Game 4 Review: Kick It

Auburn 18  LSU 13.  I was happy for the players and fans in the stadium last night.  It was also nice to break LSU's heart as well.  However, for me, I still believe 100% in everything I posted last week.  I still think Gus Malzahn is a bad offensive coach that will never challenge for another SEC title.  I still want him gone from Auburn but the point is moot.  He will be back next season.  It now looks like I should have stuck with my team preview predictions.  The SEC is just really bad this year.  Auburn with this defense could beat everyone else on their schedule except for Ole Miss and Bama.  The difference between a 6-6 and a 7-5 or 8-4 season will come down to Arkansas and Georgia.  Georgia looks really bad right now.  They will not score much on this defense which brings me back to last night...

THE GOOD
The Auburn defense and Daniel Carlson.  A defense that was completely humiliated last season by Leonard Fournette held LSU to 13 points and Fournette to only 16 carries for 101 yards.  Those were all hard earned yards as well.  I will say I was wrong about big bad strong LSU.  As I had stated before, I did not think we would win this game but the Auburn lines, offense and defense, matched LSU and clearly had the advantage the majority of the game.  My favorite part of the whole game was watching Carl Lawson bury LSU quarterback Danny Etling toward the end of the game.

I will say though that LSU's offense looked worse than Auburn's.  I think LSU fans are right about needing a change down there as well.  Miles like Malzahn has shown he cannot recruit and develop a quarterback too.  This latest guy, Etling, looked tentative and scared throughout most of the game.  I was actually pretty shocked he was able to get LSU in position to have a chance to win the game.  There is no doubt though after last season's awful game that slowing down Leonard Fournette is not easy and the Auburn defense did that and avenged last year's awful showing.

Luckily Auburn had a kicker that could make the defense's work stand up since the offense was unable to put it in the end zone.  Daniel Carlson tied an Auburn record and booted six field goals last night.  That too is not easy.  He makes it look a lot easier than it is.  He hit field goals from various lengths and angles and nailed all of them.  Of course it kind of makes you wonder why Malzahn did not kick his field goals in previous losses this season where he went for fourth down conversions before he had to?  Regardless, Carlson is awesome and is already one of the best kickers in Auburn history and might wear the crown as the best by time he leaves.

THE BAD
Again this is pretty much the whole season, the good is the defense and the bad is the offense.  There was great effort on the offensive side of the ball and some pretty good performances by the players.  The offensive line had their best game of the season, Sean White played well and Kerryon Johnson looks like a star in the making.  Unfortunately bad play calling will continue to drag these guys down as Auburn runs up the middle over and over and over again.  Also Auburn ran the ball 50 times and threw it half that.  Finally the trademark of all Gus Malzahn teams, the absolute certain run up the middle after completing a big pass. 

On top of that, Auburn's red zone woes are becoming almost comical.  It sure looks like Gus Malzahn has removed the short slant or even the fade pass from Auburn's playbook.  It is just unbelievable.  All he tries are runs up the middles, screens and trick plays near the end zone.  Shockingly they do not work and almost came back to bite Auburn last night.  Why doesn't Malzahn use Franklin near the goal line like Terry Bowden did with Pat Nix and Dameyune Craig back in the day?  The biggest problem though is just not being able to call a straight quick-shot passing play and convert.

Auburn was lucky the defense played so well and held a big time program like LSU under 20 points.  That is not a realistic regular path to winning.  The most you can expect out of a good defense against a good team is to hold the other team to around 20 points.  The offense has to score more for Auburn to win big games.  Nothing changed last night from all the other conference games Auburn has lost the last two-plus years at home except the defense holding the team to under 20 points.  Auburn will not return to being a championship contender till the offense improves and that will not happen under Malzahn unless Auburn somehow gets the same type personnel they had in 2013.

THE UGLY
I am not sure how else to say this but here goes... LEAVE THE !@#$%&! TREES ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!  Good grief many other schools in this country have natural landmarks and monuments and do not have these problems.  Why is it that every scumbag loser in the southeast has to take his shot at destroying the Toomer's trees?  I mean Auburn finally wins their first conference game at home in over two years and everyone has to wake up to see one of the Toomer's trees on fire???  Enough is enough, again LEAVE THE !@#$%&! TREES ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!! 

