I said last season in my bye week post that things at least looked better than the 2015 bye week. I can say something similar this season in that at least things are, at the moment, looking a lot better at Auburn than they are in Gainesville, Knoxville and several other places. Butch Jones is officially done at Tennessee after losing to Kentucky to go 0-5 in conference and the only question is when is Tennessee going to pull the plug. It looks like it might be the same scenario at Florida after Jim McElwain's bizarre death threat stories and the beat down Florida took from Georgia. Bret Bielema kept his chances alive to make it one more year at Arkansas by a big comeback win over Ole Miss while Kevin Sumlin's seat is back to extra hot after getting blown out by Mississippi State at home.
How does all this effect Auburn? Well first like I said last week, barring an utter collapse, it pretty much saves Gus Malzahn's job if he can at least go 8-4 again. Texas A&M definitely proved they were beatable. Now they have beaten Auburn before when they looked much worse and can certainly beat Auburn again but the Tigers should win. That should save Malzahn regardless of the last two big games assuming Auburn is not blown out. Again I think Auburn has a good chance against Georgia even with Malzahn's awful playcalling because Auburn is a good team and will be a big underdog at home to a Georgia team that is very good but not a juggernaut. First though Auburn has got to take of business in College Station.
That is where we are at. I, of course, cannot stand Gus Malzahn's offensive coaching but if he is going to stay I sure wish he would have taken care of business against LSU. The feeling right now would just be better, like Auburn really had a chance at winning the conference. It just does not feel like that. It feels like Auburn is basically playing for one more big win and a decent bowl. That is OK some years but not this year. This team is better than that and it is just bad coaching that has put Auburn in this spot. Of course it was once again LSU that delivered another wilting loss to a good Auburn season. It seems like it is always those guys through the years. During last season's bye week I posted the greatest Auburn wins for me I have seen in person.
This season after another painful loss to LSU I guess I will write my list of Auburn's worst losses...
Now don't go rolling your eyes about how negative I am. You could not have bad losses without winning the majority of the time. The only reason they are tough losses is because most of the time we had a good team. It also helps to just get it out. Also, there is a lot of Auburn history here. Actually here at the last minute I have decided to do this a different way and to do it by team (kudos to the mcubed website for easy access to all the series history)...
13. MISSOURI. There is not much history here and it still just burns me up that these guys were added to the SEC. It was just pure greed. The conference does not need them or even want them but it is all about more money. These teams have only played three times and one was this season. Auburn stomped Missouri earlier this season 51-14 and beat them in the SEC championship game in 2013. Auburn's only loss to Missouri was in 1973 at the Sun Bowl 34-17. Since Auburn had just lost to Georgia and Bama I do not think it mattered a whole lot.
WORST STR LOSS: 1973 Sun Bowl.
12. SOUTH CAROLINA. I was OK with the additions of South Carolina and Arkansas to the SEC to give us twelve teams and the SEC championship game. It worked because they were very similar programs and geographically fit into their divisions. It has certainly worked for Auburn who has played some great games against the Gamecocks but has not lost to them since they joined the SEC. Auburn is 10-1-1 against South Carolina with that lone loss coming in 1933.
WORST STR LOSS: 1933
11. KENTUCKY. Again there is not much history here because the teams have not played that many times and Auburn DOMINATES KENTUCKY IN FOOTBALL (26-6-1). Yes I will rub it in because of basketball. I tell people over and over again to never ever feel sorry for Kentucky in football because they are so arrogant about basketball. Auburn's only loss to Kentucky in football in the modern era was in 2009 at Jordan Hare Stadium. I will say that one hurt the pride and one that is always forgotten by some of these people who think 2009 was a good season for Auburn football. It was not.
WORST STR LOSS: 2009
10. VANDERBILT. Shockingly Vandy is one of the few teams in the conference Auburn does not have a winning record against. Auburn is 21-21-1 against the Commodores. However most of that is obviously ancient history. Vandy owned Auburn in the early 1900s through the 1950s. In fact the first big win David Housel chronicles in his book "Saturdays To Remember" that this blog is named after is Shug Jordan's first game and win in 1951 over Vanderbilt. The only time Vandy has beaten Auburn in the modern era was in 2008 and 2012 and those seasons were so bad it was just another bad loss.
