The long off season begins...

Well here we are, it is amazing how fast 14 weeks can pass by. The college football season has come and gone. Now we have an entire basketball season and 3/4 of an entire baseball season before college football starts up again. Of course if Bama continues to do as well as they are currently doing that will not be a bad thing anymore. The bad thing is we have not hit bottom yet. After they beat Texas it will be that much worse. I am not sure I will waste time talking much about that game. Long story short, Bama has more good football players and I think they will win the game. Not to mention Texas runs more of a spread passing game thus requiring more timing and precision which will be lost in the MONTH before the game. Again, the only sport in the world that has a month pass before their "championship game" is played.

The subject came up over at War Blog Eagle on who to cheer for in that game. There were some great responses in the comments section. Very good stuff. It restores my faith in Auburn fans. As for me I can only re-post what I wrote: "EVERYWHERE you go there is a bammer with his bammer sweatshirt, cap, car magnets and 4 flags. At work, on your street, wherever you go, you cannot dig a hole deep enough to get away from these people. To top that off I can’t even enjoy my freaking Sunday sports page now since every week it is another momentous event for them. I have NEVER cheered for them and I NEVER will. HOOK’EM HORNS!!!"

You know, the football season at Auburn would not be so bad if there was not Auburn basketball immediately following it. It looks like another great season as Auburn is 5-5 BEFORE Christmas. The best posts I have read so far are at Eyes On Auburn. Auburn is already out of the NCAA tourney before Christmas and another dreary season awaits after Christmas. It sure looks like last year's 10-6 SEC record will be the exception and not the rule when the Lebo era is done. The guess here is that Lebo will get to open the new arena but will not spend much time in it. I simply do not understand why Auburn cannot recruit one consistent shooter. A Ronnie Battle or a Scott Pohlman who can hit some shots when the athletic jump shooters are not hitting would sure help A LOT.

Make no mistake about it. Auburn is arguably the worst basketball program in the SEC since the SEC went to divisions. I did a breakdown a few years ago on each team's conference record since 1992. Auburn came in second to last to South Carolina when I did it. I will try to find that, update it and post it. Back to the present. Obviously Auburn's worst problem is it's atrocious shooting and shot selection. Next I think we miss Vot Barber big-time. I think Korvotney Barber was one of the most underrated players ever to play at Auburn. He was just not a scorer and he played on some really bad teams. However the guy was a great player. He was the Ben Tate for the basketball team the last four years.

I guess the biggest topic at Auburn currently is the upcoming trip to the Outback bowl and recruiting. I was definitely surprised and excited to see us get to the Outback bowl and that we will get to play a team we have never played. However let us be clear, we got lucky. With a 3-5 SEC record we did not earn this bowl trip. I also want to reiterate that the ultimate judge of a college football, basketball and baseball coach is his overall CONFERENCE RECORD. I do not care about the overall record. The conference record shows what kind of coach you have. Case in point would be Cliff Ellis.

On recruiting, things are looking up and I am a little more positive about the class as it appears we are bringing in some linemen. I still think we need more but will wait to see what we end up with. The class appears to be shaping up well but you just have to hope it is not a "Tuberville mirage". Tub's last four classes looked good as well but it was just a mirage as each class crumbled with non-qualifiers and complete busts. The first time you can really grade a recruiting class is the first day of fall practice in my opinion. The only players that should count on a recruiting grade are guys that qualify and are at the first practice. Auburn needs to get as many bodies in the pipeline as possible.

The buzz this week is this super JUCO QB Cam Newton coming in for a visit. The guy appears to be a stud but I am not real excited about bringing in JUCO QBs especially ones that got kicked out of Florida for stealing laptops. A move like this also does not send a positive message to your current quarterbacks who are working their butts off. However as long as the guy does not have a weak arm and does not pick #12 I can probably live with it...