THE LAST WORD
Auburn gets homecoming next week and then Mississippi State.  Auburn is better than State this season but you never know with this offense.  However short of another Clemson-like offensive coaching job Auburn should win.  The Tigers then get a week off to prepare for Arkansas at home.  Those are two winnable conference games even for Gus Malzahn.  He can turn down the heat and have all the sunshine pumpers back singing his praises with those two wins.  I think it will happen if the defense keeps playing this well and the offense plays as hard as it did last night in spite of the horrific play calling.

Game 3 Review: DONE

Texas A&M 29  Auburn 16.  Gus Malzahn is DONE at Auburn barring some kind of miracle.  Last night's debacle is just the latest in two and half years of bad coaching by Malzahn.  The stats speak for themselves.  Auburn led by Malzahn has not won an SEC game at home since beating South Carolina in 2014.  Auburn has lost six conference games in a row at home starting with Texas A&M’s last visit in 2014. Counting Clemson two weeks ago, Auburn has lost seven straight at home to Power 5 conference teams.  That is behind only Colorado nationally. In that space of time, Auburn has lost 10 out of 12 games in conference overall.

It is absolutely unacceptable and the guy deserves to be fired.  I also do not want to hear us being lambasted in the national media for doing it.  Auburn is not hard on coaches and has never fired one too soon except maybe if the coup has succeeded in 2003.  Terry Bowden deserved to be fired at the time he was.  He had the worst recruiting class in Auburn history in 1998 and had turned off every high school coach in the state.  Tommy Tuberville deserved to go in 2008 as it was obvious he just did not have the drive or stamina anymore to recruit especially against Nick $aban.  Gene Chizik obviously deserved to go after the 2012 abomination.

NONE of those guys got an early hook.  They all got their full chance to prove themselves and while all had good seasons they faltered and had to go.  Time told the story as it has with Malzahn.  He came in 2013 and with the biggest stroke of luck ever he inherited a team that perfectly fit his power-running-out-of-the-shotgun read-option Wing-T offense.  He had some of the best blockers in Auburn history and was successful.  The problem as I have documented over and over since then in this blog is that he has continued to call the exact same offense without that kind of personnel.

He has also over time shown he will run on first down over 70% of the time, tip his plays by his substitutions and worst of all throw the ball as little as possible.  We now see he absolutely cannot field a competent passing game or develop a quarterback.  He stated again last night as he has hundreds of times since he was hired that we are ONLY AND ALWAYS SHALL BE A "RUN-BASED PLAY-ACTION TEAM".  So if Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley came to Auburn now they would never do anything because he will only allow Auburn to ever be a "run-based play-action team".  The guy simply refuses to change his offense regardless of his personnel and on top of that he is ridiculously predictable.

He has had plenty of time.  He is never going to change.  He needs to go, period.  I have never seen a more stubborn human being in my life.  Pat Dye who was as ground-based as you get even changed his offense to include a competent passing game (and won three SEC titles) but not Gus.  He just continues to do the same stupid things over and over again.  It is maddening to watch.  He has reduced me to watching the games in stony silence with a lot of sighs as I watch the same stupid plays again and again and again.  I mean how ironic is it that we finally hire an "offensive" head coach and he turns out offenses this bad?

This is no knee-jerk reaction.  This is no Monday morning quarterbacking.  This season, last season and the end of the one before that have been dismal failures.  Lets be straight, the Texas A&M team that came into Jordan Hare last night was no juggernaut.  I firmly believe Auburn actually has a better team and more talent.   On top of that, the Aggies have a coach that has done about as many dumb things as Gus.  They have faltered the last two seasons as bad as Auburn.  Kevin Summerlin is at about the same spot Gus is and he was on the road (!!!).  I think the Texas A&M will still lose several games before this season is over.

So what was the difference last night?  The difference was Texas A&M HAD A COMPETENT PASSING GAME.  It is that simple.  The Aggies made big plays and conversions in the passing game and Auburn did not.  You could not predict every play Texas A&M ran.  Summerlin went out and got him a quarterback and coached him up and Gus did not.  The Auburn defense did a pretty good job slowing down Texas A&M but Aggie quarterback Trevor Knight made the big play when he needed to including a huge fourth down conversion pass in traffic when it was still just 16-10.

