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.
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…
“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…
TEST
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