Auburn 21 Vanderbilt 15. Auburn notched its first conference win since 2024 this past weekend. It was frankly an ugly game played between two of the worst teams in the league along side Arkansas. Oklahoma and South Carolina might be entering the race for the worst team but by the end I think it will be Arkansas, Auburn, and Vandy bringing up the rear. I have now read several times on the Auburn sites that Auburn fans just need to be happy with a win. First, I love people telling me how I need to feel about a game and second yeh I am glad we won but I am never going to enjoy watching a bad Auburn team and that is what we have here. It looks like Vandy other than quarterback Jared Curtis is back to being Vandy. I do not think they win an SEC game.
The Auburn offense only scored 14 points and the Tigers were fortunate to get a punt block for the winning points. The offense was bad most of the game and ended with less than 300 yards total offense and Auburn once again lost the time of possession battle by a wide margin. The defense started to bend badly in the second half but luckily Vandy did not have enough to break through. I will say again though that their quarterback Jared Curtis looks to have the potential to be a future NFL star. I mean he is just a freshman and made freshman mistakes but he already looks like an NFL quarterback size and arm-wise. He made a few ridiculous throws that showed some of that potential. I am not sure why in the world he went to Vandy but whatever...
THE GOOD
I thought the best play of the game for Auburn was on that last drive on third and five with less than five minutes in the game. I think everyone knew that if Vandy got the ball back there was good chance they would go down and win the game. Fortunately quarterback Byrum Brown hit wide receiver Keyshawn Singleton on a bang-bang slant for the first down and a big gainer. That was one of the few really big-time clutch plays I have seen this offense hit this season. There were some of other big plays in the game like the early touchdown pass from Brown to Chris Nimrod and that Auburn was able to actually run out the clock at the end but that clutch slant was the key. The defense also showed some fire after the Florida debacle and brought it in the first half.
THE BAD
This team is just bad. I say that in the context of competing in the Southeastern Conference and compared to even average Auburn teams in the past. Again no disrespect to the players but it appears Auburn is well below average in the trenches on both sides of the ball. There is no all-conference talent AT ALL on team it appears outside maybe Xavier Atkins, Byrum Brown and Elijah Melendez. This is one of the worst I have ever seen at Auburn. I have seen worse teams but they had more talent. They just had worse coaching and the team gave up, i.e. 2012. This is why I was immediately so depressed when starting the season watching the Baylor game. I knew the season was already over. I do not even see this team making many of the remaining games even close.
THE UGLY
I mean if what I wrote above is the "bad" then you are probably asking what the heck could the "ugly" be??? The "ugly" is the fact I do not see this administration and coaching staff turning around the recruiting effort enough to really improve Auburn anytime soon. This offensive coaching staff is not going to bring in any real top talent on the line or anywhere else in my opinion. I know it is the first year and it was a tough transition but their recruiting and portal evaluations look to have been terrible especially on the offensive line and I have no confidence in them getting a good quarterback to replace Brown. They are a South Florida-level staff and not SEC-caliber in my opinion. They have just not shown anything really good coaching-wise.
As the quote at the top of this blog states "I know it is just a game... but I love it". More accurately I love Auburn football and it is killing me watching this decade-long fall to now being the team along side Arkansas and Vandy as the worst in the conference. It is going to rip me apart watching Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, State and finally Bama all probably destroy Auburn by a wide margin. In fact this Saturday just watching a bad Auburn team win coupled with seeing pretty much all SEC teams other than Okie, South Carolina and Vandy play better than Auburn put me in such a bad mood it ruined my Saturday night. I could maybe take it better if I believed better days were coming but again I do not see this staff turning this program around. I just do not see it.
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