How did we do compared to our biggest rivals

[lionheartkc 6,150]

13 hours ago, mom2kid said:

We fell out of top 10 so not sure what all the poditive spin is about.  Apparently coming in  a fistant 3rd behind UGA and Bama is ok with everyone.  And the dominating class by UGA is ok because we are going to beat them regardless.  I think people have the head in the sand syndrome.  Bama lost too many assistants and it showed in recruiting but UGAs dominance is scary.  And the majority of AU fans don’t think it matters.  Our oline is not going to be good next yr.  Unless we score big in ‘19 with recruits that can have immediate impact, we are going to be hurting.  RB is tbd.  None of our backs were good enough to play much this yr. so not sure who plays next yr. We lost the last two games becuz we had to play a hurt KJ.  Sorry but the “we are going to be fine” attitude and “state schools are going to do better” defeatest attitude bugs the c__p out of me.  The class is good not great and we fell behind our two major rivals— fact.

Wow... bad day?

Our O-Line FINALLY has a good coach again and has the talent to coach up. Yea, this O-Line class was lacking, but the cupboard is far from bare and there are some great prospects for 2019 that Grimes can focus on.

We added 3 4-star backs, each with a very specific skillset and none of which are strictly change of pace. One is the top player in the state and another other is one of the fast 200 meter dash runners in the country.

Also, in your focus on the negative, you missed that, for the second time in 3 years, we scored one of the best receiver classes in the country, adding the fastest recruit in the country, and a big man, which we've needed sorely. 

As for the "state schools are going to do better", that's something that can be backed up with statistics. There's only one 2-school state where the non-state school consistently out recruits the the school that carries the state name and that's because South Carolina traditionally sucks. The fact that Auburn does so well in recruiting as a non-state school is something to be celebrated.

This class IS great, just not elite, and we have ALWAYS been behind our two major rivals in recruiting.

***Oh, and I forgot our Aussie... how could I forget him. Talking about fixing one of our glaring problems with a single signature***

[AUsince72 11,084]

Either way you look at this class...

It's the type of class that, when added to all the other classes AU's had the last 4 years, a great coaching staff can dominate with.

AU's recruiting is fine, if not awesome.  It's time for the coaching to match.

War Eagle.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 hour ago, AUsince72 said:

Either way you look at this class...

It's the type of class that, when added to all the other classes AU's had the last 4 years, a great coaching staff can dominate with.

AU's recruiting is fine, if not awesome.  It's time for the coaching to match.

War Eagle.

Yea... and think back to recruiting pre-Chizik. We couldn't have imagined classes like this back then.

[doc4aday 1,887]

9 hours ago, AUsince72 said:

Either way you look at this class...

It's the type of class that, when added to all the other classes AU's had the last 4 years, a great coaching staff can dominate with.

AU's recruiting is fine, if not awesome.  It's time for the coaching to match.

War Eagle.

I agree with you to a point. However, I think our coaching for 2019 will evolve into to more balanced attack on offense. I think Gus is going to give CCL more leeway with the passing game. With the bevy of receivers we will field in 2019, will have opponent DCs up late at night trying to figure out how they are going to deal with the lethal speed we will have. I see what Gus is trying to do, and  that is having a stable and effective coaching staff. Coach Grimes will have the line playing much better in 2019 and this is why Gus was quick to grab him. Grimes is one of the best in the business and it will show in 2019.

Folks, we had a better class in 2018 than 2017 of which is a fact. If we had the 2018 class in 2017, it would have been a solid top 10 class without question. I know we have some folks who are going to be negative no matter what happens and this is OK.  It can be annoying at times for sure, but it is what it is. Everyone has a right to express their likes and dislikes and I will defend this. However,  folks the 2018 class is a pretty fine assembly of great talent with speed to burn. I think our passing game will be on an elite level beyond what 2017 had for us. Our running game will be good no doubt and might be better than 2017.

