Malzahn Blows It Again

It was announced today that Auburn coach Gus Malzahn has named Sean White the starter for Saturday and benched Jeremy Johnson.  The lynch mob of fans that always blame everything on the quarterback are overjoyed.  It is almost unanimous on all the Auburn boards but not quite, you can count me out of the "the only way things get better is through Sean White" club.  I think this is another huge mistake by Malzahn and it reeks of desperation.  Anybody who thinks it is a good thing to throw a freshman who has never played a down before into a huge make-or-break conference game is sorely deluded in my opinion. 

This move also has future ramifications as Auburn is now also building for next season.  It is very clear Auburn will not be a championship contender this season even with significant improvement.  This is now a rebuilding year and the quarterback with the highest ceiling is Jeremy Johnson.  Johnson still stands 6'5'' and weighs 240 lbs and has a good arm and has show good touch and accuracy.  That is a hard combination to find and something you do not just throw away when the fans turn on you.  I believe the best thing for Auburn for this year and next is to get Johnson back on track.

Johnson still played well in appearances in 2013 and last season.  He has made some huge mistakes this season but anyone who thinks he is the main problem with Auburn right now is wrong in my opinion.  Auburn has the worst run defense in the entire country and a coach who has run almost 70% of the time on standard downs (1st and 10, 2nd and 7 or shorter, or 3rd and 5 or shorter).  The offense especially the passing game shows no signs at all of adequate coaching.  The line is lackluster and the receivers make a lot of mistakes.  All of those things are not Johnson's fault but lets blame the quarterback and not our multi-millionaire coaches.

Enter Sean White to take the heat off the coaches.  I have nothing against White, he is wearing my favorite number and has some impressive credentials.  Unfortunately I do not believe he can be anywhere near as good as Johnson.  He is shorter than Nick Marshall who could not see over the line and looks like a guy who always takes the short pass.  I watched him on A-day with no bias at all and saw a guy throw short nearly every time.  He does not look like he has the arm to throw the deep ball but of course it is hard to know.  Add to that observation that his playing time rests on not throwing any interceptions and you have a guy that will not take any risks.  He will take the checkdown every time.  I bet I will be able to count on one hand the number of throws he attempts over 15 yards.

Overreaction to interceptions is not conducive to a good passing game.  A good passing game is going to have them and while you want to avoid turnovers you have to balance that with making plays.  I think Sean White will probably not have any interceptions and will complete a lot of passes but I think they will mostly be short passes.  He will do just good enough to continue to hang on to the job including getting the confidence builder Johnson so desperately needs in San Jose State, a team that will not play nearly as well as Jacksonville State.

Will that be enough to beat Mississippi State?  Maybe but it won't be enough to beat many of the teams on our schedule this year or next.  Sean White is just not the answer right now in my opinion.  I just do not believe he will get a whole lot better than a guy that throws a lot of short high-percentage passes.  If I was Mississippi State I would press our receivers and bring those safeties up, make White throw over you.  You can guarantee Georgia and Bama and probably most of the rest of the tough teams on our schedule will.

I think #13 means bad luck for Auburn right now...

Game 3 Review: 2012 Part Deux

LSU 45  Auburn 21.  As coach Gus Malzahn said: "Bottom line is we got our rear kicked".  I pretty much could stop there because that is definitely the bottom line.  Unfortunately when you play in the SEC and are supposed to be a big time program a horrid loss and a start to a season this bad have much bigger ramifications than just getting your rear kicked in a single game.  Auburn now looks to have major problems all over its roster and all these million dollar coaches do not appear to be making it any better.  The 2015 season now looks like a disaster and a lot like the 2012 season.

THE GOOD
There is not much to write here.  There was not much good in the game yesterday.  I guess it is good that Jeremy Johnson finally ran the ball some and had the nice touchdown run even if the game was already over.  I guess it is good that Kerryon Johnson got in the game and made some plays.  It was also nice to see Stanton Truitt make a couple of catches but unfortunately it reminds me of how much different things might be if Auburn had a coaching staff that could put even a half decent passing attack on the field.

THE BAD (THE UGLY PART ONE)
Good grief.  I mean how much worse can Auburn get on defense???  Last week Jacksonville State wore us down and went on two double-digit play drives consuming almost ten minutes of the game in the fourth quarter in Jordan-Hare and then this week LSU literally runs Auburn out of Tiger Stadium.  I guess the bottom line is regardless of the coaching staff Auburn cannot recruit enough good defensive players.  The Tigers are now going on eight years of bad defenses, generating the top five worst defenses in the history of Auburn University and now it looks like this one might supplant one of those awful units.

I have simply run out of adjectives to describe how bad these defenses are.  Will Muschamp has made absolutely no difference.  This defense simply took up where it left off last year and in fact reached new lows yesterday giving up over 400 yards rushing.  As I have said when Auburn did it to other teams, when a team rushes for 400 yards on you they have taken your manhood.  There is not much need for a breakdown.  The line was awful, the linebackers were worse and the secondary was terrible as well.  I do not see any hope in sight especially with Carl Lawson possibly out of the season although he would not have made a difference yesterday.

THE UGLY PART TWO
Auburn simply does not have a passing game.  Everyone can blame Jeremy Johnson and he has definitely made some bad plays but it is just as evident that these coaches did not work on the passing game near as much as they should have in spring and fall practices.  In fact I remember us wasting an entire fall scrimmage on just running the ball.  How is that working out?  I will continue to say it, this offense was never going to be a power running unit with only freshmen at H-back and tight end.  However it sure seems these coaches prepared for this season planning to be just that.

It was also nice to read Acid Reign over at Track'em Tigers finally say what I have been saying over and over again:
"Offensively, Auburn has been figured out. The Tigers like to put 3 or 4 receivers out there that they have no intention of throwing to, and instead try to run power plays against a strong, stacked front. The bottom line is that we don’t really have SEC caliber lead blockers. Everyone in the playing rotation at tight end or H-back is a freshman and are not ready to win confrontations with a nasty linebacker corps like LSU’s. Auburn’s only hope against defenses like LSU’s are to learn to pitch and catch a lot better! - See more at: http://trackemtigers.com/lsu-abuses-auburn/#more-35835".

