Saturdays To Remember

GEAUX TIGERS

2012-01-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

Jay Coulter at Track'em has been one of my favorite Auburn bloggers for a long time. Unfortunately we have not agreed on much this year but he is back on top with this jewel he posted earlier today...

"The Choice is Clear Tonight... I have many close Alabama friends. I know more than a dozen who are in New Orleans right now. Why do so many of them feel obligated to ask who I'm pulling for tonight? In their heart of hearts, do they honestly believe I could even remotely pull for Alabama?

Let's review: Their fanbase has poisoned our trees; they've spent a year trying to ruin Cam Newton and takeaway Auburn's national title; and they continue to recruit in ways that would make the Corleone's proud.

Yeah, I want Alabama to bring home the state's third consecutive national title in the same way I want another colonoscopy. You should feel the same way. If not, then get some help."

AMEN Jay. I really cannot say it any better than that. The only thing he left out is apparently Mr. Updyke is quite the celebrity down on Bourbon Street where Bama fans are stopping him for pictures and autographs. Apparently felony vandalism against Auburn affords someone celebrity status in Bama circles. I can't really articulate how pathetic that is. I also think it is funny that Mr. Updyke is on death's door when talk of him going to jail comes up but he is perfectly able to party it up down in New Orleans.

Come on LSU, please spoil the party and keep Auburn the last team win a title in this state because if Bama loses tonight they will not even have a division title to show for this season. GEAUX TIGERS!!!

IT'S A HOME RUN!!!

2012-01-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

I will admit it, I hit bottom this weekend. With rumors of mediocre-to-horrible coaching candidates like Kerwin Bell, Ron Cooper, etc... I thought there was no way we were going to land anybody any good at either coordinator position. I thought Chizik had lost it and was about to go down like the Titanic with two awful hires. Somehow someway like Kirk Gibson so long ago now, Chizik and Auburn parked one in the bottom of the ninth to bring Auburn back. I think Brian Van Gorder is a phenomenal hire. The best part of Mark Richt's career was because of this guy. Georgia hasn't really been the same on defense till maybe this year since this guy left. His record at Georgia speaks for itself and his work with the Falcons is not half bad either. It was a lot better than the Dolphins' defense when you-know-who was down there. Hopefully he will wake up some of these brainwashed recruits to the fact that $aban and Co are not the only path to "The League". I am so excited. Great job Chiz. Great job Auburn. War Eagle!

The Sad Case of Michael Dyer

2012-01-07T12:06:00.000-08:00

I believe it is official, Michael Dyer has left the Auburn football team. It is just sad to me all around. I mean compared to truly real-world bad things it is nothing but in the context of the Auburn football team it is sad. Once again I think Jay Tate said it best...

"Why would Dyer leave rather than remain at Auburn and fix what’s broken?

We may never know the answer.

We know Dyer was on his way to immortality at Auburn. He broke Bo Jackson’s record for rushing as a freshman. He was one of a handful of Auburn backs to be named a first-team All-SEC performer. He was the featured back for a national championship team. Had he played his cards right, Dyer would have been a truly beloved player — forever associated with the program’s greatest single season.

Players train and grind and hope and pray to be in that position. Dyer was there."

As Tate points out, he could have been a legend at Auburn who truly is "Running Back U". He broke Bo's freshman record, he was the national championship MVP, he put up over 1000 yards rushing in his first two seasons, etc... As Tate said he could have been a truly beloved player and owned most all of the career rushing records at Auburn if he had stayed. NFL careers are short but being an Auburn legend is something that could last a lifetime and always provide employment. Finally, as Tate points out there are thousands of players who would give anything to be in Dyer's position and he has decided to just throw it all away.

First, I hate it that this kid appears to be making some bad decisions that will hurt him in the long run. I definitely understand when some kids transfer but it sure looks to me like Dyer has less room to complain than anybody else on Auburn's team. Second, this is going to hurt Auburn. Yes it looks like we have some reinforcements coming in to help at running back but I do not think we have anybody coming in as good as Dyer. I think the sunshine pumpers who say Dyer is no big loss should take another look at his accomplishments. That stuff does not happen every day. Finally it just takes a little bit away from when you rewatch the national championship game and see his MVP performance.

Auburn will move forward and be successful and Michael Dyer might as well but I think both would be better off together. I just wish Michael Dyer recognized that.

Chick-fil-a Bowl Review

2012-01-07T11:11:00.000-08:00

Ahhh... my favorite breakfast in the world, a Chick-fil-a biscuit and an orange juice. The Chick-fil-a Bowl was a lot like that this year as Auburn defeated Virginia 43-24. I was there to witness it in Atlanta this weekend and had a great time. Obviously I am thrilled Auburn played well and it is always so much better to end your season on a win. However after reading some of the comments on the this game elsewhere I have to set the record straight. Auburn really did not change any this game. They still had the same problems they had all year long. Auburn was more successful because we had better football players. Football is a pretty simple game. As former coach Pat Dye said: "there are no miracles on the football field". Obviously you have upsets and such but for the most part the teams with the best football players win.

Auburn had more good football players than Virginia and they played well. I wonder what Virginia's game plan on defense was exactly? It was obvious Ontario McCalebb was our biggest playmaker especially on turf and they seemingly had no plan at all for him. They let him get outside, they fell for the statue-of-liberty play and the double play action. To me it is pretty obvious we would run all this misdirection stuff to get McCalebb the ball in space. I think I would have always kept my eye on him and tried to force the ball inside on the read option. But hey all the better for Auburn.

Barrett Trotter came in and played well subbing in for Clint Moseley when he got hurt although the way Moseley was playing I think Trotter would have come in anyway. The bomb to Blake was the prettiest pass of the season but again it was off a double play action that we would have not had time to run against the big boys in the SEC this season. It also did not require a read from the quarterback. I do not know why they did not run a few plays like that for Frazier this year. A bomb where he does not have to make a read but just chuck it and if it gets intercepted it is just a punt. Frazier was given one pass play during the bowl and it was ugly as he had plenty of time but could not make up his mind and ended up scrambling. I am really starting to worry about Frazier and throwing the ball. I hope our new quarterbacks coach can get him ready.

I think we are in big trouble if Frazier is a bust. It is obvious that Moseley and Trotter even though he played well are not the answer. Trotter still held the ball too long and other than the one bomb most of his completions were simple swing passes. I do not think Trotter took a big leap. I think Trotter and Moseley have showed us what they can do and I do not think they are going to get a lot better than that. I think they can beat the lesser teams and will continue to struggle against the big boys. I believe Auburn's only hope for drastically improving the quarterback position is again playing much better up front. Even in this bowl game AJ Greene was repeatedly beaten. As I have said all season we are desperate for Robinson and Westerman to be good players and help this line. Right now it appears next years starting line will be: Robinson, Westerman, Dismukes, Sullen and Slade. I mean after watching another night of our current line they have to be better but if they are not a lot better then next season will look a lot like this season.

On defense, the everyone carried on for two weeks about Gene Chizik coordinating the defense. I have heard many say that the defense looked a lot better. Again I disagree, we still gave up over 400 yards of offense to Virginia. We made some stops but Virginia is not a juggernaut and once we got the lead they were one dimensional and again we had more good players. On the positive side we saw a couple of big plays from Gabe Wright and Angelo Blaxson who we also need to step up big next year. Like the offense if we can improve the line the rest of the defense will be much better.

However it was nice to see this team even with all their warts end on a good note and play about our best game of the season. It almost makes me want to install turf at Jordan Hare as our best games the last two seasons have been on turf at the Georgia Dome. It has definitely been one of the stranger seasons I have seen at Auburn. Finishing 8-5 should be considered very good for this team and this coaching staff. I said that at the start of the season. Unfortunately getting blown out and being non-competitive against every good team we played (other than South Carolina) and seeing some possible long term problems crop up pretty much took all the joy out of finishing 8-5.

We were able to get rid of Ted Roof who I still think was a large part of our problem but if our defense continues to be mediocre it is now on Chizik. He better do the coaching or hire somebody who can get the job done. I am also glad to see Malzahn go. He was a critical part of last year but I just do not think his offensive philosophy will work long term in the SEC unless you can line up a Cam Newton or Tim Tebow every season. I certainly hope we get away from the hurry-up-no-huddle as again it just kills your own defense and is also just is not a long term solution in the SEC in my opinion. Now it is time to see who we will hire to lead the offense and defense. Again, I think these hires will obviously be the most critical of Gene Chizik's coaching career and I will say again, choose well coach choose well.

What if the shoe was on the other foot?

2011-12-20T05:55:00.000-08:00

So Auburn loses their third high profile commitment to Bama under dubious circumstances in less than a year. The sound you are hearing? That would be crickets chirping. But hey I am an Auburn grad and a homer right? I am just being biased getting ticked off that nobody is even paying any attention to this right? Uh, wrong. Let us take a gander at what we would be seeing if the shoe was on the other foot...

"NCAA starting Auburn investigation after firestorm of criticism

AP Auburn, AL - The NCAA opened a full investigation on Auburn University in the midst of overwhelming controversy after three recruits reneged on their commitments to the University of Alabama and signed with Auburn. It all started in February of this year when Brent Calloway, the top player in the state, who had been a Alabama commitment suddenly committed to Auburn and then was allowed to leave school and remain sequestered for a week so Alabama coaches could not even talk to him. Pete Thamel of the New York Times is reporting that an anonymous source has said that he was spotted at Disney World wearing Auburn gear during this time.

Next Cyrus Kouandjio, the top offensive lineman and according to some services the top player overall in the entire country committed to Alabama on ESPN on signing day but his commitment was never received. He then quickly backed off and committed to Auburn a short time later even though he had commited to Alabama on signing day on national TV. In that time the athletic department of his high school received a large "anonymous" donation. ESPN's Joe Schaad is reporting that an anonymous source has said the money has been tracked to a Lee County location.

Those two unbelievable last minute switches stoked the fire but things exploded this week when again the best player in the state of Alabama and a longtime Bama commit, TJ Yeldon, suddenly changed to Auburn and had his high school coach release a statement about that just hours before the dead period for recruiting started which prevented Alabama coaches from even talking to him. Yeldon who was planning to enroll early is now an Auburn student and his recruitment is over.

Alabama shock jock radio host Paul Finebaum was quoted as saying "three high profile players who were committed then all three switch right at the very end under dubious circumstances? Come on it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out something stinks here." Finebaum's show has been more and more explosive after each recruiting defection. Finebaum also insinuates heavily that explosive new evidence against Auburn will come out any day."

Some tongue-in-cheek there but ""three high profile players who were committed then all three switch right at the very end under dubious circumstances" is absolute fact. However there is no uprising since it is Bama getting the recruits but I have no doubt that the fictional article above would be pretty close to what would happen... if the shoe was on the other foot.

Week 13 Review: Flashback

2011-11-27T14:29:00.000-08:00

Bama 42 Auburn 14. The exact score any person with a lick of common sense expected. You average the totals from Auburn's four losses this season, round up and you get... 42 to 13. I am not sure why the national media is making a big deal of this Bama win. They just did what they were supposed to do. They did not do anything Clemson, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia did not do. Honestly, a neutral observer should be saying big whoop. As an Auburn fan the game hurts of course but it was expected and again it was just what every good team we have played has done.

I have more thoughts on the game but nothing new that I have not said all season. I will get to that in a little bit. As I said though this game was just a good Bama team beating a mediocre Auburn team with a score that was easily predicted. This game will not be remembered even by Bama fans after a few years. However last years Iron Bowl was one for the ages. It was the greatest comeback in Auburn and Iron Bowl history and maybe SEC history. I watched the whole game again on Thanksgiving and came away even more impressed. Now it obviously had a lot more to do with the players than the coaches after watching this season but it was still incredible nonetheless. It deserves another look especially with nothing positive to write about this year's game.

First my brief post on the game last year...
"I have never seen a game like the 2010 Iron Bowl and I do not think I will see another like it. It is impossible to come back from 24-0 especially against a good Bama team in Tuscaloosa with over 100,000 fans. When the score reached 24-0 I knew it was over. Auburn has never had a comeback like that and I have not seen many Bama teams play any better. It was over. Then somehow, someway Auburn clawed their way back. A few fumbles, a few stops, a few touchdowns and suddenly it was 24-14 in the third quarter. I saw the sun peek from behind the clouds. Then came the punt, the awful punt. Auburn was about to get the ball around midfield and the chance to take the lead. Quindarious Carr then inexplicably decided not to call fair catch for the first time all season when he actually should have and subsequently fumbled the ball back to Bama in great field position. I felt my heart being literally ripped out. However we hold them to the field goal and then relentlessly march down the field and somehow someway Cam gets it to one of the new favorite players in Auburn's long football history, the guy with the maybe the longest last name in Auburn football history, Phillip Lutzenkirchen. Auburn 28 Bama 27. One of the greatest ever..."

I feel the same way a year later if not more impressed. It was Bama 24 Auburn 0 with eight minutes left in the first half. Bama did not throw an incompletion till just a minute before that. Bama had over 300 yards passing at halftime. They were humming on all cylinders. Auburn on the other hand, facing basically the same defense we did yesterday, did not even have a first down till late in the second quarter. It was the worst possible scenario. As I said above, I could not even envision a comeback at 24-0. However the comeback had started a few moments before and here is the recipe for one of the great all-time comebacks in college football...

It all starts with "The Fumble" with Bama up 21-0. Senior defensive end Antoine Carter goes almost 40 yards to run down running back Mark Ingram and punch the ball out which goes through the end zone and gives the ball back to Auburn.
Auburn holds Bama to a field goal their next offensive trip and this year's superman Trent Richardson drops a sure touchdown pass to help us out.
Late in the second quarter the Auburn offense finally starts driving aided by two critical Kodi Burns catches on third down. These were some of the most important and overlooked parts of this comeback. He exorcised the ghosts of 2008 by making these catches.
Auburn finally scores when Cam Newton hits Emory Blake who holds on after initially juggling and as the Bama defender chops his arms.

Bama then drives right back down the field to inside the Auburn 10 yard line right before halftime but Nick Fairley makes an unbelievable play sacking the quarterback, causing a fumble and recovering the fumble. Auburn goes into the half down 24-7 but with some momentum.
Less than a minute into the third quarter, Cam Newton hits Terrell Zachery for a 70 yard touchdown play and closes the gap to 24-14.

The defense finally starts to get some stops and Auburn drives down and Newton crashes through the Bama defense to make it 24-21.

Then comes the horrible fumbled punt I mention above. This would end just about any other comeback but not this one, the defense holds Bama to a field goal. 27-21.
The offense gets the ball back but stalls out with a 4th and 3 near midfield. Auburn pushes all their chips in and Cam Newton and Darvin Adams hook up on one of the biggest clutch passes I have ever seen. First down Auburn.

Cam Newton then hits Philip Lutzenkirchen who dances into the Bama end zone with one of the biggest touchdowns in Auburn history to complete the comeback. Auburn 28 Bama 27.
With over 10 minutes remaining the defense holds and knocks Bama quarterback Greg McElroy out the game.

Cam Newton goes "Bo over the top" to convert a late critical first down and the defense holds one more time. It finally ends... Auburn 28 Bama 27.

The 2010 Auburn Tigers were truly great and played in some unbelievable games against other good teams that will never be forgotten. They went 14-0 winning the SEC and national championships. Only the 2002 Ohio State and 2009 Bama teams have accomplished that. The 2002 Ohio State team did not play a championship game but just another out of conference cupcake so right now 2010 Auburn and 2009 Bama stand alone as the best teams record-wise in NCAA history.  The 2011 Bama team cannot match these teams or even win their own division or conference. In fact, if they lose to LSU again they will not have won any type of title this season. So congrats on the win Bama, you have the better team this year but lighten up on the hyperbole over the next month. LSU has a chance to be great but you can only add another debatable number to an already mythical list of national championships.

As for Auburn I will not sugarcoat it, things are not good and they will not improve dramatically next season as many will try and tell you. I have already read one blog saying "we had a chance to win" in the second half yesterday (???!!!???). That is one sorely deluded person. Bama may not be near as good as their fans think they are but they are way ahead of Auburn and the game was over as soon as it started. On top of that I cannot remember a season where Auburn was completely annihilated by both Bama and Georgia. Jay Tate again did a great job breaking it down first. Please take a look at that and I will comment on his points...

THE OFFENSE
I have not seen many game plans worse than the one used on Saturday. In fact, for a coordinator labeled "one of the best in the country" and paid over a million dollars I have not seen a worse job done than this season. Bama's defense is good but 44 yards total offense in the third quarter? Anybody off the street could coach that good. It was a complete embarrassment. Auburn finished the regular season ranked 104th in total offense out of 120 teams. That is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE when you consider what we are paying these coaches. They have had three recruiting classes and they cannot do any better than that? The quarterbacks except for Frazier, many of the wide receivers and the offensive tackles have also been here two or three years and the coaches cannot get them ready any better than that? Again, completely unacceptable. These highly paid "top notch" offensive coaches have to do better and if some leave then we better find somebody who can do a much better job than this year.

Here are the rest of the issues as I see them... First, we better find some good offensive tackles. If not the rest of this paragraph is moot. Second, we better get Kiehl Frazier ready to play NOW. Trotter and Moseley had their chance and they are simply not good enough to play in the SEC plus it is obvious this offense needs a running quarterback (we went 7-5 with Chris Todd in 2009 as well). Third, I think we need to tweak our offense because this offense does not work in the top levels of the SEC without a Cam Newton or Tim Tebow. I personally like an offense like Georgia but since that is not going to happen I think we need to shoot for a hybrid-type offense like Oklahoma runs that mixes the hurry-up no-huddle with more conventional sets. We showed flashes of that getting under center our last few games.

Finally, if we address those issues above to some degree, then we need to then work on the passing game. No matter what we run we have to be balanced. We have to have a passing game. One of my biggest complaints this year is that we did not use the Florida Atlantic or Samford games to really work on our passing game like we did last year. You cannot just give up like it seems we did.

THE DEFENSE
Tate pretty much sums it up: "Auburn has set another record for defensive futility. This team has conceded 4,869 yards, which is six more than the 2009 team. The biggest difference there? That 2009 number is based on 13 games. This current team has played only 12 game — and also is on pace to allow more yards per game than any Auburn team in history (405.8). " Tate then goes on to state that he does not think Roof is the problem. I completely disagree, I think he is a huge part of the problem but agree that Chizik is part of the problem as well. Again like I always say when this discussion starts, the linebackers are one of the most poorly coached units on the field and that shows me that Roof is not that good a coach or recruiter.

The defense has been HISTORICALLY bad for two out of three years now and had many bad moments last year as well. Coaching changes at defensive coordinator and in the secondary are badly needed. Next up would obviously be recruiting. We have some great talent in the secondary if we can find someone to coach them but need a lot of help at linebacker and a lot more beef up front. Things are not quite as bad as the offensive line but we do not have much at linebacker and are very thin up front and that is if these young guys progress like some hope they do.

OVERALL
Tate has some interesting observations on staff changes and if Auburn is in trouble. He expects staff changes. I think some are needed as I said above but the fate of Gus Malzahn is the biggest one. Right now after that Iron Bowl performance I cannot believe his stock is still high. I would be surprised if he gets any kind of top job. I agree with Tate that a Conference USA gig makes more sense.  We shall see what happens.

I disagree with Tate that Auburn has not fallen far.  As I have said all season these coaches have not addressed the obvious problems in the trenches including linebackers the last three years. It is also obvious that as Tate says, our recruiting classes have been overrated. We do have talent but without the guys in the trenches or right now a quarterback, it does not matter.

Tate finishes stating that Chizik "sounded like a man at a crossroads; a man in the middle of a sandstorm who isn’t sure which way to turn." I think that is probably right on. The next steps and choices Chizik makes will be the most important of his career and will probably in the long run decide his fate at Auburn. Choose well coach, choose well...

Week 12 Review: Homecoming

2011-11-20T10:16:00.000-08:00

Auburn 35 Samford 16. Another uninspired performance by the 2011 Auburn team adding to a season already full of them. Auburn only lead FCS (formerly Division 1-AA) Samford 21-16 in the fourth quarter. Auburn won the game running the ball behind Mike Dyer like they have in all wins this season. The passing game was about the same. Auburn passed for under 200 yards again. The only difference being a couple of down field passes to Q. Carr and a couple more swing passes to Trovon Reed. The defense allowed Samford true freshman running back Jeremiaha Gates to run for over 100 yards. It was not a fun game to watch but that has been true for most Auburn games this season. Here are the quick hits for this week...

This is just not a very good Auburn team as evidenced by their statistical positions on offense and defense. Auburn came into the Samford game ranked 86th in the country in total defense and an even worse 97th in total offense. Once again Jay Tate summed it up on his post right before the game...

"Auburn’s lines are not looking good. Georgia’s rushing attack cracked the 300-yard barrier last week. Georgia’s pass rushers finished the day with five sacks. You know what that means? Auburn simply isn’t getting things handled along the line of scrimmage, which is akin to suicide in the Southeastern Conference. There’s simply no way to hide that problem. And there’s no quick fix. Auburn doesn’t have anyone waiting in the wings to save it from continued distress. There’s a temptation to blame it on youth, but remember that both offensive tackles are seniors. Three of the Tigers’ four starters along the defensive line are veterans now. Each has more than 10 starts to their credit."

That is the number one point I have been trying to make all season and even before. The most depressing fact he points out is "there's no quick fix". Auburn has not and is not concentrating enough of its recruiting on these positions. I am sorry there is a big difference between a 5-star micro track star and a 5-star hulking tackle or linebacker. TACKLES AND LINEBACKERS. That will be the manta here at STR. That is what Auburn needs to do, get good tackles on both sides of the ball and some good linebackers. That has to be the number one priority.

After the Georgia beatdown even some of the most positive Auburn people are starting to see the light...

Former Auburn player Rob Pate at Eyes on Auburn on the offense... "I scratch my head and sit baffled at the way we go about running our offense? If we can't protect the QB in the pocket, then why don't we move the pocket? Can we not throw on the run? If we think Trovon Reed is a special talent and one of our premiere playmakers (in practice) why can't we get him the football? I guess my frustration stems from repeatedly doing the same things yet expecting different results. Isn't that the very definition of insanity?"

Pate on the defense... "Every game we play against a legitimate offense turns into no contest. I could live with a deficiency here or there. I can't live with complete annihilation both on the ground and through the air. And compound that with poor fundamentals? It's time for a change (and I don't make that statement lightly..."

Acid Reign at Track'em Tigers... "We're really hurting at linebacker, and I'm not sure that we even have any long-term answers here" and "where we are going to come up with a pair of starting (offensive) tackles, I have no clue. Mosley and Greene both graduate after this season."

Jay Coulter at Track'em Tigers... "More troubling than Georgia's 12-of-15 conversion rate on third downs, was the play of Auburn's defensive line in the second half. With Richt mercifully running the ball off-tackle and substituting liberally during the final two quarters, Auburn put nine in the box and still couldn't handle Georgia's offensive line and Isaiah Crowell."

Auburn fans at the game enjoyed a brief respite from all this as Auburn honored 1971 Heisman Trophy winner Pat Sullivan. People like my parents who saw Sullivan play will tell you what a special player he was. He is not only a great football player but a truly great person as well. Sullivan came to Auburn during one of those down periods where things had been down for awhile and Bama had been dominating the state. Sullivan and Beasley came in and Auburn only lost 5 regular season games in three years and also applied the only whipping to Bama in the last 50 years. Auburn has not beaten Bama by more than 10 points since Sullivan and company beat them 49-26 in 1969. Sullivan also brought an exciting passing offense to Auburn that had not been seen before or really much since. Auburn scored over 30 points in 22 games with Sullivan and several of those games were over 40 and 50 points plus a couple of 60 point games as well. It was a very special time at Auburn culminating with Sullivan winning the Heisman Trophy.

I will again point to the inspiration for the name of this blog. David Housel does a great job detailing Sullivan's greatest games and the seasons as well in his 1973 classic "Saturdays to Remember". I again implore anyone who reads this to find a copy of this book and read these chapters. I cannot tell you how much you will enjoy it. Housel starts out with Sullivan and Beasley on the freshman team (freshmen could not play on the varsity team back then). The Auburn freshman team was down to Bama 27-0 and being laughed at. Sullivan and Beasley brought them back and won 36-27. Housel then takes the reader through that glorious 49-26 game and the comeback from down 17-0 to win 33-28 against Bama in 1970. Finally, Housel describes the 1971 game against Georgia where both teams came in undefeated and Sullivan played his finest game to clinch the Heisman Trophy.

Ah, I get chill bumps just thinking about those games above but back to the present where nothing is left but a brutal execution in the Iron Bowl next weekend. While I do not think this Bama team is quite the "immortals" many of their fans think they are I do not think Auburn has any chance of pulling an upset out in this game. Yes I remember 2009 but while Auburn was handicapped with Chris Todd it had the same lines that helped win the national championship last year. It has nothing close this year. I will be surprised if we are even able to score next week with this awful offense. Sooner or later our defense will then give out if and it will get ugly. This is just one of those times we have to just get through it, wear our Auburn shirts and hope we then go and recruit some TACKLES AND LINEBACKERS.

Finally, it was sickening to watch the waves part for Bama last night as every stinking team in their way lost last night. I have never seen anything like it this late in the season. Four out of the top seven teams losing??? Way to go Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Oregon and Clemson. However this once again shows what a complete fraud the college football postgame system is. It is obviously a fraud when Bama is better off concerning the national championship not winning their conference. I guess there is still a chance Bama gets to Atlanta with Arkansas coming on strong but I think LSU will get it done at home. Regardless, it is simply ludicrous there is not a rule that you have to win your conference to be eligible for the national championship game. I said it almost 10 years ago when Nebraska did it and again when Oklahoma did it and I will say it again now. What if LSU wins next week but loses to Georgia in Atlanta? Does Bama as the true third place team in the conference go and those two do not? WHAT A JOKE.

And by the way I said the same thing this January in my post on Auburn's win in the national championship game... "However last night proved to me again that this system AS A WAY OF CROWNING A CHAMPION in maybe the largest sports entity outside the NFL is a complete and utter joke." I am proven right again this year. I also said several times that the SEC Championship game is more important as it is a legitimate post season game as opposed to the ridiculous BCS including after Auburn won in Atlanta last year. We will see what happens over the next few weeks and how it all falls out. Unfortnately I think the last good part of Auburn's season ended when the team walked off the field yesterday.

Week 11 Review: Long Road

2011-11-13T08:36:00.000-08:00

Georgia 45 Auburn 7 and I am not sure it was that close. There is no doubt, the results are in except for one more beatdown, it is going to be a long road to competing for an SEC championship again at Auburn. Yes this team will improve but there is only one goal every year for any SEC football team and that is to win their division. The only other objective is to get to a bowl if you miss the first objective. There are no other objectives. Auburn does not look close to being able to achieve that first objective anytime soon.
First, I thought Jay Tate at the HABOTN had the best (and first) good take on the game. I would also like to say Tate has really stepped up his game this year and has become the best Auburn beat blogger. His first point was Auburn cannot play big-boy football right now and I think he is spot on. His second take is a prediction that we will see major changes on the defensive side of the ball. He is the first one to say that and I think he is right there as well. I sure appreciate a beat guy that will post some opinions.

There is really not that much to say at this point. All of the problems Auburn has that caused this blowout have been evident all season and I have hit them over and over. Again, problems can be easily seen even by a fan if you always look at the team compared to achieving that first goal for an SEC team. I always look at an Auburn team and see if they are good enough to win the SEC West and then I look and see if that team will be good enough to win the SEC West the next season. Auburn will not be good enough to win the SEC West next season. As I have posted over and over, Auburn would not have a winning season this year if South Carolina and Florida had anything resembling a decent quarterback.

The number one problem as I have said over and over is Auburn is weak in the trenches. I see a few young guys on the defensive line that might be good and some redshirts that might help on the offensive line. Unless there are some real superstars in that group that is not going to be near enough. What do all these guys have in common? Lee Ziemba, Ryan Pugh, Mike Berry, Byron Isom, Mike Blank, Zach Clayton, Antonine Carter, Nick Fairley... All of them but Nick Fairley came to Auburn Mike Shula's last year at Bama. Fairley was initially recruited by Tuberville as well. Again, as I have said over and over again, Gene Chizik has brought in some nice recruiting classes BUT NOT NEAR ENOUGH LINEMEN.

Tommy Tuberville definitely deserves a lot of blame for our current predicament as he brought in next to no linemen his last two years. However Gene Chizik has had three full recruiting classes to address this problem and did not get it done. Football especially SEC football is won IN THE TRENCHES. Cam Newton is great but he also had great blocking and that is how you win championships. Auburn has not had a really good linemen class since 2006 and that is now almost six years ago. At this point, other than maybe Reese Dismukes and Corey Lemonier, Gene Chizik has not been able to produce any good linemen and neither of those two are tackles. Things do not look like they are going to change dramatically anytime soon.

The number two problem has been evident for three years now. Our defensive coaches are not very good. There is no other way to say it. They were horrible two years ago and horrible against anybody any good this year. They were even bad a lot of the time with a great defensive line last year. The proof is in the results. Auburn has had some good defensive coordinators, we know what it looks like. Our offensive coaches have not been much better when they do not have Cam Newton. However unlike their defensive counterparts they have shown they can get the job done when they have talent.

I would like to add one more note here. You can add our linebackers to both problems. First they are part of the equation in the trenches as part of the defensive front seven. They are also proof of the second problem as they are one of the weakest units on the field. Good defensive coordinators do a good job with their specific units and Ted Roof has not. However I will say he does not have a whole lot to work with. For the life of me I do not understand why we have not been able to recruit many good linebackers over the last decade. It is so frustrating. It is just about as frustrating watching Auburn put safety after safety up to play linebacker.

So in summary, AUBURN NEEDS TO GO OUT AND RECRUIT BIG STRONG LINEMEN AND LINEBACKERS AND GET AS MANY AS POSSIBLE. That will not fix things in the short term but it is what has to be done. Second, Auburn needs to upgrade the coaching on the defensive side of the ball. With the money Auburn is paying defensive coaches it should be getting A LOT more for its money. The offensive coaches better step it up as well since Auburn is paying them even more. It is also important to remember that the buck stops with Gene Chizik. He did a great job last year but you cannot rest on your laurels in the SEC or you get steamrolled. Just like what will happen one more time this season in two weeks...

Week 10 Review: Miles Ahead

2011-11-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

Auburn enjoyed a bye week in week 10 of the SEC regular season this year. It is about the only good thing about Auburn's schedule. Of course, I am assuming we are going to keep playing college football. I am not sure since the greatest college football game in the history of the world was played this weekend. I guess my comments on this week will start there...

First, let me say I steadfastly avoided all the ridiculous hype of this game and I did not watch the actual game except for overtime and then the highlights. I was glad to see how it turned out but also glad I did not waste four hours of my life watching it. Some are calling a "defensive masterpiece" but I think ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski nailed it...

"If that was The Game of the Century, then I want my 100 years back.

Top-ranked LSU's 9-6 overtime win against No. 2 Alabama Saturday evening wasn't the game of the century, decade or season. I'm not even sure it was the game of the day.

