Upon Further Review - Auburn

[leglessdan 1,934]

1 minute ago, Barnacle said:

I will say that this season was so unique - after the loss against LSU, it would have been really hard to manage emotions when the team knew they had to beat Georgia and Alabama back to back. I think that would have been difficult for any staff. 

He did great keeping the team focused through those games. SECCG it didn't go how we wanted.  I get the boys were beat down, but we completely abandoned the run because we had no backup plan.  

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

I will say that this season was so unique - after the loss against LSU, it would have been really hard to manage emotions when the team knew they had to beat Georgia and Alabama back to back. I think that would have been difficult for any staff. 

Agreed. I have actually been mystified by Gus's ability to motivate. Regardless of what anyone thinks of his decision making during his tenure, I think we all agree that there have been times of significant negativity and noise surrounding the program. Yet, his teams have never wavered. (Okay, he might've lost some of the locker room in 2014, but that got fixed and it's almost hard to remember at this point.) It's really something and it's the kind of thing that he does better than many much more experienced coaches. 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

On 12/3/2017 at 10:51 AM, StatTiger said:

After Auburn defeated No. 1 Alabama to finish the regular season 10-2, I mentioned this would have meant Auburn winning the Southeastern Conference outright prior to 1992. This is the very reason why Auburn coaches now should not be compared to Auburn coaches prior to 1992 when it comes to winning conference titles. What if the 1987 team had to play Tennessee a second time to win the conference? What if the 1983 team had to play Florida again at a neutral site to win the SEC? What if the 1989 team had to play Tennessee again to win the conference? I enjoyed every conference championship Auburn has won since 1983, but the road to winning one now is much more of a challenge than the 1980's.

What stings about the loss to Georgia yesterday was the fact Auburn had to defeat a very good Georgia team twice to win the SEC this year and Georgia needed just one victory against the Tigers. We now know how LSU must have felt having to play Alabama two times in one season a few years ago. Even with Auburn's victory over Georgia, the Bulldogs conference loss had no barring on them winning the East because the East was so putrid this season. Tennessee and Florida need to make good coaching hires to become competitive in the East again. For now, Georgia has a cake-walk to make it to Atlanta. Auburn defeating No. 1 Georgia and No. 1 Alabama was an amazing accomplishment but leave a hollow feeling right now with yesterday's loss. Auburn would have likely benefited from a bye-week before the conference championship.

The road to winning a national championship will be a near-impossible task for any Auburn head coach as the teams in the conference currently stand regarding ability. Had Auburn won the rematch with Georgia it was going to take another two victories over Top-4 ranked teams to win the National Championship. Had this goal been accomplished, it would have required Auburn to defeat five consecutive Power-5 teams ranked in the Top-6. How many teams in the country right now would be able to accomplish this task? The 1983 Auburn team went 4-1 against Top-10 teams, but those games were spread out over 12 games. Pat Dye was 11-15-2 against Top-10 teams and 4-10-2 against Top-5 teams during his tenure at Auburn. His teams never defeated a No. 1 ranked team during 12 seasons not to mention two in one season.

The 1983 squad might be one of the greatest teams in school history, but it was loaded with plenty of talent and depth. The 85-scholarship rule was not in place back then, and injuries were far more manageable back then compared to today. I have always felt Auburn deserved the MNC that year but what if there was a playoff format back then. Would Auburn have defeated Nebraska that year or Texas in a rematch in 1983? It is all for speculation, but it certainly brings a hard dose of reality to the challenge to win it all today. Clemson is healthy now and looks strong enough to capture another National Championship. What if they had to play Georgia twice and Alabama once in four weeks with an injured quarterback?

Auburn could finish 11-3 this season, ranked in the top-10 but some will undoubtedly focus on the three losses more so than the 11 victories. The 2017 Auburn Tigers are a good team and a team that would be conference champions during the Pat Dye era. The coaches and players deserve more praise than criticism. Were they perfect? Absolutely not but I do believe when healthy, this football team could beat anyone in the country. Looking back at every season since 2017, how many times could anyone realistically make this statement? I do believe it is in the best interest of Auburn and Gus Malzahn to come to an agreement to keep him in place as the head coach. He has shown an abundance of growth as a head coach this season and the foundation is in place to build a championship team.

War Eagle!

Possibly drifting off-topic, and maybe away from direct relevance, but

I suspect our end-of-season gauntlet could provide a cautionary tale for those advocating an expanded playoff.

 

ETA - Would'a been a tough slog on anyone.

