So what are the most urgent things that need to be addressed

[AUFriction 1,179]

Just now, dyehardfanAU said:

We can't run the ball effectively as we do not have the talent to do so.

I disagree... and I think you should read my last comment. I know you have it out for Gus though. So I don't expect to change your mind. You aren't changing mine either. 

[Gowebb11 9,313]

2 hours ago, au701948 said:

But, as all successful teams do nowadays, they may run the clock with QB2. However, it is done with QB2 being given some opportunity to develop his game management skills and not just occupy space in the huddle.

UGAs backup QB threw 13 passes yesterday, Bama threw 9. I go back to when we had JF3, and all he did in backup duty was handoff. Then when we needed him late in the year, wondered why he couldn’t pass. Gus should play all backups with the whole playbook so they can develop. 

[Farmer Brown 2,391]

Most urgent need...new head coach.

[Gowebb11 9,313]

2 hours ago, Eagle-1 said:

Makes you wonder what they're looking at in the film room huh? I went back, and watched the video in the Auburn O vs the Oregon D thread, focusing particularly on the center, and two guards. I'm pretty sure the right guard never broke a sweat that night. I really couldn't believe what I was watching. I think that is a lot of the problem with Gus's teams. They are soft, play soft much of the time, and don't seem to be held accountable for loafing. I've seen it repeatedly over the years. For instance, last week in the 4th quarter Seth did not even attempt to make a block on a play coming to his side. I know he eventually made the play to win the game, but I promise you if I was coaching he would have probably not gotten that chance, because I would have long since sat his butt on the pine for lack of effort on that block. 

Yes, I did the same. When I watch live games I follow the ball. Watching the replay and zeroing in on the o-line is terrifying. 320 pound men standing around while our 210 pound running back is being pounded like a piñata.  I agree on the WRs too. When it’s on film and no corrective action is taken (benching someone) the coach is saying it is okay.  I watched Army yesterday and was coveting their o linemen. Fight, claw, scratch, scrape, those guys fire off of the ball like they are attacking the Taliban every play. 

[Eagle-1 3,821]

4 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Yes, I did the same. When I watch live games I follow the ball. Watching the replay and zeroing in on the o-line is terrifying. 320 pound men standing around while our 210 pound running back is being pounded like a piñata.  I agree on the WRs too. When it’s on film and no corrective action is taken (benching someone) the coach is saying it is okay.  I watched Army yesterday and was coveting their o linemen. Fight, claw, scratch, scrape, those guys fire off of the ball like they are attacking the Taliban every play. 

Those guys at Army are a different sort. They have not only discipline from coaches, and superiors, but inner discipline as well. 

I know Auburn people hate to hear it, but that's one of the major factors attributing to the success of the little man on the other side of the state. He demands discipline, and maximum effort from his players on every play, and generally everything they do relating to football. It's evident when you watch them play, from body language, and the little things if you pay attention to them.

[AUsince72 11,084]

4 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

I watched Army yesterday and was coveting their o linemen. Fight, claw, scratch, scrape, those guys fire off of the ball like they are attacking the Taliban every play. 

 

[doverstutts 1,643]

13 minutes ago, Farmer Brown said:

Most urgent need...new head coach.

yep

[TeBoneAU 89]

A legit OC that knows how to scheme an offense to his strenghths and not expose his weakness. I am really done with GM....just look at the other side of the ball. I notice the defense subbing players at every fricking position. Even Brown who is going to be a 1st round top 10 pick is being subbed at key points in the game. How can we have a head coach who does not see the value in developing your players by giving them some meaningful playing time.

It is beyond obvious that there is still major issues with the OL. IMO the lack of offensive scheme doesn't help them at all and what they do run is so predictable.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

6 hours ago, Win4AU said:

Tank told Jeffrey Lee he’s completely shutting down his recruitment and 100% committed last night.

I don't care what Tank told JL. Tank was sold on us not running one RB into the ground...which is exactly what is being done so far. 

6 hours ago, wcware said:

Momma, I think you just said a mouthful there. Plays this whole time we thought were read option plays are really predetermined from the sideline no matter what the defense does!!! This is absolutely sad. Give worm the rock.

