The Auburn Tigers beat the Florida Gators 17-6 this last Saturday at Jordan Hare Stadium. The game was an ugly one matching two inept offenses. Those games are just hard to watch. However the weather and atmosphere sure helped. I attended my first Auburn game in person this year and enjoyed it immensely. My son and I rolled into Auburn around lunch and promptly headed to Tiger Rags and J&M to look for some gear and then headed to Guthries. We got to the stadium about an hour and half before the game and just soaked it all up. The weather literally could not have been any better. The temperature was perfect staying around 65 to 70 degrees with no wind to speak of. The band marching on, the eagle soaring, the intro videos, the team running onto the field, the fourth quarter team rush toward the student section and winning the game, another Saturday to remember on the Plains (even if the game itself was not quite one to remember).
There has been a lot of talk since the game defending the win despite the fact that Florida is just not very good (see the two previous weeks before this game). Let me say that yes, any win over Florida or any of the SEC's historically top tier teams is always a good one and like most of our other SEC wins this year, we did not know before the season started if we would be able to pull out a win in this game.
Also, this win coupled with a win over Ole Miss, the worst team in the SEC, and FCS opponent Samford will give Auburn a winning season. I will be the first to say how great that is. I predicted Auburn to go 6-6 and am frankly amazed the coaches were able to coax a winning season out of this team. So no matter what happens the coaches will be able to declare a victory for this season. Morale is high among most fans as Auburn is doing better than expected. I have seen bloggers comparing this team to anywhere from the 2001 team to the 1972 Amazin's. I would lean more toward the 2001 team but I do not think this team is even that good.
The defense has improved and I do see some real potential there. However slight improvement and potential still do not make this a good defense now. Of course, they are looking a lot better than the other side of the ball on which we are in a free fall scoring 17 or less points in every SEC game except State. Who would have ever thought our offense would be the one in worst shape after the Clemson game this season? However it is true, ever since the Clemson game the defense has shown improvement and the offense has sputtered to the point the passing game is nearly non-existent and the coaches are scared to death to even call a pass.
Yes we do have some injuries but that is just one small factor in the fall of our passing game. The line especially the tackles is again where it starts in my opinion. This line is just not that good especially in pass protection which dents their run blocking as everyone is now stacking the line. The quarterback position has also been a liability as Barrett Trotter has gotten worse every game since the Clemson game and has now lost the job. Clint Moseley threw a couple of good passes which enabled us to get the win against Florida but he has no other game experience. Kiehl Frazier, the future, continues to get shuffled in to run the ball and you see his potential but you can also see the constant shuffling is hurting the other quarterbacks. We then do have injuries to two of our starting wide receivers. You add all that up and you get an offense that is literally struggling to have any semblence of a passing game. It is sad to watch.
With that said, it is obvious we are not much different from what we were predicted to be before the season, the biggest reason Auburn is 5-2 right now is that the teams we have beat in the SEC were not as good as predicted. State's defense is almost as bad as ours and is not near as good as last year. South Carolina's offensive line is the worst I have seen this year and as I said in an earlier post has reduced their awesome skill players to very ordinary. Florida is just mediocre all-around. Even with their injuries, the lack of talent at Florida is startling. Urban Meyer did not just leave because of his family or his health, he also left because the Florida job looks like it will be a much bigger rebuilding job than anybody thought. Those top-ranked recruiting classes at Florida the last couple of years look to be WAY overrated.
The point I am trying to make is that I am happy we are 5-2 but I am concerned because I do not think we have improved as a team. I think the coaches decided to "Tub" there way through these games and get the win instead of trying to get better especially concerning the passing game. Good night we would not even throw the ball when the game was out of reach against Arkansas. This does not bode well for the rest of the season. We have already lost to the two proven good teams on our schedule and beaten the decent but overrated ones. In the coming weeks we will play the two of the best teams in the country and a good Georgia team. I do not see how we can win any of these games without a solid passing attack. I am dubious that we can plug in a guy that has never played much behind this line (with or without our injured starting wide receivers) and beat anybody any good.
Will Collier said it the best at his site... BREAKING: NCAA Formally Clears Auburn.
Let me repeat the best parts of his post:
"For nearly a year now, haters from coast to coast--but especially in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Starkville and Gainesville--have been predicting that Auburn would receive a letter from the NCAA. This afternoon, that prediction came true. Problem for them is, the letter exonerates AU...
Pete Thamel (hey Pete, NOW we know it's over), Thayer Evans, Joe Schad, Mark Schlabach, Chris Low, Spencer Hall, Matt Hinton, Danny Sheridan, Paul Finebaum, Dan Mullen, Megan Mullen, Urban Meyer, Jody Wright and a host of other goons who did their damnedest to do to Auburn off the field what Auburn did to their teams on the field in 2010 were not immediately available for comment.
So: despite the uncountable amounts of ink, pixels and bandwidth spent predicting doom upon the Plains, there will be no probation. There will be no vacations, no forfeits, no returned trophies, and no asterisks. The 2010 season will remain what it always was: glorious.
Boys, you can pick up your crow at Cam's house. He'll be glad to serve it to you... at high velocity. "
Back to my take... IN YOUR FACE ALL OF YOU. In fact, after being put under through the ringer like Auburn has with hundreds of people investigating for almost a year now desperate to find anything to hang us with, I would dare say AUBURN IS ONE OF THE CLEANEST NATIONAL CHAMPIONS especially compared to any school that has won it recently especially our SEC bretheren who have tried so desperately to throw us under the bus. There is no way any school that was dirty could stand up to the spotlight Auburn has endured (ASK OHIO STATE AND MIAMI). Yet we will continue to be insulted and disrespected while other schools and their fans who look down on us would never be able to stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has received. In fact I would dare say there are not many schools at all that could stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has been under without something being found.
