2024 GAME 5 REVIEW: DUMBFOUNDED

 Oklahoma 27  Auburn 21.  I was as the title to this post suggests literally dumbfounded.  Auburn dominated this game.  Auburn had much more talent at every offensive skill position than Oklahoma.  Auburn had almost 500 yards of offense while Oklahoma did not even have 300 yards.  Auburn, for the first time this season, dominated the time of possession.  Auburn was up 21-10 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.  Auburn had just stopped Oklahoma on downs and had the ball at midfield.  Jarquez Hunter then ripped off a 20 yard run and Auburn was in business at the Oklahoma thirty yard line.  Auburn had all of the momentum.  Auburn just had to score and the game would be officially over.  Once again like Bama last year the game was won if Auburn does not do something STUPID to screw it up...  And of course in typical Hugh Freeze fashion Auburn does something stupid and screws it up.

Hugh Freeze, unlike any one on this planet with a lick of sense, does not call three straight running plays even though they had just run for twenty yards, the tired Okie defense was reeling, and it would run clock that would help ice the game.  He does not do the obvious obvious obvious right thing, no he allows his self destructive quarterback to throw two straight incomplete passes which stop the clock, stop Auburn's momentum, and leave Auburn in third and long.  He then decides to run and of course gets nothing leaving Auburn with a long field goal for the suddenly snakebit Auburn kicker Town McGough who then misses the field goal and gives Oklahoma life.  The Sooners then hit their first and only long pass of the day and score to put them right back in the game with the momentum.

Auburn then gets the ball back and drives inside of Oklahoma territory where the Tigers face a 3rd and 4.  Hugh then calls one of his much talked about RPO plays!  RPO!  RPO!  RPO!  He has talked incessantly about these stupid run/pass option plays like he has discovered gold or something.  His whole offense is based on these magic plays!  Well Oklahoma showed why you should have just run the ball, punted if you had too, and made a true freshman quarterback who as done nothing but hit one pass all day drive the length of the field in crunch time.  Oklahoma faked their lineman or linebacker like he was going to rush and then he dropped back in coverage.  Thorne took the bait just like he did against Cal and Arkansas and opted for the pass...  and that Oklahoma player intercepted it and took it to the house for the winning score.  

Thorne NEVER EVER should have been allowed to throw a pass.  Any coach, any person with a tiny tiny tiny bit of common sense would not have let him throw a pass but not Hugh Freeze.  It is obvious now that the man has no sense.  I am simply dumbfounded someone could be that stupid.  I am dumbfounded Auburn lost this game that they absolutely dominated.  I am dumbfounded that a coach this dumb could have ever made it this far.  How did this guy win at Ole Miss???  He... just... has... no... sense.  I mean the biggest win of his career is there for the taking against Bama and he allows his defense to rush just two players.  He would have started this season 5-0 if he had just run the ball a lot more and played conservative.  You have to know your team's limitations and do what is best for the team to win the game.  That is COACHING!!!

This is Football 101 and he does not know this???  He is paid millions of dollars and he does not know this???  This guy will never be very successful at Auburn whether he gets better players or not.  He is just not a good coach.  I do not know how he achieved the little bit of success he has had.  We do know after 18 games at Auburn that other than one fluke win over Arkansas last season he has not coached one good game against a Power 4 team even in the few wins.  On top of that he was the guy in charge who let a minor league New Mexico State team crush Auburn in Jordan Hare.  It has just been one embarrassment after another AGAINST TEAMS AUBURN IS EQUAL TO OR BETTER THAN (!!!???!!!).  Auburn actually played Georgia close and should have beat Bama last season.  Of course I am sure that will change next week at Georgia.

Unfortunately next week doesn't matter anymore.  Next month does not matter anymore.  Next year does not matter anymore.  It is over.  OVER.  I knew after the 2021 collapse against Mississippi State and subsequent loss to lowly South Carolina that it was over for Harsin.  He had not quit recruiting yet at that point but it was the same as this, he could not even execute basic football strategy.  Neither Harsin then or Freeze now has learned or understood basic football strategy good enough to execute regardless of their game plan or system.  You just keep running the ball if you have a 21-10 lead in the most important game of your career, you have a mistake prone quarterback, you are going against a tired defense, you have the momentum, and you just had a big run (!!!) .  I like being balanced but if running the ball, i.e. being conservative, is the best way to win the game then I am going to do it!!!

