AUBURN 56 MISSISSIPPI STATE 23. I ended my post last week writing about the obvious hard feelings that the Auburn coaching staff and players had about their embarrassing loss to Mississippi State last season. Coach Gus Malzahn actually avoided the usual coachspeak clichés and admitted he and the team got "embarrassed" last season. It was obvious to me it was not just another loss. State ran for almost 350 yards with no passing threat and just mauled Auburn's vaunted defensive line. The Auburn offensive line got wrecked about as bad. After that I think State also went a little overboard on the celebration as well. Again it is sure obvious now that it was not just another loss.
I ended my post last week saying this: "I do not "talk big" on this blog very often... I think this is one of the rare times where I will say that State better watch out and they better come to play because I do not think we are getting the same old cliches or coachspeak this week. For the first time in maybe his entire career I think Gus Malzahn is being dead honest talking to the press. I will give Gus the last word here this week: "It is a completely new year, but at the same time, when you have experiences, whether you are a player or a coach YOU REMEMBER. AND WE HAVE GOT TO RESPOND." This Saturday we will see the response."
Auburn responded. I just had that feeling that Auburn would come out looking for payback but even I could not envision the hell they unleashed on Mississippi State. I was there for the 2005 Bama game and Auburn sacking Brodie Croyle over and over and jumping out to a 21-0 lead and I remember Auburn going up 35-0 at Starkville in 2016. I remember many more fast starts by an Auburn football team but I do not think I have ever seen a finer half of football than I saw last night. The game was also a hard sellout and over 80,000 screaming Auburn fans and students made their presence known immediately as State had a delay of game penalty on the FIRST PLAY (!!!).
The Auburn defense, literally frothing at the mouth, stopped State with a huge sack on third down and then the crowd backed up State another five yards when they caused ANOTHER delay of game penalty on fourth down. Christian Tutt returned the ball 16 yards to the State 30 yard line after State finally got the punt off. The Auburn offensive line then literally ended the game on Auburn's first offensive play opening a hole big enough for a bus to drive through. Boobee Whitlow ran through that hole and took it 30 yards basically untouched for Auburn's first touchdown. You could tell, the game was over. It was just how bad it was going to get. It got bad.
The Auburn defense pushed State back again and State punted again. It took Auburn five plays this time with Bo Nix hitting his first big pass of the night to Seth Williams and then taking it himself three plays later. I just got chills as I remembered watching Bo Nix's dad Pat have his coming out party at Mississippi State in 1994. Auburn had not got it clicking on offense that season and I think State was favored in that game. Auburn took it to State and it was Pat Nix's first really good game as a starter at Auburn. The very next week he led Auburn over #1 Florida in the Swamp. His son will lead Auburn next week against #9 Florida in the Swamp... does it not give you goosebumps?
Back to last night... Auburn kicked off to State up 14-0 and State added to their misery by fumbling the kickoff. It took Auburn just two plays to score again as Anthony Schwartz took it in this time. Auburn was up 21-0 and the game was barely six minutes old. State then showed some toughness and resolve and ground out a twelve play 75 yard touchdown drive. There was no way though Auburn was going to let State even sniff getting back into this game. Bo Nix and company then ground out their own eleven play 78 yard touchdown drive. Nix hit Seth Williams three times on this drive, the big one being a thirty yard completion on 3rd down and 7. It was shades of his dad and Frank Sanders twenty five years ago! Boobee Whitlow took it in for the touchdown to make it 28-6.
State once again ground out another eleven play drive and kicked a field goal and once again Auburn would immediately RESPOND. The Tigers once again flew down the field on the arm and legs of Bo Nix. The kid is already a legend, the question is how big it is going to get. Nix broke off a nice 30 yard run on the third play of the drive and even though he fumbled at the end Auburn retained possession. Nix then hit Seth Williams again for a 39 yard touchdown pass. There have been a lot of great quarterbacks and wide receivers at Auburn but those famous combinations have been much more rare. There have been Sullivan and Beasley, Burger and Tillman, Marshall and Coates, NIX AND SANDERS and now it looks like we have NIX AND WILLIAMS.
Auburn was now up 35-9. The Auburn defense got back on track and stopped State three and out. The ferociousness of the Auburn defense was palpable last night. Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson were the clear leaders. They chased down every single play, they never stopped. They made up for that night in Starkville last year and then some. The rest of the defense followed their lead and were just flying to the ball. Lineman, linebackers, defensive backs... it did not matter, I never saw just one Auburn blue jersey on the ball. State would not score again till the game was clearly over and the reserves were in. The Auburn defense responded and made a clear statement.