Again though just like just about every other game in this horrible streak the Auburn defense played good enough to win.  They held the Aggies to under 20 points till the fourth quarter.  Last year, in the home losses coach Will Muschamp's defense did the same thing.  It is all on Malzahn's horrible offensive coaching.  Last night his defense gave the Auburn offense every chance in the third quarter forcing Texas A&M into three three-and-outs and giving the offense great field position on two of those drives.  Any kind of decent offense at home has to come up with the some points during that stretch especially when they have the best field goal kicker in college football.

I guess I am more upset about this game than most because I thought and still think this was a winnable game for Auburn.  Again I believe Auburn has more talent and was at home.  This was a game that had to be won and I thought even Gus could do it in my preseason preview but it seems I overestimated him.  Unlike the majority of people I thought this game was the big game in this two game stretch.  I never thought Auburn would beat LSU.  Again Les Miles has beaten Auburn 8 out of 11 times and LSU has the big strong defense that usually makes the Malzahn offense look worse.  Add to those facts that former Auburn offensive coach Dameyune Craig defected to LSU in the offseason and it does not look good.  Craig spent three years on Malzahn's staff and knows Auburn's offense inside and out.  It is already predictable but anything else LSU needed to know would be provided by Craig.

Speaking of Craig, who are all the Auburn fans, who have talked about what a horrible receivers coach he was, going to blame the drops from last night on?  Also I would like to point out that many Auburn fans completely overreacted to Auburn's "big win" over Arkansas State.  Please remember it only matters when you play good on offense against a decent team not a Sun Belt team.  I was completely disgusted by every Auburn site just completely making a 180-degree turn and declaring Auburn was awesome after beating Arkansas State.  I kept saying to everybody I talked to, lets see some of that against Texas A&M and then I will get excited.

Well what is going to happen the rest of the season?  At this point I think we lose to LSU, Ole Miss and Bama.  Gus still has a slight chance to cobble out a couple of wins against Arkansas and Georgia.  It is not likely but it is possible as neither of those teams are offensive heavyweights.  That would be the miracle that might save him for one more season but to me it will just be extending the misery.  I think a large amount of season ticket holders will leave if Malzahn is retained because no one can stand watching this terrible offense anymore.  Auburn needs to clean house at the end of the season and that starts in the athletic director's office where all this started.

Game 2 Review: Bounce Back

Auburn 51  Arkansas State 14.  After getting absolutely roasted by sports writers, analysts and bloggers from all over the country and even from the Auburn sunshine pumpers after the Clemson debacle last week, Gus Malzahn was able to at least pull it together and get his offense ready for Arkansas State.  Considering some of his previous awful-to-watch wins over outmanned non-conference foes, this one was pretty good.  However all this proved was Auburn is a lot better than Arkansas State.  Gus still showed all of his old tendencies that I have detailed many times in this blog.  I still think his offensive philosophy is flawed but for one night at least he can feel good.

He can probably still get Auburn some conference wins running what he did last night and that that is the only way he is going to be able to prove anything.  His offensive philosophy is ridiculously run-heavy and predictable but the SEC is terrible this season.  The SEC East is a complete joke and that does not look like it will change anytime soon.  Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt are awful and the same Mississippi State that lost to South Alabama last week smoked South Carolina (and Will Muschamp) and Georgia barely beat Nicholls State (???) .

The West is better but just about everyone has problems.  Therefore again I think Auburn should be able to scratch out some wins even with Gus' flawed offensive philosophy if he can avoid any more Clemson-like meltdowns.  However he has to beat Texas A&M next week at home.  He loses that one and things look a lot tougher.  It is an absolutely huge game for both coaching staffs involved.  Both have been under fire and Aggie coach Kevin Summerlin has been a bigger flop than Malzahn after losing Johnny Manziel. 

LSU got beat up about as much as Auburn last week and it seems like every Auburn fan is now counting that as a win in two weeks but I would predict caution.  Les Miles is a complete kook but he has pretty much owned Auburn.  Auburn has only beat Miles three times in eleven tries.  THREE OUT OF ELEVEN...  Auburn can beat LSU because they are obviously "pass-challenged" as well but LSU has the defense that can stop Auburn's predictable offense.  So back to last night's game, yes while Gus threw a few on first down early and cut down on subs early it was still predictable a lot of the time. 

However Sean White, Kerryon Johnson, Kamryn Pettway and the offensive line were absolutely brilliant against the Red Wolves.  White had all day to throw and could run at his leisure.  Johnson and Pettway ran through and around Arkansas State all night.  The offensive line was a juggernaut even when running out of three to four wide receiver formations.  The wide receivers made good catches including one outstanding catch.  Auburn ran up 700 yards of offense.  Auburn absolutely dominated Arkansas State.

