Week 3 Review - Tiger Brawl

"We still haven't reached our capability. We can't continuously put ourselves in the situation we have been. Sooner or later, our luck will run out."  - Cam Newton after the Clemson game

Usually I regret not getting my review out promptly after a game.  This time I am not.  Saturday's game was definitely a memorable one.  I have talked to many Auburn fans who watched the game and that were there.  I have read Clemson posts.  I have heard a lot of different points of view.  After all that I am still having a hard time getting my head around this game.  Auburn played terrible, Auburn played great, Clemson played great, Clemson played terrible.  I guess I will start with the one thing that everyone can agree on and has mentioned about the game.  It was a very hard hitting game and one of the toughest I have seen in awhile.  I felt good about the game going in.  I did not think Clemson could start with a couple of cupcakes and then come into Jordan Hare and do that.  I was wrong.  Clemson came in and punched Auburn in the mouth.  They staggered the home team and nearly knocked them out.

However they did not and Auburn pulled off a memorable comeback on a sweltering September Saturday night.  It was certainly a tale of two haves.  Auburn was nearly as good in the second half as they were bad in the first half.  Clemson was the opposite.  I guess to start off with you have to break down this game into it's basic elements.  Auburn played a good team that started really well.  Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0.  Auburn rallied to win.  Auburn has to be a good team to do that.  Those are basic truths you have to accept about Saturday night despite all the bad things that happened as well.  Again, Auburn played a good team that started really well.  Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0.  Auburn rallied to win.  Auburn has to be a good team to do that.  With that said let's break it down...

THE GOOD
The good was basically the second half where Auburn scored three touchdowns and held Clemson to just one.  Auburn scored on the bomb to Zachary, Darvin Adams magnificent catch and got a touchdown run from Ontario McCallebb.  I can see the blame for Auburn's offensive troubles starting to be placed on Cam Newton.  He is not great at reading the defense, finding the open receiver and delivering the ball quickly.  However I think we can do a lot with him regardless but more on that later.  Cam Newton, even with the two awful interceptions, was still a big reason Auburn came back and won.  He was basically bent in half on the bomb to Zachary.  Neither of our weak-armed quaterbacks from the last four years would have been able to make that throw.  Newton's ability to run also continues to preoccupy the defenses we play thus opening up the big throws he did hit.  The offensive line finally got off their butts and started playing ball in the second half and the running backs were able to get untracked a little bit.  Adams and Zachary continue to shine when we can get the ball to them.

Defensively while I don't like our philosophy or schemes I love the effort.  Our defense stayed after it and finally started giving Clemson problems in the second half.  Josh Bynes really stepped up at middle linebacker.  The hard hit that Fairley and McNeil put on Kyle Parker really turned the game around.  The first job of a coach in my opinion is to get his players to play hard.  Our coaches are doing that.  However...

THE BAD
I think they could then put these players in a better position to succeed on offense and defense.  Defensively, Chizik and Roof have stated both in action and words that their philosophy is not to give up big plays and to keep everything in front of them and make other teams drive the length of the field.  This usually involves playing way off the ball and giving up a lot of yardage on short passes.  Auburn then usually makes adjustments, occasionally blitzes and gets a few stops.  However, would it not help the team overall to play a more aggressive style of defense?  The defense could then maybe get a few three-and-outs and let our offense do their thing and tire out the other defense.  Now of course we would give up more big plays ala Will Muschamp.  However that would get our offense back on the field and not subject our defense to staying out there so long getting dinked to death.

I just do not understand it.  A more aggressive defense would fit in more with our supposed goals of being a more aggressive offense.  Instead we seem to make it the worst of both worlds by keeping our offense on the bench longer and keeping our still thin defense on the field longer.  This is also exacerbated by the fact our offense if played according to our supposed goals will keep the defense on the field more anyway.  It just does not make sense to me.  I would rather bring our guys up and let them play more aggressively and go for the three-and-out.  They will give up a few but I think we would be more effective than we are now.