Hugh Freeze did not and he lost his last chance at turning this season around.  This Auburn team will be fortunate to win another game the rest of the season even against Vandy and Louisiana Monroe.  He has lost this team.  They do not believe in him either.  He will soon start losing recruits and at the end of the season I expect a mass exodus through the transfer portal.  I do not believe Auburn will fire him no matter how bad this season ends and he will limp into 2025 with another less than stellar team.  He will then continue to make the same stupid mistakes he has made this season and at some point next season the administration will finally put him out of his misery.  Auburn will then start over AGAIN...  It is so depressing I have a hard time writing it but I believe that is what is going to happen. 

I just cannot believe even with Auburn's limited roster that it has come to this.  I am literally perplexed to the point of being stuck dumb by the fact that Auburn with it's history and resources has managed to hire two coaches in a row this bad.  It is all over but the shouting and there will be a lot of that.

2024 GAME 4 REVIEW: AVALANCHE

Arkansas 24  Auburn 14.  Wow.  Last week I wrote my review post immediately following the game and it was pretty dark and depressing.  I was very hard on the team and especially the coaches, where the ultimate blame always lies.  I then read the Auburn homer web sites and listened to head coach Hugh Freeze this past week.  After that, I thought again as I did after my posts ending last season that I was probably way too negative and that maybe I was just getting this wrong.  I know it is not enjoyable to read stuff that negative as well.  However I just try to write how I see it as honestly as I can.  Heck I want to be wrong!  I want Auburn to be good again.  Unfortunately for all of us I was seeing things accurately last week and after another avalanche of turnovers the 2024 Auburn football Tigers are in big trouble.  I mean really big trouble, I mean 2012-type trouble.

How has it come to this?  I do not need to spend any time on going over the massive decline in recruiting under the last two coaches.  We have hit that here ad nauseum.  We do not need to go over last season again either.  The question today is how did this season go off the rails so quickly?  I think everyone including head coach Hugh Freeze agrees that turnovers are the top reason Auburn lost to Cal and Arkansas.  However Hugh once again doubled down on his "scheme" after this game.  He said he thought it was "really good".  The obvious conclusion being it is all the quarterback's fault.  I think most of us would counter that a good coach would minimize putting his quarterbacks if they are not that good in those situations.  That is definitely what I think.

I just read an article this morning that really opened my eyes on this whole subject by Mr. Justin Lee of the Auburn-Opelika news.  Here is the link for as long as it remains valid:

https://oanow.com/sports/college/auburn/lee-auburn-football-needs-an-influx-of-common-sense/article_ee4a6454-7872-11ef-8116-bf04eaafa15b.html

The stat that I did not know that Mr. Lee brings to our attention is this:

"Freeze hates interceptions, says you can’t win with them, yet the offense he runs yielded an SEC-worst 13 interceptions thrown last season, it yielded a 118th-in-the-country 15 at Liberty in 2022, and it yielded a 116th-in-the-country 15 at Liberty in 2021. The common thread through all 41 of these interceptions is not a quarterback, not a school, but what Freeze is doing."

WOW.  I mean those are cold hard facts.  You might can lead the league in interceptions and still win at Liberty but you certainly can NOT in the SEC.  I guess somehow Freeze got lucky in his good seasons at Ole Miss with quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly?  He then had former Auburn quarterback and current NFL starting quarterback Malik Willis for his best season at Liberty.  The stats that Mr. Lee points out though for his more current teams tell the story of what happens without special quarterbacks.  With that said, it is also a fact that good coaches adapt to their personnel.  Why in the world do the "top level" football coaches that Auburn pays MILLIONS OF DOLLARS not understand this fact??????

I also have to say that I was wrong after reading these facts, if you do not have the quarterback and you do not have good pass protectors on the line you have the run the ball.  It is football 101.  It is the reason Gus Malzahn never had a losing record at Auburn.  It wins a lot of these type games.  The problem with Malzahn is you still have to develop your passing offense a little more and you cannot fail as badly as he did recruiting offensive linemen.  Really quick on that subject, I am also reading a lot of "we should never have fired Gus" posts on Auburn web sites.  That is not true and not the problem.  Gus had been at Auburn for a decade and his performance and recruiting were declining.  His time was definitely up.  However I will agree you do not fire him unless all parties are in complete agreement on the next hire.

