This will not be a popular opinion, but my take...

[Mike4AU 1,739]

I don't care if Gus gets fired, and I don't care if he stays.  But I do care that the players deserve better coaching, planning and play calling than they are getting.  I am weary of watching bewildering offensive displays that come from this staff far too often. 

[tombigbeetiger 223]

Just now, Mike4AU said:

I don't care if Gus gets fired, and I don't care if he stays.  But I do care that the players deserve better coaching, planning and play calling than they are getting.  I am weary of watching bewildering offensive displays that come from this staff far too often. 

amen....but, you know that there will not be any improvement until a coaching change is made

[WarTiger 3,896]

2 hours ago, AubieAH3 said:

Stats are great, but they definitely don't tell the whole story. Marshall was a heck of an athlete, but there is a reason he was moved back to CB. Obviously you should have sent these stats to the NFL scouts.

This is has nothing to do with Marshall playing at the next level.  You said his passing numbers regressed while at Auburn in his 2nd year.  I provided proof to you of the exact opposite to be true. 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

3 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

We're at the very least back to the point of hiring Briles as OC and giving him total control of the offense. With the bottom falling out for Kendall right now, maybe Art is the answer.

Ars gratia artis

[jared52 4,354]

4 hours ago, DAG said:

That is the problem. Who the hell cares what other teams are doing compared to AU. Who cares?! We are in the SEC West and that is not changing. BTW, UTENN has beaten UGA the last two years. UF has beaten UGA the Last 3 years. Freaking Vandy beat them this year. There go your comparisons. Asking who has consistently beaten UTA is an idiotic question as they are a dynasty, but realistically Ole miss has the last 2 out of 3 years and came close again this year.  Also about six teams play the same schedule that AU plays. They are in our division.

Comparisons help give perspective. Would you want AU to be Ole Miss, UF, or UT? Only UF is ever in the hunt late for the SEC division title. AU was in it until late this year. Last year was a dumpster fire because of several reasons, Gus being one of them. 2014 was disappointing, but there were several close losses to good teams. 2013, was 0:13 from magic. Its year 4, and this is Gus's 5th year as a HC. He is middle of the pack in salary, so he's not overpaid. He is learning and doing so in the toughest conference in the country. If you were against him getting hired, fine, you might have been right. But he is still AU's coach and the constant meltdowns by the fan base are, in your words, idiotic. 

Oh and guess who's beat OM 3 straight times. Arkansas.

[TitanTiger 20,469]

2 hours ago, AubieAH3 said:

Stats are great, but they definitely don't tell the whole story. Marshall was a heck of an athlete, but there is a reason he was moved back to CB. Obviously you should have sent these stats to the NFL scouts.

That's a different argument.  Marshall did not regress as a passer under Gus regardless of whether he was an NFL QB.  He improved significantly as a passer in 2014.  

[gr82b4au 5,568]

I don't want him fired but if we don't fix the qb recruiting we are going to be in trouble.  

JJ, SW (hurt again), JF3, Tyler queen, and woody. 2 of those guys should not be on scholarship. 

[SumterAubie 3,031]

18 minutes ago, WarTiger said:

This is has nothing to do with Marshall playing at the next level.  You said his passing numbers regressed while at Auburn in his 2nd year.  I provided proof to you of the exact opposite to be true. 

True this. The position he plays in the NFL reflects nothing on whether or not Marshall went backwards in his second year at Auburn.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

3 hours ago, tgr4lfe said:

...

I truly don't rethink SW will start next year. ...

Cherry picking, again for focus.

Even if he doesn't, he would obviously provide a (at least) serviceable backup.

[AubieAH3 238]

25 minutes ago, WarTiger said:

This is has nothing to do with Marshall playing at the next level.  You said his passing numbers regressed while at Auburn in his 2nd year.  I provided proof to you of the exact opposite to be true. 

I didn't say "numbers." I said his passing. I guess I should have clarified. I meant technique, footwork, not overthrowing wide open receivers, etc. More along the lines of the "eye test." 

I would love to be optimistic here, but I just haven't seen anything to make me feel like Gus has anyone on his staff that can properly develop highly recruited QBs, especially looking at ones we recruited out of HS.

But hey, I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

[DAG 33,955]

9 minutes ago, jared52 said:

Comparisons help give perspective. Would you want AU to be Ole Miss, UF, or UT? Only UF is ever in the hunt late for the SEC division title. AU was in it until late this year. Last year was a dumpster fire because of several reasons, Gus being one of them. 2014 was disappointing, but there were several close losses to good teams. 2013, was 0:13 from magic. Its year 4, and this is Gus's 5th year as a HC. He is middle of the pack in salary, so he's not overpaid. He is learning and doing so in the toughest conference in the country. If you were against him getting hired, fine, you might have been right. But he is still AU's coach and the constant meltdowns by the fan base are, in your words, idiotic. 

