How has it come to this? I do not need to spend any time on going over the massive decline in recruiting under the last two coaches. We have hit that here ad nauseum. We do not need to go over last season again either. The question today is how did this season go off the rails so quickly? I think everyone including head coach Hugh Freeze agrees that turnovers are the top reason Auburn lost to Cal and Arkansas. However Hugh once again doubled down on his "scheme" after this game. He said he thought it was "really good". The obvious conclusion being it is all the quarterback's fault. I think most of us would counter that a good coach would minimize putting his quarterbacks if they are not that good in those situations. That is definitely what I think.
I just read an article this morning that really opened my eyes on this whole subject by Mr. Justin Lee of the Auburn-Opelika news. Here is the link for as long as it remains valid:
The stat that I did not know that Mr. Lee brings to our attention is this:
"Freeze hates interceptions, says you can’t win with them, yet the offense he runs yielded an SEC-worst 13 interceptions thrown last season, it yielded a 118th-in-the-country 15 at Liberty in 2022, and it yielded a 116th-in-the-country 15 at Liberty in 2021. The common thread through all 41 of these interceptions is not a quarterback, not a school, but what Freeze is doing."
WOW. I mean those are cold hard facts. You might can lead the league in interceptions and still win at Liberty but you certainly can NOT in the SEC. I guess somehow Freeze got lucky in his good seasons at Ole Miss with quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Chad Kelly? He then had former Auburn quarterback and current NFL starting quarterback Malik Willis for his best season at Liberty. The stats that Mr. Lee points out though for his more current teams tell the story of what happens without special quarterbacks. With that said, it is also a fact that good coaches adapt to their personnel. Why in the world do the "top level" football coaches that Auburn pays MILLIONS OF DOLLARS not understand this fact??????
I also have to say that I was wrong after reading these facts, if you do not have the quarterback and you do not have good pass protectors on the line you have the run the ball. It is football 101. It is the reason Gus Malzahn never had a losing record at Auburn. It wins a lot of these type games. The problem with Malzahn is you still have to develop your passing offense a little more and you cannot fail as badly as he did recruiting offensive linemen. Really quick on that subject, I am also reading a lot of "we should never have fired Gus" posts on Auburn web sites. That is not true and not the problem. Gus had been at Auburn for a decade and his performance and recruiting were declining. His time was definitely up. However I will agree you do not fire him unless all parties are in complete agreement on the next hire.
Back to our current team... The other prevailing question is why did Auburn not upgrade the quarterback position this offseason? I have asked that question as well but it doesn't matter, it was not done. Freeze coached the Alabama A&M game right, he got everyone involved and highlighted our wide receivers. However he should have called for a much more run-heavy game against Cal and against Arkansas helping his quarterback, offensive line, and defense. I thought in an earlier post he could throw a lot of short passes but it does not look like these quarterbacks are good enough to even do that. I want to see Auburn have a good passing game so bad especially after getting all these new wide receivers but I was wrong. However I am not a man making millions of dollars for my coaching expertise.
Looking back now, any good football coach should know this. Any good football coach should have known Auburn would have to run the ball and shorten the games to have a chance against anybody any good. You then look to run up those passing stats in your few cupcake games. Auburn had to win these games. There are too many losses that everybody knows are coming. The wide receivers will still be important for when you do have to pass but it is obvious now that the Auburn offense was nowhere near capable of having a good passing game. Also Auburn's proud football history is pretty much based on these tenets. Again I want to have a great passing game but Auburn football success has mostly been about running the ball and playing good defense. I think head coach Hugh Freeze needs a history lesson. Also his new super expensive running backs coach who we ran Cadillac Williams off for and who is also our offensive coordinator needs to fix the fumble problem RIGHT NOW.
Speaking of history, this loss pretty much guarantees another losing season which would push Auburn's current streak of losing seasons to FOUR. I was looking back to see when was the last time that happened? Auburn had five losing seasons in a row from 1946 to 1950 culminating in the hire of Shug Jordan. Auburn went almost ten years in that same time period, 1944 to 1952, without a winning season. I sure hope Auburn does not approach that kind of drought in the coming years. Back to the present, Auburn has one more game at home against Oklahoma before hitting the road the entire month of October against a lot of good teams. Head coach Hugh Freeze got one thing right in his post game press conference when he said that Auburn is facing a serious character test.
This team, this program is in a tough spot. Their backs are against the wall. Hope is in very short supply. The coaches are losing the fan base with awful performances like yesterday especially with 90,000 people suffering in the extreme heat and humidity to watch that game. Auburn will also be a big underdog in most of the remaining games... The answer though seems clear as I have been discussing in this post. I do actually hate to say it as I was berating and making fun of these people in my earlier posts this season. However again you just have to pick the best plan according to your talent to win games. At this point it doesn't matter if Auburn loses many of these young wide receivers to the portal. It is time to play Auburn football which is running the ball and playing the best defense you can.
On top of that, every member of the Auburn football program needs to go up to the press box and read a poster that hangs there (if it is still there). The poster lists Coach Shug Jordan's seven "D's of Success". I know it hung there in the late 80s and early 90s as my group of friends and I when we were students at Auburn would break into the stadium in the offseason and just sit up there. Coach Jordan lists the following attributes: discipline, desire to excel, determination, dedication, and dependability to start which are pretty self explanatory. Those five attributes are for all the time. His last two though I think were for times like this...
Desperation. How we perform under stress is often the ultimate indicator of success or failure.
Damn It Anyway. If your back is to the wall, you must reach deep down inside and do something.
As Coach Jordan said, “You’re not going to win by accepting overwhelming odds.”
https://www.thewareaglereader.com/2013/09/shug-jordan-elaborates-on-his-7-ds-of-success-damn-it/
WAR DAMN EAGLE IN SPITE OF IT ALL
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