THE LAST WORD
Things look really bad.  I cannot believe people are still trying to compare this season to 2013, give me a break.  Again I think the better comparison is with the disastrous 2012 season.  Will this season turn into that disaster epic where Auburn loses all its conference games?  The next game against Mississippi State will go a long way toward determining that.  Gene Chizik was in nearly the same spot in 2012 against Arkansas (the Arkansas team coached by interim coach John L. Smith who had just lost to Bama 52-0).  It was a winnable game even for that Auburn team and a win could have restored a little confidence and probably enabled Auburn to also beat Vandy that year.  It would still have been a really bad season but not the worst season ever that it turned out to be.

Auburn is in almost the exact same situation this week.  Mississippi State is a lot better than that Arkansas team but they are still one of the few conference teams Auburn has a chance to beat.  I think it is now the biggest game of the year for the Tigers.  An Auburn win restores a little confidence and could enable Auburn to get wins at Kentucky and Arkansas which combined with the two wins the Tigers already have and hopefully wins over San Jose State and Idaho would make Auburn bowl-eligible.  That is pretty much the best case scenario for the Tigers at this point.

Right now it does not appear Auburn has any chance in their other games.  Ole Miss and Texas A&M will outscore the Tigers while Bama and Georgia will do the exact same thing LSU did yesterday. Long term Gus Malzahn looks like another one-hit wonder like Terry Bowden and Chizik.  Malzahn and his all-star staff are able to get some very high-rated recruits but also seem to bet wrong on more than they get right.  Couple that with his stubborn refusal to change his offensive philosophy in any way and the future does not look bright.

Game 2 Review: Season Ending Victory?

Auburn 27  Jacksonville State 20.  It is being called the worst or most embarrassing win in Auburn history.  Well I guess that is better than the worst or most embarrassing loss in Auburn history which it would have been.  The Auburn Tiger football team, rated #6 in the country, were barely able to beat FCS opponent Jacksonville State and avoid the stigma of one of the worst losses ever.  The Tigers were very lucky that Jacksonville State head coach John Grass choked as many before him have.  These football coaches do not seem to understand the saying "no guts, no glory".

Jacksonville State had it all there for the taking.  As Kevin Scarbinsky put it: "With barely 2 minutes left, JSU had the lead and the ball and a chance to put the game away. Up seven, facing third-and-4 at his own 13-yard line, JSU coach John Grass had the opportunity of a lifetime to stamp himself as the best (former) high school coach on the field."  Jax State and quarterback Eli Jenkins had been killing Auburn's defense all day.  Call a gutsy play, you know Auburn will probably score if you punt it back to them.  One play for five yards and Jax State has the biggest win in their history...

Thank goodness they did not and Auburn was able to pull it out at the end.  Unfortunately for the Tigers that is the only good news out of that game.  What a complete embarrassment.  There is still an argument to be made that Jax State was the best team on the field.  They had more passing and total yards of offense than Auburn and basically just as many rushing yards.  They had more first downs and dominated Auburn in time of possession.  Auburn also had more turnovers and penalty yards as well.  What a complete abomination from beginning to nearly the end by Auburn.

Every single bit of this lies at the feet of Gus Malzahn.  After doing a bad job last season he has opened this season doing a worst job.  I saw someone write on an Auburn board this morning that history is repeating itself.  Gene Chizik went to the national championship game, went 8-5 and then disaster struck.  Gus Malzahn appears to be doing the exact same thing.  After watching the game yesterday, this season is starting to look a lot like 2012.  Auburn will not beat one SEC team on their schedule playing even remotely close to the way they did yesterday.

THE GOOD
There has only been one good thing so far that has come out in the first two games of this season and it is Peyton Barber (also similar to Tre Mason in 2012).  The guy has almost singlehandedly won both games.  His effort at the end of the game yesterday was definitely the only good thing I saw.  The play of the game was Barber taking a short swing pass on 3rd and nine on the late game-tying drive and then faking, spinning and lunging to get the first down.  Melvin Ray also made a great catch on the tying touchdown.

THE BAD
Auburn's list of injuries and Blake Countess' ridiculous ejection from the game would be legitimate reasons for the bad defensive performance yesterday if Auburn was playing an SEC team but not against Jax State.  Auburn let an FCS formerly Division 1-AA team push them all over their own field.  First Jax State had TWO receivers with over 100 yards and then at times Jax State seemed to run at will. 

Jax State went on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter with both of them over 10 plays consuming almost TEN minutes.  Auburn, the #6 team in the country predicted by many to win the Southeastern Conference got their defense worn down and then beat down by Jax State in their own stadium in the fourth quarter.  The defense just looked awful as Jax State completed slant after slant and at times just shredded Auburn with the read option. 

The future looks bleak indeed for Auburn on defense.  Even though I became a ridiculous sunshine pumper in my season preview I knew the interior defensive line was suspect and after two games they have looked pretty bad other than a few highlights by Montravious Adams.  Unfortunately the defensive ends do not look any better.  I saw the Jax State quarterback just own senior defensive end DeVonte Lambert and so far freshman superstars Byron Cowart and Jeffrey Holland have made no impact. 

The linebacking corps just does not seem much different.  They make plays here and there but are just not good enough to be a strength.  I hoped that might change with Muschamp but I guess not.  The secondary had depth concerns coming into the season as everyone knew and now with Tray Matthews and Josh Holsey out, there are a LOT of freshman getting playing time which is bad news.  Now Auburn is travelling to Baton Rouge to take on LSU and monster tailback Leonard Fournette.  I do not see how a defense that got pushed all over its own field against Jax State will be able to slow down that guy.

THE UGLY
This would be the Auburn offense led by quarterback Jeremy Johnson.  I am now starting to wonder who exactly was responsible for Cam Newton's development as a passer at Auburn in 2010.  It sure seems now that Gus Malzahn is simply incapable of developing a balanced offense that has the passing part as the strength.  People can pile on Jeremy Johnson but we know that he is a better player than this and that is on the coaches.  What have Malzahn and quarterbacks COACH Rhett Lashlee been doing for the last nine months?  There is no evidence of even a hint of good coaching around Johnson.

In addition to that it appears as though Malzahn's plan for the season was to continue to be a run-based play-action team when it is obvious for the second year in a row Auburn has more assets on the passing side.  It is simply inconceivable to me that these coaches who are paid so much money and do this for a living would not open things up on offense.  Is it against the law to now ever have an offense that is better at passing the ball than running at Auburn?  It sure seems like it.  We open it up once last season and score 44 points on Nick $aban and Bama and then we go right back to being a run-based play-action team???  It simply boggles the mind.

