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.
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