It was great and sorely needed but I do not think it erases all the problems of the last year and a half.  The only thing that will start to do that is big conference wins.  I will have to see it to believe that Malzahn will be balanced on first down consistently.  I will have to see it to believe it that Malzahn will not sub as much.  It is obvious that Auburn will continue to try and power run out of three wide receiver sets because Auburn just lost another tight end.  Everyone's great tight end hope, Landon Rice, just quit the team.  Auburn is back down again to the inexperienced Jalen Harris.  I just have never seen a great Auburn run game with out a good to great tight end.

Last night was also great but painful watching some of these good young wide receivers that will never be used to their full extent. Auburn made some great plays in the passing game but... Malzahn still threw the ball less than 25 times and ran the ball over 60 times.  I thought as always he missed a golden opportunity to work more on the passing game especially with John Franklin.  The guy sorely needs real-game passing reps.  Auburn had the first team out of the game.  IT IS NOT RUNNING UP THE SCORE PASSING WITH SUBS.  I mean come on!  I do not understand how it is better sportsmanship to bludgeon a team for almost 500 yards rushing than it is to throw a few passes with subs. 

There is not much more to say about last nights game.  It was a good bounce back after one of the worst offensive games in Auburn history but the next two weeks could tell the story of this Auburn season.

Game 1 Review: OFFENSIVE

Clemson 19  Auburn 13.  Wow.  I mean WOW.  I had already come to the conclusion that Gus Malzahn can only coach one way and is incapable of change but last night he even surprised me in how bad the team looked offensively.  In fact I have chosen the word "offensive" to be the theme of this review because our offense is in a word... offensive.  Here is part of the dictionary definition:

OFFENSIVE:
1
:  of or relating to an attempt to score in a game or contest; also :  of or relating to a team in possession of the ball or puck
2
:  giving painful or unpleasant sensations :  nauseous, obnoxious
3
:  causing displeasure or resentment

I can say for sure that watching the Auburn offense flounder around last night was "giving painful or unpleasant sensations".  It made me "nauseous" and it certainly caused "displeasure" and "resentment".  I have seen a LOT of bad offenses in my 40+ years of cheering for Auburn but I do not think I have ever seen a worse game plan or worse play calling by a coach in all of that time.  It sure looked like Gus Malzahn had lost his mind.  I do not even know where to start.  The quarterback rotation?  Having our smallest wide receiver make 3 runs to open the game?  Not using Kerryon Johnson in the first quarter?  The idiotic trick plays?  The awful blocking?  Well I will stick with my usual format and start with...

THE GOOD
Obviously this is the defense.  Wouldn't you know it?  Auburn fields it's best defense in a decade and the offense hits rock bottom when we have a supposed offensive coach.  You cannot make this stuff up.  As I write this I am just shaking my head...  back to last night though.  Auburn played it's finest defensive game in a long time last night.  Those guys played their guts out and they kept Auburn in the game till the end.  They continually got stops and gave it back to the offense in good field position.  

The defensive line got the best of Clemson's veteran offensive line most of the night except in the pass rushing department where Clemson was able to slow them down or Deshaun Watson was able to slip through.  With that said though Auburn still held one of the best offenses in the country to way below their usual output in every phase of the game.  The Auburn defense held Clemson to only 150 yards rushing on 44 attempts for only 3.4 yard average per carry.  They held Clemson below 250 yards passing and most importantly they held Clemson to just 20 points (if they had made their last PAT).  

Auburn should win any game at home with those defensive stats.  It is completely unacceptable to lose when the defense is playing that well.  Clemson wide receiver Mike Williams had 174 yards receiving and did seem to make the big catch every time Clemson needed it but overall the Auburn defense got the job done.  There is no way they were going to completely shut down Clemson.  It is just makes Auburn's pathetic offense look that much worse.  If Auburn had any of the defenses from the last 8 years playing last night the score would have been 60-13.

I saw good defensive play from all of the Auburn defense last night.  The defensive line was nasty and lived up to expectations outside of pass rushing but I believe that will improve.  I saw more plays out of the linebackers last night than I have seen the previous 3 or 4 years.  Props to Deshaun Davis, that guy was fired up!  I thought the secondary hung in there and fought hard.  Tray Matthews had that one really dumb personal foul penalty but played a great game otherwise.  Carlton Davis lost a few battles but I still think he is one of the best.  Rudy Ford had a bunch of plays as well but man I wish he would have held on to that interception early that hit him in the hands.