Malzahn is the most stubborn coach I have ever seen and it seems that will be his downfall at Auburn.  He seems unwilling or incapable of changing or adapting his system to his players and THAT is the mark of a good coach.  Take the guy who Auburn's stadium is named after, Shug Jordan.  Back in the dark ages before legalized holding and high flying passing attacks, Jordan realized what he had in quarterback Pat Sullivan and receiver Terry Beasley.  Jordan changed his offense to a balanced passing attack.  Auburn still ran the ball and was balanced but featured Sullivan and the passing attack.

For three years, Auburn had the most prolific offense in the Southeastern Conference and went 25-4 in the regular season.  After Sullivan and Beasley left, Jordan transitioned back to a "three yards and a cloud of dust" team led by tailback Terry Henley and went 10-1.  After that Jordan implemented the "veer" offense and produced a 10-2 season in 1974.  He adapted his offense to his personnel and won big.  Pat Dye did the same thing transitioning from his run heavy early years to a more balanced offense and won three straight SEC titles in the late 1980s.

Also for the record Pat Sullivan threw five interceptions in his first game but Shug Jordan did not shut it down and coach "scared" after that.  There are going to be ups and downs to a pass heavy attack but just like a good running attack, sooner or later the plays will come.  You have to keep throwing it and work it out.  Again, Auburn doesn't have a dominant run blocking line and again has nothing but freshmen at H-back and tight end.  However Auburn does have a quarterback with a ton of passing potential and a stable of wide receivers. 

All over the country, there are good passing attacks with less weapons than Auburn has.  This is on the coaches.  They have not prepared Johnson and now they have him so scared to make a mistake that he can barely make a throw and when he does it is usually short.  I am not sure how much worse a job Malzahn and Lashlee could have done up to this point.  I cannot believe the people blaming Johnson and wanting Sean White?  Are you kidding me?  So since the coaches did a horrible job with a guy that has shown he can be a good quarterback, we want to replace him with someone completely inferior coached by the same guys?

THE LAST WORD
I have never had a game take the wind out of my sails like the one yesterday.  It sure seemed like a season-ender for me.  Auburn does not have much of a chance at a winning record much less competing for the SEC West unless they play miles and miles better than they have shown so far this season.  At this point that does not seem that likely.  The defense was never going to be that good and its only chance to be decent was predicated on having a good offense.

It looks like the offense will be much worse than last season as Malzahn tries to run basically the same offense he ran with Nick Marshall except for less quarterback runs and a few more short passes.  I will say it again and again, a run-based play-action offense with this personnel is never going to be that successful.  Unfortunately the only way I see Malzahn attempting to change that is complete desperation and that means the season is over any way.

The rule is not to take too much out of one game but how can this team that looks so badly prepared especially on offense these first two games against meager opponents possibly turn it around?  How can this team get wins against LSU, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas A&M on the road?  Well maybe Auburn has a shot against Arkansas.  Take that Bielemma, at least Auburn and even Malzahn have done something.  You go 7-6 and act like you won the national championship and then brag and crow the whole offseason about how great you and your program is... and then you lose to Toledo at home.

How can Auburn stay with Georgia and Bama at the end?  Heck how can Auburn beat the Mississippi schools at home?  It all starts at Baton Rouge next week.  Auburn coaches, players and fans will try to quickly forget what happened this last Saturday but I think this embarrassment will continue to cast a long shadow over this entire season.

Game 1 Review: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Auburn 31  Louisville 24.  Wow, I usually use "the good the bad and the ugly" as my game review format but it really seemed applicable to the game this weekend.  There were some very good moments on both sides of the ball for Auburn and then there were unfortunately some bad and ugly moments plus injuries as well.  This one was definitely closer than I thought it would be especially after such a good start for the Tigers.  I saw Auburn as the better team coming in and did not think this one would be close.  

I definitely did not see such a bad performance by Jeremy Johnson coming.  I did worry as I wrote in my season preview about him reading his press clippings but still did not see him playing that bad.  However it was a lot better for him to do it yesterday than down in Baton Rouge.  I have read several recaps and instant analysis on the game and one thing I think they are all missing is that Todd Grantham is a good defensive coordinator.  Bobby Petrino has stated more than once that they had spent the entire off-season focusing on Auburn and they were also able to get pressure on Johnson.  

I think the continuing theme from everyone is that at least Auburn grabbed the win and hopefully a lot of the things that went wrong yesterday are correctable.  In fact, the biggest issues from yesterday will not be coaching ones but injury ones.  Auburn saw some of its best players go down and the condition of those players will be the biggest questions marks this week.  But of course Malzahn and company will give the press vague answers bordering on outright lies and we will probably not know the true answers till Auburn tees it up against LSU in two weeks.

But for now back to the game yesterday...

THE GOOD

It was December 31st, the last day of 2007.  Auburn was playing Clemson in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl.  The Auburn defense led by Coach Will Muschamp and soon-to-be NFL defensive tackle Pat Sims held an explosive Clemson offense to 20 points after getting put in some bad spots.  The Auburn defense were the obvious heroes that night but many Auburn fans were excited about Tommy Tuberville's new offensive coordinator hire, Tony Franklin, and gave the offense all the glory even though Franklin was just calling Al Borges' shotgun plays and Auburn only scored 20 points in regulation.  Muschamp left Auburn shortly after that and defense at Auburn overall went with him.

Over eight years later Muschamp returned with Auburn in another Chick-Fil-A event at the Georgia Dome and for at least a quarter or two, the Tiger defense seemed to return with him.  Auburn was getting after it led once again by another soon-to-be NFL lineman in Carl Lawson.  The defense shut out the Cardinals for over two and half quarters and everything seemed to be going according to plan.  Unfortunately Lawson got hurt and Louisville went to plan B and finally got something going against the Tigers.

Louisville ended up with 24 points and over 400 yards of offense led by true freshman quarterback Lamar Jackson who had over 200 yards of offense himself.  His speed and quickness really seemed to hurt a tiring Auburn defense plus the kid threw some good passes as well.  The end result looked a lot like the bad box scores of the last few years for Auburn on defense but the early spark and overall aggressiveness is definitely one of the good things about this game.  

Outside of Lawson, I saw some good things from Auburn's young defensive tackles and the secondary looked really good at times as well.  I still did not see a whole lot of plays from Auburn's linebacking corps outside of a few outstanding ones from Justin Garrett but hopefully they will be coming.  It was nice to Garrett contribute on the field after being out with injuries for so long.  It was also good to see a lot of Auburn's young guys get some playing time as well.  Auburn will need production out of those guys before this season is over.