Year 3 of Coach Steele will be good and could be better than 2017 with the DL returning a ton of star power. LB play should be solid. DB play should get better as the season progresses once we get the new backs playing in the system that worked the past 2 seasons. 

[AUsince72 11,084]

49 minutes ago, doc4aday said:

I agree with you to a point. However, I think our coaching for 2019 will evolve into to more balanced attack on offense. I think Gus is going to give CCL more leeway with the passing game. With the bevy of receivers we will field in 2019, will have opponent DCs up late at night trying to figure out how they are going to deal with the lethal speed we will have. I see what Gus is trying to do, and  that is having a stable and effective coaching staff. Coach Grimes will have the line playing much better in 2019 and this is why Gus was quick to grab him. Grimes is one of the best in the business and it will show in 2019.

Folks, we had a better class in 2018 than 2017 of which is a fact. If we had the 2018 class in 2017, it would have been a solid top 10 class without question. I know we have some folks who are going to be negative no matter what happens and this is OK.  It can be annoying at times for sure, but it is what it is. Everyone has a right to express their likes and dislikes and I will defend this. However,  folks the 2018 class is a pretty fine assembly of great talent with speed to burn. I think our passing game will be on an elite level beyond what 2017 had for us. Our running game will be good no doubt and might be better than 2017.

Year 3 of Coach Steele will be good and could be better than 2017 with the DL returning a ton of star power. LB play should be solid. DB play should get better as the season progresses once we get the new backs playing in the system that worked the past 2 seasons. 

Regarding your post, but to the bolded part especially..

A. That's the $64,000 question.  Will he?

B. I hope you're right.

C. I hope he does it this year too and doesn't wait until 2019. 

[mom2kid 216]

Folks I really don’t mean to be negative and I would love nothing better than to become a dominant winning team.  So many here brushed off UGA last yr and continue to think KS will fail.  I see a program that has the same confidence and swagger as Bama, very good coaching, and yes I will say it, underhanded recruiting practices learned from NS.  I’m around uga fans and they brag and laugh about Kirby bringing Nick’s knowledge of how to cheat and not get caught.  No way they dominate the way they did without something under the table.  Do I think they paid Fields $300k? Yes something was paid.  

I think we have very good D coaches and Gus leaves them alone.  I don’t have as much belief in the O caches and Gus meddles too much.  They obviously had no confidence in our backs last yr; let’s see who emerges.  But UGA just reloaded with 2 not one 5 stars.  And they have that impressive freshman back.  I don’t know why we don’t dominate in RB recruiting every yr.  Not saying our recruiting is bad just saying we are slightly under UGA.  Then of course the oline recruiting was a major disappointment.  You guys know how important it is to dominate st the line and create the holes for the running gsme.

So yes we did better than other schools.  (But keep in mind the coaching carousel) To just say we did “fine” for me means we did OK.  Compared to our major rivals, we fell behind.  Let’s see how the season goes and hope we can be more dominant in next yr’s recruiting.

[Mikey 16,577]

Quoting @mom2kid, above: " I don’t have as much belief in the O caches and Gus meddles too much. "

You do realize that our offense led the SEC in scoring in conference games, right? Scored more than UGA, scored more than Bammer, scored more than any other team in the conference in regular season in-conference games.

There is always room for improvement no matter what, but in this area, if Gus's meddling is resulting in AU scoring more than everybody else in the conference, maybe he needs to keep on meddling.

[keesler 5,924]

I have no problem whatsoever with Gus "meddling", it's his damn team.  

I watched a lot of football last season and MANY great HC's coaches in college and pro "meddled" in the schemes and play calling on offense and defense.  I saw defensive minded HC's change offensive plays and veto their OC's at crucial times in a game,  I saw offensive minded HC's get involved with the defenses as well.  It's what HC's are supposed to do, it's why they are Head Coaches.

Gus had a new OC & QB last season, did our fans seriously expect Gus to sit back and let his new OC & QB just do their thing and let the chips fall where they may?

[blueridge 29]

On 2/6/2018 at 5:55 PM, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Name one of those DT’s? 