WORST STR LOSS: 2008 and 2012
9. OLE MISS. Auburn really has little history with the University of Mississippi even though they are both founding members of the SEC. Auburn has dominated the series 31-11. The greatest game in the series is the 1971 Gator Bowl where Auburn and quarterback Pat Sullivan beat Ole Miss and quarterback Archie Manning 35-28. The worst loss in the series for Auburn was probably in 1999 when Tommy Tuberville had just come to Auburn from Ole Miss and there was some bad blood. Ole Miss lucked out with a 24-17 win in overtime because Auburn stupidly ran starting quarterback Ben Leard on the option and got him hurt. Otherwise Auburn wins that game easy.
The worst loss to Ole Miss for me was 2003. I was in the stands and it was the first game for my oldest son. The Rebels were very good with Eli Manning but Auburn was better and this was the game Ben Obomanu dropped the winning touchdown pass that hit him in the numbers. I definitely wanted Tommy Tuberville's head that day. The Rebels like Vandy piled on in 2008 and 2012 but again it was just another bad loss in a season filled with them. The last loss to Ole Miss was in 2015 but there were worse ones that season. Neither Ole Miss nor any of these teams I have already mentioned dealt a death blow to an Auburn season.
WORST STR LOSS: 2003
8. TEXAS A&M. Again like Missouri, I hated adding the Aggies to the SEC. Again, neither team fits geographically and 14 teams just does not work. I hated this expansion and I really do not consider Missouri or Texas A&M true parts of the SEC. I wish Oklahoma and Oklahoma State would join the SEC, Missouri move to the West and Auburn and Bama can move to the East. That way we would have the real SEC back together again minus the Mississippi schools and LSU. With that said, Texas A&M has already delivered a couple of excruciating losses to the Auburn Tigers since joining the SEC. In fact Auburn is 2-5 against the Aggies all time.
The first loss in 2012 was maybe the worst as Texas A&M and Johnny Manziel laid the worst beat down on Auburn ever at Jordan Hare 63-21 (and it could have been much worse). Two years later in 2014, after losing to Bama 59-0 and having a terrible season the Aggies held on to ruin Auburn's season 41-38. Auburn would not win another conference game at home till 2016. Of course the Aggies were also the last team Bo Jackson would play against at Auburn in the 2016 Cotton Bowl. He had a good game but Texas A&M destroyed Auburn 36-16. However that loss may have been one of the best things to happen to Auburn because after it Pat Dye changed his philosophy to be more balanced and pass more (do you hear that Gus???). Auburn then went on to win three SEC championships in a row.
WORST STR LOSS: 2012 and 2014
7. MISSISSIPPI STATE. State has been a much more regular part of Auburn's schedule but even with that it has just not been that exciting of a series. Neither team has wrecked the other one's season many times. The team that is up usually beats the team that is down. That has usually been Auburn since they lead the series 60-28-3 but in the last decade or so it has been State several times as well. In fact State has only dealt Auburn one absolutely devastating loss and that was in 1963 and it was Auburn's only loss in the regular season and kept them from competing for the conference and mythical national championship. Auburn and quarterback Jimmy Sidle were driving and going for the win instead of the tie and an interception gave State a 13-10 win.
State almost dealt another Auburn season a killing blow when they shutout Auburn and quarterback Dameyune Craig 20-0 in 1997. However Auburn recovered to beat Georgia and Bama and make it to Atlanta as the Tigers did in 2000 after a tough loss to State 17-10. State upset a good Auburn team in 2007 due to turnovers and bad coaching and that really hurt Auburn's chances of making it to Atlanta but there were other tough losses as well. The last bad loss to State was in 2014 when they beat Auburn to ascend to #1 in college football after the game. I still think Auburn could have won that game passing more but Gus of course kept running into a State defense that was good against the run.
WORST STR LOSS: 1963
6. ARKANSAS. The series with the Razorbacks actually started in the 1984 Liberty Bowl where Bo led Auburn to a win. Other than that Auburn had no history with Arkansas till they joined the SEC in 1992. Auburn currently leads the series 15-11-1. However it feels like the Razorbacks have been a constant thorn in Auburn' side since they entered the league especially during the reign of Houston Nutt. It started with the 1992 game and this is a good time for the Top 3 worse TIES I have ever seen. I want to nominate the 1992 AU/Arkansas game for the worst tie ever...