Also on the good side of the ledger on Saturday was kicker Daniel Carlson.  He kicked all of his kickoffs for touchbacks and nailed a 56 yard field goal.  Carlson could end up being one of Auburn's most valuable players by the end of this season.  

THE BAD

Jeremy Johnson.  After an avalanche of preseason buzz, Auburn's star quarterback played maybe his worst game ever.  I think everyone agrees, it wasn't that he threw three interceptions, it was how bad the interceptions were.  I mean those were three ugly picks.  I am just not sure what Johnson was thinking.  He has got to play smarter than that especially after getting the lead early.  Everything was going Auburn's way after getting the interception on the first play of game and making a textbook drive down for the game's first touchdown.

The offense just bogged down after that for the rest of the half.  Auburn would get a first down and then do something dumb.  There were lots of drive-killing penalties mostly holds.  Auburn ended up with 80 yards of penalties for the day and that is on the coaches, it has to be cleaned up.  Also most of that is on the offense as I saw several defensive players pull up and not make the stupid penalty that was made so many times last year.  I have some complaints about the officiating but not the calls made against Auburn, more on that later.

Luckily, even having his worst day, Johnson was still able to hit some critical passes including a big one to Ricardo Louis to give Auburn a 24-0 lead early in the third quarter.  Louis also made a great run on Auburn's last touchdown.  That was what I have been wanting from Louis since they started putting him on that jet sweep.  So many times in the past couple of years he would get the ball and hesitate looking for a hole but on his game-winning touchdown run this weekend he never hesitated and looked he had been shot out of a cannon taking it around the end.

Louis was good but the hero of the day on offense was running back Peyton Barber.  Barber got hurt on A-Day last year and never seemed to recover as Cameron Artis-Payne took the job.  This year he put up another good fight but Roc Thomas got the start and Javon Robinson was inserted early as well.  It looked like another disappointing opener for Barber till both Thomas and Robinson went down with injuries and with Johnson throwing interceptions the offense sat squarely on Barber's shoulders.  He was ready and rushed for 115 yards on 24 carries for almost 5 yards a carry.  He definitely put Auburn on his shoulders several times during that game.

The line did a good job blocking for him.  However I did not see much out of Auburn's young tight ends and H-backs.  I saw the H-backs a lot more but it looks like they have a long way to go to me.  The final big question that was on every Auburn fan's mind is why we did not throw more to Duke Williams.  I do not think any of Johnson's interceptions were to Williams.  He had only a quiet 40 yards on three receptions although all of those were clutch plays.  It did not seem Louisville was doubling him.  The guy is so good and is so obviously Auburn's best wide receiver.  The coaches have got to game plan better and get him a lot more targets.

THE UGLY

First on the list, again I do not have a problem with penalties called on Auburn.  Most of them looked like clear holds to me.  Those are big penalties too.  A ten yard holding penalty is usually a drive-killer.  The refs called five or six holding calls on Auburn.  The problem is I do not think they called ONE holding call on Louisville.  I saw numerous blatant holds from Louisville's wide receivers and like a friend of mine remarked there is no way that little quarterback did as much scrambling as he did without a few blatant holds.  All of that and no holds called.

Nothing gets me more upset that this subject.  Auburn lost a national championship because of this same thing and there is no way Louisville makes it that close this weekend with a few holding penalties called on them.  For the record, yes Florida State thew the ball 35 times two years ago and was not called for holding one time even with an NFL first round draft pick pass rusher going for Auburn.  Call the penalties but call it both ways.

Next and probably the ugliest side of this game was the injuries.  Everyone agrees Carl Lawson is by far Auburn's best defensive player and he was pulled from the game with a hip flexor injury.  I doubt he plays against Jacksonville State.  Will he be ready to go for LSU?  Will he continue to have injuries nag him the whole season?  Auburn's season will be greatly impacted by these questions.  

Safety and playmaker Tray Matthews went down with what looked like a shoulder separation to me. How long will he be out?  I thought he played a very good game Saturday and would also be greatly missed.  The coaches are saying Roc Thomas and Jovon Robinson are not seriously injured but again I do think we will know that for sure till we see if they play against Jacksonville State.  It looks like super frosh Kerryon Johnson might get to see a lot of action against the Gamecocks this weekend.  Auburn has a lot of good players but is so thin in spots that injures will continue to be the biggest issue each week.

THE FINAL WORD

Auburn did not play well but got a tough win in a big neutral site game against a Power Five opponent.  That is a very good thing.  Now again I did not and still do not think Louisville is a great team.  I still think they end up middle of the pack in the ACC however again Grantham is a very good defensive coordinator and they did get to spend a lot of time concentrating on Auburn in the preseason.  Hopefully Jeremy Johnson will not have another game like that and will get back on track.

Auburn's future SEC opponents looked pretty good this weekend.  Texas A&M got a huge win blowing out Arizona State and Bama looked their usual big strong selves against Wisconsin.  Everyone else in the conference also won except for poor Vandy who dropped their opener to Western Kentucky.  I think the Derek Mason era is already over in Nashville.  The big ones next week will be Oklahoma visiting Tennessee and LSU heading to Starkville after having their opener stormed out.

I think the key for Auburn this next weekend is of course not getting anybody hurt, getting all these young guys a lot of playing time and getting ready for a huge game in two weeks down in Baton Rouge.  I think everyone already had the LSU game circled but it is looking bigger and bigger as it gets closer...

Auburn 2015 Preview: Time to Step Up

As the clock ticks relentlessly toward the start of the 2015 college football season, there are a lot of questions surrounding this year's Tiger football team.  First, can Auburn step up and play well and succeed when they are the favorite, when they are predicted to do well?  Can coach Will Muschamp step up and resurrect the Auburn defense?  Can coach Gus Malzahn step up and actually run a balanced offense?  Will their be some players step up as real leaders after a complete lack of leadership last year?  

Outside the big picture, can Auburn's young inexperienced defensive tackles step up and play with the big boys? Can Auburn's young inexperienced tight ends and H-backs step up and adequately fill their roles?  Finally, can Jeremy Johnson step up and be the quarterback everyone rooting for Auburn thinks he can be.  I have rarely seen a team with so much talent both playing and coaching yet have so many questions.  Of course that is all internal, externally Auburn must take on the best division of teams in college football.  There are no easy outs in the SEC West with the rise of the Mississippi schools and Arkansas' resurgence last season.

