Don't know if anyone noticed...

[ClaytonAU 4,606]

Gus relinquished all play calling duty to Rhett last night for the remainder of the season. Seems as if we crash and burn on offense Rhett will be the scapegoat. Thoughts? 

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

OK. How about the other side of it. If we do not crash and burn but instead light it up, then Rhett isn't a scapegoat, he's a good OC in the SEC!

(I put zero stock in the "Rhett's gonna be a scapegoat" stuff. These coaches and players are looking for W's, not for excuses is what I think.)

[ShocksMyBrain 9,362]

Letting Rhett control his own destiny. Gotta build his résumé before he goes looking for a new team at the end of the season. 

[Woodstock Tiger 131]

 Gus now has his scapegoat if the td's don't start showing up in mass quantities for AU. It seems likely that some coaching changes will be called for at year end as AU likely ends up 8-4 or 7-5 again based on what we've seen so far (obviously pure speculation) which simply ain't good enough.

Enter Briles who is still unlikely to be a hot commodity as a head coach so soon after the issues at Baylor. He and Gus like each other, Gus keeps his job, AU doesn't have to pay yet another "former head coach" to leave and admit they made a mistake extending his contract, the power brokers are appeased that better things are ahead now with Briles being on AU campus. Scapegoat is booted and everybody moves forward. The only one hosed is lashlee.  Scarbinsky's article today on the scapegoat theory doesn't seem so far fetched to me.  

[AUBwins 10,064]

If we stink on offense, indeed gives Malzahn a scapegoat, and we bring in a Briles.  If we light it up,  Rhett likely gets a HC job somewhere, and we bring in a Briles. 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

Say what you will, but last night was the first time all year I remember really playing with some pace on offense.  Yeah, we need to put some drives in the end zone, but overall the offense was much smoother (re: getting plays in, running fast, etc).

[tiger88 934]

The playcalling needs big time help, still. 

[doug3020 842]

Rhett has only been around Gus. He was basically trained by Gus. He's gonna call games like Gus. We shouldn't expect anything to change. 

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

3 minutes ago, doug3020 said:

Rhett has only been around Gus. He was basically trained by Gus. He's gonna call games like Gus. We shouldn't expect anything to change. 

 

Ya know how talented students can surpass the master? Let's wait and see if Rhett is a talented student.

[doug3020 842]

5 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

 

Ya know how talented students can surpass the master? Let's wait and see if Rhett is a talented student.

Did I miss something when Gus lurched around all offseason saying he was gonna be "more involved" in the offense this year? Reading b/w the lines that would insinuate that Rhett was calling plays last year....I'm pretty sure we weren't setting offensive records (positively) last year. 

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

1 minute ago, doug3020 said:

Did I miss something when Gus lurched around all offseason saying he was gonna be "more involved" in the offense this year? Reading b/w the lines that would insinuate that Rhett was calling plays last year....I'm pretty sure we weren't setting offensive records (positively) last year. 

Rhett called the aTm game last season, a 26-10 win by our Tigers. Other than that, playcalling has been a two headed collaborative monster for the most part with Rhett telling Malzahn what he thought and Malzahn making the final call.

On edit...

For whatever reason, perhaps all the other responsibilities as a head coach getting in the way of study, Malzahn seems to have recognized that he (at least for now) has lost some mojo as a play caller. Whether it's that or outside pressure, what was being done wasn't working all that great against teams like Clemson and aTm so kudos to Gus for openly making the change.

[doug3020 842]

4 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

Rhett called the aTm game last season, a 26-10 win by our Tigers. Other than that, playcalling has been a two headed collaborative monster for the most part with Rhett telling Malzahn what he thought and Malzahn making the final call.

On edit...

For whatever reason, perhaps all the other responsibilities as a head coach getting in the way of study, Malzahn seems to have recognized that he (at least for now) has lost some mojo as a play caller. Whether it's that or outside pressure, what was being done wasn't working all that great against teams like Clemson and aTm so kudos to Gus for openly making the change.