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Auburn was retiring Bo's number, he was there, it was a beautiful day. I was in the student section and it was a great day to be an Auburn Tiger in the midst of a bad football season. Auburn should have won. Pat Dye would have gone out with a winning record with a win (we ended 5-5-1). Auburn ended up tied because of one of the dumbest plays in football history that a coach was not involved in. Stan White threw back across the field and was intercepted for a TOUCHDOWN on the last play of the first half when he was supposed to have thrown a "Hail Mary". I think I would have benched him for the season.
Now there have been some other bad ties. I guess #2 for me would be the 1978 Georgia game at Jordan Hare. My first football game EVER. That was very exciting. However Auburn came out in those awful orange jerseys (they looked like Tennessee), I missed a Joe Cribbs touchdown run going to get concessions and the game ended in a tie (I learned to always get concessions when we are on defense after that). The bronze medal would have to be the stupid Sugar Bowl tie with Syracuse. Auburn was a much better team and I guess they did too much partying on Bourbon Street. The Tigers should have beaten them and then we would not have had to hear all the criticism of Dye for going for the tie. Syracuse acted like such big babies I am glad he did.
The 1987 20-20 tie with Tennessee was the only blemish on the SEC record that year but it wasn't too bad as Auburn won the SEC outright. The 1990 tie with Tennessee felt like a win because Auburn was down 26-9 at the start of the 4th quarter. Tennessee really choked that day. Finally, the last tie in Auburn history, the 1994 23-23 tie with Georgia. Now this one stunk because Auburn was beating Georgia 23-9 and driving for another TD when Bowden got too greedy and Nix was intercepted throwing deep. The Tigers definitely should have won that game but it doesn't feel half as bad because it took a lot of the luster off Bama ending our 20 game winning streak.
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Back to the Razorbacks... Auburn would beat Arkansas in 1993 and 1994 while on probation. The Tigers would then head to Arkansas in 1995. I remember this game very well as I missed watching it because I had to go to a wedding (along with missing the Braves win the World Series that night). The Tigers were gunning for an SEC West title... and then Arkansas went up 27-0... 27-0!!! Auburn stormed back but still lost 30-28. That one hurt because Arkansas would go to Atlanta not Auburn even though the Tigers beat Georgia and Bama that year. There have been other losses to the Razorbacks after that but a few stand above the others... Arkansas unexpectedly blew Auburn out in 2001 and 2002. Those beat downs helped cost Auburn trips to Atlanta. The worst though came in 2006 when Auburn came into the game ranked #2 and Arkansas and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn destroyed Auburn and a great season 27-10. I just hate Arkansas.
STR WORST LOSS: 1995 and 2006
TO BE CONTINUED AT A LATER DATE...
Auburn 52 Arkansas 20. The Auburn football Tigers got off the mat and rebounded against another awful Southeastern Conference team in Arkansas. This Auburn team that we all know has problems has averaged almost 50 points against the four SEC teams they have played other than LSU. You then see the State team Auburn blew out embarrass Kentucky and you couple that with the fact Tennessee has not scored an offensive touchdown in THREE GAMES and you start to see how historically BAD the Southeastern Conference is in football right now. Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Tennessee and Vanderbilt are just flat out terrible and many of the rest are not far behind. Honestly if there was anyone with half a brain and an ounce of unbiased judgment involved in the college football playoff selection process then ol' Bama would be in trouble because of the pathetically weak conference they play in.
The state of the SEC has deeper connotations to Auburn. I have come to the sickening realization that the rest of the SEC is so bad that it is going to save Gus Malzahn. I was wrong in my last post. It is clear now that unless Malzahn loses to both Texas A&M and Georgia (I am assuming loss to Bama) he will retain his job and be back next season. This stupid greedy conference is so bad now that Malzahn looks great next to the rest of these pathetic teams and I guess he is in some ways. He still will not ever beat anybody that can stop the run but lucky for him most of these terrible teams cannot even come close. That was certainly the case last night against Arkansas. I mean you can see better football now at the top high schools in each state than you can see week in and week out in the SEC. How many millions of dollars are being poured into these awful football teams and their coaches? How can they be this bad?
THE GOOD
Auburn had over 600 yards of offense and the starting defense destroyed the hapless Razorbacks. Our coaches and players are way better than the dregs of the SEC. Gus Malzahn goes 6-6 when the Mississippi schools and Arkansas are good (2015) and he goes 8-4 when they are bad (2014, last season and probably this one). Yay! We just completely overreacted over the LSU loss and three years in a row of losing to our biggest rivals in Georgia and Bama. We just need to be happy with being better than the worst teams in the conference and pray that they do not turn things around. Of course it also helps that our rotating SEC East team is always bad as well (Kentucky in 2015, Vandy in 2016 and Missouri this season). It stinks though we have to play the one good East team every year in Georgia and Bama gets Vanderbilt Nort... er Tennessee in the worst slump in the history of that program.
THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The 2017 version of the Southeastern Conference in football.
THE LAST WORD
Auburn now gets a bye week to get ready for the actual competitive part of the conference schedule. It sure would feel a lot different if they had taken care of business in Baton Rouge. The season comes down to the three best conference teams on Auburn's schedule: Texas A&M, Georgia and Bama. I think a loss to Bama is inevitable although they have certainly not played anyone this entire season. It could go down any number of ways against Texas A&M and Georgia. Auburn could win both, split or lose both. They certainly have enough talent to win both. It comes down to the coaching which means they will probably lose both but the Aggies and the Bulldogs have their problems as well.
Again I think Malzahn saves his job if he just splits these games and hey the Mississippi schools along with Arkansas should be bad again next season plus Tennessee rolls on to the schedule from the East! 8-4 again baby! Let the good times roll...
LSU 27 Auburn 23. Well here we are again... on Oct 28, 2012 I wrote a post titled "
End Of The Line"
for then Auburn head coach Gene Chizik after maybe Auburn's most embarrassing home loss ever to Texas A&M 63-21. Chizik would get embarrassed badly two more times by Georgia and Bama but he was officially done after that game against the Aggies. I think we saw the same thing in last night's simply unbelievable loss at LSU. Gus Malzahn is done at Auburn. He has had more than enough chances to prove himself and he once again showed the coach he is and always will be in Baton Rouge. Auburn ran the ball 17 times in a row on first down in one stretch, 17 TIMES IN A ROW. I think that stat really defines who Gus Malzahn is as a coach.
Now let me say that we are talking about football here, along with football stories today I am seeing stories about a little girl dying in a grease trap at a ice cream store in Auburn. That is one of the most heartbreaking and horrific stories I have ever read. You see that story and you really see how unimportant football and all this crap is. Let me make that clear before I rant about this game. However I will comment on Auburn football because it is one of my main hobbies and like the quote at the top of my blog says it is a sanctuary (or supposed to be) and I know it is just a game but I love it. The quote at the top of this blog also mentions parts of the game: struggle, survival, victory and defeat. Unfortunately today I have to write about losing the struggle, not surviving and defeat.
Of course this game ultimately did not surprise me. I did think Gus with all his faults as a coach could win this game but like every other big game since the 2013 SEC Championship game he lost it. He simply cannot beat any team that has a defense capable of stopping our run game. I have said that over and over and over again on this blog while I read elsewhere every year how things are going to change. Gus Malzahn has done the same thing at Auburn since he was hired and has never changed even a bit. He lucked out and inherited a great team that perfectly fit with his Wing-T offense out of the shotgun in 2013. Ever since then he has taken decent to good teams and made them try to play the same backwards risk-averse, passing-averse Wing-T offense and he has failed. I simply despise watching Auburn play offense under Malzahn.
I hate that it has come to this but again I am tired of writing the same thing over and over and over again!!! Gus Malzahn is done and the man who hired him needs to go even more. For ANYONE that disagrees he has to go, HERE IS THREE YEARS OF AUBURN FOOTBALL UNDER GUS MALZAHN:
I wrote on January 3rd, 2015 after Auburn finished 8-5 with a very talented team in 2014:
"Malzahn stubbornly stuck to the 2013 playbook when it was obvious that the blocking was not as good and teams had figured out how to defend it. So many times it was obvious the best choice was for us to be more balanced and pass the ball and it never happened... I am now starting to doubt whether things will change next season... 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... will determine his long term fate at Auburn."
I wrote during the 2015 season:
"Frankly as I have heard more than one Auburn fan say, we are basically Georgia Tech (and their triple option offense). In fact Auburn has only thrown 40 more passes this season than the Yellow Jackets (and those 40 passes were basically swing passes that are basically running plays). Gus Malzahn is not an offensive innovator. In fact, more and more Pat Dye looks more innovative than Malzahn. Malzahn really does much more closely resemble Johnson at Georgia Tech than other HUNH spread coaches. The rest of the football world and especially the defensive coaches have caught up with Malzahn and know all of his tendencies. It started to show up last season but has been made very clear this season... I do not think he will ever field a top offense again at Auburn if he is unwilling to change. It sure looks now like he will continue to pound his head against a brick wall no matter what happens on the field."