Edited December 4, 2017 by AUld fAUx@

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

22 hours ago, AU-24 said:

Well said! Problem is, when will it get any easier? Jay Jacobs and possibly Gene Chiz really screwed up, by not insisting, during conference expansion, that Auburn move to the east.

With the Jimbo Fisher hire at Texas A&M, and with Dumbo Sweeney simply waiting for Satan to retire, and as long as LSU doesn’t completely fall from football prominence, and our rivalry with the Georgia in the SEC East remains on the schedule, it looks like it’s going to be tough, to impossible, to win the conference, let alone get into the playoffs.

 

Bring it.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

16 hours ago, weagl1 said:

Right on Stat.  Think about it. A panel of top college football experts agreed on the top 4 teams.  We played 3 of the 4 and one of them twice.  That's 4 games against the top 4 and 3 of those games occurred in the past 4 weeks.  We won 2 of the 3 and both were relatively easy wins (23 points and 13 points).  We went in yesterday with our 1A RB out and our 1B RB so banged up he shouldn't have played.  The 2 fumbles and the blocked FG turned the game in UGA's favor and our defense finally gave out late having played Bammer last weekend while UGA had a cakewalk against Tech.  You give this team a month to rest up, get everyone back healthy, and put them in the playoff.  There is no doubt in my mind they win it.  

Now go back to last year.  We played all 4 of this year's playoff participants last year.  Now add it up and that's a total of 8 games against 4 of the other top teams in the country in a two year period.  What other team in college football does that?  None!  Face it.  Auburn is not under coached or out manned.  It is over scheduled.  I don't know that there is anything we can do about that but I sure as hell don't think we need to be talking about running coaches off because of it.  What this team and these coaches have been up against these past two years is unprecedented in college football.  This isn't the old days when you play 10 games plus a bowl and maybe a couple are against the better teams and then someone decides who is the #1 team.  You want to win the NC now you gonna play 15 games and in our case we are gonna play at least 4 or 5 against the other top teams.  It's a tough row to hoe and ours is usually going to be toughest of any team in the country.  

Tough neighborhood.

[doc4aday 1,887]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 11:59 AM, AU70 said:

Totally agree with your assessment. I was upset that we did not keep running the ball on 2nd and 6 at the 14 and up by 7 in the 2nd quarter. Our line was controlling the LOS and Kam Martin was doing a nice job finding the crease. We go up by 14 there and maybe we have a different outcome. Instead we went cute and fumbled away the opportunity to put points on the board.

On another note would love to see what this team could have done with a healthy Pettway and healthy KJ. 

I do think we were suffering from Iron Bowl fatigue.

not sure what will happen with KJ or KP. I know KJ loves Auburn and would come back strictly for his love. However,  his value in the NFL could be too good to pass on. Either way, he will go down as one of my favorite RBs to wear the orange and blue. Who knows, one day he may come back to Auburn as our RB coach and teach our young backs how to run over folks and stiff arm them to death.

As far as Mr. Pettway, I feel he will be 100% for the bowl game as well as will come back for 2018. Right now, his stock is not that great and even a free agent NFL pick could be a stretch. Stay healthy for 2018, and he can get a million or 2 in the signing process. He needs a solid 2018 at Auburn to accomplish this. I do not put any stock in the rumors about him whatsoever. He is a good kid from a good family whose folks I know expect good things from him.

 

I now stand corrected. KP will not play in the bowl game and likely will not return to the team after he graduates this month. I wish him the best and hope he changes his mind and decides to come back to improve his stock in the NFL.

Edited December 14, 2017 by doc4aday
owning up

[OldTigerGrad09 22]

On 12/3/2017 at 12:33 PM, toddc said:

I was the same way when younger! I would literally be sick after a loss like this, but older and wiser I look more at the big picture and it looks pretty bright.

I totally agree with your statement. Age has brought a bit of wisdom in dealing with losses. I used to be mad for days after a loss, but soon realized that there is a lot more to life than worrying about the outcome of a game played by kids half my age. Don't get me wrong, I love my Auburn Tigers and confront anyone who tries to disparage them. War Eagle, ALWAYS !!

[kd4au 1,145]

9 hours ago, OldTigerGrad09 said:

kids half my age

If they're just have your age then your not old enough to call yourself OldTigerGrad your still young.

[aubaseball 2,584]

After watching some replays of the game, I was wondering if the offensive line was the same for the championship game as the regular season game?   I thought that after the first series in the regular season prince was brought in at left tackle and the offense started working.  

[alexava 6,973]

11 hours ago, aubaseball said:

After watching some replays of the game, I was wondering if the offensive line was the same for the championship game as the regular season game?   I thought that after the first series in the regular season prince was brought in at left tackle and the offense started working.  

