GAME 2 REVIEW: Grounded and Pounded

Georgia 27  Auburn 6.  Anyone who has read this blog knows that I am not a huge fan of Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn.  He has led the Tigers to some big wins but has continually taken away from the legacy of those games by following them up with really bad losses.  However those losses have to be put into two categories.  The first one is that we had the talent to compete a lot better or win the game and we lost because of bad coaching.  The second one is that we did not have the talent to compete and lost because of recruiting.  The game Saturday was definitely the latter.  This game was lost before it was ever played.  It was lost over the last few years on the recruiting trail. 

Auburn had no chance Saturday.  Georgia just has better players especially in the trenches.  It is that simple.  That is not a slight on the Auburn players.  These players are good guys who have worked their butts off for Auburn University to be the best they can be.  Unfortunately sports are unforgiving.  Things rarely work out like in the movies.  Miracles are far and few in between and that is why we celebrate them so much.  Most of the time the team with the best players wins, period.  That is what happened Saturday.  Again I have written a lot of posts criticizing Gus Malzahn's coaching.  I do not think the coaching was great in this one but it just did not matter.  

THE GOOD

There will still be good in this crazy season even after this humiliating loss.  It is clear now that the championship contenders in the SEC are Bama, Georgia and Florida.  These teams appear better than the rest and while injuries and COVID might bring one or more of these teams down, right now they are the best.  Auburn is in that next tier and still has a chance to be the best of that bunch as all the tier two teams have problems just like Auburn.  Auburn could also watch this season completely go down the drain but not for the same reasons as this past weekend.  Auburn's fate now lies with injury/COVID luck and coaching.  NOW the onus is on Gus Malzahn and his staff.

Auburn at it's current talent level if again it is not decimated by injuries and COVID can beat Arkansas, South Carolina, the Mississippi schools, LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M.  The Tigers unfortunately have absolutely no chance in the Iron Bowl the way things are now but again have a chance in the rest.  It will start this week against a rejuvenated Arkansas team that ended Mike Leach's honeymoon after just a week.  Even with that said I still think Arkansas is one of the worst teams in the conference talent-wise and frankly is the best team Auburn could play after this loss.  We will see a lot about this Auburn football team in how they respond to the loss to Georgia against the Razorbacks.

THE BAD

I guess I will start with exactly what I wrote in this section last week: "I have continued to voice along with other Auburn people the fact that Auburn's recruiting in the trenches has faded in recent years.  Auburn and Gus Malzahn have recruited other positions well and done pretty good overall however they have just not got it done on the lines the last two or three years and it shows.  Auburn does not appear to have any All-SEC talent on either line."  I was hoping that maybe somehow I was overstating it but I was not.  This game unfortunately proved that every word of that is spot on and in fact I might have understated the problem.  

Auburn was absolutely destroyed on both sides of the line of scrimmage Saturday.  It was hard to watch and also hard to write about.  Georgia grounded Auburn's offense holding the Tigers to just 39 yards rushing and barely over 200 yards of total offense.  Georgia pounded Auburn's defense running the ball for over 200 yards and gaining almost 450 yards total.  It was a complete beat down.  It is also bad this rivalry, the best in college football statistically a few years ago, has now turned into Bama vs. Tennessee.  It is simply not much of a rivalry when one team wins all the time.  Auburn has now only beaten Georgia three times in the last fifteen years. 

THE UGLY

Auburn has always had a lot of positives going for it including it's geographic location.  It is right in the middle of arguably the best recruiting area in the country and Auburn has gotten it's fair share of great players over the years.  Unfortunately this recruiting area is hotly contested by Auburn's two biggest rivals and at this point in time they are winning big in this most critical of battlefields.  The ugly truth for Auburn is that a dominant Georgia program hurts a lot more than Bama and $aban.  Bama has always recruited well and while Auburn must win some battles in state they actually have done pretty well there for the most part.  There is no doubt Bama takes players Auburn wants but Auburn has found ways around that and one of those ways was recruiting in Georgia.

Auburn is right on that border with Georgia and has gotten so many good players from that state.  Georgia has always recruited well for the most part but Auburn has still been able to get their fair share of great players.  Unfortunately Bama and Georgia have pushed each other to unprecedented heights and Auburn appears to be the loser in this clash of these recruiting titans.  Again Auburn has still gotten some good players but they have not been able to get many elite linemen at all the last few years.  I hate to keep repeating myself but it really is that simple.  Auburn is not going to win many games in either of these rivalries until it turns things around in the trenches.

THE LAST WORD

Where does Auburn go from here?  Is Gus Malzahn on the hot seat again?  It appears Auburn people have pretty much settled into two groups.  Group one thinks there is no reason Auburn cannot make the same jump as Clemson and Georgia did, i.e. from good football school to perennial championship contender and the current level is unacceptable.  There are degrees in this group as well.  For example I will always grade Auburn on that scale but know Auburn will have rebuilding years.  My biggest problem with Auburn coaches over the years is when they have that elite talent and waste it.  This group also favors replacing the coach when recruiting clearly starts to drop.

Group two thinks Auburn is not not in that class and we just need to be happy with our big wins and history.  They look at Gus Malzahn's one conference title and wins over Bama and think that is the best we can expect and we should stay with him.  Again there are degrees but that is the basic sentiment.  Of course the wildcard is still Gus' huge buyout.  That pretty much says he is not going anywhere no matter how bad things get especially in tough COVID financial times.  The time is coming though in my opinion where Auburn will have to change coaches.  As Steve Spurrier said a coach these days can really only stay at a school for a decade or so and then regardless of records, fatigue sets in.

We will see over the rest of this season what this coaching staff can do and it starts NOW.