I have the same lack of understanding for our current offensive philosophy.  Why line up in the shotgun if you are going to run the ball 47 times???  Regardless of the proliferation of the spread offense and so many teams running their offenses out of the shotgun, it is still a passing formation.  You cannot convince me that you would not be better off having a fullback and a tight end blocking instead of a couple of wide receivers.  There is also the fact that Auburn has about a dozen wide receivers on scholarship and are bringing in more.  Yet we do not use but two of them... just like a regular I-formation team.

I do not like the spread, I do not like running our offense out of the shotgun, etc...  HOWEVER if you are going to do it, THEN DO IT.  Again, I know everyone is blaming our lack of a passing game on Newton but there is a ton of high-percentage passing plays that he could do now and would give more touches to our many great wide receiver prospects.  After the last two games it appears that Chizik is tightening up and putting the cuffs on the offense that he committed to like Tommy Tuberville did before him. 

THE UGLY
Ugly is what could happen if the team does not heed Cam Newton's quote I started this post with.  This game reminds me a little of the 1990 Auburn vs. Florida St game.  I was there, I was a student.  The game was similar to this one.  It was a hard fought win over a tough ACC team with an exciting finish.  The team was a little similar to this in that it was talented but could not put it all together. Auburn had not lost a game and would soon rise to #4 in the country.  Unfortunately like Cam Newton's states above, the 1990 team's luck ran out.  They got destroyed by Florida 48-7, beaten at home by Brett Farve and Southern Miss and then upset by an inferior Bama team.

I agree with Cam and see this team having the same fate if they do not play or get COACHED to their capability.  They cannot continue to be so inconsistent each game.  They coaches especially one Gus Malzahn have to put them in good situations with some creative playcalling.  I cannot believe I am saying that about Malzahn but our offense seems to basically consist of a small amount of plays.  I am like a lot of other people that are wondering where are the slants, screens and other short passes?  Why can't the defense play a little more aggressive and make the offense go over them rather than dinking them to death?

AROUND THE SEC
Arkansas took a huge step beating Georgia in Athens.  They certainly appear to be the #2 team in the West right now.  We will see how good they are this week as they meet the Bama juggernaut.  Bama, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky all took care of business.  Tennessee put up a good fight against the Gators but again just did not have enough to stay with them.  I guess I will say each week how shocking the situation at Tennessee is.  This Mississippi schools had a tough weekend.  Mississippi State made a lot of mistakes and LSU took full advantage.  Meanwhile Ole Miss' season is officially circling the drain as they got hammered by Vanderbilt at home.  Couple that with the Jacksonville State loss and you have an ugly season that is only going to get worse.  I think that even Houston Nutt is going to have a tough time getting an upset win or two with this team.

The game of the week will be Bama vs. Arkansas in Fayettville.  Arkansas is one of the only teams that might have enough offensive firepower and coaching to make it close against Bama.  An upset would rock the SEC race and the polls.  A Bama win would be another decisive step toward another SEC title.  South Carolina vs. Auburn is the other big conference game this week.  South Carolina could take a huge step toward their first SEC East title with a win at Auburn.  An Auburn win will have them at 5-0 going into Kentucky in two weeks. 

Another interesting game will be Kentucky at Florida.  This is usually a laugher but Kentucky is a solid team with a couple of big-time playmakers.  They actually have a chance of upsetting Florida this year.  It will definitely be a game to keep an eye on.  The only other conference game features Mark Richt trying to get that first conference win at Mississippi State.  I think he will.  State's quarterbacks continue to let them down.

Week 2 Review - Welcome Back to Earth

Welcome back to earth.  That is about all I can say to the people who spent the last 9 months building this Auburn team up to unattainable heights.  I would like to give a special "shout-out" to the elite few who talked about how our running would be as good as Bama's and how it would be one of the best in nation and how we would not miss Ben Tate.  Welcome back to earth.  It was a hard fall even for me.  The reason I am so disappointed in Auburn's performance Thursday night was because of how poor Mississippi State played on offense.  I was convinced they were better.  Their defense was better but their offense was not.  It looked a lot like every other Mississippi State offense I have seen.  The quarterbacks threw a lot of bad passes and the wide receivers had a lot of drops.  Now Auburn's defense did play much better and actually even challenged a few receivers at the line of scrimmage but the offense they were playing was just not that good.  I will be much more excited if we can put up a couple more of these performances in the next two weeks.

