehow our offense is pretty good against SEC competition then I guess I will have to say that maybe Gus Malzahn in the greatest OC we have ever had…

Welcome

Welcome to the "Saturdays To Remember" Auburn and SEC sports blog. My name is Jeff Sallas and I love reading and writing about Auburn and SEC sports. I am a 1992 graduate of Auburn University and attended over 90% of the homes games at Auburn from 1983 till 2001. My oldest son then got old enough to play sports and we had to give up our season tickets (or to be more accurate, mooching off my parents' season tickets) after the 2001 season but I still try to get down to one or two games a year.

We have a pretty good Auburn legacy going in my family. My dad graduated from Auburn, my mom graduated from Auburn, my brother graduated from Auburn, my father-in-law graduated from Auburn, etc... We are definitely an Auburn clan. I have lived my entire life in the state of Alabama (and thus have had to endure a lifetime of dealing with the evil empire and their lackeys in the media (-: ).

I kind of blogged before there was blogging. I kept up a web page writing about Auburn and SEC football from 1999 through 2002 but gave it up before the 2003 season. You can still see this sterling work here. Kind of a little time capsule as I have not touched it since 2003... (-:

I am an avid follower of several current blogs including Will Collier's From The Bleachers (the few times of year he actually posts something), Track Em Tigers, Tony Barnhart, Jay Tate, Andy Bitter and of course the al.com blogs of Evan Woodberry and Charles Goldberg. My favorite though is of course the Joe Cribbs Car Wash. Great great stuff even if he is a bit too positive at times for me (-:

What has brought me out of retirement? Well I must first say that the proliferation of so many blogs has had me stirred up for awhile but what finally pushed me over the edge is all of the sunshine pumpers. I could barely take it during the Tuberville years but the current deification of Gene Chizik and Chris Todd is simply more than I can take and will probably be the subject of my first post.

I have been accused of being negative but as all pessimists say, we are not negative but realistic (-: Honestly though I try to keep a fair common sense view of things and the sunshine pumping done by fans of both schools in this state (especially in spring and fall practice) make me in the words of Michael Caine "physically sick"...



If you feel the same way or you are a sunshine pumper that likes to venture inside occasionally, bookmark this blog. I know my favorite blogs are the ones that provide regular fresh material and I will endeavor to do so. I will also endeavor to respond to good questions and comments on my stuff (except the ones that say I am a blooming idiot). I may get it wrong sometimes (not much of course) but I like reading different "takes" on sports and especially Auburn and SEC sports.

So where did the blog name "Saturdays To Remember" come from? Old school Auburn grads and fans will recognize it as the name of the definitive work on the Shug Jordan years. David Housel, Auburn's former SID and AD, wrote an incredible book that was released in 1973 called "Saturdays To Remember". I grew up reading it over and over and over. It chronicles over a dozen games of the Shug Jordan era and in those chapters the seasons those games were in. It is simply awesome. If you like reading all of these blogs and about Auburn and you do not know much about the Shug Jordan era, you simply HAVE to read it.

Housel takes you behind the scenes and through the games including Shug's first game against Vandy, Auburn's 40-0 woodshed beating of Bama to cap the national championship season in 1957, the 1969 stomping of the Bama and the Bear (the last time we beat them by more than 10 points), the 1970 comeback from 17-0 down to Bama and finally the classic 1972 Punt Bama Punt game.

It also covers several other classic Auburn games and moments including the 1963 Auburn vs. Bama game, the little known 1968 Auburn vs. Bama JV game where Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley led Auburn back from a 27-0 deficit, Sullivan's Heisman clincher where undefeated Auburn beat undefeated Georgia and several other classic games from Jordan's early years.

I think the essential Auburn history that every Auburn fan needs is this book, the Decade of the 80's video tape or DVD, the 1993 season recap DVD and the 2004 "Hard Fighting Soldiers" season recap DVD. I think those four things chronicle the best of Auburn and the best moments from its last four coaches.

However "Saturdays To Remember" is where it all started for me though and this blog is dedicated to that book and the hope that we have many many more "Saturdays To Remember".