2015 Birmingham Bowl Review: Defensive Stand

Birmingham Bowl MVP Jovon Robinson

Auburn 31  Memphis 10.  Well the game went pretty much as expected when Auburn had the ball.  I knew Gus would run the ball close to 60 times and not throw much against the smallish Memphis defense and that is exactly what happened.  However I certainly did not expect the Auburn defense to play that well.  I will have to join the many other Auburn sites in congratulating the defensive coaches especially interim coordinator Lance Thompson on a job well done.  I saw the highlights from the Memphis win over Ole Miss, Paxton Lynch was awesome in that game.  You have to give credit to the Auburn defense for making him look like a bum yesterday.  

It is also definitely hard to get a team that had a disappointing season that ended with losses to its major rivals up for a bottom-of-the-barrel bowl game.  The players are college students that ssshhhh would really rather go home on Christmas break than go through practices for the Birmingham Bowl.  However the coaches were still able to get the team to play hard even with all that going on.  Auburn certainly did not play that hard earlier this year in the Outback Bowl.  I knew Gus wanted this win bad though for that winning season.  That is always a big deal for a coach.

Now of course they did play a much better opponent in the Outback Bowl and Auburn has tons more talent than Memphis and should beat them like that.  Ole Miss should too but ran into a hot team on a down day.  The coaches and the players should get their due credit but every Auburn site desperate for something positive to happen to this football team is of course taking it too far.  It is always better to win than to lose but none of Auburn's current issues were solved yesterday.  In fact all of Auburn's issues on offense were on full display yesterday.  They were just obscured by the small Memphis defense and the Auburn defensive effort.

With that said lets get to the good, the bad and the ugly from the 2015 Birmingham Bowl...

THE GOOD
This was like I said above the Auburn defense.  This defense held Memphis to only 13 first downs and only 205 yards of total offense (!!!).  They held top NFL prospect Paxton Lynch to only 16 of 37 passes completed for only 108 yards (!!!).  On top of that they also held Memphis to under 100 yards rushing.  Finally, Memphis only scored because of Auburn turnovers on offense.  The defense basically pitched a shutout.  That is pretty much complete domination and a great accomplishment against any team.  It has been a long time since an Auburn defense turned in a performance like that.

Also good is that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn after the game confirmed that a defensive coordinator had finally been hired in Kevin Steele though rumors had already leaked before the game.  Steele was the LSU defensive coordinator this past season and is a veteran experienced coach.  Most Auburn fans are calling this a big win.  I am not as convinced.  People will call me negative but I said the same things when LSU hired him a year ago.  Steele is a good position coach and recruiter but has absolutely nothing good on his resume as a defensive coordinator or head coach. 

Steele was defensive coordinator at Bama during Saban's first year before being demoted and then turned in three poor years as defensive coordinator at Clemson before being fired.  Before that he went 1-31 in the Big 12 as Baylor's head coach.  He turned in a decent season this year at LSU but in the three critical games in November his defense gave up 30 or more points in all of them and LSU lost to Bama, Arkansas and Ole Miss.  The facts are the facts people, there is nothing in this guy's resume that says he will be a good defensive coordinator, nothing.  I guess it is still a win as I think he is better than most of the other candidates but it is not near the win or sure thing people are thinking it is. 

The other good from the game was the Auburn running attack.  Jovon Robinson took MVP honors with a lot of hard running and had 126 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown.  Peyton Barber finished his solid season breaking the 1000 yard barrier.  That makes it seven years in a row Auburn has had a 1000 yard rusher.  Kudos to Barber... the guy worked extremely hard all season,  carried the team to some wins early and from all reports is a great person.  He is the kind of guy that personifies Auburn football to me and he would be my offensive MVP of the season.  Carl Lawson is the best player on defense but I would actually go with Montravious Adams as our defensive MVP.  The guy was a warrior in the trenches all year long.  The question now is if he and Lawson are turning pro.

