They seem unable to come to grips with the fact that Malzahn is on the hot seat next season after he and his staff have underperformed for two seasons in a row. On top of that, there is the expected early exodus of several key junior players in the trenches on both sides of the ball plus a tough schedule awaiting in 2016. Auburn has to open the season with the current #1 football team in the country, Clemson. The Tigers then close the season on the road in Athens and Tuscaloosa. However home and away did not matter much this last season since Auburn was unable to even beat either of the Mississippi schools at home. The Tigers will have to go on the road in Mississippi this next season and take on LSU, Arkansas and Texas A&M at home.
With this in mind, no proven defensive coordinator in his prime is going to come to Auburn no matter how much money Jay Jacobs throws at him. I cannot believe these morons did not offer Travarius Robinson the coordinator position. The guy is the #1 rated recruiter in the nation according to ESPN and is a good up-and-coming coach AND AN AUBURN ALUM. The smart move was to take a calculated risk and make him the coordinator with veterans like Lance Thompson and Rodney Garner there to help and mentor. The key thing is GETTING GOOD PLAYERS and keep continuity in the defensive staff. It was obviously the best move to make in Auburn's current situation yet Jacobs and Malzahn managed to screw it up.
They let Robinson go and then humiliated themselves trying to buy Florida State defensive coordinator Charles Kelly. As I am writing this they are now fumbling around trying to find some second tier guy to come in who will be nowhere close to as good as just hiring TRob. Honestly you really have to wonder what is going through their heads. Did they really think they were going to go out and grab some super coach? Again, they seem to be refusing to face reality. They can say till they are blue in the face how things are not that bad but the simple fact is Auburn is 2-9 in their last eleven SEC games and 0-5 at home in that stretch.
So now it looks like Auburn will be starting over on defense for the sixth time since 2008. I am not sure if Auburn will ever have an actual good defense again. Of course it might not matter much as it is likely Auburn will continue to run the same thing on offense with no changes. Gus Malzahn has to be the most stubborn person I have ever seen and I will believe he will change anything on offense when I see it. I wrote the following paragraph following the Outback Bowl in January:
"I am now starting to doubt whether things will change next season with Jeremy Johnson hopefully coming in for Marshall. I fear another ridiculous quarterback "race" and the coaches continuing to try and run the ball the majority of the time. It is obvious Auburn should be more balanced on offense but like I said above it was obvious this year as well. Again, Malzahn is at a crossroad, will he take this chance to evolve and innovate the Auburn offense or will he continue to stubbornly stick with the 2013 playbook? I believe the answer to that question and again him and his staff's ability to get better players on defense will determine his long term fate at Auburn."
The answer to the offensive question I posed in that paragraph was a resounding NO. Malzahn has not and I believe will not change his offense. Auburn's personnel might improve but I am wondering how much difference it will make. The defenses around the SEC appear to have caught up with him and you just cannot beat anybody good without a solid passing game. Auburn might have a better quarterback next season. The running backs and H-backs should be better as well. However the Tigers might be starting over at both tackle positions and have absolutely no one with any experience at all at tight end plus a ton of question marks at wide receiver. I do not see a dominating offense coming out of that mix.
I guess I am getting ahead of myself though as Auburn still has one more game to play this season. I have heard a few Auburn fans waxing nostalgic about Birmingham's Legion Field, Bama's alternate home stadium for so long and Auburn's bowl location this season. I was there to see the last four "half and half" Iron Bowl games at Legion Field. As I have reminded people many times though it was never really split evenly. It was more like Auburn getting a third, Bama getting a third and the city of Birmingham getting a third. That always guaranteed more Bama fans. Legion Field was always an advantage for Bama especially after it was changed to artificial turf in 1970.
My first game at Legion Field was the 1984 "Wrong Way Bo" Iron Bowl. As I have stated in a previous post: "It was a beautiful day. I remember wearing my brand new Auburn satin jacket to the stadium but then it being too warm to keep it on. I remember being so excited walking to Legion Field. Of course as soon as we got seated I heard the Bama band playing a cheer and the fans chanting something after it. As a young guy at my first Iron Bowl I was at that time not familiar with any of Bama’s traditions. I soon figured out that the cheer was “Rammer Jammer” and they were chanting “we’re going to beat the hell out of you”. It is still to this day the most obnoxious classless cheer. Congrats Bama."
