Every week, I find myself at a loss for words to adequately describe this team. I have watched or listened to just about every Auburn football game for over 30 years. I have coached in youth sports for almost a decade. With that said, I have never seen anything like this. The game yesterday was a roller coaster ride of emotions to say the least. This team just does not fit in the standard football axioms. It is hard to make common sense judgements on this team because at Auburn, except for maybe a short time under Pat Sullivan, defense has always been the foundation for championships. For the record, we did not win a championship under Pat Sullivan even though he only lost five regular season games.
The football axioms also say that one-man teams will eventually be stopped and you cannot win a championship as one. Cam Newton continues to defy the odds on that one as well. 65-43??? Are you kidding me??? I never thought I would see that score in a regular season Auburn game ever. Again, I have never seen anything like yesterday, good and bad. I am not sure I have ever been through a game that just wrung me out like this game. I went from cheering like crazy to cursing the refs to cursing our defense to catatonic in my chair. Well I am not sure anyone can adequately "break down" the game yesterday but I can give some strong opinions on several parts of the game...
THE GOOD (this spot reserved for Cam Newton)
Yes, I think this is Mr. Newton's permanent parking place. He put on another dominating performance yesterday rushing for almost 200 yards and passing for almost 150 including a touchdown pass to Emory Blake. He had three touchdowns on the ground highlighted by his last one where he went flying over the defense into the end zone. Ontario McCalebb's touchdown was a result of Arkansas over compensating to try and stop Newton. As always, the guys in the trenches made it possible. Lee Ziemba, Mike Berry, Ryan Pugh, Byron Isom and Brandon Mosley have continued to excel since the South Carolina game. Mario Fannin put in his best day of the season although that was a fumble at the goalline. The wide receivers also made some big plays at crucial times with only one ugly drop that I remember.
For the most part though it was Newton making play after play. The guy is one of the best running backs in the country but he is also a good passer. He is accurate and throws a great ball. He does not make many mistakes and has a knack for doing the right thing at the right time. I know some of that is Malzahn guiding things in the background but a lot of it is Newton. Kudos to Malzahn and Chizik for not just stubbornly running "the system" as many other coaches would do but realizing Newton is a once-in-a-lifetime player and we must adapt to him. He is the best player in the nation. I do not think it is even close and I do not say things like that lightly. He should be the frontrunner for the Heisman right now.
Also moving into "The Good" section this week is the special teams. It is great to have them in after so many horrible moments over the last two years. In fact the special teams were also not just good but helped change the game for Auburn. The blocked punt and 99 yard kickoff return were some of the biggest moments of the game. I cannot remember the last time that Auburn blocked a punt against a good opponent. The kickoff was even bigger as Arkansas had seized the momentum at that point. On top of these great plays were Wes Byrum converting all of his field goals and great kickoff coverage.
THE BAD THE UGLY PART #1
That was maybe the worst called game I have ever seen. The refs could get nothing right. The obvious... yes it appeared Fannin fumbled on the goalline and the Arkansas guy did not however since the refs called it wrong on the field there was not enough evidence to overturn. HOWEVER, I still think things came out more than EVEN. It started out with a phantom holding call on Lee Ziemba that killed a big play and one of our drives. First it was not holding and second with all the holding that goes on in SEC games, that is the play you call a hold? Also, Arkansas passed all day long and yet they did not get one holding penalty called on them that I remember. Second the pass interference call on the play Mallett got hurt was obviously wrong and it gave Arkansas an easy touchdown. Third, Arkansas went for it on fourth down on their touchdown drive before halftime or maybe it was in the third quarter. The guy caught it but was down WELL SHORT of the marker and they got one of the most ridiculous spots I have ever seen. Somehow that one survived replay and spots are usually easy call. That bad call also led to an Arkansas touchdown. Finally, on one of Arkansas` other touchdown throws the wide receiver threw the Auburn defender on the ground. I am usually not one to complain about the refs but yesterday was about the worst I have ever seen.
THE UGLY PART #2
I find it comical that the post game reaction is that the defense "rose up" in the fourth quarter. I mean come on. The Arkansas guy was down on that fumble even though we deserved the call as I stated above. I do not think our defense can take a whole lot of credit for that. The Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson had all day to throw (as was the case the whole game) on both those interceptions. He just finally made some bad decisions. I do not think our defense can take much credit for that. If they pressure him and he makes a mistake I would give credit. The Auburn defensive performance was about the worst I have ever seen from an Auburn defense. It took much of my joy from the win. I can't think of the adjective to describe how bad they were. Bad, awful, terrible, disgusting, revolting, etc... do not seem to cover it. Yes we are 7-0 and seem to keep winning but ask Bama and Ohio State how fast things can turn around and they most likely will for Auburn. I do not see how any team can play defense this bad and win a championship even with a Cam Newton.
The basics of football are blocking and tackling. We are doing the blocking but I have never seen worse tackling in my 30 years of watching Auburn football. Case in point was our senior linebacker Craig Stevens who is a four year starter simply putting an arm out as an Arkansas running back or wide receiver ran straight past him. Arkansas receivers just ran wild after they caught the ball as Auburn defenders slipped off them or simply fell down as they ran past them. Auburn would not commit to pressuring the quarterback or jamming wide receivers so Bobby Petrino could empty his playbook and call whatever he wanted. WHAT IS THE POINT of playing conservative defense when the other team is scoring at will on big plays??? That is the only point of playing that kind of defense! Ted Roof is the worst defensive coordinator I have ever seen and he is being enabled by Chizik. Roof is also not even coaching his own position well as our linebackers miss more tackles than anyone.
