THE GOOD
As I stated above, Auburn absolutely destroyed Louisiana Monroe. There were a few hiccups but not many. The defense dominated. Sean White finished 14 of 17 for 239 yards and two touchdowns. Kerryon Johnson rushed for a career high 146 yards on 24 carries with two touchdowns. Most impressive the Tigers actually had a receiver have a 100 yards receiving in a game, Tony Stevens caught four passes for 109 yards and a touchdown. Finally, the offense scored all touchdowns with no field goals (except for a 56 yard attempt) after Auburn's red zone debacles last week against LSU. All in all a great homecoming day on the plains.
My only problem while watching the game is the fact that the majority of those plays just do not work against good teams. A friend texted me this during game yesterday: "run middle run middle run middle bubble screen run middle run middle run middle bubble screen run middle run middle bubble screen..." It is so true, we run up the middle way too much and good grief every good team is destroying the bubble screen. Please take it out of the playbook along with the double play-action bomb. Gus, Rhett Lashlee, Herb Hand or whoever continues to call the same plays over and over and most of them just do not work anymore against good teams. I think Auburn needs to work on straight drop-back passes and get better in that department but that is never going to happen...
THE BAD
The first bad thing will once again be Auburn fans and sites overreacting to this game. Good teams dominate out-manned opponents but good teams also do it when playing other good teams. This team has not done that. This Auburn team HAS NOT SCORED TWENTY POINTS AGAINST ANYBODY GOOD. Auburn has scored 13 points against Clemson, 16 points against Texas A&M and 18 points against LSU. This was true of most games against tough opponents last season as well. Just like I said after Arkansas State lets wait till this offense at least scores 20 points against somebody good before throwing a party.
On a related subject, the other interesting thing from this week was Gus Malzahn's most current flip-flop on who is calling offensive plays in Auburn. Apparently now it is Rhett Lashlee and Gus is just SO relieved and evidently this is the way it should have always been. I think most of us that knew anything about big-time football already knew that yet somehow it took a guy Auburn is paying over four million dollars four seasons to figure that out. On top of that many Auburn fans are acting like Gus just discovered plutonium or something. I mean honestly what the heck is going on here???
Last season at some point Gus evidently handed the reins of the Auburn offense to Rhett Lashlee as he gave all the credit to Lashlee after Auburn's only big win last year at Texas A&M. At some point in the offseason after losing to Georgia and Bama to end 2015 that included terrible offensive performances Gus decided he was "going to be a coach again". That is all I heard in the spring and summer. It was all that Gus was too much of a CEO in 2015 and he wanted to get back to being more of a coach. All these Auburn sites and posters told us that was going to turn everything around. All these people were all excited about Gus taking back over.
Well evidently that all lasted three games and now Gus has totally flip-flopped again and is back to being a CEO and of course once again many people are acting like this is going to change everything. I mean give me a break! Enough already. I am glad that Gus finally realized that the head coach really cannot be the play caller but since this is our second iteration of this forgive me if I do not get too excited. I have read people saying the offense was different last week under Lashlee. Uh how? Auburn ran up the middle a LOT, Auburn ran up the middle every time after a completed pass and Auburn ran up the middle, threw screens and ran trick plays in the red zone. Uh that is Gus Malzhan Football 101.
I mean how is this going to change anything? The only thing that Rhett Lashlee knows is the Gus Malzahn playbook and philosophy. He has no experience with anything else. It is not like Gus is going to let him really change anything. Auburn will run the ball most of the time and only throw when necessary. Auburn will continue to run up the middle a LOT, run up the middle after most completed passes and probably continue to run the up the middle, throw screens and run trick plays in the red zone. The Auburn passing game will continue to be underused and will continue to struggle against good teams. The wide receivers will continue to do a lot more blocking than catching.
