THE GOOD
Byrum Brown I think will be a part of this section each week. Of course he will also probably be in the bad section as well but he is still Auburn's main playmaker. Both of Auburn's touchdowns this week were based on great plays by Brown. He made a great seven yard run through several Vol defenders on third and goal to put Auburn ahead in the first half. He then in the fourth quarter when all looked lost around him scrambled for 57 yards (with help from Tennessee's over pursuing defense) to put Auburn in position to score a touchdown on the next play on a nifty pitch-pass. That gave Auburn a chance to win in the fourth quarter which is huge for this Auburn team against anybody any good. Unfortunately he also missed several passes and threw two interceptions but we will cover that in the next section...
The Auburn defense played a great first half although Tennessee starting quarterback Faizon Brandon looked completely lost and scared to death. I mean I would also be pretty upset if I was a Tennessee fan that at this point in the Heupel regime they are trotting out a quarterback that unprepared. The Vols could barely complete a pass and gained no positive yards through the air with Brandon. In fact, he threw one swing pass well behind his receiver and then threw as ugly an interception as you can throw that gave Auburn a short field to get their first half touchdown. The Tiger defense then stacked the box and stopped the strong Vol running game... in the first half. Tennessee only had 87 yards rushing at halftime in addition to being scared and behind 7-3. Unfortunately the second half was much different...
THE BAD
Tennessee finished the game with 237 yards rushing with monster tailback DeSean Bishop accounting for 220 yards of that (!!!) and scoring THREE TOUCHDOWNS. The Vol offensive line and Bishop simply bludgeoned the Auburn defense much like Florida did a few weeks ago. Auburn seemed helpless against the onslaught even knowing Tennessee was not going to throw much. Tennessee backup quarterback George Macintyre did also help steady the ship and hit just enough passes to get the Vols through. As bad as Heupel's coaching was in the first half it was impressive watching him shift to and stick with heavy run formations. If the teams were switched would Alex Golesh have done the same thing? I do not think so but back to the Auburn defense. The problem is well documented, the line is weak. The problem is not going away and it is the reason Auburn has not and will not stop anybody any good.
The problem is the same on the other side of the ball. It is in fact even worse. This is one of the worst, if not the worst offensive line I have ever seen at Auburn. As always I know these are some good guys who are working hard but they are just not good enough to play in the SEC. Auburn did have a few good runs and it makes you wonder if things would be better if Auburn went heavy like Tennessee did "running the piss out of the ball" as Golesh promised in his opening presser? The Tigers cannot pass. Brown averaged under five yards a pass and rarely has time to throw and does not look comfortable in the pocket when he does. I think Auburn would be much better served to run the ball and the clock and shorten the games. However Golesh and his boys refuse to deviate from the hurry-up and spreading the field most of the time which is making Auburn's chances of winning any games look a lot worse.
THE UGLY
I believe I would be labelled a "negative alarmist" or something to that effect by calmer heads. Those people point out we already knew that Auburn was in a bad spot and no matter what anybody else says this was always going to be a tough rebuilding year. They say we have to give Golesh time. All of that is true to an extent however my response is the same as last week. It all comes down to whether Golesh can get a LOT of really good players to come to Auburn starting next year. I have coached multiple sports for almost 25 years. I have coached at every age level and currently coach at the high school level. I have not coached football but the principle is the same. The FIRST THING I look at for any team is how good my players are compared to the league I play in and then how can I put them in the best position to succeed.
I will deal with the latter first, I do not think as a coach Golesh is putting this team especially the offense in the best position to succeed. In fact he seems to value his system over doing that. His bad job with this offense which in turn is also hurting his defense is then ultimately hurting his MOST IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE and that is attracting GOOD FOOTBALL PLAYERS to come to Auburn NEXT YEAR. He is showing NO PROOF OF CONCEPT. I am as down as I have ever been in my life as an Auburn football fan because I do not think Auburn is going to be able to attract and bring in near enough good players to turn this disaster around and that is the BOTTOM LINE. Auburn may up the cash but their competitors for really good players will have just as much cash and more success to sell.
Auburn has finished the easy part of its schedule and now again face a murder's row of good teams with really good quarterbacks outside Arkansas and Samford. Arkansas also might not be a gimme depending on the state of the team after the beatdowns that are coming. Things are guaranteed to get worse as injuries inevitably follow a team struggling like this making things much tougher. Golesh's best chance to show something, to show that proof of concept, and sell his program was in the first part of this season and he failed. Stealing a quote from a friend after the game ended yesterday, Golesh can talk the talk (and my gosh he talks a lot) but at this point there is ZERO evidence that he walks the walk. I am not sure what else Auburn and Golesh can accomplish the rest of this season other than survive it.
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