GAME 8 REVIEW: Just another week at Auburn

 Arkansas 41  Auburn 27.  OK well after a bye week the Auburn Tiger football program is back on track!  Auburn has a long checklist to work off each week and the bye week really threw things off.  There were just several things that did not get done last week.  Luckily though Auburn just has some really great leadership in their silent new president and on to their interim powerless AD and then onto head football coach Bryan "I do it my way" Harsin and his awesome staff of assistant coaches.  I mean some schools do not have good football programs but they never really bottom out or come in last.  However NOT AUBURN, at Auburn we do things RIGHT and now that we have decided to absolutely NUKE our football program, we are going to GET IT DONE.  To the checklist!

• School president does not do or say anything about the critically injured football program and should care nothing about upset alumni, boosters, fans, or local businesses.  CHECK!
• School AD whether interim or just incompetent (as has been the case for as long as I can remember!) does not do or say anything either, in fact he was quoted this week as saying that he is "having a blast!".  He or she also should act like other minor sports are as important as football.  CHECK!
• School head football coach should continue to act like he is doing his job, i.e. a stupid radio show, going to dumb events, and acting like Auburn football is not a smoldering ruin in various press conferences throughout the week.  CHECK!
• School head football coach should get on said radio show and talk about his previous meaningless school that somehow had success with him as coach and he should act like he is good friends and behind the success of a few of their only good players.  CHECK!
• School head football coach should continue to talk like he cares or wants to recruit good players to come to school but then really do absolutely nothing.  CHECK!
• No impact recruiting commitments.  CHECK!
• School head football coach should give ultimatum to waste a year of eligibility or quit to all unhurt players who want to redshirt since they are not playing much or at all.  CHECK!
• Head coach and assistant coaches should only go through the motions for another week of PRACTICE like they have done for an entire year but not really change ANYTHING for the better.  CHECK!
• Head coach and assistant coaches should go through the motions on game day as if the team could actually beat anybody any good.  CHECK!
• The team should show a little "fight" but still lose by a large embarrassing margin.  CHECK!

Thank you Auburn leadership.  My first three years at Auburn were and still are the most successful three years in Auburn history (1987-89 and three SEC titles) and in those years and since we spent a lot of time CARING about the program and EXPECTING to compete for championships.  You knew better blessed Auburn leadership though, you knew that we would be better off without all that stress.  Now since the football program has cratered and has not recruited well for years we do not have that stress anymore!  We are going to be even worse next year!  There will be no more worrying about championships or bowl games any more or maybe ever again.  Hey maybe we can just get rid of the football program all together since it just causes all this nasty stress?  I am getting ahead of myself though, there is still work to be done!  We have another four weeks to check off!

GAME 7 REVIEW: LIMBO

Ole Miss 48  Auburn 34.  I apologize for the late post.  First I was waiting and hoping I would be able to write about the firing of Auburn head football coach Bryan Harsin.  However it was apparent by late Sunday it was just not going to happen.  After that expected result did not happen I honestly did not know what to write about???  How many ways can I say that Harsin and his staff are simply terrible coaches.  They cannot coach, they cannot recruit, they cannot build relationships, and on and on it goes...  Yes Auburn finally ran the football well against an average to below average Ole Miss defense that had a big lead and has a lightning quick offense.  Those defenses are usually like that.  Also the Auburn players on certain units rise up and play well sporadically basically in spite of their coaches in my opinion.  This week is was the running game. 

You know you have hit ROCK BOTTOM when all the Auburn sites go crazy that we played hard and made it close at certain times against OLE MISS.  Boy those gutsy little Auburn Tigers sure play hard regardless of the fact they lose every week!  GIVE ME A ****ING BREAK.  This is one of the worst Auburn football teams in modern history and things are poised to get much much worse.  This team is terrible but just about every good player at every position is LEAVING after this season (!!!!!!).  Add to that fact we are apparently giving up on recruiting this year solely depending on getting a teams worth of semi-good players in the transfer portal that oh want to come play on the Titanic.  As I said in an earlier post I think it is a HUGE MISTAKE not getting rid of Harsin this week.  He is literally killing the program.  I do not think Auburn faced as bad a situation as this in 1998, 2008, or 2012. 

Auburn is not only going to lose most of the football team and their recruiting is as bad as I have ever seen it but Auburn fans are finding better things to do on Saturdays.  They are losing the rank and file support by dragging this on.  Many people think this is not a big deal and things will bounce back like they always do but I disagree.  I keep reading Auburn can bounce back quick.  I disagree.  I think a lot of people do not appreciate how bad things are as in the way the whole team is stacked.  In those other years you had horrific seasons but you had some talent returning and the program had not eroded as much and for as long.  The program eroded quickly and badly under former coach Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin has made it much much worse.  