Oh and guess who's beat OM 3 straight times. Arkansas.

 

This doesn't even make freaking sense. I don't give a crap about what other programs do. The only reason why I bought up those other teams was because you insisted on me answering your question about who has consistently beat UTA or UGA.  I don't care if Ole miss has beaten UTA twice in three years. I don't care that Arkansas has beaten ole miss the last three years. I don't care that freaking UF has beaten UGA for three years or the fact that they are competing in the SEC east. I don't want AU to be anybody but AU. That means we need to worry about who the freak we play on our schedule and beat the teams that we should beat. Comparing what other teams are doing, absolutely has no bearing on what is going on at AU. Quit freaking worrying about what other teams are doing and worry about why we can't handle UGA. Why we can't seem to develop QB depth, why we keep being inconsistent on the offensive end.

[jared52 4,354]

17 minutes ago, DAG said:

This doesn't even make freaking sense. I don't give a crap about what other programs do. The only reason why I bought up those other teams was because you insisted on me answering your question about who has consistently beat UTA or UGA.  I don't care if Ole miss has beaten UTA twice in three years. I don't care that Arkansas has beaten ole miss the last three years. I don't care that freaking UF has beaten UGA for three years or the fact that they are competing in the SEC east. I don't want AU to be anybody but AU. That means we need to worry about who the freak we play on our schedule and beat the teams that we should beat. Comparing what other teams are doing, absolutely has no bearing on what is going on at AU. Quit freaking worrying about what other teams are doing and worry about why we can't handle UGA. Why we can't seem to develop QB depth, why we keep being inconsistent on the offensive end.

Sorry I seem to have made you mad. We will just have to agree to disagree about how to assess programs. Have a good Sunday and War Eagle!

[Dshep4au 266]

I don not want a coaching change but will have to say I was baffled at the play calling in the 2nd half last night. Especially passing on 3rd and 2 twice. With Sean hurt and obviously having trouble passing seems like we would have at least tried a series with JF3 to maybe get a spark. The loss is disappointing since it was a rivalry game and not a very good ga team.  I had high hopes before the game butcwe just couldn't seem to overcome the offensive injuries.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

51 minutes ago, gr82b4au said:

I don't want him fired but if we don't fix the qb recruiting we are going to be in trouble.  

JJ, SW (hurt again), JF3, Tyler queen, and woody. 2 of those guys should not be on scholarship. 

Sorry,

I disagree

[AUpreacherman22 3,876]

As several others have already stated, I am in full agreement with your post Titan!

Gus has learned a lot this year, and I expect him to make the necessary adjustments and be even better next year and the year after.  

Im not sure why so many AU fans want to burn the city down and start looting every time we lose a game. 

[WarDamnAirForce 23]

1 minute ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

As several others have already stated, I am in full agreement with your post Titan!

Gus has learned a lot this year, and I expect him to make the necessary adjustments and be even better next year and the year after.  

Im not sure why so many AU fans want to burn the city down and start looting every time we lose a game. 

I think a lot of it has to do, at least with me, with how we lose. When we lose, the other team usually isn't earning it. We are beating ourselves into the ground with poor game planning, poor strategy, and usually no in-game adjustments. We looked like the same horrible offensive team that started the season when we didn't have Pettway out there. And while White was injured, and that could play a factor in our running game, I'm not sure it should have made that much of a factor, especially toward the beginning of the game when White's status was still unknown. It starts to make me question the whole streak we went on mid season, and whether it was due to coaching adjustments or just stellar contributions from key positions. I want our team to succeed because of our coaching staff, not in spite of it. Half the time, I feel like our coaching staff holds back our potential as much as they help. That's why I think you have so many Auburn fans uncomfortable with them. Maybe I'm off base, but those are my thoughts.

[gr82b4au 5,568]

59 minutes ago, AUinTLoosa said:

Sorry,

I disagree

You are right. I Realize that this is the coaches problem, not the players. Let's just say that our qb recruiting has been less than stellar lately. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

That being said I agree that we should not fire Gus. 

[tigerman1186 537]

Maybe it has been mentioned in an earlier post....but who is Jerod Evans??? I'm sure those in the know can fill us that don't know he is....

[au701948 996]

10 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

Auburn should not have lost to Georgia yesterday.  The UGA offense is anemic and our defense totally controlled it aside from a few amazing passes from Eason.  They held them to two FGs the entire game and anytime that happens, you should win.