So let's get this out of the way right now: These two teams deserve a BCS championship rematch like Kim Kardashian deserves to keep her wedding gifts...

Classics don't have four interceptions, four missed field goals, 13 penalties, one fumble, one botched punt return and zero touchdowns. A punter shouldn't be the best player on the field in a classic.

Bottom line: Only a classic is worthy of a Jan. 9 rematch in New Orleans. And this wasn't one of them."

Let me repeat the most important part: "Classics don't have four interceptions, four missed field goals, 13 penalties, one fumble, one botched punt return and zero touchdowns. A punter shouldn't be the best player on the field in a classic."

The Bama reaction after a huge loss is always interesting and this loss was no exception. It appears the majority take is that a rematch is in the bag. Unless Bama somehow gets to and wins the SEC Championship game I find that take ridiculous on many levels.

My first reaction would be the bullet above. These two teams are very good teams that could win a championship but they are not great teams. These teams have great defenses but have average offenses and in Bama's case poor special teams. A great team is good in all those departments. The point is that the loser of this game, Bama, is not good enough to warrant an invite to the big game considering they would not even win their conference.

That brings me to my next point, I just do not understand why there is not a rule that you cannot play in the national championship game without winning your own conference (???!!!???). It just seems ludicrous to me in football to not have that rule. It was a sham when Nebraska and Oklahoma did it awhile back and it is now. On that point, I am not sure how you can be real proud of getting to a national championship game in football without even winning your own conference.

Final point on this subject, Bama had their chance. They had LSU in their house and they did not close the deal. I am still wondering how the greatest coach in the history of the world, in the biggest game in the history of the world had a critical illegal substitution penalty in the biggest overtime in the history of the world?

On the winning side you have to give credit to Les Miles, the "Mad Hatter" has taken a lot of heat in his time at LSU but he is not winning with $aban's players anymore. These are all his guys. He has also outcoached $aban on the field two years in a row (and is 5-2 against Auburn). His option call on second down in overtime was a brilliant call. If Miles notches his second SEC and national championship this year he will be in some rarified air.

I am shocked by the complete lack of respect a lot of Bama fans and the media have for their OWN 2009 national championship team. It is very very hard to complete an undefeated season and win the whole thing. The 2006 national champion Florida team did not do it. The 2007 national champion LSU team did not do it. The 2008 national champion Florida team did not do it. Only the 2009 Bama team and the 2010 Auburn team has done it on this current SEC streak. All you hear though is how this year's defense is Bama's best defense ever, this team is so great and the tired comparisons to the 1992 team. Bama does not have a linebacker or defensive player as good as Rolando McClain. They do not have a defensive linemen as good as Terrence Cody or a safety as good as Roman Harper. They do not have a special teams player as good as Javier Arenas. Their offense is nowhere close to the 2009 unit which featured Mark Ingram's Heisman season, Julio Jones and left tackle James Carpenter. All those players are now STARTING on Sundays. This year's Bama team even if they beat LSU is not as good as their 2009 team. Have a little respect for your own history Bama.

I will reiterate a point I made a few posts ago as well. For some reason teams with great defenses are always put above teams with great offenses. After hearing how these two teams are the greatest ever I would like to point out that the 2010 Auburn Tigers beat both of these teams last year and there are not many true freshman impact players on either team. The 2010 Auburn Tigers ran for almost 450 yards on this same LSU defense last year, a defense that last year had one of the best current rookies in the NFL playing for them. I would still take our team last year over either of these teams.

Thank goodness the hype is over and it is Georgia week, "The Deep South's Oldest Rivalry". I will put in a little of my own hype here, no rivalry beats Auburn vs. Georgia all things considered. I do not think any football rivalry anywhere comes close when you look at the records and stats. It has to be the closest most competitive rivalry in all of sports, here are the stats from the auburntigers.com...

"In the previous 114 meetings between the teams, Auburn leads the series against Georgia with a 54-52-8 record but Georgia has outscored Auburn by 38 points (1,809 to 1,771). The Auburn-Georgia series is tied with Oregon-Oregon State as the seventh-most played series in the nation (Football Bowl Subdivision). The two teams did not play in 1943, only because Auburn did not field a team due to World War II. The two teams did not play in 1917 and 1918 because of WWI. With those two exceptions, Auburn and Georgia have played continuously since 1898. The Auburn-Georgia series (114 games) is older than the Georgia-Georgia Tech series (102 games) and the Auburn-Alabama series (75 games). Auburn and Georgia first played in 1892. They first played their intrastate rivals in 1893."

The history of the series is simply incredible. There have been so many big close games. I definitely would like to do a whole post on the great games some time. Outside the stats, the schools have so many ties. Georgia's greatest coach Vince Dooley is an Auburn grad. Pat Dye, arguably Auburn's greatest coach, is a Georgia grad. Shug Jordan coached at Georgia before becoming head coach at Auburn. Joel Eaves, Auburn's greatest basketball coach became Georgia's athletic director. There is just so much history there.

The only problem I have with the series is some of the current players and coaches on both sides not respecting that history. Yes I know about all the personal fouls last year but my problem is the players and the coaches not understanding how great this rivalry is. For example, the Bama vs. Tennessee rivalry is completely inferior when you look at the history and the stats. It is a rivalry dominated by one team for long periods of time and features a lot of blow outs. However the Bama and Tennessee coaches and players really respect the rivalry and really pump it iup. I would like to see a lot more of that from Auburn and Georgia. In recent years it appears a lot of fans want to just turn it into another sea of hate like the Bama game. Come on guys, this game is better than that.

War Eagle, Burn the Bulldogs...

Week 9 Review: RIP Houston Nutt

2011-11-01T19:59:00.000-07:00

Auburn 41 Ole Miss 24 (should have been 17). I want to change the review up a little this week as I have a number of different takes all over the map and want to avoid a long diatribe like last week...

Rest in peace Houston Nutt as an SEC coach come December... I guess Dan Mullen will hammer the final nail into the coffin but Auburn got to hammer in the second to last one. It has been a long time coming. We have been going up against Houston Nutt for THIRTEEN YEARS (!!!). I believe that it is finally over and I have a special memorial to Nutt at the end of this post.

Boo to bloggers who write confusing long posts like my last one. Good gosh it was horrible. I apologize to the three other people who read this blog (-: I will try to keep it tighter from now on. I will also try to keep my reviews on the present and save my opinions on the future for an after season post. Mixing them together makes for a long winded confusing post that is hard to follow.

What I liked from Saturday... I liked that we stopped swapping in Frazier so much. I liked that Mike Dyer had a great day. I liked that Emory Blake was back. I liked watching Phillip Lutzenkirchen. I liked the way our defense played in the second half. Caveat to all this... Ole Miss is a truly bad team.

What I did not like Saturday... I did not like the way our defense got pushed all over the field in the first half giving up almost 150 yards rushing by half time. I did not like (as I have said over and over and over) how we do not try to be more balanced. We threw the ball only 15 times just as I predicted. We had another good opportunity to work on the passing game and did not do it. Again we will not be able to beat Georgia or stay in the game long against Bama with these game plans. Last year we used the lesser games to work on our passing game and it paid off big at the end of the season. I do not understand why we do not do some of that this year.

I was sick of the Bama/LSU hype a month ago, now it is just nauseating. I am going on a sports blackout this week to avoid as much of it as I can. WE GET IT, IT IS A BIG GAME. It is probably the biggest game of this year but get over yourself , it is not the biggest of all time or even close. Good night Auburn and LSU met last year with almost the same undefeated records and in the top five. Auburn then completely dominated basically the same LSU team that everyone is going on so much about this year, they do not have that many new players. Auburn took LSU's manhood last year running up 450 yards rushing while Nick Fairley single-handedly dominated their offensive line.

Finally a memorial to Houston Nutt. I do not think I have cussed any coach more. This was because he was Tommy Tuberville's nemesis and simply because he has been around so long. I remember rejoicing when Arkansas finally got rid of him only to see him rise from the dead at Ole Miss. Luckily nobody can save the Confederates down in Oxford and he really did not hurt us and now we must say good bye...

1998 - Houston Nutt's best team. Even in 1997 you could see they had a good team so Houston Nutt came and inherited all of Danny Ford's blood, sweat and tears. With Clint Stoerner at quarterback and a lot of talent they were one horrible fumble away from possibly going undefeated through the regular season instead of Tennessee. Unfortunately for Nutt, Stoerner did fumble in Knoxville and Arkansas, hung over from that loss, lost to a good but lesser Mississippi State the next week and did not even make it to the SEC Championship Game and lost their bowl game. Arkansas and Nutt also beat Auburn and interim coach Bill Oliver in a close one, 24-21. It was the best effort by Auburn in that awful season. I was at that game.

1999 - Nutt got in the first of his 11:30 beatdowns of Auburn and Tuberville this season. Arkansas crushed Auburn 34-10 once again behind Clint Stoerner. Arkansas was not quite as good as 1998 but did upset Tennessee gaining a little revenge for "The Fumble" the year before. This knocked Tennessee out of the SEC Championship Game when they were the best team in the SEC, in my opinion, in 1999. Bama won the SEC title but Tennessee beat them handily in Tuscaloosa.

2000 - Auburn and Tuberville finally got on the board taking down Arkansas and Nutt at home behind Rudi Johnson in a close one 21-19.

2001 - In one of the most frustrating losses I have ever witnessed, Arkansas and Nutt behind a freshman quarterback named... Matt Jones blew out Auburn in the second half to win 42-17 (after you guessed it another 11:30 start time). At this point, nobody knew anything about Matt Jones, he looked like just some lanky dufus. As he shredded our defense again and again on the option I am screaming at the TV wondering how he was doing it. I remember going to my parents' garage at halftime and just screaming. You saw later that Matt Jones was actually fast but I have never seen a guy that runs fast look slower. Of course another reason I was cussing at halftime is that Auburn got the ball back with little time left and should have just took a knee. Instead, Tommy Tuberville decides this is the time to go for it and Dan Cobb throws a pick six to kill us.

2002 - In one of the most humiliating home defeats in Auburn history, Arkansas whipped Auburn (and first year defensive coordinator Gene Chizik) 38-17 rushing for over 400 yards (IN OUR HOUSE) including an 80 yard Matt Jones TD run at the end of the game (which by the way started at... 11:30). The wife and the kids had to leave the house for this one as I was losing my mind watching us get pushed around our own field that much. To make it worse, Arkansas was coming off the longest game in SEC history to that point, a six overtime marathon in Knoxville and Auburn was coming off a BYE WEEK. This was Nutt at his pinnacle against Auburn as he had destroyed us 3 out of 4 years and won 4 out of 5. Nutt and quarterback Matt Jones were truly Auburn's nemesis at this point.

2003 - Auburn and Tuberville in their best defensive game of this season went into Fayetteville and knocked off Nutt, Jones and the rest of the #7 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 10-3. Arkansas tied the game late on a long Matt Jones touchdown run but it was called back due to a holding penalty. That the refs actually made the call was amazing to me. This was definitely one of the best highlights of this season.

2004 - Finally... in one of the more satisfying wins in Auburn history, one of the best teams in Auburn history finally laid a beatdown on Arkansas, Nutt and Jones 38-20. It could have been a lot worse as I believe we started the game 31-0 or close to it. The defense harassed and sacked Matt Jones all day. He never did anything. It was a fitting way to say goodbye to one of the biggest villains of Auburn football we have played against in the last 15 years.

2005 - The run continues... Auburn behind a Kenny Irons 200 yard rushing performance (with Marcus McNeil leading the charge blocking for him) crushes Arkansas and Nutt in Fayetteville 34-17. I will always remember this game as my youngest son had just been born a few days before and we were still in the hospital and listened to it there. I also remember Arkansas being like the rest of our SEC brethren and not helping us out and preventing us from showing the game on pay-per-view for no good reason. This put Auburn at 4-4 against Nutt and things appeared back to normal.

2006 - This is where Houston Nutt earned his nickname "The Cockroach" as in you just can't seem to get rid of him. Auburn came into this game undefeated and ranked second in the nation. Arkansas dominated the whole way behind a devastating rushing attack led by Darren McFadden and current Auburn OC Gus Malzahn. True freshman quarterback Mitch Mustain did not even have to attempt many passes for the Razorbacks. Nutt came in and beat a very good Auburn team at home with a true freshmen quarterback. You do not get to #2 in the nation too often so it was a bitter defeat. This loss also knocked us out of the SEC Championship Game. Arkansas ended up going to Atlanta and losing to eventual national champion Florida (whom Auburn beat). Want to guess what time the game started? (To be factual this game was actually a CBS 11:00am game instead of the regional 11:30 game that the other ones were).

2007 - In the last game between Auburn and Nutt while he was at Arkansas, Auburn prevailed against Arkansas in Fayetteville 9-7, again playing their best defensive game of the season shutting down both Darren McFadden and Felix Jones (and Peyton Hillis). This left Auburn 5-5 against Nutt but man those five losses were really bad...

2008 - Once again living up to his nickname "The Cockroach", Nutt immediately gets hired by Ole Miss to replace Ed Orgeron. Meanwhile Tommy Tuberville has scuttled the ship at Auburn by hiring OC Tony Franklin and Nutt gets to beat him one more time in his last year at Auburn 17-7. Interesting note, much maligned as a quarterback, Kodi Burns did throw for 300 yards in this game. This gave Nutt a winning record against Tuberville and cemented him as Tuberville's biggest nemesis while he was at Auburn.

Gene Chizik, other than the 2002 debacle as a defensive coordinator, has had no such problems with Houston Nutt. Auburn has beaten Ole Miss and Nutt handily his three years at Auburn and Nutt's teams at Ole Miss have gone from bad-to-worse as Ed Orgeron's talent has left and Nutt's oversigning stopped by the SEC. That leads us back to the present where Houston Nutt, after 14 seasons head coaching in the SEC, will finally be gone. Unfortunately, it seems like Bobby Petrino has taken up his mantle at Arkansas as Auburn's nemesis. Petrino is now 3-1 against Auburn only losing to Cam Newton and company last year but that is a discussion for another day. Back on point, farewell Houston Nutt, don't let the door knob hit you in the...

Week 8 Review: SUNSET

2011-10-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

LSU 45 Auburn 10, I guess this one will be labelled "The Beatdown in Baton Rouge" or maybe we need to add a "Part 2" to that since Chizik, Malzahn and company got beatdown at LSU in 2009 as well (31-3 for those who have forgotten). The "Mad Hatter" upped his record to 4-2 against Auburn. Well the sun is setting on Auburn's chance of improving and getting a big win this season. As I noted in my last post, Auburn's resident big wins against South Carolina and Florida are not quite as big as many would have thought before the season as both teams are not near as good as they were predicted to be. South Carolina's record is still good as their easy conference schedule does not include Bama or LSU. I expect them to lose to at least Arkansas and Clemson. Florida is just not very good. Auburn's one and only chance for a big rivalry win this year looks to be at Georgia but I think that task will be tougher than most people think. In fact, I think the Dawgs will win the East. After watching how things transpired Saturday things sure do not look good in upsetting Bama this year. Of course this Auburn team cannot afford to overlook anybody but there is no way this Ole Miss team should beat even this Auburn team in Jordan Hare. The coaches better make sure at the very least they get this one. At least if you get this one you have clinched the winning season and you have a bye week to try and fix something on offense.

It is funny reading some of the other Auburn blogs and forums, it is amazing how the out of sight preseason expectations have become "well we knew it was going to happen this way" quotes. I pretty much do not have anything new to say after the LSU game that I did not write in my last post after the Florida game. All of these problems were just as evident against Florida as they were against LSU, Florida just could not do anything about it. My main concern is also the same as last week, this team is not improving offensively (and is still not very good defensively). I just do not see the team getting better or coming together even considering the team's deficiencies.

Again for the record let me state like last week how great a winning season is since "I predicted Auburn to go 6-6 and am frankly amazed the coaches were able to coax a winning season out of this team. So no matter what happens the coaches will be able to declare a victory for this season." The problem is that a 7-5 record is not going to look near as good if the team does not improve and goes out with a loss to Georgia and a beatdown by Bama at home.

The next most popular slogan is how much better we are going to be in the next two years. No argument here however I do not see a team coming together that can get to Atlanta anytime soon. The main problem is where it has been all year, the offensive line. We have a below average offensive line and I do not see a Marcus McNeil on the horizon to fix things. Right now our hope is that Greg Robinson and Christian Westerman will save the day but they do not look like those kind of guys at this moment. You build championship teams around great left tackles. Name me a good Auburn team and you will see a great left tackle that is playing or has played in the NFL. It is clockwork... 1993-1995 is Willie Anderson, 2002-2005 is Marcus McNeil and last year was Lee Ziemba. Ziemba was an extremely underrated player. The guy was much better than people gave him credit for and again he started more games than anyone in Auburn's football history. I just do not see one of these guys at Auburn right now or one currently on our recruiting board.

So far Chizik's offensive line recruiting has been a bust. Our starting offensive lines during the entire Chizik era outside Brandon Mosely have been Tuberville recruits. No one other than Chad Slade has shown any promise so far. Heralded recruits Ed Christian and Kendall Mack have been busts. So again, unless Robinson and Westerman are great and somebody else steps up the offensive line's future doe not look that great if you are talking about a championship unit. Great skill players look very ordinary behind weak offensive lines and again if you doubt it ask Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery.

That is my biggest concern looking at this year and into the future. The next concern would obviously be at quarterback but unfortunately the success of that position is also reliant on a good offensive line. Again and I will keep repeating it, the game is won in the trenches. Bama and LSU are certainly proving that true again this year. I just do not understand why our coaches do not put more emphasis on it in recruiting. I read this week about Curtis Luper talking about finding the next Cam Newton. That just ticked me off, there will never be another Cam Newton, they need to be looking for the next Lee Ziemba, they can find someone like that. Moseley looks better than Trotter but neither look to be our future. Kiehl Frazier is supposed to be the future but as Jay Coulter noted at Track'em this week, he just does not look like he is going to be ready this year or next. However Frazier was one of the best recruits in the country and we do have big-time recruit Zeke Pike coming in this season so I think the coaches have done all they can do there.

As I said last week (again all this stuff was apparent in our "big win" over Florida), I just do not understand the constant shuffling at quarterback. This is not "running the wildcat". This is shuffling quarterbacks which is proven over the years to be a bad idea. It literally never works. They can call it whatever they want but that is what it is. I do not think it is helping either quarterback. It is simple to me, if we are going to continue to run the majority of the game and only throw fifteen times or less then we should start Frazier. If not then we should start Moseley. We threw the ball 24 times Saturday but we were behind most of the game. In a close game it appears we are just not going to throw the ball. In fact, I can tell you our script for literally 75% of our series. First down, Moseley hands to Dyer. Second down, bring Frazier in and either run him or hand off to McCalebb. Third down (and long usually), Moseley back in to throw a pass. Fourth down, punt. I do not know much but I do know that is not going to beat Georgia or keep it close against Bama. This is why I had so little hope against LSU and even less in these future games.

There is not a whole lot you can do behind our offensive line but you can do something more than run that script nearly every bleeping series. One thing I know we can do is more short passes to get other people involved in the game and to, what an idea, show the defense something different. Short passes are generally considered high percentage conservative plays so I do not know why we cannot try that. Good night what were these guys working on in spring and fall practice? Another annicillary benefit to more short passes is it might actually help recruit wide receivers. Right now just like it was in the Tuberville days, I do not know why any good wide receiver in his right mind would come to Auburn. You are just a blocker and you hardly ever get the ball.

That is how I see things. I guess for the moment lets hope we can put Houston Nutt out of his misery, add one more to our home winning streak and clinch a winning season by whipping Ole Miss. Even this team can do that. This game is on the coaches. Beat Ole Miss, get your winning season and try and figure out something during the bye week. The sun is setting...

Week 7 Review: A win is a win but...

2011-10-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Auburn Tigers beat the Florida Gators 17-6 this last Saturday at Jordan Hare Stadium. The game was an ugly one matching two inept offenses. Those games are just hard to watch. However the weather and atmosphere sure helped. I attended my first Auburn game in person this year and enjoyed it immensely. My son and I rolled into Auburn around lunch and promptly headed to Tiger Rags and J&M to look for some gear and then headed to Guthries. We got to the stadium about an hour and half before the game and just soaked it all up. The weather literally could not have been any better. The temperature was perfect staying around 65 to 70 degrees with no wind to speak of. The band marching on, the eagle soaring, the intro videos, the team running onto the field, the fourth quarter team rush toward the student section and winning the game, another Saturday to remember on the Plains (even if the game itself was not quite one to remember).

There has been a lot of talk since the game defending the win despite the fact that Florida is just not very good (see the two previous weeks before this game). Let me say that yes, any win over Florida or any of the SEC's historically top tier teams is always a good one and like most of our other SEC wins this year, we did not know before the season started if we would be able to pull out a win in this game.

Also, this win coupled with a win over Ole Miss, the worst team in the SEC, and FCS opponent Samford will give Auburn a winning season. I will be the first to say how great that is. I predicted Auburn to go 6-6 and am frankly amazed the coaches were able to coax a winning season out of this team. So no matter what happens the coaches will be able to declare a victory for this season. Morale is high among most fans as Auburn is doing better than expected. I have seen bloggers comparing this team to anywhere from the 2001 team to the 1972 Amazin's. I would lean more toward the 2001 team but I do not think this team is even that good.

The defense has improved and I do see some real potential there. However slight improvement and potential still do not make this a good defense now. Of course, they are looking a lot better than the other side of the ball on which we are in a free fall scoring 17 or less points in every SEC game except State. Who would have ever thought our offense would be the one in worst shape after the Clemson game this season? However it is true, ever since the Clemson game the defense has shown improvement and the offense has sputtered to the point the passing game is nearly non-existent and the coaches are scared to death to even call a pass.

Yes we do have some injuries but that is just one small factor in the fall of our passing game. The line especially the tackles is again where it starts in my opinion. This line is just not that good especially in pass protection which dents their run blocking as everyone is now stacking the line. The quarterback position has also been a liability as Barrett Trotter has gotten worse every game since the Clemson game and has now lost the job. Clint Moseley threw a couple of good passes which enabled us to get the win against Florida but he has no other game experience. Kiehl Frazier, the future, continues to get shuffled in to run the ball and you see his potential but you can also see the constant shuffling is hurting the other quarterbacks. We then do have injuries to two of our starting wide receivers. You add all that up and you get an offense that is literally struggling to have any semblence of a passing game. It is sad to watch.

With that said, it is obvious we are not much different from what we were predicted to be before the season, the biggest reason Auburn is 5-2 right now is that the teams we have beat in the SEC were not as good as predicted. State's defense is almost as bad as ours and is not near as good as last year. South Carolina's offensive line is the worst I have seen this year and as I said in an earlier post has reduced their awesome skill players to very ordinary. Florida is just mediocre all-around. Even with their injuries, the lack of talent at Florida is startling. Urban Meyer did not just leave because of his family or his health, he also left because the Florida job looks like it will be a much bigger rebuilding job than anybody thought. Those top-ranked recruiting classes at Florida the last couple of years look to be WAY overrated.

The point I am trying to make is that I am happy we are 5-2 but I am concerned because I do not think we have improved as a team. I think the coaches decided to "Tub" there way through these games and get the win instead of trying to get better especially concerning the passing game. Good night we would not even throw the ball when the game was out of reach against Arkansas. This does not bode well for the rest of the season. We have already lost to the two proven good teams on our schedule and beaten the decent but overrated ones. In the coming weeks we will play the two of the best teams in the country and a good Georgia team. I do not see how we can win any of these games without a solid passing attack. I am dubious that we can plug in a guy that has never played much behind this line (with or without our injured starting wide receivers) and beat anybody any good.

HEY HATERS & MEDIOTS, YOU WERE WRONG

2011-10-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Will Collier said it the best at his site... BREAKING: NCAA Formally Clears Auburn.

Let me repeat the best parts of his post:
"For nearly a year now, haters from coast to coast--but especially in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Starkville and Gainesville--have been predicting that Auburn would receive a letter from the NCAA. This afternoon, that prediction came true. Problem for them is, the letter exonerates AU...

Pete Thamel (hey Pete, NOW we know it's over), Thayer Evans, Joe Schad, Mark Schlabach, Chris Low, Spencer Hall, Matt Hinton, Danny Sheridan, Paul Finebaum, Dan Mullen, Megan Mullen, Urban Meyer, Jody Wright and a host of other goons who did their damnedest to do to Auburn off the field what Auburn did to their teams on the field in 2010 were not immediately available for comment.

So: despite the uncountable amounts of ink, pixels and bandwidth spent predicting doom upon the Plains, there will be no probation. There will be no vacations, no forfeits, no returned trophies, and no asterisks. The 2010 season will remain what it always was: glorious.

Boys, you can pick up your crow at Cam's house. He'll be glad to serve it to you... at high velocity. "

Back to my take... IN YOUR FACE ALL OF YOU. In fact, after being put under through the ringer like Auburn has with hundreds of people investigating for almost a year now desperate to find anything to hang us with, I would dare say AUBURN IS ONE OF THE CLEANEST NATIONAL CHAMPIONS especially compared to any school that has won it recently especially our SEC bretheren who have tried so desperately to throw us under the bus. There is no way any school that was dirty could stand up to the spotlight Auburn has endured (ASK OHIO STATE AND MIAMI). Yet we will continue to be insulted and disrespected while other schools and their fans who look down on us would never be able to stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has received. In fact I would dare say there are not many schools at all that could stand up to the scrutiny Auburn has been under without something being found.

I am not even saying Auburn is perfectly clean and even if we had been found guilty of some lesser things I would still say the same things. Auburn was completely mutilated in the media and in the court of public opinion without even a stitch of evidence that Auburn had done anything wrong. We were treated ridiculously unfairly. We were declared guilty after the first accusation and then every "theory" dreamed up by any loser was treated like biblical truth.

Well it does not sound like we are giving ANYTHING BACK. I heard and read so many smug people predicting that. Well one more time... YOU WERE WRONG. I think it might be time to go back and watch some of those highlights from last year and get that little bit of enjoyment that everyone tried to take away from us. Cam Newton was and will always be one of the greatest college players ever and the 2010 Auburn Tigers were and always will be champions (and I would still take them against the top two teams currently this year).

WAR DAMN EAGLE.

Week 6 Review: Grounded

2011-10-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

Arkansas 38 Auburn 14. The loss was not as hard to take as watching Auburn's passing game literally die on the table in front of us. Most people did not expect this young rebuilding Auburn team to sweep two tough SEC games on the road. As I said in my last post, getting one was huge. However having a passing game this bad while employing the highest paid assistant in the country to coach the quarterback position is completely unacceptable. I could say almost the same thing for the wide receiver position. Yes I know Emory Blake is out but as I have pointed out before we have PLENTY of other scholarship wide receivers that are not freshman. To the breakdown...

THE ~~GOOD~~ BAD #1
The defense did play well in spots getting some big stops. Arkansas scored several times off of hideous Auburn interceptions that were not the defense's fault. However I cannot give a passing grade to a unit that gave up a 92 yard run (the longest in Arkansas history) to a wide receiver and allowed the opposing quarterback to complete 18 passes in a row. It was also a sobering moment when ESPN flashed up the graphic that Auburn was dead last in the conference in every major defensive category. That is just hard to take. I will say the defensive effort might have still been enough to get a win behind a better offense.

THE BAD #2
Auburn would have lost this game even if the game had been called fair. Let me make that clear. However I will still point out that this game was horribly called. Auburn did commit the majority of the holds it was called for but Arkansas committed the same holds and was NOT called for them. There was a sickeningly obvious one not called on the big 92 yard run and several more just as obvious. Auburn was called for 11 penalties for 105 yards while Arkansas was only whistled 4 times for 26 yards. Yeh RIGHT. Give me a break. Auburn committed all of those holds while Arkansas played completely clean. I think all of Arkansas' penalties were also called in the first quarter till Petrino started taking the ref's heads off. No more calls on Arkansas were made after that. Pathetic job.

THE BAD #3
It got to be kind of funny when my buddy kept texting me when we got the ball "Dyer on first down". Talk about predictable. I know we could not pass but good night call something different. I mean we were beyond predictable. We also run the majority of our running plays to the right side. Arkansas obviously figured it out because the whole team would be on top of Dyer by the time he got to the line of scrimmage in the second half. However we still ground out almost 300 yards on the ground although I would not expect that number again except against Samford if our passing game does not improve which leads me to...

THE UGLY
Barrett Trotter is fourth year junior and has been in the Malzahn system for three years. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. DeAngelo Benton, Q. Carr and Travante Stallworth are all upperclassmen and have had plenty of experience. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad. Both of these positions are again coached by some of the highest paid assistants in the country. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn's passing game being this bad.

Trotter started out looking pretty good this season but has since gotten worse every week bottoming out with this debacle. Kiehl Frazier, obviously the future, has shown flashes of brilliance running the ball but proved without a doubt that he is not close to ready by throwing two really ugly interceptions. Couple that with the abysmal receiving and you have, as a buddy of mine pointed out, the worst Auburn passing game since Gabe Gross in 1998 and THAT is saying something. I am most disgusted with Benton who we have heard about over and over for three years. He missed a pass that hit him in the gut and one in the hands (that was then intercepted) and was called twice for holding.

Where do we go from here? Do we make the same mistake we made in 2007 and throw the true freshman out there when he is not ready? Do we stick with Trotter? Do we give Clint Moseley a shot? I think Frazier should stay the change-of-pace of quarterback. He is doing fine in that role. I know the coaches do not want to have a quarterback controversy and get another quarterback involved but that is where we are at. We cannot shut down the passing game and Trotter is not getting the job done. Clint Moseley is the backup. If the race was sooo close as the coaches went on and on about during the spring and fall then Moseley should definitely get a shot. He has also spent several years under Malzahn. If he does not do anything put back in Trotter. At this point we cannot do any worse than we did last night. I do not think we can mess up Trotter anymore than he is right now.

My guess though is that the coaches will stick with Trotter and hope that he can pull himself out of his tailspin as Brandon Cox did in 2007. Cox though had a track record of success while Trotter has gotten worse each game he has started in. Again I understand that nobody wants to be in this situation but unfortunately we are and we have to be able to throw the ball a little bit to win football games. The coaches need to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

UP NEXT
A big big game. Florida comes limping in to Jordan Hare after back-to-back beatdowns from the top two teams in the country. They are having quarterback problems as well but their problems are because of injury. Auburn REALLY needs to get this win. It would give Auburn a winning season if they can beat Ole Miss and Samford as well. At this point I do not see Auburn beating LSU, Bama or Georgia. Georgia looks much improved. I am heading down to the plains for the first time this season for the game so I will have an eyewitness review for next week...