The simple fact is if Auburn does not play much better than that then they are going to have a tough time.  We played good defense but every single team remaining on our schedule outside of Ole Miss, Louisiana Monroe and Chattanooga will have a better offense and better quarterback.  I still believe Dan Mullen is a good coach and he is a "Cam Newton" away from resurrecting State's offense.  It is really that simple.  The recruiting battle for Newton came down to Auburn and Mississippi State.  How much different would things be last night if Cam Newton played for Mississippi State?

THE GOOD
Auburn's defense was good.  Nick Fairley was great.  He did resemble his legendary position coach last night.  Like last week I give props to "The Rock", Tracy Rocker.  His defensive line though it drops off a lot after Fairley is the only unit on the team that has been consistent both weeks.  They get after it all the time.  The rest of the defense was better than last week but Mississippi State still had a lot of open receivers and was an easy catch away from a possible tying field goal.  However I would agree that the defense got the job done.  They will need to keep improving because as I said the road just gets harder from here.

I also have to mention Mike Dyer here.  While he did not put on the performance Marcus Lattimore did for South Carolina he continues to show flashes of being that next great Auburn running back.  With Mario Fannin possibly out due to injury Dyer will be called on to do more.  I also thought that Cam Newton did not play a great game but still made some good plays and needed help from his coach...

THE BAD
Gus Malzahn.  The offense was completely ineffective in the second half.  Going to the swing screen once to often resulted in a "pick six" that was dropped by State.  We also seemed to have problems calling plays, problems calling audibles and seemed unable to handle undisguised blitzes.  It was mess and the worst I have seen a Gus Malzahn offense play.

Another thing to note is that in consecutive weeks, teams are sniffing out some of Malzahn's favorite plays.  Last week, Auburn torched Arkansas State but the one time they tried that reverse to Terrell Zachary that resulted in so many big plays last season it resulted in a huge loss.  Then as I said earlier Malzahn went to the swing screen one too many times.  Those are two pet plays Auburn runs a lot.  I also do not understand why Auburn did not throw any quick slants against those State blitzes.

THE UGLY
Ugly is the streak that Bama is on.  They were not perfect but they were dominant in taking out Penn State.  Now Penn State appeared to be an average Big Ten team at best but they are a legitimate big time out of conference opponent.  Unfortunately it has become obvious that Bama has one of those special groups of kids.  Like Auburn in the 80s when they won three consecutive SEC titles and Florida in the 90s when they won four consecutive SEC title.  It goes beyond the coach no matter how good he is.  It is recruiting mixed with good luck and outstanding chemistry.  They have that oneness that every coach dreams about.  Steve Spurrier did not just stop coaching and recruiting at Florida from 1997 on.  He just had that special group of kids from 1993 through 1996.  I think Bama has been a nick more successful because the SEC has been down the last couple of years except for Florida with their big rivals Auburn and Tennessee both going through tough coaching transitions plus LSU starting to fade as well.

AROUND THE SEC
The biggest win of the weekend was Steve Spurrier finally beating the Dawgs at South Carolina.  I do not think he has beat Georgia at South Carolina yet, if not he has only gotten them once and lost several heart breakers.  South Carolina had to win to have a chance at the East and they did.  Like I said last week this appears to be the strongest team I have seen at South Carolina under Spurrier (and they are due into Auburn next week).  The team as a whole has improved but the they also finally have that dynamic play maker Spurrier has lacked since he has been there in former Auburn commit Marcus Lattimore.  Lattimore was the MVP as he carried South Carolina across the finish line rushing 37 times for 182 yards.  On the other sideline, Georgia played well but made some key mistakes.  It was be interesting to see where Georgia goes from here.

