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Offensive line play


dave$AU

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How in the world is our OL not blowing the likes of Ga. Southern and Mercer off the LOS? Is Herb Hand's coaching technique the issue? I really don't understand why we're not steam rolling those teams. Clemson was different because they've got a legit defense.

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43 minutes ago, dave$AU said:

How in the world is our OL not blowing the likes of Ga. Southern and Mercer off the LOS? Is Herb Hand's coaching technique the issue? I really don't understand why we're not steam rolling those teams. Clemson was different because they've got a legit defense.

when Chef Tell was at Penn St for 2 years, his O-Line set records for most sacks allowed.    They allowed a total of 83 sacks in his two years, while the previous year, they only allowed 16.    You do the math.    He is Mr. Magoos butt buddy, and thats his qualification to coach the O-line at AU.   He is an awful coach and his previous stops prove it

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Hand the coaching hire that is very likely going to cost Gus his job.  I have never seen an Auburn OL look this bad and I know there is some talent in there.  

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10 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

Hand the coaching hire that is very likely going to cost Gus his job.  I have never seen an Auburn OL look this bad and I know there is some talent in there.  

Smith, the two grad transfers, Golson can all play, period!  That is 4 and I know nothing about the line.   I know Prince T is a project who is progressing and has NFL upside I hear.   

This OL is my biggest disappointment, based on preseason hype.   If we can't win big with this group, we need to give up tackle football.  

 

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22 minutes ago, Beaker said:

Smith, the two grad transfers, Golson can all play, period!  That is 4 and I know nothing about the line.   I know Prince T is a project who is progressing and has NFL upside I hear.   

This OL is my biggest disappointment, based on preseason hype.   If we can't win big with this group, we need to give up tackle football.  

 

Yes. The o'line is the biggest disappointment. Slightly edges wide reciever play, play calling, approach, and development.

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If you don't beat the man in front of you, play calling is irrelevant! I believe this gets lost too often with our pissing, moaning and fair weather fan base. That doesn't mean that we don't have some head scratching play calls. 

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1 hour ago, weagl1 said:

Hand the coaching hire that is very likely going to cost Gus his job.  I have never seen an Auburn OL look this bad and I know there is some talent in there.  

Hand is not the only reason the Gus could lose his job, he has made some questionable calls on other hires as well on the offensive side of the ball.  This coupled with spending all spring and summer/fall practice getting the team ready and putting out what we see on the field the first 3 games or so, FOR 4 OUT OF 5 YEARS he has been here.  Among other things I don't have the expertise to see.

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Was the o line asked to change their blocking scheme to comp the new o chip brings? If so how long does it take to get decent at it? I wish we still had the old man Gus ran off for coach hand. I could be wrong but I do not remember his o lines ever looking this bad. And yes herb was hired to help with the old Gus offense which we have changed a bit with chip. From a fans perspective I believe we messed up. I often think Gus is not mean enough with some of his coaches. We seem to accept poor coaching. I am confident someone will correct me if I am wrong.

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I asked this on another board, and it sounds like Mercer's defensive scheme was just a great matchup to the IZ we love to run so much. Doesn't necessarily explain why we couldn't push them around and physically dominate them, but it seems their 3-3-5 is a very good recipe for stopping the IZ runs. We ran outside zone once from what I remember, which wasn't successful, and hit a big PA pass off that OZ run. From the answers in that thread, it sounds like we should've used more HB or pulling guards to combat their defense, which I'm not sure if we did. Ultimately, it doesn't sound like we schemed very well against them or we just decided we were going to work on some toughness and bang our heads into a brick wall all day.

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4 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

Was the o line asked to change their blocking scheme to comp the new o chip brings? If so how long does it take to get decent at it? I wish we still had the old man Gus ran off for coach hand. I could be wrong but I do not remember his o lines ever looking this bad. And yes herb was hired to help with the old Gus offense which we have changed a bit with chip. From a fans perspective I believe we messed up. I often think Gus is not mean enough with some of his coaches. We seem to accept poor coaching. I am confident someone will correct me if I am wrong.

Part of the reason Hand was brought in was because we weren't having much success on the recruiting trail on the OL. CJBG was a good OL coach but wasn't recruiting well. I think Hand has recruited better, and our OL last year was just as good as 2015 from an advanced statistical perspective. 

And I don't fault Hand too much for the issues at Penn St. He was dealing with some pretty tough circumstances and replacing 4 starters his first year and 3 his second year (I believe). James Franklin believed in him enough to bring him from Vandy, where he made some improvements on their OL, to Penn St with him. I don't think he's a bad coach. 

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55 minutes ago, imaolgatiger said:

If you don't beat the man in front of you, play calling is irrelevant! I believe this gets lost too often with our pissing, moaning and fair weather fan base. That doesn't mean that we don't have some head scratching play calls. 

