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.
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