I then went deep again on this topic after the Georgia debacle in 2015:
"We have enough tape now people, Gus Malzahn is simply not capable of coaching up a competent passing game... He also seems incapable of developing quarterbacks... I will say again I believe the main reason behind this awful season is the lack of a competent and consistent passing game... We should have a quarterback coached up and capable of leading at least a competent passing attack whoever it is. Yes we have a good rushing attack but you cannot win without being able to pass the ball. We have one of the highest paid coaching staffs in the country and a supposed "offensive genius and innovator" as a head coach yet as I have just outlined he is consistently not able to field a competent passing game..."
I then went through it AGAIN in the preview before the 2016 season:
"However I still think the deciding factor is Gus Malzahn's stubborn playcalling... I do not believe Gus Malzhan will EVER run a balanced offense. In fact I think the Auburn offense will look the exact same as it has the last three seasons... Malzahn and Auburn in general seems to think a great passing game is bad. You always have to run the ball the majority of the time. That is the reason Auburn only has two wide receivers that have had 1000 yards in a season in the history of the school... I think Malzahn is going to do exactly the same thing this year. "We are a run-based play-action team". That is a quote directly from Malzahn and he obviously means it. I thought it was just describing a certain season but it appears to be his prime directive for all seasons regardless if he has the right personnel for it or not."
Auburn then opened the 2016 season against Clemson:
"Gus Malzahn has to be the most predictable coach I have ever seen. I no longer give Gus near as much credit for 2010, other coaches had to have been involved, he never would have run that offense like that as head coach."
Auburn then lost two weeks later to Texas A&M at home with Sean White FULLY HEALTHY (this game was hardly ever mentioned again at other Auburn sites):
"Gus Malzahn is DONE at Auburn... Last night's debacle is just the latest in two and half years of bad coaching by Malzahn. The stats speak for themselves. Auburn led by Malzahn has not won an SEC game at home since beating South Carolina in 2014. Auburn has lost six conference games in a row at home starting with Texas A&M’s last visit in 2014. Counting Clemson two weeks ago, Auburn has lost seven straight at home to Power 5 conference teams. That is behind only Colorado nationally. In that space of time, Auburn has lost 10 out of 12 games in conference overall...
The problem as I have documented over and over since then in this blog is that he has continued to call the exact same offense without that kind of personnel. He has also over time shown he will run on first down over 70% of the time, tip his plays by his substitutions and worst of all throw the ball as little as possible. We now see he absolutely cannot field a competent passing game or develop a quarterback. He stated again last night as he has hundreds of times since he was hired that we are ONLY AND ALWAYS SHALL BE A "RUN-BASED PLAY-ACTION TEAM".
So if Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley came to Auburn now they would never do anything because he will only allow Auburn to ever be a "run-based play-action team". The guy simply refuses to change his offense regardless of his personnel and on top of that he is ridiculously predictable. He has had plenty of time. He is never going to change. He needs to go, period. I have never seen a more stubborn human being in my life.
Dye who was as ground-based as you get even changed his offense to include a competent passing game (and won three SEC titles) but not Gus. He just continues to do the same stupid things over and over again. It is maddening to watch. He has reduced me to watching the games in stony silence with a lot of sighs as I watch the same stupid plays again and again and again. Auburn needs to clean house at the end of the season and that starts in the athletic director's office where all this started."
Auburn then bottomed out again against Georgia again and I went through it AGAIN:
"Let me be really clear here, I am DONE with Gus Malzahn. DONE. I have written over and over and over in this blog how he is incapable of putting together a competent passing game and he proved me right once again. He never makes the passing game a part of the main game plan, he continues to not use lesser games to get better in the passing game and he continues to pat himself on the back for rushing for a bazillion yards against bad defenses. He has done it over and over and over again.
He will simply never change. The Auburn offense under him will never change. It does not matter how many times he runs lesser teams out of the stadium, he will always lose to good defenses every time. The 2013 season was the exception and it will not happen again. Of course he still lost the big one that season because he would not pass. I am just DONE. I am so tired of watching this garbage. He is very good at running the ball and he will continue to get a few big wins every year with this one-dimensional offense but he will also continue to not have a good passing game and get beat in games like this. I am so tired of watching it. People will continue to talk about 2013 and ignore three years of evidence since then that this is all Malzahn is ever going to give us.
