But here we are, looking at an 0-8 or 1-7 season straight in the face. What happened? Well my thoughts on this subject are well documented in my last few posts. On defense, we simply do not have many All-SEC caliber football players. On offense there has been a lot of bad coaching and bad luck. Even watching "Miracles on the Plans" I was reminded of Malzahn's stubbornness and aversion to passing the ball. As I documented in my post immediately following the national championship game, one of the big reasons Auburn lost was not throwing a few more play action passes on first down. In that game Auburn had TEN first downs where they ran the ball for 2 yards or less. Jeremy Pruitt knew every time Gus started rotating those hands we were going to run and with a run blitz he had the talent to stop us and he did just enough.
In my opinion, that has been our curse ever since other than one game, the 2014 Iron Bowl. Only Nick $aban and the vaunted Bama run defense has been enough to make the most stubborn coach I have ever seen go to the air. And look what happened when he did, Nick Marshall had the most prolific day passing in Auburn history going 27 of 43 for 456 yards and three touchdowns. Other than that Gus Malzahn has stubbornly tried to run the ball the majority of the time since that night in Pasadena. Yes Jeremy Johnson has problems and Sean White is a small freshman but it is obvious that the coaches have not done their job in the passing game either.
Again, there was just no way Auburn was going to have a great running game this year. It was never possible with freshman H-backs and tight ends plus a revamped offensive line. It is up to these million dollar coaches to see this and devise a strategy to use what we have. To me, it made a lot more sense to spread things out and run a much more balanced offense with a lot of short passes mixed with the some mid-range and deep shots. We have plenty of wide receivers and at least two running backs, Roc Thomas and Kerryon Johnson, who are excellent receivers out of the back field.
Instead from day one, we come out running the same old thing that all the defenses know very well now. This team was not prepared correctly and bad luck tends to follow when you do that. Even my small experience as a coach has taught me that. On top of that the coaches panicked and put in Sean White who is obviously nowhere close to being ready. Now they are talking about putting Jeremy Johnson back in. I am happy about that, no matter how bad things get I want Johnson to get the experience so he can be ready next season.
Unfortunately Gus has, in my opinion, done the dumbest thing he could have possibly done if puts Jeremy Johnson back in for the Kentucky game. He took away the Mississippi State and San Jose State HOME games from Johnson that he desperately needed. The coaches could have stripped down the playbook and Johnson could have done what Sean White did. However he badly needed those home games. Now he might get thrown back in on the road in the SEC. I have a hard time believing that will turn out well. The Kentucky game though is now the absolute last chance to turn this season of shame around even to a small degree.
For those who have already given up on Johnson, I will use someone whose career is not what most people think it was, Stan White, as an example. White had a promising freshman season in 1990 but then made dumb mistake after dumb mistake during his sophomore and junior years. He had some good games but made many horrible decisions. You want to talk about giving up? I had certainly given up on Stan White by time his senior season rolled around. However after two terrible seasons he was able to turn it around and lead the Tigers most of the way through an undefeated season in 1993. I am hoping Jeremy Johnson can pull it together somewhat this season and then maybe come back to have a strong senior season. He is our best hope at turning this thing around and trying to make it back up that hill one more time.
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