People, we will basically only have maybe one or two scholarship offensive linemen on the team at the end of this season.  Most of the defensive line is gone.  The linebackers will be much worse.  That in turn will make everything bad.  Auburn is in DEEP SH*T after this season and nobody is doing anything about it!!!  This is not going to be a quick turnaround where we grab all these great players out of the portal!  Give me a break!  I will believe it when I see it.  Everybody is raving about Tennessee but many Auburn fans seem to forget how long it has taken for Tennessee to get back facing these SAME PROBLEMS.  The barely beat Bama for the first time in 15 YEARS.  Of course I wonder if they have figured out that they have to beat Bama AND Georgia just to get to the SECCG... where they have to beat Bama AGAIN.  That is either not going to happen or they will feel like the 2017 Auburn team.

I have been an Auburn fan all my life, I graduated from Auburn, my parents graduated from Auburn, my brother graduated from Auburn, my oldest son graduated from Auburn...  I am an Auburn guy but I have had about all I can take of bad leadership at this institution and simply do not know how much more I can take.  I know I cannot take much more.  It is just one stupid decision after another.  Before I was even old enough to be a fan the stupid leadership bungled the transition from Coach Jordan to Doug Barfield.  They then basically only got lucky to get Pat Dye as they almost had an over-the-hill Vince Dooley ready to come.  Auburn then gave Terry Bowden a huge extension... and then fired him.  They then would do the same thing with Tommy Tuberville, Gene Chizik AND Gus Malzahn.  

I mean HOW STUPID AN ORGANZIATION DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO KEEP MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES???  Auburn hit a new low promoting a complete buffoon in Jay Jacobs to athletic director where he made mistake after mistake after mistake...  He ran off the most successful coach in state history by far in swim coach David Marsh, he signed this albatross of a deal with Under Armor, he helped Mississippi State get their cowbells back (a school who has tried to stick a knife in Auburn's back time and time again), he helped the SEC screw us by changing the 100 year old rotation of Bama or Georgia being a home game each season, and on and on it goes...  They then replace Jacobs with a completely unqualified Allen Greene who then slashes the budget turning literally every coach at Auburn against him and then follows that up with hiring Harsin.

That brings us to the idiots who keep hiring the bad athletic directors!  Starting with the turn of the new century Auburn has had the following geniuses as president:  William "Jetgate" Walker, Ed "I hired Jay Jacobs" Richardson, Jay "I have never done anything proactive in my life" Gogue, Steven "I helped give Gus Malzahn 50 million dollars and tried to fire Bruce Pearl" Leath, and that was followed by more Gogue who was also part of hiring Harsin.  We now have Chris "I somehow need more time before firing the worst coach in modern Auburn history" Roberts.  Add to this all of the supposed shenanigans by powerful Auburn boosters and I have literally reached my breaking point.  Of course these boosters supposed power and interference have now reached such mythical levels that we might be able to pin JFK on them as well. 

So to conclude I am not sure how I am going to get through the rest of this season.  Auburn might luck up and win a game or two or it might not.  Either way NOBODY wants to watch Bryan Harsin flounder around anymore.  "PAY THAT MAN HIS MONEY".  It might not make much difference but it will bring at least a modicum of peace to me and many Auburn fans and show that the current administration at least has a clue.  I am hearing the next personnel event at Auburn will be hiring the next athletic director.  If this person has the sense to get in out of the rain he or she will be ahead of the last two.  All I can say is this better be at least a decent hire.  That answer to that question will also answer the same question about Auburn president Chris Roberts.

GAME 6 REVIEW: KNOCK OUT

Georgia 42  Auburn 10.  I wrote last week that I thought the knock out blow was coming this week and as this post is titled it did but it did not come like I expected.  I think most people including myself expected Georgia to jump on Auburn like a young Mike Tyson liked to go after his opponents.  However it did not happen like that.  Coach Kirby Smart and his staff were too smart to be over aggressive like LSU was against Auburn.  The Georgia Bulldogs were patient and just waited for Auburn to make a stupid mistake (which they did), to turn the ball over (which they did), and finally to wear down (which they did).  The Georgia coaching staff got exactly what they thought they would get and that equaled more of a boxing match where one guy makes some mistakes, gets worn down, and then gets knocked out late.  That is what happened to Auburn on Saturday.