I do not think I can summarize his lack of ability to coach up a passing game again. I do not think I can list the pieces of evidence from the last seven seasons he has been either offensive coordinator or head coach that show this is all the coach he will ever be. I guess our only hope is that another Cam Newton will appear or a host of NFL-caliber great players will come in like 2013. Otherwise enjoy the hundreds of times he will run up the middle and the inevitable losses to Georgia and Bama."
We then got to go through the same thing two weeks later against Bama:
"Gus will destroy most teams if they have a weak run defense but lose to just about any team that has a good one. That is usually anywhere from 3 to 5 teams on Auburn's schedule depending on the year. I am literally shuddering at the thought of watching this exact same offense produce the exact same results next season.
Gus Malzahn put up another epic coaching performance today as we had 34 yards and ONE FIRST DOWN at halftime. That means AUBURN WENT A FULL GAME WITH ONE FIRST DOWN AND ONLY 60 YARDS OF OFFENSE combining the second half against Georgia and first half against Bama. We are paying FIVE MILLION DOLLARS for this pathetic offensive coaching from a supposed offensive coach!!! It is unbelievable how bad he is against any kind of good defense. Is this a legitimate big-time college coach??? "
Thank goodness we got to the Sugar Bowl so... we could watch this garbage one more time last season:
"Gus Malzahn did the same thing he has done his entire career at Auburn. He tried to run over the opposing team. He has no other game plans. He destroys weaker teams that cannot stop the run and gets beat by any team that can. He showed once again he cannot coach up a competent passing game. Auburn finished with a paltry 154 yards passing and it would have been 100 yards without a meaningless bomb at the end of the game.
There is really not much else to say. There will not be much else to say after spring practice or before next season or during next season either. Malzahn will come out running these exact same plays every game next season as well. He has run the same shi* for four seasons now. Nothing is going to change next season either. It does not matter how good Jarrett Stidham is. He will not be successful unless Auburn has an absolutely overwhelming offensive line and rushing attack. From watching four years of Malzahn the only thing he will practice is the read option, the jet sweep, the bubble screen, the double play-action wheel route, a few other predictable pass plays and the most important play of all... the handoff up the middle. I cannot wait.
We then came to this season and there was that question, would Malzahn as stubborn as he is finally change some with the hiring of Chip Lindsey? I wrote this in my preview for this season:
"You can see the talent dripping off of them (our wide recievers) but they were stuck in Malzahn's Wing-T offense and his abysmal coaching in the passing game last season. The receivers only hope this season is IF Chip Lindsey is a good coach and then IF Malzahn will let him build a passing game and actually use it at critical times. I am not going to lie, I will have to see it to believe it. It is proven that up till now Malzahn himself is simply incapable of building a good passing game.
Auburn seems to have a team capable of competing for and winning a championship. They have the talent and also seem to have those junior and senior leaders that are needed as well. The next question is the coaching... I am tired of writing it but Auburn cannot win a championship without a good passing game. It is just not going to happen. Can Chip Lindsey and Jarrett Stidham finally fix this problem? Will Malzahn let them? Is he is even capable of letting a semi-balanced game plan be called on a team he is head coach of? These are the biggest questions for Auburn this season...
So after breaking it all down I think everyone can definitely see that Auburn has a great opportunity to compete for a championship this season. Do I think they will do it? I am sorry to say that after watching Gus Malzahn coach the last three seasons I have to say that NO I do not... I just do not think Auburn can build a championship passing game under him regardless of who is hired."
We then had to sit through another beyond awful offensive performance against Clemson this season where... lets hear you say it! OUR PASSING GAME WAS TERRIBLE AGAIN. We then got to run over some cupcakes and everyone got all excited again till yesterday. I have to tell you though, yesterday was bad even for Malzahn. Auburn is flat-out better than an LSU team that got curb stomped by Mississippi State (who we demolished) and got beat at home by Troy. It took some extraordinary bad play calling to lose to this LSU team AFTER GOING UP 20-0. LET'S SAY THAT AGAIN... AFTER GOING UP 20-0!!! WE COULD NOT BEAT AN LSU TEAM WHO LOST TO TROY AT HOME WITH A 20-0 LEAD.