I was there the next year for the Van Tiffin kick (when I thought it could not get any worse than "Wrong Way Bo") but got even in the last two "half and half" games in 1986 and 1987 with "The Reverse" and "Shut down, Shut out, Shut up". Finally after the 1987 game the series went to home-and-home even though many people said it would never happen. Thanks Coach Dye. Unfortunately during negotiations Auburn had to throw the city of Birmingham a bone to get the deal done and that was to play one more "home game" against Bama at Legion Field. That game was in 1991 and I thought it would be my last visit to Legion Field. I had not been back since the 1987 game.
The 1991 game was just a microcosm of the whole season that year, Auburn lost to Bama and Gene Stallings 13-6 in an ugly boring game to cap a 5-6 season. I remember driving away with my friend and fellow Auburn student and tossing my cap out the window in disgust. I sure had no idea I would be returning later that night. We met other friends for food and drink and I was planning to spend the night in Birmingham before returning to Auburn the next morning. I was starting to feel better out with my friends when I get a call from my brother. His ride down had left him and his friend and they were still down at Legion Field. They needed to be picked up and taken back to Huntsville.
I then had to drive back to Legion Field after dark. The football traffic had cleared out hours ago but something bad was going on as police cars with their lights on were everywhere and there seemed to be a lot of angry people milling about. My brother and his friend were pitiful sights cowering at a corner waiting to be picked up. I got them and we got out of dodge quickly. It then started pouring rain and continued to pour on me all the way to Huntsville. A rotten day that had been getting better turned into a rotten night.
I thought that would be my last visit to that awful stadium but it was not. My last visit was in 1994 in one of the last three Iron Bowls played there at all. It was only the second time in the entire series that both teams were undefeated (Auburn was 9-0-1 after a tie with Georgia). My brother was still a student and got me a student ticket to sit with him. The powers-that-be at Bama put the Auburn students in temporary bleachers in the end zones. Unfortunately the bleachers were a bit higher than the edge of real end zone seating thus completely screwing over the people sitting on that row. Compounding that problem was the fact Auburn students stand the whole game. That is just how it is for big games. However the Bama fans sitting in that first row of real end zone seating did NOT want to stand up for the whole game and thus a game-long argument ensued.
I was "lucky" enough to be in one of those top bleacher seats and while our row attempted to make peace with the Bama fans, the drunk fraternity guys in front of us did not. A fight nearly broke out with us in the middle. As soon as I sat down, I wondered why I came. First I had to deal with that whole conflict nearly the entire game. Second I was not watching as the kickers warmed up and only my brother blocking the ball at the last second kept a football from most likely breaking my nose. Finally Bama just destroyed Auburn in the first quarter running out to a 21-0 lead. After they scored to make it 21-0 I thought I was in football hell. It was simply awful.
Auburn came back to make it a close game but still lost 21-14 when Frank Sanders came up inches short on a fourth down conversion play on a last minute do-or-die drive. The Bama fans were obviously very fired up as they won the game which gave them an undefeated 11-0 season. We got heckled pretty good walking back to our car. I just told my brother and his friends to ignore it and walk out with class. We did, for the most part (-: When I drove away from that one I swore I would never return to Legion Field and I do not think one last chance to see this Auburn team is going to change my mind.
Frankly I think Auburn should have turned down a bowl this year and gotten to work on recruiting. I keep hearing about how "valuable" bowl practice is but I don't buy it. It sure did not help this team going through it last season. Auburn simply has nothing to gain in this game. They are expected to beat Memphis and will get no credit by winning the game. On the other hand, Memphis is fired up about a chance to knock another SEC team off. Their quarterback Paxton Lynch could be the first pick in the NFL draft. This guy is most likely going to shred the Auburn defense worse than Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon did in Auburn's last bowl game.
So in summary we have...
- a 2-6 SEC season that included an 0-4 record at home...
- lost Will Muschamp and TRob who were maybe Auburn's best coaches and recruiters...
- made a huge mistake by not promoting TRob, trying to buy Charles Kelly and now bumbling around trying to find a second tier guy that will not be near as good...
- received and accepted an embarrassing invitation to play in the Birmingham Bowl at Legion Field...
- a good chance that a number of Auburn's best players will leave early or possibly transfer...
- a ridiculously hard schedule on top of all this next season.
What aboutthe kicking game?
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