Again, you can nit pick some details but the defense got it done, the offense on the other hand was...

THE BAD AND THE UGLY
My constant question last night was wondering if Gus Malzahn had lost his mind.  At times it was like he was trying to put Auburn in the worst position possible to lose the game.  On top of calling one of the worst offensive games anybody has ever seen he had the temerity to get testy with reporters asking him about his ridiculous quarterback rotation.  This guy is something else.  He is paying paid over FOUR MILLION dollars to coach this team and has had a year to get ready for this game and THAT GAME PLAN is what he came up with???  Literally I do not think it is possible to do much worse.  I think anybody who has watched football for more than five minutes could have done better.  What in the heck was Malzahn thinking??????

I guess lets start with the ridiculous quarterback rotation.  Gus can be as belligerent as he wants in the post-game presser but rotating quarterbacks like that has never worked and will never work and everyone knows it.  It is not an opinion, it is a fact proven throughout a hundred years of football.  The only question is why in the world one of the highest paid coaches in college football would think it would work?  Auburn started with Sean White and the supposed "starter" played one series (a three and out) and threw one pass in the first quarter.  The next drive saw John Franklin enter the game and run another three and out.  Also these first two drives featured three runs from Stanton Truitt and none from Kerryon Johnson.  

The next drive saw Jeremy Johnson enter the game as the third quarterback in as many series.  Johnson completed three passes and led Auburn to a field goal.  Johnson returned the next drive and went three and out and got sacked twice.  White returned for Auburn's fifth possession of the night and presided over another three and out.  Somewhere in there Chandler Cox took a turn as quarterback as well.  What good could possibly come from putting Chandler Cox at quarterback?  So by halftime Auburn had four three and outs in five possessions and 38 yards of total offense with Kerryon Johnson only getting five touches. 

Auburn would open the second half with yet another three and out before moving into Clemson territory on the next drive behind a couple of big Kerryon Johnson runs and a penalty.  Johnson would then throw an ugly interception that looked a lot like last year.  The defense then intercepted Clemson and gave the offense the ball at the Clemson 35 yard line.  Auburn would then get close on a big 16 yard completion from Sean White to Marcus Davis but would stall out in the red zone as the coaches decided to go for it on 4th and 1 at the five yard line (in the THIRD quarter) rather than get the points.  This drive also featured some of the bizarre quarterback switching as they took White out after hitting the big pass and put in Johnson (???).

Also, as Gus Malzahn has always done, every single time Auburn completes a pass Malzahn calls a run up the middle the next play.  Only one time last night outside the last desperation drive did Auburn throw another pass after a completed pass.  The other team simply never has to worry about consecutive pass completions against Auburn and if I am writing it here then it is safe to say it is common knowledge among Auburn's opponents.  Gus Malzahn has to be the most predictable coach I have ever seen.  I no longer give Gus near as much credit for 2010, other coaches had to have been involved, he never would have run that offense like that as head coach.  

Back to the game last night, after getting stopped near the goal line, the Auburn defense forced another three and out and the offense got the ball back inside Clemson territory near midfield.  The offense would move into the red zone again on a big run by Kerryon Johnson and a Sean White pass to Ryan Davis (which was you guessed it followed by an inside run).  The drive would stall and Auburn would kick a field goal.  Clemson would then take it down for the winning touchdown.  Auburn would get the ball back and go on their only long drive of the night when wide receiver Kyle Davis caught an under thrown prayer from White for 43 yards (which was you guessed it followed by an inside run).

White would then be intercepted at the goal line when the Auburn brain trust decided again to go for it on fourth and goal at the 8 yard line.  So FYI the game would have been TIED after Clemson missed their PAT if Auburn had kicked chip shot field goals instead of going for it on 4th and goal twice.  Again, it is proven football strategy (like not rotating quarterbacks) to always take the points when you are on your home field and your defense is playing well.  Do not go for it till you have to.  If Auburn had done this, the game might have gone to overtime.

After this latest failure, the defense would once again rise up and hold Clemson to three and out and give the offense the ball once again in good position at the Clemson 36 yard line.  I have already read a lot of nonsense from these homer Auburn sites about how the offense picked it up in the second half.  I guess they did somewhat but in my opinion it was mainly because the defense kept stopping Clemson and giving them awesome field position.  So in other words, the little success on offense was basically a credit to the defense.   

