The coaches have some serious work to do this week to get ready for a road trip to the defending national champion Clemson Tigers. I had thought all summer Auburn had a really good chance to beat Clemson but after watching last night that seems like wishful thinking. Auburn did throw the ball a little more and you can see Jarrett Stidham's talent but it is still the Malzahn offense. You cannot build a good passing offense in one offseason if they are even trying to do that. Stidham is still rusty and the wide receivers overall were awful. That all added up to a Sean White-esque passing performance for Stidham who went 14 of 24 for 185 yards with two touchdowns, one interception and two fumbles with one taken back for a touchdown.
That will definitely be one of the entries below as we look at the good, the bad and the ugly from last night and this past week...
THE GOOD
The Auburn defense came out well prepared and fired up. I mean WOW. These guys were awesome. It was by far the best thing to watch all night. I have not been the biggest fan of coach Kevin Steele but he and the defensive coaches did an outstanding job getting these boys ready to play. You can also see the leadership from the veteran players and the desire of the younger players. Yes it was just Georgia Southern but again you could tell this unit was well prepared and fired up and that is what you want to see regardless of the opponent. Georgia Southern only had 78 yards total offense (!!!). That is a historic performance against anybody.
The Tiger's front four absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage while the back seven feasted on anyone who escaped. There were blue jerseys swarming to the ball. This defense will still probably show they miss Carl Lawson and Montravius Adams but they did not last night. Georgia Southern was 0 for 15 on third downs (!!!). Their poor quarterback spent most of the night running for his life. Auburn completely shutdown every facet of the triple option and Georgia Southern did not even try to throw the ball. On top of all that good news I did not notice any injuries on the defensive side. Clemson better watch out because they are about to run into a buzzsaw with this defense. Win or lose they are going to be beat up when they head to Louisville in week three.
THE BAD
However the problem is their defense might do worse to Auburn's offense if they do not get a LOT of things corrected. The offense did run well as all Malzahn teams do against lesser teams. The problem is this group will not run over Clemson. You have to have a more balanced offense to beat better teams and that is why Gus Malzahn has not beaten anyone good for awhile. You do have to give credit to the coaches and the players for their run prowness though. The Auburn offensive line cleared the way for 350 yards rushing and over 500 yards of total offense against the overmatched Eagles from Georgia Southern.
Kerryon Johnson absolutely dominated with 136 yards and a big touchdown on 16 carries before he got hurt... again. Sigh. Johnson is really starting to look like he will be one of those guys who are just injury prone. I do not think he will be back in any kind of top shape for Clemson. It looks like Kam Martin will move into his spot backing up Kamryn Pettway when he returns hopefully next week. Martin who I thought should have been much more involved in the offense last season finally showed what he can do by putting up the exact same numbers as Kerryon. He got the job done running inside and out. Again as I have said before I also think both of these guys could make a big impact as receivers as well.
That is what the offense did good, the bad part of the night was the passing game and the offseason conduct of some players. The stats came out all right but I think everyone knows this passing performance would not have got it done against a good team. Stidham started rusty, held the ball too long all night and also threw some bad passes. He will get better but will this offense let him even come close to his potential? It does not look like it in my opinion. Of course it sure does not help when his wide receivers could not get open and dropped balls. I have read many people criticizing the receivers last night but in my opinion that comes down to coaching. It must be better. It also does not explain why the coaches did not get Nate Craig-Myers even one catch on the night.
Will Hastings and Ryan Davis are nice gutty gamers who you want on your team but it is guys like Kyle Davis and Craig-Myers that championships are won with. Of course some of the blames goes on Kyle Davis for the mistakes he made over the offseason to get him suspended along with supposed team leaders Kamryn Pettway and Sean White. All I have heard is how important football is to Pettway yet he gets suspended for the opener of the most important season of his career? I have also heard what a great leader Sean White is yet he gets suspended for the opener? This is absolutely unacceptable from some of the best players on the team and the backup quarterback. Of course he might not be the backup long if the coaches keep allowing Stidham to run the ball.
THE UGLY
Auburn's athletic director and head coach have said they believe in certain morals and ethics and to be clear we all make mistakes. We have all lied many times in our lives when we should not have. I sure have. I think most everybody understands this however when these men who represent Auburn University publicly lie in such a brazen matter it is really ugly. We all knew when softball assistant coach Corey Myers left the team in such an abrupt manner that something bad happened. However athletic director Jay Jacobs chose to just outright lie and denied any investigation into Myers conduct.
I understand privacy laws and the sensitive nature of the allegations made however that simply does not give Jacobs the license to lie about it. All he has to say is "no comment" or "I cannot discuss it". Will that turn into more probing by the media? Yes it will but that is going to happen anyway sooner or later. It certainly did in this case. All you do is damage your character and your credibility by lying to the media. I have no great love for the media but you talk to the Auburn family through the media so you are also lying to us.
As I have posted many times, I think Jay Jacobs has done a terrible job and is completely unqualified to be athletic director. He has once again proven that to be the case with his handling of this entire softball scandal. You just have to be a real moron to bungle this so badly after what has happened at Penn State and Baylor. This entire thing proves once again that the Auburn athletic department needs some real cleaning up especially at the top. Unfortunately neither the Auburn president or board want to get involved in athletics anymore so Jacobs can apparently screw up as much as he wants with no repercussions.
Unfortunately Jacobs was not alone publicly lying to the media. There have been rumors of football suspensions for weeks. It is only natural that Malzahn would be asked about it. He then just flat out lied stating on Tuesday that there were no suspensions and "everybody" was expected to play. He said that knowing that Davis, Pettway and White would be suspended. I understand gamesmanship and not showing your hand but this is crossing the line. Once again you are not just lying the media but to all of us. You can simply say "no comment" and earn that FIVE MILLION DOLLARS you are making by manning up and dealing with any follow up questions. This is not the first time Malzahn has done it and probably will not be the last. You know what that makes you Gus? A LIAR. That means a person that does not mess up and tell one here and there but a person who habitually plans to lie.
THE LAST WORD
I enjoyed seeing the season start and watching Auburn football again but Gus Malzahn has sure gone a long way to dampen that enthusiasm. He not only lies to the fans but will not do anything for the fans and treats them with loathing and disrespect. He will not release scrimmage stats ever when even king $aban in Tuscaloosa will do it. He basically lets the media, and through them all of us, only watch 15 minutes of warm ups. THE NFL DOES MORE THAN THAT. He then talked this week about no longer releasing depth charts because he cannot be bothered about all the questions they bring up. He simply treats the media, and by extension the Auburn family, as enemies but expects them to show up on Saturdays and support him.
I love Auburn and I wear the ring but I have simply had it with this treatment from the highest paid employee of Auburn University. It is simply unacceptable. Yes some of the media and some of the fans can be very bad people but I do not believe it is anywhere close to a majority. Tommy Tuberville used to start training camp on the Auburn intramural fields where everybody could watch. The media and fans got to see two weeks of basic football training. It was awesome. We got to talk about this player and that looking great or that coach chewing somebody out. Did he close it down for game week? Yes he did but before that he gave back to the fans. I hate to tell you Gus but your offense is as predictable as snow in Antarctica. It is not going to hurt you to open up a few practices.
OK I got all that out, the countdown now starts toward another battle of Tigers in Death Valley next week. It is one of the biggest games of the year for both teams. As I said in my last post, it is an incredible opportunity for this team to make a big statement this season.
Well said Jeff! My exact sentiments. Kenny
ReplyDelete