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.
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