Back to our current team...  The other prevailing question is why did Auburn not upgrade the quarterback position this offseason?  I have asked that question as well but it doesn't matter, it was not done.  Freeze coached the Alabama A&M game right, he got everyone involved and highlighted our wide receivers.  However he should have called for a much more run-heavy game against Cal and against Arkansas helping his quarterback, offensive line, and defense.  I thought in an earlier post he could throw a lot of short passes but it does not look like these quarterbacks are good enough to even do that.  I want to see Auburn have a good passing game so bad especially after getting all these new wide receivers but I was wrong.  However I am not a man making millions of dollars for my coaching expertise.  

Looking back now, any good football coach should know this.  Any good football coach should have known Auburn would have to run the ball and shorten the games to have a chance against anybody any good.  You then look to run up those passing stats in your few cupcake games.  Auburn had to win these games.  There are too many losses that everybody knows are coming.  The wide receivers will still be important for when you do have to pass but it is obvious now that the Auburn offense was nowhere near capable of having a good passing game.  Also Auburn's proud football history is pretty much based on these tenets.  Again I want to have a great passing game but Auburn football success has mostly been about running the ball and playing good defense.  I think head coach Hugh Freeze needs a history lesson.  Also his new super expensive running backs coach who we ran Cadillac Williams off for and who is also our offensive coordinator needs to fix the fumble problem RIGHT NOW.

Speaking of history, this loss pretty much guarantees another losing season which would push Auburn's current streak of losing seasons to FOUR.  I was looking back to see when was the last time that happened?  Auburn had five losing seasons in a row from 1946 to 1950 culminating in the hire of Shug Jordan.  Auburn went almost ten years in that same time period, 1944 to 1952, without a winning season.  I sure hope Auburn does not approach that kind of drought in the coming years.  Back to the present, Auburn has one more game at home against Oklahoma before hitting the road the entire month of October against a lot of good teams.  Head coach Hugh Freeze got one thing right in his post game press conference when he said that Auburn is facing a serious character test.  

This team, this program is in a tough spot.  Their backs are against the wall.  Hope is in very short supply.  The coaches are losing the fan base with awful performances like yesterday especially with 90,000 people suffering in the extreme heat and humidity to watch that game. Auburn will also be a big underdog in most of the remaining games... The answer though seems clear as I have been discussing in this post.  I do actually hate to say it as I was berating and making fun of these people in my earlier posts this season.  However again you just have to pick the best plan according to your talent to win games.  At this point it doesn't matter if Auburn loses many of these young wide receivers to the portal.  It is time to play Auburn football which is running the ball and playing the best defense you can.

On top of that, every member of the Auburn football program needs to go up to the press box and read a poster that hangs there (if it is still there).  The poster lists Coach Shug Jordan's seven "D's of Success".  I know it hung there in the late 80s and early 90s as my group of friends and I when we were students at Auburn would break into the stadium in the offseason and just sit up there.  Coach Jordan lists the following attributes: discipline, desire to excel, determination, dedication, and dependability to start which are pretty self explanatory.  Those five attributes are for all the time.  His last two though I think were for times like this...

Desperation. How we perform under stress is often the ultimate indicator of success or failure.

Damn It Anyway. If your back is to the wall, you must reach deep down inside and do something. 

As Coach Jordan said, “You’re not going to win by accepting overwhelming odds.”

https://www.thewareaglereader.com/2013/09/shug-jordan-elaborates-on-his-7-ds-of-success-damn-it/

WAR DAMN EAGLE IN SPITE OF IT ALL

2024 GAME 3 REVIEW: This team is just not very good...

Auburn 45  New Mexico 19.  Auburn pulled away in the end but what an awful game.  Blame Payton Thorne, blame Hugh Freeze, blame Bryan Harsin, blame Gus Malzahn, blame whoever you want but this team is just not very good.  They will be very fortunate to win many other games this season.  The defense is just plain bad, the offense is below average, and the coaching is flat out terrible at times.  I am not sure what these coaches do during fall and spring practice.  New Mexico is not a good team and the final tally again looked better than the game really was.  I am frankly starting to wonder if I will see another good Auburn team in my lifetime. 