Back to the game, the offense would finally score a touchdown on a Kerryon Johnson run but only after a Clemson roughing-the-passer penalty after they had stopped Auburn on 3rd and 10.  Clemson would get the ball back and grind out a 10 play 60 yard drive against the tiring Auburn offense aided by a clutch Deshaun Watson to Mike Williams completion on 3rd and long.  Clemson coach Dabo Swinney then chose to give it up on downs with only a six point lead rather than kick a field goal to seal it when he has a great kicker.  Clemson won the game but what a terrible call.  This decision could have cost Clemson the game when they could have easily won it with a field goal.  Obviously the ghosts of the "Kick Six" were swirling around in Dabo's head.

Auburn would then get the ball back with 40 seconds left.  Sean White would then complete three passes to put Auburn in Clemson territory with 10 seconds left.  White would then chuck two passes into the end zone and both were close.  I mean it would have been one of the most ridiculous wins in college football history if Auburn had grabbed one of those passes.  I mean winning a game against the #2 team in the country with maybe the worst offensive coaching I have ever seen???  It would have been unbelievable.  Of course the next thought is what if Malzahn had just started Sean White or Jeremy Johnson and left him in the game and just had a vanilla somewhat balanced game plan?  

I think Auburn might have won the game.  Instead the Auburn nation is left to wonder what if about the game and wonder if Gus Malzahn will muster any common sense at all with his game planning and play calling.  I mean I left it out in my description of the second half above that in those drives there were a bunch more quarterback switches.  John Franklin came in to hand off the ball to Kerryon Johnson several times.  Jeremy Johnson made a few more appearances as well as Chandler Cox and Kerryon Johnson at the quarterback position.  It just does not make any sense.  It is just bad coaching. 

It was not just the quarterback rotation.  Why in the world did we have Stanton Truitt running the ball to start the game?  The guy is 5-9 and 185 pounds!?!  Why did we wait so long to start using Kerryon?  Where was Kamryn Pettway?  What was the deal with all the stupid trick plays?  Was our whole plan to try and trick our way to a win?  It is all so dumb.  Why waste valuable practice time on Chandler Cox at quarterback for a play that is never going to make much?  Sean White can hand off to any of our running backs and make the same yardage?  Again is Malzahn completely off his rocker?

Finally, I mentioned it in the preview and I think all knowledgeable Auburn fans were worried about our new tackles.  It sure looks like that worry was well founded.  Robert Leff and Austin Golson got their butts kicked most of the night.  It was painful to watch early on.  Of course like last year there was no tight end to help out most of the time and it appeared that Auburn tried to run out of a three-wide set most of the night against a stacked blitzing Clemson defense.  Stupid!  I did not see many good blocks by Cox or Pettway either.  What is Malzahn doing?  What the heck have these guys been working on in practice all year?

THE LAST WORD
This game obviously raises questions about the rest of the season for the team and especially the offense not to mention Malzahn's long term viability as head football coach.  You have to wonder about Malzahn when he stubbornly states they might actually continue this quarterback revolving door.  I mean really?  Fortunately for Auburn the SEC is down this year as I thought in my preview and was proven this weekend.  Auburn will get some wins and look better against some of these teams but will also have a loss or two more than I thought.  

Again Gus Malzahn has averaged being a 7-5 as a head coach and coordinator at Auburn outside of 2010 and 2013.  He is looking to hit right on that from where I sit.  As for his long term viability as Auburn head coach, other than defending his awesome game plan he also made his favorite reference and that is to call Auburn a "run-based play-action offense".  It is obvious now in year four that being a "run-based play-action offense" is all we will ever be under Malzahn.  He has pretty much shown he is unwilling and incapable of changing his offensive philosophy at all.

The only way he can be successful is to have the personnel to run his shotgun Wing-T offense like he did in 2013.  He has proven he can NOT be successful any other way.  Therefore from this vantage point I do not think he will be very successful the rest of his career at Auburn because I do not see the stars aligning personnel-wise like they did in 2013 anytime soon.  Malzhan has the rest of this season to prove me wrong but after last night's offensive showing things do not look promising.  As I have written in this blog many times, the problems started in 2014 but his offense last season and now to start this season is simply offensive to anyone who believes in a balanced offense and a competent passing game.