Not everyone thought that. Some of us knew they have been predetermined handoffs and have voiced it quite recently in another thread.

50 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

UGAs backup QB threw 13 passes yesterday, Bama threw 9. I go back to when we had JF3, and all he did in backup duty was handoff. Then when we needed him late in the year, wondered why he couldn’t pass. Gus should play all backups with the whole playbook so they can develop. 

To be fair JF3 wasn't going to be a good passing QB under any circumstances. Him coming in to throw 13 times per game every game wouldn't have made him a better passer. He was just bad at passing the ball. That's why Auburn was his last stop as a QB

[1716AU 728]

11 minutes ago, TeBoneAU said:

A legit OC that knows how to scheme an offense to his strenghths and not expose his weakness. I am really done with GM....just look at the other side of the ball. I notice the defense subbing players at every fricking position. Even Brown who is going to be a 1st round top 10 pick is being subbed at key points in the game. How can we have a head coach who does not see the value in developing your players by giving them some meaningful playing time.

It is beyond obvious that there is still major issues with the OL. IMO the lack of offensive scheme doesn't help them at all and what they do run is so predictable.

Because to Gus this is about  PS 90/Madden football. If you're really honest, that's all this is.    

[Gowebb11 9,313]

1 hour ago, Eagle-1 said:

Those guys at Army are a different sort. They have not only discipline from coaches, and superiors, but inner discipline as well. 

I know Auburn people hate to hear it, but that's one of the major factors attributing to the success of the little man on the other side of the state. He demands discipline, and maximum effort from his players on every play, and generally everything they do relating to football. It's evident when you watch them play, from body language, and the little things if you pay attention to them.

100% agree. When is the last time you’ve seen them spike a ball after a TD, and almost cost the team a game, or loaf in any capacity without it being immediately addressed. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,648]

9 hours ago, WarTim said:

Anytime your offense need only score ONE touchdown to win the Defense has played extremely well. 

There was a clear instance where one of their receivers dropped a TD. Several other times where they had our DBs beat by 3-4 steps and either it'd be a drop or the guy didnt have touch. Im glad they did their job but the secondary still showed problems

[KolchakAU85 430]

We need a pass rusher.

We need to eliminate drops.

We need a pass rusher.

[BJCrawford 1,568]

Sounds to me like AU could save a big pile of money and just come to this board. Looks like all answers for a perfect team are here.😬

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

The most urgent needs are the same damn things we needed last year...an OL, a RB rotation, a route tree with more than 2 options, a HC who is competent, a working clock at Jordan-Hare, a HC who is competent, an intermediate passing attack, a HC who is competent oh and a HEAD COACH WHO IS COMPETENT...

[nixtosanders94 2,180]

We don’t scheme for opponents. Its clear he just tries to run the same plays and hopes the defense is too stupid to see it. He out athletes the worse teams and struggles when its even. Gus is a good, nice, upstanding man. But he CANNOT fix this. We’ve been having this same debate since 2015...very little has changed. Its the same issues. The man doesn’t know how to fix it. LSU brought in a new OC and he has completely changed their offense in ONE offseason. We are still watching the same old same old and people STILL think he’s going to magically figure it out?! In year 7!? Seriously?

[TigerOne 1,140]

this is painfully true. Auburn did not improve one bit from the Oregon game.

[BigWhiskey91 632]

15 hours ago, DAG said:

One of my favorite posters. Good, rational post. 

Thanks man! 

Still I am so confused about the number of pass attempts. I’ll wait until after the A&M game before I go either full panic or full hype 👀😅

[boisnumber1 2,818]

Maybe we could have Gus talk to Tulane's coach. Their recruiting rankings the last 3 years are 112, 68, and 94. He is doing more with less instead of less with more.

[gravejd 3,269]

I think we need to give it a go with Gatewood at QB. I don't think Nix has done anything particularly poorly.....i just don't think Gus knows how to set up an offense that will work with Nix at QB. Our offense looks completely lost when the running game is not working. We are not going to be able to get the running game going with the OL that we have. The only chance i see to have a decent running game is to make the other team more concerned with the aspect of the QB running the football. We need to go back to running the football 65% of the time. Try and squeeze 10 yards out of 3 plays to move the chains. If we can move the chains then we can go a little faster and maybe tempo will help our simple and redundant offense hit some big plays. 