This is what a clown says.

[McLoofus 35,182]

13 minutes ago, keesler said:

I have no problem whatsoever with Gus "meddling", it's his damn team.  

I watched a lot of football last season and MANY great HC's coaches in college and pro "meddled" in the schemes and play calling on offense and defense.  I saw defensive minded HC's change offensive plays and veto their OC's at crucial times in a game,  I saw offensive minded HC's get involved with the defenses as well.  It's what HC's are supposed to do, it's why they are Head Coaches.

Gus had a new OC & QB last season, did our fans seriously expect Gus to sit back and let his new OC & QB just do their thing and let the chips fall where they may?

If you look at our numbers for the season, they were good.

If you look at each game individually, most of them were good and a few of them were really, really bad.

Same story as seasons past except with major improvements in November. We had a couple games that were vastly different than the other games. They were so different and so bad that they looked like we had a different coach. That was the case against Clemson this year and last. It was the case in the 2nd half of the LSU game this year, and Gus acknowledged it. Chip moved up to the booth after a few games this season and we immediately started getting better results. Rhett took over play calling last year- again, Gus acknowledged this- and we immediately started getting better results. 

I'm a Falcons fan. I would have LOVED for Dan Quinn to "meddle" in the 4th quarter of the SB year before last. Also, I'm married to a Patriots fan. She LOVES that Bill Belichik provides a philosophy and framework in which his assistants operate. But Gus, at times, simply prevents his assistants from being successful. The evidence is there. 

 

[Tiger 8,819]

I am going to preface this by saying I know next to nothing about Marcus Woodson at this point, but I have a question regarding the hire:

 

I know there's a ton of talent in MS this year so he gives us a big boost there due to his ties. But is that the main reason for his hiring (recruiting wise)? Are we going to be focusing on MS more in the next few years because Ole Miss and Miss St will be down for the forseeable future? Is the talent in MS trending up outside of this year? Or are we retreating away from Georgia because of how Kirby is dominating and putting more emphasis outside of GA because of this? 

Seriously, not a snarky and pointed question. I'm just ignorant on this stuff

[toddc 13,194]

We will never pull back from Georgia recruiting, too much talent there. Kirby can’t get all of them.

[McLoofus 35,182]

58 minutes ago, Tiger said:

I am going to preface this by saying I know next to nothing about Marcus Woodson at this point, but I have a question regarding the hire:

I know there's a ton of talent in MS this year so he gives us a big boost there due to his ties. But is that the main reason for his hiring (recruiting wise)? Are we going to be focusing on MS more in the next few years because Ole Miss and Miss St will be down for the forseeable future? Is the talent in MS trending up outside of this year? Or are we retreating away from Georgia because of how Kirby is dominating and putting more emphasis outside of GA because of this? 

Seriously, not a snarky and pointed question. I'm just ignorant on this stuff

It's a fair question. Fortunately, I think he's got a lot more going for him than just his MS ties. He fits the "young, energetic up and comer who players can relate to" mold. Perhaps more importantly, his secondaries create turnovers. For all of Steele's success, we haven't done that:

Quote

In the last two seasons, the Memphis defense forced 60 turnovers, the second best total in the nation, including 32 interceptions. This past season under Woodson's watch, freshman defensive back T.J. Carter was named to the ESPN.com and USA Today Freshman All-America teams and was the American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year after setting a Memphis freshman record with five interceptions.

*********

As part of the turnover-creating defense, Woodson's defensive backfield helped Memphis total 16 picks in 2016, the second-most by a Tigers squad since 2000 (trails only 2014 team with 17). Of those 16 interceptions, 11 were by Woodson's secondary. 

 

[AUsince72 11,084]

4 hours ago, keesler said:

I have no problem whatsoever with Gus "meddling", it's his damn team.  

I watched a lot of football last season and MANY great HC's coaches in college and pro "meddled" in the schemes and play calling on offense and defense.  I saw defensive minded HC's change offensive plays and veto their OC's at crucial times in a game,  I saw offensive minded HC's get involved with the defenses as well.  It's what HC's are supposed to do, it's why they are Head Coaches.