Week 5 Review: In the Trenches

2011-10-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I usually write these posts on Sunday and I was out of town this last weekend and then a very busy week. I was not able to watch the first three quarters of this game live but kept up vicariously through texting and then watched later. I was able to see the fourth quarter of this improbable win by the Auburn Tigers. Auburn 16 South Carolina 13. I have to say I did not see that coming. Who could have seen Auburn actually winning the line of scrimmage on defense? Even with a true freshmen starting at left tackle for South Carolina it was incredible. Auburn's strategy on defense also seemed a little more aggressive. However rather than prostrating to the skies and begging for forgiveness for ever doubting our coaching staff, I am asking where was this sooner? I do not regret or take back anything I have written. Auburn's defense has been awful this year, one of the worst in the country. This does not erase that but maybe it might signal that we might not be as bad the rest of the way. I sure hope so. However it is going to take more than one good outing with unbelievable punting to prove it.

THE GREAT
Steven Clark and the punt coverage team were definitely the game MVPs as they continually made South Carolina try to start drives inside their own ten yard line. This completely turned the game as the percentages of going the length of the field are low even for the best offenses in the SEC. Great would also describe Mike Dyer as he carried the ball a record 41 times for 141 yards. Dyer kept the chains moving and helped Auburn keep the ball over 10 minutes more than South Carolina.

THE GOOD
For the first time all season Auburn's defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. It was a welcome sight for these eyes after seeing us getting pushed all over the field in our first four games. Auburn clogged up the running lanes and brought constant pressure on quarterback Stephen Garcia. This was definitely where the game was won in addition to the great punting. Everyone has been all over Garcia but after re-watching the game I have to say that it was not as much his fault as it initially seemed. He had no time to throw on most plays and we also had good coverage downfield as well. While our recruiting for our front seven has lagged as I have covered in previous posts, we have done much better in the secondary. In addition to that, our linebackers pursued well and the tackling was much better. It is amazing how much better the linebackers and secondary get when your defensive line is playing well. It is also amazing how great players like Marcus Lattimore and Alshon Jeffery look a lot more ordinary without good blocking. The game is won in the trenches, pure and simple. I just hope this was more about Auburn's line playing better than South Carolina's banged up line playing bad.

THE BAD
Unfortunately while the Auburn defensive line was getting it done, the Auburn offensive line was not faring much better than the South Carolina offensive line especially tackles AJ Greene and Brandon Mosley. South Carolina defensive end Melvin Ingram wreaked havoc on Auburn quarterback Barrett Trotter. Trotter also took a lot of heat for a terrible game but he too had little time to throw. Barrett Trotter is no Cam Newton but I do believe he is as good as Chris Todd. Chris Todd enjoyed plenty of time to throw behind the same line Cam Newton worked behind. He also had better receivers. Trotter's main problems are lack of time to throw and bad decision making. The lack of time to throw makes the bad decision making worse as the game goes along. However I will say there is absolutely no excuse for some of Trotter's throws especially his two interceptions. He has to know better than to make those throws.

THE UGLY
The ugly this week would be Bama's win over Florida. I watched till Florida quarterback John Brantley threw that awful pick-six early in the second quarter and then it was time to find something else to watch... I also have to continue to say how ugly it is that we are turning our conference upside down just to add Texas A&M. Everything that is happening, all the angst over trying to make schedules in all sports with a 13th team and all the trouble it is going to be to find a 14th member, it all started with the stupid decision to bring in Texas A&M.

UP NEXT
The South Carolina win was huge on all fronts. It in all likelihood it made Auburn bowl-eligible and went a long way toward a winning season. That would be a huge accomplishment in this rebuilding year. It also took a lot of pressure off Auburn this coming weekend against Arkansas. Auburn looks less likely to win against Arkansas than it did South Carolina but with the confidence boost from this win and Arkansas playing two tough games against Bama and Texas A&M there is a chance.

Week 4 Review: Turbulence Ahead

2011-09-25T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well most of us knew this was coming. Actually I should say some of us knew this was coming because they were a LOT of sunshine pumpers talking about 8 or 9 wins this summer and would tolerate no talk otherwise. Unfortunately even if you know it is coming it never happens exactly like you think it will and it still hurts just as much. This is not a very good Auburn football team especially on defense and especially where it counts and that is in the trenches. It also does not appear this team has the scrap that a under talented team like the 1981 team had. Those two things equal tough times.

There are many reasons but unfortunately there is not much that can be done at this point but ride it out and hope we can grab a big win somewhere. It will take playing a lot better than they have played up till now to get bowl eligible. It can be done. All we have to do is beat Ole Miss, Samford and grab one other win somewhere. The only realistic chance looks to be at Georgia or hope we catch Florida napping. We will have to see how the team responds after a couple of beatdowns at South Carolina and Arkansas. We will also have to see how the coaching staff responds to their first real dose of harsh criticism. This staff has not gone through that yet.

AD Jay Jacobs quickly played his hand this week already blaming everything on Tub's last two recruiting classes. It is correct that Tub's last two classes are probably the biggest problem this season but the AD throwing him under the bus publicly is probably not the best move. Tuberville deserved a lot more credit than he received for the national championship which was won with an offensive line and defense he recruited. However it appears he will get his due for the abominations that were the 2007 and 2008 recruiting classes. It has to be said though that Chizik has had 3 recruiting classes to prepare for this and could have done more to strengthen our defensive front seven. It is not like you could not see some of this coming.

It is also hard to understand what the coaching staff's plans were for this year during spring and fall practice other than writing books and basking in the glow of the national championship like the fans. A coaching staff at this level should be able to see we cannot run the same old lay-back-in-loose-coverage Cover 2 defense with our current talent level on defense especially on the line. More disturbing is the fact that our offensive coaches who are top notch do not seem to have settled on a strategy for this offense and have been tinkering since the first game bottoming out with last night's underwhelming performance against FAU.

So that is where we are. I had marked the next two games as losses way before the season started. Revenge is usually overrated as a motivator but Auburn absolutely humiliated South Carolina last year in the SECCG and there are a lot of players back from that team as well as the coaches that are REALLY going to want some payback. I do not think we will catch them napping. Bobby Petrino always lights up our defense just like he always lays down for Nick $aban and Bama. Arkansas will look like world-beaters in two weeks.

Our team is just going to have to ride it out and the coaching staff has to use these tough games to try and get the team better and hopefully we will get one big win and get to a bowl. However before then you better fasten your seatbelts and put your food trays in their upright position because we are about to experience... turbulence.

Week 3 Review: All good things...

2011-09-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

Must come to an end and Auburn's 17 game winning streak finally did at "Death Valley" in South Carolina. Losing always stinks and everyone complains and usually wants to fire somebody. Then the self-righteous all-knowing "gods" of proper fan behavior in the media will then tell the fans how stupid they are for complaining (even though these people are able to earn a living off these very same fans). Fans overreact, it is part of it. I bring this up because I want to differentiate what most Auburn fans are upset about from normal fan behavior. Auburn fans, at least this one, are upset about a historically bad defense and a consistently weak defensive coordinator. As I have posted over and over again, the stats tell the story. Ted Roof coached the worst defense in Auburn history two years ago in 2009 and is now guaranteed to surpass that this season.

Yes we are low on talent especially on the defensive line but you have to WORK to be this bad. Clemson ran up over 600 yards of offense, 600 YARDS!!! They held the ball almost 40 minutes, ran almost 100 plays and scored almost 40 points just like Mississippi State did last week. I have never seen more missed tackles but the worst part is allowing a team to convert 14 of 18 third downs including ten in a row. Being this bad on defense goes back to coaching. We do not have a ton of talent but you can do better than this.

Let's update our season totals our defense has given up in just THREE games:

110 POINTS (to Utah State, Mississippi State and Clemson)
OVER ONE THOUSAND AND SIX HUNDRED YARDS TOTAL OFFENSE
ALMOST TWO HOURS OF TIME OF POSSESSION
273 plays which is an average of over 90 PLAYS A GAME
39 OF 59 THIRD AND FOURTH DOWN COVERSION FOR A RATE OF 66%
THE AUBURN DEFENSE IS NOW RANKED #117 IN THE FBS (OUT OF 120 TEAMS)

Yes we won the national championship last year (although our defense still had the same problems but had just enough good players and a legendary great offense to mask it) but this is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AND IT NEVER WILL BE. The next thing you hear is an offense like ours hurts the defense and that is true but NOT TO THIS EXTENT.

Frankly I am tired of writing the same thing. This is not a knee jerk reaction to a loss but something I have been writing for three years now. No one can accuse me of just criticizing our defense this season or just after losses. Our defensive philosophy is the biggest problem but add to it this year that we have not recruited enough defensive tackles. That is mostly Tommy Tuberville's fault but Chizik could have brought more in than he has. We need a lot of more bodies on the defensive line than wide receivers that sit the bench. For my thoughts on the game you can read my two previous posts or check out these quotes from my posts on games the last two seasons (especially Arkansas last season)...

WEST VIRGINIA 2009
"I know Auburn had to be careful in fall practice to not get anybody hurt but good grief I have not seen a much worse job at tackling and containing a QB than the first half. WVU was moving and scoring at will."

"This in no way though excuses the awful tackling and horrible angles our guys were taking last night. It does not excuse 10 of 15 third down conversions."

BALL STATE 2009
"It is very frustrating to watch our soft coverage..."

TENNESSEE 2009
"It is hard to say they played bad. However I will say they are showing BAD tendencies. I described this defense in the last post as "on-again/off-again" and they seem more like that after this game. They were on most of the first half and then suddenly let UT just fly down the field for a quick TD before halftime. They stone UT in the third quarter and let them score 16 points including the ridiculous last second TD in the fourth quarter. I am not a DC but playing so ridiculously loose in coverage allows just as many big plays as being overly aggressive."

KENTUCKY 2009
"Of course, we can't blame everything on Tub like missed tackles or our overall soft defensive philosophy."

GEORGIA 2009
" I am so sick and tired of watching our defensive line get pushed all over the field. I mean on seemingly every run our line gets pushed five yards back. I am sick of it! I would rather blitz every down and give up up throws over the top than get pushed all over the stupid field."

OUTBACK BOWL 2010
"We have done this stuff all year and thus we have THE worst defense statistically in Auburn history."

ARKANSAS STATE 2010
"The way Auburn plays their safeties is hard to watch. Most of the time they play them so far back that the other team just dinks us to death. I will never understand that philosophy. I think you should play the other team tight and make them throw over you and hit that lower percentage long pass. Yes you will give up some big plays but you will also get some three-and-outs. Between our current offensive and defensive philosophies I do not think we will ever have enough depth on defense."

CLEMSON 2010
"Defensively, Chizik and Roof have stated both in action and words that their philosophy is not to give up big plays and to keep everything in front of them and make other teams drive the length of the field. This usually involves playing way off the ball and giving up a lot of yardage on short passes. Auburn then usually makes adjustments, occasionally blitzes and gets a few stops. However, would it not help the team overall to play a more aggressive style of defense? The defense could then maybe get a few three-and-outs and let our offense do their thing and tire out the other defense. Now of course we would give up more big plays ala Will Muschamp. However that would get our offense back on the field and not subject our defense to staying out there so long getting dinked to death.

I just do not understand it. A more aggressive defense would fit in more with our supposed goals of being a more aggressive offense. Instead we seem to make it the worst of both worlds by keeping our offense on the bench longer and keeping our still thin defense on the field longer. This is also exacerbated by the fact our offense if played according to our supposed goals will keep the defense on the field more anyway. It just does not make sense to me. I would rather bring our guys up and let them play more aggressively and go for the three-and-out. They will give up a few but I think we would be more effective than we are now."

LOUISIANA MONROE 2010
"First, would this not have been a good game to work on covering receivers a little tighter??? I do not understand playing way off these guys and letting them drive three times into Auburn territory in the first half and letting them get a field goal. I think it would have been a good game to work on tighter more aggressive coverage. This confirms we will see this crap for the rest of the season."

KENTUCKY 2010
"Gene Chizik talks a lot about Auburn history and how important it is yet his teams seemingly ignore the tenets of good defense and special teams that Coach Jordan and Dye emphasized. With that said let us move to... Our defensive performance last night was ugly. There is no other way to say it. When your offense scores 31 points in the first half against KENTUCKY and you then have to win on a last second field goal YOU ARE PLAYING BAD DEFENSE. My gosh where do I start? I guess in the same place I start every week with our ridiculously extreme philosophy of playing soft coverage. I understand have an overall philosophy but you have to make adjustments based on the team you are playing. The Auburn defense has rose up several times but that is mainly because of the defensive line. Most teams will not throw short the entire night and that is how we finally stop them. That was not true of Kentucky. The three step drop and throw nullifies a defensive line. They were content to throw short to their play makers ALL NIGHT and it is not like that is a surprise. These guys have been around their forever. Their is plenty of film on Kentucky and their attack. Why did our defense not do more to take away Cobb and Locke??? Why did we never play tighter coverage? It is maddening to watch."

ARKANSAS 2010
"I find it comical that the post game reaction is that the defense "rose up" in the fourth quarter. I mean come on. The Arkansas guy was down on that fumble even though we deserved the call as I stated above. I do not think our defense can take a whole lot of credit for that. The Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson had all day to throw (as was the case the whole game) on both those interceptions. He just finally made some bad decisions. I do not think our defense can take much credit for that. If they pressure him and he makes a mistake I would give credit. The Auburn defensive performance was about the worst I have ever seen from an Auburn defense. It took much of my joy from the win. I can't think of the adjective to describe how bad they were. Bad, awful, terrible, disgusting, revolting, etc... do not seem to cover it..."

The basics of football are blocking and tackling. We are doing the blocking but I have never seen worse tackling in my 30 years of watching Auburn football. Case in point was our senior linebacker Craig Stevens who is a four year starter simply putting an arm out as an Arkansas running back or wide receiver ran straight past him. Arkansas receivers just ran wild after they caught the ball as Auburn defenders slipped off them or simply fell down as they ran past them. Auburn would not commit to pressuring the quarterback or jamming wide receivers so Bobby Petrino could empty his playbook and call whatever he wanted. WHAT IS THE POINT of playing conservative defense when the other team is scoring at will on big plays??? That is the only point of playing that kind of defense! Ted Roof is the worst defensive coordinator I have ever seen and he is being enabled by Chizik. Roof is also not even coaching his own position well as our linebackers miss more tackles than anyone.

Chizik was able to run this type of defense in 2004 when he had great pass rushers at both ends in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves. All "Cover 2" defenses that have been hugely successful have a Dwight Freeney or a Charles Haley at defensive end and they can get pressure on the quarterback. WE DO NOT HAVE THAT. We do not have anyone even close. If you are an offensive team and you do not have great pass rushers YOU HAVE TO GAMBLE. Case in point would be the New Orleans Saints last year. They did not have great pass rushers so they gambled and blitzed a lot and were able to be good enough to win a Super Bowl. If tackling is the first fundamental of defense, pressuring the quarterback against a passing team has to be #2. You simply have to pressure the quarterback. You have to shorten the window the quarterback has to make a decision and in doing so he is more likely to miss the pass or make a mistake. The coach across the state has created his legend doing this. I understand picking the "Cover 2" as your defense but I do not understand adjusting your strategy when you are getting lit up like a Christmas tree by the other team's backup quarterback.

I do not see how these coaches justify what they are doing. The stats back it up. Last year's Auburn defense was one of the worst in Auburn history statistically. This year's version is right there with it as they gave up over 400 yards passing and almost 600 yards total (against mainly the back up quarterback). It is a complete embarrassment to play defense that bad. If we blitzed every play we would have gotten burned plenty but I firmly believe it would not have been near as bad. It also fires your defense up playing aggressive and not reacting all the time. It also shortens the other team's playbook. It was disgusting to me how many plays Arkansas called that had just about everyone going long because he knew the quarterback would have time."

LSU 2010
"On defense, we lose two starting linebackers, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles and will almost certainly lose Nick Fairley leaving us with only two true defensive tackles in Carter and Whitaker on the entire roster."

OLE MISS 2010
"They have a good defense, Auburn does not. We are still asking a lot of our offense to have to score 40+ points every game... Again I think we have to put more pressure on the quarterback. We cannot let.. the quarterback... stand back there all day. It does not matter how many men we drop back in coverage. We also HAVE TO TACKLE BETTER. There were a ton more missed tackles last night. Our guys have got to wrap up and bring the guy down."

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 2011
"Of course, just like the rest of the season, the pass defense was weak at times and Oregon rolled up almost 400 yards passing."

SPRING 2011
"My only big concern after getting this recruiting class is defensive tackle. I do not think many people understand how dire the situation is. We now have only two true defensive tackles ON THE ENTIRE TEAM before these freshmen come in the fall. Kenneth Carter and Jeffrey Whitaker are it. Coach Tracy Rocker did everything he could to get these guys ready giving them a lot of playing time however the jury is still out on them in my opinion. It is still unknown whether they are really true SEC-caliber starters but right now Auburn has no other options. Journeymen Derrick Lykes and Jamar Travis who "back them up" on the depth chart are certainly not SEC-caliber. Our DL coach will once again have to get true freshmen ready to back up his starters however this time his starters are not Nick Fairley and two seniors but two true sophomores. Just as I guessed from looking at the depth chart I heard the coaches will look at moving Nosa Egaue inside but defensive tackle still looks like a glaring weak spot for this Auburn team next season. The player Auburn will miss the most is not Cam Newton but Nick Fairley."

Week 2 Review - Hanging Tough

2011-09-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

The Auburn Tigers, decided underdogs, hung tough and pulled out another last second win 41-34 against Mississippi State. After the smoke cleared a couple of things were evident. First, the Auburn offensive line played a much better game this week and Auburn was able to run the ball. Next, State while a good solid team was a bit overrated coming into the game. While Auburn's deficiencies and losses have been talked about ad nauseum you would have thought State was Oklahoma or something coming in after routing Memphis. Memphis used to be one of those tough minor conference teams like Southern Miss that would always give you a tough game but they are no longer. They are one of the worst football programs in the country now so State winning that game was not near as big a deal as it was made out to be this last week. State lost some players as well from last year and their defensive coordinator and coincidentally they were not near as good on defense as they were last year. Now to the good, the bad and the ugly from Saturday...

THE GOOD
That would be Auburn's offense and State's offense as well to be fair. As I said above, Auburn's offensive line was much better this week and Mike Dyer came alive with 150 yards and two touchdowns. Quarterback Barrett Trotter, except for a horrid pick-six, put up an efficient 16 for 23 for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Hopefully Trotter learned his lesson about absolutely staring down his receivers. My wife even noticed Trotter staring down his receiver the play before and that means it was REALLY obvious. Emory Blake put up maybe his best game-to-date with over 100 yards receiving including holding on to a crucial catch before the half where he took a vicious cheap shot from a State player that came in helmet first. Of course the State player got his just desserts when he knocked himself out on the hit. State was also flagged for spearing Mike Dyer in the back as well.

Auburn is still looking for more receivers to step up. I thought Travante Stallworth would be the next best but did not do much this game and neither did any other wide receiver. Of course everyone's favorite tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen was steady and added a crucial touchdown but Auburn really needs one of its MANY scholarship wide receivers to contribute. Also in the good category for a second straight week is the Auburn special teams. Kicker Cody Parkey has come out of the gate strong booting kickoffs out of the endzone and this week hitting two crucial field goals. Kickoff returner Tre Mason is everyone's new favorite player and I feel that Trovon Reed is going to make something happen on punt returns.

So all-in-all though a much better performance by the offense and another good performance from the Auburn special teams. However Auburn has had to score 40 points to win these two games. That will be impossible to maintain and Auburn has to get better on defense which brings us to...

THE BAD
The Auburn defense played better than they did against Utah State but the stats do not lie, it was still a horrible game defensively. The early stops were good, the pick-six was great and the end-of-the-game stop on the goalline was legendary and it was enough to win Saturday. However it will not be enough to win many more games this season. The stats do not like. Mississppi State ran almost ONE HUNDRED PLAYS and ground out over 500 yards of offense that included two one hundred yard rushers.

Some people think it is "stupid and ungrateful" to dare criticize Ted Roof after we won the national championship however I have seen a lot of good defensive coordinators at Auburn and Ted Roof is not one of them. I think we can do better. I thought that two years ago as we had the worst defense in Auburn history and I thought it last year when we had maybe the most dominating defensive lineman in Auburn history yet still had a mediocre-to-good defense. Again just look at the national championship game where Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage like few ever have and still gave up 400 yards passing to a non-passing quarterback. This year we are on track to eclipse the defensive unit from two years ago and have the worst defense in Auburn history. That will mean the top two worst defenses in Auburn history would have come in Ted Roof's three years on the plains. Yes even if it means I am "stupid and ungrateful" I think we can do better.

I have also heard the various reasons for our defensive strategy for not giving up the big play and making the opponent earn it. That strategy has yielded ONE THOUSAND YARDS OF OFFENSE , 72 POINTS and 73 MINUTES TIME OF POSSESSION for the teams we have played against. I am sorry I do not think our strategy is working and I think we can do better gambling occasionally to get a stop. Yes I understand we are winning but I think our defense would still be better mixing it up occasionally.

THE UGLY
The "ugly" this week is unbalancing the Southeastern Conference just to bring in Texas A&M. I know somehow this is supposed to make more money and that is the only thing that matters anymore but it sure looks like the SEC is playing with fire. Why mess with a good thing? Who even knows if the "super-conference" idea will work? You mess up the geography, competitive balance and good division splits the SEC has and you will be the ACC. I just do not think gaining a mediocre program like Texas A&M is worth it and I cannot wait how they try to equal things out with 13 members. This is a bad move.

Week 1 Review - I Knew This Was Coming...

2011-09-06T19:13:00.000-07:00

But did not expect it to be so obvious against the likes of Utah State. Thanks to a perfect kick on one of the lowest percentage plays in football, Auburn eked out a victory against the Aggies from the WAC to open the season this last Saturday. Utah State was better than expected but regardless what happened at Jordan-Hare on Saturday was an embarrassment. I did not take the time to write an Auburn preview this season because there were hundreds to choose from available at any Auburn site you picked. However it was just as well because the first game provided a much more realistic preview. To start with it summed up what has been obvious after a cursory look at the roster since the smoke cleared last spring. It was obvious when the defending national champions and an elite college football program like Auburn enters the spring with only two legitimate yet unproven defensive tackles on its entire roster that there is going to be trouble.

Again unless you counted Jamar Travis and Derrick Lykes (who was kicked off the team before fall practice) as legitimate SEC defensive tackles which I do not, Auburn entered the spring with only two legitimate yet unproven defensive tackles on its ENTIRE roster. How in the world can it come to that for a program like this? The fault mostly lies on the nightmarish last two recruiting classes of the Tuberville regime however I still wonder why Chizik and company did not bring in a few more bigger bodies the last two years. I will always believe the game is won in the trenches (as Auburn proved once again last year) so I always want one more defensive or offensive tackle over another small wide receiver. It seems obvious that is what should have been done here.

It was especially obvious as Utah State ran all over us on Saturday. It also became obvious that our linebackers are ordinary and not coached particularly well. I do not see one All-SEC player right now or in the future from our current linebacking corps. I do see talent in our secondary but like all the units it is hamstrung by our current defensive philosophy but hey do not take it from me, here is former Auburn safety Rob Pate’s review of our defense on Saturday...

“I am continually amazed at the lack of desire to confuse, blitz, be multiple, stack the box and make young, inexperienced QB's beat us their arm? There was no reason in the world to have our corners playing 10-12 yards deep, allowing a QB that's never attempted a collegiate pass to build confidence with each uncontested throw to the flat for 10-15 yard gains. Granted, if our defensive backs made an open field tackle at any point in the game, perhaps the yards after catch would have been less...nonetheless, why give a freebie to a newbie? Why not make the guy figure out where the next blitz in coming from? Why not bring more rushers than they have blockers and let your cover men run with receivers? Give the corners and safeties the opportunity to run stride for stride with WAC receivers (cause God knows they couldn't tackle WAC RB's) and make a Frosh QB beat you down the field repeatedly with precision passing under pressure? Sorry...I don't get the philosophy!”

I cannot say it much better than that. It would also seem that playing a more gambling style of defense would fit in better with our offensive philosophy as well. We gamble and we can either get a quick three and out or give up a big play. However if we give up a big play we get our offense who wants to run as many plays as possible back on the field. The worst possible outcome appears to me is to give up multiple 15+ play drives for scores. Of course I wanted to fire Ted Roof last year when we were winning every game because of this stupid philosophy (and the year before). It has been the same for three years and the only question is how long we are going to have to suffer through it before a change is made. Last year our defense got the job done but it could have been a lot better. Case in point was the national championship game where Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage like few teams ever have yet still gave up almost 400 YARDS PASSING.

Unfortunately I think these last few paragraphs will become a reoccurring theme throughout the season. First the coaching is awful but even if by some miracle it improves I am not sure we have talent to stop most of the good teams we will play this season. Hopefully Carter and Whitaker can play better than Saturday and maybe true frosh Blackson, Sigler and Wright are all good players and can grow up fast. Hopefully Eltoro Freeman and somebody else stepping up can save our linebackers. If not, the only solution is to recruit more defensive tackles and bigger linebackers and a lot of them and then bring in somebody who can coach them up.

Offensively, there were not many surprises either. I was not a Barrett Trotter fan to begin with but he has won me over by his play every time he has gotten into a game since A-Day last year. I have seen a lot of backup quarterbacks come into games over the years and not many of them displayed the mental toughness Trotter has shown. He displayed it again on Saturday helping rally Auburn to the win.

I also knew that Trooper Taylor would have his guys ready and it looks like Emory Blake and Travante Stallworth are ready to step in for Adams and Zachary. Trovon Reed also showed glimpses of the playmaker he has been hyped to be for two years. Unfortunately it appears Auburn will become increasingly reliant on Trotter and these wide receivers.

We know Dyer and McCalebb are playmakers but their great plays last season (and for McCalebb the season before as well) were made behind one of the best offensive lines in Auburn history. The current Auburn offensive line looks pedestrian at best. Like our current linebacking crew you just do not see any All-SEC talent on this line. I cannot say that about Christian Westerman and Greg Robinson and maybe some of these other young guys will grow up like Mike Berry and Byron Isom did but right now it does not look good. This looks like an average offensive line at best that has never played together before. They are not going to be able to impose their will running the ball like last year’s group. I do not think that is a stretch when you cannot even rush for 100 yards as a team against Utah State.

My official prediction for this season was 6-6 but right now I am having a hard time finding six wins. I still think it is possible but if so it has to begin this Saturday against State. State is stronger than usual but they are not a powerhouse and we have them at home. Considering the fact that I do not think we have much of a chance against some of our bigger rivals this year I think this game against State is much bigger than usual.

Saturdays to Remember… and Forget... The Decade of the 80s Part 1

2011-07-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

The name for this blog comes from the book “Saturdays To Remember” written by David Housel in the 1970s. In my opinion it is the definitive work on the greatest games of the Shug Jordan era at Auburn. Also while Housel tells the story of these games he also weaves in all the history of that season, info on other teams and much more. I read the book over and over in junior high and high school. I loved reading it and still do. Just about all of my knowledge of that era comes from that book. If you can get a copy of this classic I wholeheartedly recommend it. Though David Housel made some mistakes when he was AD at Auburn there is no doubt he is an Auburn man through-and-through.

The other mandatory parts of an Auburn collection in my opinion after “Saturdays To Remember” (Coach Jordan) is “The Decade of the 80s” video (Coach Dye) along with the 1993 and 2004 season videos (Bowden and Tuberville’s best seasons). With that said though it is the offseason and it is the time for lists and trips down memory lane. So… I have decided to take one of those strolls and talk about some of the “Saturdays to Remember” from my almost 30 years of watching Auburn football. This installment will cover the first half of the 80s. I will also have to talk about some “Saturdays to Forget” because there are a few of those as well.

The book “Saturdays to Remember” ends with the 1972 “Punt Bama Punt” game. While Coach Jordan had a couple more good seasons, that game really marked the final great point of his career. There is simply not much good to say about the Doug Barfield era except for the "ABC" of great Auburn running backs in William Andrews, James Brooks and Joe Cribbs. They were great but the teams were not. It is the low point of modern Auburn football history. Auburn had several mediocre seasons including NCAA probation before completely bottoming out in 1980 going 0-6 in the SEC. Meanwhile Auburn’s two biggest rivals, Georgia and Alabama, won SEC and mythical national championships in 1978 (Bama), 1979 (Bama) and 1980 (Georgia).

One good memory from the Doug Barfield era for me was I attended my first Auburn football game. My first game was the 1978 Auburn vs. Georgia game. This game was also memorable for several other reasons. First, we came out in orange jerseys. I remember thinking we look like Tennessee. Second, the game ended in a tie, 22-22. My first game ever was a tie between Auburn and Georgia. Finally, I remember by dad being upset because I got him to take me to the concession stand and we missed a Joe Cribbs touchdown run. So I learned the golden rule of watching football games at the stadium right off and that rule is if you have to get up and miss some of the game, do it while we are on defense.

The situation when Coach Dye took over in 1980 was dire indeed. Auburn had seemingly nothing going for it at that time. Those who poke fun and disrespect Coach Dye now as an older man would do good to watch Coach Dye then. He was one tough SOB. As told in the “Decade of the 80s” video, the spring and fall workouts for Dye’s first team were legendary tough. He talked about building a foundation and he was obviously right. The results were seen in the years to follow.

At the exact time Coach Dye took over, my life as an Auburn fan really started. I turned 12 years old and started junior high school in the fall of 1981, Coach Dye’s first season. I had of course grown up listening to Auburn football on the radio with my Dad. College football was not on TV near as much in the 1970s and Auburn was on much less. Even in the 1980s college football on television was nothing like it is now. However our family started buying season tickets in 1983. That started an 18 year run for me where the amount of home games I missed I could count on two hands and I travelled to every campus in the SEC except for Arkansas and Florida. During that time I also graduated high school and college, started my career and got married. All while being completely obsessed with Auburn football…

1981

A Saturday to Remember…

I may have gone down for a game this season but I cannot remember. It was only one if I did. I do not remember a whole lot about this season except what I have seen in the “Decade of the 80s” video. With that said the game that sticks out to me is the Tennessee game where Pat Dye gave his first legendary speech. Auburn lost 10-7 to Tennessee in Knoxville but nearly won it driving down to the Tennessee goal line in the closing seconds. This is probably the only “Saturday To Remember” I will list that is a loss. However it signaled that this team and any team fielded by Coach Dye was going to fight and scratch and claw and get back up “again and again and again”. Auburn then did prove it again the next week hanging with a highly ranked Nebraska team in Lincoln.

A Saturday to Forget…
This was the year Bear Bryant broke the all-time coaching victories record against Auburn, 28-17. I remember watching this game on TV. It was definitely a Saturday to forget.

1982

A Saturday to Remember…
When Pat Dye came to Auburn he was asked how long it would take to beat Alabama. Dye’s famous response was “60 minutes”. Those “60 minutes” came in November of 1982. Auburn broke their 10-game losing streak to Bama and beat Bear Bryant in his last regular season game 23-22. “Bo over the top” was the signature play and Pat Dye’s “I am going to go back out there and thank our people” was the signature quote. My family watched it on TV and I just remember the absolute jubilation after it was over. You can definitely use the term “Auburn Family” for that day because if they were wearing orange and blue, they were family. It was a monumental game and marked the “turning of the tide” in the Iron Bowl. Bama had dominated the series in the Bryant era but since this game it is Auburn up 16-12 as of 2010. However it all started here in one of Auburn’s greatest “Saturdays to Remember”.