Chizik was able to run this type of defense in 2004 when he had great pass rushers at both ends in Stanley McClover and Quentin Groves. All "Cover 2" defenses that have been hugely successful have a Dwight Freeney or a Charles Haley at defensive end and they can get pressure on the quarterback. WE DO NOT HAVE THAT. We do not have anyone even close. If you are an offensive team and you do not have great pass rushers YOU HAVE TO GAMBLE. Case in point would be the New Orleans Saints last year. They did not have great pass rushers so they gambled and blitzed a lot and were able to be good enough to win a Super Bowl. If tackling is the first fundamental of defense, pressuring the quarterback against a passing team has to be #2. You simply have to pressure the quarterback. You have to shorten the window the quarterback has to make a decision and in doing so he is more likely to miss the pass or make a mistake. The coach across the state has created his legend doing this. I understand picking the "Cover 2" as your defense but I do not understand adjusting your strategy when you are getting lit up like a Christmas tree by the other team's backup quarterback.
I do not see how these coaches justify what they are doing. The stats back it up. Last year's Auburn defense was one of the worst in Auburn history statistically. This year's version is right there with it as they gave up over 400 yards passing and almost 600 yards total (against mainly the back up quarterback). It is a complete embarrassment to play defense that bad. If we blitzed every play we would have gotten burned plenty but I firmly believe it would not have been near as bad. It also fires your defense up playing aggressive and not reacting all the time. It also shortens the other team's playbook. It was disgusting to me how many plays Arkansas called that had just about everyone going long because he knew the quarterback would have time.
AROUND THE SEC
The SEC East is playing really bad right now. South Carolina, a week removed from knocking off #1 Bama, loses to Kentucky and Florida goes down to Mississippi State at home. Georgia meanwhile is starting to come around and goes to Kentucky this next week. The SEC East race is wide open as South Carolina still has to play Arkansas and go to Florida. Florida maybe a weak team compared to the last few years but make them a big underdog and they are still going to beat some people. It should be very interesting to see how things end up shaking out in the East.
Auburn takes center stage again next week against undefeated LSU. It will be one of most anticipated games in the conference, country and in the series overall. The positive for Auburn is LSU's offense has been one of the worst in the country. The negative is their defense has been one of the best. It will be Cam Newton's biggest challenge so far at Auburn. Will LSU be the team to finally slow him down or will he add another chapter to his growing legend? It could be another "one for the ages" just a week after this unbelievable game...
It has been almost 3 years since the last perfect Saturday. A perfect Saturday in our household consists of Auburn winning and Bama losing. The perfect scenario is obviously an Iron Bowl win but days like yesterday are pretty good too. Interesting enough, after the last perfect Saturday is when things went downhill for Auburn and we are still recovering despite our perfect record so far this year. Maybe this perfect Saturday will mark a milestone of the Auburn program coming back. As good as yesterday was let me throw out a healthy dose of objectivity before starting my "Cam Newton for the Heisman" campaign. Auburn is going to lose a couple of games. Auburn is a good team and they are a lot of fun to watch (on offense) but there are still some gaping holes in this team that I will cover below. Here is "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" from last night's game against Kentucky. Actually I am going to change things up a little this week and go with "The Great, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"...
THE GREAT
Cam Newton. I did not see Jimmy Sidle play when he put over 1000 yards rushing at quarterback and led Auburn to a 9-1 season and the Orange Bowl. I did see Dameyune Craig in all his games, all the home ones in person, and I never thought I would see a more dynamic mobile quarterback than him. However I will say that I now think Cam Newton is the best mobile quarterback I have ever seen at Auburn and one of the best I have ever seen period. It is hard to compare him to Pat Sullivan or Jason Campbell since they were drop back passers so I will not. He put on one of the best single game performances in Auburn history last night against Kentucky totalling almost 400 yards rushing and passing and running for 4 touchdowns. He nearly single handed led Auburn down the field for the winning field goal converting several tough 3rd down conversions. He is a true superstar. Yes he still isn't great at reading defenses and delivering the ball to the open guy sometimes but nobody is perfect. He does continue to improve in that area and at this point I would not put anything past him. Again, Urban Meyer must go home at night and cry after watching the Auburn highlights. He had this guy at his school and could have replaced Tim Tebow with Cam Newton. Thank goodness he came to Auburn.
THE GOOD
I use the phrase "nearly single handed" but that is a bit of hyperbole. It is never just one guy in football. Cam Newton does some amazing things but his veteran offensive line is working hard in the trenches to give him those holes and creases to run through. Never forget the guys in the trenches. We also probably would not have won the game last night without the other true All-SEC player on our team, Darvin Adams. Adams is one of the best receivers in the conference and he had another 100 yards receiving and several clutch catches. Dyer and Fannin showed flashes with some good runs last night. The mastermind behind it all, Gus Malzahn called a good game in the first half and at the end but lost his mind in the third quarter. Kentucky put nine men on the line of scrimmage and rather than burning them through the air Malzahn kept running Ontario McCallebb wide on first down. This continually put us in second and long and made us easier to defend. However overall the entire offense was very good last night.
NOTE: I want to put in a note about where I am coming from before I critique the rest of the team. I nearly always critique Auburn from the standpoint of what it will take to win the SEC West. In my opinion, every Auburn football team should have one goal starting the season and that is to win the West. Their goal will change to winning the SEC championship game if they achieve that. I do not care about polls or the mythical national championship. Winning a division and a championship game is objective. You cannot be cheated out of it. You earn it. With that in mind I do not think I am being too hard on a team that is now 6-0 and 3-0 in the SEC and considered one of the top ten teams in the country. This team is a legitimate contender right now for the SEC West title and I will critique them based on that high standard.
