Some thoughts during the 2012 Auburn football team's bye week...
- This bye week comes at exactly the right time this year. Finally Auburn has moved it from the end of the season to a place where it can do a lot more good. It is at an extra good time this year as Auburn is fixing to hit a stretch of four games that will either turn this season around or turn it upside down. Auburn has four games that are tough but winnable. Two home games and two road games. Auburn goes 4-0 and a winning season is guaranteed. It certainly will not change the fact that Gene Chizik will most likely be 0-9 against Auburn's main rivals (Bama, LSU and Georgia) without Cam Newton but it would stop the bleeding for this season.
- Things look a little tougher in the next four games than they did last week. Well not in all cases, as I said in my last post, Auburn must win next week against Arkansas no matter what. Arkansas has absolutely quit and is easily the most embarrassing program in the country as they went down 58-10 to Texas A&M yesterday. The rest of the games look a bit tougher though. Ole Miss played a competitive game against Bama and Texas A&M showed again that they have a pretty good offense. Auburn's offense is so bad that it will keep any half decent team in the game. It could even breathe some life into the almost dead Razorbacks.
- The hits continued as Quan Bray was arrested for "driving with a limited permit" and having an open alcoholic beverage in the vehicle. It was bad enough that he spent the night in jail. That hurts a bit as he is actually Auburn's leading receiver although that is not saying much. He is also our starting punt returner that learned a valuable lesson last week. This team appears to lack any semblence of leadership on the player side. There are no strong team leaders and it shows on the field and off of it. The longer I watch sports and coach myself the stronger I believe that veteran leadership is an absolute must on a good team.
- I continue to be amused when people try to "grade" Auburn's offense by individual units and say this guy is good and this unit is doing OK... blah blah blah. The Auburn offense is ranked #113 in total offense and #112 in scoring offense. There are only 120 teams in all of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. That means Auburn literally has just about the worst offense in all of college football. We may have some good players but right now it does not mean anything when the unit as a whole is this bad. There is absolutely no excuse for Auburn being this bad on offense. Gene Chizik and Scott Loeffler have done an absolutely horrendous job coaching this offense. There is nothing else that can be said. Auburn must improve on offense to have a chance to turn this season around and it begins with the coaching.
- The Auburn defense played good against LSU, that is well documented. However I am anxious to see if that will translate to improvement against spread teams. Ole Miss, Vandy and Texas A&M will all run the spread almost as good or better than Mississippi State. Will Auburn allow these teams to dink the ball all the way down the field as it has the last two seasons? Or will the coaches allow the Auburn defense to bring the aggressive mindset from the LSU game against spread teams? That is probably the second biggest question behind the offense that will decide the fate of this season.
- Leadership, sound coaching on offense and more aggressive defense are the keys to Auburn turning this season around. Auburn lost a game that we knew was a toss-up against Clemson, they lost a game everyone thought they would lose against LSU and they lost one that people thought they could win against Mississippi State. Auburn and Gene Chizik are getting a gift though from Arkansas as many thought that game was a loss before the season started. It now appears to be just what the doctor ordered for Auburn. Auburn has a bye and Arkansas is on the road for the second straight week and on a three game losing streak. This is a big win there for the taking. Lets come out strong and get it done Auburn.
WAR EAGLE.
LSU 12 Auburn 10. So close yet so far away for the Auburn Tigers. On the good side, with LSU being overrated and making mistakes plus Auburn's defense playing better Auburn had a chance to win. On the bad side, Auburn's offense is a bad high school offense and the special teams or to be more specific Quan Bray threw away Auburn's best chance to win the game on a muffed punt. I have to say that the game sure did not go how many including me thought it would go. It was a very strange game that brought out some of the best and worst of both teams.
THE GOOD
Auburn's defense played much better. LSU's conventional power offense brought out the best in Auburn's defense. The much maligned defensive tackles played their best game of the season or last two seasons for that matter. The linebackers even made a few plays and the secondary actually delivered a few hard hits. The Auburn defense played inspired and it was good to see.