Honorable mention: Auburn went on to beat Boston College in a battle of future Heisman Trophy winners (Bo Jackson and Doug Flutie) in the Tangerine Bowl 33-26.

A Saturday to Forget…
Auburn would be back in the elite of college football the very next season in 1983 but the scrappy ’82 team was not quite ready yet. They only had one bad game all season and in it top-ten ranked Nebraska came to Jordan-Hare and laid a complete beat down on Auburn 41-7.

1983

A Saturday to Remember…
There were a lot of Saturdays to remember this season and I was at many of them . Auburn went 11-1, won the SEC outright and should have won the mythical national championship. They played the hardest schedule in the nation and possibly one of the hardest schedules of all time. Auburn played EIGHT BOWL TEAMS out of 11 games in 1983 and that was when there was only 16 bowl games (!!!). There were some incredible games that year. Auburn crushed Tennessee in Knoxville. They beat Florida St in the closing seconds taking the lead on an absolutely epic drive. I remember I had a soccer game that day and my dad and I were listening to the game driving back from it. They had to play 7th ranked Maryland for HOMECOMING and won that game as well.

It is just not possible to single out one game this magical season so I will go with three. The best Saturdays to remember this season were the “Amen Corner” games. I believe it was around this time that Coach Dye used the term “Amen Corner” for Auburn’s former traditional last 3 conference games of Florida, Georgia and Bama. Auburn swept “Amen Corner” this season when TWO of the teams were ranked in the top FIVE and the other was ranked in the top 20 (!!!). It is a nearly impossible task to accomplish each season and one of the reasons Auburn did not have more success before the SEC went to divisions in my opinion. If Alabama had had to play Florida and Georgia plus Auburn to end every season I guarantee they would have a lot less SEC championships and missed out on some of those mythical national championships.

The Auburn vs. Florida game was the biggest SEC game that year at Jordan Hare and one of the biggest games ever played at Jordan Hare period. Auburn was ranked 4th in the nation and Florida was ranked 5th. It was an epic showdown. I remember that an unbelievable amount of players that played in this game played in the NFL. It was a game between two heavyweights that Auburn won 28-21. I remember the awesome runs by Bo Jackson and Florida fumbling the ball just as they were about to go in for a touchdown. It was the biggest game I had ever seen in person.

Auburn then had to go on the road to beat 4th ranked Georgia 13-7 to claim the SEC championship. The images of Bo and Lionel James with some hedge and Coach Dye licking the sugar off the football are absolutely classic. It had been a long time coming. However no season would be complete without a victory over the Tide. Auburn beat 19th ranked Bama 23-20 and everyone got to see one of the greatest performances by a running back in SEC history. Bo Jackson rushed for 256 yards and nearly single-handedly won the game for Auburn. It was Bo's greatest game in my opinion.

It was also the last Iron Bowl I ever watched with Bama fans. I remember Ricky Moore going up-the-middle to put the Tide ahead and all the Bama fans I was with going crazy and yelling “Roll Tide” over and over. I sat there stewing. Luckily I did not have to stew long. On the first or second play of the next series, Bo went 80 yards to put Auburn ahead for good. I went absolutely crazy yelling “War Eagle!”. Another interesting fact about this game was that part of the second half was played during a tornado warning.

The 1983 team went on to beat Michigan in the Sugar Bowl 9-7 on Al Del Greco’s famous game winning kick. They were then robbed of the mythical national championship. Auburn was #3 and won their game. Texas at #2, the only team that had beaten Auburn, lost to Georgia (a team Auburn had beaten) and #1 Nebraska lost to #5 Miami. The pollsters then went with Miami simply because of NBC hyping the game to be for the “national championship” and the fact that it was a classic game. Miami’s schedule was not even remotely close to Auburn’s schedule. They went 10-1 just like Auburn but were smoked by Florida (a team Auburn beat) and played an easier schedule.

A Saturday to Forget…
There was only one this season as I mentioned earlier and that was the Texas game. Auburn lost 20-7. I was at this game and other than losing all I remember was how hot it was. This was either the hottest or second hottest game I have ever been to. It was just miserable. I think the hottest game I have ever been to was a game we played against Ole Miss in Jackson, Mississippi that was in 1990. I remember the concession areas running out of drinks at both games and people having to be carted out.

1984

A Saturday to Remember…
Auburn opened the season ranked #1 in the nation. However we were starting a brand new quarterback and opened the season with two very tough games on the road. First Auburn played 10th ranked Miami in the old Kickoff Classic and then travelled to Texas to play the 4th ranked Longhorns. Auburn ended up losing two close games and losing Bo Jackson for most of the season.

Auburn rebounded to win 8 out of their next 9 games losing only to Florida. The most obvious Saturday to remember from this season was the unbelievable shootout between Auburn and Florida St in Tallahassee that Auburn won 42-41. It is arguably the most exciting crazy win in Auburn history. However the game was not on TV. I remember listening to it with my family. My dad was trying to install a new microwave oven and having trouble. He finally gave up as the back-and-forth game was just too much. It was an awesome game.

However, for me, my Saturday to remember was the Tennessee game. It was my first Tennessee game to watch in person. Tennessee was always one of my favorite rivals and that made it tough when we lost them as a regular rival when the SEC went to divisions. The Tennessee game was nearly always the third game of the season and always showed whether Auburn was a contender or a pretender. By the third game of the season it is time to find out. Some of Auburn’s teams recovered from a Tennessee loss to win a championship but it was usually a big indicator. The LSU game neatly replaced it and became the exact same indicator till they recently moved the game to later in the season. But back to the past…

Auburn came in still down from those opening two losses and without Bo Jackson. However the Tigers played great defense and a little used running back named Kyle Collins had his best game ever and Auburn won 29-10.

A Saturday to Forget…
I would definitely like to forget this Saturday. I still have to shake my head when I remember this game. This was the infamous “Wrong Way Bo” game where Auburn lost to Bama 17-15. However that play is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this game. First, not only was Auburn playing for another Iron Bowl win but a win would also clinch another SEC title and a trip to the Sugar Bowl. Second, this was the worst Bama team since the 1950s. They were 4-6 coming into the game and had just lost to Southern Miss at home.

This was also my first Iron Bowl in person. It was a beautiful day. I remember wearing my brand new Auburn satin jacket to the stadium but then it being too warm to keep it on. I remember being so excited walking to Legion Field. Of course as soon as we got seated I heard the Bama band playing a cheer and the fans chanting something after it. As a young guy at my first Iron Bowl I was at that time not familiar with any of Bama’s traditions. I soon figured out that the cheer was “Rammer Jammer” and they were chanting “we’re going to beat the hell out of you”. It is still to this day the most obnoxious classless cheer. Congrats Bama.

There was simply no way Auburn should have lost this game. It was one of the few times that Auburn was way more talented than Bama but Bama came out and played more physical. However even with their great effort Auburn was inside the Bama five yard line in the 4th quarter poised to take the lead. It was 4th and 1 and Auburn was down 17-15. A field goal is basically extra point length and it would give Auburn the lead. It was not like Bama had a great offense. Kicking the field goal is the only call at this point in the game in my opinion. IT GIVES YOU THE LEAD. Pat Dye did not see it that way and then went and made one of the most controversial calls of his career at Auburn and maybe in Auburn history and went for it. I still think the “Wrong Way Bo” play should have never happened. We should have kicked the field goal. We didn’t and the rest is history. I had to walk out of my first ever Iron Bowl after that mess. Little did I know it would get ever worse the next year.

1985

A Saturday to Remember…
The obvious one this year was Auburn’s 24-10 win at 12th ranked Georgia where Bo Jackson clinched the Heisman Trophy. Just like Pat Sullivan 14 years before, Bo had to do it the tough way in Athens against a good Georgia team. His long touchdown run that clinched it will forever be ingrained in my memory.

His other great touchdown run from this season that I will always remember was the long touchdown run he had to beat Georgia Tech 17-14. It was the run where 2 or 3 Georgia Tech defenders had the angle on Bo but he was just too fast. Jim Fyffe helped immortalize it with his famous "Bye Bye Bo" call on the radio. Auburn also smoked Florida State as well 59-27 in Auburn. In that game Bo ran over a freshman cornerback for Florida St named... Deion Sanders. Two of the greatest athletes ever shared the field one time in college.

Honorable mention: Those were some great games that I mentioned above but the season opener is one I will also never forget. Auburn opened ranked #2 in the nation and played Southwestern Louisiana and I was there. I do not think I have ever seen a team more outmanned. I mean Bo was video-game Bo that day. He was literally a man among boys. He finished the day with 290 yards rushing but could have had 500 yards rushing . Coach Dye took him out early in the second half I believe and was down to playing scout team guys by the end of the game. I just wish he could have gotten one more good run so he would hold the single season Auburn record. By the way, that is a good trivia question, who does hold the Auburn single game rushing record? I would never have guessed it.

A Saturday to Forget…
There were a few bad ones this year. The first came in Knoxville as Auburn once again rose to #1 in the land and then got steamrolled by the Vols. That started the Sports Illustrated smear campaign against Bo Jackson because he dared take himself out of a game that was out of hand. Never mind that he played in the Texas game the year before with a separated shoulder and played the Bama game this season with bruised ribs. Auburn also lost a tough game at home to Florida. Florida had some great teams in 1984 and 1985 but they were discredited due to major NCAA violations.

However the one I would REALLY like to forget was Bama. After enduring “Wrong Way Bo” the year before I had to suffer through the stupid Van Tiffin kick this year. This is another one of the worst losses I have ever been through as an Auburn fan. I actually re-watched this debacle on ESPN Classic a few years ago. I only watched because I wanted to watch Bo however I did re-watch the end. It was unbelievable. I knew how it was going to end but still thought there was no way we could lose. I am sitting there again 15 years later wondering how in the heck we lost this game??? Auburn scored to take the lead 23-22 and Bama got the ball back deep in their territory (the 14 yard line I think) with only 37 SECONDS left in the game. They strike out on first and second down I believe and are in 3rd and long still deep in their territory with even less time left (!!!). Auburn then goes into the super loose prevent defense and allows Mike Shula to complete a long pass over the middle and then allows the Bama wide receiver to run all the way across the field and get out of bounds. It has to be one of the worst displays of late-game defense I have ever seen. Bama then completes another pass and the rest is history. Tiffin kicks a 53 yard field goal to win the game for Bama 25-23.

The thing I remember most about the game are the moments after the stupid field goal. The Bama fans were literally losing their minds going absolutely crazy. The upper deck at Legion Field on which we were sitting was literally shaking. It was absolute hell getting out of the stadium and getting back to our car. I remember feeling absolutely numb on the ride back home. The season got even worse a month later when Auburn was routed by Jackie Sherill and Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl.

Bo had won the Heisman and he did his job against Bama with 150 yards rushing and also had a good game in the Cotton Bowl but the season definitely ended on a down note. My one regret though is not enjoying and really soaking up Bo’s play more. However I was a junior in high school and had all of that drama. Bo ended up rushing for 1,786 yards, which was the second best single-season performance in SEC history and he averaged 6.4 yards per rush, which at the time was the best single-season average in SEC history. He was a once-in-a-lifetime player. He will probably always be my favorite. I am not an autograph guy. However, Bo Jackson in the summer after his sophomore year, for some reason, came by the place my grandmother worked in Birmingham. She got my brother and I his autograph and it is one of my most prized possessions. “To Michael and Jeff from Bo Jackson #34 War Eagle”. War Eagle to you Bo, you will always be one of the best.

The "A" in A-Day is now for wAste of time

2011-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

I now hold it as a point of pride that I saw the last real A-Day at Auburn. I believe it was 1988 when I was still a student at Auburn. Starting quarterback Reggie Slack was tiptoeing down the sidelines trying to pick up some extra yardage when starting safety and big hit man Carlo Cheatum just laid him out knocking him out of the game. Yes I understand the stupidity of getting your quarterback hurt in a scrimmage game and so on but I also know that whenever a football player steps between the lines even wearing a no-contact jersey there is a chance he gets hurt. I also would like to see an A-Day that somewhat resembles a real game. Those days are long gone.

Now I will recognize that the 2011 Auburn squad is a special case. After losing a whopping 35 players in the offseason for various reasons this Auburn team is about as thin as it gets and can ill afford to get any player on the two-deep hurt. Everyone knew that no critical starter would play past the first or second series. However not getting to watch anyone but walk-ons play a substantial part of the game is just part of the problem. The other part is the ridiculously vanilla play calling. Coach Gus Malzahn verified this fact again stating after the game that they did not want to show any of our opponents anything.

Again I understand what he is saying and after watching the lengths those who hate Auburn will go (see my last post) he definitely has a legitimate point. However I think he needs to take it a little further. After watching the lengths certain Bama interests will go to attack Auburn there is no doubt in my mind that they can get video of any closed practice. Heck they probably have a "sleeper agent" as one of the team managers. Anybody who thinks I am exaggerating has not been paying attention. With that in mind I think Auburn might be better off calling some crazy stuff to make it harder for future opponents to prepare for us by giving them a lot to think about.

The main point is that if we cannot get anyone hurt and we cannot show anybody anything, what is the point of playing the game? I guess it is to give about 50,000 people a reason to come to Auburn, tailgate on hopefully a nice day and spend money. Mission accomplished I guess on that front.

As for the "quarterback race" that has been the media storyline for the game, I think Barrett Trotter is the clear starter. I do not think it is a race. Trotter looked great last A-Day and I do not think anything has changed other than the one quarterback on our roster better than him has left. He has looked poised and unafraid every time he has come into a game. This comes from a guy who was never a fan of Trotter before I saw him play. Hopefully Moseley will be a capable backup and maybe Kiehl Frazier will be good enough to get in and add something in the fall.

As for the rest of the team, other than some minor shuffling most of the starting lineup is set simply because we do not have many players. There might be some freshmen that come in and add some depth in the fall but that is about it. The 2011 season will probably be a tough one but no matter what they will be the defending SEC and National Champions.

Enough is ENOUGH

2011-04-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

I have finally hit the wall. It is simply ridiculous the lengths certain people will go to to make Auburn look bad. I will not dignify the whole HBO garbage with much as it was a complete hatchet job and just as biased or more than I am. As I told somebody the other day, the NCAA can do whatever they want but someone trying to pass that garbage as the lowest level of journalism is a joke. You always show at least one snippet showing the opposite point of view (especially when you interviewed hundreds of Auburn players trying to find the final four with the axes to grind). Not only did HBO not do that but I heard they opened with Tyrone Prothro talking about how clean Bama is when they committed confirmed NCAA violations the year they won the national championship but nobody ever talks about that. However when I heard the executive producer for HBO Sports was a Bama grad it all started to make sense.

The point of this post was really to point you to Track'em Tigers where Jay Coulter wrote an outstanding article on Auburn's current predicament and what they need to do about it. I agree wholeheartedly with Jay and he is spot on right. The Auburn leadership sure need to listen.

Finally, I started this post with the national championship logo as a tribute to all the Auburn haters out there and now I want to end this post with these thoughts as they continue to be the last word for me on this subject...

Signing Day Review - State of the Program

2011-02-06T10:43:00.000-08:00

Last year at this time I wrote a blog post with the same title. Signing Day just seems like a good time to do a "state of the program" look at Auburn football along with looking at the newest class of Auburn Tigers who will go a long way toward determining how the program does in the coming years. The first thing I made clear last year is that here at STR I like to stick with big picture common sense looks at the Auburn football program or whatever else. For detailed breakdowns on the actual recruits please check out one of the sites I have in my "Auburn Links".

The state of Auburn's football program is about the best it can be after going undefeated, winning the SEC championship and winning the national championship game plus adding another Heisman Trophy and about a dozen other player and coaching awards. It was an unbelievable run and an incredible job of coaching and recruiting. The only negative to be found now is having to deal with the void left by Tommy Tuberville's last two awful recruiting classes. The current coaching staff has gone a long way toward filling that void through two top five recruiting classes however it is still going to hurt some. I will also say that Tommy Tuberville deserves a lot more credit than he is being given for this year's national championship team but again he will deserve a lot of blame for the lack of juniors and seniors the next two years.

Last year I started out pointing out that I was not as enamored with coach Chizik as the rest of the masses. One SEC and national championship later I guess I have to say coach Chizik has proven himself. I will say as I did last year that time will still tell the whole story. Coach Chizik will now always hold a special elite place in Auburn history but time will tell how great his legacy will be.

I made it clear in my post last year that winning the division and winning in Atlanta was the ultimate goal and determination of success for an SEC coach. I said Gene Chizik must reach that goal to be considered a good coach. Well he did and he has now entered that exclusive club of coaches who have an SEC Championship game ring. Now the question is can he entere an even more exclusive club and that is coaches who have won multiple SEC championship games. That list right now only includes: Steve Spurrier, Phillip Fulmer, Mark Richt, Urban Meyer and Nick $aban.

Last year I gave major kudos to coach Chizik for keeping his staff completely intact. I wrote: "I have to give major kudos to Chizik for keeping the staff together. In today’s big-time college football (and after watching the Tommy Tuberville staff merry-go-round for a decade) it is pretty amazing to see any staff stay completely intact for consecutive seasons. Even if you throw out the performance factor, you have to be amazed the personality factor did not rear its ugly head especially for a first year staff. A football staff is a pretty large group and many times some of the coaches just do not mesh. Auburn has seemingly hired a good football staff and kept them together going into a second season."

You can multiply those kudos many times for keeping this staff completely intact for a third season AFTER WINNING THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP (!!!). I boldly predicted before the season that Malzahn would be gone and he would have if the right opportunity would have come along but lucky for Auburn it did not (a monster raise did not hurt either). I am shocked that a program has not come along and made a move for Trooper Taylor. He is a phenomenal coach and recruiter. Somehow someway Auburn was able to keep these guys together and they will definitely be needed next year.

The coaching staff not only led Auburn to SEC and national championships but they also just pulled in their second consensus top five recruiting class. Last year they were #4, #5 and #4 in ESPN, Scout and Rivals. This year they are #3, #2 and #7 (???) in ESPN, Scout and Rivals. Recruiting is not an exact science but is an indicator of the job the coaches are doing. On the field and on the recruiting trail this coaching staff is excelling.

As coach Chizik stated this week, this recruiting class "scratched all the right itches" loading up on offensive linemen and defensive backs. It also appears that there is a lot of talent in those groups. I still wanted that true left tackle but hopefully that void can be filled with the talent in-house. The biggest area of need outside of those two positions was at defensive tackle. A couple of good prospects were brought in with this class but I wish they could have gotten a couple more. Also included in this class was the probable quarterback of the future, a couple more good wide receivers and linebackers plus some highly rated athletes that can help where needed. All in all, a very good looking class. Add to that fact that the majority of the class is from Alabama and Georgia and it looks even better. For the first time since Nick $aban came to Tuscaloosa Auburn got more of the top ten recruits in-state than Bama did. Another huge accomplishment for this coaching staff.

My only big concern after getting this recruiting class is defensive tackle. I do not think many people understand how dire the situation is. We now have only two true defensive tackles ON THE ENTIRE TEAM before these freshmen come in the fall. Kenneth Carter and Jeffrey Whitaker are it. Coach Tracy Rocker did everything he could to get these guys ready giving them a lot of playing time however the jury is still out on them in my opinion. It is still unknown whether they are really true SEC-caliber starters but right now Auburn has no other options. Journeymen Derrick Lykes and Jamar Travis who "back them up" on the depth chart are certainly not SEC-caliber. Tracy Rocker will once again have to get true freshmen ready to back up his starters however this time his starters are not Nick Fairley and two seniors but two true sophomores. Just as I guessed from looking at the depth chart I heard the coaches will look at moving Nosa Egaue inside but defensive tackle still looks like a glaring weak spot for this Auburn team next season. The player Auburn will miss the most is not Cam Newton but Nick Fairley.

Let me take a very short moment to address the ridiculous Cyrus Kouandjio situation that went down this week. First I will say I am sickened at the hypocrisy of the media and some Bama fans after Bama used two player's parents and families to turn them at the last moment and NOBODY SAYS ANYTHING while everybody piled on Cecil Newton all season. The words "hypocrite" and "two faced" do not even seem to cover it anymore. For me I have tried to keep recruiting at an arms-length since it just consumes me as I know how important it is. However I got caught up in the whole Kouandjio debacle. The SEC has hit a new low as now you cannot even get excited when a kid announces he will attend a school on ESPN. I learned my lesson well and I will make SURE in the future to not get excited about any prospect till his LOI is in the house.

It hit me on Friday that Kouandjio made up his mind to go to Bama in those fateful hours after his "announcement" but was waiting to send in his LOI so he could do it right next to the Super Bowl to cover up the crime. Everyone's focus is on the Super Bowl and not what Bama did to "get him back in line". Again everyone piles on Auburn and Cecil Newton all year and then two highly rated prospects commit to Auburn and their parents are outright hostile toward their own kids and no one says anything. However as a friend told me, Auburn is national champions and has a great offensive line class without Kouandjio. Why let this situation get us upset? I have learned my lesson. Again I will continue to keep recruiting at an arm's length and only get excited about a player when his LOI is in the house.

Final words... the state of the program is great but I believe Auburn will have a tough season next year. Auburn has a lot of talent but will be breaking in a new quarterback and will have almost completely new offensive and defensive lines. Auburn will do this and face a brutal schedule. The schedule includes road games against Clemson, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia while Florida rolls back on the schedule and of course Bama will still be very good. I think people are underestimating how tough this job will be next season. However with a battle-tested coaching staff and two top recruiting classes, maybe there will be some good surprises next year as well. Regardless I will certainly enjoy the offseason as Auburn sits on top of the college football world.

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

2011-02-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

After a year of Cam Newton and with Barrett Trotter and Kiehl Frazier in the house, four years of slow-footed weak-armed #12 quarterbacks Brandon Cox and Chris Todd were looking like they were well behind us... till I heard yesterday that Chris Todd has a brother who will be entering the college ranks next year!!! Please, PLEASE Gene do not even think about bringing this guy in either next year or when he is transferring a year later...

Who has the better football program?

2011-01-16T07:53:00.000-08:00

Auburn not only won the SEC and national championship. Auburn not only came back from 24-0 down to beat Bama in Tuscaloosa. Auburn not only matched Bama's undefeated championship run that included a Heisman. Auburn not only did it in a season when Bama started the season #1. Auburn's monster season makes things look a lot different overall in the state now. This information has been making its rounds on the Internet and definitely deserves some more attention. Thirty years is a long time and pretty much encapsulates modern football. Lets take a look at some facts from these years, again just the facts...

National Titles since 1981
Auburn: 1 (2010)
Bama: 2 (1992, 2009)

SEC Titles since 1981
Auburn: 6 (1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, 2004, 2010)
Bama: 5 (1981, 1989, 1992, 1999, 2009)

Undefeated Seasons
Auburn: 3 (1993, 2004, 2010)
Bama: 2 (1992, 2009)

Iron Bowl Wins
Auburn: 16 (1982, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010)
Bama: 13 (1981, 1984, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2009)

Total Wins Since 1981
Auburn: 254 (11th nationally)
Bama: 226 (22nd nationally) This accounts for 30 wins they had to forfeit due to NCAA sanctions.

SEC Wins since 1981
Auburn: 141
Bama: 129

Bowls since 1981
Auburn: 22 (15-6-1)
Bama: 19 (12-7)

Heisman Trophy Winners since 1981
Auburn: 2
Bama: 1

NCAA Probations since 1981
Auburn: 1
Bama: 3

To sum all that up, since 1981 Auburn has won more SEC titles, won more games, won more SEC games, had more undefeated seasons, won more Iron Bowls, been to more bowls, won more bowl games, and had more Heisman Trophy winners than Bama.

Finally as many Bama fans have gone on and on about allegations against Cam Newton they have also been convicted of breaking the rules more than Auburn.

I think the facts here speak for themselves.

I think this about sums it up...

2011-01-14T18:27:00.000-08:00

This is from Jerry Hinnen at War Blog Eagle who returned with a vengeance today. Here is the complete post and here is a strike that compares with Cam's Hail Mary at the SEC Championship game...

"I used to care about whether or not Auburn won a national championship with an ineligible player. I used to think we’d owe the rest of college football an apology if we did, in fact, find out that someone had cheated on Auburn’s behalf to help us win that championship. And I’ll still feel bad for Oregon.

But after spending three straight months seeing Auburn and the Newtons crapped on at every conceivable opportunity, after seeing our program given less-than-zero benefit of the doubt on anything, after seeing writer after writer decide that they’d rather award our team an asterisk than award them credit, college football can kiss my burnt orange-and-navy blue ass.

Our team went to Glendale and won. Their team didn’t. We got to go to Glendale and celebrate. They didn’t. And there’s not a damn thing they or anyone else, the NCAA included, can do about that. Which is why I’ve spent the entire week laughing, laughing, laughing."

Yep I think that about sums it up.

Auburn wins the National Championship

2011-01-11T11:36:00.000-08:00

Auburn rolled over Oregon to win the National Championship 22-19. Just like Michael Dyer rolled over an Oregon defender to make the biggest play of the game. Just like Nick Fairley rolled over (and through) the Oregon offensive line again and again. Just like Gene Chizik rolled over all the criticism of him by everyone (including myself) when he was hired. Just like Cam Newton rolled over the most scrutiny ever put on one player in the history of college football to help Auburn win one more. Just like Auburn's defense rolled over the #1 offense in the country to 75 yards rushing and 19 points.

The 2010 Auburn football Tigers finished a season for the ages in their customary cardiac style winning on a last second field goal by Wes Byrum. It was an incredible ending to an incredible season and here is what I thought about it...

THE GOOD
I have to start with the defense led by Nick Fairley. The job they did against the nation's #1 offense that everyone has gone on about all season was mind blowing. Auburn completely shut down the vaunted Oregon rushing attack and the nation's best running back in LaMichael James. Auburn dominated the line of scrimmage. Props to my man "The Rock" Tracy Rocker. Once again he had his guys ready to play. Rocker has truly made the leap from great player to great coach and has done a similar great job with Nick Fairley that Malzahn has done with Cam Newton. Of course, just like the rest of the season, the pass defense was weak at times and Oregon rolled up almost 400 yards passing. However the defense got it done when it counted holding the Ducks to 19 points.

Next up is offensive MVP Michael Dyer. I just kept saying over and over again about halfway through the first quarter: "Where is Dyer?". It was obvious that he would be the key in this game and not McCalebb. They finally started feeding the big dog and he delivered. He did it of course behind the best offensive line to ever play at Auburn. Ziemba, Pugh, Berry and Isom delivered one more time paving the way for the team to rush for 265 yards and roll up over 500 yards of offense one more time. I was surprised that the Ducks stopped us a couple of times. They did play some good defense. Finally, Cam Newton delivered one more time with a couple more great passes and couple more great runs. He did not have his usual dominating game but he still was the focal point of the offense and it looked like he played most of the second half in a lot of pain. Of course the layoff destroyed his passing touch but more on that later.

Finally, it was another great job by the coaching staff led by Gene Chizik. It takes a heck of a coaching job to lead a team to 14 wins in the SEC. These guys obviously worked their tails off and helped this team achieve greatness. They did what coaches are supposed to do in helping develop their players and leading them through tough times. A player does not come from the JUCO ranks and achieve greatness like Newton and Fairley without great coaching. An offensive line, even one this good, does not perform at this level without good coaching. The same goes for the defensive line. Congratulations to the coaches and players, you guys earned this with your hard work.

I have to also say how awesome it was seeing Bo Jackson on the sidelines and Pat Dye up on that podium. Coach Dye built the foundation at Auburn for great teams like the 1993 team, the 2004 team and now this team and Bo Jackson was maybe the biggest part of that. Both of them have remained steadfastly loyal to Auburn and both deserve to be there and enjoy this team and this season. They built the foundation.

THE BAD
The bad is that this magical season is over. Yes it was a tough one in some respects and some of the fun was taken out with all the Cam stuff and our bad pass defense but it was a great one. It was unlike any other I have ever seen in almost 40 years of watching Auburn football. Personally I still do not think this team is the best to ever play at Auburn but they have achieved more than any other team that wore the blue jerseys. I do think this is the best offense ever at Auburn and it has been incredible watching them especially Cam Newton as he put up the greatest single season in Auburn history.

There were so many great games and plays, so many. It is hard to summarize them. There was the coming out party against Arkansas State where everyone was introduced to Cam Newton. There was the trap game in Starkville on a Thursday night against one of the best State teams maybe ever. There was maybe the hardest hitting game I have ever seen against Clemson and the gut twisting overtime. There was the comeback against South Carolina where Cam took flight and offensive line and defense rose up. There were well deserved breaks against Louisiana Monroe and Chattanooga where all the guys behind the scenes got to play.

There was the two game gauntlet of Arkansas and LSU where the team showed it could be great. The Arkansas game was truly a once in a lifetime game. I have never had a game just wring me out like that game. I think it will stand for all time as the highest scoring game in Auburn history. I will never forget making my first trip to Auburn this season for the LSU game. I got to same Cam's signature Heisman run in person but the play that I will also never forget was Ontario McCalebb's run to win the game. The Ole Miss game featured Auburn defending their new #1 ranking and Cam catching his first and only touchdown pass.

Finally there was Amen Corner. Georgia had won four in a row over Auburn and Bama was the defending national champion. I got to make the trip to the Georgia game and got to see Auburn and Cam make another huge comeback at home. I got to soak up the incredible atmosphere at Jordan Hare one more time. There was just something special going on at Jordan Hare this season. The intro, the songs, the fourth quarter opening run to the student section and the parties afterward. I will never forget sitting together with my son, my parents and my brother celebrating a win over Georgia and winning the SEC West. Then there was the Iron Bowl and the greatest comeback in Auburn and maybe SEC history. Down 24-0 I certainly thought it was over. I did not think there was any way but somehow this team found a way. I think that will be their legacy. I think that is how Auburn people will remember them.

THE UGLY
First and foremost let me say that bowls can be a great experience. I know many people in the Auburn family had a great experience in Arizona and watching on their television. It may be one of their greatest experiences. I do not want to take anything away from that. However last night proved to me again that this system AS A WAY OF CROWNING A CHAMPION in maybe the largest sports entity outside the NFL is a complete and utter joke. The only feeling I had immediately following the game was relief. It was a relief that this stupid system did not take anything away from another great Auburn season. Hopefully it never will again.

I have said it before and I will say it again: "What if the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburg Steelers waited 40 days after the NFL championship games to play the Super Bowl? What if the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers waited 40 days after the NBA conference final series to play the NBA Finals? What if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal waited 40 days to play a Grand Slam final after winning the semi-finals? The answer to all those questions is that it would stink and the two teams or players would NOT BE THE SAME as the ones that ended the season."

That statement was proven to be true against last night. After five minutes it was obvious Auburn was the better team. It was obvious if Auburn had played Oregon the week after the SEC Championship Game Auburn would have blown them out. However like just about every other big bowl game, the passing game suffered. Cam missed on several passes that would have blown the game wide open that he was regularly hitting in the last three games of the season. The conference championship games are real post season games because their particpants get in through an objective system and they are played immediately following the season. The BCS is a complete failure because its participants get into it by a completely flawed subjective system of computer and popularity polls and then they wait over a month to play it.