The Auburn offense was not done either. They were stopped on their next drive when Seth Williams was called for a fumble when he was clearly down. I have seen some of these Auburn runs stopped by a fumble but not this night. Owen Pappoe, the Bo Nix of the defense, forced State to fumble two plays later and Auburn got the ball back at the State eight yard line with under three minutes left in the half. This is where Gus typically runs the clock out content to go to the locker room with a big lead and just runs vanilla the entire second half not getting anything else out of the game. He has done it many times. He did it up 35-0 at State just three years ago. He did NOT do it this night.
State did actually stop Auburn but in typical State fashion they committed a dumb personal foul penalty to keep the Auburn drive alive. Win or lose, every single year State will usually commit several personal fouls. They never change. Nix would find his guy Seth Williams for 14 yards on second down. Nix then zipped one to Will Hastings on a big third down conversion and then hit Anthony Schwartz in stride for 48 yards to the State three yard line. Boobee Whitlow took it in from there making it 42-9 at halftime. Auburn basically scored a touchdown on every single possession in the first quarter against a decent SEC opponent. Again THAT is a RESPONSE.
The game was over, the only question was would Gus Malzahn just completely shutdown and let State win the second half like he has done so many times in the past. I will say to his credit, he did not. I sure hope this was a learning experience and not a one time response. I really hope so because the Auburn drive to start the second half was a thing of beauty. The Tigers and Bo Nix came out FIRING. Nix hit Anthony Schwartz for 19 yards to open the half. He then, after a short Kam Martin run, hit Will Hastings for 21 yards and then, once again, hit Seth Williams on a beautiful pass and catch for a 32 yard touchdown. It was now 49-9.
The defense stuffed State after one first down and Bo and the boys were back at it again. Nix hit Eli Stove for almost 30 yards but then Shaun Shivers fumbled the ball. The Auburn defense stopped State again three-and-out but then for the first time all night State forced Auburn to punt. State then hit a couple of big passes and scored to make it 49-16. Oh well I assumed Gus would pack it in, it was almost the end of the third quarter and the game was over. In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friend... Auburn was not done quite yet. Bo Nix would hit yet another big pass to Sal Canella for 30 yards on a 3rd and 10 play. Nix would then complete his final pass of the night for 16 yards to Jay Jay Wilson and Kam Martin did the rest of the work taking it in to make it 56-16.
That would do it, State would tack on a late meaningless touchdown and it ended 56-23. Auburn had responded and a statement had been made. I do want to mention that even after sending in the reserves Gus let Joey Gatewood throw two real passes. He has never done that in the past in this situation. I really hope he keeps this up. I just think it is so important to get your backup quarterback game reps and not just waste that time. It was just a great game for Auburn from beginning to end. It was just a tremendous effort by the players, coaches and the sellout crowd. The night was made even more special as Auburn honored last year's Final Four basketball team and handed out rings. Again what a special night to be an Auburn Tiger.
The party is now over though. It was great but Auburn cannot waste a second celebrating. The Tigers now head to the Swamp to take on the Florida Gators. It will be Auburn's first road game between two top-10 teams since 2014. It is by far the biggest game in the conference next week and like Texas A&M could make or break Auburn's season. I thought Texas A&M was so big because it would give Auburn the momentum to help play good against State and have a good chance to beat Florida. I think that if Auburn beats the Gators it gives them the confidence and the momentum to then knock off one of the big boys coming up on the schedule.
I think Auburn is a little bit better overall than Florida. I think the Auburn defense is the best unit on the field and the Auburn offense can be more explosive. However Florida is still very good, Dan Mullen is a good coach and the Swamp is a tough place to play. Also, can Auburn avoid a let down after playing a near perfect game against State? We will see next Saturday. I am already excited. Florida used to be one of Auburn's biggest rivals and now they hardly ever play anymore. It has been a long time since a good Auburn team took on Florida down there. The last time was when the Tigers and Wes Byrum upset Tim Tebow and the Gators in 2007.
However I am again thinking about 25 years ago when another Nix led us into the Swamp after a big win against Mississippi State and delivered one of the biggest wins in Auburn football history. Can his son repeat that feat this coming weekend? I can tell you right now, I would not bet against him.
