The 2010 Auburn football Tigers finished a season for the ages in their customary cardiac style winning on a last second field goal by Wes Byrum. It was an incredible ending to an incredible season and here is what I thought about it...
THE GOOD
I have to start with the defense led by Nick Fairley. The job they did against the nation's #1 offense that everyone has gone on about all season was mind blowing. Auburn completely shut down the vaunted Oregon rushing attack and the nation's best running back in LaMichael James. Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage. Props to my man "The Rock" Tracy Rocker. Once again he had his guys ready to play. Rocker has truly made the leap from great player to great coach and has done a similar great job with Nick Fairley that Malzahn has done with Cam Newton. Of course, just like the rest of the season, the pass defense was weak at times and Oregon rolled up almost 400 yards passing. However the defense got it done when it counted holding the Ducks to 19 points.
Next up is offensive MVP Michael Dyer. I just kept saying over and over again about halfway through the first quarter: "Where is Dyer?". It was obvious that he would be the key in this game and not McCalebb. They finally started feeding the big dog and he delivered. He did it of course behind the best offensive line to ever play at Auburn. Ziemba, Pugh, Berry and Isom delivered one more time paving the way for the team to rush for 265 yards and roll up over 500 yards of offense one more time. I was surprised that the Ducks stopped us a couple of times. They did play some good defense. Finally, Cam Newton delivered one more time with a couple more great passes and couple more great runs. He did not have his usual dominating game but he still was the focal point of the offense and it looked like he played most of the second half in a lot of pain. Of course the layoff destroyed his passing touch but more on that later.
Finally, it was another great job by the coaching staff led by Gene Chizik. It takes a heck of a coaching job to lead a team to 14 wins in the SEC. These guys obviously worked their tails off and helped this team achieve greatness. They did what coaches are supposed to do in helping develop their players and leading them through tough times. A player does not come from the JUCO ranks and achieve greatness like Newton and Fairley without great coaching. An offensive line, even one this good, does not perform at this level without good coaching. The same goes for the defensive line. Congratulations to the coaches and players, you guys earned this with your hard work.
I have to also say how awesome it was seeing Bo Jackson on the sidelines and Pat Dye up on that podium. Coach Dye built the foundation at Auburn for great teams like the 1993 team, the 2004 team and now this team and Bo Jackson was maybe the biggest part of that. Both of them have remained steadfastly loyal to Auburn and both deserve to be there and enjoy this team and this season. They built the foundation.
THE BAD
The bad is that this magical season is over. Yes it was a tough one in some respects and some of the fun was taken out with all the Cam stuff and our bad pass defense but it was a great one. It was unlike any other I have ever seen in almost 40 years of watching Auburn football. Personally I still do not think this team is the best to ever play at Auburn but they have achieved more than any other team that wore the blue jerseys. I do think this is the best offense ever at Auburn and it has been incredible watching them especially Cam Newton as he put up the greatest single season in Auburn history.
There were so many great games and plays, so many. It is hard to summarize them. There was the coming out party against Arkansas State where everyone was introduced to Cam Newton. There was the trap game in Starkville on a Thursday night against one of the best State teams maybe ever. There was maybe the hardest hitting game I have ever seen against Clemson and the gut twisting overtime. There was the comeback against South Carolina where Cam took flight and offensive line and defense rose up. There were well deserved breaks against Louisiana Monroe and Chattanooga where all the guys behind the scenes got to play.
There was the two game gauntlet of Arkansas and LSU where the team showed it could be great. The Arkansas game was truly a once in a lifetime game. I have never had a game just wring me out like that game. I think it will stand for all time as the highest scoring game in Auburn history. I will never forget making my first trip to Auburn this season for the LSU game. I got to same Cam's signature Heisman run in person but the play that I will also never forget was Ontario McCalebb's run to win the game. The Ole Miss game featured Auburn defending their new #1 ranking and Cam catching his first and only touchdown pass.
Finally there was Amen Corner. Georgia had won four in a row over Auburn and Bama was the defending national champion. I got to make the trip to the Georgia game and got to see Auburn and Cam make another huge comeback at home. I got to soak up the incredible atmosphere at Jordan Hare one more time. There was just something special going on at Jordan Hare this season. The intro, the songs, the fourth quarter opening run to the student section and the parties afterward. I will never forget sitting together with my son, my parents and my brother celebrating a win over Georgia and winning the SEC West. Then there was the Iron Bowl and the greatest comeback in Auburn and maybe SEC history. Down 24-0 I certainly thought it was over. I did not think there was any way but somehow this team found a way. I think that will be their legacy. I think that is how Auburn people will remember them.
THE UGLY
First and foremost let me say that bowls can be a great experience. I know many people in the Auburn family had a great experience in Arizona and watching on their television. It may be one of their greatest experiences. I do not want to take anything away from that. However last night proved to me again that this system AS A WAY OF CROWNING A CHAMPION in maybe the largest sports entity outside the NFL is a complete and utter joke. The only feeling I had immediately following the game was relief. It was a relief that this stupid system did not take anything away from another great Auburn season. Hopefully it never will again.