In fact both teams and the refs were so bad that this game was extremely hard to watch.  The bottom line at Auburn is most of the recruiting news is propaganda to try and make everyone think that things are going better than they are.  I am sorry, I want Auburn to do well but it is kind of obvious now.  There are no highly ranked freshman linemen on the roster than can start a real resurgence of Auburn football.  I am wondering if I will ever see an All-SEC left tackle at Auburn ever again.  The same could be said at defensive tackle as well.  The latter is making the young talent recruited at linebacker and defensive back look pretty bad.  

I am honestly not sure what else to say.  Auburn will have a chance in a few SEC games as they will just luck up and play good one game like they did last year against Arkansas.  However things could also spiral quickly if they lose next week against Arkansas at home.  Right now I see Bobby Petrino carving up this bad Auburn defense up but a lot of these teams have their own issues as well.  I just wish Florida was on Auburn's schedule this year.  On the flip side, I also watched a good bit of the Bama game at Wisconsin today and the reality is bitterly painful.  Bama is better than Auburn at every position on the field except kicker by a pretty wide margin.  

On the great quarterback debate, Hank Brown had a good game but I personally think Payton Thorne would also have had a good game.  I will give credit and big props if Brown can lead a win over an SEC opponent.  I have referenced next week's Arkansas game several times now.  In my opinion it is looming large all things considered.  Arkansas is not a juggernaut and it is at home plus last week's loss to Cal makes it even bigger and more important.  Auburn and head coach Hugh Freeze can finally take one real positive step this season by winning next Saturday.  In fact, looking at the Auburn schedule coming up after I would call it an absolute must-win game.

2024 GAME 2 REVIEW: FROZEN

Cal 21  Auburn 14.  There is no doubt that Hugh Freeze inherited an unbelievable mess at Auburn after the years of decline under Gus Malzahn and the program-killing mistake of hiring Bryan Harsin.  Recruiting has been mediocre to bad for years before Freeze got there.  That is why Auburn is mediocre and will continue to struggle some.  There is no quick fix and much of what ails Auburn is not his fault HOWEVER with that said you cannot lose home games to New Mexico State and Cal.  You cannot lose those game while also blowing a 4th and 31 gift to lose what could have been the biggest win of your career and then not show up for the bowl game between those two hideous losses.  One big win over Alabama A&M does not even come close to making up for all of that.  

That is the bottom line.  We can talk about all the things still wrong with Auburn's football team and the mistakes that the coaches made but Auburn should have still beat Cal at home, period.  The defensive game plan to start the game was hideous and the offensive coaching was absolutely terrible the rest of the game.  It is just unacceptable especially when these men are paid millions of dollars.  I looked back at my last three posts of last year before writing last week's post and after reading six months of sunshine pumping on Auburn's homer web sites I thought wow maybe I was too hard on Freeze at the end of last season...  I no longer think that.  It is really starting to look like Auburn made another bad hire.  Yes he has done a little better recruiting but not as much as they want you to believe and it appears he cannot coach it when he gets it.

On top of all that, as predicted, the "we just have to run the ball" crowd is back.  In fact, I read the statement "Auburn would have won the game if they would have run the ball 70 percent of the time yesterday" from a famous Auburn columnist this morning.  Yes we would have won if we would have run that much but you will not beat anybody any good running like that and you won't be able to recruit offensive tackles or wide receivers.  I mean that is why Gus Malzahn never had a losing season but rarely beat anybody any good.  We have already watched that show for ten years.  I knew as soon as things went bad this would happen.  The decision to be more of a passing team was not the reason Auburn lost yesterday.  There are a lot of ways to throw the ball.