I guess the first place to start is after letting it settle for awhile, what happened to the 2014 Auburn Tigers?  I think most of us saw the cracks appearing that I listed in my preview last year.  First, it was obvious to everyone except the Auburn offensive coaches that the offensive line while good would not be the monster it had been in 2013 and Auburn would sorely miss Jay Prosch.  The thought was that Gus Malzahn would call a more balanced offense which he did not till the Bama game.  Auburn still had good offensive numbers but stubborn play calling factored into several losses.

Next there was the obvious leadership issues with seniors getting arrested and suspended.  Everyone hoped it would somehow get fixed but it never did.  Auburn suffered from a lack of leadership on both sides of the ball all season.  Finally, there was just a complete lack of coaching or adjustments on the defensive side of the ball.  Coach Ellis Johnson turned in one of the all-time worst jobs of defensive coaching in Auburn history.  

I will never forget Bama All-American and NFL first round draft choice Amari Cooper lining up at a critical moment in the Iron Bowl and literally running a simple go or post route almost uncovered for an easy touchdown.  There were no obstructions off the line, no tight coverage, no double coverage, no special treatment at all for the best offensive player on Bama's team.  I may be an obscure Monday morning quarterbacking blogger but there was simply no excuse in the world for that play by any defensive coach at any level.

Thank goodness, this problem from last year's team was addressed as well as it could possibly be addressed with the hire of coach Will Muschamp.  I have always liked coach Muschamp and was shocked it went as bad as it did for him at Florida.  However I still think the guy is a great defensive coordinator.  The Auburn defense will be better because of him.  Unfortunately though I have spent the offseason cautioning fellow Auburn fans to not expect miracles.  There is only so much he can do with the players he inherits.  I just hope he stays long enough to coach a team of guys he has a hand in bringing in.  

All the press on defense has gone to returning stud Carl Lawson and incoming stud Byron Cowart.  These defensive ends plus senior DaVonte Lambert will play a huge role if Auburn is to field a decent defense this season.  Unfortunately one of the biggest questions marks as I have asked already is the defensive tackles.  Only junior Montravious Adams has any experience at all.  It is very tough to win a championship with so much inexperience in the middle of your defensive line. 

Things look better elsewhere with Auburn returning senior linebackers Kris Frost and Cassanova McKinzy.  The hope is that coach Muschamp can get more out of these guys than the previous staff.  Auburn has some depth with Justin Garrett (if he can stay healthy which he never has) and Tre Williams plus highly touted newcomer Jeffery Holland.  It is still a pretty light crew but again the hope is that better coaching will help.

The secondary looks pretty good.  There are some depth concerns but hopefully there is some decent talent and good experience in probable senior starters Jonathan Jones and Blake Countess at the corners and safeties Jonathan "Rudy" Ford and Tray Matthews plus Josh Holsey at the nickel. I think Auburn will play more nickel than a third linebacker.  There looks to be some guys with potential behind these guys in Carlton Davis, Nick Ruffin, Stephen Roberts and Tim Irvin.  Of course this all sends us back to defensive end where a good pass rush always makes the secondary a lot better.

This is not a great defense by any means but if the defensive line is decent with a good pass rush it will look a lot better.  If Lawson gets hurt again or Cowart fizzles his first year or the tackles are terrible the defense will have problems.  Now hopefully it will not look as bad as it did last year but I do have to say that Florida's defense gave up about as many yards to Bama last year as Auburn...  Everyone likes Muschamp but he is not a miracle worker.  Auburn's overall strategy looks to be like the old Peyton Manning Indianapolis Colts where you get the lead and let a smaller fast defense rush the quarterback.

On offense it starts with one of the most anticipated quarterbacks in Auburn's long and storied history, junior Jeremy Johnson.  Cam quickly got the press but got nowhere near the preseason buzz that Johnson has.  I do not think any Auburn quarterback has gotten the preseason kudos Johnson has, I sure hope the kid can handle it because it is hard to not let all that go to your head.  Johnson is the dream quarterback though standing 6-5 and weighing in at 240 lbs with a strong arm and great accuracy and touch.  

I thought he was the best quarterback last year and am more than ready to see him this year especially after two years of an undersized and erratic Nick Marshall.  Again as I have said many times I just hope that Gus Malzahn will adjust his run-heavy offensive philosophy to be more balanced and use Johnson more like he did with Cam Newton.  That never seemed to happen with Nick Marshall no matter how improved at passing they kept saying he was.  

Auburn returns another strong offensive line anchored by junior tackles Shon Coleman and Avery Young.  These guys are not great but they are very good.  At the guards, sophomore Braden Smith and junior Alex Kozan or senior Devonte Danzey will take over.  Finally at center, it will either be senior Xavier Dampeer or sophomore Austin Golson.  This is a strong group with some depth as evidenced by the position battles still going.  The depth is not near as good at the tackles but the interior of the line looks very strong.  

Again though while this is a very good line, it is not going to be the 2013 line.  I keep telling people that was a once-in-a-lifetime type of line.  You just have to be truly great to run the ball on good teams when they expect you to.  I do think this group could be near dominating running a more balanced offense featuring a great quarterback that can see the field.  Shon Coleman struggled against good pass rushers last year so that will be something to keep an eye on but hopefully he will improve some and along with Johnson's quick release be able to mitigate that weakness.

He has some good targets to throw to.  It was really hard for me to watch Auburn not use enough two of the most athletic talented wide receivers to ever play on the plains last season in Sammie Coates and Duke Williams.  Luckily, Williams returns this year if he can keep it together.  He is obviously the best receiver on the team and Auburn will definitely need him in good standing and healthy to compete for a championship.  

The next biggest playmaker is Ricardo Louis who will need to be much more consistent.  The same can be said of Melvin Ray.  He is a guy who has made big plays but must be more consistent and the coaches also cannot forget about him for weeks and give him some targets each week.  I think the most important guy after that will be Marcus Davis, he has before and can be the Wes Welker possession-type receiver.  That is a big role in a good passing attack.

There is a lot of talk and hype about several other guys including: Jason Smith, Myron Burton, Darius Slayton, Tony Stevens and Stanton Truitt but right now it is just talk and hype.  Auburn will need for a couple of these guys to step up especially if there are some injuries.  However these guys look to have a lot of potential and I guess that is all you can ask for when you get to the second and third string guys.  Hopefully coach Dameyune Craig will step up and stop the trend of Auburn wide receiver busts.