[RHN1975 302]

My two cents... The O-Line has to get it together. I think that 95% of our issues on offense start here. It doesn't help to have a back putting the ball on the turf but Boobie's mom will get that fixed for us. I would hate to see how many push-ups she had him doing. 

 

Offensively they have done exactly what they have had to do to win. Heck AU has covered both games. I think the offense in the Oregon game was limited due to having a freshman QB. I think the offense was limited in the Tulane game by the line and by a limited playbook. Limited less by personel and more by we can survive without putting much on tape. I think we will see more of the same this week but the talent level of the competition will be lower so we will have a better looking game. A&M will see the full potential of the offense which won't matter if the line doesn't pick it up. 

[RHN1975 302]

7 minutes ago, gravejd said:

I think we need to give it a go with Gatewood at QB. I don't think Nix has done anything particularly poorly.....i just don't think Gus knows how to set up an offense that will work with Nix at QB. Our offense looks completely lost when the running game is not working. We are not going to be able to get the running game going with the OL that we have. The only chance i see to have a decent running game is to make the other team more concerned with the aspect of the QB running the football. We need to go back to running the football 65% of the time. Try and squeeze 10 yards out of 3 plays to move the chains. If we can move the chains then we can go a little faster and maybe tempo will help our simple and redundant offense hit some big plays. 

I think we saw a big reason Nix was named the starter. In limited action he had 3 or 4 missed reads and the offense went backwards. 

[gravejd 3,269]

1 minute ago, RHN1975 said:

I think we saw a big reason Nix was named the starter. In limited action he had 3 or 4 missed reads and the offense went backwards. 

So nix hasn't made any wrong reads? You think he was making reads at all or just running the play called by the coach? I'm not too sure....

Anyway i'm not trying to say Gatewood is better then Nix or Nix is better then Gatewood. I'm saying Gus does not know how to call an offense if the running game is not working. The only concrete thing i can point out that might help the running game is to have more of a running threat at QB by putting Gatewood in a QB. 

Saying things like OL has to get better and Gus needs to call better plays is just wishful thinking. I don't think subbing out RBs will do very much. Maybe we can sub out some OL folks with young guys and that would help but i don't have any idea who we have on the OL that is better then who we are playing now. I guess we can just keep on doing what we are doing and maybe things will start to click?? I dunno that seems like more wishful thinking. 

[RHN1975 302]

Just now, gravejd said:

So nix hasn't made any wrong reads? You think he was making reads at all or just running the play called by the coach? I'm not too sure....

Anyway i'm not trying to say Gatewood is better then Nix or Nix is better then Gatewood. I'm saying Gus does not know how to call an offense if the running game is not working. The only concrete thing i can point out that might help the running game is to have more of a running threat at QB by putting Gatewood in a QB. 

Saying things like OL has to get better and Gus needs to call better plays is just wishful thinking. I don't think subbing out RBs will do very much. Maybe we can sub out some OL folks with young guys and that would help but i don't have any idea who we have on the OL that is better then who we are playing now. I guess we can just keep on doing what we are doing and maybe things will start to click?? I dunno that seems like more wishful thinking. 

I agree on the O-Line. Make the older guys feel like they are about to lose their spot and see how bad they want it. As far as Nix goes I think it is what he is being handed. As a fan base we all think of Gatewood as the better runner and he probably is between the tackles but Nix is much faster. I honestly hope that that part of the game is being held back until it is needed against SEC opponents. Kinda sad we are relegated to wishful thinking when this team should be loaded talent wise. 

[BigWhiskey91 632]

FWIW, the folks criticizing any ‘reads’ from an option standpoint need to realize that a majority of the time, those are predetermined keepers or handoffs. I do believe that Nix missed some reads in the passing game. I have to believe that the drastic difference in rush/pass attempts is an attempt to get WRs and Nix on the same page in live action. If he continues to struggle vs Kent State, May want to look at giving Gatewood the second half at minimum to go full offense with the 1st team (tempo and all).