GAME 1 REVIEW: A Quarterback rises from the ashes?

Auburn 42  Mercer 16.  Auburn football is back, college football is back, and well I am finally back writing on this blog.  I definitely believe I have done a disservice to the greatness of Bruce Pearl by not writing a post when he led the Auburn basketball team to it's first #1 ranking ever and when he secured another SEC championship with which he now has as many as Auburn had in it's history before him.  The basketball program run by Pearl is a model of how a college program should be run...  which makes it much different that the football program.  I have purposely stayed away from writing about the mass exodus of players out of Auburn after last season, the inquiry into Harsin, another average recruiting class, etc...  It has been extremely hard to watch as everything that happened just ensures Auburn football will be down even longer.

I will say to his credit that Harsin and company have really tried to put a good face on and try to get recruiting back on track.  Unfortunately it is just too late.  I wish he would have come in and tried this from the start.  However it is what it is.  Let me get back to the present and Auburn's 2022 season opener against Mercer.  I have to say it is impossible to be too down on the opening day of college football season.  Even though NIL and pure greed have pretty much ruined the system around it I still have a love for the game (see the definition of a football field in the title of this blog).  I found myself just wanting to ignore everything wrong with Auburn football and just enjoy this day and this game.  However I don't think I even got through the first quarter when it became clear that things do not look much different than last season.  Sports are unforgiving and positivity will only get you so far.

(I DO have some positive things to say but I will save them for last.  Instead of the "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" I am going to go with "The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good" today.)

THE UGLY

After all the talk, all the hype, and all the positivity in the preseason... it just did not take long to see that the Auburn offensive line and poor T.J. Finley still do not appear to be good enough.  I hate it for Finley because he appears to be an outstanding person that his teammates love and he has the size, the arm, and he must really practice well.  He has now started for two upper tier SEC schools.  You cannot do that without have the full package.  Unfortunately like many quarterbacks before him he just does not appear to have that critical vision and decision-making skills to be consistently successful on game day.  He always makes a few absolutely gorgeous throws but he makes more bad decisions and yesterday was no exception.  There is no other way to say it.  Those were two UGLY interceptions and I mean UGLY.

Those interceptions were also against Mercer.  The defensive coordinators at all the SEC schools on Auburn's schedule and at Penn State are already watching the tape from last night on Finley.  I just do not see Auburn winning games against big time programs with Finley.  However Auburn's options at quarterback are limited with transfer Zach Calzada seemingly unfit to play so Finley will remain a critical piece to this season.  I will get to Robby Ashford below but even if he takes over he is an obvious injury risk and Finley is the next option or a true freshman without Calzada.  I know people might disagree with these takes but  Finley has now started four games in a row for Auburn and he has not been really good in any of them and in three of them Auburn had the much better team.

THE BAD

Auburn's offensive line obviously won the night with almost 500 total yards... but I still did not see the push or the dominance of the first team I would expect against an FCS school.  Auburn wore them down and Tank Bigsby had a good night (like he did in the season opener last year) but these guys looked the same as they did last season.  I focused on this in my last post after the loss to Houston:

"The main fault for the low level of the Auburn football program lays at the feet of Gus Malzahn and his poor recruiting in the trenches especially the offensive line.  I mean no disrespect to the players that are working their butts off and want to succeed much more than I want them to but they... just... are... not... good... enough.  Auburn does not have even ONE decent SEC level offensive lineman now that Brodarious Hamm has left.  The poor recruiting on the offensive line has continued under Harsin...  AUBURN FOOTBALL WILL NOT IMPROVE UNTIL OFFENSIVE LINE RECRUTING IMPROVES A LOT PERIOD."

I did not see anything last night that would make me think this has changed.  They are a year older and they are men now in their 20s but they just do not appear to be SEC caliber.  I hate to keep saying the same thing but it is the truth that will keep staring us in the face till Auburn changes it.  I just do not understand why Auburn cannot recruit any good offensive tackles.  I just do not understand it.

THE GOOD

The defense if it stays healthy has a chance to be pretty good.  They stayed pretty base it seemed to me last night but I am hoping with a new coordinator they will be more aggressive.  It did seem Auburn pressed more and that was good with the memories of so many teams last year shredding the Tigers as they rushed three and dropped everyone back into coverage.  Regardless of what happened last season I just do not think coach Derek Mason was a good fit with the players Auburn has right now.  I think Auburn needs to be aggressive on defense and let the chips fall where they may.  I saw nothing last night that made me think the Tigers will not play that way and that is good.  I thought all the new additions on the line looked good but we will see for sure how good they are very soon.

Finally we get to the star of the night...  Robby Ashford.  Yes he is a raw freshman that has not played much actual football in the last few years but the guy is a playmaker.  Everyone sees it.  I think most of us see that he is the best potential quarterback on the plains right now.  He just has that "it" factor.  You saw it during the worst A-day game ever this spring and you saw it last night.  I do not know if that will translate into being a good SEC quarterback but he looks a lot more like Nick Marshall than John Franklin to me and he is much taller than both.  He actually put a long pass on the money and that is something no Auburn quarterback has been able to do consistently for years.  The guy is the only thing different I see from last season and that is a very good thing.

THE LAST WORD

Auburn gets one more scrimmage in next week before moving into a meatgrinder of a season.  The season breaks down pretty easy for me.  In my opinion, Auburn basically starts the season 3-3.  I think Auburn has three wins in Mercer, San Jose State, and Western Kentucky and three losses in Bama, Georgia, and Texas A&M.  I know many people would disagree with Texas A&M but the Tigers have lost the last two and A&M has recruited much better than Auburn.  That leaves six games that will determine Auburn's season: Penn State, Missouri, LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State.  These teams all have issues as well.  I think Auburn has enough talent to beat these teams but can also lose to any of them as well.  Can the coaches squeeze enough production out of this offense to win?

That is the question.  As good as Tank Bigsby looked last night I again think Auburn will struggle to run the ball against good teams.  They will not respect the pass enough.  That puts us back to T.J. Finley and again I have to say I do not think he can do it.  At this point, I think Robby Ashford is the only guy who gives this offense the chance to make enough plays to beat these teams.  I know the coaches will continue to play Ashford but I also do not think that starting Finley and basically using Ashford as a "wildcat" will win many games either.  I could be wrong but from watching Finley the last four games and just seeing a glimpse of Ashford I believe the Auburn coaches have to make a change at quarterback and the sooner the better.