The only glaring problem on the offense is the complete lack of experience at tight end and H-back.  Auburn has not won many championships without an experienced and talented tight end.  Auburn lost all of its experience at tight end with senior C.J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse departing last year.  Auburn's only two tight ends right now are freshmen Chris Laye and Jalen Harris.  Sorry folks, this is a huge yellow flag.  These guys have absolutely no experience at all.  

I have read several times that there is a huge difference between a Malzahn offense running the ball using a tight end and running the ball behind a three wide receiver set.  Again though this weakness can be mitigated by running a more balanced offense.  Everyone points to Malzahn's time at Tulsa and Arkansas State but at Auburn he has been run heavy all the time except for the second half of 2010 with Cam.  Malzahn also had a bad habit last season of calling too many trick plays or misdirections rather than just calling a straight drop-back pass.  Hopefully with Johnson he will have more confidence to do that.

The Tigers have the same issue at H-back where there is also only two freshmen.  I feel a little better because it is an easier position to be good at early and feel a little more confident in the candidates being pretty good players.  Again though, there is no substitute for experience and Auburn just does not have any experience at these two positions.  As with defensive tackle, it is very hard to win a championship starting green freshman at these positions.  

Finally on offense we come to running back.  Auburn looks to be in good shape here with sophomores Roc Thomas and Peyton Barber plus JUCO transfer Jovon Robinson and the highly touted freshman from my neck of the woods, Kerryon Johnson.  There is not much to complain about here, there is talent and depth.  In the spring it appeared Jovon Robinson was the man but throughout the fall it has sounded like Thomas and Barber were the top two.  One or more of these guys will get the job done and have a great season.

This is a very good team.  I am accused of being negative at times but it is all about where you are coming from.  If you are just concerned about Auburn having a good team with a shot at a championship then rest easy, this is that team.  However when I look at the team I judge it by if it is good enough to win a Southeastern Conference championship.  That is the standard.  I think this team is good enough but like every other team it will be competing with Auburn will need some young players to step up.

Now to the schedule...  Well it is an odd year so that is good.  Odd years are the only years now that Auburn realistically has a chance at an SEC title since Jay Jacobs let the SEC schedule Georgia and Bama on the same home and away rotation.  It is hard enough to beat Georgia and Bama any way but nearly impossible to beat them both on the road in the same season.  Only a few rare exceptions will ever do it therefore even years are a lot less exciting at Auburn now.  So with that said Auburn better take full advantage of the odd years especially when they have a good team like this year.

Auburn starts out with a pretty decent test in Louisville and Bobby Petrino.  They are a good team but if Auburn plays solid they should win.  Auburn then gets a breather in Jacksonville State before heading to Baton Rouge.  LSU returns to its old spot on the Auburn schedule which is the third game of the year and I like it.  This used to be Tennessee in that third spot and it always showed which team would be a contender or pretender.  Now the loser can come back ala 2013 but it makes it a lot harder.  This will be one of the key games in Auburn's season.

Auburn will return home for a tough game with Mississippi State.  State will come to play and give Auburn a tough one but they lost a lot of experienced talent last year.  I think Auburn is a little better and is at home so they should win this game.  Auburn then gets another easy one with San Jose State and a bye week before a Thursday trap game at Kentucky.  Kentucky has given Auburn problems in recent years beating the Tigers at home in 2009 and nearly spoiling the perfect season in 2010.  This game will be closer than expected but you have to favor Auburn.

Auburn then hits the gauntlet, the real meat of the schedule.  There is no hiding or skating by in the SEC West especially at Auburn where you are in the SEC West and play Georgia every year.  Any leadership issues or problems with your team will be exposed ala 2014.  I expect Auburn to be undefeated or have one loss at this point.  Anything worse will be a huge disappointment and could spell big trouble because Auburn then plays Arkansas, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Georgia, Idaho and Bama in consecutive weeks.  Only Idaho might be easy.  

On the road at Arkansas will be another huge trap as Bret Bielema has made Auburn his #1 target.  This one will be another moment of truth for this Tiger team.  Auburn should handle Ole Miss but it will not be easy.  Auburn will then go on the road again to College Station.  They won a close one there in 2013 but have lost twice at home to the Aggies.  Texas A&M always seems to play well against Auburn.  I am just not sure how good the Aggies are but of course they did not look too good last year when they upset the Tigers.  Auburn will most likely be the favorite but this one will be tough.  

That brings us to Georgia.  This will be Auburn's toughest game of the season in my opinion.  Especially since Auburn will be coming off three tough games in a row while Georgia will have a bye week and a home game against Kentucky before Auburn.  You also have to favor the Dawgs in this one when you once again factor in that Coach Mark Richt outside of two great Auburn teams and two great last second finishes has absolutely owned Auburn during his tenure.  The Bulldogs embarrassed the Tigers again last season.

Auburn will then hopefully have an easy one in Idaho before closing with the Iron Bowl.  There is not much point in trying to scout Bama.  They will be very good again.  They have brought in so many good players for so many years in a row they are just going to be good.  Add to that the fact that Auburn has not beaten the Tide by more than 10 points since 1969 and you can pretty much guarantee this will a tough close game that will go down to the wire... again.

I think the likely scenario is that Auburn loses at least two games.  I am predicting 10-2 and 6-2 in the SEC.  I do not know if that will be good enough in the West or not.  Probably not but it depends on whether one of those losses is to Bama.  It is definitely possible Auburn could do better and as we found out last year they could do worse.  However if they can get at least ten wins that is a pretty good season against this schedule and would mean that Auburn did indeed step up.  Lets tee it up and find out...  War Eagle.

Auburn Basketball 2014-15: More of the Same till the End

Nobody was more excited about Coach Bruce Pearl coming to Auburn than I was.  Here is my post about Pearl that contains the links to all of my posts about Auburn basketball.  I thought and still think Pearl is one of the few people who can turn around the Auburn basketball program.  However I was pretty disappointed watching another season completely unravel.  I certainly knew he would not do it overnight but I expected more than a 4-14 conference record.  That is only one more win than Tony Barbee's "worst season ever" in 2012-13.  Barbee went 3-15 in conference that year.  

I know Auburn did not have a lot of talent for Pearl to work with but I am sorry they had enough talent with a good coach to do better than 4-14.  It has been extremely difficult to watch.  The first game I watched this season was against Texas Tech and the team was flat terrible and have stayed that way most of this season.  I have heard a lot about this team fighting and not quitting but you can say that about Jeff Lebo's teams.  The only thing that matters is wins and losses and again 4-14 just does not cut it.  This team has as much or more talent than many teams Auburn has had over the last 20 years that had better conference records with worse coaches.   

