62 replies to this topic

[AUslug]

We are young, there is no way to spin that. I see it as we are young with experience because we all know how many guys played last year as first time starters and first timers period. I get tired of seeing the same people on here whining and saying that the coaches are making "excuses"...

[Proud Tiger]

mcgufcm, on 27 April 2012 - 09:53 AM, said:

Anyone trying to argue that the 2007 signing class lacked talent is one of three things: (1) ignorant to the differences between college and professional football, (2) a hater plain and simple, or (3) wrong.

Setting that class aside, the 2008 class was completely lost, and it's impossible to argue that Chizik inherited a deep roster. He inherited a roster with a good deal of cream at the top (Pugh, Ziemba, Berry, Isom, Darvin Adams, Ben Tate, Terrell Zachery, Blanc, Ricks, Clayton, Goggans, Carter, Bynes, Stevens, Walt McFadden, Etheridge, Mike McNeil, Byrum, etc.). We clearly had guys in both 2009 and 2010 from the Tuberville classes that could start and win in the SEC. There was a talented base to build on, and Chizik, to his credit, brought in JUCO guys (Cam, Nick, Brandon Mosley) to complete the picture and recruited high school guys that could be sprinkled into the mix. From a personnel standpoint, we won the national title in 2010 based on three things: (1) unbelievable seasons from two JUCO transfers, (2) Tommy Tuberville's recuits, and (3) solid contributions from a handful of young guys. Tommy deserves a lot of credit for leaving that many talented seniors to work with.

Great post. Hard for the Tubs haters to argue with facts.I will join the posters above who are tired of the lame "we're you and inexperienced" excuses. Just about every school in the SEC could say the same thing. Let's just line up and play football and quit making excuses. What will be will be.

[mcgufcm]

Vakikas, I'm not one to blow praise up Nick Saban's skirt, but he inherited his own special mess at Alabama. It wasn't all roses and rainbows. Chizik inherited a roster full of SEC caliber starters that knew how to win, but he also inherited major depth issues. As I said, to his credit, he solved the depth problem with JUCO success and a number of game-ready high school signees. Saban, on the other hand, had a wider base of talent at his fingers when he walked into the job. They had plenty of depth. They also had a completely disfunctional locker room, a lack of discipline, and a knack for losing. Under Shula and even Saban's first year, they regularly gave away games against less talented teams. To his credit, he scared them into shape and taught them how to win. Both coaches did a very good job with a different set of issues.

I don't think every school in the SEC can use the inexperienced tag like we can. Even this year, we'll be one of the youngest teams in the league with a relatively small senior class. Seniors matter. We have young guys with game experience, but usually champions have a number of seniors ready to lead. We're still not all the way there (one projected senior starter on the OL, one at TE, one or two at WR depending on who wins a job, one on the DL, and as few as one in the back seven depending on how T.Bell recovers and whether Evans wins a job... it's not a big senior class). I expect to win games, but we are still building.

[Vakikass]

mcgufcm, on 30 April 2012 - 09:11 AM, said:

Vakikas, I'm not one to blow praise up Nick Saban's skirt, but he inherited his own special mess at Alabama. It wasn't all roses and rainbows. Chizik inherited a roster full of SEC caliber starters that knew how to win, but he also inherited major depth issues. As I said, to his credit, he solved the depth problem with JUCO success and a number of game-ready high school signees. Saban, on the other hand, had a wider base of talent at his fingers when he walked into the job. They had plenty of depth. They also had a completely disfunctional locker room, a lack of discipline, and a knack for losing. Under Shula and even Saban's first year, they regularly gave away games against less talented teams. To his credit, he scared them into shape and taught them how to win. Both coaches did a very good job with a different set of issues.

I don't think every school in the SEC can use the inexperienced tag like we can. Even this year, we'll be one of the youngest teams in the league with a relatively small senior class. Seniors matter. We have young guys with game experience, but usually champions have a number of seniors ready to lead. We're still not all the way there (one projected senior starter on the OL, one at TE, one or two at WR depending on who wins a job, one on the DL, and as few as one in the back seven depending on how T.Bell recovers and whether Evans wins a job... it's not a big senior class). I expect to win games, but we are still building.

Under the assumption that bama and saban run a clean program, I agree with everything you said concerning the bama portion of the first paragraph.
I'll just leave it at that...

And seniors do matter, especially come next season with the difficult away schedule again.

[Mikey]

Quoting mcgufcm:" Chizik inherited a roster full of SEC caliber starters that knew how to win..."

The previous year, the team Chizik inherited had lost to Vandy for the first AU loss to them since the 1950's and finished 5-7, capped off by a 0-36 blowout at the hands of UAT. I can see trying to make a point, but claiming that Chizik inherited a team full of SEC caliber starters that knew how to win is a bit of a stretch. Chizik inherited a disorganized mob with virtually no talent worthy of the NFL draft, as mentioned above.  There were some good players there, but hardly of the type that turn into household names.

Forget the NFL draft, how many all-SEC players did Chizik inherit? Ziemba and Tate and, and, and??? Two years later, by the 2010 season some had developed into winners but that was a long time after Chizik inherited them.

[StatTiger]

Entering the 2008 season (Tuberville's last season), Auburn's scholarship roster consisted of 32.4% players rated as 4-stars or better and 29.9% players rated as 2-stars or worse.

Entering the 2012 season, Auburn will have a roster, 50.0% 4-stars or better and 12.2% 2-stars.

54.5% of the recruits signed in Chizik's last 3 classes were rated 4-stars or better and only 5.1% were 2-star players.

[Raven_tiger]

meh, I hope this is not an attempt to pull a Dye "poor mouthing" prior to the season starting. Like it or not, Saban (and the program is built) is the standard for college coaching success for which other coaches/programs will be compared to. Unfortunately for us they are our cross state rivals.

[mcgufcm]

Mikey, it's a little better than the picture you paint.

Chizik inherited: Ziemba, Pugh, Berry, Isom, Greene, Adams, Zachery, Todd, Tate, Blanc, Ricks, Clayton, Coleman, Carter, Goggans, Bynes, Stevens, Etheridge, Savage, McNeil, Thorpe, McFadden, and Bell with commitments to return from Fairley and McCalebb.

Those guys were part of one losing season, but they were also part of 9-win and 11-win seasons as well. Of that group, Ziemba, Tate, Clayton, Coleman, McFadden, and Fairley were drafted. Pugh, Coleman, McFadden, and Tate were All-SEC in 2009. Ziemba, Pugh, Fairley, Isom, Carter, and Bynes were All-SEC in 2010. Chizik inherited a team much more prepared to win than Saban did, but Saban's team was better set-up for long-term success (since he didn't have nearly wholesale loss of his youngest classes).

[Mikey]

mcgufcm, it's a little worse picture than what you paint. True, you listed a lot of names. Most of them are no longer playing football. Your list, by itself, would not be producing any SEC champs.

PS:You left off Lutz, he was committed to Auburn before Coach Tuberville "resigned".