However LSU could have easily been up 14-0 if they do not fumble near the goal line on their first drive where they went right down the field. The LSU mistakes breathed life into the Auburn defense and gave over the momentum. LSU not only stopped themselves but gave the Auburn offense their only touchdown of the game on another fumble. LSU also had nine penalties for 80 yards.
THE BAD UGLY PART #1
I sat their watching the game for awhile not believing. Even as Auburn took a 10-9 lead in at halftime I did not believe. However after Auburn stopped LSU deep in their territory late in the third quarter and it looked like we would get the ball back at midfield I finally started to believe we could win this game. Then came the punt... and Quan Bray fumbled away Auburn's only real chance to win the game outside of two near breakaways by Ontario McCalebb.
I praised the special teams last week for not making any of the horrible gaffes Auburn's other units had made. Well forget that. We are back to where we have been since Boulware took over on punt returns and that is just hoping we don't fumble it. It seemed like every punt return in 2009 was an adventure, Quindarious Carr almost gave away the greatest comeback in SEC history against Bama in 2010 and now this. I wonder if Auburn will ever have a punt return threat again.
THE UGLY PART #2
Auburn only managed 183 yards of offense. They were held under 100 yards rushing and pashing. It was a far cry from the last time LSU visited and Cam Newton and company gashed the Bayou Bengals for almost 450 yards rushing and almost 600 yards total offense. The Auburn offense is just a disaster. It is very hard to watch. They are so bad.
I like Kiehl Frazier. He appears to be a great kid. I just do not know if he will ever be a decent drop back quarterback. He sure will not till this offensive line grows up. They were absolutely manhandled by the LSU defensive front. As the stats indicate Auburn could do nothing. I think running inside behind our All-American fullback and more experienced center and guards would be the better choice but our coaches continually tried to run outside.
They did almost accomplish their goal of springing Ontario McCalebb once but it came at the cost of second down and long nearly every other series. Auburn continually put Frazier in tough spots against a very good defense. It was a no-win scenario. I think Auburn should have worked harder at getting something positive on first down. When you see the game going the way it did you go back to simple field position football. It is as old as the game itself.
Auburn has a few decent offensive players but nobody seems well suited for the offense being run. It is just a complete train wreck. Auburn is now about the worst rated offense in the entire NCAA FBS statistically. I honestly do not see it getting much better. It should be something to see when Auburn's awful offense meets Arkansas' porous defense in two weeks.
THE LAST WORD
I read and heard a lot of arrogance from the LSU side this past week. Even when Auburn was very good I never took a win over LSU for granted as they appeared to do this year. They were lucky to get out of Auburn with the win. You do not ever disrespect or underestimate a rival like they did this past week. LSU appears vastly overrated to me. Zach Mettenburger was ordinary to say the least. He did not appear to play well under pressure. LSU's offensive line had a lot of problems with Auburn's pass rushers. They have a long way to go in my book.
As for Auburn, they will meet the only SEC West team having more problems than them in two weeks. Auburn has a bye week while Arkansas will likely give Texas A&M their first SEC victory. I would have to say this upcoming game for Auburn is an absolute must-win. There is no way around it. The loss to LSU can be understood. Losing to this Arkansas team at home would not.
During the movie "The Perfect Storm", the story of the ill-fated crew of the "Andrea Gail" fishing boat, there is a scene that may sum up Auburn's most likely ill-fated 2012 season. The boat and crew get through the first part of the storm and then they sail into the eye.
For a few moments everything is calmer and they see the sun peek through the clouds... For a few moments everything looks better and they think they are going to get through the storm... Then they hit the worst part of the storm and perish under the waves.
