What will be different this year?

[tigerman1186 537]

The past several days I've watched last years TA&M, LSU and Georgia games on ESPNU and wonder what is going to be different this coming season???? Stidham was running for his life a lot of times....we couldn't run the ball effectively....how we won the A&M game is still hard to understand; except for a couple of big plays (Ryan Davis catch and run), we didn't do much at all during the game except a lot of 3 and outs....LSU was one of the few games against a good team we played somewhat well offensively at times (never should have lost the past 2 years to them, but we did????)...Georgia we scored on a gadget play....

I think too many are looking at the bowl game when Gus was calling the plays and are expecting that to happen this season (please tell me it will), but Purdue (I know they beat Ohio St.) couldn't beat many teams in the SEC....

I'm just afraid there isn't going to be that much of a change from this past year...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

War Eagle.... 

[BigWhiskey91 632]

Senior OL, Senior DL, New blood at QB and lots of returning impact play production from the skill positions. We regain stove and Hastings too. 

Trading Chip for Dillingham with Gus calling plays removes all doubt and places accountability squarely on Gus. He’s betting on himself. The hype I have coming off the Purdue game doesn’t come from the score. It comes from how we approached that game. And to cap it off, Gus took time outs to hit 50pts before halftime. If Gus is out there swinging like that, I like our shot to do some damage this year. Just need some luck on the injury front and for a few balls to bounce our way!

[Tiger Refuge 6,660]

16 minutes ago, tigerman1186 said:

The past several days I've watched last years TA&M, LSU and Georgia games on ESPNU and wonder what is going to be different this coming season???? Stidham was running for his life a lot of times....we couldn't run the ball effectively....how we won the A&M game is still hard to understand; except for a couple of big plays (Ryan Davis catch and run), we didn't do much at all during the game except a lot of 3 and outs....LSU was one of the few games against a good team we played somewhat well offensively at times (never should have lost the past 2 years to them, but we did????)...Georgia we scored on a gadget play....

I think too many are looking at the bowl game when Gus was calling the plays and are expecting that to happen this season (please tell me it will), but Purdue (I know they beat Ohio St.) couldn't beat many teams in the SEC....

I'm just afraid there isn't going to be that much of a change from this past year...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

War Eagle.... 

Okay. There. You feel better? 😬

 

In all seriousness, it’s a different year. It’s a different team. I am as frustrated as anyone with the issues. However, I have resolved to not fret about it any longer. It doesn’t do me a damn bit of good. 

The sun is gonna rise tomorrow, and these young men are going to put in the work for this team. And I will gladly cheer for them.

 

[abw0004 10,108]

9 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

The past several days I've watched last years TA&M, LSU and Georgia games on ESPNU and wonder what is going to be different this coming season???? Stidham was running for his life a lot of times....we couldn't run the ball effectively....how we won the A&M game is still hard to understand; except for a couple of big plays (Ryan Davis catch and run), we didn't do much at all during the game except a lot of 3 and outs....LSU was one of the few games against a good team we played somewhat well offensively at times (never should have lost the past 2 years to them, but we did????)...Georgia we scored on a gadget play....

I think too many are looking at the bowl game when Gus was calling the plays and are expecting that to happen this season (please tell me it will), but Purdue (I know they beat Ohio St.) couldn't beat many teams in the SEC....

I'm just afraid there isn't going to be that much of a change from this past year...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

War Eagle.... 

• Much improved OL with a full year learning off of Coach Grimes.  Last year they only had 6 months with him.
• All juniors on the defense returned with the exception of Dean
  • Javaris Davis is going back to his normal position
  • Linebackers should be better this year as time goes on
• All running backs and WR's return
  • Will Hastings and Eli Stove return
  • Addition of MAR and DJ Williams are big time
• Last year, all of those freshmen come back with real-time experience
• Gus is officially calling the plays
  • Dillingham being his spotter on the field like Lashee was in 2013 and 2014
  • Dillingham will also give Gus 3-4 plays to choose from and Gus will take it from there
• We have two very capable QB's that have stepped up and truly fit our system
• Good recruiting class that has arrived

I personally do not think we lost our best player on either side of the ball.  I love Deshaun Davis, but Derrick Brown is the best guy on defense.  On offense, I am actually going to say Seth Williams is our best guy.  I also think either Gatewood or Nix can become a better QB than Stidham, at least in this offense.

If none of this excites you, than the mere fact that we get to go back to Auburn for gamedays!  Love that feeling every time.

[bigbird 60,368]

9 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

War Eagle.... 

Neither of those were our best players on their respective side of the ball.

 

[bigbird 60,368]

12 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

Derrick Brown is the best guy on defense.  On offense, I am actually going to say Seth Williams is our best guy. 

