It is NFL time even for college football guys

Checking in on an abnormally warm week in January in the great state of Alabama. Things are still hopping all around the sports world. College football's second season, the recruiting season, is coming to the end and everyone is either happy, sad or worried. On the Auburn front I am happy and worried. We look poised to close on what could be one of the better recruiting classes ever on the plains but until the faxes are in I worry we will lose some of these guys. The last piece of the puzzle in my opinion is to get one or both of these last two big defensive tackles on the board. We get one of those guys, keep everyone else and get most of them in school and this recruiting season will look to be a big success. Another big thing is keeping our entire staff together during such a crazy off season of coaching searches. Keeping an entire staff together for multiple seasons is starting to become a rare thing in big time college football. Let's wait and get through signing day but right now it is looking like I will have to throw some kudos Chizik's way.

Elsewhere in college football I need to follow up on my last post. Tennessee ends up hiring Derek Dooley. It doesn't have the wow factor but I think it was about the best UT could do all things considered. They wanted to keep part of the staff together and it was a tough time to find a coach. With that said I think they did pretty good. Dooley sounded a little better than I thought originally after hearing more about his resume and listening to him. It should be an extremely interesting year in the SEC East next year. Florida will be the favorite but they will be doing a little rebuilding and have the whole Urban Meyer situation. The team that will be the dark horse and challenge them is up for grabs.

Final words on college sports, I was all set to work on my first full Auburn basketball post but then they won on Wednesday. Auburn basketball is closing in on a real mark of infamy. If South Carolina finishes with two more SEC wins than Auburn then Auburn will officially become the WORST basketball program in the SEC since the SEC went to divisions. Auburn would have the worst conference record out of all 12 teams in the SEC the last 18 years. I think that is plenty of time to tell the story. I will stop here and wait till it happens to rant on it. I will also post the official record sheet as well. Bottom line, Auburn basketball is simply awful.

Elsewhere you have Tiger Woods in sex rehab (who saw that coming last year?), Mark McGwire finally coming clean (well not really) and the NFL Final Four. As I said in the title of this post it is NFL time even for college football fans. You have three of the best QBs in the NFL and a wildcard in the Jets. I think the Colts will win but either way it goes that game will merely serve as an appetizer to the main entree of Minnesota vs. New Orleans. The first NFC championship game in New Orleans and an incredible match up to boot. Forty-year old Brett Favre and the Purple People Eaters coming to NOLA to play Drew Brees and the high-powered Saints. Even for a guy who is not a huge NFL fan I am looking forward to this one.

As always I like to bring up a little history. It was also an exciting time for the Saints back in the late 80's when Jim "Playoffs???!!!???" Mora got the Saints into the playoffs for the first time. The Saints were riding high and the Vikings came to NOLA back then as the underdog as well I believe. The team from the north destroyed the Saints 44-10. The Saints also won their first playoff game ever in 2000 only to have the Vikings destroy them the next week. I think it is safe to say that the Saints should have a little extra incentive against Minnesota this week.

I would love to see Brett Favre get back to the Super Bowl but I think I will be rooting for the Saints Sunday night. I think it would be great to them in the Super Bowl. GO SAINTS!

FALLOUT

I feel bad as a semi-regular blogger that I have not commented on everything going on around college football till now. I try to concentrate on things that would effect Auburn so let us start there. Obviously things did not go well for Auburn in the mythical national championship game. I watched the game till Trent Richardson broke into the clear in the second quarter and had the channel changed before he got to the end zone. So I missed the surprising Texas rally and then the nauseating celebration. Of course there are constant reminders everywhere in the state of Alabama. I mean if Auburn won a national championship I would not wear or decorate my car any different. Unfortunately most of the people around here get their Bama sweatshirt, pants and cap on and then they proceed to put half a dozen car magnets on their car along with two to four flags posted on the windows (in subfreezing weather). WE GOT IT, YOU LIKE BAMA AND THEY HAVE A GOOD TEAM. Congrats but good night you look ridiculous.

The rest of the SEC continues to fall apart just like it seems to do just about every time Bama gets good. Heck all the usual suspects around the country seem to be falling apart or hitting a small dip and thus benefiting the Tide. Acid Reign at Track'em does a great job taking you through the SEC. I will point you to that article and point out that if you were grading the SEC like stocks you would see that former heavyweights LSU, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia are ALL trending down. The only team in the SEC "big six" trending up is Auburn but they hit rock bottom in 2008 and still have a long way to go. They are also a "shaky buy" as well. That of course leaves Bama alone at the top. Even with their losses on defense they should be awesome again next year.

Among the rest of the SEC only Arkansas appears to be trending up but they are still not close to Bama talent-wise and as soon as Mallett leaves they will be back down. Miss St like Auburn is trending up but has a long way to go. Ole Miss looks to fall off the map after losing nearly 100% of their offensive production. The rest of the East does not look any better. So, wow I can't wait till the 2010 season ...

That should wrap up Bama and the current outlook. Now let us move on to Lane Kiffin. Kiffin, of course, always came off as an arrogant condescending jerk but I did enjoy that directed toward Bama and Florida. However his persona and the things he did after get got to Knoxville should have been flashing warning signs to the Vol faithful. Check this link out. UNBELIEVABLE. All I can say is that if someone had done this at Auburn I would have had a fit and hated him till his final day. From that viewpoint this was a good thing for UT.