Again, somebody please explain to me what is going to change? Once again though, fortunately for Auburn the SEC is terrible and Auburn has one of the best defenses in the conference for at least this season. As I said last week, this will probably allow the Tigers to pick up several more wins even with the offensive shortcomings. I predicted 8-4 to start the season and I guess I am sticking with that. Unfortunately in my opinion even with another loss to Bama that will allow the powers-that-be to declare victory and probably extended Jay Jacobs' and Gus' contracts...
THE UGLY
Also this week, Mr. Commitment himself, Bama coach Nick $aban, ran off at the mouth quite a bit. It was all pretty much to change the narrative away from another arrested player and the defection of his second string quarterback Blake Barnett. I am not sure why he bothers, his underlings in the media have every negative story about Bama buried in less than a week. However even with that being true, all-knowing Nick decided to do some serious pontificating on that and Bama's rivalry games.
Barnett evidently saw the writing on the wall and decided to go ahead and leave Bama for JUCO so he could play starting the fourth game of the season next year. It is actually some pretty smart thinking. Of course Bama nation cannot understand why anybody would ever want to leave and have blasted the poor kid into oblivion. $aban joined the masses on his weekly talk show and basically called Barnett a quitter and blathered on about how his dad would have never let him transfer as a player. This from a guy who has quit three different head coaching jobs to find a better spot and won a national championship last season with a quarterback that QUIT at Florida State to find a better spot.
I mean talk about the pot calling the kettle black... how hypocritical can you get?
Nick also announced out of the blue how much more his players care about the Tennessee game than the Auburn game. I am sure they do Nick since Bama desperately needs a big-time win with the SEC being so bad. $aban is desperately trying to prop up Tennessee since everyone has already seen Auburn and LSU are not that good and Texas A&M has flopped late so many times. USC has been terrible this season as well and $aban looks to be actually scared that Bama might for once be called on the carpet for a weak schedule. He is also scared that if he has his annual regular season loss the Tide might not make it in this season.
All I can say is LOL, I mean does this guy ever not talk out of both sides of his mouth? Early on in his career at Bama it was all about LSU and their annual "game of the year". Bama got so much mileage out of that con win or lose. In 2013 it was all about Auburn as everyone was pretty certain Bama would win that one. I believe Nick himself used the "biggest rivalry in all of football" line during the pregame for that one. In 2014 the SEC was better and in 2015 Bama got to play Georgia and Florida even if they were down. This year they have none of that so Nick and the Bama PR machine have to make Bama and Tennessee the lastest "game of the year". $aban needs to send his protégé Kirby Smart a letter of thanks for not ruining it as Georgia gave up a "Hail Mary" to lose to Tennessee yesterday.
As an Auburn fan honestly talking about the topic all I can say is it is fine with me Nick. Please tell your athletic director to stop trying to block Auburn moving to the SEC East. You want to say we are not your biggest rival yet you want to keep us under your thumb? I think that says a lot more than your press conference tripe. I, for one, would LOVE to move to the East and play Tennessee, Georgia and Florida every year than play the Tide and a bunch of teams we have no natural rivalries with. However Nick will flip flop soon enough if Auburn wins a few this season and the "Iron Bowl" will be back up top. Nobody is more inconsistent in what they say than Nick "I am NOT going to Alabama" $$$aban...
THE LAST WORD
Auburn travels to Starkville to take on Mississippi State. This is an important game regardless of all this other stuff about Gus Malzahn. Auburn needs a convincing win. The Tigers need a win most importantly but I think they need more. It seems like Dan Mullen has really put a lot of emphasis on the Auburn game since he came to Starkville. Gus Malzahn under Gene Chizik put a pretty good beat down on State in Mullen's first season but since then State has beaten or almost beaten Auburn every season.
Auburn barely beat State in 2010 (with Cam Newton), 2011 and 2013. State soundly beat Auburn in 2012, 2014 and last season. Cam Newton barely beat State and Nick Marshall was 1-1 against them. Mullen gets State up for this game and you can bet they will come to play again this season. Auburn better be ready. IF Auburn is to take this step toward being better than last season then it HAS to start next Saturday in Starkville.
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