Jay Coulter at Track'em has been one of my favorite Auburn bloggers for a long time. Unfortunately we have not agreed on much this year but he is back on top with this jewel he posted earlier today...
"The Choice is Clear Tonight... I have many close Alabama friends. I know more than a dozen who are in New Orleans right now. Why do so many of them feel obligated to ask who I'm pulling for tonight? In their heart of hearts, do they honestly believe I could even remotely pull for Alabama?
Let's review: Their fanbase has poisoned our trees; they've spent a year trying to ruin Cam Newton and takeaway Auburn's national title; and they continue to recruit in ways that would make the Corleone's proud.
Yeah, I want Alabama to bring home the state's third consecutive national title in the same way I want another colonoscopy. You should feel the same way. If not, then get some help."
AMEN Jay. I really cannot say it any better than that. The only thing he left out is apparently Mr. Updyke is quite the celebrity down on Bourbon Street where Bama fans are stopping him for pictures and autographs.
Apparently felony vandalism against Auburn affords someone celebrity status in Bama circles. I can't really articulate how pathetic that is. I also think it is funny that Mr. Updyke is on death's door when talk of him going to jail comes up but he is perfectly able to party it up down in New Orleans.
Come on LSU, please spoil the party and keep Auburn the last team win a title in this state because if Bama loses tonight they will not even have a division title to show for this season. GEAUX TIGERS!!!
I believe it is official, Michael Dyer has left the Auburn football team. It is just sad to me all around. I mean compared to truly real-world bad things it is nothing but in the context of the Auburn football team it is sad. Once again I think Jay Tate said it best...
"Why would Dyer leave rather than remain at Auburn and fix what’s broken?
We may never know the answer.
We know Dyer was on his way to immortality at Auburn. He broke Bo Jackson’s record for rushing as a freshman. He was one of a handful of Auburn backs to be named a first-team All-SEC performer. He was the featured back for a national championship team. Had he played his cards right, Dyer would have been a truly beloved player — forever associated with the program’s greatest single season.
Players train and grind and hope and pray to be in that position. Dyer was there."
As Tate points out, he could have been a legend at Auburn who truly is "Running Back U". He broke Bo's freshman record, he was the national championship MVP, he put up over 1000 yards rushing in his first two seasons, etc... As Tate said he could have been a truly beloved player and owned most all of the career rushing records at Auburn if he had stayed. NFL careers are short but being an Auburn legend is something that could last a lifetime and always provide employment. Finally, as Tate points out there are thousands of players who would give anything to be in Dyer's position and he has decided to just throw it all away.
First, I hate it that this kid appears to be making some bad decisions that will hurt him in the long run. I definitely understand when some kids transfer but it sure looks to me like Dyer has less room to complain than anybody else on Auburn's team. Second, this is going to hurt Auburn. Yes it looks like we have some reinforcements coming in to help at running back but I do not think we have anybody coming in as good as Dyer. I think the sunshine pumpers who say Dyer is no big loss should take another look at his accomplishments. That stuff does not happen every day. Finally it just takes a little bit away from when you rewatch the national championship game and see his MVP performance.
Auburn will move forward and be successful and Michael Dyer might as well but I think both would be better off together. I just wish Michael Dyer recognized that.
Ahhh... my favorite breakfast in the world, a Chick-fil-a biscuit and an orange juice. The Chick-fil-a Bowl was a lot like that this year as Auburn defeated Virginia 43-24. I was there to witness it in Atlanta this weekend and had a great time. Obviously I am thrilled Auburn played well and it is always so much better to end your season on a win. However after reading some of the comments on the this game elsewhere I have to set the record straight. Auburn really did not change any this game. They still had the same problems they had all year long. Auburn was more successful because we had better football players. Football is a pretty simple game. As former coach Pat Dye said: "there are no miracles on the football field". Obviously you have upsets and such but for the most part the teams with the best football players win.
Auburn had more good football players than Virginia and they played well. I wonder what Virginia's game plan on defense was exactly? It was obvious Ontario McCalebb was our biggest playmaker especially on turf and they seemingly had no plan at all for him. They let him get outside, they fell for the statue-of-liberty play and the double play action. To me it is pretty obvious we would run all this misdirection stuff to get McCalebb the ball in space. I think I would have always kept my eye on him and tried to force the ball inside on the read option. But hey all the better for Auburn.
Barrett Trotter came in and played well subbing in for Clint Moseley when he got hurt although the way Moseley was playing I think Trotter would have come in anyway. The bomb to Blake was the prettiest pass of the season but again it was off a double play action that we would have not had time to run against the big boys in the SEC this season. It also did not require a read from the quarterback. I do not know why they did not run a few plays like that for Frazier this year. A bomb where he does not have to make a read but just chuck it and if it gets intercepted it is just a punt. Frazier was given one pass play during the bowl and it was ugly as he had plenty of time but could not make up his mind and ended up scrambling. I am really starting to worry about Frazier and throwing the ball. I hope our new quarterbacks coach can get him ready.
I think we are in big trouble if Frazier is a bust. It is obvious that Moseley and Trotter even though he played well are not the answer. Trotter still held the ball too long and other than the one bomb most of his completions were simple swing passes. I do not think Trotter took a big leap. I think Trotter and Moseley have showed us what they can do and I do not think they are going to get a lot better than that. I think they can beat the lesser teams and will continue to struggle against the big boys. I believe Auburn's only hope for drastically improving the quarterback position is again playing much better up front. Even in this bowl game AJ Greene was repeatedly beaten. As I have said all season we are desperate for Robinson and Westerman to be good players and help this line. Right now it appears next years starting line will be: Robinson, Westerman, Dismukes, Sullen and Slade. I mean after watching another night of our current line they have to be better but if they are not a lot better then next season will look a lot like this season.
On defense, the everyone carried on for two weeks about Gene Chizik coordinating the defense. I have heard many say that the defense looked a lot better. Again I disagree, we still gave up over 400 yards of offense to Virginia. We made some stops but Virginia is not a juggernaut and once we got the lead they were one dimensional and again we had more good players. On the positive side we saw a couple of big plays from Gabe Wright and Angelo Blaxson who we also need to step up big next year. Like the offense if we can improve the line the rest of the defense will be much better.
However it was nice to see this team even with all their warts end on a good note and play about our best game of the season. It almost makes me want to install turf at Jordan Hare as our best games the last two seasons have been on turf at the Georgia Dome. It has definitely been one of the stranger seasons I have seen at Auburn. Finishing 8-5 should be considered very good for this team and this coaching staff. I said that at the start of the season. Unfortunately getting blown out and being non-competitive against every good team we played (other than South Carolina) and seeing some possible long term problems crop up pretty much took all the joy out of finishing 8-5.
We were able to get rid of Ted Roof who I still think was a large part of our problem but if our defense continues to be mediocre it is now on Chizik. He better do the coaching or hire somebody who can get the job done. I am also glad to see Malzahn go. He was a critical part of last year but I just do not think his offensive philosophy will work long term in the SEC unless you can line up a Cam Newton or Tim Tebow every season. I certainly hope we get away from the hurry-up-no-huddle as again it just kills your own defense and is also just is not a long term solution in the SEC in my opinion. Now it is time to see who we will hire to lead the offense and defense. Again, I think these hires will obviously be the most critical of Gene Chizik's coaching career and I will say again, choose well coach choose well.