The bad thing is obviously leaving the school high and dry (and then also poaching their recruits) just three weeks before signing day. Most kids will not sign with a school that does not have a coach. It appears right now that the Vols will bring in David Cutcliffe to steady the ship. I think that is their best backup plan however I think they once again messed up on their first choice. I think Auburn, Tennessee, Notre Dame, etc... have all missed out on the best candidate. I think TCU's Gary Patterson is the best available coach. He is not a sexy pick but the guy is a proven winner and not just a "flavor of the month" like Lane Kiffin or Brian Kelly. However the guy is obviously waiting for someone that will make him their first choice and not their consolation prize. It sure seems like he would fit in at UT and in the SEC. However just like with Auburn it appears UT does not want a candidate that would bring his entire staff and that puts Patterson out of it. Cutcliffe should calm things down and is a good coach. The Vols just better start planning and not mess up the next hire. Unlike a lot of Auburn fans I think a strong UT program is a good thing for us.

My parting shot has to be toward that smarmy puke Lane Kiffin and his ridiculous comments about Tennessee. I am referring to all of his comments about how UT cannot recruit without USC posters, videos and cheers everywhere and about how "out of touch" and tough it is to recruit at UT and so on. HEY LANE WHERE DID THE BEST QUARTERBACK IN THE NFL GO TO SCHOOL? Yeh having the best QB in the NFL as an alum is no recruiting help at all. There is no way they should stick to posters of him around the football complex. Also how are your boys Leinart and Bush doing in the NFL? Let's see one of them has been sitting the bench for two years while another is just now starting to do something after being basically a third down scat back for the last few years. Another thing Lane, what is USC's average attendance for football games compared to UT's? Wow that is a big difference. Yeh no recruit would ever want to play at the biggest on-campus stadium in the country outside of Michigan.

Not to mention annual prime-time games against Bama, Georgia and Florida probably would not interest recruits. Yeh those classic USC battles against Oregon St, UCLA and California are much bigger. Here is hoping the NCAA finally does the right thing and crushes USC and Lane Kiffin falls on his arrogant-while-having-done-absolutely-nothing face.

HOOK'EM HORNS!!!

From "mark" at the comments section of this post at WBE...

"I am sorry, absolutely nothing good can come from a Bama win tonight. Jerry, living in Alabama right now is like living in Occupied Europe circa 1942…nothing but those horrid red flags flying everywhere and pictures of their Fuhrer on every newsstand."

Bama is the obvious favorite but maybe just maybe...

Outback Bowl Review

Well it was not boring and I was certainly glad to win but I am much less enamored with this game than everyone else I have read. I am glad that seemingly the entire Auburn nation is absolutely thrilled with a mistake-filled penalty-ridden WAC-style victory but count me out. I tell you everyone, including me, continues to snipe at Tub for his awful recruiting the last few years but I think people can STOP deriding Tub for his method of winning football games. AFTER NEARLY BLOWING OUR THIRD GAME IN A ROW WHERE WE STARTED WITH A 14-0 LEAD I am thinking we need to get a little more Tubervillian after we get a lead. This new "super offensive" approach IS NOT WORKING to help us put games away. It continues to put more pressure on a defense that will not be that much better next year. There are times to go for the throat and times to run the ball 3 consecutive times and run clock.

Everyone hated the way Tub would never keep his foot on the gas pedal but he sure as hell did not blow many 14-0 leads much less THREE IN A ROW. Not only did we blow a 14-0 lead in this game, we blew a 21-7 and a 35-21 lead in the fourth quarter. Throw in the numerous penalties including a couple of seniors being glory hounds and you saw a disturbing lack of discipline throughout the game. We have heard a lot about Chizik being a disciplinarian and being cast in the image of Pat Dye and Shug Jordan. Well I think I can say for a fact you would not have seen one of their players doing that.

Yes it was an exciting game but I much more impressed with a "boring" win full of solid football like when we beat Penn St and Larry Johnson in 2002. It is absolutely essential to have a good offense with playmakers on it however NEVER playing conservative is as bad as ALWAYS playing conservative. For example, after trying one trick play throw with Kodi Burns and getting intercepted you probably do not want to try another one at a critical point in the game. We have done this stuff all year and thus we have one of the worst defense statistically in Auburn history.

I am very glad we are bringing in some offensive playmakers. Again they are absolutely essential but I sure hope we are bringing in some defensive talent and some common sense in our offensive playcalling for 2010. Congrats to the seniors. They have endured a tough ride the last couple of years and deserved to go out with a big win. I hope all the guys coming back are willing to put in the ridiculous amount of work needed to compete and win in the SEC. I hope the coaches will bring in a good recruiting class that will all actually make it into school in the fall. I hope the coaches will take heed of lessons learned this season.

GOODBYE CHRIS TODD... FINALLY!!!

Thank goodness that maybe just maybe I do not have to watch a slow-footed, weak-armed #12 at QB for Auburn for a few years. After FOUR YEARS of Brandon Cox and Chris Todd (with a little Kodi Burns thrown in) I SIMPLY CANNOT TAKE ANYMORE. Please oh please let us have a good QB next year...