As I stated above, Bama dominated Penn State and in the other big out of conference game Oregon overcame a slow start to crush the Vols in Knoxville.  The honeymoon ended for Derek Dooley in the second half of this game.  I did not see it but I have heard it got very ugly.  It is obvious now that while Phil Fulmer was fading that the hiring of Lane Kiffin was one of the biggest mistakes in Tennessee football history and they are going to pay for it for awhile.  I read that they are now down to 72 scholarship players???  It is going to take some serious rebuilding to get the Vols back to the top.  Everyone else in the SEC held serve over weaker opponents.

This coming week gives us more conference matchups with the Florida going to Knoxville, Arkansas going to Athens, Mississippi State going to Baton Rouge and finally last and least Vandy heads to Oxford for a matchup of the two worst teams in the conference.  There will also still be some good out-of-conference matchups with Clemson and ESPN Gameday coming to the loveliest village on the plains.  Auburn and Clemson is a special matchup with the two schools being so similar and sharing a lot of history.  I cannot wait.  Alabama and their legion of fans will invade Duke's tiny Wallace Wade Stadium.  I hope Duke is ready because they are about to see the following a #1 SEC team.  That campus will be crimson till the game is over.  You would think Duke would coordinate a basketball series with the football series so they could flex their muscles in their sport.  Finally South Carolina and Kentucky take on a couple of cupcakes to get ready for their big week four games. 

Week 1 Review - A Star is Born

Cam Newton.  It is rare that a much hyped athletic star's performance comes even close to the hype.  Well on Saturday night in Auburn it happened.  New Auburn quarterback Cam Newton gave one of the most spectacular individual performances in Auburn history (and that is saying something).  He rushed for 171 yards which is now the top rushing performance ever by an Auburn quarterback and he also added 186 yards passing.  It was amazing to watch.

As always here at STR I use the format of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" to review each weeks games.  So lets get to it with the rest of the "The Good" for Auburn...

THE GOOD
Super running back recruit Michael Dyer also impressed with nearly a 100 yards rushing on just 14 carries.  Ontarrio McCalebb also had a strong game.  Most Auburn fans were wondering what was going on as starter Mario Fannin only got 3 carries.  However Fannin was the leading receiver with 65 yards and 2 touchdowns.  He did have a fumble but I thought it was a fluke play.  He got caught in an awkward position.  I still think Fannin is our best and I hope gets some more carries this week.  The offensive line looked strong as there was plenty of room to run and Newton had all day to throw on most of his attempts.  Auburn ended up with 608 yards of total offense for the night and as I predicted in my last post is well on their way to becoming the best offense statistically in Auburn history.

I have already seen Auburn's special teams getting criticized for Demond Washington's fumble in the 3rd quarter.  That was bad but I will still put the special teams in the "Good" section here.  Does anybody remember the complete train wreck Auburn's special teams were last year?  They were the worst in the history of the school in my opinion.  We literally could not catch a punt.  Last night my guy Q Carr from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama actually caught every punt to him and made positive yardage.  That is reason enough to give the special teams kudos.  However I also have to give a shout out to my new guy, Craig Sanders.  He is wearing my favorite number, #13, and he was amazing on kick coverage making three solo stops.  You just don't see one guy dominate on kick coverage like that very much.

Finally, before I butcher the defense in the next section I also want to give credit to the "Rock", defensive line coach, Tracy Rocker.  His guys went after it hard all night.

THE BAD
First the little things.  Letting the clock run out at the end of the first half is just inexcusable.  Come on, that could lose an SEC game.  We also had a lot of stupid penalties that need to be fixed.  Finally for the offense why the heck did the coaching staff have Cam Newton out there running the ball with a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter???  I believe this game made it obvious that this team is going to go as far as Newton takes it.  We are going to risk that to get him a few more carries in the first game when it is already decided???  D-U-M-B.

Obviously Auburn's defense has some room for improvement as Arkansas State rolled up 366 total yards.  However after watching how badly coached Miami of Ohio's offense was against Florida I will give some credit to the Arkansas State coaching staff.  Their offense was very well coached.  They did not throw an interception and just played a very smart game.  With that said though the linebacker and secondary play overall was not good.  There were a few big hits and hey I am cheering for Zach Etheridge like everyone else is but you cannot give up 300 yards plus passing to Arkansas State.