THE BAD
The Auburn special teams overall are bad. It has been two years of this. They do good things at times but overall they are bad. First, it is a mistake to jerk an experienced senior in Shoemaker and put in a freshman. Yes Shoemaker has underperformed a bit but a freshman will most likely make a huge mistake in a big game that could cost us the game. They got lucky when they pulled this with Clinton Durst. I do not think that will happen again especially since Clark averaged only 35 yards a kick last night. The punt return team has passed the point of even being a factor. Every Auburn fan simply hopes that Carr doesn't fumble. There is no longer any expectation of a big punt return. We simply hopes he does not fumble. That is bad special teams. The kickoff coverage which had been good was simply awful last night. Senior Wes Byrum got the job done but this staff inherited Byrum. I am really worried about next year and what this staff will do with a young kicker. Byrum got the job done but this staff inherited Byrum. I am really worried about next year and what this staff will do with a young kicker. Gene Chizik talks a lot about Auburn history and how important it is yet his teams seemingly ignore the tenets of good defense and special teams that Coach Jordan and Dye emphasized. With that said let us move to...
THE UGLY
Our defensive performance last night was ugly. There is no other way to say it. When your offense scores 31 points in the first half against KENTUCKY and you then have to win on a last second field goal YOU ARE PLAYING BAD DEFENSE. My gosh where do I start? I guess in the same place I start every week with our ridiculously extreme philosophy of playing soft coverage. I understand have an overall philosophy but you have to make adjustments based on the team you are playing. The Auburn defense has rose up several times but that is mainly because of the defensive line. Most teams will not throw short the entire night and that is how we finally stop them. That was not true of Kentucky. The three step drop and throw nullifies a defensive line. They were content to throw short to their play makers ALL NIGHT and it is not like that is a surprise. These guys have been around their forever. Their is plenty of film on Kentucky and their attack. Why did our defense not do more to take away Cobb and Locke??? Why did we never play tighter coverage? It is maddening to watch. I guess I can end on a positive. I think this strategy might have some success against Arkansas since they probably won't be content to throw short all day. Of course I still look for Ryan Mallett and Arkansas to roll up big numbers on us. We can only hope we get some crucial stops like in the Clemson and South Carolina games.
AROUND THE SEC
The game of the day was obviously South Carolina's upset of Bama. What a game. After Garcia's boneheaded safety and Bama made it 21-14 I thought Bama would come back and get it. I thought South Carolina would be just another team that fell apart under the pressure of trying to upset Bama. However after they got the ball back they drove the length of the field to make it 28-14. That was a championship big time drive. It could be one of the monumental points of this SEC season. This is definitely the best South Carolina game of Spurrier's tenure there. This is his biggest win so far and one of the biggest wins in South Carolina history. This is also South Carolina's best chance they might ever get of getting the East title especially with Florida's loss to LSU. Speaking of that game...
I still think the guy is crazy but Les Miles did some coaching this week and as always he made an insane call that worked out for him at the end of the game. I will give credit though because even if Florida is not as good as expected it is tough to win in the Swamp. It was another incredible ending for LSU and Miles. It should be another great one when Auburn and LSU get together this season. Elsewhere Georgia finally got an SEC win and Arkansas beat Texas A&M.
Looking ahead, Arkansas at Auburn is game of the week this week. This is the beginning of crunch time in the SEC West. Auburn, Bama and LSU all still control their destiny to win the SEC West. Arkansas will either get back in the picture or be eliminated against Auburn. Bama will look to get back on track against Ole Miss. I bet we see a LOT of Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson this next Saturday. I think that was Bama's biggest mistake against South Carolina. They only gave 17 carries to their dynamic duo. It appears that offensive coordinator Jim McElwain has been bitten by the spread bug. Bama is so big and strong, I think they are much more formidable playing a pro style offense running the ball and using play action. Elsewhere Georgia should get another SEC win against Vandy, Dan Mullen returns to Florida, South Carolina has to get back focused at Kentucky and LSU gets the week off against McNeese State.
The season after "Superman", Florida's Tim Tebow, left college football there was supposed to be a void. However "Superman" has returned and he is at Auburn. First, sorry for the lack of a review on Week 4, the South Carolina game. My son had an out-of-town tournament and that left little time for blogging. Fortunately, the Auburn blog nation pretty much said exactly what I wanted to say…
http://www.trackemtigers.com/2010/9/27/1713714/the-greatest-show-on-turf
http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2010/09/sunday-knee-jerk-stage-1-complete/
http://eyesonauburn.blogspot.com/2010/09/south-carolina-review.html
http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/scarbinsky_gators_would_be_muc.html
The bottom line is that Cam Newton is AWESOME. The guy is a big-time playmaker and as I said before he is on his way toward coming one of the best quarterbacks in Auburn history. The touchdown run and now legendary leap into the end zone was AMAZING. As the articles I linked to above said, this team would be 3-2 or even 2-3 without Newton. Anyone who disagrees just does not understand football and everything this guy is doing for this offense. His mere presence on the field now opens up things on the offense. Yes, again he is still not great at reading defenses quickly and delivering the ball but he is improving. Even with his weaknesses he is still the most dynamic playmaker at quarterback in the conference and such a BIG improvement over what we have had the last few years.
Our defense is up and down, our senior offensive line has done a decent job, McCallebb is good at what he does, Dyer looks like he has a ton of potential, Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachary are All-SEC and the rest of the wide receiver corps looks good but to borrow an old phrase, Cam Newton is “the straw that stirs the drink”. We would have lost to Clemson and South Carolina without Newton and might have lost to Mississippi State. The best thing Chizik and Co. have done so far is bring in Newton.