At the same time, Auburn is a very beat up team, far more beat up that the coaching staff has let on.  Sean is obviously not himself and unable to generate any velocity on passes beyond 5-10 yards without really screwing up his mechanics and thus his accuracy.  I think it's also causing him to throw the ball quicker to try and avoid hits because any strong hit could spell the end of the season in his mind and it's painful.  Kerryon is not the same back he was early in the year because of the ankle and Pettway just bring another dimension to this offense.  Not having all of those key pieces working properly are just too much to overcome.

And finally, the JF3 thing has been an extreme disappointment not only in terms of evaluation by the staff (in hindsight we should have signed Jerod Evans) but in JF3's own development.  He simply should be better now so that when Sean isn't 100% the offense can do something.  But this is not a problem unique to Auburn.  A&M is a totally different team without Trevor Knight.  Louisville is a 3 or 4 loss team without Lamar Jackson.  Who knows what Clemson is without Watson?  You name me a team and virtually any of them are going to suffer greatly without their starter.  Most backups are not stars who just haven't gotten their chance.  They are backups because they are either flat out not as good, or because they are young and not ready for the lead role and there will be tremendous dropoff.  

All of that said, I feel like in many ways Gus has taken some steps forward as a coach this year.  We finally have a defense that can carry a team and keep us in any game.  That hasn't happened since Tubs was here.  He finally understands his role as a HEAD coach and is allowing his assistants to do what he hired them to do.  And while we are paying the price for missing on Jerod and JJ's mental breakdowns, I think what this team did when it was healthy shows great promise.  

So what do we do?  We are likely to lose to Alabama and finish 8-4.  Is it time to repeat the 4-year "Auburn gets a new head coach" cycle?  Thoughts on that:

1.  Well, I don't want to break up this defensive staff especially.  It's taken 6-7 years to get an Auburn defense back around here and I love what T-Will and McGriff have done.  And our D-line is killing it.  It's nice to know we don't have to score 40 points every outing to have a chance.

2.  Yesterday showed that every coach is susceptible to losing games they shouldn't.  Clemson lost at home to unranked Pitt (giving up 43 points in the process), Michigan lost to unranked Iowa, only scoring 13 in the process, and Washington lost to USC, managing only 13 points at home.  And other coaches have had their struggles this year:  Jimbo at FSU, Stoops at Oklahoma, Herman at Houston.  This is not an exact science.

3.  What coach do you realistically think we go after and get?  Herman maybe, but like Gus he's learning on the job as well.  Jimbo has shown himself to be a monumental whiner and without Jameis is having a hard time of it.  Petrino is having a great year but I don't think he's leaving Louisville a second time so quickly and the PTB at Auburn just aren't going to hire him.  Briles is radioactive for a few years.  So I'm struggling to come up with someone.

Taking all of the above into consideration, I think we're better off staying with Gus for another year, hopefully adding Stidham as QB this offseason, getting Woody Barrett ready after a redshirt year and anticipating Joey Gatewood after him.  It's not going to make a lot of folks happy, but I just don't think blowing things up again after 4 years is the right way to go.

I agree...anything short of just weathering the storm would just set us back 4 MORE years. It is not worth the imagined gain. I, as many others in the AU Family, am seriously unhappy with the way the Offense played yesterday. However, I want to be hopeful that maybe with a week of real rest and rehab, we may get KJ and KP back well and with any good luck maybe even Shawn gets to heal. I do not know what his injury is and whether 10 days in Training Room will make it happen. But I have to have hope, we must find a way to be competitive again. I no longer see us having a chance to beat UA, but I would like to see us competitive in order to improve our Bowl picture and momentum for next season.. 

[keesler 5,923]

11 hours ago, tombigbeetiger said:

would you agree, though, if we go 7-5/8-4 next year, with this level of talent,( talent that is not being properly utilized) that he should be let go?....factoring in the continued boneheaded stubborness and lack of good game planning and adjustments

This feels like dejavue to me.  I swear the exact same statements/comments were made here at the exact same time in the season last year.

[ShocksMyBrain 9,362]

3 minutes ago, keesler said:

This feels like dejavue to me.  I swear the exact same statements/comments were made here at the exact same time in the season last year.

I'm sure it was copy/pasted from the poster you're quoting. 

[aufan57 922]

1 hour ago, tigerman1186 said:

Maybe it has been mentioned in an earlier post....but who is Jerod Evans??? I'm sure those in the know can fill us that don't know he is....

Quarterback at Virginia Tech

 

[WDG 109]

Keep Gus and as much of this staff as you can! Auburn fans are to impatient. War Eagle

[Cooper 10]

I dont want to Fire Gus simply because nobody else can do any better in play for Auburn right now.  I wanted Petrino but I dont write the checks.  But what I would like is to see Woody play if he is so good or anybody else that can sling a ball.  I love White but if he is hurt dont give away a game.  I am on the Gus Bus till this time next year then we will see.