I am glad we won the game last night because comments like these would only have been interpreted as sour grapes if we would have lost. I enjoyed the SEC Championship Game more and am more proud of it because of the reasons above. It is just sad that so much is put on this completely flawed system and as I said in my last post "the only thing sadder than making these games too big is continually trying to inflate your opinion of your team and yourself by going on and on about how many of these "titles" your team can claim". I am much more impressed with SEC championships won since 1992. However I am happy for the players and the Auburn family because regardless of how bad the system is you want to end any season especially an undefeated one with a win. Going 14-0 is an incredible accomplishment. That is what the pictures in this post represent to me.

NOTE: Will Collier said this much better than me a few years ago. Here is the post.

THE LAST WORD
As I stated before as well the only good thing about the long layoff was Auburn getting so much attention before and after the game. I think SportsCenter has replayed the highlights of the game over a dozen times while I have been creating this post. That is good for Auburn. Hopefully this coaching staff will be able to break through another problem that has plagued Auburn and that is capitalizing on seasons like this. In the past it does not seem we got enough out of our great seasons recruiting-wise. I hope that changes after this one. I think Gus Malzahn staying will help a lot.

It will be awhile before Auburn will be ready to challenge for the SEC title again. Next year will be a tough season as we lose so many players. There is still some great talent but not enough to replace what we are losing. Also, players like Cam Newton and Nick Fairley just do not come along very often. On the positive side it looks like the entire coaching staff will remain intact for the third season in a row. That is a major miracle in big time college football. I still have my doubts about Ted Roof but this season and the way it ended guarantee he will be at Auburn for awhile.

I have mentioned a lot of names and great players here. However I want to end this post writing about somebody I have not mentioned yet. He played his last game for Auburn University last night. I think he defines what the good part of sports is all about. He came to Auburn as a star quarterback and maybe the highest ranked member of his recruiting class. He got thrown into a bad situation his freshman year and lost a whole year of eligibility on a bad decision. He then spent the majority of his sophomore season starting at quarterback trying to lead a team destroyed by bad coaching. The team ended with Auburn's first losing record since 1999 and was destroyed and embarrassed by Bama 36-0. As the starting quarterback he surely took the loss worse than most. He then lost the starting quarterback job for good the next year and was moved to wide receiver. It seemed he would be just another casualty of big time college football. Surely he would transfer or fade into obscurity. There was no way he could become an impact wide receiver playing the position the first time his junior year at an SEC school. There is just no way...

Kodi Burns proved me and everyone else wrong. He took the road less travelled and has become one of the greatest stories in Auburn's long and storied football history. Pushing back his ego and the pain he must have been feeling he stood in front of the whole team and said he was staying at Auburn and he was going to support Chris Todd 100%. He said he wanted to do whatever it took to help the team. THAT is where I believe this trip that ended last night started. I believe it started with Kodi Burns and this selfless act. After that you did not hear a lot from him. He played some wildcat and stayed in the receiver rotation but nobody really thought he was an impact player. However he kept working and kept working...

This year he started at wide receiver and seemed to get better and better. He avenged that awful night in Tuscaloosa in 2008 by catching two critical third down passes that were a major part of the comeback to win against Bama this year. I think blowing a 24-0 lead hurts more than losing 36-0. I bet nobody appreciates the win in the Iron Bowl this year more than Kodi. That was not the end for Kodi Burns though. The coaching staff showing that they knew how important he was to this team tried to get him a score in the SEC Championship Game but it did not work. No, Kodi had a bigger play to make than a symbolic score in a game already decided. The crowning moment of Kodi Burns career came when he scored Auburn's first touchdown in the national championship game with a great catch and run. Nobody deserved it more. Thank you Kodi Burns for starting this journey and showing us one more time why we love sports. IT IS GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER. WAR EAGLE.

#1 Auburn vs. #2 Oregon for the BCS National Championship

2011-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well here we are, one day out from the big game. I tell you right off the bat that while as I have said many times before how I hate the current college football postseason I do love all the attention Auburn is getting. This is just great. It is all Auburn, all the time. It is great that we were the first national championship game to be on ESPN because wow we all know that ESPN can promote. I can't get enough of the promos with the big "#1" next to Auburn every time. After seeing that I am so glad that Auburn ended up #1. Every SportsCenter has a big segment on the game with more Auburn. We are all over websites, newspapers, etc... Hopefully we will win the game to complete the whole thing but regardless it has been a great couple of months soaking all this up.

Knowing it also has to really annoy LSU, Florida, Georgia and most of all Bama fans, makes it even better. Of course, it won't be near as good if we lose but the whole deal with Bama is pretty funny. They lay down about the best season you could possibly have last year winning everything including their first Heisman Trophy. They then come into this year ranked #1 and now we are one game away from completely matching the feat (!!!!!!) coming back from down 24-0 to beat Bama along the way. With a win in the big game, it just does not get better than that.

For me this game is not the end all, be all for me as an Auburn fan. As I have said, the system has been and is a complete joke. The 30 to 40 day lay off invalidates the system. Any system that uses varied computer and popularity polls is completely ridiculous. I could go on and on. I should rather say that there is and never will be nothing legitimate about this system. The only thing sadder than making these games too big is continually trying to inflate your opinion of your team and yourself by going on and on about how many of these "titles" your team can claim.

On the flip side though I will defend the Auburn fans that are really into finally getting into this game. First, as I have also said before, if you have to be a part of this ridiculous system you might as well be in the best game. Second, the only good thing about the bowl system is getting some cool matchups and Auburn vs. Oregon is a great one. Finally, if you do not hate the system as much as me it is awesome to finally make it to this game. The Bama fans love to pooh pooh that going on and on about how they "expect" to get to this game and it is just standard practice for them. If that is true then those Bama fans are missing out. They will never know how it feels to be getting to this game the first time and the game becoming the hardest ticket to get in the history of sports. They will never know that excitement and I hate to tell them but they are missing out.

Back to the game, I did hold a couple of these "shoe box top" monster tickets in my hand as my parents were some of the few people lucky enough to be able to get some from Auburn. It has been incredible how the ticket prices have shot through the roof thanks to a recipe of two hungry programs and a smaller stadium. It has to be crazy in Arizona about now. Locals and Oregon fans are probably getting tired of hearing "War Eagle!". There is just something special about the Auburn family and I bet it is a big party all the way to and all over Phoenix, Arizona. The whole thing was just way too expensive for me to contemplate going to but our family plans to have a big party at our house. Again I am very thankful that I got to go down to Jordan Hare for the LSU and Georgia games as I still think it is the best experience.

As for the game itself, I know we are the better team. At the end of the season, nobody could have beaten Auburn. Cam and the rest of the team were playing at such a high level. Cam's passing was unbelievable down the stretch against Georgia, Bama and South Carolina. That is the one thing that the layoff will probably effect. It is also just Auburn's luck to be the first SEC team to have to play in this game against a team that has SEC speed. Ohio State, Oklahoma and Texas are not close. On the flip side, Auburn is fast as well and bigger and stronger than Oregon. Auburn also has one of the best to ever play college football in Cam Newton and a great supporting cast as well. It is the best offense Auburn has ever had and a defense with some great players that has steadily improved. I think we are the better team and I sure hope we prove it one more time.

Finally, there have been so many cool things that highlight the Auburn family that this game has brought out but I think one of the coolest has been the "Win it for..." web site. Here is my entry...
"Win it for my Mom and Dad who both graduated from Auburn in the early 60s, who both love Auburn more than any people I have ever known, who both had to endure the Bear Bryant era and all that went with it, who loved and enjoyed Sullivan and Beasley and were there for 49-26 over Bama the year I was born, who raised my brother and I to love Auburn as well, who both loved Pat Dye and all he did for Auburn, who sacrificed to buy our family season football tickets for the last thirty years where so many great memories have been made, who sacrificed even more so that my brother and I could also be Auburn graduates, who have stuck with Auburn through thick and thin and endured every tough loss, low point and near miss Auburn has gone through, who love watching the eagle soar before every home game, who will be there next season ready to go whether we win this game or not but who would appreciate this win more than anyone, win it for my Mom and Dad."

WAR EAGLE.

Is Auburn Basketball Cursed?

2010-12-28T07:12:00.000-08:00

I have tried to wait till after this glorious football season to comment on how bad basketball is going on the plains but after seeing this article on CNNSI today I figured I would go ahead. With out further ado here is the comment on Auburn from the article:
"Auburn is projected to wind up as the worst-ever BCS-league team. According to Jerry Palm, operator of CollegeRPI.com, the Tigers are projected to finish at No. 292. The 2007-08 Oregon State team, at No. 269, holds the current (dis)honor. The worst SEC team ever was 1993-94 Tennessee, at No. 235."

You can look back at my spring post on Auburn basketball and I think I have a good grasp on how bad the program has been. This season will officially make Auburn the worst program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions in 1992. Auburn will pass South Carolina for the worst SEC record overall since then. However I ended the post with these comments:
"Regardless of the reasons now, there is the new Auburn Arena and what appears to be a pretty good coaching hire. Maybe just maybe Auburn basketball can start a new legacy next season. I sure hope so. I also hope the Auburn administration and leadership will now make changes as well and at least give the basketball program decent support from here on out.

Auburn will never be a top basketball school but there is no reason it has to be the worst program in the conference. That is completely unacceptable. I look forward to next season and am actually excited about all aspects of an Auburn basketball team and program for like the first time… ever? "

I thought maybe just maybe Auburn could start fresh. I knew the team would not be good but good night I did not know it would be near this bad. First, with typical Auburn basketball luck, the team lost the only two returning players with legitimate playing time to knee injuries. After that the team started out losing to COLUMBUS STATE in an exhibition. They have followed that up by losing to UNC-Asheville, Samford, CAMPBELL, JACKSONVILLE STATE, and PRESBYTERIAN.

I was there for opening night in the Auburn Arena against UNC-Asheville. On a positive note, I love the new arena. As someone who saw more than their fair share of games in the old Beard Eaves Mausoleum it is a huge improvement. It is a great place to watch basketball IF we had anything resembling a decent team. My first comments as the game began was "wow this team is really really bad". I do not want to disrepect the kids who are working their tails off on this team but facts are facts.

Obviously Tony Barbee will get a mulligan for this awful season but it will have an effect. It has effectively destroyed much of the boost Auburn should have gotten from a great new facility.  I also hope Barbee has learned from his early recruiting efforts that if your recruits CANNOT QUALIFY it does not matter how good they are. Also for the love of basketball, can we please PLEASE recruit somebody who can SHOOT THE BALL.  It is just so frustrating.

I will end with the same thoughts as I did this spring and will continue to say... "Auburn will never be a top basketball school but there is no reason it has to be the worst program in the conference."

Cam Newton wins the Heisman

2010-12-26T10:31:00.000-08:00

You are looking at three fourths of the "Mount Rushmore" now of Auburn football players. I think Tracy Rocker would be the last face but there is no doubt that these three men are there. Also like in the picture Cam Newton might stand tallest. My game one review was titled "A Star is Born" and certainly one was born that day but I had no idea he would become Auburn's third Heisman Trophy winner. He certainly deserved it as he was the best player in the nation by far this season and has also cemented himself as one of the greatest players in college football history. He became the only player in SEC history to throw for over 2000 yards and rush for over a thousand yards. He became the leading rushing quarterback in SEC history but won his toughest games of the year by his passing. He matched Tim Tebow's unbelievable feat of scoring 20 touchdowns both running and passing. Finally, he has led his team to an undefeated season and an SEC championship. We will never see another player like Cam Newton again.

Like Cam I have to give a lot of credit to his almost all senior incredible offensive line. He would still be a great player behind a lesser line but nowhere near this good. I also have to give a lot of credit to coach Gus Malzahn who has helped Cam reach his full potential and brought him along almost perfectly. It is one of the greatest offensive coaching jobs I have ever seen. Credit also has to go to a superb support cast of very talented players like Darvin Adams, Ontario McCalebb, Terrell Zachary, Mike Dyer, etc... I still do not think I would say this is the best team in Auburn history but I will say this is the best offense in Auburn history led by maybe the greatest player in Auburn history.

I cannot say anyone is more talented than Bo Jackson but I will agree with Coach Dye who said as a quarterback Cam can influence the game more than Bo. Each Heisman winner has an incredible story. As I have said many times, I think everyone should real David Housel's book "Saturdays to Remember" and especially the Pat Sullivan games. You would then get a true feel for how great a player Sullivan was. Auburn was down-and-out for most of the decade of the 1960s. Sullivan brought them back and led the first truly great Auburn passing offense. Sullivan rallied the Auburn freshmen team from down 27-0 to Bama and became the last quarterback to lead Auburn to a win by more than 10 points over Bama, crushing them and Bear Bryant 49-26 in 1969. Again, Auburn has not beaten Bama by more than 10 points since. Sullivan only lost five regular season games in three years. He also brought Auburn back from 17-0 to Bama in 1970 and beat Archie Manning in the famous "Battle of the Quarterbacks" in the Gator Bowl that year. Finally in 1971 Sullivan led Auburn to an undefeated season coming into the Bama game and a win over a top five undefeated Georgia team to clinch the Heisman Trophy. Unfortunately the wishbone offense at Bama and Oklahoma ended his career on a sour note.

Bo Jackson was the player that put it all together for Pat Dye as he built the foundation for the current Auburn football program. Bo helped topple Bama and their ten year streak over Auburn. He helped lead Auburn to their first SEC title since 1957 and basically the national title as well in 1983. He then fought through injuries and adversity and kept Auburn at a high level and won the Heisman Trophy in 1985. His career like Sullivan's also ended on a sour note after clinching the Heisman Trophy against Georgia.

Cam Newton while he has not put the time in the program that Sullivan and Jackson did has so far avoided that sour ending note that Sullivan and Jackson endured. Let us hope he can continue that one more game. However the whole ordeal with his father may have been one of the toughest things any Auburn player has ever endured. There are violent horrible men who are not reviled like Cecil Newton. The guy made a big mistake but did he deserve this? Anybody who loves sports and has a son that plays sports at a high level will understand the punishment Cecil paid to not see his son accept the Heisman Trophy. I thought the whole ESPN broadcast was bush league and a player from the "sacred cow" schools would not have been treated like Cam was. For goodness sake, Mark Ingram committed NCAA violations and actually received illegal benefits (unlike Cam or his dad) and his father is a felon sitting in jail yet he was not treated anything like Cam has been treated. The media is the most hypocritical two-faced self-righteous institution in the world. For the record, one more time for the mediots who simply cannot get this through their heads... Cam Newton and his dad have been THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED and they did not receive ANY EXTRA BENEFITS. That is the difference between Cam Newton and pretty much every NCAA case he is being compared to. TALKING about extra benefits and actually GETTING extra benefits are two different things.

Cam's speech was termed by most as "awkward" but with all that he has been through and the pressure he was under I think he did fine. It was not as inspirational as Bo's or as eloquent as Sullivan's but I think it was just as sincere. I will never forget Cam Newton. I am very thankful I was able to go to the LSU and Georgia games this year at Jordan Hare and see him play in person. This has been a season unlike any other and he was the biggest part of it. "Refuse 2 Lose". War Cam Eagle.

Week 13 Review - SEC Champs

2010-12-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

First, I want to give props to all the Auburn bloggers out there, even the ones I do not care for. To blog decent stuff each week and get it out on time is definitely harder than it looks. As always, three young kids and work make it hard for me. Add the holidays and getting sick and it gets even harder. My apologies to the few people who actually read this blog. Another thing that has hurt is the lost of Jerry Hinnen at War Blog Eagle to CBS Sports. I do not agree with Jerry a good deal of the time but I really enjoyed reading his stuff and I know how much he has enjoyed this season and it would have been great to read his thoughts about it. It was definitely a large blow to the Auburn blogging world as nobody right now is quite as good as Jerry. We also lost most of Will Collier behind the pay-per-read wall at Auburnsports.com. Thank goodness we still have Andy Bitter to keep us up-to-date. I am sure someone as good as Andy will not last long as an Auburn beat writer.

OK with that out of the way, back to the matter at hand... Auburn is SEC champions. A lot of people I talk with year in and year out think I am always too hard on Auburn. I always say it is where you are coming from. When I grade Auburn any season I grade them on whether they can first win the SEC West and then whether they can win the whole thing. Winning the SEC West is my goal for any Auburn team any season. If they are not playing that way I am going to say it. Just about any team can get to a bowl game. It is one of the greatest accomplishments in college football to win the Southeastern Conference. This 2010 Auburn team is in that rare group and they did it in style. Like my last post said, I thought this could game could be a trap for Auburn. I am very glad that I was wrong. This Auburn team came out and swept away South Carolina in the biggest rout in SEC championship game history.

I will never forget going crazy with my family when Cam connected with Darvin Adams on the tipped "Hail Mary" pass at the end of the first half. The party was on after that. We broke out the margaritas and Auburn provided plenty more entertainment with the game ending Tasharvan Bell touchdown interception plus Cam and the Auburn offense getting a couple more as well. We then had the scrubs in the game with over FIVE MINUTES LEFT like it was homecoming or something???!!!??? I never saw that coming but was so happy to see it. Even the scrubs put it to South Carolina with Barrett Trotter running and passing and Super Mario Fannin scoring the final touchdown. It was again truly great to be an Auburn Tiger.

It is great to be in the mythical national championship game. If you have to play in the system, as flawed as it is, you might as well play in the best game. However no matter what happens this team is one of the all time greats in Auburn history. The SEC is still bigger to me as it is a legitimate postseason game as opposed to a system where the two teams wait 40 days or more to play a championship game. What if the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburg Steelers waited 40 days after the NFL championship games to play the Super Bowl? What if the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers waited 40 days after the NBA conference final series to play the NBA Finals? What if Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal waited 40 days to play a Grand Slam final after winning the semi-finals? The answer to all those questions is that it would stink and the two teams or players would NOT BE THE SAME as the ones that ended the season.

I know Auburn is the better team but you never know what will happen when a team plays 40 days after its last game. It is certainly much tougher when your team stars and coaches have to go on a two week award tour where everyone tells you how great you are and you are not working. It will be a big challenge for this Auburn football team but these guys have met every challenge so far and I know there is no way that Oregon will present a harder challenge than being down 24-0 to Bama in Tuscaloosa.

To end on a positive note, you have to know that Bama fans still have a sick feeling in their stomachs blowing that lead. All I know is that I sure would if the shoe was on the other foot. I also have to say that Auburn vs. Oregon is just a cool matchup. As I have grown to loathe the bowl system the only thing I can find good about it is that it occasionally gives cool matchups. This is one of them.

Finally, I want to say one more time, the 2010 Auburn football Tigers are the Southeastern Conference football champions. War Eagle.

IT'S A TRAP!

2010-11-28T08:12:00.000-08:00

The team had just won one of the greatest games in SEC history. The team was #2 in the nation and clearly the best team in the SEC. This team only had to win the SEC championship game against a team that had gone 5-3 in conference to go to the mythical national championship game. The championship game was just supposed to be a speed bump on the way. The #2 team had also ALREADY BEAT the 5-3 team during the regular season. It was all going exactly as planned till the 5-3 team upset them in the SEC championship game. The year was 2001, the team on the way to the mythical national championship was Tennessee and the team that upset them in the SEC championship game was LSU.

Clearly the scenario is very similar to the one facing the Auburn Tigers. Beware Auburn, your greatest trap might lay where you least expect it. Like LSU in 2001, South Carolina has a great coach at the helm. No coach has won more SEC championship games (no coach is even close). It would be a huge mistake to underestimate South Carolina and Steve Spurrier. Most Auburn fans will say that won't happen to this team, but beware, Tennessee fans were saying the same thing in 2001.

Week 12 Review - Iron Bowl Champs

2010-11-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

I have never seen a game like the 2010 Iron Bowl and I do not think I will see another like it. It is impossible to come back from 24-0 especially against a good Bama team in Tuscaloosa with over 100,000 fans. When the score reached 24-0 I knew it was over. Auburn has never had a comeback like that and I have not seen many Bama teams play any better. It was over. Then somehow, someway Auburn clawed their way back. A few fumbles, a few stops, a few touchdowns and suddenly it was 24-14 in the third quarter. I saw the sun peek from behind the clouds. Then came the punt, the awful punt. Auburn was about to get the ball around midfield and the chance to take the lead. Quindarious Carr then inexpicably decided not to call fair catch for the first time all season when he actually should have and subsequently fumbled the ball back to Bama in great field position. I felt my heart being literally ripped out. However we hold them to the field goal and then relentlessly march down the field and somehow someway Cam gets it to one of the new favorite players in Auburn's long football history, the guy with the maybe the longest last name in Auburn football history, Phillip Lutzenkirchen. Auburn 28 Bama 27. One of the greatest ever. It is great to be an Auburn Tiger.

Week 10 and 11 Review - SEC West Champs

2010-11-24T16:16:00.000-08:00

Auburn fans have certainly been on a roller coaster ride since my last post. The Cam Apocalypse started Thursday November 4 and continues to roll on, the team won the SEC West beating Georgia in the home finale and now we are staring straight at one of the biggest Iron Bowl games in the series.

Personally I was delayed by end of season soccer tournaments, Call of Duty: Black Ops, my attendance at the Auburn vs. Georgia game and my complete disgust for the national and regional media for their coverage of the Cam Newton allegations. Sarah Palin has not been attacked in one month as bad as the Newton family (well she might be the only one who has).

I would rather spend my free time playing Black Ops or doing just about anything rather than talking about Cam Newton. However since there hasn’t been a new “story” in the last few days (there is something to be thankful for) maybe I can finally comment without my comment being completely invalid right after posting it because of some new story or allegation.

After sifting through this story for the last 3 weeks here is what I see: Cecil Newton MAYBE tried to solicit money from Mississippi State boosters through this Kenny Rogers guy. That is it. After all the stories and allegations that is about the only thing that might be true at this point. However there is still no credible proof that this occurred. Again, I can believe that it did but I do not believe it went down how these three stooges in Mississippi say it went down. I mean the stories these guys are telling are laughable pathetic attempts to somehow cover themselves and maybe Mississippi State and blame everything on Cecil Newton.

What does all that mean? Right now it means nothing without any proof. That is simply where we are at. I am not saying what did or did not occur. I am simply pointing out the obvious facts of the case. It also appears that a lot of this stuff is being used as a coordinated attack by someone against Auburn. How else can you explain the timing of each new piece of information or allegation?

I do not know what else to say about the whole thing. I do know it has further lowered my regard for the media (I did not think it could get any lower) and shown that there is a national and regional bias against Auburn for whatever reason. It is just incredible the hypocrisy and bias of the national and regional sports media against Auburn when we are good. Cam Newton’s dad MIGHT have tried to solicit money and it is literally the biggest story in sports while when last year’s Heisman Trophy winner takes an illegal benefit from a booster it is swept under the rug faster than you can say “Roll Tide”. Mark Ingram and Julio Jones were given an all expenses paid fishing trip from a Bama booster who later also gave a laptop to Jerrell Harris (which got him suspended for half the season) . These acts are undisputed fact however nothing was hardly ever said about it nationally or even regionally. Why?

Just look at the past. Auburn played the toughest schedule in the nation (fact) in 1983 and maybe one of the toughest schedules ever and was #3 in the nation. The #1 and #2 teams lose (the #2 team was the only one to beat Auburn and was beaten in a bowl by a team Auburn beat) and Auburn wins and they do not even move out of THIRD PLACE in the polls. Then of course the 2004 team is the only undefeated BCS conference team to not get a chance to play for the mythical national championship. It was also arguably the strongest team the SEC fielded this decade if the NFL draft is any indicator.

Since 2006 the SEC has won the mythical national championship ever year with only Bama last year going undefeated. Auburn will most certainly get bumped with a loss to Bama (a top 10 or 11 team in all polls) as the national media’s crusade for poor Boise State has reached its absolute peak. However Florida won both its mythical national championships with one loss and LSU won its title with TWO LOSSES. Throw in the fact that in 2004 if Nick $aban’s LSU Tigers could have stopped a Hail Mary pass at the end of its bowl game, the SEC would have had four 10 win teams for the first time ever and the fact that this year the SEC could have TEN bowl eligible teams and you have to be blind to see the bias against Auburn. Regardless of that the SEC is always considered “down” when Auburn is good when in fact it is not and was much more down in years like say 1992 and 2008. Again, not opinion, fact. Check the records.

The last few years has also shown that the SEC is not a conference of friendly or just fair rivals. It is a conference of schools who will do anything to bring each other down. I will not cheer for another SEC school anytime soon. What has the SEC being strong ever done for Auburn? Nobody came to our defense in 2004 and apparently none of the coaches in the conference are putting us #1 right now. Again, it also appears that these allegations against Cecil Newton are being used as a coordinated attack against us. Who would do that? I will just let that question hang out there.

All of this has certainly taken some of the joy out of this season and playing in the SEC and college football all together. However it was still very sweet to be sitting with my son in Jordan Hare as Auburn broke a four year losing streak to Georgia and won the SEC West. It was awesome being a part of the pregame at the stadium. It was special watching Cam Newton play what will probably be his last game at Jordan Hare Stadium. It was exhilarating watching Auburn roar back from a 21-7 deficit to blow past Georgia. It was incredible to walk around Toomer’s Corner after it was all over.

It is now down to the Iron Bowl, the SEC Championship Game and whatever happens after. It will probably be the three toughest games Auburn plays all season. The Iron Bowl may be the toughest one of them. Bama still has a ton of good football players and they have been playing a little bit below their capabilities in my opinion. $aban is still a great defensive coach and Auburn has not played a defense with as much speed as Bama’s defense. Finally, Auburn and Cam Newton have not played a true road game. Auburn’s only road games have been in Mississippi and Kentucky. Nothing will prepare them for the noise and venom they will face on Friday. I will be even more impressed with this Auburn team if they can go in to that environment against a very good team and bring out a win.

I will still be proud of them either way and will look forward to playing for a championship in the only real postseason game in college football next week as well. War Eagle.

Week 9 Review - Crack A Nutt

2010-11-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

I refused to worry about this game. Yes Houston Nutt has ruined many previous Auburn seasons but he has always come in with a big strong offensive line and some good or great running backs. Not this year. No team that had lost to Jacksonville State and Vanderbilt at home had the heart to take down this Auburn team. Not this year Houston Nutt and Ole Miss, not this year. Auburn succesfully defended their #1 ranking and blew out Ole Miss in Oxford guaranteeing Auburn will come into the Georgia game 10-0 and 6-0 in the SEC. In the wake of my blogging performance last week, let's get right to it...

THE GOOD
Cam Newton, of course. The legend grew with an unbelievable touchdown catch in the end zone. I am starting to think we need to get Cam Newton in on defense (which he actually did as well after an uncharacteristic fumble). He also did a great job throwing the ball. Of course he was standing behind a solid wall with no pressure on him. He is still going to have to speed up his reads against Georgia and Bama. His release is getting better. He showed off a quick release on several of those passes.

Cam Newton has a lot of company this week though. As mentioned, the guys up front got it done again leading another 300 yard rushing effort and the other Auburn running backs stepped up big time. Mike Dyer is finally looking like the running back prospect he was supposed to be. He broke tackles and showed big time acceleration in rushing for 180 yards. Ontario McCalebb showed off his speed and elusiveness for the second straight week going for 100 yards. The man behind it all called a brilliant game as well (except for trying the Neil Caudle trick-pass play, not going to happen in the SEC).

THE BAD
Our defense got it done in spots but is just going to have to play much better to get through our last two games. Yes Georgia had a lot of turnovers against Florida but Florida has been doing that to everyone the whole year. They have a good defense, Auburn does not. We are still asking a lot of our offense to have to score 40+ points every game. With our current defense, Georgia and Bama are going to score A LOT of points. We have a let down or a bad quarter or two on offense, it could spell doom against these two teams. Again I think we have to put more pressure on the quarterback. We cannot let Aaron Murray and Greg McElroy stand back there all day. It does not matter how many men we drop back in coverage.

We also HAVE TO TACKLE BETTER. There were a ton more missed tackles last night. Our guys have got to wrap up and bring the guy down. The offense is working at about maximum capacity, we need to use these next two weeks working on the defense. Our last two games will be the biggest and toughest of the season. If we are going to be a championship team I am convinced we have to play better defense.

THE UGLY
There was really nothing ugly about this game other than Ole Miss' grey uniforms (and I dogged the BCS last week) so I will use this space to point out again how ugly the current television format makes football. The pros have reduced the pain slightly by speeding up the games and getting them to fit in neat three hour time slots. However they did that by reducing the amount of football you get to see. College football has not YET done that but the networks still get in their commercials which make watching a live football game a completely exhausting experience. I do not know how anybody but big time fans of the teams playing could sit down and watch a college football game. It dampens everyone's experience watching games. I know the television people have to pay the bills but when there is more commercial time than the actual product carrying the commercials, something is wrong.

AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East has finally cleared up. Florida took down Georgia and now the Florida vs. South Carolina game in two weeks will decide the SEC East champion. Again, as bad as Florida has been this year I think they will get it done and ruin Spurrier's best chance to win the East at South Carolina.

Meanwhile everyone including me is starting to talk about the Iron Bowl deciding the West. However that is not true yet. Bama has two tough games remaining with LSU and Mississippi State who only have three losses between them. Auburn has to stop Georgia from getting "the thumb" on them as Auburn has not beaten the Dawgs since 2005. Auburn and Bama will have to get past these road blocks before the Iron Bowl.

Last and least, you have the BCS. Ah the BCS, where the #1 team in the SEC can whip another SEC team on the road and drop. I would wager a rather large sum that neither Bama and Florida with the exact same team as Auburn would have dropped after a 30 point beat down of Ole Miss in Oxford. I do not think they would have dropped even if Oregon had beat an undefeated actually legitimate USC team. You also would not have had ESPN's current group of cretins that masquerade as college football analysts dogging Auburn out. I love the schedule questions. Google Oregon's football schedule. Other than Stanford and I guess USC Oregon has played NOBODY. When you are propping up Stanford as your best win, doesn't that really say it all?

Week 8 Review - 2/3rds Perfect

2010-10-30T07:59:00.000-07:00

Things were tense up in section 101 of Jordan Hare Stadium with the game tied against LSU 17-17. Auburn had dominated the game but the Mad Hatter's luck seemed to be continuing with Auburn's terrible field position throughout the game, a fumble, a missed field goal, etc... A feeling of dread started to settle over me. Were we going to lose a game that we had clearly dominated? Then... Ontario McCalebb broke into the clear and joy fell from the sky. The Mad Hatter's luck had run out, Auburn had beaten LSU. In the aftermath the stats started jumping out. Auburn had just run for over 400 yards against the best defense in SEC. Cam Newton had over 200 of those yards. Auburn was 8-0 and 5-0 in the SEC. I was sick as a dog but happy as can be.