Auburn is Vanderbilt now or worse.  There are only a few talented players, no offensive line, and literally no chance or expectation of winning.  The only difference in Auburn and the traditional loser Vanderbilt team is Vandy never had a coach as bad as Bryan Harsin.  He is literally the worst coach I have ever watched in my life.  He is a terrible coach, he is a terrible recruiter, and he is terrible with people altogether.  As an Auburn graduate and someone who has watched over 40 years of Auburn football I am literally praying he is fired next week before the open week.  Multiple rumors this week have indicated that he might be kept on for the rest of the season and if that is true then the people running Auburn are as stupid as they have ever been and we will most likely make another bad coaching hire and Auburn might not be any good for the rest of my life. 

I understand waiting to the open week but I cannot understand waiting beyond that.  Again it would be another huge mistake by Auburn's decision makers, just another in a long line of mistakes that brought this once proud program to this point.  Old timers point to all the times Auburn has come back quickly but times have changed, a lot.  There will be no quick turnaround this time.  It will take years of coaches and support staff grinding harder than anyone in the country recruiting for Auburn to have any chance of coming back in the next decade.  I doubt seriously at this point Auburn can find the person who can lead that kind of effort and even if they did I doubt they would be smart enough to hire them.  I do not envy the next coaching staff and all their support people.  Again in this day and age finding people who will work that hard does not seem likely or maybe even possible.

We are beyond breaking down another awful game or even complaining about an offensive line that is the worst in school history.  The only thing that matters now is finding someone that will lead this charge in recruiting.  Some one who believes with everything they have in that line from the Auburn Creed:  "I BELIEVE IN WORK, HARD WORK."  This process must begin with Bryan Harsin being fired immediately after the Ole Miss loss next week.  In the words from a great movie... "Not tomorrow!  Not after breakfast!  NOW!!!".  I do not want to hear about the possible difficulties within the coaching infrastructure if Harsin and even some of his Boise guys are fired.  IT CANNOT BE ANY WORSE.  As I read this morning Auburn people need to see some action and it better happen next week.  The leadership will lose overall support and any remaining recruits if Harsin is not fired next week.  THIS HAS GOT TO END AND SOON.

I guess there is a small chance that Ole Miss could screw it up and somehow manage to lose to Auburn.  That would in my opinion cause incalculable damage to Auburn which means it will probably happen.  I doubt it but we are talking about the missus.  Auburn's second half woes started in the Ole Miss game last season and the Tigers gave Lane Kiffin's boys every chance to come back like State did in that second half.  However Lane Kiffin kept "harsining" it up by going for stupid 4th downs and blew any chance at a come back.  Speaking of Kiffin, I am going to refrain from opinions on possible candidates till Harsin is gone.  The only thing that matters to start is him being removed from this football program.  Am I cheering for Auburn to lose?  I guess almost but it is only because I believe 100% the best thing for Auburn is firing Bryan Harsin yesterday.  

I feel sorry for the players that are caught up in this mess but that is life and is just part of it sometimes. However if the administration will just get rid of Harsin several good things could happen and help these players and Auburn people.  First the team might could rise up and actually win a game.  Second it would help recruiting a little bit by the hope of change.  Finally it could be a historic hire and we could see an Auburn man as head coach for the first time since Shug Jordan.  Case in point, Auburn played a lot better when Bill Oliver took over for Terry Bowden in the middle of the season.  It might not have ended up mattering much but it definitely helped Auburn players and people get through that season.  Again I think it is harmful to the players and the program to keep Harsin all season. 

That is the bottom line as I see it today.  As for the rest of the SEC, yes Bama almost lost like Georgia almost lost last week but unfortunately "almost lost" is not actually losing.  Right now the only team that looks like it has a legitimate chance of beating one or both of those teams is Tennessee.  Go Vols.  I just hope I am writing this post next week with a huge surge of relief that Bryan Harsin is no longer a part of the Auburn football program.

GAME 5 REVIEW: THE LAST STAND

LSU 21  Auburn 17.  I have to say that I was impressed with the way Auburn came out playing in this game.  They came out breathing fire.  I will give at least that much credit to the coaching staff and give some credit for finally changing parts of the game plan.  They did some good play-action passes and actually used the read option with Robby Ashford.  Also the defense was much better as well.  I also give a lot of credit to Missouri for how they played yesterday as well but I still think LSU is a better team than Missouri.  An Auburn team pretty much completely given up for dead definitely should have beaten LSU.  I have to say I was pretty speechless for the first part of the game watching Auburn finally do something right and watching LSU just play stupid.  