Going into the SEC tournament, I was pretty down on the whole thing and wondering if Auburn basketball had indeed passed the point of no return.  There was no tangible evidence that Bruce Pearl had made a bit of difference... till the SEC tournament, a place where Auburn had not won a game since 2009.  Finally at the very end, Auburn finally shined like a pearl.  The Tigers led by Pearl and senior K.T. Harrell beat Mississippi State (who had delivered one of Auburn's most painful home losses this season) , Texas A&M (who had absolutely beat down Auburn twice this season) and finally the LSU Tigers who were gunning for an NCAA tournament berth.

The LSU game was the magical one with Harrell hitting a tough three-point buzzer beater to tie it up and send it to overtime where the Tigers would win it.  An Auburn basketball win led that evenings ESPN Sportscenter.  I am not sure that has ever happened before.  Auburn coach Bruce Pearl hit a "buzzer beater" of his own by leading this tournament run.  After a season of bad basketball and tough losses Pearl finally has something to show, something to sell to recruits.  The run ended a day later in the semi-finals against the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats but the statement was made.

Of course, nothing comes easy to Auburn basketball as top forward Cinmeon Bowers was suspended for the Kentucky game for some kind of rules violation.  That taints the whole thing a little bit and could effect the program depending on the severity of the violation.  So far, no details have been released but it is extremely frustrating to see following such a big win.  Next season Auburn loses Harrell and some of the other main contributors in Antoine Mason, K.C. Ross-Miller and Malcolm Canada.  Pearl is supposed to have a top twenty recruiting class coming in to replace them.  I hope so because Pearl has to build on this run and show more next season.

I think Auburn needs to finish with a winning conference record or at least 8-8 next season.  Of course that was what I expected this season.  Pearl will have to do it with a younger team but that has kind of become the standard in college basketball.  I think another losing conference record will hurt Pearl's sales pitch and make it more difficult to convince recruits that Auburn is turning it around.  The home attendance will drop as well.  Auburn fans will support a good team but most everyone has better things to do than watch another bad Auburn basketball team.

I am not sure when or if Auburn will ever make it back to the NCAA Tournament.  Things have changed so much since Auburn last made it to the Big Dance in 2003.  At that time, a winning conference record pretty much guaranteed an NCAA Tournament berth.  Auburn got in with an 8-8 record in 2003.  Nowadays an SEC team can go 12-4 in conference and not make it.  That does not bode well for Auburn.  You have to get some big wins against out-of-conference foes in addition to doing well in your conference.  Most of the big preseason tournaments are only for the sacred cows of college basketball and they do not let anyone else in. 

Short term, I am just looking for Auburn to be in the top half of the programs in the SEC because right now the Tigers are at the very bottom historically.  Long term Pearl will eventually be judged on his ability to get Auburn back into the NCAA Tournament.  I think that will be a very tough job indeed.  Pearl will have shown how good a coach he is if he can pull that off.  Again though the first step is a winning conference record.  Auburn has had only one season with a winning conference record in the last FIFTEEN years.  It is time to take that first step after laying the foundation with this seasons SEC Tournament run.

2015 State of the Program

First, my standard intro to this post...  "It has become standard here at STR to do a "State of the Program" post following national signing day.  The national "state of the union" is always around this time as well and it just seems like the perfect time to do it for a college football team. It is the end of a complete cycle of college football starting with spring practice through the regular season and then the all important recruiting season. You really have a good pretty good feel as to where the program is since most big fans have been into it almost daily for six months. You have seen your team play an entire season and know the latest batch of recruits coming in."

Last year, other than not finishing against Florida State, everything was going Auburn's way.  When the dust cleared after the national championship disappointment, Auburn had put together maybe the most incredible comeback season in college football history going from 0-8 to SEC champs.  Along the way the Tigers won games over their biggest rivals on maybe the two most unbelievable magnificent plays in Auburn history.  The win in the Iron Bowl over #1 Bama to win the West was one of the greatest games in Auburn football history.  

There were still some clouds out there as I documented in this post last year beginning with Jay Jacob's foolhardy mistake of letting the SEC put Georgia and Bama on the same home and away rotation.  I thought last year's team might survive it but it bit Auburn even earlier than I thought.  It will continue to hurt Auburn for many years to come.  The eight game conference schedule with 14 teams will continue to help or hurt as well. It happened with 12 teams but with two more it has become much more pronounced.  It is all about who you have to play from the other division.  

It has helped Bama immensely getting that easy win against the Vols the last few years while Georgia has been a huge thorn in Auburn's side.  It has also helped the Bulldogs get to Atlanta several times the last few years.  While Texas A&M and Missouri have been successful since joining the SEC, overall I think the addition was a bad move and continues to hurt in less visible ways like football scheduling.  Fourteen teams just does not work well and it does not look like there will be two more great programs available anytime soon to make it sixteen.  

Auburn will benefit some next year, maybe, from the scheduling.  Kentucky rolls onto the schedule as Auburn's rotating East opponent.  The Wildcats were much improved but still one of the weaker teams in the conference.  The only thing that would have made expansion a positive for Auburn would have been moving to the East.  It is Jay Jacob's biggest missed opportunity.  Auburn could be back in the East with all of Auburn's traditional rivals in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee and not stuck with the Mississippi schools and ex-Big 12 teams.  However that is a discussion for another day.  

The scheduling problems will remain one of the biggest factors on whether Auburn has a chance at a conference title every year.  I am most definitely for a nine game schedule to alleviate this problem and getting Bama and Georgia out of this same rotation.  Until then you will see this same commentary from me in this space every year...

Back to my initial point and the spring of a year ago... Auburn as Gus Malzahn would say after every game in 2013 was going "up, up, UP!".  Unfortunately what goes up must come down and Auburn did in a big way.  I think just about everyone knows this principle but did not figure Auburn would come down in 2014 with so many good players returning.  Auburn had a ton of senior starters on both sides of the ball including a senior quarterback.  That usually means good things are going to happen however a lack of leadership even with all those seniors and some bad coaching did the Tigers in.  Auburn finished 8-5 and just 4-4 in the SEC.

The cracks started appearing over the summer as senior quarterback Nick Marshall and senior defensive back Jonathan Mincy were both arrested on drug charges.  I think Auburn's chances at a championship were probably finished right there.  If not they definitely were when another senior, safety Jermaine Whitehead, got into an altercation with a coach and then was suspended for most of the season.  Three seniors, three stupid choices.  When your senior impact players are doing dumb stuff like this you know deep down this will not be a great team and I think we all knew it.