The South Carolina followed our typical script with a Malzahn offense and a Chizik/Roof defense. The offense comes out on fire, goes flat and then recovers. The defense comes out and gets roasted, adjusts and closes pretty strong. As long as these coaches are here, we will see a lot more of this. Credit where credit is due though, the win over South Carolina was a big win. Coaches and players deserve full credit for getting it done.
I do think Steve Spurrier made a huge mistake jerking Stephen Garcia out. He still had a chance to tie that game with Garcia. There was no way a freshman was going to step into that situation and not have something bad happen. I will also say I thought the South Carolina defense would be tougher. However again you have to give credit to our offensive line for helping us put up 334 yards rushing. Gene Chizik’s strategy of calling out the offensive line sure seemed to work. It was an extra bonus to see Mike Dyer win the battle of the rookie running backs and get his first 100 yard game.
On the flip side, it was also surprising to see our defense completely shutdown Marcus Lattimore. Of course we paid for it through the air. South Carolina’s monster wide receivers and most of all Alshon Jeffery definitely lived up to their billing. However we won the battle and the defense caused 4 consecutive turnovers in the fourth quarter to win the game. Obviously Auburn got a little lucky but you have to work hard to put yourself in the position to be lucky.
THE GOOD: Cam freaking Newton.
THE BAD: Steve Spurrier’s decision to bench Stephen Garcia.
THE UGLY: Arkansas blowing it against Bama before our game started.
Now to the Louisiana Monroe game. Not a whole lot to say. The whole thing was pretty good from the offensive fireworks to the complete clearing of the benches. I just have a couple of minor complaints. First, would this not have been a good game to work on covering receivers a little tighter??? I do not understand playing way off these guys and letting them drive three times into Auburn territory in the first half and letting them get a field goal. I think it would have been a good game to work on tighter more aggressive coverage. This confirms we will see this crap for the rest of the season. Second, Malzahn needs to resist the temptation of getting too cute. Our lone field goal only came after we messed around trying to throw passes down by the goal line. Just hand off to Dyer and let him finish it. Red zone efficiency was one of Malzahn’s weaknesses last year because of this. Sometimes you cannot trick the other guy, you just have to man up and run right at him.
THE GOOD: Just about everything except the two issues I just mentioned. A special kudos to Emory Blake for two huge plays the last two weeks...
THE BAD: Louisiana Monroe.
THE UGLY: Florida’s performance and Urban Meyer’s coaching against Bama. Wow, they are not wishing they still had Cam Newton are they?
AROUND THE SEC
Observations from the last two weeks…
1. As stated above I will never forgive Ryan Mallett and Arkansas for absolutely blowing a game they HAD. Bama is now winning by teams just falling apart from the pressure. It makes me physically SICK.
2. After the game against UAB you could plainly see once again that things are bad at Tennessee. Who knew it would get so much worse a week later… (more on that further down)
3. Mark Richt, like Phillip Fulmer and Tommy Tuberville before him, is hitting that decline that seems to hit all good coaches who are at a school for a decade. Nowadays especially in the SEC it is hard for even really good coaches to last at a school much more than a decade. Fulmer managed to slow his down and Tuberville speeded his up but the start of the decline was about the same. Richt’s decline seems to be more like Tuberville. It is happening fast. At 1-4 with a lot of good teams left on the schedule I am not sure that Richt can save himself. That said, Auburn still better look out.
4. I honestly cannot believe some of these guys get paid millions of dollars after watching the end of the Tennessee/LSU game. How many HISTORICALLY stupid calls can be made in 27 seconds? Let us count…
STUPID CALL #1 – Running the ball with only 27 seconds left in the game and no timeouts. At the very least you have the QB roll out with a run/pass option.
STUPID CALL #2 – After making stupid call #1 and getting stopped, you then try to run in multiple substitutes in with the clock almost a 0:00.
STUPID CALL #3 – You watch your opponent make stupid call #1 AND stupid call #2 and as he is literally throwing the game away before your very eyes you decide to try and do multiple substitutions as well.
STUPID CALL #4 – As you make stupid call #3 you forget to keep track of who is going in and who is coming out and end up with 13 players on the field and end up costing yourself the game.
I have never seen anything like that in my life and I do not think I ever will again. After watching that (plus all his other late game blunders) and then his completely incoherent post game interview (plus all this other strange interviews) I have finally come to the conclusion that Les Miles is out of his mind. The guy is really mentally unbalanced. He is a complete lunatic AND HE IS GETTING PAID OVER THREE MILLION DOLLARS (!!!). Unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the Derek Dooley manage to top his end of game blunders. A tough year at Tennessee just keeps getting worse.
5. Florida will win the East but they are not the powerhouse they have been. Urban Meyer also showed once again why coaches that run their entire offense out of the shotgun formation are stubborn and they are wrong. I stated earlier that sometimes you cannot trick a guy, you have to man up and run right at him. I would add to that that you also need to get under center at those moments. BUT NOOOOOOO… Meyer, Malzahn and the rest of them just will not do it AND THEY CONTINUE TO GET STOPPED ON 3RD AND 4TH AND 1. Florida drives down to inside the two yard line and they try to run out of the shotgun and they get STUFFED. Yes Tim Tebow was the exception to the rule but he is gone. Cam Newton should be an exception but he has been stopped on 3rd and 1 running out of the shotgun this season as well. Tommy Tuberville had a lot of faults but I saw him run quarterback sneaks from under center at least a hundred times during his decade at Auburn and I do not remember us ever being stopped. I am sure it happened but in a DECADE it did not happen as many times as it happened to Malzahn last season and Florida this season. Back to Saturday, after getting stuffed Florida then tried that ridiculous jump pass that everyone in the world knew was coming. Again, sometimes you have to man up and get it done. Florida had another chance with a 3rd and 1 on their next drive but wussed out and tried a pass that of course did not work. Florida with all their super recruiting classes and great players should be able to line up and get a yard against the Baltimore Ravens defense.