I am mailing this one in late for the record. Auburn is #1 in the BCS (more on that below) and I don't get a blog post up, good grief. It has been some kind of week here for our family with the drive back from Auburn, soccer tournaments, soccer team post season parties, fantasy baseball league post game parties, etc... Well let's get to it so I can head to another soccer game and then get back and settle in for Auburn and the Mrs...

THE GOOD
You can pretty much put the whole team in here with the exception of Mario Fannin and the special teams. Ah Mario Fannin, I have defended him and pushed him for years. However I think he has sealed his fate as a guy that cannot hold on to the ball. We still need him though, we still need him. I was reminding friends that once upon a time that James Bostic (the MVP running back of our 1993 undefeated team) also had fumblitis and was benched for the Georgia game. He responded by putting up 183 yards rushing off the bench with three touchdowns and SEC player of the week honors. He then helped bury Bama the next week with no fumbles if I remember correctly.

The special teams were back to normal this week with horrible punts, worse punt returns and a missed field goal. They terrible short low punt to Peterson could have cost Auburn the game. I just do not know what else to say about the special teams. They are consistently bad and a few good games here and there do not change that. This is the good section though and there was a lot more good than bad this game. Let me start with Nick Fairley. Wow. The guy put up a dominating performance against a team that is probably bigger and stronger than Auburn. By the end of the game there were literally tackling him at the line of scrimmage and he was still getting through.

Rushing for 400 yards though is the most impressive stat for me. I just kept repeating it over and over after the game. When you rush for 400 yards on somebody you take their manhood. Auburn knows. Arkansas did to us and Chizik in 2002. It is still one of my worst Auburn memories. Doing it against a top rated LSU defense is even more impressive. It starts with the offensive line and then goes to Cam Newton as he put himself at the top of the Heisman race and helped lift his team to #1 in the nation. Newton put up another astonishing highlight package. He is truly a sight to behold and I was glad to finally see him live and in person. I will never forget him slicing and dicing through the LSU defense for over 200 yards.

Finally, I also have to give props to the Jordan Hare gameday planners. The whole intro (with the exception of the band video?) was awesome and the new thing where the whole team runs toward the student section with the music going at the end of the third quarter is awesome. It has been awhile since I have seen the students so fired up. You get the students fired up and everyone else will follow.

THE BAD
Everyone likes being #1 however the Bowl Championship Series is still the most ridiculous and stupid method to determine a championship ever invented. It is still a joke and always will be. One night of watching the ESPN talking heads was enough for me. Being #1 is great if for no other reason than to annoy the Bama fans but I for one will not be drawn into this weekly drama. Frankly all involved can take the BCS and... well use your imagination. If you have to play in a bowl you might as well play in the best one but nothing will make the whole system legitimate in my mind.

I cannot want to beat Georgia and Bama any more than I already do. I want to win the SEC West and win an SEC championship. Those things are not subjective and you cannot be cheated out of them. You earn them and you play in the only real postseason game in college football, the conference championship game. It is played a week after the season ends by division winners instead of being played a month after the last game by the winners of a complicated popularity contest.

THE UGLY
Obviously you want to enjoy this season. Auburn as a whole deserves to. However there has been a lot of talk about how Gene Chizik has now completely proved himself. I disagree. He has definitely proved a lot but he still has a long way to go. Terry Bowden also proved himself in this situation but fell apart later. This season will not be the end of Auburn football. However it might be the end of Auburn playing at this level for awhile and Chizik's work is cut out for him.

Take a look at the Auburn depth chart and make some easy deductions and you come to the conclusion that we really better enjoy this year. On offense, Auburn will lose four outstanding offensive linemen, two starting wide receivers and will most likely lose Superman himself. I also stand by my preseason prediction that Gus Malzahn will leave for a head coaching job as well. On defense, we lose two starting linebackers, two defensive ends, two defensive tackles and will almost certainly lose Nick Fairley leaving us with only two true defensive tackles in Carter and Whitaker on the entire roster.

Chizik and Co. got a lot of good talent in the pipeline this year but Tuberville's last two years are still going to take a mighty toll on the program. Especially two years of recruiting no offensive linemen or defensive tackles. It is scary. Gene Chizik will completely prove himself if he can get us out of this ugly situation and win the SEC West a few years from now.

AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East is a complete mess but things will be much more clear after the Georgia vs. Florida game today. People are saying this game is not as big this year. I disagree, I think it is a huge game. Mark Richt has got to beat Florida in this situation. It would be a huge blow to Georgia to lose to Florida this year. Meanwhile Florida could put it self in position to win the East with a victory. After all Florida has been through if they can beat Georgia and South Carolina, they will play for an SEC Championship and in one game anything can happen.

The SEC West race is down to Auburn and Bama with LSU still in the race if they can beat Bama a week from today. Auburn still has a tough game with Georgia. I am very worried about that game but more on that in the weeks to come. I refuse to wring my hands and worry about the Mrs. I maybe crying tomorrow but Auburn should take care of business.

The ONLY way to review a game (plus other notes)...

2010-10-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Kudos to Rob Pate at Eyes On Auburn for using my favorite format of reviewing games. On top of that it was a great review of the game. It is awesome to get a current player's take on the game each week.
Well it looks like this Auburn grad and part-time blogger will be heading to the plains this weekend for the latest biggest game of the season. As I have said before I went to just about every Auburn home game for eighteen years but had to give it up when my children got older and start playing sports (and costing more). Now I make it to one or two games a season and usually not till November. However things opened up and the opportunity arose so I am taking it. I am more excited than usual getting to see Cam Newton in person for the first time and against the best defense he might face all season.

I feel pretty good about the game. You have to think that Auburn can score more points than LSU. Everyone also points to LSU's lucky escapes this year. However you also can go the other way as well. LSU hammered us last season and "The Hat" has owned us. The only time we beat the "The Hat" was in 2006 and that was a close one. I know we did not have Cam Newton last year (in fact we had the total opposite of Cam Newton) but the LSU offense had their best game in the last two years. Their defense holds Cam and the offense to 30 points and they win if they score the 31 points they scored last year. Our defense has the capability of making any offense look good, even LSU.

I think the special teams could go a long way in deciding this one. Auburn comes in after having it's best day from special teams in years while LSU comes in with superstar Patrick Peterson. As Will Collier points out, LSU has continually burned us with great punt returners. Well I cannot wait to get down to Auburn for a big time 7-0 vs. 7-0 Saturday afternoon battle between Tigers. I will be back to review on Sunday and hope to have more good than bad to say. War Eagle.

Week 7 Review - One For The Ages

2010-10-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Every week, I find myself at a loss for words to adequately describe this team. I have watched or listened to just about every Auburn football game for over 30 years. I have coached in youth sports for almost a decade. With that said, I have never seen anything like this. The game yesterday was a roller coaster ride of emotions to say the least. This team just does not fit in the standard football axioms. It is hard to make common sense judgements on this team because at Auburn, except for maybe a short time under Pat Sullivan, defense has always been the foundation for championships. For the record, we did not win a championship under Pat Sullivan even though he only lost five regular season games.

The football axioms also say that one-man teams will eventually be stopped and you cannot win a championship as one. Cam Newton continues to defy the odds on that one as well. 65-43??? Are you kidding me??? I never thought I would see that score in a regular season Auburn game ever. Again, I have never seen anything like yesterday, good and bad. I am not sure I have ever been through a game that just wrung me out like this game. I went from cheering like crazy to cursing the refs to cursing our defense to catatonic in my chair. Well I am not sure anyone can adequately "break down" the game yesterday but I can give some strong opinions on several parts of the game...

THE GOOD (this spot reserved for Cam Newton)
Yes, I think this is Mr. Newton's permanent parking place. He put on another dominating performance yesterday rushing for almost 200 yards and passing for almost 150 including a touchdown pass to Emory Blake. He had three touchdowns on the ground highlighted by his last one where he went flying over the defense into the end zone. Ontario McCalebb's touchdown was a result of Arkansas over compensating to try and stop Newton. As always, the guys in the trenches made it possible. Lee Ziemba, Mike Berry, Ryan Pugh, Byron Isom and Brandon Mosley have continued to excel since the South Carolina game. Mario Fannin put in his best day of the season although that was a fumble at the goalline. The wide receivers also made some big plays at crucial times with only one ugly drop that I remember.

For the most part though it was Newton making play after play. The guy is one of the best running backs in the country but he is also a good passer. He is accurate and throws a great ball. He does not make many mistakes and has a knack for doing the right thing at the right time. I know some of that is Malzahn guiding things in the background but a lot of it is Newton. Kudos to Malzahn and Chizik for not just stubbornly running "the system" as many other coaches would do but realizing Newton is a once-in-a-lifetime player and we must adapt to him. He is the best player in the nation. I do not think it is even close and I do not say things like that lightly. He should be the frontrunner for the Heisman right now.

Also moving into "The Good" section this week is the special teams. It is great to have them in after so many horrible moments over the last two years. In fact the special teams were also not just good but helped change the game for Auburn. The blocked punt and 99 yard kickoff return were some of the biggest moments of the game. I cannot remember the last time that Auburn blocked a punt against a good opponent. The kickoff was even bigger as Arkansas had seized the momentum at that point. On top of these great plays were Wes Byrum converting all of his field goals and great kickoff coverage.

~~THE BAD~~ THE UGLY PART #1
That was maybe the worst called game I have ever seen. The refs could get nothing right. The obvious... yes it appeared Fannin fumbled on the goalline and the Arkansas guy did not however since the refs called it wrong on the field there was not enough evidence to overturn. HOWEVER, I still think things came out more than EVEN. It started out with a phantom holding call on Lee Ziemba that killed a big play and one of our drives. First it was not holding and second with all the holding that goes on in SEC games, that is the play you call a hold? Also, Arkansas passed all day long and yet they did not get one holding penalty called on them that I remember. Second the pass interference call on the play Mallett got hurt was obviously wrong and it gave Arkansas an easy touchdown. Third, Arkansas went for it on fourth down on their touchdown drive before halftime or maybe it was in the third quarter. The guy caught it but was down WELL SHORT of the marker and they got one of the most ridiculous spots I have ever seen. Somehow that one survived replay and spots are usually easy call. That bad call also led to an Arkansas touchdown. Finally, on one of Arkansas` other touchdown throws the wide receiver threw the Auburn defender on the ground. I am usually not one to complain about the refs but yesterday was about the worst I have ever seen.

THE UGLY PART #2
I find it comical that the post game reaction is that the defense "rose up" in the fourth quarter. I mean come on. The Arkansas guy was down on that fumble even though we deserved the call as I stated above. I do not think our defense can take a whole lot of credit for that. The Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson had all day to throw (as was the case the whole game) on both those interceptions. He just finally made some bad decisions. I do not think our defense can take much credit for that. If they pressure him and he makes a mistake I would give credit. The Auburn defensive performance was about the worst I have ever seen from an Auburn defense. It took much of my joy from the win. I can't think of the adjective to describe how bad they were. Bad, awful, terrible, disgusting, revolting, etc... do not seem to cover it. Yes we are 7-0 and seem to keep winning but ask Bama and Ohio State how fast things can turn around and they most likely will for Auburn. I do not see how any team can play defense this bad and win a championship even with a Cam Newton.

The basics of football are blocking and tackling. We are doing the blocking but I have never seen worse tackling in my 30 years of watching Auburn football. Case in point was our senior linebacker Craig Stevens who is a four year starter simply putting an arm out as an Arkansas running back or wide receiver ran straight past him. Arkansas receivers just ran wild after they caught the ball as Auburn defenders slipped off them or simply fell down as they ran past them. Auburn would not commit to pressuring the quarterback or jamming wide receivers so Bobby Petrino could empty his playbook and call whatever he wanted. WHAT IS THE POINT of playing conservative defense when the other team is scoring at will on big plays??? That is the only point of playing that kind of defense! Ted Roof is the worst defensive coordinator I have ever seen and he is being enabled by Chizik. Roof is also not even coaching his own position well as our linebackers miss more tackles than anyone.

Chizik was able to run this type of defense in 2004 when he had great pass rushers at both ends in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves. All "Cover 2" defenses that have been hugely successful have a Dwight Freeney or a Charles Haley at defensive end and they can get pressure on the quarterback. WE DO NOT HAVE THAT. We do not have anyone even close. If you are an offensive team and you do not have great pass rushers YOU HAVE TO GAMBLE. Case in point would be the New Orleans Saints last year. They did not have great pass rushers so they gambled and blitzed a lot and were able to be good enough to win a Super Bowl. If tackling is the first fundamental of defense, pressuring the quarterback against a passing team has to be #2. You simply have to pressure the quarterback. You have to shorten the window the quarterback has to make a decision and in doing so he is more likely to miss the pass or make a mistake. The coach across the state has created his legend doing this. I understand picking the "Cover 2" as your defense but I do not understand adjusting your strategy when you are getting lit up like a Christmas tree by the other team's backup quarterback.

I do not see how these coaches justify what they are doing. The stats back it up. Last year's Auburn defense was one of the worst in Auburn history statistically. This year's version is right there with it as they gave up over 400 yards passing and almost 600 yards total (against mainly the back up quarterback). It is a complete embarrassment to play defense that bad. If we blitzed every play we would have gotten burned plenty but I firmly believe it would not have been near as bad. It also fires your defense up playing aggressive and not reacting all the time. It also shortens the other team's playbook. It was disgusting to me how many plays Arkansas called that had just about everyone going long because he knew the quarterback would have time.

AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East is playing really bad right now. South Carolina, a week removed from knocking off #1 Bama, loses to Kentucky and Florida goes down to Mississippi State at home. Georgia meanwhile is starting to come around and goes to Kentucky this next week. The SEC East race is wide open as South Carolina still has to play Arkansas and go to Florida. Florida maybe a weak team compared to the last few years but make them a big underdog and they are still going to beat some people. It should be very interesting to see how things end up shaking out in the East.

Auburn takes center stage again next week against undefeated LSU. It will be one of most anticipated games in the conference, country and in the series overall. The positive for Auburn is LSU's offense has been one of the worst in the country. The negative is their defense has been one of the best. It will be Cam Newton's biggest challenge so far at Auburn. Will LSU be the team to finally slow him down or will he add another chapter to his growing legend? It could be another "one for the ages" just a week after this unbelievable game...

Week 6 Review - A Perfect Saturday

2010-10-10T18:10:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 3 years since the last perfect Saturday. A perfect Saturday in our household consists of Auburn winning and Bama losing. The perfect scenario is obviously an Iron Bowl win but days like yesterday are pretty good too. Interesting enough, after the last perfect Saturday is when things went downhill for Auburn and we are still recovering despite our perfect record so far this year. Maybe this perfect Saturday will mark a milestone of the Auburn program coming back. As good as yesterday was let me throw out a healthy dose of objectivity before starting my "Cam Newton for the Heisman" campaign. Auburn is going to lose a couple of games. Auburn is a good team and they are a lot of fun to watch (on offense) but there are still some gaping holes in this team that I will cover below. Here is "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" from last night's game against Kentucky. Actually I am going to change things up a little this week and go with "The Great, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"...

THE GREAT
Cam Newton. I did not see Jimmy Sidle play when he put over 1000 yards rushing at quarterback and led Auburn to a 9-1 season and the Orange Bowl. I did see Dameyune Craig in all his games, all the home ones in person, and I never thought I would see a more dynamic mobile quarterback than him. However I will say that I now think Cam Newton is the best mobile quarterback I have ever seen at Auburn and one of the best I have ever seen period. It is hard to compare him to Pat Sullivan or Jason Campbell since they were drop back passers so I will not. He put on one of the best single game performances in Auburn history last night against Kentucky totalling almost 400 yards rushing and passing and running for 4 touchdowns. He nearly single handed led Auburn down the field for the winning field goal converting several tough 3rd down conversions. He is a true superstar. Yes he still isn't great at reading defenses and delivering the ball to the open guy sometimes but nobody is perfect. He does continue to improve in that area and at this point I would not put anything past him. Again, Urban Meyer must go home at night and cry after watching the Auburn highlights. He had this guy at his school and could have replaced Tim Tebow with Cam Newton. Thank goodness he came to Auburn.

THE GOOD
I use the phrase "nearly single handed" but that is a bit of hyperbole. It is never just one guy in football. Cam Newton does some amazing things but his veteran offensive line is working hard in the trenches to give him those holes and creases to run through. Never forget the guys in the trenches. We also probably would not have won the game last night without the other true All-SEC player on our team, Darvin Adams. Adams is one of the best receivers in the conference and he had another 100 yards receiving and several clutch catches. Dyer and Fannin showed flashes with some good runs last night. The mastermind behind it all, Gus Malzahn called a good game in the first half and at the end but lost his mind in the third quarter. Kentucky put nine men on the line of scrimmage and rather than burning them through the air Malzahn kept running Ontario McCallebb wide on first down. This continually put us in second and long and made us easier to defend. However overall the entire offense was very good last night.

NOTE: I want to put in a note about where I am coming from before I critique the rest of the team. I nearly always critique Auburn from the standpoint of what it will take to win the SEC West. In my opinion, every Auburn football team should have one goal starting the season and that is to win the West. Their goal will change to winning the SEC championship game if they achieve that. I do not care about polls or the mythical national championship. Winning a division and a championship game is objective. You cannot be cheated out of it. You earn it. With that in mind I do not think I am being too hard on a team that is now 6-0 and 3-0 in the SEC and considered one of the top ten teams in the country. This team is a legitimate contender right now for the SEC West title and I will critique them based on that high standard.

THE BAD
The Auburn special teams overall are bad. It has been two years of this. They do good things at times but overall they are bad. First, it is a mistake to jerk an experienced senior in Shoemaker and put in a freshman. Yes Shoemaker has underperformed a bit but a freshman will most likely make a huge mistake in a big game that could cost us the game. They got lucky when they pulled this with Clinton Durst. I do not think that will happen again especially since Clark averaged only 35 yards a kick last night. The punt return team has passed the point of even being a factor. Every Auburn fan simply hopes that Carr doesn't fumble. There is no longer any expectation of a big punt return. We simply hopes he does not fumble. That is bad special teams. The kickoff coverage which had been good was simply awful last night. Senior Wes Byrum got the job done but this staff inherited Byrum. I am really worried about next year and what this staff will do with a young kicker. Byrum got the job done but this staff inherited Byrum. I am really worried about next year and what this staff will do with a young kicker. Gene Chizik talks a lot about Auburn history and how important it is yet his teams seemingly ignore the tenets of good defense and special teams that Coach Jordan and Dye emphasized. With that said let us move to...

THE UGLY
Our defensive performance last night was ugly. There is no other way to say it. When your offense scores 31 points in the first half against KENTUCKY and you then have to win on a last second field goal YOU ARE PLAYING BAD DEFENSE. My gosh where do I start? I guess in the same place I start every week with our ridiculously extreme philosophy of playing soft coverage. I understand have an overall philosophy but you have to make adjustments based on the team you are playing. The Auburn defense has rose up several times but that is mainly because of the defensive line. Most teams will not throw short the entire night and that is how we finally stop them. That was not true of Kentucky. The three step drop and throw nullifies a defensive line. They were content to throw short to their play makers ALL NIGHT and it is not like that is a surprise. These guys have been around their forever. Their is plenty of film on Kentucky and their attack. Why did our defense not do more to take away Cobb and Locke??? Why did we never play tighter coverage? It is maddening to watch. I guess I can end on a positive. I think this strategy might have some success against Arkansas since they probably won't be content to throw short all day. Of course I still look for Ryan Mallett and Arkansas to roll up big numbers on us. We can only hope we get some crucial stops like in the Clemson and South Carolina games.

AROUND THE SEC
The game of the day was obviously South Carolina's upset of Bama. What a game. After Garcia's boneheaded safety and Bama made it 21-14 I thought Bama would come back and get it. I thought South Carolina would be just another team that fell apart under the pressure of trying to upset Bama. However after they got the ball back they drove the length of the field to make it 28-14. That was a championship big time drive. It could be one of the monumental points of this SEC season. This is definitely the best South Carolina game of Spurrier's tenure there. This is his biggest win so far and one of the biggest wins in South Carolina history. This is also South Carolina's best chance they might ever get of getting the East title especially with Florida's loss to LSU. Speaking of that game...

I still think the guy is crazy but Les Miles did some coaching this week and as always he made an insane call that worked out for him at the end of the game. I will give credit though because even if Florida is not as good as expected it is tough to win in the Swamp. It was another incredible ending for LSU and Miles. It should be another great one when Auburn and LSU get together this season. Elsewhere Georgia finally got an SEC win and Arkansas beat Texas A&M.

Looking ahead, Arkansas at Auburn is game of the week this week. This is the beginning of crunch time in the SEC West. Auburn, Bama and LSU all still control their destiny to win the SEC West. Arkansas will either get back in the picture or be eliminated against Auburn. Bama will look to get back on track against Ole Miss. I bet we see a LOT of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson this next Saturday. I think that was Bama's biggest mistake against South Carolina. They only gave 17 carries to their dynamic duo. It appears that offensive coordinator Jim McElwain has been bitten by the spread bug. Bama is so big and strong, I think they are much more formidable playing a pro style offense running the ball and using play action. Elsewhere Georgia should get another SEC win against Vandy, Dan Mullen returns to Florida, South Carolina has to get back focused at Kentucky and LSU gets the week off against McNeese State.

Week 4 and 5 Review - Superman has returned

2010-10-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

The season after "Superman", Florida's Tim Tebow, left college football there was supposed to be a void. However "Superman" has returned and he is at Auburn. First, sorry for the lack of a review on Week 4, the South Carolina game. My son had an out-of-town tournament and that left little time for blogging. Fortunately, the Auburn blog nation pretty much said exactly what I wanted to say…

http://www.trackemtigers.com/2010/9/27/1713714/the-greatest-show-on-turf

http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/09/sunday-knee-jerk-stage-1-complete/

http://eyesonauburn.blogspot.com/2010/09/south-carolina-review.html

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/scarbinsky_gators_would_be_muc.html

The bottom line is that Cam Newton is AWESOME. The guy is a big-time playmaker and as I said before he is on his way toward coming one of the best quarterbacks in Auburn history. The touchdown run and now legendary leap into the end zone was AMAZING. As the articles I linked to above said, this team would be 3-2 or even 2-3 without Newton. Anyone who disagrees just does not understand football and everything this guy is doing for this offense. His mere presence on the field now opens up things on the offense. Yes, again he is still not great at reading defenses quickly and delivering the ball but he is improving. Even with his weaknesses he is still the most dynamic playmaker at quarterback in the conference and such a BIG improvement over what we have had the last few years.

Our defense is up and down, our senior offensive line has done a decent job, McCallebb is good at what he does, Dyer looks like he has a ton of potential, Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachary are All-SEC and the rest of the wide receiver corps looks good but to borrow an old phrase, Cam Newton is “the straw that stirs the drink”. We would have lost to Clemson and South Carolina without Newton and might have lost to Mississippi State. The best thing Chizik and Co. have done so far is bring in Newton.

The South Carolina followed our typical script with a Malzahn offense and a Chizik/Roof defense. The offense comes out on fire, goes flat and then recovers. The defense comes out and gets roasted, adjusts and closes pretty strong. As long as these coaches are here, we will see a lot more of this. Credit where credit is due though, the win over South Carolina was a big win. Coaches and players deserve full credit for getting it done.

I do think Steve Spurrier made a huge mistake jerking Stephen Garcia out. He still had a chance to tie that game with Garcia. There was no way a freshman was going to step into that situation and not have something bad happen. I will also say I thought the South Carolina defense would be tougher. However again you have to give credit to our offensive line for helping us put up 334 yards rushing. Gene Chizik’s strategy of calling out the offensive line sure seemed to work. It was an extra bonus to see Mike Dyer win the battle of the rookie running backs and get his first 100 yard game.

On the flip side, it was also surprising to see our defense completely shutdown Marcus Lattimore. Of course we paid for it through the air. South Carolina’s monster wide receivers and most of all Alshon Jeffery definitely lived up to their billing. However we won the battle and the defense caused 4 consecutive turnovers in the fourth quarter to win the game. Obviously Auburn got a little lucky but you have to work hard to put yourself in the position to be lucky.

THE GOOD: Cam freaking Newton.

THE BAD: Steve Spurrier’s decision to bench Stephen Garcia.

THE UGLY: Arkansas blowing it against Bama before our game started.

Now to the Louisiana Monroe game. Not a whole lot to say. The whole thing was pretty good from the offensive fireworks to the complete clearing of the benches. I just have a couple of minor complaints. First, would this not have been a good game to work on covering receivers a little tighter??? I do not understand playing way off these guys and letting them drive three times into Auburn territory in the first half and letting them get a field goal. I think it would have been a good game to work on tighter more aggressive coverage. This confirms we will see this crap for the rest of the season. Second, Malzahn needs to resist the temptation of getting too cute. Our lone field goal only came after we messed around trying to throw passes down by the goal line. Just hand off to Dyer and let him finish it. Red zone efficiency was one of Malzahn’s weaknesses last year because of this. Sometimes you cannot trick the other guy, you just have to man up and run right at him.

THE GOOD: Just about everything except the two issues I just mentioned. A special kudos to Emory Blake for two huge plays the last two weeks...

THE BAD: Louisiana Monroe.

THE UGLY: Florida’s performance and Urban Meyer’s coaching against Bama. Wow, they are not wishing they still had Cam Newton are they?

AROUND THE SEC

Observations from the last two weeks…

1. As stated above I will never forgive Ryan Mallett and Arkansas for absolutely blowing a game they HAD. Bama is now winning by teams just falling apart from the pressure. It makes me physically SICK.

2. After the game against UAB you could plainly see once again that things are bad at Tennessee. Who knew it would get so much worse a week later… (more on that further down)

3. Mark Richt, like Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville before him, is hitting that decline that seems to hit all good coaches who are at a school for a decade. Nowadays especially in the SEC it is hard for even really good coaches to last at a school much more than a decade. Fulmer managed to slow his down and Tuberville speeded his up but the start of the decline was about the same. Richt’s decline seems to be more like Tuberville. It is happening fast. At 1-4 with a lot of good teams left on the schedule I am not sure that Richt can save himself. That said, Auburn still better look out.

4. I honestly cannot believe some of these guys get paid millions of dollars after watching the end of the Tennessee/LSU game. How many HISTORICALLY stupid calls can be made in 27 seconds? Let us count…

STUPID CALL #1 – Running the ball with only 27 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. At the very least you have the QB roll out with a run/pass option.

STUPID CALL #2 – After making stupid call #1 and getting stopped, you then try to run in multiple substitutes in with the clock almost a 0:00.

STUPID CALL #3 – You watch your opponent make stupid call #1 AND stupid call #2 and as he is literally throwing the game away before your very eyes you decide to try and do multiple substitutions as well.

STUPID CALL #4 – As you make stupid call #3 you forget to keep track of who is going in and who is coming out and end up with 13 players on the field and end up costing yourself the game.

I have never seen anything like that in my life and I do not think I ever will again. After watching that (plus all his other late game blunders) and then his completely incoherent post game interview (plus all this other strange interviews) I have finally come to the conclusion that Les Miles is out of his mind. The guy is really mentally unbalanced. He is a complete lunatic AND HE IS GETTING PAID OVER THREE MILLION DOLLARS (!!!). Unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the Derek Dooley manage to top his end of game blunders. A tough year at Tennessee just keeps getting worse.

5. Florida will win the East but they are not the powerhouse they have been. Urban Meyer also showed once again why coaches that run their entire offense out of the shotgun formation are stubborn and they are wrong. I stated earlier that sometimes you cannot trick a guy, you have to man up and run right at him. I would add to that that you also need to get under center at those moments. BUT NOOOOOOO… Meyer, Malzahn and the rest of them just will not do it AND THEY CONTINUE TO GET STOPPED ON 3RD AND 4TH AND 1. Florida drives down to inside the two yard line and they try to run out of the shotgun and they get STUFFED. Yes Tim Tebow was the exception to the rule but he is gone. Cam Newton should be an exception but he has been stopped on 3rd and 1 running out of the shotgun this season as well. Tommy Tuberville had a lot of faults but I saw him run quarterback sneaks from under center at least a hundred times during his decade at Auburn and I do not remember us ever being stopped. I am sure it happened but in a DECADE it did not happen as many times as it happened to Malzahn last season and Florida this season. Back to Saturday, after getting stuffed Florida then tried that ridiculous jump pass that everyone in the world knew was coming. Again, sometimes you have to man up and get it done. Florida had another chance with a 3rd and 1 on their next drive but wussed out and tried a pass that of course did not work. Florida with all their super recruiting classes and great players should be able to line up and get a yard against the Baltimore Ravens defense.

Well I guess this gets me up-to-date. This week is not the monster week the last few have been but there are some interesting matchups. Bama vs. South Carolina will be the headliner followed by LSU vs. Florida, Auburn vs. Kentucky, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M and finally Tennessee vs. Georgia. Hopefully I will be back to review it promptly this coming weekend…

Week 3 Review - Tiger Brawl

2010-09-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

"We still haven't reached our capability. We can't continuously put ourselves in the situation we have been. Sooner or later, our luck will run out." - Cam Newton after the Clemson game

Usually I regret not getting my review out promptly after a game. This time I am not. Saturday's game was definitely a memorable one. I have talked to many Auburn fans who watched the game and that were there. I have read Clemson posts. I have heard a lot of different points of view. After all that I am still having a hard time getting my head around this game. Auburn played terrible, Auburn played great, Clemson played great, Clemson played terrible. I guess I will start with the one thing that everyone can agree on and has mentioned about the game. It was a very hard hitting game and one of the toughest I have seen in awhile. I felt good about the game going in. I did not think Clemson could start with a couple of cupcakes and then come into Jordan Hare and do that. I was wrong. Clemson came in and punched Auburn in the mouth. They staggered the home team and nearly knocked them out.

However they did not and Auburn pulled off a memorable comeback on a sweltering September Saturday night. It was certainly a tale of two haves. Auburn was nearly as good in the second half as they were bad in the first half. Clemson was the opposite. I guess to start off with you have to break down this game into it's basic elements. Auburn played a good team that started really well. Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0. Auburn rallied to win. Auburn has to be a good team to do that. Those are basic truths you have to accept about Saturday night despite all the bad things that happened as well. Again, Auburn played a good team that started really well. Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0. Auburn rallied to win. Auburn has to be a good team to do that. With that said let's break it down...

THE GOOD
The good was basically the second half where Auburn scored three touchdowns and held Clemson to just one. Auburn scored on the bomb to Zachary, Darvin Adams magnificent catch and got a touchdown run from Ontario McCallebb. I can see the blame for Auburn's offensive troubles starting to be placed on Cam Newton. He is not great at reading the defense, finding the open receiver and delivering the ball quickly. However I think we can do a lot with him regardless but more on that later. Cam Newton, even with the two awful interceptions, was still a big reason Auburn came back and won. He was basically bent in half on the bomb to Zachary. Neither of our weak-armed quaterbacks from the last four years would have been able to make that throw. Newton's ability to run also continues to preoccupy the defenses we play thus opening up the big throws he did hit. The offensive line finally got off their butts and started playing ball in the second half and the running backs were able to get untracked a little bit. Adams and Zachary continue to shine when we can get the ball to them.