THE BAD
The Auburn Wing-T offense bullied and finally wore down the Memphis defense.  Just like all year if Auburn can run the ball they have a chance to win.  Just like all year the passing game was pretty much a joke.  When your punter has the longest completion on the day I think that pretty much says it all.  I understand everyone hates Jeremy Johnson but I do not understand bringing back a rusty Sean White for the bowl game.  Other than two disastrous series against Georgia he had not played since October.  That just does not make any sense to me and sure enough he tossed two horrible interceptions, one a pick-six.

I will say a couple of his incompletions were on the coaching staff as they were one-read plays Gus runs every game and the other team can usually see from a mile away like the wheel route to the running back.  The Auburn passing game was bad in this game just like all season and ended the season ranked 102nd out of 128 NCAA FBS teams.  Unfortunately it does not seem like it will ever change under Gus Malzahn.  Auburn will always be as he has said himself a "run-based play action team".  He has made it clear, he is not changing.  I guess I need to stop whining about it. 

THE UGLY
That brings us to the ugly and that is Auburn's chances of turning this around next season running this offense regardless of defensive improvement.  It is just not rocket science.  Auburn's best years under Malzahn as coordinator and head coach were of course 2010 and 2013.  Yes in both instances the team had a dynamic playmaker at quarterback but also had the pieces all lined up around those stars.  First both teams featured a very good senior-laden offensive line.  They also had very good veteran H-backs.  In 2010 it was unsung hero Eric Smith and in 2013 it was juggernaut Jay Prosch. 

Both teams featured very good tight ends.  In 2010 it was sophomore playmaker Phillip Lutzenkirchen and in 2013 it was C.J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse.  Finally they had stars at running back and wide receiver.  All the stars had to line up to win a championship in those years.  Now that is true of almost all championships but not all.  I think you have to have a philosophy but you have to tailor it to your personnel.  Every year regardless of the personnel Gus Malzahn is determined to run his Wing-T power run offense from the shotgun formation.  This season he stubbornly tried to run it without a tight end or experienced H-back.  He tried to power run from a three-wide set most of the time.  That is just dumb in my opinion.

Again Auburn did not have the personnel to execute this power-run offense.  I am all for it when Auburn has the personnel but they have not.  I am not saying pass all the time, I am not even saying pass half the time.  I am just saying throw the ball around 25 to 30 times a game.  The last two seasons Auburn has had a lot of playmakers at wide receiver.  The Tigers also have had some running backs that are very versatile and are great receivers out of the back field.  They were all criminally underused.  All I hear is bragging about 1000 yard rushers but when was the last time Auburn had a 1000 yard wide receiver? (NOTE: It was Ronny Daniels in Tub's first season in 1999 but even then it was only because Auburn had no running backs). 

Next season Gus is going to run this exact same offense.  There will be promises and innuendo in the offseason but come on people has anything changed since 2009?  Gus will run the same thing.  Auburn may or may not have a good offensive line depending on the decisions of juniors Shon Coleman and Avery Young.  If both go pro, then Auburn will not have a top tier offensive line.  The Tigers just do not have many great tackles waiting in the wings.  Braden Smith could step in if only one leaves but things look bad if both leave.  H-backs Chandler Cox and Kamryn Pettway should be better next year but Auburn still has absolutely no one with any experience at all at tight end. 

THE LAST WORD
Throw in a brutal schedule in 2016 to all that and what do you get?  Most likely a 7-5 team.  Again though that is who Gus Malzahn is unless the stars align.  You average the 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015 regular seasons and you get... 7-5.  I looked at the blocking above, it might be good but it will not be good enough to run over really good teams.  The same quarterbacks as this year return along with a second string JUCO quarterback than can run the ball.  As for catching the ball Auburn loses start Ricardo Louis and right now things look pretty thin.  Only Jason Smith and Tony Stevens stand out and it is not like they had a whole lot of catches this season.

On the positive side, Auburn will return all these running backs except maybe Roc Thomas who has been rumored to transfer.  Auburn will have a better offense than this season most likely but again will not be good enough to run over the really good teams.  However Gus will try, you can bet the house on that.  I have really grown weary of watching this one-dimensional no-imagination offense so I am not really looking forward to next season right now at all.  It will just be more of the same "run-based play-action offense".  Oh well, at least the Tigers ended this season and hopefully their history at Legion Field with a win.  Happy New Year and War Eagle.