Well I guess this gets me up-to-date. This week is not the monster week the last few have been but there are some interesting matchups. Bama vs. South Carolina will be the headliner followed by LSU vs. Florida, Auburn vs. Kentucky, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M and finally Tennessee vs. Georgia. Hopefully I will be back to review it promptly this coming weekend…
"We still haven't reached our capability. We can't continuously put ourselves in the situation we have been. Sooner or later, our luck will run out." - Cam Newton after the Clemson game
Usually I regret not getting my review out promptly after a game. This time I am not. Saturday's game was definitely a memorable one. I have talked to many Auburn fans who watched the game and that were there. I have read Clemson posts. I have heard a lot of different points of view. After all that I am still having a hard time getting my head around this game. Auburn played terrible, Auburn played great, Clemson played great, Clemson played terrible. I guess I will start with the one thing that everyone can agree on and has mentioned about the game. It was a very hard hitting game and one of the toughest I have seen in awhile. I felt good about the game going in. I did not think Clemson could start with a couple of cupcakes and then come into Jordan Hare and do that. I was wrong. Clemson came in and punched Auburn in the mouth. They staggered the home team and nearly knocked them out.
However they did not and Auburn pulled off a memorable comeback on a sweltering September Saturday night. It was certainly a tale of two haves. Auburn was nearly as good in the second half as they were bad in the first half. Clemson was the opposite. I guess to start off with you have to break down this game into it's basic elements. Auburn played a good team that started really well. Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0. Auburn rallied to win. Auburn has to be a good team to do that. Those are basic truths you have to accept about Saturday night despite all the bad things that happened as well. Again, Auburn played a good team that started really well. Auburn started really bad and got behind 17-0. Auburn rallied to win. Auburn has to be a good team to do that. With that said let's break it down...
THE GOOD
The good was basically the second half where Auburn scored three touchdowns and held Clemson to just one. Auburn scored on the bomb to Zachary, Darvin Adams magnificent catch and got a touchdown run from Ontario McCallebb. I can see the blame for Auburn's offensive troubles starting to be placed on Cam Newton. He is not great at reading the defense, finding the open receiver and delivering the ball quickly. However I think we can do a lot with him regardless but more on that later. Cam Newton, even with the two awful interceptions, was still a big reason Auburn came back and won. He was basically bent in half on the bomb to Zachary. Neither of our weak-armed quaterbacks from the last four years would have been able to make that throw. Newton's ability to run also continues to preoccupy the defenses we play thus opening up the big throws he did hit. The offensive line finally got off their butts and started playing ball in the second half and the running backs were able to get untracked a little bit. Adams and Zachary continue to shine when we can get the ball to them.
Defensively while I don't like our philosophy or schemes I love the effort. Our defense stayed after it and finally started giving Clemson problems in the second half. Josh Bynes really stepped up at middle linebacker. The hard hit that Fairley and McNeil put on Kyle Parker really turned the game around. The first job of a coach in my opinion is to get his players to play hard. Our coaches are doing that. However...
THE BAD
I think they could then put these players in a better position to succeed on offense and defense. Defensively, Chizik and Roof have stated both in action and words that their philosophy is not to give up big plays and to keep everything in front of them and make other teams drive the length of the field. This usually involves playing way off the ball and giving up a lot of yardage on short passes. Auburn then usually makes adjustments, occasionally blitzes and gets a few stops. However, would it not help the team overall to play a more aggressive style of defense? The defense could then maybe get a few three-and-outs and let our offense do their thing and tire out the other defense. Now of course we would give up more big plays ala Will Muschamp. However that would get our offense back on the field and not subject our defense to staying out there so long getting dinked to death.
I just do not understand it. A more aggressive defense would fit in more with our supposed goals of being a more aggressive offense. Instead we seem to make it the worst of both worlds by keeping our offense on the bench longer and keeping our still thin defense on the field longer. This is also exacerbated by the fact our offense if played according to our supposed goals will keep the defense on the field more anyway. It just does not make sense to me. I would rather bring our guys up and let them play more aggressively and go for the three-and-out. They will give up a few but I think we would be more effective than we are now.
I have the same lack of understanding for our current offensive philosophy. Why line up in the shotgun if you are going to run the ball 47 times??? Regardless of the proliferation of the spread offense and so many teams running their offenses out of the shotgun, it is still a passing formation. You cannot convince me that you would not be better off having a fullback and a tight end blocking instead of a couple of wide receivers. There is also the fact that Auburn has about a dozen wide receivers on scholarship and are bringing in more. Yet we do not use but two of them... just like a regular I-formation team.
I do not like the spread, I do not like running our offense out of the shotgun, etc... HOWEVER if you are going to do it, THEN DO IT. Again, I know everyone is blaming our lack of a passing game on Newton but there is a ton of high-percentage passing plays that he could do now and would give more touches to our many great wide receiver prospects. After the last two games it appears that Chizik is tightening up and putting the cuffs on the offense that he committed to like Tommy Tuberville did before him.