I have said it before and I will say it again: "What if the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburg Steelers waited 40 days after the NFL championship games to play the Super Bowl? What if the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers waited 40 days after the NBA conference final series to play the NBA Finals? What if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal waited 40 days to play a Grand Slam final after winning the semi-finals? The answer to all those questions is that it would stink and the two teams or players would NOT BE THE SAME as the ones that ended the season."
That statement was proven to be true against last night. After five minutes it was obvious Auburn was the better team. It was obvious if Auburn had played Oregon the week after the SEC Championship Game Auburn would have blown them out. However like just about every other big bowl game, the passing game suffered. Cam missed on several passes that would have blown the game wide open that he was regularly hitting in the last three games of the season. The conference championship games are real post season games because their particpants get in through an objective system and they are played immediately following the season. The BCS is a complete failure because its participants get into it by a completely flawed subjective system of computer and popularity polls and then they wait over a month to play it.
I am glad we won the game last night because comments like these would only have been interpreted as sour grapes if we would have lost. I enjoyed the SEC Championship Game more and am more proud of it because of the reasons above. It is just sad that so much is put on this completely flawed system and as I said in my last post "the only thing sadder than making these games too big is continually trying to inflate your opinion of your team and yourself by going on and on about how many of these "titles" your team can claim". I am much more impressed with SEC championships won since 1992. However I am happy for the players and the Auburn family because regardless of how bad the system is you want to end any season especially an undefeated one with a win. Going 14-0 is an incredible accomplishment. That is what the pictures in this post represent to me.
NOTE: Will Collier said this much better than me a few years ago. Here is the post.
THE LAST WORD
As I stated before as well the only good thing about the long layoff was Auburn getting so much attention before and after the game. I think SportsCenter has replayed the highlights of the game over a dozen times while I have been creating this post. That is good for Auburn. Hopefully this coaching staff will be able to break through another problem that has plagued Auburn and that is capitalizing on seasons like this. In the past it does not seem we got enough out of our great seasons recruiting-wise. I hope that changes after this one. I think Gus Malzahn staying will help a lot.
It will be awhile before Auburn will be ready to challenge for the SEC title again. Next year will be a tough season as we lose so many players. There is still some great talent but not enough to replace what we are losing. Also, players like Cam Newton and Nick Fairley just do not come along very often. On the positive side it looks like the entire coaching staff will remain intact for the third season in a row. That is a major miracle in big time college football. I still have my doubts about Ted Roof but this season and the way it ended guarantee he will be at Auburn for awhile.
I have mentioned a lot of names and great players here. However I want to end this post writing about somebody I have not mentioned yet. He played his last game for Auburn University last night. I think he defines what the good part of sports is all about. He came to Auburn as a star quarterback and maybe the highest ranked member of his recruiting class. He got thrown into a bad situation his freshman year and lost a whole year of eligibility on a bad decision. He then spent the majority of his sophomore season starting at quarterback trying to lead a team destroyed by bad coaching. The team ended with Auburn's first losing record since 1999 and was destroyed and embarrassed by Bama 36-0. As the starting quarterback he surely took the loss worse than most. He then lost the starting quarterback job for good the next year and was moved to wide receiver. It seemed he would be just another casualty of big time college football. Surely he would transfer or fade into obscurity. There was no way he could become an impact wide receiver playing the position the first time his junior year at an SEC school. There is just no way...
Kodi Burns proved me and everyone else wrong. He took the road less travelled and has become one of the greatest stories in Auburn's long and storied football history. Pushing back his ego and the pain he must have been feeling he stood in front of the whole team and said he was staying at Auburn and he was going to support Chris Todd 100%. He said he wanted to do whatever it took to help the team. THAT is where I believe this trip that ended last night started. I believe it started with Kodi Burns and this selfless act. After that you did not hear a lot from him. He played some wildcat and stayed in the receiver rotation but nobody really thought he was an impact player. However he kept working and kept working...
This year he started at wide receiver and seemed to get better and better. He avenged that awful night in Tuscaloosa in 2008 by catching two critical third down passes that were a major part of the comeback to win against Bama this year. I think blowing a 24-0 lead hurts more than losing 36-0. I bet nobody appreciates the win in the Iron Bowl this year more than Kodi. That was not the end for Kodi Burns though. The coaching staff showing that they knew how important he was to this team tried to get him a score in the SEC Championship Game but it did not work. No, Kodi had a bigger play to make than a symbolic score in a game already decided. The crowning moment of Kodi Burns career came when he scored Auburn's first touchdown in the national championship game with a great catch and run. Nobody deserved it more. Thank you Kodi Burns for starting this journey and showing us one more time why we love sports. IT IS GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER. WAR EAGLE.
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