Craig Stevens being suspended does not explain it either.  Even with Cam Newton's star performance and the great play by the rest of the offense the game looked a lot like Auburn last year.  The offense would go through periods of being unstoppable and look unbelievable but then they would hit a lull and the other team would make a run and our defense would seem helpless to stop them.  We did not quite see that extreme last night but you saw the outline and a better team would have made a real run.

The way Auburn plays their safeties is hard to watch.  Most of the time they play them so far back that the other team just dinks us to death.  I will never understand that philosophy.  I think you should play the other team tight and make them throw over you and hit that lower percentage long pass.  Yes you will give up some big plays but you will also get some three-and-outs.  Between our current offensive and defensive philosophies I do not think we will ever have enough depth on defense.  Speaking of moving safeties let us go to...

THE UGLY
The ugly has been four years of weak-armed immobile quarterbacks at Auburn (Brandon Cox and Chris Todd).  It has been four years of other teams bringing their safeties up and crowding us, daring us to throw over them and knowing that we could not.  Brandon Cox's deterioration killed our offenses in 2006 and 2007.  Chris Todd's weak arm reared it's ugly head many times over the last two seasons even in our higher rated offense last year.  The vertical passing is absolutely essential to any good team.  It forces a team to keep those safeties back and opens up running lanes and short passes.  We finally have a quarterback who can throw it further than I can and that is good news for Auburn.

Now you also throw in a quarterback that can run and you pose so many other problems for the opposing defense.  Even if Cam Newton was not as spectacular as he was I am still happy.  I told a friend before the season started who was a little worried about Newton that there was no way he could possibly be worse than what we have had over the last four years.  It is just icing on the cake that he looked even better than expected.

AROUND THE SEC
I did not make my traditional trip to watch the season opener in Auburn this year so I was able to watch a lot of football this weekend.  The teams that stuck out to me were South Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi State.  It seems South Carolina opens every season now but it is usually in an ugly low scoring duel with Mississippi State.  This year they changed it up a bit and opened with another Mississippi school in Southern Miss.  Now Southern Miss is definitely not a world beater but they are a bit stronger than your usual patsy.  I thought South Carolina looked very strong and about the best I have seen them since Spurrier got there.  I thought Garcia was solid and missed a few long passes by just a yard or so.  He should start hitting those passes later in the season.  I thought Marcus Lattimore looked very good.  South Carolina also had several other big fast athletic players on offense that looked pretty good.

Kentucky may have played the toughest game of the weekend and beat Louisville on the road to spoil Charlie Strong's coaching debut.  Kentucky played a very solid game on both sides of the ball and have some big-time play makers in Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb.  Finally Mississippi State just obliterated Memphis.  Now Memphis is a very weak team but you can just see a difference in State.  I think Dan Mullen is the real deal.  I think he really has that "it" you look for in a coach.  I think this weeks game between Auburn and State is going to be a war.  Auburn fans who have counted these three teams as automatic wins this year better think twice in my opinion.

It was a typical LSU and Les Miles game in the headlining match up of the weekend.  LSU looked very talented and highly erratic in their win over a decimated North Carolina team.  Georgia and Tennessee took care of their business in their openers.  It must have been pretty cool as well for Tennessee to stomp a team who looks just like one of your old rivals.  UT-Martin's uniforms are just like Auburn except for the logo on the helmet.  I think Auburn needs a homecoming opponent that looks like Bama...

The bad in the SEC this week was Florida's offense against Miami of Ohio.  I do not think I have ever seen a top five rated SEC team unit look as bad as Florida's offense.  I watched just about this whole game and they were completely inept.  What has Florida been practicing?  It sure does not appear they have been practicing shotgun snaps as they butchered about a dozen of them in the game.  They fumbled the ball, they could not get a consistent push from their offensive line and quarterback John Brantley misfired on just about every throw over five yards.  Take away one long run and Brantley's fourth quarter desperation heave that got batted around and was miraculously caught and Florida's stats are abysmal.