Those were the symptoms, the lack of leadership was the problem.  Marshall was a playmaker but not a leader.  Tre Mason and Jay Prosch lead the way in 2013 alleviating the problem with Marshall but there was no one to help in 2014.  I do not think Auburn had much leadership on defense either but it would not have mattered with talent missing at important spots and horrendous coaching.  Elite pass rusher Dee Ford and lockdown cornerback Chris Davis were able to make Ellis Johnson's 2013 defense just adequate.  The defense crumbled and finally completely collapsed in 2014 without that kind of talent at those positions.  

The horrible coaching on defense was evident down the stretch and I credit Malzahn for addressing it immediately following the Iron Bowl.  As I wrote after that game, I did not think he would do it but he did and followed it up with grabbing the best possible coach available.  As I wrote in the bowl game review: "It was a huge win to bring in Will Muschamp.  I have recited many times that the last time Auburn had a good defense was Muschamp's last year at Auburn.  However unless Muschamp and the other Auburn coaches can break Bama's recruiting stranglehold on the majority of the region's best defensive players I am not sure how big a difference Muschamp can make.  In Muschamp's first tour as defensive coordinator he had access to many more good defensive players with Tuberville being a defensive coach and recruiting against Mike Shula.  Things have changed drastically since then as Bama scoops up nearly every great defensive player in the state.  Auburn simply has to get more good players on defense..."

That brings us to this years recruiting haul.  On offense Auburn did another great job grabbing five offensive lineman and grabbing them before it is a critical need.  I, for one, have been screaming about this for years and it is nice to see the Tigers get some good prospects in the pipeline before it is a critical need.  The only negative is one or two of these guys really needed to be defensive linemen.  The coaches also brought in a good fullback and tight end to bolster those positions.  Unfortunately though they were a little late on this and these guys will be under the gun to contribute immediately.

They say the fullback position is about dead due to all these shotgun formation offenses but not in Gus Malzahn's offense.  I wrote several times how underrated and important Eric Smith was in 2010 and then everyone saw how important Jay Prosch was in 2013.  A good fullback blocker is essential to the Malzahn offense and we all saw this season that a great tight end does not translate to a good fullback.  Senior Brandon Fulse was less than stellar at the H-back spot and it showed.  Malzahn needs that fullback blocker and hopefully Chandler Cox can fill that role for a few years.

Auburn usually is overloaded with useless wide receivers but this year only brought in two, Darius Slayton and Ryan Davis, and both look pretty good.  It is also always good to bring in a decent quarterback recruit just in case and Auburn checked that box this year with Tyler Queen.  That brings us to the best part of this year's class on offense and that is running back.  Auburn grabbed two of the best in the country in JUCO Jovon Robinson and Alabama "Mr. Football" Kerryon Johnson.  You add these two guys to last years "Mr. Football" Roc Thomas and veteran Peyton Barber and Auburn should continue to have a great running attack.  

Turning back to defense, I think Auburn did a good job everywhere but defensive line which was the biggest need in my opinion coming into this recruiting season.  Auburn definitely got a great player in Byron Cowart but in my opinion wasted a scholarship on Price Tega Wanogho Jr. who just took up football and suffered a major injury.  I will be surprised if he ever plays a down in an SEC game.  The coaches then brought in a couple of decent recruits in JUCO Maurice Swain and Jauntavius Johnson but that is it.  Auburn has not had much luck over the years bringing in instant impact JUCO lineman and I bet Johnson ends up redshirting so basically Cowart is it for next year.

Auburn lost four seniors that played regularly on the defensive line and that was not a huge loss since they were not very good however unless some unknowns really step up Auburn does not have much depth to replace them.  Right now the starters look to be Carl Lawson, DaVonte Lambert, Elijah Daniel and Montravius Adams.  The only experienced depth looks to be Gimel President.  Coach Rodney Garner's work looks to be cut out for him especially if there are any injuries.  All we have other than these guys is Cowart and a lot of inexperienced unknowns.  Auburn needed to bring in at least two or three more recruits on the defensive line.  This position looks to be by far Auburn's biggest trouble spot come next fall.

On the plus side, for the first time since Nick $aban arrived in Tuscaloosa, Auburn appears to have signed a great linebacker class led by Jeffery Holland followed by Darrell Williams, Richard McBryde and Montavious Atkinson.  Auburn needed this bad.  Kudos to Coach Muschamp for immediately making a huge impact with Cowart and Holland.  As I said above, as much as Auburn needs good coaching on defense they need good players.  These guys could make a huge difference down the road.  It is hard to remember the last time Auburn had great linebackers.

Finally Auburn also brought in some good talent for the defensive backfield to mix in with some good potential already on campus.  Safeties Tim Irvin and Jordan Colbert look really good and Auburn stole Carlton Davis from Ohio State.  Like offensive line, I am glad the coaches got some good talent in the pipeline before the alarm bells start going off.  Rounding out the class is athlete Jason Smith and punter Ian Shannon.  I think the sooner the coaches get Jason Smith away from quarterback and into a position he can actually contribute the better.

To finish up on the offensive side of the ball, the coaching has to be a lot better this next year.  While the defense grabbed all the attention, the offensive coaching was not much better considering the talent they had to work with.  As I said all season and will continue to say, Coach Malzahn must make some changes.  He stubbornly continued to try and run the ball even when it was clearly not working and refused many times to just call a straight pass in critical situations.  Everyone expects this to change with Jeremy Johnson hopefully taking over at quarterback (after we have to suffer through the coaches creating a "race"for the position in the spring to put pressure on him).  However I am not convinced yet things will change.

Overall the state of the program is good but lets not gloss over the fact that 2014 was not a good season and the coaches did not do a good job.  Bringing in Will Muschamp is a great thing but will probably be a fairly short term solution.  Gus Malzahn has to continue to build his foundation at Auburn.  He has good coaches and good players in place and that is where it all starts but Auburn is still in the toughest division in college football and their in-state rival is still at an all-time high so any mistakes can hurt badly.  

The 2015 season will be critical after the disappointing 2014 season and it being one of the now so important years where Auburn gets Georgia and Bama at home.  Auburn pretty much does not have much of a chance in even years anymore having to play those two on the road at the end of the year.  Odd years are now THE years for Auburn.  Couple that with Kentucky rolling in as the other East opponent and every team in the West but State starting over at quarterback and Auburn must capitalize on this opportunity.