I tell you as I have also previously stated, being an Auburn fan is a roller coaster ride of epic proportions. Over a 25 year period it is obvious Auburn cannot stand failure... or success for very long. It is maddening. The peak of the Pat Dye era was in 1989 as Bama came to Auburn and Auburn won that game and a third straight SEC title. Auburn then descended into misery topped off by Coach Dye's resignation and Bama's 1992 national championship. In comes Terry Bowden and out of nowhere Auburn goes 20-0 from 1993 into 1994. Auburn then falls off slightly and then gets to Atlanta in 1997. The bottom falls out completely in 1998 and Bowden is gone.
In comes Tommy Tuberville and the ride just gets more crazy... Tubs rallies Auburn to win the West in 2000 and then ends 2001 badly and ends 2002 great. The much ballyhooed 2003 team pretty much goes completely down the tubes ending in Jetgate and then possibly Auburn's greatest team ever rises in 2004. Auburn then has four good seasons in a row from 2005 through 2008 and wins six in a row over Bama but critical losses prevent any championships. The bottom then falls out again in 2008 and Tuberville is gone.
Gene Chizik comes in under a hailstorm of criticism and turns in a mediocre 2009 before leading Auburn to an undefeated season and the BCS national championship. The bottom then falls out AGAIN in unprecedented style and just two years later Auburn turns in the worst season ever in it's long and storied history going 0-8 in the SEC. Out goes Chizik and in comes Malzahn and Auburn goes 12-2 winning the Iron Bowl, winning the SEC Championship and comes within a hair of winning another BCS national championship... It is simply unbelievable.
In that time Auburn turns in three undefeated seasons in 1993, 2004 and 2010 but also turns in three of it's worst seasons in 1998, 2008 and 2012 . This last season though as has been well chronicled might be the most amazing season of all. So with all that said it is HARD to really know the state of the program as huge program-altering changes appear to happen at Auburn every other year. (more after the jump).
ON THE FIELD
At the moment though things WITHIN the program seem to be as stable as they can be. I cannot say the same outside the program but more on that later. As I stated in last year's "state of the program" post, it starts with this coaching staff. I said last year that we would see how big of an impact Gus Malzahn had under Chizik as people have always whispered. It appears they were right. Malzahn starting with hiring his staff seem to hit all the right buttons at each point of this season. It was an amazing job. However as good as we feel and as much as we do not think he is a one-hit wonder like Bowden and Chizik he still is going to have to prove it over the next decade. Time will tell the story.
I do not think he is. For the first time since Coach Dye's early days we have a real football coach. It is obvious Gus Malzahn loves coaching football. He is not just a CEO of the program but a real coach. I think that is very important. I think he loves Auburn and knows how to recruit at Auburn. Those are pretty valuable traits. I think he has also assembled a great staff and at this date we have lost no on-the-field coaches. That is always a big deal as this staff appears to be a very good group both in coaching and recruiting. So things appear about as good and stable as you can expect on the coaching side.
I think 2012 was inexcusable but it was never going to be a great year. Chizik reaped the rewards of Tommy Tuberville's 2006 recruiting class (Auburn's last class before $aban) and a few invaluable recruits (like Cam Newton). However he also reaped the punishment of Tuberville's last two awful recruiting classes. That compounded his own recruiting and coaching mistakes and we got the worst season ever. THANK GOODNES we are not looking at that ABYSS after this latest great season. That may be the best thing I can say in this post. Coach Malzahn is in a great position.
Chizik made a lot of mistakes on the recruiting trail but he did not absolutely bottom out like Bowden and Tuberville at the end of their tenures. Make no mistake he handed Malzahn a disastrous mess, I am not minimizing the pit Auburn was in last year and the greatest turnaround in college football history. However Chizik left behind some raw material to work with and though he left in disgrace he did earn a measure of respect back through the players he left behind. Players like seniors Dee Ford, Chris Davis and Jay Prosch. Players like Tre Mason, Sammie Coates and C.J. Uzomah and finally one of the best offensive lines in Auburn history.
I think the offensive line was the biggest key in Auburn's turnaround in addition to finding a good quarterback in Nick Marshall. The players above had already shown good play but these high rated offensive linemen had not really shown much. They were the big question marks coming into this last season and they wildly exceeded all expectations. We are losing the best of them in Greg Robinson but have the rest of the group coming back with a little depth as well. I think that is one of the biggest positives Auburn has going for it going into next year.
Maybe the biggest positive on-the-field Auburn has going for it into next season (and a huge advantage over big bad Bama) is returning a battle tested championship caliber quarterback in Nick Marshall and maybe just maybe one even better ready on the bench in Jeremy Johnson who looks a lot like that guy at Florida State. Add to those guys super recruit Sean White who won the Elite Eleven quarterback camp this year and Auburn appears stacked at the most important position on the field. That also cannot be understated after 2012.