The problem is also not quarterback Payton Thorne in my opinion.  Thorne was bad yesterday and came completely unglued late but I think the coaches were putting him in a bad position throughout the game.  The majority of teams across the country do not have the quarterback they want.  You recruit the best you can and then you have to make do with what you got.  Thorne unfortunately is the best Auburn has got.  You also have to factor in that Auburn, as I said last week, is still not even close to the top teams on the line of scrimmage.  The offensive line is just not that good.  The Auburn coaches did not improve the quarterback position OR the offensive line much this past recruiting season and they brought in a bunch of highly rated wide receivers.  It is obvious after this game that that is probably not the best recipe for success.  So with all that said, what should the Auburn offensive coaches have done yesterday???

THEY SHOULD HAVE COME OUT WITH A GAME PLAN OF SHORT PASSES.  I mean this is not rocket science.  You throw high percentage passes and get the ball in the hands of these hot shot wide receivers and soon or later they will break one!  YES it is that simple.  Would Cal have stopped us a few times?  Sure but do you think Cal was such a good tackling team that if we got the ball to each of the "Freeze Four", Coleman-Thompson-Simmons-Cain, several times they would stop them every time?  Do you really believe these guys would not pile up the "YAC" yards and eventually break one?  Did the coaches really see the Malcolm Simmons short catch and unbelievable move last week???  Did they not see Coleman's stop-and-go moves in the first quarter of this game and last game???  Did they not see Perry Thompson's speed last game?  Did they put Bryce Cain at backup returner for this slowness?

I am not talking the Malzahn bubble screens although you could run some of those too.  Malzahn could not get any wide receivers like this to come to Auburn!  You have them, USE THEM.  This accomplishes so many things...  1. The quarterback throws a lot more short high-percentage passes which makes him more successful and gets his confidence up.  2. This also helps your offensive line as they do not have to hold them out so long... and gets their confidence up.  3. This USES THESE HIGHLY RECRUITED WIDE RECEIVERS AND GETS THEM THE BALL.  This is basically running the ball! It works!  Again they will stop us some but these wide receivers ARE GOING TO BREAK SOME!  You know it.  I think it is more effective than a handoff and it spreads the work load.  

Instead while Cam Coleman got a few catches, the rest of the "Freeze Four" basically sat the bench and did not contribute.  I do not know how many times I have to say it, you have many more games like this and they are GOING TO LEAVE.  We will then be back to square one and have no wide receivers like last year and like during the Malzahn years.  YES IT IS THIS EASY YET DUMB FOOTBALL COACHES PAID MILLIONS OF DOLLARS CANNOT FIGURE THIS OUT.  It is simply baffling to me.  It literally drive me insane watching it.  I mean most football coaches seem to be just con men, they are not smart enough to get in out of the rain and yet they somehow get these million dollar jobs.  I mean I do not know how to lay it out any simpler than I did above.  Auburn will still lose some games due to their roster deficiencies but they would NOT have lost yesterday with this strategy.  

These moronic coaches can either figure this out or it is going to be a very long painful season...

2024 GAME 1 REVIEW: Video Game Night

Auburn 73  Alabama A&M 3.  After a decade away, EA Sports finally brought back their college football video game.  Chalk one thing up on the positive side of the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) board.  I did the same thing with this new one that I did with the previous games starting back in 1999, I put it on easy mode and got to live my dream of watching Auburn actually pass the ball.  Auburn has pretty much never actually had a wide receiver really accrue any meaningful stats outside of Terry Beasley in 1971.  He and largely unknown wide receiver Ronney Daniels in 1999 have the only 1000 yard receiving seasons in Auburn history.  That is it.  Most big time football schools have many but not Auburn.  That is a pretty big fact when the most visible part of your best recruiting class in years is a group of wide receivers.

The "Freeze Four" quartet of freshman wide receivers have been the talk of the preseason in Auburn.  The group includes five stars Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson plus four stars Malcom Simmons and Bryce Cain.  I have wondered how this whole thing would turn out when again no wide receiver has had a thousand yards in a season this millennium at Auburn.  Auburn has had good passing attacks but all of them were still run-first teams, i.e. Pat Sullivan, the late 80s, 1993-94, 2004-05, 2010, and 2013.  The question I had for this season was could Auburn change and do something they have simply never done?  Could Auburn be an even slightly pass-first team?  Since it has NEVER been done I did and still do not think so but for one night Auburn was that team with the stats to back it up.  