It is very likely Auburn just sailed through the eye... a game-winning field goal in overtime to beat Louisiana Monroe 31-28... and the worst of the storm is yet to come and it will most certainly culiminate in a losing season. The storm will hit with full force immediately next week with LSU coming to town. After that enormous wave, the Auburn Tigers have one last chance to weather this storm. They will face Arkansas and Texas A&M at home and Ole Miss and Vandy on the road. Gene Chizik can steady his sinking ship if he can go 3-1 or 4-0 in that stretch. However that looks like a tall order right now especially after Hurricance Les blows through town but that stretch of games will decide this season.
Here are some good posts on the Louisiana Monroe game once again from Acid Reign plus Jay Coulter at Track'em Tigers and of course "A Lifetime of Defeats"...
Tigers Get Their First Win
A Stay Of Execution?
A win is a win but this sure felt like another loss (Disclaimer for profanity)
I think each post shows a unique perspective. As for my perspective here it is...
THE GOOD
Auburn's special teams. At least one Auburn unit is top notch this year. They accounted for our only touchdown against Mississippi State and put up the game-winning field goal in overtime against Louisiana Monroe. So far they have not made any of the horrible gaffes or consistent mistakes the offense and defense have been doing. Auburn will desperately need them in this stretch of four games after LSU. If in the unlikely case Auburn is able to pull it together at all on offense and defense they will probably be called upon to win another game.
What else went good on Saturday? There were a few glimmers of light from the offense. Loeffler called a pretty good first half before tailing off in the second half. Quarterback Kiehl Frazier played pretty good till that horrible interception. Running back Ontario McCalebb ran wild and Tre Mason did pretty good as well. Frazier even threw to a few people not named Blake or Lutzenkirchen including a huge "Hail Mary" play to wide receiver Sammie Coates. Auburn was close to blowing this game open before committing some agregious mistakes and calling some bad plays.
THE BAD
First on the bad list is driving down to take a 35-14 lead and put the game out of reach, Mike Blakely fumbles. In and of itself that is a young guy making a mistake and could be understandable if... Kiehl Frazier does not turn around and throw as ugly an interception as you will see on the next drive. We actually could have made it through that if... Corey Lemonier does not commit a bone-headed offside penalty on fourth down giving them a first down. All of these mistakes together in or near the fourth quarter are completely unacceptable.
The bad was also Auburn and Loeffler continuing to try and run from the three wide receiver "Ace" set. It was the worst thing about the offense Saturday. This is a passing set and while we may have had a few good runs early on we did not have any late and certainly will not have any against a decent team. I was talking about this before seeing Acid Reign say the same thing in his post. The worst part as he points out was when late in the game hanging on to a touchdown lead Auburn tries two runs out of this formation and ends up punting back to Louisiana Monroe who then takes it in for the tying touchdown.
While Auburn may have spread the ball around a little bit, the more wide receivers we have in the game the less chance of success we have. Auburn has a lot to make up for before anybody starts paying much attention to our second and third wide receivers. Auburn, in my opinion would be much better off running and passing from running formations than passing formations. Nobody respects our passing game and it is one of the worst in college football statistically. Three wide receiver sets just mean we have less blocking to pass protect or pave the way for runners. Auburn's best chance of success, in my opinion, is to have Lutzenkirchen and Prosch in the game together as much as possible.
Again, I will keep saying it, Auburn has to decide what the personality of this offense is! What are we hanging out hat on when it gets tough? I think it is obvious that we must run the ball more. We just do not have the experience and especially the commitment to be a passing team. Chizik has made it clear he is not going to have a team that airs it out. Since that is the case stop trying to trick people (because you are not) by continuing to run from pass formations!
THE UGLY
I have consistently had the opinion that Auburn's offensive problems were worse than its defensive problems. That is definitely true after we hired Coach Van Gorder. Consider this an official policy change here at STR. The biggest problem at Auburn is defense. We are a soft non-agressive defense. There is no other way to say it. When is the last time you saw a big hit from a linebacker or safety at Auburn? How many interceptions do you see from an Auburn defense the last few years? We are soft, soft, soft.