THE UGLY
Ugly is what could happen if the team does not heed Cam Newton's quote I started this post with. This game reminds me a little of the 1990 Auburn vs. Florida St game. I was there, I was a student. The game was similar to this one. It was a hard fought win over a tough ACC team with an exciting finish. The team was a little similar to this in that it was talented but could not put it all together. Auburn had not lost a game and would soon rise to #4 in the country. Unfortunately like Cam Newton's states above, the 1990 team's luck ran out. They got destroyed by Florida 48-7, beaten at home by Brett Farve and Southern Miss and then upset by an inferior Bama team.
I agree with Cam and see this team having the same fate if they do not play or get COACHED to their capability. They cannot continue to be so inconsistent each game. They coaches especially one Gus Malzahn have to put them in good situations with some creative playcalling. I cannot believe I am saying that about Malzahn but our offense seems to basically consist of a small amount of plays. I am like a lot of other people that are wondering where are the slants, screens and other short passes? Why can't the defense play a little more aggressive and make the offense go over them rather than dinking them to death?
AROUND THE SEC
Arkansas took a huge step beating Georgia in Athens. They certainly appear to be the #2 team in the West right now. We will see how good they are this week as they meet the Bama juggernaut. Bama, Florida, South Carolina and Kentucky all took care of business. Tennessee put up a good fight against the Gators but again just did not have enough to stay with them. I guess I will say each week how shocking the situation at Tennessee is. This Mississippi schools had a tough weekend. Mississippi State made a lot of mistakes and LSU took full advantage. Meanwhile Ole Miss' season is officially circling the drain as they got hammered by Vanderbilt at home. Couple that with the Jacksonville State loss and you have an ugly season that is only going to get worse. I think that even Houston Nutt is going to have a tough time getting an upset win or two with this team.
The game of the week will be Bama vs. Arkansas in Fayettville. Arkansas is one of the only teams that might have enough offensive firepower and coaching to make it close against Bama. An upset would rock the SEC race and the polls. A Bama win would be another decisive step toward another SEC title. South Carolina vs. Auburn is the other big conference game this week. South Carolina could take a huge step toward their first SEC East title with a win at Auburn. An Auburn win will have them at 5-0 going into Kentucky in two weeks.
Another interesting game will be Kentucky at Florida. This is usually a laugher but Kentucky is a solid team with a couple of big-time playmakers. They actually have a chance of upsetting Florida this year. It will definitely be a game to keep an eye on. The only other conference game features Mark Richt trying to get that first conference win at Mississippi State. I think he will. State's quarterbacks continue to let them down.
Cam Newton. It is rare that a much hyped athletic star's performance comes even close to the hype. Well on Saturday night in Auburn it happened. New Auburn quarterback Cam Newton gave one of the most spectacular individual performances in Auburn history (and that is saying something). He rushed for 171 yards which is now the top rushing performance ever by an Auburn quarterback and he also added 186 yards passing. It was amazing to watch.
As always here at STR I use the format of "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" to review each weeks games. So lets get to it with the rest of the "The Good" for Auburn...
THE GOOD
Super running back recruit Michael Dyer also impressed with nearly a 100 yards rushing on just 14 carries. Ontarrio McCalebb also had a strong game. Most Auburn fans were wondering what was going on as starter Mario Fannin only got 3 carries. However Fannin was the leading receiver with 65 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did have a fumble but I thought it was a fluke play. He got caught in an awkward position. I still think Fannin is our best and I hope gets some more carries this week. The offensive line looked strong as there was plenty of room to run and Newton had all day to throw on most of his attempts. Auburn ended up with 608 yards of total offense for the night and as I predicted in my last post is well on their way to becoming the best offense statistically in Auburn history.
I have already seen Auburn's special teams getting criticized for Demond Washington's fumble in the 3rd quarter. That was bad but I will still put the special teams in the "Good" section here. Does anybody remember the complete train wreck Auburn's special teams were last year? They were the worst in the history of the school in my opinion. We literally could not catch a punt. Last night my guy Q Carr from my hometown and current residence of Huntsville, Alabama actually caught every punt to him and made positive yardage. That is reason enough to give the special teams kudos. However I also have to give a shout out to my new guy, Craig Sanders. He is wearing my favorite number, #13, and he was amazing on kick coverage making three solo stops. You just don't see one guy dominate on kick coverage like that very much.
Finally, before I butcher the defense in the next section I also want to give credit to the "Rock", defensive line coach, Tracy Rocker. His guys went after it hard all night.
THE BAD
First the little things. Letting the clock run out at the end of the first half is just inexcusable. Come on, that could lose an SEC game. We also had a lot of stupid penalties that need to be fixed. Finally for the offense why the heck did the coaching staff have Cam Newton out there running the ball with a 20 point lead in the fourth quarter??? I believe this game made it obvious that this team is going to go as far as Newton takes it. We are going to risk that to get him a few more carries in the first game when it is already decided??? D-U-M-B.
Obviously Auburn's defense has some room for improvement as Arkansas State rolled up 366 total yards. However after watching how badly coached Miami of Ohio's offense was against Florida I will give some credit to the Arkansas State coaching staff. Their offense was very well coached. They did not throw an interception and just played a very smart game. With that said though the linebacker and secondary play overall was not good. There were a few big hits and hey I am cheering for Zach Etheridge like everyone else is but you cannot give up 300 yards plus passing to Arkansas State.
Craig Stevens being suspended does not explain it either. Even with Cam Newton's star performance and the great play by the rest of the offense the game looked a lot like Auburn last year. The offense would go through periods of being unstoppable and look unbelievable but then they would hit a lull and the other team would make a run and our defense would seem helpless to stop them. We did not quite see that extreme last night but you saw the outline and a better team would have made a real run.
