I know that you can hear the "but..." coming a mile away. I will not disappoint you. It was great day... but as the title of this post states nothing has changed. I have read a lot of the feedback on various Auburn sites and have been amazed at the number of people getting back on the "Gus bus" after this exhibition game against a 6-6 Big Ten team??? People are acting like Gus going back to calling the plays is some miracle cure and his giving up those duties is what all went wrong??? I mean what are these people taking about??? The team got a nice win but it does not make up for the LSU game or the State game or especially the Tennessee game. Also, does anyone remember why he stopped calling the plays? I think many people are getting a little carried away over this game.
I will say it again, does anyone remember why he supposedly stopped calling the plays? Does anyone realize it does not matter either way? I am at a loss why people feel the need to deceive themselves. We have all watched Gus Malzahn coach and have watched his offensive system for six years now. There are not going to be any surprises. Also I am an Auburn graduate and a huge fan. I want to win and that is what clears things up for me. I look at the team and compare it to what a championship team looks like. I know what that looks like after watching football for over thirty years. With that said, I hate to break it to people but Gus is going to run the same offensive system he has run the past six years and our talent level has dropped and is not on a championship level.
Let us go back to the bowl game though and look at the evidence to see if this was just a good day against a very average team or evidence of a massive turnaround that will go into next season. I present the cover boy for this post and Auburn's leading receiver, Darius Slayton, as my evidence. Slayton did not have over 50 yards receiving in any meaningful game this past season except for 58 against State and one catch against Bama that helped him get to 63 yards. He has struggled the past two seasons with physical defenses and this past season was no exception. I cannot believe he is leaving early to try and go pro. Anyway in the bowl game Darius Slayton was simply running right past the Purdue secondary wide open. I mean come on, it was sad.
I mean any team is going to have a great passing day when their receivers are running right past the other team's secondary. Go back and watch, it was unbelievable. Slayton did not get jammed at the line and simply ran right past the Purdue defenders. The stats show NO SEC TEAM allowed that so pardon me if I do not think this game indicates anything about next season. It was a great day and hey I loved watching Auburn set the record for most points in the first half in a bowl game. I am happy for the players and coaches. However again it does not change the fact that Gus Malzahn is declining at Auburn. He is fully committed to an offense that has become very predictable and his recruiting has fallen off.
There also seems to be a misunderstanding about when people talk about Auburn's recruiting dropping off. I know when I talk about it I am not talking about it in a binary sense, i.e. the recruiting is either good or bad. I am talking about the overall work toward building a championship team. I have written over and over about how it starts up front after a quarterback. You have to have a great offensive line to have a great offense and you need a good to solid defensive front to compliment that offense. Gus Malzahn's recruiting up front has dropped off over the last three years on both sides. In 2019 I do not believe Auburn has any All-SEC talent up front on either side if Derrick Brown goes pro. Prince Wanogho and Marlon Davidson are good players if they come back but not outstanding.
It really drops off from there. Outside wide receiver, the least impactful position on the team, I just do not see any All-SEC players. The same offensive line that struggled all season is coming back. I just do not think they can improve that much plus the team will be starting over at the crucial H-back blocking position. The loss of Chandler Cox will overshadow any improvement by the offensive line in my opinion. The same good but not great running backs will return behind the line and a completely inexperienced quarterback. It sure looks like there will be a huge dropoff at defensive tackle and Auburn will start over at linebacker. There will be a lot of experience in the secondary but man they struggled this season.
Bo Nix and Owen Pappoe are great recruits. Auburn still gets great recruits every season. It is big-time traditional football school. However again this staff is simply not getting near enough talent in the trenches to win championships. After all the problems with the offensive line this season Auburn has only signed two guards so far and does not appear to be in the running for any of the top tackles. You contrast that with Bama who have five offensive line commitments so far and three of those are tackles. The coaching staff is also not developing all the talent it gets near good enough either which has led to a lot of attrition over the last two seasons. This all adds up to a mostly young and inexperienced team in 2019 which will be one of Malzahn's weakest teams in my opinion.
An experienced Oregon team will await Auburn in the 2019 opener bolstered by the return of quarterback Justin Hebert as he decided not to go pro. I do not see Auburn winning that one and again I do not see this team winning on the road at LSU, Texas A&M or Florida. I also do not think Auburn has the talent to beat Georgia and Bama at home next season either. That again adds up to a 6-6 season and the likely firing of Gus Malzahn shortly following the Iron Bowl. I still think a large number of influential Auburn supporters do not like Malzahn and he is not going to survive two more beatdowns to Georgia and Bama. I really do not see any way next season does not turn out this way. Even if the Tigers win one of those I do not think it will be against Georgia and Bama.
I think winning one of those earlier games and beating Georgia could save Malzahn but I just do not think Auburn has the horses to get it done. I could be wrong but an unbiased evaluation of the past and this current team just does not seem to point to that happening. However if you go to any of the other Auburn sites they vehemently disagree. We will see what happens as the team will start spring practices before you know it preparing for the 2019 college football season.
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