Defensively while I don't like our philosophy or schemes I love the effort. Our defense stayed after it and finally started giving Clemson problems in the second half. Josh Bynes really stepped up at middle linebacker. The hard hit that Fairley and McNeil put on Kyle Parker really turned the game around. The first job of a coach in my opinion is to get his players to play hard. Our coaches are doing that. However...

THE BAD
I think they could then put these players in a better position to succeed on offense and defense. Defensively, Chizik and Roof have stated both in action and words that their philosophy is not to give up big plays and to keep everything in front of them and make other teams drive the length of the field. This usually involves playing way off the ball and giving up a lot of yardage on short passes. Auburn then usually makes adjustments, occasionally blitzes and gets a few stops. However, would it not help the team overall to play a more aggressive style of defense? The defense could then maybe get a few three-and-outs and let our offense do their thing and tire out the other defense. Now of course we would give up more big plays ala Will Muschamp. However that would get our offense back on the field and not subject our defense to staying out there so long getting dinked to death.

I just do not understand it. A more aggressive defense would fit in more with our supposed goals of being a more aggressive offense. Instead we seem to make it the worst of both worlds by keeping our offense on the bench longer and keeping our still thin defense on the field longer. This is also exacerbated by the fact our offense if played according to our supposed goals will keep the defense on the field more anyway. It just does not make sense to me. I would rather bring our guys up and let them play more aggressively and go for the three-and-out. They will give up a few but I think we would be more effective than we are now.

I have the same lack of understanding for our current offensive philosophy. Why line up in the shotgun if you are going to run the ball 47 times??? Regardless of the proliferation of the spread offense and so many teams running their offenses out of the shotgun, it is still a passing formation. You cannot convince me that you would not be better off having a fullback and a tight end blocking instead of a couple of wide receivers. There is also the fact that Auburn has about a dozen wide receivers on scholarship and are bringing in more. Yet we do not use but two of them... just like a regular I-formation team.

I do not like the spread, I do not like running our offense out of the shotgun, etc... HOWEVER if you are going to do it, THEN DO IT. Again, I know everyone is blaming our lack of a passing game on Newton but there is a ton of high-percentage passing plays that he could do now and would give more touches to our many great wide receiver prospects. After the last two games it appears that Chizik is tightening up and putting the cuffs on the offense that he committed to like Tommy Tuberville did before him.

THE UGLY
Ugly is what could happen if the team does not heed Cam Newton's quote I started this post with. This game reminds me a little of the 1990 Auburn vs. Florida St game. I was there, I was a student. The game was similar to this one. It was a hard fought win over a tough ACC team with an exciting finish. The team was a little similar to this in that it was talented but could not put it all together. Auburn had not lost a game and would soon rise to #4 in the country. Unfortunately like Cam Newton's states above, the 1990 team's luck ran out. They got destroyed by Florida 48-7, beaten at home by Brett Farve and Southern Miss and then upset by an inferior Bama team.

I agree with Cam and see this team having the same fate if they do not play or get COACHED to their capability. They cannot continue to be so inconsistent each game. They coaches especially one Gus Malzahn have to put them in good situations with some creative playcalling. I cannot believe I am saying that about Malzahn but our offense seems to basically consist of a small amount of plays. I am like a lot of other people that are wondering where are the slants, screens and other short passes? Why can't the defense play a little more aggressive and make the offense go over them rather than dinking them to death?

AROUND THE SEC
Arkansas took a huge step beating Georgia in Athens. They certainly appear to be the #2 team in the West right now. We will see how good they are this week as they meet the Bama juggernaut. Bama, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky all took care of business. Tennessee put up a good fight against the Gators but again just did not have enough to stay with them. I guess I will say each week how shocking the situation at Tennessee is. This Mississippi schools had a tough weekend. Mississippi State made a lot of mistakes and LSU took full advantage. Meanwhile Ole Miss' season is officially circling the drain as they got hammered by Vanderbilt at home. Couple that with the Jacksonville State loss and you have an ugly season that is only going to get worse. I think that even Houston Nutt is going to have a tough time getting an upset win or two with this team.

The game of the week will be Bama vs. Arkansas in Fayettville. Arkansas is one of the only teams that might have enough offensive firepower and coaching to make it close against Bama. An upset would rock the SEC race and the polls. A Bama win would be another decisive step toward another SEC title. South Carolina vs. Auburn is the other big conference game this week. South Carolina could take a huge step toward their first SEC East title with a win at Auburn. An Auburn win will have them at 5-0 going into Kentucky in two weeks.

Another interesting game will be Kentucky at Florida. This is usually a laugher but Kentucky is a solid team with a couple of big-time playmakers. They actually have a chance of upsetting Florida this year. It will definitely be a game to keep an eye on. The only other conference game features Mark Richt trying to get that first conference win at Mississippi State. I think he will. State's quarterbacks continue to let them down.

Week 2 Review - Welcome Back to Earth

2010-09-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to earth. That is about all I can say to the people who spent the last 9 months building this Auburn team up to unattainable heights. I would like to give a special "shout-out" to the elite few who talked about how our running would be as good as Bama's and how it would be one of the best in nation and how we would not miss Ben Tate. Welcome back to earth. It was a hard fall even for me. The reason I am so disappointed in Auburn's performance Thursday night was because of how poor Mississippi State played on offense. I was convinced they were better. Their defense was better but their offense was not. It looked a lot like every other Mississippi State offense I have seen. The quarterbacks threw a lot of bad passes and the wide receivers had a lot of drops. Now Auburn's defense did play much better and actually even challenged a few receivers at the line of scrimmage but the offense they were playing was just not that good. I will be much more excited if we can put up a couple more of these performances in the next two weeks.

The simple fact is if Auburn does not play much better than that then they are going to have a tough time. We played good defense but every single team remaining on our schedule outside of Ole Miss, Louisiana Monroe and Chattanooga will have a better offense and better quarterback. I still believe Dan Mullen is a good coach and he is a "Cam Newton" away from resurrecting State's offense. It is really that simple. The recruiting battle for Newton came down to Auburn and Mississippi State. How much different would things be last night if Cam Newton played for Mississippi State?

THE GOOD
Auburn's defense was good. Nick Fairley was great. He did resemble his legendary position coach last night. Like last week I give props to "The Rock", Tracy Rocker. His defensive line though it drops off a lot after Fairley is the only unit on the team that has been consistent both weeks. They get after it all the time. The rest of the defense was better than last week but Mississippi State still had a lot of open receivers and was an easy catch away from a possible tying field goal. However I would agree that the defense got the job done. They will need to keep improving because as I said the road just gets harder from here.

I also have to mention Mike Dyer here. While he did not put on the performance Marcus Lattimore did for South Carolina he continues to show flashes of being that next great Auburn running back. With Mario Fannin possibly out due to injury Dyer will be called on to do more. I also thought that Cam Newton did not play a great game but still made some good plays and needed help from his coach...

THE BAD
Gus Malzahn. The offense was completely ineffective in the second half. Going to the swing screen once to often resulted in a "pick six" that was dropped by State. We also seemed to have problems calling plays, problems calling audibles and seemed unable to handle undisguised blitzes. It was mess and the worst I have seen a Gus Malzahn offense play.

Another thing to note is that in consecutive weeks, teams are sniffing out some of Malzahn's favorite plays. Last week, Auburn torched Arkansas State but the one time they tried that reverse to Terrell Zachary that resulted in so many big plays last season it resulted in a huge loss. Then as I said earlier Malzahn went to the swing screen one too many times. Those are two pet plays Auburn runs a lot. I also do not understand why Auburn did not throw any quick slants against those State blitzes.

THE UGLY
Ugly is the streak that Bama is on. They were not perfect but they were dominant in taking out Penn State. Now Penn State appeared to be an average Big Ten team at best but they are a legitimate big time out of conference opponent. Unfortunately it has become obvious that Bama has one of those special groups of kids. Like Auburn in the 80s when they won three consecutive SEC titles and Florida in the 90s when they won four consecutive SEC title. It goes beyond the coach no matter how good he is. It is recruiting mixed with good luck and outstanding chemistry. They have that oneness that every coach dreams about. Steve Spurrier did not just stop coaching and recruiting at Florida from 1997 on. He just had that special group of kids from 1993 through 1996. I think Bama has been a nick more successful because the SEC has been down the last couple of years except for Florida with their big rivals Auburn and Tennessee both going through tough coaching transitions plus LSU starting to fade as well.

AROUND THE SEC
The biggest win of the weekend was Steve Spurrier finally beating the Dawgs at South Carolina. I do not think he has beat Georgia at South Carolina yet, if not he has only gotten them once and lost several heart breakers. South Carolina had to win to have a chance at the East and they did. Like I said last week this appears to be the strongest team I have seen at South Carolina under Spurrier (and they are due into Auburn next week). The team as a whole has improved but the they also finally have that dynamic play maker Spurrier has lacked since he has been there in former Auburn commit Marcus Lattimore. Lattimore was the MVP as he carried South Carolina across the finish line rushing 37 times for 182 yards. On the other sideline, Georgia played well but made some key mistakes. It was be interesting to see where Georgia goes from here.

As I stated above, Bama dominated Penn State and in the other big out of conference game Oregon overcame a slow start to crush the Vols in Knoxville. The honeymoon ended for Derek Dooley in the second half of this game. I did not see it but I have heard it got very ugly. It is obvious now that while Phil Fulmer was fading that the hiring of Lane Kiffin was one of the biggest mistakes in Tennessee football history and they are going to pay for it for awhile. I read that they are now down to 72 scholarship players??? It is going to take some serious rebuilding to get the Vols back to the top. Everyone else in the SEC held serve over weaker opponents.

This coming week gives us more conference matchups with the Florida going to Knoxville, Arkansas going to Athens, Mississippi State going to Baton Rouge and finally last and least Vandy heads to Oxford for a matchup of the two worst teams in the conference. There will also still be some good out-of-conference matchups with Clemson and ESPN Gameday coming to the loveliest village on the plains. Auburn and Clemson is a special matchup with the two schools being so similar and sharing a lot of history. I cannot wait. Alabama and their legion of fans will invade Duke's tiny Wallace Wade Stadium. I hope Duke is ready because they are about to see the following a #1 SEC team. That campus will be crimson till the game is over. You would think Duke would coordinate a basketball series with the football series so they could flex their muscles in their sport. Finally South Carolina and Kentucky take on a couple of cupcakes to get ready for their big week four games.

Week 1 Review - A Star is Born

2010-09-06T07:41:00.000-07:00

Cam Newton. It is rare that a much hyped athletic star's performance comes even close to the hype. Well on Saturday night in Auburn it happened. New Auburn quarterback Cam Newton gave one of the most spectacular individual performances in Auburn history (and that is saying something). He rushed for 171 yards which is now the top rushing performance ever by an Auburn quarterback and he also added 186 yards passing. It was amazing to watch.

As always here at STR I use the format of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" to review each weeks games. So lets get to it with the rest of the "The Good" for Auburn...

THE GOOD
Super running back recruit Michael Dyer also impressed with nearly a 100 yards rushing on just 14 carries. Ontarrio McCalebb also had a strong game. Most Auburn fans were wondering what was going on as starter Mario Fannin only got 3 carries. However Fannin was the leading receiver with 65 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have a fumble but I thought it was a fluke play. He got caught in an awkward position. I still think Fannin is our best and I hope gets some more carries this week. The offensive line looked strong as there was plenty of room to run and Newton had all day to throw on most of his attempts. Auburn ended up with 608 yards of total offense for the night and as I predicted in my last post is well on their way to becoming the best offense statistically in Auburn history.

I have already seen Auburn's special teams getting criticized for Demond Washington's fumble in the 3rd quarter. That was bad but I will still put the special teams in the "Good" section here. Does anybody remember the complete train wreck Auburn's special teams were last year? They were the worst in the history of the school in my opinion. We literally could not catch a punt. Last night my guy Q Carr from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama actually caught every punt to him and made positive yardage. That is reason enough to give the special teams kudos. However I also have to give a shout out to my new guy, Craig Sanders. He is wearing my favorite number, #13, and he was amazing on kick coverage making three solo stops. You just don't see one guy dominate on kick coverage like that very much.

Finally, before I butcher the defense in the next section I also want to give credit to the "Rock", defensive line coach, Tracy Rocker. His guys went after it hard all night.

THE BAD
First the little things. Letting the clock run out at the end of the first half is just inexcusable. Come on, that could lose an SEC game. We also had a lot of stupid penalties that need to be fixed. Finally for the offense why the heck did the coaching staff have Cam Newton out there running the ball with a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter??? I believe this game made it obvious that this team is going to go as far as Newton takes it. We are going to risk that to get him a few more carries in the first game when it is already decided??? D-U-M-B.

Obviously Auburn's defense has some room for improvement as Arkansas State rolled up 366 total yards. However after watching how badly coached Miami of Ohio's offense was against Florida I will give some credit to the Arkansas State coaching staff. Their offense was very well coached. They did not throw an interception and just played a very smart game. With that said though the linebacker and secondary play overall was not good. There were a few big hits and hey I am cheering for Zach Etheridge like everyone else is but you cannot give up 300 yards plus passing to Arkansas State.

Craig Stevens being suspended does not explain it either. Even with Cam Newton's star performance and the great play by the rest of the offense the game looked a lot like Auburn last year. The offense would go through periods of being unstoppable and look unbelievable but then they would hit a lull and the other team would make a run and our defense would seem helpless to stop them. We did not quite see that extreme last night but you saw the outline and a better team would have made a real run.

The way Auburn plays their safeties is hard to watch. Most of the time they play them so far back that the other team just dinks us to death. I will never understand that philosophy. I think you should play the other team tight and make them throw over you and hit that lower percentage long pass. Yes you will give up some big plays but you will also get some three-and-outs. Between our current offensive and defensive philosophies I do not think we will ever have enough depth on defense. Speaking of moving safeties let us go to...

THE UGLY
The ugly has been four years of weak-armed immobile quarterbacks at Auburn (Brandon Cox and Chris Todd). It has been four years of other teams bringing their safeties up and crowding us, daring us to throw over them and knowing that we could not. Brandon Cox's deterioration killed our offenses in 2006 and 2007. Chris Todd's weak arm reared it's ugly head many times over the last two seasons even in our higher rated offense last year. The vertical passing is absolutely essential to any good team. It forces a team to keep those safeties back and opens up running lanes and short passes. We finally have a quarterback who can throw it further than I can and that is good news for Auburn.

Now you also throw in a quarterback that can run and you pose so many other problems for the opposing defense. Even if Cam Newton was not as spectacular as he was I am still happy. I told a friend before the season started who was a little worried about Newton that there was no way he could possibly be worse than what we have had over the last four years. It is just icing on the cake that he looked even better than expected.

AROUND THE SEC
I did not make my traditional trip to watch the season opener in Auburn this year so I was able to watch a lot of football this weekend. The teams that stuck out to me were South Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi State. It seems South Carolina opens every season now but it is usually in an ugly low scoring duel with Mississippi State. This year they changed it up a bit and opened with another Mississippi school in Southern Miss. Now Southern Miss is definitely not a world beater but they are a bit stronger than your usual patsy. I thought South Carolina looked very strong and about the best I have seen them since Spurrier got there. I thought Garcia was solid and missed a few long passes by just a yard or so. He should start hitting those passes later in the season. I thought Marcus Lattimore looked very good. South Carolina also had several other big fast athletic players on offense that looked pretty good.

Kentucky may have played the toughest game of the weekend and beat Louisville on the road to spoil Charlie Strong's coaching debut. Kentucky played a very solid game on both sides of the ball and have some big-time play makers in Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb. Finally Mississippi State just obliterated Memphis. Now Memphis is a very weak team but you can just see a difference in State. I think Dan Mullen is the real deal. I think he really has that "it" you look for in a coach. I think this weeks game between Auburn and State is going to be a war. Auburn fans who have counted these three teams as automatic wins this year better think twice in my opinion.

It was a typical LSU and Les Miles game in the headlining match up of the weekend. LSU looked very talented and highly erratic in their win over a decimated North Carolina team. Georgia and Tennessee took care of their business in their openers. It must have been pretty cool as well for Tennessee to stomp a team who looks just like one of your old rivals. UT-Martin's uniforms are just like Auburn except for the logo on the helmet. I think Auburn needs a homecoming opponent that looks like Bama...

The bad in the SEC this week was Florida's offense against Miami of Ohio. I do not think I have ever seen a top five rated SEC team unit look as bad as Florida's offense. I watched just about this whole game and they were completely inept. What has Florida been practicing? It sure does not appear they have been practicing shotgun snaps as they butchered about a dozen of them in the game. They fumbled the ball, they could not get a consistent push from their offensive line and quarterback John Brantley misfired on just about every throw over five yards. Take away one long run and Brantley's fourth quarter desperation heave that got batted around and was miraculously caught and Florida's stats are abysmal.

Well there is no doubt what the ugly in the SEC is this week. Ole Miss and coach Houston Nutt lost to Jacksonville State, a FCS (Division 1-AA) team from here in Alabama. In a touch of irony Jacksonville State is coached by Jack Crowe (a former Auburn assistant under Pat Dye) who was once fired at Arkansas for losing to a Division 1-AA team (The Citadel). Ole Miss even had a 31-10 lead at halftime. They only scored three points in the second half and gave up 24. What the heck is going on down in Oxford? This loss coupled with Mississippi State's resurgence has to be a bitter pill for Ole Miss fans to swallow. It looks to be a long season for Ole Miss BUT there is no doubt in my mind that Houston Nutt will upset somebody in the West.

Things heat up fast next week as Auburn and State kick off SEC play on Thursday night. I expect this game to be one of the best ones in the history of the entire series. Georgia and South Carolina meet in a huge game in Columbia. With Florida suddenly looking vulnerable this game would be a huge boost to one of these teams hopes of winning the SEC East. There are also a couple of huge out-of-conference tilts with Penn State coming to Bama and Oregon coming to Tennessee.

Back in the Saddle Again

2010-09-04T10:15:00.000-07:00

It is time to kick off another football season of blogging on the Auburn Tigers and the SEC. It has been awhile since I have posted for a variety of reasons. It has been a crazy summer, of course with three kids in the house it is always crazy. I am always trying to get organized but still haven’t quite got there yet. I have found that you have to be organized and plan some time during the week to send out a decent blog post. I did not get there this summer.

I did finish my biggest and best piece to date “Saturdays to Remember… and Forget – The Decade of the Eighties Part 1” but unfortunately I did not get it finished before practice started and now nobody will care since the offseason is over. I think I will keep it saved and work on more parts and look to release it next year.

So there you go… kids, my disorganization and a huge blog post that will not see the light of day anytime soon… that will pretty much sum up the summer of 2010 for me blog-wise.

The next question is how could I have waited this long to post? I mean the season is just about to start! Well that reason is simple when following Auburn, there is not any actual hard facts or observations to comment on. Only the football team and certain other insiders who cannot distribute their thoughts and observations know what is actually going on. All of the beat writers and blogs have no idea what is going on until the coaching staff decides to tell them.

It has just ruined the whole “preseason” for me. Fall practice just does not get me excited at all when the only thing you read about is pure speculation. I think the thing about Auburn that frustrates me the most is that they do not give out stats from scrimmages. At the very least that gives you something to talk about. I mean even the biggest control freak in the league and the guy that started no-access rules, Nick $aban, GIVES OUT STATS FROM SCRIMMAGES. At the very least that is all I ask. It is obviously not asking too much if $aban allows it. However at Auburn we are forced to try and form a picture from hearsay by the players and vague babble from the coaches. It is ludicrous. It just seems like a waste of time to try and make any conclusions based on hearsay and vague comments. There are no witnesses of the events that people are trying to draw conclusions from. I understand the need to close off a lot of things and I have heard all the good reasons but I still think a little more access could be granted for the fans.

However there are too many Auburn sites and bloggers though to let that stop them and hey I still read some of them too. However I do not get much enjoyment of it. It has pretty much gotten to the point where football season starts on Labor Day. The days of getting excited when practice starts are over for me while the practices are made “top secret”.

With that said, I was at West Point the first week of August and I did get to watch parts of Army’s first two football practice. So at least I got to see somebody practice some football this August…

Back to Auburn, I guess it is time to make some preseason predictions. Another damper for me every year is the nauseating sunshine-pumping from the various Auburn outlets. I understand some of it but it seems to get worse every year. There just does not seem to be much difference between the way Auburn and Bama fans act now. There was a time not so long ago that Auburn fans were much more objective and realistic about their team’s chances and not the complete homers that most Bama fans are. That does not seem true anymore. A spin around the various Auburn sites and you will find that Auburn is absolutely awesome, Gene Chizik is already a certified great coach and everything is great and wonderful. Now for the record things are definitely looking up for this season but I am not quite ready to go as far as most Auburn people.

First, a comment on last year. A prevailing topic since the season ended is how great the team did last year, how much they exceeded expectations, etc… I beg to differ. I would be cast as “negative” but I predicted Auburn would go 6-6 last year and 2-4 in the SEC in the regular season. Auburn ended up going 7-5 last year and 3-5 in the SEC in the regular season. I predicted we would lose to Tennessee but I predicted we would beat Kentucky so those two games were a wash. Basically the only thing last year’s team did that I did not think they would do was beat Ole Miss. Those are the facts.

Now before we crown mean Gene the greatest coach in Auburn history and anoint Gus Malzahn as the greatest offensive coach ever I think we need to actually beat Arkansas, LSU, Georgia or Bama. I think we need to avoid three game losing streaks and three game streaks of blowing 14 point leads.

Finally let us get to the actual predictions. Looking at the schedule my first take is that we will go 1-1 vs. Clemson and South Carolina, 1-1 vs. Arkansas and LSU and 1-1 vs. Georgia and Bama and win the rest. That would put us at 9-3 and maybe headed to the Citrus or Cotton Bowls. I think if this team is a little better we improve by one game to 10-2 and it is definitely possible we could also finish at 8-4. I will go with 9-3 and 5-3 in the SEC as my official prediction.

That is a two game improvement and would include a couple of wins over the four teams that we need to beat. That would definitely be a good season and show a lot of progress. However the goal every year is to win the SEC West and get to Atlanta. I believe this is Auburn’s best chance to do that for awhile. If Auburn does not do it then it is a disappointment to me.

I will say though that Auburn fans need to enjoy this season for all it’s worth. I think it will be the best season Auburn has for awhile. Auburn has TWENTY FOUR seniors leading the team this season. This includes FOUR starters on the offensive line, two of the main defensive tackles (there are only 5 legitimate defensive tackles on the roster), the two starting defensive ends, two starting linebackers, two starting safeties, two starting kickers and the starting tailback. It will take Auburn a season or more to get back to this level due to Tommy Tuberville’s last two horrible recruiting classes. This team has a lot of seniors and a lot of freshmen and not much in between.

I predict that this offense will be the highest rated offense in Auburn history, statistically. So before the sunshine-pumpers lose their minds, I, as a “negative” fan, am predicting this. Now I do not think it will be the actual best offense in Auburn history but it will be very good and like every other “spread” offense it will run up big numbers in the three creampuff out-of-conference games. I have heard the stats from last year’s team ad nauseum. The only stats that count to me are the stats IN-conference. Auburn’s 2009 SEC offensive stats were a bit more representative of how good they were.

I will also predict that Gus Malzahn will leave Auburn after this great offensive season for a head coaching job on the backs of these seniors. This will be his most marketable moment and like I said it will be awhile before Auburn will be this good again. I think that he will especially see the lack of talent he will have to work with on the offensive line next year and beyond. I believe Trooper Taylor will be promoted to offensive coordinator. He could be a great one or not. I do not know however I would not think he would be quite as good running this style of offense as Malzahn and every rookie coordinator has a learning curve.

With all this said I will venture one more prediction that nobody will agree with. I think this will be the best season Gene Chizik will have as head coach at Auburn. I hope I am wrong on this one and the other ones but that is the way I see it.

Let me turn back to the positive though. I will give Gene Chizik and Co. full credit for two things this last offseason. These two things are amazing and hardly ever happen. One, Chizik was able to hold the entire coaching staff together and that is very rare in this modern age of college football. He also brought in a full class of 25 new players in plus 5 other players that count toward last year’s scholarship count. That is simply amazing.

I hope this monster class will be the foundation for another SEC championship for the Auburn Tigers. First however let us see what this team and these seniors can do this season. I may be “negative” at times but I love Auburn football. I am looking out my window on this opening Saturday of the 2010 season and it is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to watch my Auburn Tigers get started tonight. War Eagle!

Summer Begins...

2010-06-05T08:26:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day. A serious holiday but it is also the official start to every summer. For our family it definitely was as we headed to Atlanta this past week and did Six Flags, a Braves game and ended with a little trip to Dave and Busters. Six Flags was great the day after Memorial Day and not crowded at all. My son and I did the pictured above Goliath roller coaster three times and hit just about every other coaster in the park. They even had plenty to keep my younger kids happy. Unfortunately the younger kids did not do quite as well the rest of the trip but it was still good.

My son's club soccer team also finished 4th in the state in his age division in the Division II State Cup a few weeks ago as well. I was really proud of their team. Between soccer, end-of-school activities and this vacation I have definitely gotten side tracked on my blogging. I finally got to sit down this morning and catch back up on the various Auburn blogs. Here are a few takes on current events...

1. The Auburn baseball team. It has been great seeing the baseball team win the SEC West regular season title, get to the SEC tourney and now hosting a regional. Hopefully we can take Clemson tonight and move on. My only bit of advice for Auburn coach John Pawlowski is he should have pitched his best pitcher against Bama in the first round of the SEC tournament. He should know that if you can beat Bama in any kind of tournament Auburn fans feel like they still got something good out of it even if they did not win it (see the 1999 SEC basketball tournament).

2. The World Cup. Now that ESPN has unleashed it's full marketing strength for the World Cup, it will probably be the most watched one in American history. Since my son is really into soccer and is really fired up about it I will probably watch more of it than I ever have. It should be fun and may get some Olympics-type buzz but I don't see anything changing for soccer here in the USA...

3. The Big Cat Weekend and Auburn football recruiting. I just cannot get too fired up about recruiting this time of the year. I am glad we are apparently working hard at it since to play at a high level in the SEC you have to but it is a LONG time till Signing Day.

4. General Auburn football impressions. I have always said that most fans are much happier with their team if they have a good offense. That is certainly proving true as Auburn bloggers and fans appear to be completely in love with Gus Malzahn and his high octane offense. There is no doubt that this year's offense will be the best statistically in Auburn history. It will absolutely run it up several times and put up massive numbers. As long as that garners around nine wins and a bowl everyone seems happy.

I am also glad to see us have a very good offense but am not as smitten with Malzahn's defense-killing offense. I much prefer one along the lines of our 2004 team. People forget that offense and defense are part of one team and what one unit does effects the other. I watched our thin defense get put in so many bad spots last year and finish as the worst defense statistically in Auburn history. Our defense will have a little more depth this year but not much. I just do not think you can win a championship in the SEC that way. See Urban Meyer at Florida who did some things similar to Malzahn at Utah but won both his SEC and national championships on defense and changed his offensive philosophy to help his defense.

5. Celtics vs. Lakers. I love my Celts and will always remember the beat down we put on the Lakers to win the title in 2008. However with Bynum and Artest playing this year and the Celts not quite as good as 2008 I just do not see the Celts pulling it off this year. Man I hate the Lakers...

6. Upcoming here at STR. I actually had been working behind the scenes at STR on my biggest post to date during the month of April. I am working on a series looking at some of the Saturdays To Remember in Auburn football since David Housel wrote the original "Saturdays To Remember" book. I have finished the "Decade of the Eighties Part 1" and will post it soon. I had a lot of fun writing it and hope people have some fun reading it...

Auburn signs #1 basketball player in state of Alabama

2010-04-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Let me write that one more time... "Auburn signs the #1 basketball player in state of Alabama". This week Josh Langford, out Lee High School in Huntsville and ranked the #1 rated player in the state by the Birmingham news committed to Auburn. Yes he might not be DeMarcus Cousins but it is still a huge signing nonetheless. As I wrote in the post below, Auburn has been the worst program in the SEC over the last twenty years and has been a complete non-entity in basketball recruiting in the state of Alabama over the past decade. When you put it in that context I do not think you can understate this signing. It is just the thing Auburn and coach Barbee needed to really get things started.

Couple this signing with the new Arena and coach Barbee and I have never been this excited about Auburn basketball. I am definitely a little more excited than most people about this signing because I live in Huntsville and I kept up with the Lee vs. Butler rivalry and their chase for the 5A state title. Butler in Huntsville had won the last two 5A state titles before Lee and Langford finally broke through this year. I have met Lee coach Greg Brown and other members of his staff and really thought a lot of them so I was definitely cheering hard for Lee and Langford this year.

As I just posted on another site I think this is Auburn's biggest signing since Doc Robinson but I would compare it more to signing Bryant Smith who was the heart and soul of the 1999 team. To me Langford is more like Smith (another Huntsville product) except with more upside offensively in my opinion. I think the signing of Smith was the first step toward the 1999 dream season and I am sure hoping the signing of Langford will be the first step toward another dream season.

I thought Kevin Scarbinsky wrote the best article on the signing. There are several nuggets of information that can be gleaned from this article. First, how awesome is it that Barbee was at Lee High School to see Langford the morning after his intro presser??? Finally, FINALLY Auburn hires an up-and-coming basketball coach who appears to be a good recruiter. Auburn has never been able to maintain any consistency in recruiting with coaches who were older and on the back side of their career in Sonny Smith, Tommy Joe Eagles and Cliff Ellis. It did not get any better when they hired a younger coach in Lebo whose strengths were not recruiting. Maybe and hopefully Auburn has finally gotten it right.

The results of Barbee putting Langford at the top of his board and putting in that extra effort?
"He could’ve gone and recruited anyone else in the state," Langford said. "He came here first. It was a great feeling when he did that. It made me look at Auburn a little bit harder."
How long has it been since we heard any top recruit in this state say that??? I can help you, it sure hasn't happened in the last decade.

Next we get this info from Coach Brown...
"The Lee coach said Barbee sent a message on his first visit with his actions and his words. "He told me, ‘This kid is a priority. This kid is not getting out of Alabama,' '' Brown said. "Those were his exact words." When’s the last time an Auburn basketball coach said those words, meant them and then backed them up?"
I can answer that for you Kevin, how about never? Auburn fans have waited and waited for a basketball coach to do this. Quality basketball players have streamed out of this state for the last decade and most did not even consider Auburn and many said Auburn did not really recruit them.

We know this is true in this case...
""When Coach Lebo was there, he didn’t recruit me that much," Langford said. "When Coach Barbee came in, he looked at me hard."
I will admit I do not know much about big-time basketball recruiting but this is not the first time that a big-time recruit in this state has said that. I know you have to limit and narrow your scope in recruiting to guys you think you can get but you also have to take a shot at a few of the big boys as well. It does not appear Jeff Lebo was doing that near enough. I have always said we have to build our team from our standard recruiting region. The best example is the 1999 team. Other than Mamadou, all the starters were from Alabama and Georgia.

