How did it come to this at UT and it's proud tradition of great QBs?Well, well, well... everyone including me said we would know a lot more about both teams after the Auburn/UT game and that was correct. First, let me say it, let me get it out the way... hmmph... I guess, I might have been a little bit off on Chris Todd. Oh OK I was wrong. There. The guy is still not the Heisman Trophy candidate that the rest of the Auburn blogs are making him out to be but grrr...
UT is not a very good team (mostly because of their QB) but their defense and DC are good and doing that well on offense and not throwing an INT is a major accomplishment against them. No matter the condition of the team it is big getting a win in Neyland Stadium. Props to the men from the Plains. Props also to Gene Chizik. HOWEVER I am not going to go right to giving the guy a lifetime contract. Like we found out with Terry Bowden, it takes some time to see if a coach has staying power. I think we have to see how Chizik does without Gus Malzahn when he is gonzo at the end of this season. However I will say that in the short term Chizik has done a much better job than I expected. Let's hit the official review...
THE GOOD
Auburn's offense goes here again. Gus Malzahn had a great plan. Auburn ran and passed for around 230 yards. Ben Tate had about 130 yards rushing. Mario Fannin got half a dozen touches which should be his minimum I think. Auburn also spread the love with 8 different players catching passes. Chris Todd effectively managed the game and made no big mistakes. In fact, he evaded the rush and made a few nifty plays I did not think he was capable of. He did have one miss though and that was missing Fannin near the goal line on the drive after the UT fumble. Fannin had position and it would have been a TD if Todd had not missed him. We will need to hit those plays against better opponents. McCalebb also had that Obomanu-like drop in the end zone. Again, against better teams Auburn will not be able to squander those opportunities.
THE BAD
The Auburn defense played very well most of the time on Saturday night. It is hard to say they played bad. However I will say they are showing BAD tendencies. I described this defense in the last post as "on-again/off-again" and they seem more like that after this game. They were on most of the first half and then suddenly let UT just fly down the field for a quick TD before halftime. They stone UT in the third quarter and let them score 16 points including the ridiculous last second TD in the fourth quarter. I am not a DC but playing so ridiculously loose in coverage allows just as many big plays as being overly aggressive. The Auburn defense must find a balance and play more consistent to win more big games starting next week.
THE UGLY
The UT passing game gets this award. It picked it up in parts of the game but the majority of the game it was simply awful. QB Jonathan Crompton played down to expectations missing most of his early passes and most of them were easy slants or drags across the middle. Crompton would usually throw behind the WR and that is simply inexcusable for a 5th year senior. Of course early on when Crompton got it right the WRs dropped the ball including an embarrassing pass on a slant that went off a player's helmet.
The entire early UT offensive game plan was ugly. The Vols for some reason came out throwing. I know Auburn was stacking the line but I still think the Vols would have been better served to just pound away mixing in some play action. Even stacking the line I think Auburn will have a tough time stopping a good running attack. Auburn is small and thin on the DL and at LB. I don't know what Lane Kiffin's plan was. Whatever it was it seemed completely unrealistic for his current offense. Top that off with the execution on realistic plays and the UT offensive coaching was in a word, ugly.
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