I do not know the all the mechanics of defensive football but this problem is obvious. We let receivers just run their routes and we play soft coverage. It is a staple of Gene Chizik since he became head coach. I guess Tommy Tuberville had something to do with that 2004 defense. Tuberville employed many of the same schemes but his defenses were more aggressive. We are just not aggressive or physical on defense in coverage and it makes me "physically sick".
Things are just not going to change till Auburn, as I said in my season preview "gets mean". I doubt it will happen while Chizik is coach but Auburn will not play "Auburn football" till we get back to being tough and physical on defense. I am sick to death of watching us lay back and let people ding us to death. I thought Van Gorder would change that but so far nothing has changed. It has been four seasons of this crap including 2010.
Again facts are facts and while stats do not tell the whole story they tell a lot of it. Here are the stats. Auburn is one of the worst in the NCAA in total offense and in total defense. Those are the facts. Good coaches and good coordinators consistently have high ranked units. I thought Chizik was changing our offense to help our defense but what he should have been doing is changing our defense to help out defense.
THE LAST WORD
Auburn is going to get beat down by LSU. Hopefully we will not roll over for them like Arkansas did for Bama. At the very least lets play a smart football game with good special teams. I think some valuable experience can be gained but it starts with the coaching staff putting these young guys in situations where they have a better chance to succeed.
Where do you start with what happened yesterday? Mississippi State 28 Auburn 10 was much worse than the score or the final stats in the box score indicates. The short term implications are horrifying but they pale in comparison to the long term implications of where the program is really at. So many things are wrong that it is hard to analyze. Fortunately I have read an excellent post on what happened Saturday. I also read another post that definitely summarized the frustration of Saturday. Let me point you to those posts and then I will comment on various points the first one brings up...
First "Acid Reign" at Track'em Tigers does a great job breaking things down and also some great commentary on his post game analysis...
Tigers Find No Answers In "Their State"
Second "A Lifetime of Defeats" returns with a vengeance with a slightly different take of where we are (DISCLAIMER: This post contains A LOT of profanity so some might want to skip, I could not help myself as I was nearly in tears laughing so hard reading it)...
A Lifetime Of Defeats Returns Not To Praise The Auburn Tigers, But To Bury Them
Let me respond to some of the points Acid Reign makes about Saturday...
POINT #1: "What we saw was an Auburn roster containing the results of three top ten recruiting classes, and those guys were absolutely dominated by a team that does not recruit on the same level. Coaches Gene Chizik and Dan Mullen took over their respective programs the very same year. At this point, I'm left wondering which way each squad is trending."
First let me say that he is right on in saying that no matter what we recruit better than Mississippi State and it is mostly on bad coaching that we got blown out by them. I will get back to that but first let me also point out that while we have talent and it should be coached better we do not have as much talent as people think we do.
I mean it is going turn me into the "Lifetime Of Defeats" guy if I hear it many more times, and that is the myth we have had three top ten recruiting classes. Yes, on signing day these classes were "ranked" in the so-called "top ten" however if we ranked the classes now then only one, maybe, would still be ranked close to that high. Take last year's "top ten class" for example... We had lost the best quarterback, the best running back and one of the best wide receivers from that class before the first game. The class is not longer a "top ten" recruiting class. The same can certainly be said for the 2010 class as well. Just watch us when we line up next to LSU and Bama, does it look like we are close? A "five star" player like small wide receiver Trovon Reed is nowhere close to as valuable as a "five star" player like left tackle Cyrus Kouandjio. Give the recruiting spin a rest please.
Another thing I am tired of hearing is how dumb the fans are and how brilliant football coaches and the media are. I think a lot of us "dumb fans" who do not have journalism or physical education degrees could make better decisions than these football coaches make that media types defend. For example... "Auburn has the most inept offense in the league" and one of the worst in college football (that is a fact according to the rankings). Many parts of this meltdown are dumb decisions by our coaches, let us review...