Auburn then ran the ball on first down 17 TIMES IN A ROW, again 17 TIMES IN A ROW. Gus then talked about Auburn's problem was lack of third down conversions as the reason for losing the game???!!!??? I am not a rocket scientist either but that is an unbelievably stupid thing to say. HEY GUS MAYBE JUST MAYBE IF YOU HAD SAY MIXED IN A FEW PASSES ON FIRST DOWN YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE A FIRST DOWN BEFORE GETTING TO THIRD DOWN. It is just the same old shi... It is really hard to get past the running for 17 straight first downs. When the coaches decide to sit on a lead after the first quarter and only throw on third down then there is not a lot the players can do.
I have said it all before, the difference is this might be the worst loss yet due to Malzhan's poor coaching other than the national championship game. I have never seen anyone so scared to take a chance in all my life. He also just got outcoached by Ed Orgeron, ED ORGERON!!! Danny Etling, one of the worst quarterbacks at a top SEC school I have ever seen, had a better game than Jarrett Stidham. I mean you are in some bad territory when you really start breaking this game down. The success on the script to get the lead at the first of the game almost makes it worse. We were killing LSU, we then totally shut it down and became (as I read on Auburn Undercover) as "predictable as a cliché at a Gus Malzahn press conference" (that is funny).
The numbers are extraordinary bad: Again, Auburn ran the ball an incredible 17 straight times on first down. Auburn amassed 58 rushing yards on 19 carries in the second half. Jarrett Stidham completed 2 of 13 passes (7 attempts on the final two drives in desperation mode) for 6 yards. He was 1 of 12 for 0 yards on his last 12 attempts. THAT IS WHY YOU PRACTICE YOUR PASSING GAME IN THE MISSOURI, STATE AND OLE MISS GAMES GUS. You cannot just turn it on. You have to practice it in every game if you expect to even have a chance of running a two minute offense in the big games. HE IS SUCH A BAD COACH.
Kevin Scarbinsky said it better than me today. He wrote an outstanding article on al.com on the game and Gus Malzahn. The statistics he listed in his conclusion really sum it all up. He said:
"Auburn can't win in a truly hostile and intimidating SEC environment against its traditional annual rivals. Malzahn is 0 for 7 in Baton Rouge, Athens and Tuscaloosa. (0-7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Auburn can no longer beat teams with comparable or better talent. Malzahn is 2-3 against LSU, losing two of the last three. He's 1-3 against Georgia and 1-3 against Alabama (will be 1-4 against both in a month), losing the last three to each. He's 0-2 against Clemson and 0-3 in bowl games against Power-5 opponents Florida State, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.
Under Malzahn, Auburn finds itself stuck in a no-man's land somewhere just north of mediocrity but well south of excellence. To compound the discouragement of the fan base, almost no one outside the payroll wants the lame-duck AD anywhere near another firing or hiring decision.
One SEC defeat wouldn't spark such a deep dive on the program if the defeat weren't so predictable and the state of the athletic department not so dire. But that's where Auburn finds itself after the worst kind of October surprise.
Ever the optimist, Malzahn stood up after the collapse and suggested, "It's not the end of the world." A realist would note his location at that moment, deep inside Death Valley, the metaphor impossible to ignore."
Auburn went 8-5 in 2014 and since then has gone 7-6, 8-5 again and now sits at 5-2. He has lost to Georgia and Bama both three years in a row and it looks like that will go to four years in a row. To my knowledge I do not think Auburn has ever lost to both Georgia and Bama four years in a row. It is over. It is the end of the line for Malzahn. Again he has had his chances, he has had plenty of time. Auburn sticking with him after this season is the definition of insanity, i.e. doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. It would be insane to stay with Malzahn another season. It would be insane to let the current athletic director hire another janitor for Haley Center much less another football coach. I will go insane if I have to watch this offense again next year. It is time to clean house and reset the Auburn athletic department starting with the athletic director and the head football coach.
Auburn 44 Mississippi 23. It was a good time had by all Saturday at Jordan Hare stadium... for half a game. I know that after seeing how the rest of the SEC is doing this season other than Auburn, Bama and Georgia that most fans of other teams would have some choice words for me complaining about Auburn. However I would remind them to think back to the times their teams were good and had a chance at an SEC title. They were not worrying about being happy because other teams stunk around them, they wanted their team to be the best they could possibly be. That is where I am coming from. The goal is winning the SEC Western division and winning in Atlanta. I would be better off just being happy with a good season and a great bowl game but that is not what these guys are playing for.