For one night, Auburn played just like I did when I started off my season on the video game.  First, a long touchdown run by Jarquez Hunter, I mean come on it is still Auburn.  Next though came a barrage of scoring passes from quarterback Payton Thorne to KeAndre Lambert-Smith (another big wide receiver acquisition during the offseason), Cam Colman, Lambert-Smith again, and then to Perry Thompson.  It was just like playing the video game!  The Tigers added a couple of running touchdowns and then got the third member of the "Freeze Four" Malcolm Simmons involved with two touchdowns, one off a recovered block punt and one making a nasty move off a short pass from Thorne.  Auburn then ended the night with backup quarterback Hank Brown throwing one up for grabs in the end zone and another new wide receiver in Cal transfer Sam Jackson coming down with it. 

I guess the only sad part of the night was that Bryce Cain only had two catches for thirty plus yards and no touchdowns.  Obviously if that is the worst thing that happened it was a pretty good night.  It was about the best start Auburn could have hoped for.  There was a big crowd, a bunch of excitement, and plenty of passing offense featuring Auburn's new found talent at wide receiver.  Every game going forward will be harder but after the bitter end to last season this type of win was sorely needed.  Also everything I have described passing-wise about this night cannot be overstated.  Gus Malzahn did not call a game like this against an out-matched opponent ONE TIME IN A DECADE.  I said over and over and over during that time that you have to practice passing in these games even if you are a running team.  He would never do it.  That is one reason that regardless of the opponent this game and the way it was played was huge.

The question going forward will be does Freeze have the stones to keep throwing the ball when things get tight, Thorne misses a few, the offense has a few three-and-outs, and Auburn loses a game where the coaches tried to pass the ball and were not very successful. Will he stick with it when the same old tired group of fans pounce and start going on about Auburn having to always run the ball to be successful?  These people do not understand that the answer to these questions will, in my opinion, determine Auburn's short-term future and maybe Freeze's career at Auburn.  The facts are that many of these playmakers at wide receiver will transfer out if they do not get the ball enough.  It doesn't matter if fans think they are prima donnas and call them names, it is a fact.  Auburn cannot just "malzahn" a few wins playing conservative and keep the momentum going.

This was my biggest overall concern coming into the season and it remains my biggest concern.  I had a few others after last night as well.  First, the Auburn play callers really need to stop running quarterback Payton Thorne.  The season pretty much goes down the tubes if he gets hurt.  If you doubt that then ask Senator Tommy Tuberville why he had a losing season his first year...  Tuberville's first quarterback coach and offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone resurrected quarterback Ben Leard's career and Auburn slaughtered LSU and Georgia that year but made the HUGE MISTAKE of running Leard on the option early in the season and got his shoulder separated.  Auburn then lost just about every game between those two big wins.  All this momentum also goes down the drain if Thorne gets hurt running the ball before the Tigers at least get to the Oklahoma game.

My final concern is the Auburn defense.  After all the sunshine pumping on the homer web sites, this unit looks small and frankly not very good to me.  I hope I am wrong and they certainly crushed Alabama A&M but I just got a bad vibe all night.  I do not see hardly an All-SEC type players especially on the line.  I think Auburn may have to pass the ball in many games because this group looks to me like it will give up plenty of points.  Also, if you sift through all the propaganda on the recruiting sites, the truth is Auburn is still not even close to the top teams on either side of the line of scrimmage.  Auburn has improved recruiting dramatically but still has not been able to bring in the five star offensive or defensive tackles.  Auburn will not be able to challenge for a championship until that changes.  I hate to bring that up after such an awesome night but I think it has to be said.

I am infuriated that Auburn does not play at home in the month of October.  It is obvious the SEC schedule makers took care of Bama's schedule and then made up everyone else's, even Georgia.  Auburn was obviously way down the line.  However Auburn does need to take advantage of it's home "preseason" in September.  The Tigers get Cal, New Mexico (not State (-: ), and a rebuilding Arkansas team to open up the SEC schedule in the coming weeks.  Hugh Freeze needs to stick with the game plan that was used last night and get all these young playmaking wide receivers as many touches as possible.  Auburn needs to establish this style of play and lay the foundation for what kind of offensive team it will be.  On the season checklist though, a near perfect start can be checked off...