Game 12 Review: Rock Bottom

Bama 49 Auburn 0.  There really is not anything left to say about this season or this coaching staff.  The biggest tragedy concerning this football program is we will be right back here or close to it if we do not get rid of that incompetent loser Jay Jacobs and his henchmen in the athletic department.  Auburn does not have a chance at success in anything remotely important while Jacobs remains at the helm or anywhere within the athletic department where he and his henchmen can meddle.  He is a cancer that is killing Auburn and will make sure any success found like 2010 will be short lived.

Game 11 Review: A Nice Time Before The Ship Goes Down

It was a nice day down on the plains, one of the few this year.  Auburn beat the Alabama A&M Bulldogs who are from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama 51-7 on Senior Day.  It was good for these seniors to get one more win on the day they are honored.  I also think it is cool for Auburn to play their easier out-of-conference games against schools in the state.  I think we should rotate in Troy and UAB and if we are going to play an FCS school we should pick from: Samford, Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, South Alabama, etc...  Let's keep that money in the state and help these schools out.  It would not be the end of the world if we got upset by Troy one year.  It would not hurt our recruiting.  Want proof?  Nick $aban has lost to both UAB (at LSU) and Louisiana Monroe and I think he is doing OK. 

Outside of helping our fellow schools in the state it also makes the match-up a little more interesting.  I think it is really cool Auburn played Alabama A&M.  I know from living here in Huntsville a ton of A&M alumni and fans went to Auburn and hopefully had a great time.  It is just good for everyone.  Why should we play these stupid Louisiana schools every single year and not in-state schools?  Since 1985 we have played one of the lesser Louisiana schools almost 20 times.  Nowadays that is a half million dollars going out of state every game.  Another good reason to do it is that Bama will not.  I believe I saw a stat that they had not played another in-state school outside of Auburn since the 1940s and I believe it took a resolution from the Alabama legislature to get them to start playing Auburn again.  The snobby attitude down in Tuscaloosa has been around for a long time it appears.

Back to this season, I am not sure you will see another rant here before "The Decision" is made.  I believe I have said my piece more than once and got my biggest rant out last week.  I purposely got it all out last week because I will not give Bama fans the satisfaction of one next week.  Last year I spent most of the my post flashing back to the year before and I will have to also find something fun to do this year.  As for this post I will follow Rob Pate's lead at "Eyes on Auburn" and post a few memories of our departing seniors...

First up...  Lutzenkirchen!!!  It has been awesome yelling this guy's name for four years.  Lutzenkirchen!  I mean that will probably go down as the most unique name in Auburn history.  Lutz made a lot of big catches but obviously the biggest and most memorable was the game winner down in Tuscaloosa and the dance afterward.  Next up... Emory Blake.  We found out pretty quick that Lutz, Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachary were the real deal under Gus Malzahn with Cam but Blake breaking out and adding to the mix helped us have a truly elite passing game.  My biggest memories of Blake was his first touchdown where he made a great stop-and-go move and scored against Mississippi State in 2010 and then his touchdowns against Bama and in the national championship game.

Ontario McCalebb.  What a playmaker.  One of the greatest playmakers in Auburn history I dare say.  He could hurt you so many ways (he is only the second player in SEC history to have 2000 yards rushing, 1000 yards returning and 500 yards receiving).  He was the perfect complement in Malzahn's offense to Cam and Dyer running up the gut.  He was always dangerous on the swing pass out of the backfield.  He was a threat (till they shut him down this season) to take it to the house on every kickoff return.  McCalebb has scored a lot of touchdowns but it is no contest what my favorite memory of him is.  In 2010 though we had dominated the whole game we were tied with LSU 17-17.  The dream season hung in the balance and McCalebb goes 70 yards for the winning touchdown.  It was the last time I have gone absolutely falling down nuts at a game.  It was my first game to watch Cam in person and it was not Cam's Heisman-clinching run I remember the most but that run by McCalebb.

T'Sharvan Bell.  This guy probably made two of the most memorable plays by a cornerback in Auburn history.  First, his slam sack of Bama quarterback Greg McElroy was one of the most memorable plays from a season full of memorable plays.  It was also sweet justice as McElroy was the one throwing deep on us after the game was over to make it 36-0 in 2008.  As for Bell, the next week he would make an even bigger play pick-sixing South Carolina quarterback Stephen Garcia to effectively end the SEC Championship game.