On a lesser note it was great for me to be back in Auburn for the first time since the Samford game in 2014. It is the longest for me between Auburn games since 1981. I got to take the whole family down on Friday and enjoy hitting the bookstores and walking the campus along with consuming a good batch of Guthries. We also did the locker room tour as well which is always very cool. I finally saw the monstrous new video board and once again enjoyed the greatest pre-game spectacle in college football of the eagle soaring around the stadium. It was also military appreciation day and though the crowd missed the flyover due to dense cloud cover it was pretty inspiring to honor our servicemen and women. THEY are why you stand for the national anthem. I then got to see the football team play one half of good football which brings us to...
THE GOOD (the first half mostly...)
The good this week was running back Kerryon Johnson and the offensive line that was opening up monstrous holes for him. However you do have to have a back with great vision and ability to take full advantage of that great blocking and Kerryon did. The guy is a genuine great playmaker with astonishing vision. He is the guy that gets that first down or that touchdown. He was absolutely a dominant force yesterday against the Ole Miss Rebels (or Black Bears or Land Sharks or whatever they are calling themselves nowadays). Kerryon created his own entry in the history of great running performances at a school nicknamed "Running Back U". He was absolutely explosive and he was not even 100%.
After the smoke cleared Kerryon had over 200 yards rushing and three touchdowns averaging over seven yards a carry. Eli Stove helped out with two big runs on the jet sweep. The passing game was good as well although 75 yards of it was on a swing pass to Ryan Davis that he took to the house. Jarrett Stidham finished 14 of 21 for 235 yards and two touchdowns. The other touchdown was a beautiful pass and catch to Darius Slayton who managed to get that one foot down. Nate Craig-Myers had two catches and Kyle Davis had one. I will continue to say that Auburn has got to get these two guys more involved. Finally again the offensive line did a great job powering the Tigers to over 500 yards of offense.
THE BAD AND THE UGLY (the second half)
Auburn did just about all that damage on offense in the first half. In the second half following their head coach's lead the Tigers got sloppy and gave less effort. Of course it did not help that the coaches took the same attitude calling a different game and basically encouraging them to play less than they are capable of. It is one of Gus Malzahn's worst faults as a head coach and it will directly effect upcoming games. YOU USE THIS KIND OF TIME TO GET BETTER. A great coach demands excellence in all aspects of the game regardless of whether the game is starting or the team has a big lead in the second half.
The first team offense should have come out swinging and if they scored a couple of times then the second team offense should take over. TRUE FRESHMAN backup quarterback Malik Willis needs some reps with the first team offense before it is complete garbage time. He needs to throw some passes. Alas our coaches continued to keep quarterback Jarrett Stidham in the game to hand off to Kerryon Johnson. Johnson has proven to be our best playmaker yet he is also proven to be a bit fragile so the coaches leave him out there to get pounded in a game that is already decided??? I do not understand anything the coaches did in the second half of this game, nobody got better. I think the point is proven as well since Auburn did not score a touchdown in the second half and Ole Miss scored 20 points.
THE LAST WORD
The conference turmoil continued yesterday with some teams rising and some teams falling. Most of these directly effected Auburn. First, LSU after being made the butt of jokes everywhere after losing to Troy upset the Florida Gators in the Swamp. Yes Florida is not great but that is still a big win and will have the Bayou Bengals in a much better state as Auburn comes to town this next weekend. Auburn certainly better take LSU serious regardless as they have only won in that hell hole three times in the last 70 years and the last win was in 1999. I am proud to say I was there when Auburn broke the 50 year losing streak to LSU in 1993. I thought the biggest win ever in Baton Rouge for Auburn was in 1997 when Dameyune Craig led a last minute winning drive.
On the flip side, the Arkansas game does not look near as daunting for Auburn after their awful performance yesterday against South Carolina. Auburn will have to really play bad to lose to the discouraged Razorbacks. However unfortunately for the Tigers the Texas A&M Aggies are showing some grit not normally associated with a Kevin Sumlin team. They have come back from a heartbreaking loss, they have won on the road in the conference and they just gave Bama all they could handle last night. This game is looking much tougher and the law of averages is against Auburn as well since neither Auburn nor Texas A&M has won at home in this series since it started in 2012. Somebody is going to change that trend either this year or next I believe.
First though is LSU and so far Gus Malzahn has not come even remotely close to winning at Baton Rouge as an Auburn assistant or head coach. He has gotten blown out every time he has gone down there. This is obviously the time to do it, Auburn is the better team.