Auburn 28 Texas A&M 20. As I have been saying the last couple of weeks I thought this game was really big for Auburn. It had an election-night-type feel to it. A definite decision was going to be made on this team. Based on last year's game I felt A&M had the edge but I have to give it to the Auburn linemen on both sides of the ball. They both dominated the line of scrimmage most of the day. I thought last week that Derrick Brown would be a key factor in this game but I sure could not envision the terror he wreaked on the Aggies. Brown had two sacks and three tackles for a loss. He also made millions of dollars in that game because barring injury he will be a top pick in the NFL draft. He was not alone either as the rest of the defense helped hold A&M to 56 yards rushing.
On the other side of the ball Prince Tega Wanogho and the offensive line led the way. The signature moment was on Boobee Whitlow's eight yard touchdown run to effectively seal the game with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. On that play Tega Wanogho pushed his guy almost all the way to the end zone. I was pretty impressed. The offense had some great moments but also struggled at times as well. However overall it was an extremely impressive win. I think it will give the Tigers momentum going into another huge game in the Swamp in two weeks (if Auburn can take care of Mississippi State this week). Finally it was big for head coach Gus Malzahn. That was Auburn's first win on the road against a ranked team in a long time.
THE GOOD
This section is pretty easy this week. Auburn looked well prepared and ready to play on both sides of the ball. That is a big deal. As I said above it definitely started in the trenches but the guys behind the line took advantage. On defense the secondary again stood out led by Noah Igbinoghene's eight solo tackles. These guys are bringing a lot of energy and you can never take for granted good open field tackling. It is rare at every level of football these days. The linebackers are not far behind and K.J. Britt is really showing he is the player he was hyped to be in the offseason. He was second in tackles on Saturday and really seems to be playing with that reckless abandon that you like to see.
On offense, Anthony Schwartz finally returned for real and made a huge impact on this game. He got Auburn out to the big start it needed with his 57 yard touchdown run on the Tigers' opening drive. He also had another big catch and run to help Auburn on another touchdown drive. It was also good to see Malzahn and company finally call some of the plays us "dumb" fans have been calling for years. First, hey great idea bringing in the "wildcat" quarterback in a running situation (2nd and goal) but then throwing to the blocking tight end. I would have liked to have seen this play a couple more times the last six years. Actually this play kind of got messed up and Joey Gatewood made a great adjustment and throw.
These thoughts go double for Auburn's next touchdown. Bo Nix dropped straight back and threw a strike to Seth Williams on the SLANT. Again good call and one just about every Auburn football fan who knows anything about the game has been asking for over and over. The slant play is a basic passing play that should be used several times every game either for a quick strike or a fake. It opens up so much. First if you have a big strong receiver and you throw it right then it is almost unstoppable. However if the defense overplays the slant the receiver can run the "sluggo" or slant-and-go route. I believe I saw Bama score twice on that route this weekend when Southern Miss was trying to jump the route.
Finally, I liked going to Whitlow to close it out. That has worked well so far this season and later in the second half with a good lead is when you really want to go to that running game. I also thought that running Bo Nix a few more times on the read option really helped the running game as well. I do not want to do it a whole lot and get him hurt but in the Malzahn offense you really have to run the quarterback a few times. Overall there is just not much to dislike in this game for Auburn on offense, defense or special teams. There were some lapses and there are always definite places for improvement on both sides of the ball but going into a place like Texas A&M against a good team and getting a win like that is about all you can ask.
THE BAD
The bad is Auburn winning this game and showing it is a good team and getting momentum... and then looking at the schedule again. It is simply not fair and completely ridiculous. It is never fair in college football but at Auburn things just get progressively worse in that department. Right now Auburn still has the #2, #3 #4 and #9 TEAMS IN THE COUNTRY TO PLAY (with two of those games on the road). On top of that if somehow Auburn won the West they would have to play either the #3 or #9 team AGAIN like in 2017. I have been very hard on Gus Malzahn but COME ON, nobody and I mean nobody, and yes I am including Nick $aban, is winning a championship against that schedule.
It all basically comes down to who you play from the East. Auburn's goal every season is first to win the Western division. At this point Auburn is basically competing with Bama and LSU to do that. The schedule each team plays against the East becomes a huge part. Bama plays two complete LOSERS this season in South Carolina and Tennessee. There is no debate, both of those teams are terrible. LSU plays Florida and Vanderbilt. There is no debate, Vanderbilt is terrible. Auburn plays Florida and Georgia. You can nitpick Florida but they are miles ahead of South Carolina, Tennessee and Vanderbilt and that will be proven over the season. Georgia has already proven they are one of the best teams in the country. The schedule is just bad and will be too much for Auburn.