Auburn lost Tre Mason who turned in one of the greatest seasons every by a running back at Auburn (and that is saying something at Auburn) but have some good talent coming back and added five star Mr. Football Roc Thomas as well. I think Auburn will be OK here. The biggest challenge will be replacing juggernaut Jay Prosch and his blocking. However Auburn will have two senior tight ends in C.J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse. At wide receiver Auburn added several including the best JUCO player in the country in D'haquille Williams. If he can be half the player he is hyped to be and Auburn can team him with Sammie Coates that could be huge.
Auburn looks good on offense. There are more question marks on defense. Things look best on the line where Auburn has some young guns like Carl Lawson, Elijah Daniel and Montavious Adams plus some seniors in Gabe Wright, Jeffery Whitaker and LaDarious Owens. Auburn also is bringing in six new defensive linemen in this class. Things will still be thin at linebacker but there is five star backer Tre Williams coming in and hopefully a healthy Justin Garrett plus another year of experience for guys like Javy Mitchell and Anthony Swain.
The thinnest position on the field appears to be in the secondary where Auburn lost a lot of guys. Help is hopefully on the way with five or six new recruits. Unlike the other positions though, some of these guys are going to have to play. We are counting on them and that is always dicey counting on true freshmen. It will be very interesting to see Auburn's depth chart in the secondary going into that 2014 opener against Arkansas. I know we will see Jermaine Whitehead and Jonathan Mincy but the other positions and their backups all appear to be completely up for grabs.
Overall though Auburn returns a very talented team with a lot of experienced players on both sides of the ball. Auburn will be a tough team to beat in 2014 but they will be tested with a pretty tough schedule. There is a definite trap game out-of-conference at Kansas State on a Thursday night and a top ten South Carolina program replaces Tennessee on the schedule. Finally Auburn will have to finish the season on the road against Georgia and Bama. This team might be up to that task but there will not be too many Auburn teams that can and that is where I will go...
OFF THE FIELD
I am still seething at our current AD for allowing the conference to change things where we now have to play both Georgia and Bama on the road at the end of the season every other year. Auburn has next-to-no chance now of ever winning a title in even years. That is a fact. It was great having them at home this last year and again next year's team might be good enough to pull it off but over the long haul this will hurt Auburn. It especially hurts the season ticket holders who will find the season basically over at Jordan Hare the first week of November against Texas A&M which reminds me...
The back end of the Auburn schedule is ridiculous. Auburn will have to play South Carolina, at Ole Miss, Texas A&M and at Georgia IN A ROW. Auburn had basically the same schedule as Bama before expansion but since then Auburn AD Jay JacobS has allowed the conference to completely hose Auburn on the schedule. It is completely ridiculous and would never happen to Bama. Bama's schedule never changes for the worse and is always spaced perfectly while Auburn's gets worse every year. It is completely unfair and a competent AD would never allow it to happen.
Rules and scheduling. They go a long way toward how successful your program can be. Every great season Auburn has other than 1983 had a nicely spaced out schedule, i.e. not too many tough ones in a row without a breather. Scheduling can make or break you. Want proof? OK, trivia question... how many SEC titles did Shug Jordan win after Bear Bryant arrived in 1958? The answer... ZERO. Why? Rules and scheduling. On the scheduling side, Auburn had to play Florida, Georgia and Bama to end every season. Bama would have had a lot less of those championship if they would have had to play that Amen Corner every season.
On the rules side, Shug Jordan's favorite team, the 1972 Amazin's, go out and beat Bama head-to-head where both teams have one conference loss and Bama is awarded the title because they were allowed to play one more conference game than Auburn that counted (???). The rule was then changed to where everyone played the same amount of conference games that counted but Bama is still considered the 1972 SEC champions when they are not.
More on the rules... it was reported this week that Nick $aban in one of the most cowardly moves I have ever seen is now leading the charge to change the rules to slow down the hurry-up-no-huddle offense. $aban says it is all in the name of "player safety"... what a farce. $aban has no problem letting his monsters knock everyone out of the game but if he cannot sub and set up his defense the way he wants then all of a sudden we have "player safety" issues. I cannot believe anyone is buying this nonsense. Unfortunately it appears they are and shows once again how pathetic college football is run. The folks at the Never To Yield Foundation do a better job on this than I can.
I could go on about the rumors of the SEC considering getting rid of divisions (after over 20 years of unparalleled success) in football but I will save that rant for another day. I think the point has been made. On the field Auburn is looking good but off the field dark clouds are forming around the Tigers. If Auburn does not start fighting these changes they will come back to bite Auburn. Jay Jacobs needs to quit patting himself on the back and start doing something about all of this.
THE FINAL WORD
I definitely want to end on a positive note because this last season was one of my favorite ever and it sure looks like Auburn could have another great one in 2014. Other than 1989, Auburn simply has not had any championship seasons where they bring back a starting quarterback the next year. Add to it all the other guys Auburn is bringing back and the possible impact players coming in and you can get real excited real quick. It will be hard to top last season but I know there will be some fantastic moments. What a difference a year makes... War Eagle.
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