POINT #2: "The offense is certainly plagued by poor throws, but the design is far worse... Yes, I looked at some boards yesterday, and I saw numerous 'yank Frazier' posts. Folks, that's not going to happen. We have few options other than to stick it out with him. And really, with this offense, he's not being given a chance to be successful, and the other guys on the bench have even fewer tools in their toolbox."
Kiehl Frazier has, I believe, played his entire career in a spread-type offense and was recruited to do that at Auburn. He had some success as a runner last year. I understand Chizik wanting to leave the spread and go back to a more traditional offense however it should be a transition and not a complete break. In 2008 when Tuberville made the decision to go to the spread, some of us knew it is tough to transition to the spread and even tougher to transition out of it.
That is certainly being proven true this year for Auburn as it has already at Florida and Texas. Two of the biggest powerhouses in college football who like Auburn won the national championship behind superstar quarterbacks running the spread but then just a couple of years later wanted to move away from the spread. It has cost both of these schools seasons like Auburn is experiencing this year and last.
The sad thing is that Loeffler should have been the perfect guy to do it since he has coached both style's of offense. He coached a pro-style at Michigan and the Detroit Lions but coached Tim Tebow in the spread at Florida. I want to go pro-style. I hate running out entire offense out of the shotgun but as I said in my season preview I still expected us to run a lot of read-option plays. Our coaches are just dumb not to.
Kiehl Frazier is obviously not a traditional drop-back quarterback and will not be one anytime soon. I think the best chance for him to succeed is still running many plays from the shotgun including read-option plays that he and our running backs were recruited to run. This would give them a little success we could build on. We could then run a few passes from those formations which would give Frazier a better chance for success.
We could then mix in a few under-snap plays but mostly stay with what Frazier is familiar with and gives Auburn the best chance to win with. We really need Frazier to work out this year as Acid Reign points out. We simply do not have a choice. Clint Moseley? He proved he is not the answer last year. Jonathan Wallace? A lightly recruited true freshman, something tells me that is not the answer. One of our true freshmen coming in next year? Again that just does not seem to be the answer. We recruited Frazier, one of the best quarterbacks in the country, and now it is time to do some coaching.
Whoever we put in we must commit more to a clock-running game-shortening offense. Shorten the game, hope the defense improves and maybe you get an upset. It is a strategy as old as football itself. It was obvious before the season started we would not score that many points with a new quarterback and tackles. Yet we do not appear to be calling plays that would help that strategy.
POINT #3: "I can't imagine how it feels to be Travante Stallworth or Brandon Fulse. They've paid the price for years at Auburn, and are now in the playing rotation. I saw numerous times that MSU literally put no one on those guys when they were on the field, or had their guy jump into the running lanes. Stallworth in particular was all alone on the wide side of the field in his routes, and Auburn has yet to even look over there. If we've got a 500-page playbook, a quick throw to an uncovered wide receiver ought to be in there."
How many times must us "dumb fans" point this out? How in the world as Acid Reign states above do we not call a play specifically to get the ball to one of these guys as they are wide-open. There is no conceivable way it would not work a couple of times. Again, "keeping the other team honest" is another tenet of football as old as the introduction of the forward pass into the game. I have made statements nearly identical to this for over a year now and it is really driving me crazy. It is a wonder we can recruit anyone to come play wide receiver at Auburn.
POINT #4: "After Tre Mason had his first hundred yard game last week, the coaching staff's answer this week was to only give him 8 carries in the game. Brilliant."
I have never been very high on Tre Mason but was pleasantly surprised last week with his 100 yard effort. He puts up a hundred yard game and our coaches... bench him. It just seems dumb to me.
So there you have it... dumb strategy, dumb playcalling and dumb substitutions equal having one of the worst offenses in college football right now.