Well there is no doubt what the ugly in the SEC is this week.  Ole Miss and coach Houston Nutt lost to Jacksonville State, a FCS (Division 1-AA) team from here in Alabama.  In a touch of irony Jacksonville State is coached by Jack Crowe (a former Auburn assistant under Pat Dye) who was once fired at Arkansas for losing to a Division 1-AA team (The Citadel).  Ole Miss even had a 31-10 lead at halftime.  They only scored three points in the second half and gave up 24.  What the heck is going on down in Oxford?  This loss coupled with Mississippi State's resurgence has to be a bitter pill for Ole Miss fans to swallow.  It looks to be a long season for Ole Miss BUT there is no doubt in my mind that Houston Nutt will upset somebody in the West.

Things heat up fast next week as Auburn and State kick off SEC play on Thursday night.  I expect this game to be one of the best ones in the history of the entire series.  Georgia and South Carolina meet in a huge game in Columbia.  With Florida suddenly looking vulnerable this game would be a huge boost to one of these teams hopes of winning the SEC East.  There are also a couple of huge out-of-conference tilts with Penn State coming to Bama and Oregon coming to Tennessee. 

Back in the Saddle Again

It is time to kick off another football season of blogging on the Auburn Tigers and the SEC. It has been awhile since I have posted for a variety of reasons. It has been a crazy summer, of course with three kids in the house it is always crazy. I am always trying to get organized but still haven’t quite got there yet. I have found that you have to be organized and plan some time during the week to send out a decent blog post. I did not get there this summer.

I did finish my biggest and best piece to date “Saturdays to Remember… and Forget – The Decade of the Eighties Part 1” but unfortunately I did not get it finished before practice started and now nobody will care since the offseason is over. I think I will keep it saved and work on more parts and look to release it next year.

So there you go… kids, my disorganization and a huge blog post that will not see the light of day anytime soon… that will pretty much sum up the summer of 2010 for me blog-wise.

The next question is how could I have waited this long to post? I mean the season is just about to start! Well that reason is simple when following Auburn, there is not any actual hard facts or observations to comment on. Only the football team and certain other insiders who cannot distribute their thoughts and observations know what is actually going on. All of the beat writers and blogs have no idea what is going on until the coaching staff decides to tell them.

It has just ruined the whole “preseason” for me. Fall practice just does not get me excited at all when the only thing you read about is pure speculation. I think the thing about Auburn that frustrates me the most is that they do not give out stats from scrimmages. At the very least that gives you something to talk about. I mean even the biggest control freak in the league and the guy that started no-access rules, Nick $aban, GIVES OUT STATS FROM SCRIMMAGES. At the very least that is all I ask. It is obviously not asking too much if $aban allows it. However at Auburn we are forced to try and form a picture from hearsay by the players and vague babble from the coaches. It is ludicrous. It just seems like a waste of time to try and make any conclusions based on hearsay and vague comments. There are no witnesses of the events that people are trying to draw conclusions from.  I understand the need to close off a lot of things and I have heard all the good reasons but I still think a little more access could be granted for the fans.

However there are too many Auburn sites and bloggers though to let that stop them and hey I still read some of them too. However I do not get much enjoyment of it. It has pretty much gotten to the point where football season starts on Labor Day. The days of getting excited when practice starts are over for me while the practices are made “top secret”.

With that said, I was at West Point the first week of August and I did get to watch parts of Army’s first two football practice. So at least I got to see somebody practice some football this August…

Back to Auburn, I guess it is time to make some preseason predictions. Another damper for me every year is the nauseating sunshine-pumping from the various Auburn outlets. I understand some of it but it seems to get worse every year. There just does not seem to be much difference between the way Auburn and Bama fans act now. There was a time not so long ago that Auburn fans were much more objective and realistic about their team’s chances and not the complete homers that most Bama fans are. That does not seem true anymore. A spin around the various Auburn sites and you will find that Auburn is absolutely awesome, Gene Chizik is already a certified great coach and everything is great and wonderful. Now for the record things are definitely looking up for this season but I am not quite ready to go as far as most Auburn people.

