Tennessee 30 Auburn 24. I was there yesterday right in the middle of Apocalypse Now in Jordan Hare. I watched till the brutal end surrounded for most of the game by joyous Vol fans. It started out well with great weather, a flyover by a B2 stealth bomber (!!!) and a touchdown by the home team on the first possession. It all went downhill from there and now there will truly be a "reign of fire" down on head coach Gus Malzahn for this complete disaster. I have been going to Auburn games regularly since 1983 and I have seen some pretty brutal losses. However I am not sure I have ever seen Auburn upset by a team it was favored by over two touchdowns to in the state Tennessee was in.
I also do not think I have seen a team with this much talent completely go down the tubes. This team will have to beat Ole Miss next which is still possible to just go 6-6 assuming likely losses to Texas A&M, Georgia and Bama. If you look at Auburn's semi-recent seasons where the team did not have a winning record, you usually see some talent but not near as much as this team. The Auburn teams in 2012, 2008 and 1998 had some pieces but none had a defense close to this team nor a quarterback that had a chance of ever beating Bama no matter how strong the team. It boggles the mind how bad a coaching job Gus Malzahn has done to lose to a team that had lost 11 conference games in a row, a team that lost 40-14 to West Virginia, 47-21 to Florida (at home) and 38-12 to Georgia this season.
I tell you though, after this complete debacle, it is hard to decide who is the bigger incompetent boob, Gus Malzahn or the MORON or MORONS who decided to give him a SEVEN YEAR 49 MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT WITH A PERCENTAGE BUYOUT WHICH CURRENTLY IS OVER 30 MILLION DOLLARS. Auburn pretty much deserves to be in this spot with leadership that STUPID. I know last year's team had some big wins but just read some of the game reviews in this blog from 2014, 2015, 2016 or see them all summarized after the LSU game in 2017.
Some of the opinions set forth in this blog might be up for debate but I think I have certainly proven that Gus Malzahn is not worth a SEVEN YEAR 49 MILLION DOLLAR CONTRACT WITH A PERCENTAGE BUYOUT WHICH CURRENTLY IS OVER 30 MILLION DOLLARS. I mean ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Do the "top men" who make decisions like this at Auburn do their due diligence or get any outside opinions? I mean how in the world could you give a contract like that to a man who had gone 8-5 with the talent he had in 2014 and then 6-6 in 2015 and then 8-5 again in 2016. Those seasons all include losses to both Georgia and Bama. It was equally as obvious that the talent level on the team had dropped some and was fixing to drop a LOT.
I am not up for dissecting ANOTHER Malzahn debacle, I mean you just get tired of saying the same things over and over and over again. I will say the one thing that has stuck out to me as Stidham has struggled is the whole quarterback deal. Gus Malzahn runs an option offense that is meant to have a mobile quarterback. He won his only two championships at Auburn as a coordinator and a coach with a mobile quarterback. So considering that fact WHY IN THE HECK HAVE WE NOT HAD ONE SINCE THEN? I mean this offense is where drop-back quarterbacks GO TO DIE. Jarrett Stidham is just the latest one to regress in this offense. He now joins Barrett Trotter, Jeremy Johnson and Sean White. These quarterbacks strengths do not go with this offense at all.
Enough though, what is the bottom line here as we sift through the ashes of this season? First, I do not want to hear people talking up Tennessee. They will likely not win another conference game this season. They are not a good team. This loss is one of the worst losses in Auburn history and certainly Malzahn's most embarrassing. The season is over and the coaching staff has completely failed. However, we are still stuck with Malzahn through next season at least if not two more. You simply cannot fire him and pay that kind of money out. It is just wrong. Auburn does not need that kind of really bad publicity. It would be a mistake as big as giving the ridiculous contract to him.
So with that said, we simply have to go forward in one way or another. There is nothing that can save this season but we can get some young players valuable experience and maybe along the way pick up a decent win. First I think you have to start Malik Willis if for no other reason than to give us another running threat and help this awful offensive line. Run blocking is easier than pass blocking. Also Stidham has had his chance and I just do not think at this point he is able to contribute in any meaningful way. I hate it for him but it is simply where we are at. He has lost the team and I just do not think Willis could be any worse and he can run.
We then need to get Asa Martin some meaningful reps and continue to utilize the young wide receivers (as much as they can be utilized in this offense). On defense you have got to blitz more. We simply do not have a good pass rusher and we have to blitz more. We either need to get a stop or get off the field. We cannot continue to allow these long torturous drives. We need to get some of the younger guys on the line and at linebacker some experience as again almost the entire front seven is gone after this season. There is nothing that is going to make anyone feel any better about a lost season but we can at least get something out of the rest of the season by getting these young guys experience.
I admit though that everything I just said though true rings hollow in the big picture. I ended my last post asking the question "will the decision to commit to Malzahn long term ultimately help Auburn or put the Tiger program into an extended tailspin?" I think I know the answer now unfortunately. The decision to give him this contract is going to put he program in an extended tailspin. We are most likely going to take it on the chin again next season even getting these players experience. Recruiting is going to suffer and this time we cannot bring in a new coach to stop the bleeding. The program will just continue to slide as the leadership has to wait till the time when it is fiscally possible to change head coaches. It is going to a long and excruciating wait.
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