Now to the defense... (insert huge exasperated sigh here)
Again I think Coach Van Gorder is a very good coach and I know he and Coach Martinez are upgrades over Roof and Lolley. Yet our defense continues to flounder. They obviously made some bad decisions in the three categories I just pointed out regarding the offense. However I still believe it is not quite as bad and there is hope for the defense. However we do have serious problems.
First I agree with Acid Reign that "we've got way too much blue chip talent sitting on the bench on defense. I can't understand why, with the abysmal linebacker play we're getting on the field, that a speedy, huge talent like Kris Frost isn't playing."
I mean really how could he possible do any worse? Acid Reign points out later that Bates and Holland only had two solo tackles and that "This group is just not getting it done". Of course he also points out that "The secondary is a mess, too. Two of the most athletic, hard-hitting guys we've got, Robensen Therezie and Erique Florence, are sitting on the bench". It is then revealed officially today that Therezie is moving to be our third string running back (???).
Last but not least from Acid Reign as I have harped on over and over and over again about our defensive line... "We were again manhandled in the middle. When guys had a chance to make plays, they often could not make the tackle. I gave a passing grade due to a good rush off the edge. But when the other team decides to run an off-tackle play or a sweep, the ends pretty much universally get blown off the ball."
All these things were killing us last season and are still problems. How do we fix them? Short term it is tough. We are stuck and have to play a number of under performing individuals. However as I was reminded by a friend, we recruited these guys and they cannot all be busts. This is more on the coaches. It is past time for them to earn those enormous salaries they get.
At the very least we can as discussed above get the best talent on the field if for no other reason to get them ready so we have less problems next season. After that I guess all you can do is keep coaching and keep encouraging and hope something good happens. I know, it doesn't fill me with a lot of hope either.
Which leads us to long-term solutions... First, clean house and let Van Gorder bring in his guys at defensive line and linebacker. Second, recruit a lot of big linebackers and more tackles. Third, work more on tackling even though it increases the risk of injury. The second solution is easier said than done but the others are not.
THE LAST WORD
The buck stops with Chizik. This combined dumbness and under performance stops with him. This season is now almost guaranteed to be worse than last year with not too much too look forward to next year either. The program is on the brink of disaster. Chizik did a great job leading a team that included Cam Newton and a bunch of battle-hardened seniors recruited by Tommy Tuberville to a championship. It was similar to Terry Bowden doing a great job leading a bunch of battle-hardened juniors and seniors recruited by Pat Dye to a twenty game winning streak. However time always tells the story and some coaches are only good for that one good season or two. Bowden did a great job but then fell apart. Time told the story. Gene Chizik did a great job two years ago but now things look pretty bad. It is time for Chizik to steady the ship or like Bowden he will eventually be dumped overboard.
Growing up is hard to do. Every body goes through it and certainly every football player and team go through it. The Auburn offense especially Kiehl Frazier started the process last night. The young Auburn secondary did as well. It takes a different amount of time for everybody. We just have to hope these young Auburn players and the team as a whole grow up fast. Unfortunately last night Auburn ran into a Clemson team with a grown-up offense already especially quarterback Tajh Boyd and running back Andre Ellington. It resulted in a Clemson 26 Auburn 19 final score. Frankly Auburn was lucky All-American wide receiver Sammy Watkins was suspended or the game probably would not have been as close as it was. Clemson looked like they will have a good chance to defend their ACC crown. Their defense was not anything to write home about but their offense will be one of the best we see all season.
Here at STR I usually post my game reviews using "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" format though I stray from it occasionally. I will stick with it today as it really fits my thoughts on the game and yesterday in general...
THE GOOD
The Auburn offense. I could not get enough of that I-formation running with big Jay Prosch leading the way and the nice play action throws as well. I have been intensely curious to see what our new offense would look like and I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the formations we ran and the play calling for the most part. I thought Kiehl Frazier did a decent job for his first real game as a starter in a new offense. He obviously made a lot of mistakes but I saw glimpses of the player he could be. He showed he was the man for the job with his arm on the throws from the seven-step dropbacks. I also thought rookie tackles Greg Robinson and Avery Young played well for their first times out.