First, a comment on last year. A prevailing topic since the season ended is how great the team did last year, how much they exceeded expectations, etc… I beg to differ. I would be cast as “negative” but I predicted Auburn would go 6-6 last year and 2-4 in the SEC in the regular season. Auburn ended up going 7-5 last year and 3-5 in the SEC in the regular season. I predicted we would lose to Tennessee but I predicted we would beat Kentucky so those two games were a wash. Basically the only thing last year’s team did that I did not think they would do was beat Ole Miss. Those are the facts.

Now before we crown mean Gene the greatest coach in Auburn history and anoint Gus Malzahn as the greatest offensive coach ever I think we need to actually beat Arkansas, LSU, Georgia or Bama. I think we need to avoid three game losing streaks and three game streaks of blowing 14 point leads.

Finally let us get to the actual predictions. Looking at the schedule my first take is that we will go 1-1 vs. Clemson and South Carolina, 1-1 vs. Arkansas and LSU and 1-1 vs. Georgia and Bama and win the rest. That would put us at 9-3 and maybe headed to the Citrus or Cotton Bowls. I think if this team is a little better we improve by one game to 10-2 and it is definitely possible we could also finish at 8-4. I will go with 9-3 and 5-3 in the SEC as my official prediction.

That is a two game improvement and would include a couple of wins over the four teams that we need to beat. That would definitely be a good season and show a lot of progress. However the goal every year is to win the SEC West and get to Atlanta. I believe this is Auburn’s best chance to do that for awhile. If Auburn does not do it then it is a disappointment to me.

I will say though that Auburn fans need to enjoy this season for all it’s worth. I think it will be the best season Auburn has for awhile. Auburn has TWENTY FOUR seniors leading the team this season. This includes FOUR starters on the offensive line, two of the main defensive tackles (there are only 5 legitimate defensive tackles on the roster), the two starting defensive ends, two starting linebackers, two starting safeties, two starting kickers and the starting tailback. It will take Auburn a season or more to get back to this level due to Tommy Tuberville’s last two horrible recruiting classes. This team has a lot of seniors and a lot of freshmen and not much in between.

I predict that this offense will be the highest rated offense in Auburn history, statistically. So before the sunshine-pumpers lose their minds, I, as a “negative” fan, am predicting this. Now I do not think it will be the actual best offense in Auburn history but it will be very good and like every other “spread” offense it will run up big numbers in the three creampuff out-of-conference games. I have heard the stats from last year’s team ad nauseum. The only stats that count to me are the stats IN-conference. Auburn’s 2009 SEC offensive stats were a bit more representative of how good they were.

I will also predict that Gus Malzahn will leave Auburn after this great offensive season for a head coaching job on the backs of these seniors. This will be his most marketable moment and like I said it will be awhile before Auburn will be this good again. I think that he will especially see the lack of talent he will have to work with on the offensive line next year and beyond. I believe Trooper Taylor will be promoted to offensive coordinator. He could be a great one or not. I do not know however I would not think he would be quite as good running this style of offense as Malzahn and every rookie coordinator has a learning curve.

With all this said I will venture one more prediction that nobody will agree with. I think this will be the best season Gene Chizik will have as head coach at Auburn. I hope I am wrong on this one and the other ones but that is the way I see it.

Let me turn back to the positive though. I will give Gene Chizik and Co. full credit for two things this last offseason. These two things are amazing and hardly ever happen. One, Chizik was able to hold the entire coaching staff together and that is very rare in this modern age of college football. He also brought in a full class of 25 new players in plus 5 other players that count toward last year’s scholarship count. That is simply amazing.

I hope this monster class will be the foundation for another SEC championship for the Auburn Tigers. First however let us see what this team and these seniors can do this season. I may be “negative” at times but I love Auburn football. I am looking out my window on this opening Saturday of the 2010 season and it is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to watch my Auburn Tigers get started tonight. War Eagle!