Of course like Auburn's 17-0 lead the feeling did not last and Auburn managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory again.  A Bryan Harsin coached Auburn team literally cannot score a touchdown in a second half... EVER.  I have watched football for over 40 years now and I just cannot believe some of the head scratching stupidity I see every week when Auburn plays.  I just do not know how you can coach as much as Harsin has and not understand some of the basics on how to win football games.  This guy has now blown a 28-3 lead, a 14-0 lead TWICE, and now a 17-0 lead in SEC play.  He just cannot seem to get it through his head that going for fourth down conversions when you have the lead is usually DUMB.  Of course 4th and 1 is one thing but 4th and 10???  

THE GOOD

As I mentioned Auburn came out initially looking very good on both sides of the ball.  Again I give Harsin and the boys credit but where has this been?  Uh why did you wait till the 5th game to do this?  I just do not get it...  but hey they did it.  The defense owned the line of scrimmage for the first time all season most of the game and that is against arguably the best team Auburn has played (???).  The offensive line even shined at times in this game (???).  Again if putting Brandon Council at center and putting in Alec Jackson plus whatever coaching they did made that big a difference uh again why not before now?  Finally Robby "I haven't played actual football in years" Ashford threw for 300 yards (!!!) and two touchdowns.  I mean WOW!  It was by far Auburn's best game all year yet...

THE BAD

The coaches still managed to somehow lose this game...  Auburn had three absolutely back breaking turnovers in Ashford's fumble, his last interception, and on a mind numbingly STUPID trick play.  Auburn had the 17-0 lead when Ashford was stripped of the ball because he was holding it too long and LSU took it in for a touchdown.  That completely changed the momentum in the game.  That is a rookie raw quarterback but that is also just bad coaching.  You get the ball out quick or throw it away with a lead.  Also in-between that fumble and the final interception, Harsin went for a 4th and 10 conversions at around the LSU 40 yard line and called a low percentage stupid play like last year against South Carolina.  He should have pinned a struggling LSU offense deep and made them drive the length of the field against a strong Auburn defense.  Instead he gave them good field position and LSU went down and scored the winning touchdown.

THE UGLY

To Auburn's credit the players did not go quietly into that good night after LSU took the lead.  I sure expected them to but they showed an incredible amount of guts and heart.  They bulled their way down the field embarking on a 13 play 65 yard drive that consumed almost seven minutes off the clock.  They had it second and goal at the LSU nine yard line.  There are so many things you can do with Ashford this close to the goal... and the Auburn offensive brain trust tries a reverse with the wide receiver throwing the ball (???).  Of course LSU blows it up and intercepts the ball to snuff Auburn's best chance at winning the game.  However Auburn had one more chance to win the game driving to the LSU 36 yard line before Ashford threw the ball a little behind his receiver and the LSU defensive back wrestled it away.  The Auburn players gave it everything and absolutely UGLY coaching lost the game.

AROUND THE SEC

Tennessee and Vandy were off while Florida and South Carolina played cupcakes.  The rest of the schedule was pretty good.  The big game was supposed to be Bama at Arkansas but of course even with losing quarterback Bryce Young for over half the game Bama still won big.  Mississippi State also won big over Texas A&M.  There is sure to be some real unrest around Aggie football now especially with Bama up next.  The rest of the games were nail biters with the biggest being Missouri's almost-upset of big bad Georgia.  The Bulldogs finally broke through but they were in some real danger in that game.  The next one might have been the most exciting game of the day with Ole Miss pulling out a win forcing a last second fumble while Kentucky was knocking on the door at the end of the game.

THE LAST WORD

Hope is running high in Knoxville and Oxford and a few other teams will have a say like Florida and Mississippi State but it still looks like it will just be Bama and Georgia again in the end.  Wake me up when someone actually beats them and not just makes it close.  I am SURE Georgia will look much better this week with Auburn coming into town.  The Tigers have played three tough games in a row and gave everything they had yesterday.  Meanwhile this game did used to be one of the best rivalries in the country and Georgia will be fired up looking to rebound.  I think the knock out blow many of us expected in the LSU game will be landed this coming Saturday in Athens.  Georgia has beaten Auburn soundly in every meeting since Auburn last won in 2017.  I am expecting something at least as bad as Georgia's 34-10 win in Auburn last season.  

Unfortunately as the title of this post states, I think Auburn's heroic effort against LSU was their last stand before this season really starts to unravel...