I agree

[DAG 33,955]

24 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

• Much improved OL with a full year learning off of Coach Grimes.  Last year they only had 6 months with him.
• All juniors on the defense returned with the exception of Dean
  • Javaris Davis is going back to his normal position
  • Linebackers should be better this year as time goes on
• All running backs and WR's return
  • Will Hastings and Eli Stove return
  • Addition of MAR and DJ Williams are big time
• Last year, all of those freshmen come back with real-time experience
• Gus is officially calling the plays
  • Dillingham being his spotter on the field like Lashee was in 2013 and 2014
  • Dillingham will also give Gus 3-4 plays to choose from and Gus will take it from there
• We have two very capable QB's that have stepped up and truly fit our system
• Good recruiting class that has arrived

I personally do not think we lost our best player on either side of the ball.  I love Deshaun Davis, but Derrick Brown is the best guy on defense.  On offense, I am actually going to say Seth Williams is our best guy.  I also think either Gatewood or Nix can become a better QB than Stidham, at least in this offense.

If none of this excites you, than the mere fact that we get to go back to Auburn for gamedays!  Love that feeling every time.

Thank you! I think this team will surprise a lot of folks this year, starting with JG.

[Sizzle 3,909]

Stidham and Deshaun Davis were very important players but they not our best players. Or even close imo.

[aujeff11 6,243]

10 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

TELL ME I'M WRONG....

You are. 15-0 ship!

[fishepa 1,900]

I think our team is going to be great, we just have a brutal schedule.

[jared52 4,354]

Gus will have a clipboard this year so he won't get caught picking his nose on TV?

[McLoofus 35,182]

10 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

I'm just afraid there isn't going to be that much of a change from this past year...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

TL;DR: What everyone else already said, plus we should see more sacks, plus a renewed focus on defense in general, plus a better dynamic with OL coaching. But it's not all roses.

Just TL: It's already been said, but I'd agree with them that you're wrong about the best players. And DD was my official man crush last year and I've been crushing on him unofficially since he was still just a commitment to our recruiting class. And Stidham can spin the hell out of a football but he was not our best offensive player. One of the problems with last year's offense that, to answer your question, will be different this year is that at least 3 offensive guys who are ultimately better football players than him were true freshmen. They got a lot of reps last year and are poised to lead the offense this year. Worm, Schwartz, Williams and Whitlow have all graduated from Gus's trust protocol. That's a big deal. 

Much more experience and depth at RB. Look at our rushing stats from last year.  We get our top 5 guys back. Well, except Stidham... who we're replacing with a guy who's 6'5 235 and runs like a gazelle. Plus we're adding Williams, Joiner and Richards. And some TEs and HBs. And we get Stove back, who was our primary weapon on sweeps the year before. 

QB will be different. I'm optimistic that it will be better. For the record, I said before last year started that I was looking forward to 2019. Stidham is a fantastic QB and I am truly grateful that he chose Auburn, but he was not meant to lead a team like we had last year through the adversity. I think we've had guys before who would have been better suited to the task and I think we might have two more now. (No, I do not think that Cam Newton, Vince Young or Tim Tebow could have led last year's team to the playoffs. But we could have done much better.)

Another one who ultimately is a better football player will be a senior this year, along with the 4 other seniors in his position group. Is that a big deal? Well, considering that this will only be his 4th year playing on the offensive line at all, and only his 2nd full year starting, which makes him somewhere north of 33% more experienced than he was to begin last year... yep.

While not all of that applies to the other OLs, returning all your starters- much less even knowing who they are before fall camp starts- is a massive deal. We were still auditioning our starting center for much of 2018! Imagine how much less uncertainty Grimes is dealing with now and how much more he is just able to coach football. Much more subjective, but worth considering, is that Grimes also has that full season under his belt of just coaching the Herb Hand out of that group. As hard as it is to learn things, it can be a lot harder to unlearn them. Whether you believe in Hand or not, he had different ideas about the job than Grimes does and this isn't going to work if kids are still trying to do it Herb's way. I still can't believe I was already in high school before a coach finally said, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent." I don't think he was an Allen Iverson fan. 

We get a lot younger at LB, but we get more talented. That probably doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy and I get it, but it's something that's different.

One would expect that we'll get more production from the Buck position. All our guys come back, and it only makes sense that another year of experience will help them. Fun fact: Jeff Holland went from 9 game appearances and 2 sacks as a sophomore to 14 starts and 9.5 sacks as a junior. We likely won't see a similar jump for Bryant or Moultry because they'll still be splitting time with Coe, but that gives you an idea of what kind of leap a guy at that position can make in the same place in his career that they are. And a less-than-stellar ability to get to the QB was probably our primary deficiency on defense last year. (Those guys will also be supported by some very strong freshmen.) 

Oh, and as for that DL and as for our best players, we return probably our 3 best defensive players from last year and they're probably all on that DL. They all could have left last year but none of them did because at least a couple of them were that pissed off about how last year went down. Not only is DB our best player on defense but he's been one of our primary team leaders for a couple years now. Now he's coming back as a senior with Coe and Davidson? Dabo Swinney gives it 4 *s, would again.