Darren Bates.  The guy was an freshmen All-SEC safety with a bright future till for some inexplicable reason our coaches decided he would be better as a linebacker.  Therefore he has spent three years as an undersized linebacker.  He has always been a gamer but he has just not had the size and strength to get the job done.  I think he would still be All-SEC at safety. 

As for the rest of the seniors, there are a few busts and a few overachievers who have hung on.  I guess that is the bottom line, they hung on.  Despite all the arduous hard work and the monumental ups and downs of playing football at the highest level they hung on and that says something.  There are so many big-time recruits who never even come close to making it all the way through college.  It is a huge accomplishment to play for an SEC team or any college team for that matter and make it all the way through.  Congrats to the 2012 Auburn football seniors.

Game 10 Review: THE WORST EVER

This is it.  We have not hit rock bottom yet (that is in two weeks) and this is already the worst Auburn team I have ever seen.  THE WORST EVER.  I never thought any team would get close to the 1998 group but that team is light years ahead of this bunch.  I have never seen anything like this.  Let's review shall we?  MISSISSIPPI STATE 28 AUBURN 10, LSU 12 AUBURN 10, ARKANSAS 24 AUBURN 7, OLE MISS 41 AUBURN 20, VANDY 17 AUBURN 13, TEXAS A&M 63 AUBURN 21 and now... GEORGIA 38 AUBURN 0.  WE HAVE BEEN OUTSCORED 223 TO 81 IN SEC PLAY SO FAR.  All that is left is for Bama to put one giant exclamation point on this worst season ever.

What the heck are we talking about here?  SOMEONE NEEDS TO BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY.  EVERYONE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS DEBACLE SHOULD BE FIRED.  I MEAN LOOK AT THOSE SCORES!!!  AUBURN'S LAST TWO CONFERENCE GAMES AT HOME WERE OVER AT THE END OF THE FIRST QUARTER!!!!!!!  THE WORST EVER.  It is going take years to clean up this mess if someone does not act quickly.  There is a BIG difference between a bad season and THE WORST SEASON EVER.  Tuberville's last team goes 5-7 and gets blown out by Bama.  That is a bad season but yes you can get over that but a team that goes 0-8 and is this bad, that is another story entirely. 

I will repeat again what I said last week: "I do not care if Jacobs or anybody else is an "Auburn man" if he is completely failing at his job. At this high level, if you mess up this bad you lose your job, it is as simple as that. It has been one thing after another with Jacobs and his group. It started with running off maybe the greatest college swimming coach ever, it continued through two seasons of continous unprofessional bickering with Tommy Tuberville and has finished us off with this even more unprofessional relationship with his "chosen one" Gene Chizik not to mention many other things (like "associate athletic director in charge of football" Tim Jackson). 

There is no point even discussing the merits of Coach Gene Chizik any more. You go 0-8 and get skunked in conference with this team then you lose your job. Again it is as simple as that. You cannot make 3.5 million dollars with the highest paid assistants in the nation (or close to it) and be this bad. Nobody in the country at any BCS school would keep a coach that did that. End of story."

I CANNOT BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE STILL DEFENDING JAY JACOBS.  Again this is not just a bad season it is THE WORST EVER.  Everyone associated with this debacle needs to be fired.  The entire program needs to be disinfected.  I am going to PUKE if I hear one more time what "a good man" Jacobs or whoever is.  Listen people there are lots of "good men" who are Christian and love Auburn but they are not qualified to be athletic director.  You want a job with stability?  DO NOT GET INVOLVED IN SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE ATHLETICS THEN.  It is a multi-million dollar all-out arms race.  Whether that is right or not is IRRELEVENT.  That is the way it is.

Anyone who gets involved in big time college athletics should know the score.  Is there anyone in leadership at Auburn with any guts and vision whatsoever?  Is there anyone or any group willing to do what needs to be done here?  I do not care if it is hard to rebuild an athletic department and hire a coach at the same time.  Whoever is at the top and right now that appears to be President Jay Gogue needs to do what is best for Auburn.  I believe last night made it clear that  the best thing for Auburn is to completely clean out the group of people who have brought this debacle about.

