Zinzan

Glass half empty. That’s a lot of Auburn fan’s in a nutshell. No one has played as many of these teams in the Top Ten.

I still can’t believe we lost to Tennessee in 2018. At least we’ve been in the national conversation throughout the decade, and most of Gus’s tenure. Our schedule contributed to this, but also contributed to a number of our losses.

In fairness to Cardale:

Well, Whitlow had less carries this year, too. So did Kam Martin. And Schwartz. Our QBs ran the ball more this year, and DJ Williams got a good number of carries. Shivers got to return more kicks this year, and caught the ball more, so it's not like the coaches didn't believe he could benefit the team. Not blaming him, but big things may have happened had he not stepped out of bounds on the one pass in the Iron Bowl. I think we scored a TD on that drive, anyways, but Shivers in open space would have been fun to see. You obviously think Shivers should have gotten more touches this year. So someone else should have got fewer. Maybe you're right. Maybe not. I get mad at Gus when he doesn't utilize the players the way I would (unless it works), but I have no doubt that he and his staff know the players and what they are capable of better than I do. But of course Worm and Momma Worm wish #8 got his number called more often. And of course Social Media Champions are going to egg on any dissatisfaction.

Give me a break.

Oh my God, they killed McKinney!

So both Ohio State and LSU will want to win big to avoid playing Clemson in the Semifinals. Clemson just has to win; they won’t jump to #1 unless the two teams ahead of them both lose, so margin of victory won’t matter.

That touchdown was awesome, and will be shown on the Big Board at Auburn for many Saturdays to come. I love the intensity Shaun brings to the field, as well as the speed and talent. I will be disappointed if he leaves, and have no reason to doubt that he’ll get offers from Power 5 schools. But his size would be questioned by some fans wherever he would go, so that alone is no reason to transfer. Smaller, speedy players tend to have a role at major programs, but are usually not the primary ball carrier. That doesn’t mean that they can’t thrive, and can’t make it to the NFL. See Ontario McCalleb or Corey Grant.

Haven’t been paying attention to CFB recruiting this season. How has Florida State and Arkansas been doing since their HC’s were fired? Any new commitments? Mass decommits? Seems like it would be extremely tough to get kids (and parents) to commit during a period where the new HC is not known. Holding onto commits would be tough, as well. This would have always been the case, but as you say, the early signing period really compresses things.

THIS

I think our other running backs are garnering plenty of attention. Our opponents are loading the box, keying on our running game as the biggest threat to them.

Glad to see Butterbean (aka Lil Dash?) is back on the playing field, and is fielding offers from Power 5 schools. Seems Ole Miss is now in the lead, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up at Troy. But I'm saying that with no inside information.

Have to admit, after reading what I wrote yesterday, have to wonder if it's fair to make 17/18 year old kids make career decisions and then penalize them (force them to sit out a year) if they change their mind.

If players are allowed to transfer and play immediately when they don't win the starting job, we may see more stacking of 5-star QBs at schools likely to make a championship run. If the 5-star QB clearly gets beat (Kelly Bryant, Josh Fields), he just transfers to another team. I don't know how terrible that is, but it changes things. Last year, you'd think Josh Fields really had a career decision to make in choosing between Georgia and Auburn, but not so much if he knew he could always transfer out and play in 2019 if he couldn't unseat Fromm.

So... what exactly has happened to Webb? I saw he didn’t make the grades to go to MSU and was going to go to a CC in Kansas or somewhere, but ended up nowhere? I hope it works out for him, and I’m just uninformed.