The way Auburn plays their safeties is hard to watch. Most of the time they play them so far back that the other team just dinks us to death. I will never understand that philosophy. I think you should play the other team tight and make them throw over you and hit that lower percentage long pass. Yes you will give up some big plays but you will also get some three-and-outs. Between our current offensive and defensive philosophies I do not think we will ever have enough depth on defense. Speaking of moving safeties let us go to...
THE UGLY
The ugly has been four years of weak-armed immobile quarterbacks at Auburn (Brandon Cox and Chris Todd). It has been four years of other teams bringing their safeties up and crowding us, daring us to throw over them and knowing that we could not. Brandon Cox's deterioration killed our offenses in 2006 and 2007. Chris Todd's weak arm reared it's ugly head many times over the last two seasons even in our higher rated offense last year. The vertical passing is absolutely essential to any good team. It forces a team to keep those safeties back and opens up running lanes and short passes. We finally have a quarterback who can throw it further than I can and that is good news for Auburn.
Now you also throw in a quarterback that can run and you pose so many other problems for the opposing defense. Even if Cam Newton was not as spectacular as he was I am still happy. I told a friend before the season started who was a little worried about Newton that there was no way he could possibly be worse than what we have had over the last four years. It is just icing on the cake that he looked even better than expected.
AROUND THE SEC
I did not make my traditional trip to watch the season opener in Auburn this year so I was able to watch a lot of football this weekend. The teams that stuck out to me were South Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi State. It seems South Carolina opens every season now but it is usually in an ugly low scoring duel with Mississippi State. This year they changed it up a bit and opened with another Mississippi school in Southern Miss. Now Southern Miss is definitely not a world beater but they are a bit stronger than your usual patsy. I thought South Carolina looked very strong and about the best I have seen them since Spurrier got there. I thought Garcia was solid and missed a few long passes by just a yard or so. He should start hitting those passes later in the season. I thought Marcus Lattimore looked very good. South Carolina also had several other big fast athletic players on offense that looked pretty good.
Kentucky may have played the toughest game of the weekend and beat Louisville on the road to spoil Charlie Strong's coaching debut. Kentucky played a very solid game on both sides of the ball and have some big-time play makers in Derrick Locke and Randall Cobb. Finally Mississippi State just obliterated Memphis. Now Memphis is a very weak team but you can just see a difference in State. I think Dan Mullen is the real deal. I think he really has that "it" you look for in a coach. I think this weeks game between Auburn and State is going to be a war. Auburn fans who have counted these three teams as automatic wins this year better think twice in my opinion.
It was a typical LSU and Les Miles game in the headlining match up of the weekend. LSU looked very talented and highly erratic in their win over a decimated North Carolina team. Georgia and Tennessee took care of their business in their openers. It must have been pretty cool as well for Tennessee to stomp a team who looks just like one of your old rivals. UT-Martin's uniforms are just like Auburn except for the logo on the helmet. I think Auburn needs a homecoming opponent that looks like Bama...
The bad in the SEC this week was Florida's offense against Miami of Ohio. I do not think I have ever seen a top five rated SEC team unit look as bad as Florida's offense. I watched just about this whole game and they were completely inept. What has Florida been practicing? It sure does not appear they have been practicing shotgun snaps as they butchered about a dozen of them in the game. They fumbled the ball, they could not get a consistent push from their offensive line and quarterback John Brantley misfired on just about every throw over five yards. Take away one long run and Brantley's fourth quarter desperation heave that got batted around and was miraculously caught and Florida's stats are abysmal.
Well there is no doubt what the ugly in the SEC is this week. Ole Miss and coach Houston Nutt lost to Jacksonville State, a FCS (Division 1-AA) team from here in Alabama. In a touch of irony Jacksonville State is coached by Jack Crowe (a former Auburn assistant under Pat Dye) who was once fired at Arkansas for losing to a Division 1-AA team (The Citadel). Ole Miss even had a 31-10 lead at halftime. They only scored three points in the second half and gave up 24. What the heck is going on down in Oxford? This loss coupled with Mississippi State's resurgence has to be a bitter pill for Ole Miss fans to swallow. It looks to be a long season for Ole Miss BUT there is no doubt in my mind that Houston Nutt will upset somebody in the West.
Things heat up fast next week as Auburn and State kick off SEC play on Thursday night. I expect this game to be one of the best ones in the history of the entire series. Georgia and South Carolina meet in a huge game in Columbia. With Florida suddenly looking vulnerable this game would be a huge boost to one of these teams hopes of winning the SEC East. There are also a couple of huge out-of-conference tilts with Penn State coming to Bama and Oregon coming to Tennessee.
It is time to kick off another football season of blogging on the Auburn Tigers and the SEC. It has been awhile since I have posted for a variety of reasons. It has been a crazy summer, of course with three kids in the house it is always crazy. I am always trying to get organized but still haven’t quite got there yet. I have found that you have to be organized and plan some time during the week to send out a decent blog post. I did not get there this summer.
I did finish my biggest and best piece to date “Saturdays to Remember… and Forget – The Decade of the Eighties Part 1” but unfortunately I did not get it finished before practice started and now nobody will care since the offseason is over. I think I will keep it saved and work on more parts and look to release it next year.
So there you go… kids, my disorganization and a huge blog post that will not see the light of day anytime soon… that will pretty much sum up the summer of 2010 for me blog-wise.
The next question is how could I have waited this long to post? I mean the season is just about to start! Well that reason is simple when following Auburn, there is not any actual hard facts or observations to comment on. Only the football team and certain other insiders who cannot distribute their thoughts and observations know what is actually going on. All of the beat writers and blogs have no idea what is going on until the coaching staff decides to tell them.