THE UGLY
I just read an article about what I was going to write about here. There is only one thing I think you can write about it in this spot with the Mississippi State game coming up and that is the humiliating beat down State put on Auburn last season. Nobody talked about it in the offseason but it was definitely one of the ugliest regular season conference losses I have seen. It seems Gus Malzahn and I finally agree on something... "We are playing a very good Mississippi State team; a team that really just, bottom line, embarrassed us last year," Malzahn said. "THEY JUST LINED UP AND WHIPPED US... THAT WAS A TOUGH ONE.""
State rushed for almost 350 YARDS without the threat of a passing game and beat Auburn 23-9. This vaunted defensive line that played so well this past weekend was ABSOLUTELY MAULED. Malzahn went on and said there was nothing left to say, "THEY EMBARRASSED US." Derrick Brown echoed Malzahn and said there was nothing left to say about it and that is was "time to go to work". It is a rare occasion when the team and fans are in complete unison but it sounds like this week is one of those times. The unfair scheduling and Auburn's championship chances will take a backseat this week. This game coming up is about pride and redemption.
I do not "talk big" on this blog very often. I think I spend much more time on where Auburn can improve in order to win a championship but not this week. I think this is one of the rare times where I will say that State better watch out and they better come to play because I do not think we are getting the same old cliches or coachspeak this week. For the first time in maybe his entire career I think Gus Malzahn is being dead honest talking to the press. I will give Gus the last word here this week: "It is a completely new year, but at the same time, when you have experiences, whether you are a player or a coach YOU REMEMBER. AND WE HAVE GOT TO RESPOND." This Saturday we will see the response.
Auburn 55 Kent State 16. I was out carting kids around when this game started and as I listened on the radio I knew I was not missing much. I have loved Auburn football all my life and have watched every game I could starting in the 70s. However Gus Malzahn has finally beaten me down to the point that I just do not enjoy watching games like this live anymore. I have better things or things I enjoy more to do for three-plus hours that watch Gus Malzahn call SIXTY PLUS running plays. Again it just gets really old and I mean really old after watching it for six years. It is just mind numbing. I did watch an abbreviated version of the game this morning to I could write this post.
Good gosh it was hard watching even that. I literally wince now every time I see Auburn make a first down and then have to watch Gus do that idiotic hurry-up motion to watch us run up the middle EVERY STINKING TIME. It cost us a national championship and it makes me mad every time I have to watch it. I guess with all the upsets we see around college football Auburn cannot take for granted blowing anybody out but man it is still hard to watch. I have said it before and I will say it again, Gus Malzahn never uses these games to get better at passing the ball. He never has and he never will. He just bludgeons the outmanned opponent running the ball and again he does it EVERY STINKING TIME. He got what he wanted last night with 467 yards rushing.
Can we get anything out of this game? I will say the pass Bo Nix threw on the flea-flicker was very nice. I have seen that pass thrown a little late or underthrown many times because the quarterback does not want to mess it up. It is not as easy as it looks. Jarrett Stidham missed one of those last season. Nix though released it at the right time and hit Eli Stove in stride. It was a beautiful pass. I liked seeing Joey Gatewood get some good playing time. He was of course just running the ball and not practicing what he needs to practice most but hey at least he got out there. I guess it is good that the offensive line can blow Kent State off the ball and the running backs can make big plays.
The team had better have enjoyed it because the preseason is over. Auburn's entire conference schedule lays before them with only a bye week and a game against Samford on November 23rd as the only breaks. It starts next week with the biggest game of the season at Texas A&M. As I said last week I think it will determine if Auburn can have a good season or another Music City bowl or worse season. The offense is what it is. Auburn will try to run the ball and hope for a few big play-action pass plays. The defense will try to improve against the pass after taking a bit of a step back allowing Kent State to pass for over 200 yards. The biggest question on defense though is if Derrick Brown is OK after an injury last night and will he be full speed against the Aggies. He is not replaceable.
I guess this would be a good time to look around the conference and do a little analysis but there is not a whole lot to say there either. Bama, Georgia and LSU look far ahead of everyone else. Auburn and Florida are in the top ten but Florida just lost their starting quarterback Felipe Franks for the season and Auburn has a true freshman quarterback. Bama, Georgia and LSU all have veteran quarterbacks that are playing extremely well. Back to Florida, I never hope anybody gets hurt but you cannot ignore the fact that it could really help Auburn IF they can win against Texas A&M. Overall though since Bama has LSU at home it sure looks like it will be Bama and Georgia in Atlanta again...