I'll let you have your sunshine w Gus and Rhett. I'll happily eat crow if things change. We all want Auburn to win, bottom line. Read Stats upon further review concerning last nights play calling. WDE. 

[kd4au 1,145]

I don't know who calls the plays and who doesn't but I thought the play calling was a little better last night,still could have been a lot better but we seemed to move the ball better at least between the 20's.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Hopefully we'll have a new OC/QB coach next year. We sure need one. However, 6 FG's and no TD's won't cut it when we face Arkansas, Ole Miss, Miss. State and Alabama.

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

12 minutes ago, doug3020 said:

I'll let you have your sunshine w Gus and Rhett. I'll happily eat crow if things change. We all want Auburn to win, bottom line. Read Stats upon further review concerning last nights play calling. WDE. 

I read Stat's post almost as soon as it went up. There are remaining issues to be sure, especially that 80+ percent run calls on first down that allow opposing D's to load up to stop the run on first down and be right 80+ percent of the time. Gotta make 'em pay. Maybe Rhett will learn to trust Sean and the receivers to do that.

[doug3020 842]

2 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

I read Stat's post almost as soon as it went up. There are remaining issues to be sure, especially that 80+ percent run calls on first down that allow opposing D's to load up to stop the run on first down and be right 80+ percent of the time. Gotta make 'em pay. Maybe Rhett will learn to trust Sean and the receivers to do that.

Holding my breath.....

Edit: I have nothing against running the football on first down. I do have a problem with running the same freaking running play 80% of the time on first down. 

[IronMan70 3,277]

Scapegoat schmakegoat, I don't buy it from Scarbinsky or Jack Crowe. The simple fact is, RL makes $600K a year as the OC  and he should be able to run this offense. Gus shouldn't have to, he needs to run the entire program.

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

1 minute ago, IronMan70 said:

Scapegoat schmakegoat, I don't buy it from Scarbinsky or Jack Crowe. The simple fact is, RL makes $600K a year as the OC  and he should be able to run this offense. Gus shouldn't have to, he needs to run the entire program.

I need more likes so I can give you one!

 

[weagl1 1,781]

I think that is the first step towards Gus saving his own job as he brings in Art Briles as OC for 2017.  

[dabrasco 127]

9 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

I think that is the first step towards Gus saving his own job as he brings in Art Briles as OC for 2017.  

I approve this message

[AU64 10,122]

33 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

I need more likes so I can give you one!

 

yep....agree....

I could be wrong but I don't believe Gus makes decisions about serous things to "save his job" or find a scapegoat.  That's what children do...not mature adults.

[IronMan70 3,277]

37 minutes ago, CleCoTiger said:

I need more likes so I can give you one!

 

Haha thank you, thank you.

[doug3020 842]

There's just too much smoke for something not to have happened for Gus to just flip a switch and hand over the reigns to RL. Nuheisel (sp) tweets out Briles to Auburn earlier this week. Crowe sends out info yesterday morning. Gus makes it public last night. The LSU game was considered the biggest of Gus's career (job wise). Why all of a sudden completely put your job in someone else's hands when you've preached all offseason you needed to be more involved? I just don't see it adding up.

[AUsince72 11,084]

Scarbinsky's story (see that thread) would seem to potentially shed lots of light on this situation.

[Tiger 8,817]

Something doesn't sit well with me about this. Not that it's Rhett calling the shots, although I'd feel better if it was somebody who was more proven and had history backing them. But the fact that Gus worked his butt off for years proving to the world how great of a play caller he is and then AU pays him $4 million a year to NOT call the offense? The whole reason we hired him was his offense and his playcalling --that's what makes him worth $4 million/year, right? So we are stuck in a position where our best playcaller doesn't have time to get mentally prepared to call the plays. That seems counterproductive to me. I know it's how football staffs work but this is why there were segments of the board asking why we have someone so under-qualified as the head of our offense back when our staff was being filled out in 2012.