It has just ruined the whole “preseason” for me. Fall practice just does not get me excited at all when the only thing you read about is pure speculation. I think the thing about Auburn that frustrates me the most is that they do not give out stats from scrimmages. At the very least that gives you something to talk about. I mean even the biggest control freak in the league and the guy that started no-access rules, Nick $aban, GIVES OUT STATS FROM SCRIMMAGES. At the very least that is all I ask. It is obviously not asking too much if $aban allows it. However at Auburn we are forced to try and form a picture from hearsay by the players and vague babble from the coaches. It is ludicrous. It just seems like a waste of time to try and make any conclusions based on hearsay and vague comments. There are no witnesses of the events that people are trying to draw conclusions from. I understand the need to close off a lot of things and I have heard all the good reasons but I still think a little more access could be granted for the fans.
However there are too many Auburn sites and bloggers though to let that stop them and hey I still read some of them too. However I do not get much enjoyment of it. It has pretty much gotten to the point where football season starts on Labor Day. The days of getting excited when practice starts are over for me while the practices are made “top secret”.
With that said, I was at West Point the first week of August and I did get to watch parts of Army’s first two football practice. So at least I got to see somebody practice some football this August…
Back to Auburn, I guess it is time to make some preseason predictions. Another damper for me every year is the nauseating sunshine-pumping from the various Auburn outlets. I understand some of it but it seems to get worse every year. There just does not seem to be much difference between the way Auburn and Bama fans act now. There was a time not so long ago that Auburn fans were much more objective and realistic about their team’s chances and not the complete homers that most Bama fans are. That does not seem true anymore. A spin around the various Auburn sites and you will find that Auburn is absolutely awesome, Gene Chizik is already a certified great coach and everything is great and wonderful. Now for the record things are definitely looking up for this season but I am not quite ready to go as far as most Auburn people.
First, a comment on last year. A prevailing topic since the season ended is how great the team did last year, how much they exceeded expectations, etc… I beg to differ. I would be cast as “negative” but I predicted Auburn would go 6-6 last year and 2-4 in the SEC in the regular season. Auburn ended up going 7-5 last year and 3-5 in the SEC in the regular season. I predicted we would lose to Tennessee but I predicted we would beat Kentucky so those two games were a wash. Basically the only thing last year’s team did that I did not think they would do was beat Ole Miss. Those are the facts.
Now before we crown mean Gene the greatest coach in Auburn history and anoint Gus Malzahn as the greatest offensive coach ever I think we need to actually beat Arkansas, LSU, Georgia or Bama. I think we need to avoid three game losing streaks and three game streaks of blowing 14 point leads.
Finally let us get to the actual predictions. Looking at the schedule my first take is that we will go 1-1 vs. Clemson and South Carolina, 1-1 vs. Arkansas and LSU and 1-1 vs. Georgia and Bama and win the rest. That would put us at 9-3 and maybe headed to the Citrus or Cotton Bowls. I think if this team is a little better we improve by one game to 10-2 and it is definitely possible we could also finish at 8-4. I will go with 9-3 and 5-3 in the SEC as my official prediction.
That is a two game improvement and would include a couple of wins over the four teams that we need to beat. That would definitely be a good season and show a lot of progress. However the goal every year is to win the SEC West and get to Atlanta. I believe this is Auburn’s best chance to do that for awhile. If Auburn does not do it then it is a disappointment to me.
I will say though that Auburn fans need to enjoy this season for all it’s worth. I think it will be the best season Auburn has for awhile. Auburn has TWENTY FOUR seniors leading the team this season. This includes FOUR starters on the offensive line, two of the main defensive tackles (there are only 5 legitimate defensive tackles on the roster), the two starting defensive ends, two starting linebackers, two starting safeties, two starting kickers and the starting tailback. It will take Auburn a season or more to get back to this level due to Tommy Tuberville’s last two horrible recruiting classes. This team has a lot of seniors and a lot of freshmen and not much in between.
I predict that this offense will be the highest rated offense in Auburn history, statistically. So before the sunshine-pumpers lose their minds, I, as a “negative” fan, am predicting this. Now I do not think it will be the actual best offense in Auburn history but it will be very good and like every other “spread” offense it will run up big numbers in the three creampuff out-of-conference games. I have heard the stats from last year’s team ad nauseum. The only stats that count to me are the stats IN-conference. Auburn’s 2009 SEC offensive stats were a bit more representative of how good they were.
I will also predict that Gus Malzahn will leave Auburn after this great offensive season for a head coaching job on the backs of these seniors. This will be his most marketable moment and like I said it will be awhile before Auburn will be this good again. I think that he will especially see the lack of talent he will have to work with on the offensive line next year and beyond. I believe Trooper Taylor will be promoted to offensive coordinator. He could be a great one or not. I do not know however I would not think he would be quite as good running this style of offense as Malzahn and every rookie coordinator has a learning curve.
With all this said I will venture one more prediction that nobody will agree with. I think this will be the best season Gene Chizik will have as head coach at Auburn. I hope I am wrong on this one and the other ones but that is the way I see it.
Let me turn back to the positive though. I will give Gene Chizik and Co. full credit for two things this last offseason. These two things are amazing and hardly ever happen. One, Chizik was able to hold the entire coaching staff together and that is very rare in this modern age of college football. He also brought in a full class of 25 new players in plus 5 other players that count toward last year’s scholarship count. That is simply amazing.
I hope this monster class will be the foundation for another SEC championship for the Auburn Tigers. First however let us see what this team and these seniors can do this season. I may be “negative” at times but I love Auburn football. I am looking out my window on this opening Saturday of the 2010 season and it is absolutely beautiful. I cannot wait to watch my Auburn Tigers get started tonight. War Eagle!