I cannot emphasize enough the need for swift and decisive action.  I will continue to repeat that this is not just another bad season, this is THE BAD SEASON.  As I have said the last few weeks, wrong choices could lead to a prolonged down period for Auburn football.  My gosh, we have not been even competitive against anybody good except for a couple of times the last TWO seasons while we have been absolutely run out of the stadium over and over again.  The last two games in Jordan Hare have been outright disasters with the bulk of the crowd gone at halftime.  THE TEAM HAS COMPLETELY QUIT along with their HIGHLY PAID COACHES.

Oh and by the way I feel like the media is trying to slam our fans because they leave before the game is over.  Give me a break, there were plenty of early exits in 1997, 2000 and 2003 in Tuscaloosa so give it a rest.  Frankly I think all of the fans deserve awards for even showing up to see an Auburn game this year.  What is the point in wasting good money going to see this team?  In fact, not going and not spending money is the only way to show the powers-that-be that we will not stand for this and a complete house cleaning is needed.

There is precedent for this at Auburn.  Auburn was 0-10 in 1950 and headed toward the abyss till THERE WAS FIRST A CHANGE AT ATHLETIC DIRECTOR.  Jeff Beard came in and then hired Shug Jordan, arguably Auburn's greatest football coach, and became Auburn's greatest athletic director.  The official Auburn web site states: "Garland Washington "Jeff" Beard could generally be considered the father of modern Auburn athletics".  THE SAME NEEDS TO BE DONE NOW OR AUBURN IS IN BIG TROUBLE.  But of course that would be just par for the course in this season... THE WORST EVER.

Game 9 Review: Irrelevant

Auburn 42 New Mexico State 7.  It sounded like a nice day and it is definitely good for the players to enjoy a win but unfortunately this game in the big picture is completely irrevelevant.  Those in leadership at Auburn have a lot of decisions to make and the clock is ticking.  So far off the field around Auburn has been a lot of noise and fury signifying nothing.  A new rumor about this or that comes out every hour yet so far no official action has been taken.  That in and of itself may not be that surprising but there is no clear indiciation of what actions may be taken later and that has become increasingly frustrating for most Auburn fans.

I might not know what those at the top are going to do but I do know that Jay Jacobs and his merry band are going to fight for their cushy jobs.  I guess I do not blame them because I do not think anybody else will hire them for any job remotely close to what they have now.  Yes these architects of this colossal failure that is now Auburn football appear to be working a lot harder to save their sorry butts than at their jobs at Auburn. 

I saw this week an official e-mail campaign to save Jay Jacobs.  Multiple published reports confirm associate athletic director Tim Jackson combing the luxury suites yesterday to drum up support.  Let me be real clear here, these men are the problem and completely cleaning out the athletic department is the only way for Auburn to start anew.  I do not care if Jacobs or anybody else is an "Auburn man" if he is completely failing at his job.  At this high level, if you mess up this bad you lose your job, it is as simple as that.  It has been one thing after another with Jacobs and his group.  It started with running off maybe the greatest college swimming coach ever, it continued through two seasons of continous unprofessional bickering with Tommy Tuberville and has finished us off with this even more unprofessional relationship with his "chosen one" Gene Chizik not to mention many other things. 

There is no point even discussing the merits of Coach Gene Chizik any more.  You go 0-8 and get skunked in conference with this team then you lose your job.  Again it is as simple as that.  You cannot make 3.5 million dollars with the highest paid assistants in the nation (or close to it) and be this bad.  Nobody in the country at any BCS school would keep a coach that did that.  End of story.  Some of us realized that Chizik was done after the Arkansas game and just about everyone else got there between Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.  The stragglers just about all came in after the Texas A&M massacre but for those very few left who are somehow still on the fence the Georgia and Bama games should take care of them.

Yes it is time for "Amen Corner" and we go into these games with no chance at all to win them.  The only thing that matters is the answers to these questions and I will keep posting them till they are answered...  "Who is in charge at Auburn? Will that person or group do what needs to be done and completely clean out the atheltic department? If not, how will they handle the inescapable fact that Jay Jacobs is a failure as an athletic director? How will a football coach be hired in the midst of all this? Can Auburn get a decent coach with all this going on?  Wrong answers and choices could lead to a prolonged down period for Auburn in football."