Langford even showed us our best pitch to keep some of these guys close to home...
"It’s three hours away. In-state. Family can watch me play. Academics. Everything’s right here in the state in Auburn. So I don’t see a reason to go out."
BINGO!!! I am sorry but that pitch does not get old and will always be effective when used correctly. Just about every great player has friend and family that want to watch them play. From my limited experience in youth sports I can tell you that is a fact. Even if we cannot wrestle a DeMarcus Cousins away from the big boys we should be able to get our share of the top ten to twenty players in the state every year with that pitch. I just love it that Barbee came in with the attitude that "this kid is not getting out of Alabama".

To top it off we get the ancillary benefit of a little shot at Bama...
""Alabama? I mean …," Langford said. And then he laughed. "I like Alabama and everything, but they weren’t on me that hard until Barbee came in. It was like Alabama decided to recruit me when Barbee came in, so I said, ‘I’ll just go with Barbee.' ''
To say that Anthony Grant has underwhelmed in his first year as Bama's coach is an understatement. The guy did not make a big splash in recruiting like Barbee did here and was pretty much a flatliner throughout his first season in Tuscaloosa. You can almost tell that Grant longs for his old stomping grounds in Gainesville. Right now it sure appears that Auburn might have made the better hire but time will tell.

Finally, maybe this signing will open the doors in this part of the state for more big players...
"Langford wants to bring others with him, like 6-8 Luke Cothron, a Huntsville native who played last season at a North Carolina prep school. Recruiting insiders say Cothron may be the next Auburn signee. "I think he’s supposed to be coming," Langford said. Then there’s Langford’s cousin, Devin Langford, a 6-6 junior at Lee, who attended Thursday’s signing. "He’ll be even bigger" as a recruit, Brown said, adding that all of the coaches who visited recently offered scholarships to both Langfords. And don’t forget 6-1 Butler High School junior Trevor Lacey, who’s expected to be the No. 1 player in the state next year. "I’m gonna try to get Trevor, too," Josh Langford said. "
Again, as an Auburn fan and a resident of Huntsville I would sure love to see this thing snowball and Auburn get a few more of these kids.

Auburn basketball and optimism... Those are two things that have rarely if ever been linked together. I think it says a LOT that they are right now.

A-Day 2010 Review

2010-04-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well first let me give a little blogger's note. This post officially brings me up-to-date on the blog. I know that not many people will be interested NOW but I finally finished my basketball posts (a month late) and they are below this post. I feel bad about that but I do not feel bad about not having any more football posts this spring. I think I am actually on time for once since A-Day is basically the only thing anyone has actually SEEN this spring.

I used to dread the spring sunshine pumping of the Tuberville era. The open practices drew a lot of the hard core fans in the area and they usually posted their take in one of the various Auburn forums. Plenty of them would make it around to me. After you read one it seemed like Auburn would be better than the Dallas Cowboys. Those posts used to drive me crazy. Now I actually miss those posts. Why? Because at least it was an opinion based on someone actually SEEING the practice.

We now have the rigid draconian no-access rules (copied from the dictator across the state) that prevents anyone from seeing our top secret practices. It is pathetic, it is ludicrous, it is sad. It was never more so than last week for the last big scrimmage. Auburn had the poor beat writers locked out and was then twittering lame comments to the fan base. To top it off, the dictator across the state who sets the standard for lack of access allows stats to be compiled and provided to the fan base for most scrimmages but NOT at Auburn. That is my lowest expectation and Auburn is not even providing that. Obviously if the $abatron allows it, it cannot hurt. Come on Auburn, at least give us some stats.

With that said it has been really sad reading all of the spring practice "reports" and especially the "analysis" based on those reports. It is all hearsay and supposition. It has been full of "well Coach Chizik is not talking about this guy so he must be doing bad" kind of stuff. I have quickly lost interest in it.

That brings us to A-Day 2010. Usually A-Day is not too exciting but again since it is now the only time anyone gets to see the team play it is a little more noteworthy. It also gets more interesting when the team is replacing their quarterback. That is definitely the place to start with A-Day 2010. Here are the stats:

•Barrett Trotter completed 7-of-9 passes for 154 yards, including touchdown passes of 50 and 44 yards.
•Neil Caudle was 17-of-21 for 199 yards and had a 70-yard touchdown pass to receiver Quindarius Carr.
•Cameron Newton was 3-of-8 for 80 yards.
•Clint Moseley was 10-of-12 for 55 yards.

I watched the entire game and from my perspective Barrett Trotter looked the best. Neil Caudle was right there with him. However after watching how they handled the playing time it appears that Cam Newton has already won the job. I had assumed that was already the case but was impressed with Trotter's command and Caudle's release. Clint Moseley only came in for mop-up duty in the second half so I do not think he is at the level of the others.

Physically Newton displayed some of his raw ability. You could see how big he was just standing there. You could also see his arm strength when he threw a deep pass. Unfortunately you also saw it on a few short passes when he threw two balls way too high. What we did not see was his running ability and that is a big part of his game. Basically you do not bring in a kid of Newton's caliber to sit the bench. I fully expect him to be the starter next season barring injury. However A-Day 2010 definitely showed that he still has some things to work on.

You have to feel bad for Neil Caudle and I do. The guy sure looks like he has some big-time ability but has just never been able to put it together good enough to get the job. I think he will back up Newton although Barrett Trotter has to be uncomfortably close in his rearview mirror. Trotter looked poised and aggressive from the start. He came out firing and delivered. I think he will back up next year if nothing happens to Newton and start in 2012.

I also have to tip my hat to Gus Malzahn as each quarterback including Clint Moseley looked well-coached. They all seemed to understand the offense and got the ball off quickly. I was also very happy to see that all of them had fairly strong arms. There were no Brandon Cox or Chris Todd weak arms in the bunch. Thank goodness...

The running back discussion pretty much starts and ends with Mario Fannin. He far and away looked like the best running back out there. The offenses did not run that much anyway. None of the other running backs did anything impressive that I saw. The best running play outside of Fannin was Terrell Zachary on a reverse.

The wide receivers looked good as a whole and actually had the best running plays of the day on runs after they caught the ball. Terrell Zachary took a short pass and took it to the house and Quindarious Carr from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama made the play of the day. Carr took a mid-range pass and put on a Bo Jackson-esque display of speed for a 70-yard touchdown. Several defenders had great angles on Carr and he outran them. It was a WOW play and gave Carr a well deserved game MVP award.

The offensive line appeared to be a wall around the quarterbacks for most of the game so you have to give them a thumbs-up it appeared. The defense was hard to comment on. To me, they looked like a sparring partner for the offense. They were as vanilla as it gets most of the day. They got a few sacks but only a couple looked like real ones. They played hard and made a lot of tackles but they also missed quite a few as well. It was pretty hard for me to get a feel for the defense.

About the only thing that jumped out to me is that I hope Antoine Carter stays healthy. He could have a big year. He has had the raw ability his entire career but I sure hope he can put it all together this coming season. Well that is about it. As I said earlier, this or any other opinion may be way off but at least we finally got to SEE some of the 2010 Auburn Tigers.

Auburn Basketball Analysis

2010-04-18T15:46:00.000-07:00

Here are the facts. Since the SEC went to divisions in 1992 Auburn has 180 regular season conference losses. That is only second to South Carolina’s 182 regular season conference losses. I believe that if you consider the fact that South Carolina has had to play Kentucky one more time than Auburn every season in that time that you have to say Auburn is the worst basketball program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. Kentucky is BY FAR the best team in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. There is no one remotely close to their 234 regular season conference wins. The second best total is 181 wins by Florida. South Carolina has had to play them twice every year as well.

Also when you add to those facts that Auburn has also played in the Beard Eaves Mausoleum that entire time you have to say Auburn is the worst basketball program in the conference up till now. Finally though after 20 years of mostly bad to mediocre basketball Auburn is poised to really do something about it. Auburn basketball will move into the new Auburn Arena along with what appears to be a young charismatic up-and-coming head coach

The last post was about my memories, this post is about my takes on various things regarding Auburn basketball through the years and on current events, let’s get started…

THE BUILDING
Mausoleum:
1 : a usually stone building with places for entombment of the dead above ground
2 : a large gloomy building or room

I believe I can safely say using the paragraphs above as evidence that most of Auburn’s teams have been “the dead above ground” and WOW I think everyone can agree that Beard Eaves was a “large gloomy building”.

As I have stated in detail, I have seen a lot of basketball games in that dump. I also jogged in it, saw concerts in it and graduated in it. I still do not have anything good to say about it. It has always been “The Mausoleum” to me. I could not believe some of the nauseating sentimental takes I read before and after the last game against Miss St this year. I mean give me a break. The women had a few moments in there but trying to talk about all the men’s basketball memories in the mausoleum? I think I covered most of them in my last post . There just are not that many and I do not think anyone has ever walked in that tomb and said “wow what a great place to play basketball”.

A LARGE GLOOMY BUILDING… Good bye and good riddance Beard Eaves Mausoleum. I will not miss you and will feel much better when you are a PARKING LOT.

THE COACHES
Before I start I would like to establish a point of reference. Who is the best basketball coach Auburn has ever had? It is not even close. It is the man whose name is part of the sorry building I talk about above. Joel Eaves. He certainly deserved a better building to put his name on. Coach Eaves did coach in a different era of basketball but it was not like the Auburn job was any easier back then. I grade a coach on their conference record and Eaves’ conference record was spectacular. His teams went 124-75 in conference. He still holds the record for most wins and most conference wins in Auburn history. He went 213-100 overall. He is the best pure and simple. The only other basketball coach at Auburn to compile a winning conference record has his name on the football stadium…

Sonny Smith

Sonny Smith was obviously a good coach as our greatest NCAA tournament success was under him. However as good as that tournament success was his teams never had really good regular season conference records. In fact Smith finished his career with a losing record in conference. To me as I said above that is the biggest indicator of how good a coach was. Sonny Smith went 173-154 overall and 84-114 in conference.

Also all of his tournament success was when had Chuck Person on the team. We won the SEC title and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in 1985 and made it to the Elite Eight in 1986 with Person. Without Person or at least an experienced Person we went out in the first round in 1983 to Richmond in Charles Barkley’s last game. We did not make it past the second round in 1987 or 1988. So you kind of have to give a lot of credit for that tournament success to Chuck Person and that squad of guys.

However you still have to give Smith credit for leading the program to five straight NCAA appearances. Our administration missed one of their best opportunities to help the basketball program after we reached the Elite Eight. I believe starting plans for a new Arena and doing various other little things could have helped the program immeasurably but of course that did not happen.

Smith, like most of our coaches, was an older coach who was on the backside of his career. He was unable to continue the grueling work needed to recruit in basketball at Auburn and the bottom fell out in 1989 with a 2-14 conference record leaving Smith scrambling to Virginia Commonwealth.

Smith’s legacy though is Charles Barkley and Chuck Person and the tournament success Auburn had. It is also about him being a great person overall and his humor and wit. Overall his tenure at Auburn was one of the better runs in Auburn’s less than stellar basketball history.

Tommy Joe Eagles

First and foremost it is still extremely sad that it has been over 15 years since Eagles passed away. I probably know his time at Auburn better than most as I was a student there during that time. Eagles had done a good job at Louisiana Tech. It seemed like a decent hire. His time at Auburn was a lot like Jeff Lebo’s. His teams played very hard but he just could not seem to get any talent especially big men.

Eagles only managed one winning season and a brief NIT appearance at Auburn. There is really not much else to say.

Cliff Ellis

Auburn had the all-time great 1999 season under Cliff Ellis. His part in that must be recognized. However other than that I think he was the most overrated coach in Auburn history. First and foremost he got us on probation twice and that is completely unacceptable to do even once. The four years before 1999 were all losing records in the conference. Ellis always covered that up by scheduling a lot of preseason cupcakes. That is why I judge the success of an Auburn basketball season by the conference record. That tells the truth. It was also why I did not want Ellis to pass Joel Eaves in overall victories because his conference record next to Eaves was not even close. Ellis went 186-125 overall and 73-87 inconference.

Auburn have everyone coming back but one person in 2000 from the great 1999 team and managed to completely disintegrate and not even win the division after a great start. Things went quickly downhill after that and nothing else good happened other than Ellis recruiting Marquis Daniels and him leading us on that little run his senior year to the Sweet Sixteen. However that Auburn team only had an 8-8 record in conference. Auburn went right back into the tank after that and Jeff Lebo was left with things just as bad as ever.

So all-in-all it appears that 1999 was the exception and not the rule of the Cliff Ellis era. An era produced one great season and three NCAA tournament berths but one that also only had two winning conference records in 10 seasons and two NCAA probations. I guess things ended up on the positive side because we got 1999 out of it but otherwise it was a wash and the program was left in the same shape that it was when Ellis started, if not worse.

Jeff Lebo

I think everyone is in agreement on the Jeff Lebo era. He was a good guy and he got his teams to play hard but he could not recruit many good players especially big men. Lebo got to this past season with nearly nothing to show for two whole recruiting classes. I know all the reasons why it is hard to get good talent to Auburn but you at least have to find a few guys that will stick around.

THE ADMINISTRATION
Here is where the buck stops and the blame ultimately lies. The Auburn administration, leadership and power brokers are to blame for the school having the worst basketball program in the conference since the SEC went to divisions. They absolutely did NOTHING to help the program and did not even do enough to keep the program at a mediocre level. It is just shameful and actually pretty stupid to treat your second biggest revenue producer like this even at a football school.

I think the people who are now giving our AD and administration kudos for the new arena are naïve and wrong. Anyone who thinks this AD and this administration built this new arena for the good of the basketball program is blind. It is obvious that it was going to cost more long term to fix up and maintain Beard Eaves than build the new arena. It is as simple as that. It was a simple financial decision. I mean it would have been for the good of the basketball program if it would have been done about a decade earlier. Instead they waited till Beard Eaves was literally falling down.

There are also numerous other things that could have been done to help the basketball program but they were not done. It was just left out to rot and that is just what it has done till now.

THE FUTURE
Regardless of the reasons now, there is the new Auburn Arena and what appears to be a pretty good coaching hire. Maybe just maybe Auburn basketball can start a new legacy next season. I sure hope so. I also hope the Auburn administration and leadership will now make changes as well and at least give the basketball program decent support from here on out.

Auburn will never be a top basketball school but there is no reason it has to be the worst program in the conference. That is completely unacceptable. I look forward to next season and am actually excited about all aspects of an Auburn basketball team and program for like the first time… ever?

Auburn Basketball Memories

2010-03-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

Ah Auburn basketball. Well since this is my first post since I started STR on Auburn basketball I would like to state my “credentials”. I have watched a lot of Auburn basketball in my life. In fact when I was at school at Auburn I saw a lot more basketball games than I saw football games and most of those teams were not very good. Since we will open a new arena next season with a new coach this seems like a good time to look back and look forward and evaluate where Auburn is at.

My first memories of Auburn basketball were Charles Barkley in 1984. I had just started high school. I remember watching the game where Sir Charles and Auburn beat #1 Kentucky in Auburn. I can’t remember the game but I remember one of my favorite basketball plays ever being a Charles Barkley steal that he took coast-to-coast dribbling around his back at one point and then hammer dunking it. His athleticism for his body type was just amazing.

I also remember Auburn and Charles beating Bama twice in 1984 and that being the last time we beat Bama in Tuscaloosa till 1999 (!!!). I remember watching the heartbreaking defeat to Kentucky in the finals of the SEC tournament in 1984 at my grandmother’s house. That was when Kentucky was led by the twin towers of Sam Bowie and Melvin Turpin. I remember Charles Barkley’s last game at Auburn being a loss to Richmond in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

I remember Chuck Person and his patented top-of-the-circle shot. If only, if only Chuck Person had gotten to play with a 3-point line... I remember Person and Auburn beating Bama in OT in the finals of the SEC tournament in 1985. I recorded that game and watched it several more times. I loved watching us beat Wimp Sanderson. We did not do it a whole lot after that. I remember that team beating Kansas in the NCAA tournament and then losing to North Carolina in the Sweet Sixteen.

I remember the unbelievable run to the Elite Eight in 1986. Auburn just kept winning and doing it against big-time teams. They beat Arizona, St. Johns and UNLV before falling to eventual national champ Louisville. I remember the monster regular season game against UNLV IN 1987. I remember that team getting completely hosed in the NCAA tournament against Indiana. I remember the calls going against Indiana starting out and Bobby Knight going on one of his famous tirades. After that the Hoosiers got about 10 straight calls in a row and the game was pretty much over.

I remember watching or listening to John Caylor hit that 3-pointer to beat #1 Kentucky and Rex Chapman in 1988 at Rupp Arena. I remember missing the first HOUR of my Calculus 1 FINAL EXAM watching Chris Morris battle Hersey Hawkins in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 1988. I was lucky I got out of that class with just a “C”…

I remember the bottom falling out in 1989 and Sonny Smith leaving. I remember Auburn starting 0-10 in the SEC and being there with a few hundred other people on a Saturday night when we finally won one against Miss St behind the shooting of Keenan Carpenter. I remember Reggie Gallon, Ronnie Battle, and a host of others as I watched just about every home basketball game from 1990 through 1992. Those were some brutal years and NOBODY can ever accuse me of not supporting our basketball program and my group and I kept coming back out.

I remember seeing Shaq come to Auburn as a freshman and being amazed at his size. I remember his first shot being a rocket off the backboard but could see by his unbelievable athleticism for a guy that big that he was going to be something special. I remember Auburn upsetting LSU and Shaq in the SEC tournament that same year. I remember Auburn and Wesley Person upsetting an Arkansas team that would go to win a national championship in 1995. However the decade between 1988 and 1999 consisted of mediocre to bad basketball and no NCAA tournaments.

Everyone who is any kind of Auburn fan remembers 1999. I remember the excitement just continuing to build as Auburn fans everywhere began to realize that something special was happening. It was an unbelievable team and definitely the last team at Auburn to actually have good players and the right players at each position on the court. You had Doc Robinson at the point, still the best point guard and ball handler I have ever seen at Auburn. You had Scotty Pohlman at the shooting guard knocking them down. BTW is it really that hard to find another Scott Pohlman to sit outside and hit 3-pointers? You had Mamadou N’diaye at center. The last true center we had. You had Chris Porter and all his athleticism at one forward and you had Bryant Smith, the heart and soul of the team, at the other forward.

Doc Robinson’s ball-handling, Scotty Pohlman’s shooting, Mamadou’s shot blocks, Chris Porter’s dunks and Bryant Smith’s defense. It was a once-in-a-lifetime team and will probably always remain Auburn’s best ever basketball team. I remember the Ole Miss game at home late in the season on ESPN where the team played maybe their best game and the crowd was out of their minds. I remember clinching the SEC title against Vandy. That was a special accomplishment. I remember beating Oklahoma St and current ESPN know-it-all Doug Gottlieb in the second round of the NCAA tournament. I remember the crushing defeat to Ohio St in the Sweet Sixteen. However the best part of 1999 was being able to STOMP Bama THREE times in ONE season. I saw Wimp Sanderson do it to us several times so it was awesome to finally do it to them.

I remember the excitement going into the 2000 season but having the sneaking feeling we would miss Bryant Smith. Smith was from my hometown of Huntsville and will always be one of my all-time favorite Auburn basketball players. I remember Auburn being on TV a ton in 2000 and things going pretty well till we lost Chris Porter for dealing with an agent. After that we lost four-in-a-row. The team made a run to the SEC tournament final before falling to Arkansas and then went out to Iowa St in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

I do have one great memory from that season. I got to see the last big win of the Chris Porter era at Auburn. That game was at Vanderbilt on February 16, 2000. Living in Huntsville, Alabama I have gone to see Auburn play Vandy several times in Nashville since it is so close. Anyone who has been to Vanderbilt to see a basketball game knows how weird their gym is. Up to this point I had always had lousy seats and Vandy had always stomped us. This time a friend of my brother had set us up with Vanderbilt scholarship tickets from the doctor she worked for. It was about the best time I ever had at a basketball game. I finally saw us beat those guys up there and we had great seats. However the best part might have been our group crashing the Vanderbilt scholarship halftime concessions (we had tickets for that too). Vanderbilt scholarship donors or people with their tickets could go to a room and get all the free food they wanted. We busted in with all our Auburn gear on and enjoyed as many hot dogs, bags of popcorn and cookies as we could get in. We then of course had to grab a couple for the road. Needless to say the dirty looks coupled with a win in that hell hole made it a night to remember.

The program quickly dropped off after that. There have been few moments to remember other than a run to the Sweet Sixteen led by Marquis Daniels after a mediocre 8-8 SEC season in 2003. The first decade of the 21st century resembles the last decade of the 20th century for Auburn basketball. Other than the 1999 season and a couple of runs here and there it has been 20 years of mediocre to bad basketball on the plains.

Barkley quote of the year

2010-03-17T16:38:00.000-07:00

From Jay Tate's HABOTN blog describing Charles Barkley's interview on WJOX in Birmingham...

"Mike Shula -- that was the saddest day of my life when he got fired."

AMEN CHARLES!!!

And this one gets honorable mention Barkley quote of the year...
"I'm always going to be myself. I ain't never gonna be no kiss-ass brother. I'm my own man. I'm not one of these Alabama guys who listens to Finebaum..."

Amen again, sometimes he annoys me, sometimes he infuriates me but sometimes he gets it EXACTLY RIGHT. Good job Chuck.

Signing Day Review - State of the Program

2010-02-28T11:56:00.000-08:00

It has been nearly a month since Signing Day 2010. It has been over a month since I have posted. The good bloggers post regularly through thick and thin. I know my favorites do. I was telling a friend last week that I need time management lessons for people that have three children. Wow, having one kid is a huge difference from being single, having two kids is nearly as big a jump as that and having three kids… Let me tell you it is about as big a jump as well. During the past month we as a family have all had the stomach bug and the good old fashioned cold. I do not know how people farther north deal with long hard cold winters. I live in Alabama and I am dying for some warm weather. Well I do not want to turn this into Facebook so unto my post…

As usual here at STR I like to stick with big picture common sense takes on Auburn and whatever else. You can look elsewhere for detailed breakdowns on each player in this recruiting class. WarBlogEagle’s Google surveys are one good example. So where are we at Auburn football-wise? I hope I offer a bit of a different take as I do not think Gene Chizik is now our greatest coach as seemingly every other Auburn blog does. I believe my previous posts during the season confirm this. He did a decent job this season and has seemingly done an outstanding job recruiting and keeping the current staff together this year. However you have to remember that Terry Bowden went 20-0, beat the #1 team in the nation on the road and had several great recruiting classes but as with everything and everybody TIME REVEALED THE TRUTH. Terry Bowden ended spectacularly bad just as he started spectacularly good. Everyone thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread after the Florida game in 1994. He then left Auburn in disgrace just four years later and his last recruiting class in 1998 was the worst single recruiting class in modern Auburn football history.

So you can tell me that it is absolutely positively concrete that Gene Chizik was the right choice and is a great coach but TIME WILL TELL. The jury is still out. Am I saying this will happen to Chizik? No. I write this to just establish where I am coming from before I review signing day. I am not another homer sycophant here to write how this is the greatest class ever and this is the greatest staff ever and so on. I also want to reiterate that there is one goal every regular season. That goal is to win the SEC West and go to Atlanta. The goal then changes to winning that game but during the season it always remains the same. It is an objective goal that we cannot be cheated out of. Polls do not matter, high-ranking offenses do not matter, meaningless bowl exhibitions do not matter, etc… Gene Chizik and Co. (CAC) must reach that goal to be considered a good SEC coach in my opinion. Otherwise he is just another coach.

Since the SEC went to divisions only nine coaches have separated themselves from the pack. They are: Steve Spurrier, Gene Stallings, Phillip Fulmer, uh Mike Dubose (every rule or list has their exceptions), Nick Saban, Mark Richt, Tommy Tuberville, Urban Meyer, and er Les Miles (however his success can at least be contributed to another coach on this list). These coaches outside the two buffoons on the list showed their mettle over the long haul. Now obviously most of their careers include a rise and decline but just about all of them other than the two exceptions have put up at least a decade of good coaching and recruiting. Will Gene Chizik join this exclusive fraternity? Yep you guessed it… time will tell.

Now with that being said, I have to give major kudos to Chizik for keeping the staff together. In today’s big-time college football (and after watching the Tommy Tuberville staff merry-go-round for a decade) it is pretty amazing to see any staff stay completely intact for consecutive seasons. Even if you throw out the performance factor, you have to be amazed the personality factor did not rear its ugly head especially for a first year staff. A football staff is a pretty large group and many times some of the coaches just do not mesh. Auburn has seemingly hired a good football staff and kept them together going into a second season. Considering our AD, that is almost a miracle.

Finally to the recruiting class… First and it always has to be said, this is NOT the recruiting class. Auburn’s official recruiting class will be the players enrolled in school and practicing with the team in the fall. That is an absolute FACT. That official class will be made up of the players on this list but it will be a subset. The first question is always “who are we going to lose?”

I have heard a few rumblings here and there but nothing concrete. I will start off looking at the class as a whole but I know we will lose several people on this list. With that said, this has to be one of the most complete recruiting classes I have ever seen. CAC appears to have gotten at least one quality player for every position on the field. They did that while targeting desperate needs on the offensive line and at linebacker. Let’s start with the player that is hardest to find at the college and pro levels and that is defensive tackle. Auburn only got two maybe three here. I certainly hope Carter and Whitaker are not part of the initial casualty list. As stated above, no position is harder to fill. It looks like these are two good ones and they will be desperately needed soon.

Defensive ends are easier to find but good pass rushers are not. It looks like Auburn grabbed one in Corey Lemonier at the last minute. Beyond Antoine Carter there is not an established pass rusher. The defensive end spot has also become much more specialized. One does not have to look much further than the 2004 Auburn team to see that. Auburn would bring Doug Langenfield and Bret Eddins in as first down run stoppers and then bring in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves in as third down pass rushers. That appears to be the mark of any great 4-3 defense so our new defensive ends will need to excel in one of those roles.

I always want one more defensive tackle but overall it appears the coaches did a great job bringing in a talented group to put in the pipeline on the defensive line. Next up is maybe our position of greatest need and that is linebacker. It is still simply unbelievable to me how bad our depth problems were at linebacker at the end of last season. Maybe even more amazing is that Josh Bynes and Craig Stevens did not get hurt after playing just about every meaningful snap the ENTIRE season and then playing a mind boggling 115 snaps in the bowl game. It is simply unbelievable. I certainly hope several of these guys we are bringing in are ready to contribute right away because they are sorely needed. Most of them are rated high but they will be put to the test early. I hope they are up to it. With that being said, the need was addressed well by the staff.

The secondary was not quite as bad off as linebacker but Auburn was extremely thin there as well especially after injuries took their toll. CAC grabbed almost half a dozen guys to put in the pipeline and it looks like a talented group that could go either corner back or safety if needed. If Aaron Savage or Zac Etheridge can return to contribute at all, Auburn should have plenty of bodies to work with to try and get the job done.

CAC also added a couple of kickers this class. Past experience says you could get a solid starter, i.e. John Vaughn, or a complete bust, i.e. Phillip Yost. The same goes with punters. It is a crap shoot. It is a box of chocolates. You just have to hope for the best. The greatest recruit can stink and a no-name walk on can become a starter.

To the offense… Gus Malzahn certainly got some new toys to play with. However the boring old offensive line is the place to start. After Tommy Tuberville’s last two classes did not net an offensive lineman and Chizik’s first class only netted two marginal prospects (neither a tackle) it was apparent that CAC were in big big trouble. Who the heck is going to replace the FOUR starters that are gone after this next season??? There are finally some candidates and some immediate JUCO help in for the spring. I still think Tuberville’s disastrous recruiting efforts in this area are still going to hurt Auburn. I do not think this group will save the day entirely but hopefully they will stop the bleeding.

I am pretty much an “in the trenches” guy all the way around. I grade every recruiting class by the big boys we bring in. I always want more especially after a decade of Tommy Tuberville. This year was no different and with the offensive line being in the shape it is in I kept a constant eye on our work there. I complained and ranted and was just ill for most of the process because it did not appear that we were going to get enough guys. Finally late in the process I started to feel better. Then Nick $aban decided he was going to go on his annual poaching trip into our recruiting class. It started with Josh Chapman and just about every year it seems $aban comes along late and tries to poach one of our recruits. This year that guy was Shon Coleman, our most talented offensive line prospect. It is much harder to find good offensive tackles than it is to find guards or a center. Coleman is our best tackle prospect in awhile. He had been committed to us the whole process even though he took a few visits. But then here comes big bad $aban with all his new trophies to try and con another kid into standing in line at the Capstone.

I was furious. I was going to be “physically sick” if we lost our best offensive line prospect to $aban. I basically stopped caring about anything else regarding this recruiting class other than winning this battle. It appeared to me that it would be a defining moment for CAC. I was right it was. We sent $aban and his trophies packing and Coleman signed on the dotted line. After that happened, this recruiting class was a success no matter what to me regardless of what else happened.

Well in addition to that victory we added another six offensive linemen to help the cause. You never know how it will turn out but hopefully we have some talent in the pipeline that as I said before can stop the bleeding at this position.

Elsewhere, out of nowhere, we landed Cam Newton, the best JUCO quarterback prospect in the country. I was kind of on the fence when I first heard about it but now am very happy we signed him. I do not think Rollison was going to work out with or without Newton and I am not as high on our other choices as some people are. So with that said, I sure hope Newton is as good or somewhere as close to good as advertised. Of course as I posted in December when Newton’s name just came up, “as long as the guy does not have a weak arm and does not pick #12” I am happy. Well Newton sure does not appear to have a weak arm now hopefully he (and everyone else) will stay away from the #12.

I love how the coaches and Auburn bloggers are talking about a “quarterback race”. Please! You do not sign the best JUCO quarterback in the country to sit the bench. Unless Newton just totally implodes the job is his already. End of story.

Auburn lost its best running back and went out and signed one of the best running backs in the country. That is a good job any way you slice it. It has been awhile, well pretty much since we signed Ben Tate, that we signed an elite running back. You just hope again that Dyer is as good as advertised but recruiting-wise mission accomplished. All you can do is try to get the best to your school and then you just have to hope they pan out. Auburn did that. I look forward to seeing him action this fall. One constant at Auburn has been the running backs. It does not seem we ever stay down for too long in that category. I sure hope Dyer is the next one.

At just about every position, in every recruiting class I always want just a little more. I always want one more at just about every position. Just one more and I will feel better. I can safely say that there is one position I do not feel that way about. That position is wide receiver. The transition to the spread offense, whatever its form, has left us completely bloated at this position. We have way too many scholarships tied up at wide receiver and quarterback but wide receiver is just ridiculous. Even after losing a few guys from last year’s roster including Tim Hawthorne we still have about a dozen wide receivers on scholarship with maybe four more guys joining them in the fall.

I am excited about bringing in some possible big-time playmakers like Trovon Reed and I like that we brought in some size as well but I sure hope several guys from this class or last year’s class step up so we can build up other positions.

All-in-all, if we can get most of these guys in school, this looks like a foundation class. While I stand by my previous comments on Chizik, I will say that pulling in a class like this considering the competition he was up against is a major victory. Now I have to agree with the WBE, it is now time to build on it.