No more confusion about play calling. Might not be great, can't be worse, definitely different. 

Speaking of that and going back to Grimes, that combination of him, Lindsey and Gus last year was toxic. Word around the campfire is that it's a much, much better dynamic for the OL with Dilly in that role. 

By the way, this all sounds a lot rosier and more optimistic than I actually feel. I say this crap every offseason. The difference this year is that I'm not holding my breath that we'll take full advantage of it. Because the #1 most important thing hasn't changed. And because we're possibly one injury away from disaster on the OL. And because we lose our top 2 WRs. 

 

 

 

 

[BigWhiskey91 632]

1 hour ago, DAG said:

Thank you! I think this team will surprise a lot of folks this year, starting with JG.

We have a lot of impact play production returning. That’s usually translated to some of our most explosive offenses. I think you’re right and I think we are gonna have some fun this season. 

[DAG 33,955]

1 hour ago, BigWhiskey91 said:

We have a lot of impact play production returning. That’s usually translated to some of our most explosive offenses. I think you’re right and I think we are gonna have some fun this season. 

You are correct. Another thing, I think people are really sleeping on the ramifications that Gus can have with a player of JG ability. I am expecting some serious positive strides from the offense to make us remember some of the past feats we've had. I am hoping for Gus to prove a lot of people wrong this year and openly rooting for him to do so.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

The OL will have to improve tremendously to be better than last year and have zero downtime from our starting tackles..  I'm also having trouble putting faith in freshmen QBs.  The defense could be great but we're going to have to break in new LBs quickly.  I'm not sure if we beat any of our rivals with this squad but we will hopefully beat MSU this season.

[aujeff11 6,243]

Some people here have way too much free time. 

 

😝 

[jared52 4,354]

51 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Some people here have way too much free time. 

 

 😝 

And faith in FR QBs

[aujeff11 6,243]

10 minutes ago, jared52 said:

And faith in FR QBs

Touché

I’d rather not have to use inexperienced players, but they are the only tools in the tool box,  so will have to make them work. 

[jared52 4,354]

19 minutes ago, aujeff11 said:

Touché

I’d rather not have to use inexperienced players, but they are the only tools in the tool box,  so will have to make them work. 

It's just been a while since Gus's offense has been able to make a QB look better than he is rather than worse.

[GwillMac6 20,607]

 

[Carnell 592]

14 hours ago, tigerman1186 said:

The past several days I've watched last years TA&M, LSU and Georgia games on ESPNU and wonder what is going to be different this coming season???? Stidham was running for his life a lot of times....we couldn't run the ball effectively....how we won the A&M game is still hard to understand; except for a couple of big plays (Ryan Davis catch and run), we didn't do much at all during the game except a lot of 3 and outs....LSU was one of the few games against a good team we played somewhat well offensively at times (never should have lost the past 2 years to them, but we did????)...Georgia we scored on a gadget play....

I think too many are looking at the bowl game when Gus was calling the plays and are expecting that to happen this season (please tell me it will), but Purdue (I know they beat Ohio St.) couldn't beat many teams in the SEC....

I'm just afraid there isn't going to be that much of a change from this past year...we lost our best offensive player #8 and our best defensive player #57, I just don't see it....TELL ME I'M WRONG....

War Eagle.... 

You are not wrong. Our OL while improving during the year did not improve to the level it needs to compete in the SEC.  Do not expect to see any drastic improvement  in the performance of th OL this year because the majority of improvement is during the first year.  People talk about the dominance of our DL but last year against some of the better OLs in the conference we got pushed around a bit.

Our dbs were very questionable in coverage last year dont look for that to improve this year.

Weak OC

Gus is calling the plays and in his past history of calling plays his favorite play seemed to be the wide receiver screen not throwing the ball downfield.

 

[aubiefifty 16,716]

i am excited but guarded. i will pull for the orange blue guys with everything i got. from the headcoach to the waterboys. and i know gus is on shaky ground but i like that he can win or lose by his own hand since he feels better with the way things are now. i hope gus elevates his game for years to come but i will support the next coach just as hard. in the end it is auburn i love and not who is coaching. and every year i always wish i had gotten to see my old man play or a clip of him but it is a pipe dream and will never happen.

[Carnell 592]

2 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

 

Just wish it was some other schools people instead of ours.

[aubiefifty 16,716]

2 minutes ago, Carnell said:

You are not wrong. Our OL while improving during the year did not improve to the level it needs to compete in the SEC.  Do not expect to see any drastic improvement  in the performance of th OL this year because the majority of improvement is during the first year.  People talk about the dominance of our DL but last year against some of the better OLs in the conference we got pushed around a bit.

Our dbs were very questionable in coverage last year dont look for that to improve this year.

Weak OC

Gus is calling the plays and in his past history of calling plays his favorite play seemed to be the wide receiver screen not throwing the ball downfield.

 

good lord carnell i hope you are not suicidal...........

[kd4au 1,145]

First time starting QB worries me more than anything else.