The player I may have been the most impressed with was Tre Mason. I was not on that bandwagon and was unsure of how good he was. I do not think he is as good as Michael Dyer but he proved he is a good running back. I really look forward to watching him running behind big Jay Prosch all season. Again, all these young guys are going to go through these growing pains but I see hope down the line. I see an offense that has a future and will help our defense. Unfortunately as I have to keep saying I think these guys will have to take their lumps as they are growing up.
I have only one real critcism of Loeffler and that is his not getting some of the other wide receivers involved. You cannot tell me we could not have run a few plays and got the ball to some of our other wide receivers. Clemson concentrated on Blake and Lutzenkirchen more and more as the game went on but Frazier continued to try and force it to them. YOU HAVE TO KEEP THE OTHER TEAM HONEST. You have to get some of your other wide receivers involved. It helps everyone and Auburn has supposedly recruited some good ones. Unfortunately the only play I remember to other wide receivers was Trovon Reed's horrific gaffe in the end zone. That play was huge as Auburn definitely should have had a touchdown there.
Also on the good side was Auburn's special teams play. Hopefully somewhere down the line Parkey, Clark and good coverage will help get us a big win.
THE BAD
The Auburn defense. The numbers speak for themselves... 528 total yards given up, 320 rushing yards given up with 230 of those yards coming from Andre Ellington, an almost 50% third-down conversion rate and 28 first downs. That is a Ted Roof-type performance. I knew the defense was not near as good as all the sunshine pumpers were saying but even I did not expect that. We pretty much saw a continuation of last year where our defensive tackles seemed invisible and our defensive ends rushed the passer well but did not help stop the run. We then saw our linebackers and secondary miss tackle after tackle after tackle...
I have had it, I would rather get players injured in pre-season practice and have a team that knows how to tackle. Auburn has not played good fundamental defense in so long I have almost forgotten what it looks like. I thought Coach Van Gorder would change some of this and I still have hope he will but he sure did not last night. The players played hard but that performance is just not getting it done. With the kind of defense Chizik wants to run you have to have penetration by the front four. We can rush the passer on long downs but we still get pushed around on short downs. I am really starting to wonder if that will change very much with this group of linemen.
On the positive side, again we will not see many offenses as good as Clemson. I look for a much better performance next week. However for us to even have a chance against some of the better teams on our schedule Auburn has to get a much better push up front and everyone has to tackle better. The two most important fundamentals in football are BLOCKING AND TACKLING and Auburn has not tackled good on defense in a very long time.
THE UGLY
The build up and slobbering over Bama after a good win against a mediocre Michigan team. Apparently, we really do not even need to play this season. We just need to crown Bama now and save everyone the trouble of even playing the season out. They are the greatest team ever under the greatest coach ever and are the greatest program ever. In fact lets just stop playing college football and crown Bama all-time National Champions. Also, I am confused who is the greatest coach now? Bear Bryant or Nick $aban?
I mean good night, Bama is a very good team and program right now but they do not even play for the national championship last year if Oklahoma State doesn't blow it against Iowa State in overtime. I would not think they will get their second chance this year if they lose to LSU. They have to travel to LSU this season and have a tough game at Arkansas as well. Why don't we play the season out first and keep the hyperbole to at least mildly nauseating?
THE LAST WORD
It is a rare season indeed where you play two of your biggest games in your first two games. The game against Mississippi State next week just got bigger. If Auburn is to have any chance at a winning season it must win at Starkville next week. On the other side, if Mississippi State and Dan Mullen is ever going to beat Auburn it is going to be this year. These two truths will collide at Scott Field in Starkville next week. I hope Gene Chizik realizes this and pulls out all the stops. A win against State on the road would be a huge boost for this young team. A loss on the other hand might prolong those growing pains...