Gus had a new OC & QB last season, did our fans seriously expect Gus to sit back and let his new OC & QB just do their thing and let the chips fall where they may?

I agree with you in theory.

It's the HC's job on the line first, so it's his responsibility to "take charge", "make executive decisions ", "impart wisdom", "lead"....and his prerogative.  Gus does a lot of that very well....

However, there's plenty evidence that he "meddles" too.  It's not just that they lose a few games every year... It's that when they lose a game, the way they lose is pretty much identical to the way they lose every other game.  And the way they lose always looks eerily familiar to the way they would lose before Gus "gave up" the offensive reins.

If it Walks like a duck & Talks like a duck.... AU's losses the last few years are all Muscovy ducks...not even Mallards.

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

First why does it always have to be about uat or uga? Why can’t we just ask did we get the guys the coaches wanted. First let’s put somethings in perspective. The state of Georgia had a bumper crop this year. Uga usually gets most of those from the state. Other teams like AU usually get a couple of the good one. I think this transpired and help to give uga a big advantage. I do think KS is an ace recruiter in his own rite. He will do go good especially in his state. It will be harder for AU to get good ones out of Georgia while he is there and they are winning on the field. Uat finished lower this year. In fact if it was not for the sites inflating there stars they would finish below us. I think that is a trend you will see continue. The other thing to notice is that we finished 3 rd in the SEC. the surprise was from teams outside the SEC taking a lot of good players. If you look at this class overall against the last few classes that have finished higher, this class by the numbers was actually as good or better than some of those. It just happened that quite a few teams from other conferences did well this year. 

[bigbird 60,501]

More teeth?

[GwillMac6 20,666]

19 minutes ago, bigbird said:

More teeth?

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

3 hours ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

First why does it always have to be about uat or uga? Why can’t we just ask did we get the guys the coaches wanted. First let’s put somethings in perspective. The state of Georgia had a bumper crop this year. Uga usually gets most of those from the state. Other teams like AU usually get a couple of the good one. I think this transpired and help to give uga a big advantage. I do think KS is an ace recruiter in his own rite. He will do go good especially in his state. It will be harder for AU to get good ones out of Georgia while he is there and they are winning on the field. Uat finished lower this year. In fact if it was not for the sites inflating there stars they would finish below us. I think that is a trend you will see continue. The other thing to notice is that we finished 3 rd in the SEC. the surprise was from teams outside the SEC taking a lot of good players. If you look at this class overall against the last few classes that have finished higher, this class by the numbers was actually as good or better than some of those. It just happened that quite a few teams from other conferences did well this year. 

While it is true the SEC had a bad year by SEC standards we also had a lot of HC turnover which I am sure impacted that. Next year should be a little better year for the SEC overall but it will take some time for all the teams with new coaches to build long term relationships.

Gus new long term contract will stop some of the negative recruiting. Whether you like Gus or not many teams  used Gus on the hot seat against us this past year. We already have two key pieces to next years class one of the better QB's in the country and one of the better receivers in the country. Without having Shedrick Jackson with him this year. I expect Pickens to get more work and his rankings improve because of that. We really need to load up on the O-Line at least 3 OT's and 2 interior O-line. Our D coaches have upped their game the last couple of years I would like a 5* Lb and 2 more LBs, a shutdown corner or 2 and a safety or 2, and Garner to keep restocking the D-Line.

I think it will be hard to out recruit UGA next year as there is so much talent in Ga. but even this year Auburn did well in Georgia, We will need to pull3-4 from Miss. this year and continue the way we have last few years in Al. and Ga. I think we actually did better overall then bama this year and I would not be surprised if we don't beat them next year in both overall quality and ranking.  bama in recent years has gone national to the point that they have gone downhill in their home territories that could have a long range negative impact on them if they have a couple of less than stellar years, They almost did not make the playoffs this year. If not in the playoffs that hurts their national recruiting.