Auburn though really does have to take it "one game at a time" from here on out. Auburn at Texas A&M is not only a big game in my opinion, it is by far the biggest game in the Southeastern Conference next week. Right now it is #8 Auburn at #16 Texas A&M and it will be on CBS at 2:30pm as the game of the week. I will also say this is not just the game of the week or just a critical game for Auburn 2019 season. I think this game could also have a huge impact on Gus Malzahn's career at Auburn. It is all on the line next week. The preseason is definitely over.
Auburn 24 Tulane 6. The season that started as a fairy tale may quickly turn into a nightmare. I am sure Auburn will romp next week against Kent State but now I have serious doubts about the rest of this season. I know Auburn was due for a let down after a big win, I understand that. However the fact is that Auburn's offensive line, all senior or not, is just not that good. They have been good enough to wear down undersized opponents so far but what happens when the other side is not undersized? Auburn could not run or protect the quarterback very well.
On top of that, anointed superstar running back Boobee Whitlow fumbled the ball twice. The wide receivers were better but not great and several got hurt. Of course, that gives the sunshine pumping web sites their excuses to run when the team starts losing. Finally you have the coaching... It is impossible to find anything new to say after watching and blogging about Gus Malzahn for six years. He did throw more (where was that last year with a SENIOR quarterback?) but the offense on a whole is still painfully predictable. That is obvious even to us who do not engage in football "technospeak" when breaking down a game.
The defense is very good. Auburn has a lot of big strong fast football players on defense. During this game I was most impressed with the young guys in the secondary. Auburn appears to be doing a good job recruiting in the secondary. The young linebackers continue to fly around and of course the defensive line is nasty. There is still only one glaring problem and I hate to keep harping on it but the Tigers still do not have a consistent pass rusher. It really stinks because this could be an exceptional group with a big-time pass rusher. Auburn is going to have to blitz more against the big boys. I think this group can be successful doing that. Be aggressive, do not lay back with these guys.
The special teams were better other than giving up one big punt return. I really like Christian Tutt returning punts, he looks like a good one. The team on a whole has a lot of good players but unfortunately it is hard to overcome an average offensive line and predictable offensive play calling. It is obvious too that as much as I love Bo Nix he is going to have some tough games this season. His stats rolling out and lofting the ball will continue to be really bad and the teams down the line are going to make him pay for those mistakes. On the flip side Auburn is going to face a lot of good veteran quarterbacks this season.
The upcoming stretch of games after Kent State will really decide Auburn's season. In fact the game against Texas A&M is starting to look like a real deciding factor in this season. Auburn wins that game and then takes care of Mississippi State and the Tigers are 2-0 in the SEC going into Florida with some momentum and at least a chance at an upset in the Swamp. The Tigers lose in College Station and I think the momentum goes the other way. I believe in two weeks we will see what this team is made of. Auburn at Texas A&M is going to be a HUGE game.
I do want to end this post on a positive note though. I have been very critical of Gus but I will say it could be worse, a lot worse. I cannot believe what has happened in Knoxville the last two weeks. I am certainly not poking fun at Tennessee, I love Tennessee doing well. It does not usually hurt Auburn and it can hurt Bama. Auburn and Tennessee have a common rival. The situation at Tennessee though right now looks really bad. These were absolutely backbreaking losses that puts yet another Tennessee head coach on the hot seat. Thank goodness that regardless of the tough times upcoming Auburn has so many good young players.
Auburn 27 Oregon 21. Football games are long. I mean it is an up and down experience. Your team can be up or down for an hour and then everything turns around. That is definitely what happened last night in Dallas. The Oregon Ducks came out with a great game plan and were absolutely slicing up the vaunted Auburn defense. Auburn on the other hand looked predictable and Oregon shut down the Auburn offense for a long time. Things then turned around. I think everyone saw it. Auburn could win the game even down 21-6. I did not know it would definitely happen but I knew they had a chance because Oregon was running out of gas.
Auburn made their run and closed it to 21-20 early in the fourth quarter. Auburn's depth and superiority on the line of scrimmage gave the team this chance to overcome the coaching on both sides of the ball. Gus Malzahn was predictably predictable and Kevin Steele as well. A Kevin Steele Auburn defense can stop the run but always struggles against a decent passing game. Luckily for him Oregon got a little more conservative and needed to run some time off the clock. Auburn stiffened against the run and Justin Herbert cooled off. This was actually the major reason Auburn had a chance to win the game.