I am not even saying Auburn is perfectly clean and even if we had been found guilty of some lesser things I would still say the same things. Auburn was completely mutilated in the media and in the court of public opinion without even a stitch of evidence that Auburn had done anything wrong. We were treated ridiculously unfairly. We were declared guilty after the first accusation and then every "theory" dreamed up by any loser was treated like biblical truth.
Well it does not sound like we are giving ANYTHING BACK. I heard and read so many smug people predicting that. Well one more time... YOU WERE WRONG. I think it might be time to go back and watch some of those highlights from last year and get that little bit of enjoyment that everyone tried to take away from us. Cam Newton was and will always be one of the greatest college players ever and the 2010 Auburn Tigers were and always will be champions (and I would still take them against the top two teams currently this year).
WAR DAMN EAGLE.
Arkansas 38 Auburn 14. The loss was not as hard to take as watching Auburn's passing game literally die on the table in front of us. Most people did not expect this young rebuilding Auburn team to sweep two tough SEC games on the road. As I said in my last post, getting one was huge. However having a passing game this bad while employing the highest paid assistant in the country to coach the quarterback position is completely unacceptable. I could say almost the same thing for the wide receiver position. Yes I know Emory Blake is out but as I have pointed out before we have PLENTY of other scholarship wide receivers that are not freshman. To the breakdown...
THE GOOD BAD #1
The defense did play well in spots getting some big stops. Arkansas scored several times off of hideous Auburn interceptions that were not the defense's fault. However I cannot give a passing grade to a unit that gave up a 92 yard run (the longest in Arkansas history) to a wide receiver and allowed the opposing quarterback to complete 18 passes in a row. It was also a sobering moment when ESPN flashed up the graphic that Auburn was dead last in the conference in every major defensive category. That is just hard to take. I will say the defensive effort might have still been enough to get a win behind a better offense.
THE BAD #2
Auburn would have lost this game even if the game had been called fair. Let me make that clear. However I will still point out that this game was horribly called. Auburn did commit the majority of the holds it was called for but Arkansas committed the same holds and was NOT called for them. There was a sickeningly obvious one not called on the big 92 yard run and several more just as obvious. Auburn was called for 11 penalties for 105 yards while Arkansas was only whistled 4 times for 26 yards. Yeh RIGHT. Give me a break. Auburn committed all of those holds while Arkansas played completely clean. I think all of Arkansas' penalties were also called in the first quarter till Petrino started taking the ref's heads off. No more calls on Arkansas were made after that. Pathetic job.
THE BAD #3
It got to be kind of funny when my buddy kept texting me when we got the ball "Dyer on first down". Talk about predictable. I know we could not pass but good night call something different. I mean we were beyond predictable. We also run the majority of our running plays to the right side. Arkansas obviously figured it out because the whole team would be on top of Dyer by the time he got to the line of scrimmage in the second half. However we still ground out almost 300 yards on the ground although I would not expect that number again except against Samford if our passing game does not improve which leads me to...
THE UGLY
Barrett Trotter is fourth year junior and has been in the Malzahn system for three years. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. DeAngelo Benton, Q. Carr and Travante Stallworth are all upperclassmen and have had plenty of experience. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. Both of these positions are again coached by some of the highest paid assistants in the country. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad.
Trotter started out looking pretty good this season but has since gotten worse every week bottoming out with this debacle. Kiehl Frazier, obviously the future, has shown flashes of brilliance running the ball but proved without a doubt that he is not close to ready by throwing two really ugly interceptions. Couple that with the abysmal receiving and you have, as a buddy of mine pointed out, the worst Auburn passing game since Gabe Gross in 1998 and THAT is saying something. I am most disgusted with Benton who we have heard about over and over for three years. He missed a pass that hit him in the gut and one in the hands (that was then intercepted) and was called twice for holding.
Where do we go from here? Do we make the same mistake we made in 2007 and throw the true freshman out there when he is not ready? Do we stick with Trotter? Do we give Clint Moseley a shot? I think Frazier should stay the change-of-pace of quarterback. He is doing fine in that role. I know the coaches do not want to have a quarterback controversy and get another quarterback involved but that is where we are at. We cannot shut down the passing game and Trotter is not getting the job done. Clint Moseley is the backup. If the race was sooo close as the coaches went on and on about during the spring and fall then Moseley should definitely get a shot. He has also spent several years under Malzahn. If he does not do anything put back in Trotter. At this point we cannot do any worse than we did last night. I do not think we can mess up Trotter anymore than he is right now.
My guess though is that the coaches will stick with Trotter and hope that he can pull himself out of his tailspin as Brandon Cox did in 2007. Cox though had a track record of success while Trotter has gotten worse each game he has started in. Again I understand that nobody wants to be in this situation but unfortunately we are and we have to be able to throw the ball a little bit to win football games. The coaches need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.
UP NEXT
A big big game. Florida comes limping in to Jordan Hare after back-to-back beatdowns from the top two teams in the country. They are having quarterback problems as well but their problems are because of injury. Auburn REALLY needs to get this win. It would give Auburn a winning season if they can beat Ole Miss and Samford as well. At this point I do not see Auburn beating LSU, Bama or Georgia. Georgia looks much improved. I am heading down to the plains for the first time this season for the game so I will have an eyewitness review for next week...