[doc4aday 1,887]

9 hours ago, McLoofus said:

If you look at our numbers for the season, they were good.

If you look at each game individually, most of them were good and a few of them were really, really bad.

Same story as seasons past except with major improvements in November. We had a couple games that were vastly different than the other games. They were so different and so bad that they looked like we had a different coach. That was the case against Clemson this year and last. It was the case in the 2nd half of the LSU game this year, and Gus acknowledged it. Chip moved up to the booth after a few games this season and we immediately started getting better results. Rhett took over play calling last year- again, Gus acknowledged this- and we immediately started getting better results. 

I'm a Falcons fan. I would have LOVED for Dan Quinn to "meddle" in the 4th quarter of the SB year before last. Also, I'm married to a Patriots fan. She LOVES that Bill Belichik provides a philosophy and framework in which his assistants operate. But Gus, at times, simply prevents his assistants from being successful. The evidence is there. 

 

You have many valid points and make a good case. We are going to have some games that are just not what expect. We were 2 TDS and a FG from being 12-0 regular season. I was as mad as I have ever been as a fan of Gus after the LSU game, and wanted to hang him out to dry. However, he and his staff rebounded nicely and found redemption.  The 2nd UGA game was a tough loss, but I think we were gassed after the Iron Bowl and KJ was injured and gave it his best. The UCF game was tough and one we should have won. If the refs had gotten the call right early on in the 1st quarter when we were robbed of a TD when our defender was not down and should have scored a TD. That play came back to haunt us and was a key factor in that loss.

All in all, last year was a very solid season and one to build on. I see this team going 9-3 to 11-1 for 2018. Most likely a 10 win season after the bowl game and who knows if we catch fire and finish 11-1 that would take us to the play offs. I am going on record now to say that no team in the SEC will go undefeated for 2018.

[doc4aday 1,887]

1 hour ago, AuburnNTexas said:

While it is true the SEC had a bad year by SEC standards we also had a lot of HC turnover which I am sure impacted that. Next year should be a little better year for the SEC overall but it will take some time for all the teams with new coaches to build long term relationships.

Gus new long term contract will stop some of the negative recruiting. Whether you like Gus or not many teams  used Gus on the hot seat against us this past year. We already have two key pieces to next years class one of the better QB's in the country and one of the better receivers in the country. Without having Shedrick Jackson with him this year. I expect Pickens to get more work and his rankings improve because of that. We really need to load up on the O-Line at least 3 OT's and 2 interior O-line. Our D coaches have upped their game the last couple of years I would like a 5* Lb and 2 more LBs, a shutdown corner or 2 and a safety or 2, and Garner to keep restocking the D-Line.

I think it will be hard to out recruit UGA next year as there is so much talent in Ga. but even this year Auburn did well in Georgia, We will need to pull3-4 from Miss. this year and continue the way we have last few years in Al. and Ga. I think we actually did better overall then bama this year and I would not be surprised if we don't beat them next year in both overall quality and ranking.  bama in recent years has gone national to the point that they have gone downhill in their home territories that could have a long range negative impact on them if they have a couple of less than stellar years, They almost did not make the playoffs this year. If not in the playoffs that hurts their national recruiting.

I see us making some positive headway in the state of Mississippi with the new assistant coach we hired with ties to that state. MS is loaded, and if we can take 3-4 quality players for there, we will do fine. GA is loaded and has enough talent left after UGA gets what they want for us to land some solid 4 star players much like we did for 2018. Next to Florida, GA has the next highest talent total in the SEC. Speaking of Florida, there is enough talent from that state to field half of the SEC teams with quality players top to bottom. We outdid bammer in our home state and I see us doing that same in 2019. Saban is entering the twilight of his career at bammer, and I see this season as his swansong, I really do.  I think we are on the upswing in that state and this will start showing in 2019.

I am going to predict that if we are still breathing in 2022, we will once again be the dominate team in the state with Saban having punched his ticket between now and then, and Gus becoming the king of the state of Alabama Football!