+1000000

Hand has done nothing impressive with this oline, and there's no doubt in my mind that he had his hands in the play selection last season.  The oline looked like rough the first part of last season, and it has looked just as bad this season.

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13 minutes ago, boomstick said:

I asked this on another board, and it sounds like Mercer's defensive scheme was just a great matchup to the IZ we love to run so much. Doesn't necessarily explain why we couldn't push them around and physically dominate them, but it seems their 3-3-5 is a very good recipe for stopping the IZ runs. We ran outside zone once from what I remember, which wasn't successful, and hit a big PA pass off that OZ run. From the answers in that thread, it sounds like we should've used more HB or pulling guards to combat their defense, which I'm not sure if we did. Ultimately, it doesn't sound like we schemed very well against them or we just decided we were going to work on some toughness and bang our heads into a brick wall all day.

If this is true, and our offensive coaching staff can't even out coach Mercer, what chance does that give us against Saban, Smart, et.al.  None.

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5 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

If this is true, and our offensive coaching staff can't even out coach Mercer, what chance does that give us against Saban, Smart, et.al.  None.

Yeah, it made me wonder about the adjustments (or lack of) this staff makes. I don't understand the very detailed intricacies of OL play and watching it on tape to understand if we've made adjustments nor do I know how many times we ran certain plays from certain formations against certain looks. But it does seem, from a novice fan's perspective, that we didn't make many adjustments to counter how Mercer adjusted to defend the run game. I wish I had that knowledge. Maybe it's something I'll put on my bucket list to learn. 

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"Tentative" is the word I would use to describe the OL so far this year. When watching the replay, on some of the plays they look tentative and unsure of their assignment. 

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I think blocking is something that has the potential to vary more between games. Even good lines (wouldn’t call us that) struggle against certain teams almost at random, whether it be a lack of aggressiveness, a mismatch in scheme, crowd noise, etc. Our line looked below average against GSU, terrible against Clemson, and pretty fair against Mercer (there were times where the pocket stayed up for near 8 seconds—that’s hard to do against anyone).

So the O-Line concerns me but I have hope for improvement there whereas some other habits we have shown are going to be harder to break I think. But yeah everybody is right, our OL isn’t good right now.

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3 hours ago, Samau said:

Penn St OL was terrible when Hand was there, now that he has gone they are much better.  

They also have players that fit the current scheme much better, better quality and depth on the OL, and a QB that isn't a sitting duck. I get that Hand hasn't been a fan favorite here, but I don't think it's as easy as saying Hand being the common denominator between Penn St and Auburn explains why both OLs weren't/aren't good. 

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I'm not a fan of Hand, but I am having a hard time understanding why our offensive line last year was considered one of the best in the nation. Hand was the coach last year right?

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3 hours ago, Samau said:

Penn St OL was terrible when Hand was there, now that he has gone they are much better.  

I'm not a huge HH fan, but I remember the situation at Penn St. Due to probation and injuries, they were playing with three or four walkons. I strongly agree our OL play needs to improve though. 

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I'm glad to see I am not the only one to see the oline is the main problem to our offense not producing. Get the o-line right and this offense will be a force that will be hard to stop!

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Today is game 4.   Today, if our OL plays like it did in games 1,2, and 3, then you're faced with only two reasons.   Reason #1 is that they are not very talented nor very smart and they can't do or they can't learn what they are being asked to do.    Reason #2 is that they are poorly coached .    These are the only two options

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16 minutes ago, doverstutts said:

Today is game 4.   Today, if our OL plays like it did in games 1,2, and 3, then you're faced with only two reasons.   Reason #1 is that they are not very talented nor very smart and they can't do or they can't learn what they are being asked to do.    Reason #2 is that they are poorly coached .    These are the only two options

Gee, I was thinking that in game 3. We play a very good Clemson team and now have a chance to improve, especially give the OL some confidence even if its just Mercer. I wonder how much time it will take to get proficient at pass blocking? Now that we struggle to run consistently.

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18 hours ago, Gowebb11 said:

I'm not a huge HH fan, but I remember the situation at Penn St. Due to probation and injuries, they were playing with three or four walkons. I strongly agree our OL play needs to improve though. 

There is no doubt that the Oline needs to improve. However, they should get some credit for our 500+ yards against Mercer and Ga Southern. If I recall correctly, not one of the linemen dropped a fumble or threw an interception.

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It is just hard to tell if we have improved the OL much until we play a SEC West team. We should look very good against a lower classification football team. I remember we struggled against Jax St. a couple years ago. After 3 or 4 years these teams should not be used to measure improvement. But yes the OL did look better against Mercer.

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