It did not come easy though. It looked like Auburn was on a roll that would get them ahead well before the end after making it 21-20. They even got help from Oregon when head coach Mario Cristobal got too emotional and completely dumbed it up. The Ducks went for a 4th and 1 against an Auburn defense that had completely smothered them most of the second half. It was an absolutely boneheaded call. Auburn's offense definitely was not on track and the smart move would be to kick and hopefully pin the Tigers deep making them go the length of the field Oregon went for it and Auburn stopped them. The stop did not make as big of an impact because Oregon then stuffed Auburn on the next series but it added to Auburn's growing momentum and confidence.
The Auburn defense stopped Oregon again and the Tigers got the ball back with two minutes left on its own 40 yard line. It was do or die time. Bo Nix had not looked good. He had thrown a lot of bad balls including two interceptions. Many of his passes looked like high school balls with too much air and not enough zip. He looked like a true freshman in many ways but in other ways he did not. I sensed a little of it just watching A-Day. I remarked to a friend that you could sense his presence, he had that "it" factor. You saw it last night even before the final drive. The guy has the guts to make that pass and then come back after a bad one and make it again. He looked like a leader. He looked like his dad.
You could sense it and see it but there were not results yet. It just did not look like Auburn's night for so long. I knew this kid was special but it looked like him being a true freshman playing one of the top teams in the country in the most famous professional stadium in the country his first time out was asking too much. He had one final chance though, one more chance to lead his team to a win... I was still pretty doubtful at the start of the drive. I was even more doubtful as it quickly went to 4th and 3. It all came down to this. Nix rolled out but found nobody open and not much room ahead of him... but he found the room and by inches got the first down. I texted my friend five words... "He's going to win it". You just felt it, another magnificent chapter in Auburn football was about to be written.
Nix soon hit another moment of truth. Auburn was facing 3rd and 10 from the Oregon 39 yard line. It was still too far away for a field goal and Auburn had to pass. The offensive line and backs had to block, the receiver called on had to catch it and Bo Nix had to deliver it. He did on a play you rarely ever see in the Malzahn offense but a play we should see a lot more of, a straight drop back pass. Nix dropped back and put it right on the money to a crossing Seth Williams. THAT is the kind of play I want to see more of, the kind of play I have wanted to see more of for six years. I still doubt we see much of it but we saw it last night.
I was already getting mad because standard Malzahn practice would be to run the ball or throw short and play for the field goal. The man must have lost his mind for a moment because he actually did the right thing for once. He would have a national championship if he would have done it his first season and several more wins if he had done it more times since then but at least he did it this night. He went for the KILL SHOT. As the Bible says, there is a time for everything. In football there is a time to be conservative and there is a time to go for it. This was one of the those times to go for it. Bo Nix dropped back with 16 seconds left in the game and delivered a great ball to Seth Williams who grabbed it, held on to it and got in the end zone for the winning touchdown.
It was pandemonium. Every Auburn fan was on their feet along with Bo's dad in the stands, Patrick Nix. I could hear the echoes of Jim Fyffe and Brent Musburger going crazy after his game-changing and game-winning throws and now his son in his first game as Auburn Tiger had just thrown the game-winning touchdown against one of the better teams in the country. His son had led Auburn to a win in spite of Gus Malzahn's painful predictability on offense. I know he had a lot of help. The offensive line and everyone blocking hung in there after a tough start and turned the tide. Boobee Whitlow ran his guts out and was also a major factor in this win along with the wide receivers.
The defense also hung in there and was probably the main factor Auburn even had a chance to win the game. However it always comes down to the quarterback if the game is close. It is the most important position on the field and the de facto leader on offense. I have seen a lot of quarterbacks have great days and make big throws but I have not seen many true freshman quarterbacks go 12 for 30 with two interceptions and then step up and make plays like that. BO NIX. He may not, like his dad, be able to lead Auburn to championships. Pat Nix had to deal with probation in 1994 and a very weak defense plus coaching issues in 1995. His son is gong to have to deal with unfair scheduling, recruiting in the trenches and possibly a coaching change during his time on the plains.
I think there are going to be tough times ahead for the Auburn football program. However I can tell you that Bo Nix, like his dad, is going to lead Auburn to more big wins. Big wins that we will never forget like last night. WAR BO NIX AND WAR EAGLE.