Not having kerryon slithering and banging through the defense was the difference. When you lose one of the best and most versatile players in the country you can’t just snap your fingers and replace him. I respect him immensely for his efforts but he probably should have sat it out. I don’t think we would have fared any better with him on the bench simply because we don’t have another one close to him. I don’t know what to expect in the bowl game but I look for us to throw a lot more and better next year. 

[gulftiger66 166]

On 12/5/2017 at 7:42 AM, aubaseball said:

After watching some replays of the game, I was wondering if the offensive line was the same for the championship game as the regular season game?   I thought that after the first series in the regular season prince was brought in at left tackle and the offense started working.  

Don't get me wrong for I think we have an above average OL but having an RB like KJ who makes a lot of tough yards after initial contact makes the OL look elite.

[aufan57 922]

On 12/5/2017 at 7:42 AM, aubaseball said:

   I thought that after the first series in the regular season prince was brought in at left tackle and the offense started working.  

You are correct. With Brandon Smith and Golson on the right side the running game clicked.

[McLoofus 35,182]

51 minutes ago, aufan57 said:

You are correct. With Brandon Smith and Golson on the right side the running game clicked.

Gary Danielson was right all along.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

If I were in charge,

the uga game would be played in mid October, LSU in late September

Or the uga/uf game would be moved to the same weekend Auburn plays bamr..

Or  Auburn would move to the East, rotating with bamr and make LSU our permanent West opponent.

Edited December 7, 2017 by SumterAubie

[Linayus 676]

A couple of things I've thought about today that are pretty darn amazing for this year's team:

1. Our scoring defense was GREAT. We only allowed an average of 17 points a game which is exactly the same as last year except the most points any team has scored on us this year was 28 and that was Georgia taking advantage of a tired defense. Compare that to last year allowing aTm and Ole Miss to score 29, Bama 30, and Oklahoma 35. Kevin Steele deserves his pay. Hell, Gus should probably give him another $500k from his own salary as a bonus.

2. Not only do we have another 1000 yard rusher with KJ (even missing 2 games) and who could hit 1500 if healthy against UCF, we also have a QB who has thrown for over 2800 yards and will very likely pass 3000 against UCF. The last Auburn QB with stats that good? Cam Newton. ( @StatTiger can correct me if I'm wrong! )

We may have botched the early game against Clemson and threw away a win against LSU, but this team deserves a lot of credit for the way they responded and finished the year. I'm excited to see what we do going forward!

[KolchakAU85 430]

The LSU loss was 100% due to a stupid in-game strategy change by Gus.

The domination by Georgia in the SECCG was mainly due to poor preparation.

Yes, Kerryon's injury hurt.  But how do we completely dominate both lines of scrimmage in the first game, and get completely dominated on both in the second?  By not being prepared mentally to play.

[alexava 6,973]

On 12/9/2017 at 8:36 AM, KolchakAU85 said:

The LSU loss was 100% due to a stupid in-game strategy change by Gus.

The domination by Georgia in the SECCG was mainly due to poor preparation.

Yes, Kerryon's injury hurt.  But how do we completely dominate both lines of scrimmage in the first game, and get completely dominated on both in the second?  By not being prepared mentally to play.

You can argue the offensive game plan wasn’t good. But we were probably as mentally worn as physically. Kerryon was maybe 40%. #30 and #6 are arguably the most important defensive players out in the second half. It was just a brutal stretch. Not establishing the run game was the only thing I can blame on coach.... well not being able to get the offense going with the passing game is what I want to see improved next season.  

[doc4aday 1,887]

On ‎12‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 2:07 PM, AU-24 said:

Well said! Problem is, when will it get any easier? Jay Jacobs and possibly Gene Chiz really screwed up, by not insisting, during conference expansion, that Auburn move to the east.

With the Jimbo Fisher hire at Texas A&M, and with Dumbo Sweeney simply waiting for Satan to retire, and as long as LSU doesn’t completely fall from football prominence, and our rivalry with the Georgia in the SEC East remains on the schedule, it looks like it’s going to be tough, to impossible, to win the conference, let alone get into the playoffs.

 

I like the way you think young grasshopper! Dumbo Sweeney & satan fit the bill. I do like Dodo Stinky & Jumbo Flusher names as well, satan.....well this sums it up for evil little dude in Starkville east. Keep up the good creative names for our foes and good things are bound to happen!

I do think in the next 5 years we will be in the SEC East. There is enough support I think to make this happen somewhere down the road.