aubiefifty 16,697 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 247sports.com Dye-Gest Column: Looking ahead to second half of AU's schedule ByMark Murphy 4-5 minutes Editor's Note: Pat Dye, a College Football Hall of Fame member and former Auburn athletic director and head coach, writes a weekly column for Inside the Auburn Tigers. We wait all year for football season and when it gets here it goes by way too fast for my liking. I can’t believe it is the halfway point of the regular season, but that is the case and as I look at this team it seems to me that the Tigers have been here before with an opportunity to put together a big finish. In recent years the Tigers have gone both ways in similar situations. In previous years there have been some great wins and great finishes along with some disappointing losses and disappointing finishes. We really don’t know how this year is going to play out with three more extremely tough games to be played. I realize that all games in the SEC are normally challenging, but the trio of matchups vs. LSU, Georgia and Alabama will be against really dangerous opponents. The Tigers get to play two out of three of those games vs. Top 10 teams at Jordan-Hare Stadium and that is a good thing. However, of more immediate concern are back-to-back road games starting this Saturday with a trip to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks followed by a game in Baton Rouge vs. LSU. My expectation for Auburn is after having the experience of playing on the road at Florida this team will be more prepared for the challenge of playing on the road in the second half of the season. Combine that with a bye week to make any necessary changes offensively and defensively and I am excited to see how the Tigers play this Saturday. This group of Tigers has a chance to do something special or they could turn out to be just another good college football team that has some nice wins, but isn’t strong enough to win a championship. There are lots of those types of teams out there. As a former coach, who is a fan now, I don’t see anything in front of this Auburn team that is impossible to handle. My take on what is going on in the SEC may be a little different than the opinion of some. For example, there has been a lot of discussion about Florida being a great team, which I don’t necessarily believe is the case even though the Gators are highly ranked. I know Florida is a good team, but if you look at the Auburn game the Tigers made more mistakes than they have made in an other game they played this season, which allowed Florida to win. As good as LSU has looked, I think Florida would have played LSU a lot closer if the Gators had not just played a physical football game vs. Auburn a week earlier. Also in trying to figure out how good Auburn is in relation to Florida and LSU is more difficult because the Gators played almost the entire game at LSU without No. 58, who was injured. His ability to rush the passer has been a key to Florida’s success this year. As the Tigers begin the second half of the season we will soon find out if they are good enough to compete for championships or if this bunch will fall into the middle of the SEC pack or if it just falls flat altogether. My opinion has not changed from when I previously wrote that I like the 2019 team’s players and coaches. I would expect a positive response from the Tigers after their first loss of the season and I believe we will see signs of that this Saturday in Arkansas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Editor's Note: Pat Dye, a College Football Hall of Fame member and former Auburn athletic director and head coach, writes a weekly column for Inside the Auburn Tigers. We wait all year for football season and when it gets here it goes by way too fast for my liking. I can’t believe it is the halfway point of the regular season, but that is the case and as I look at this team it seems to me that the Tigers have been here before with an opportunity to put together a big finish. In recent years the Tigers have gone both ways in similar situations. In previous years there have been some great wins and great finishes along with some disappointing losses and disappointing finishes. We really don’t know how this year is going to play out with three more extremely tough games to be played. I realize that all games in the SEC are normally challenging, but the trio of matchups vs. LSU, Georgia and Alabama will be against really dangerous opponents. The Tigers get to play two out of three of those games vs. Top 10 teams at Jordan-Hare Stadium and that is a good thing. However, of more immediate concern are back-to-back road games starting this Saturday with a trip to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks followed by a game in Baton Rouge vs. LSU. My expectation for Auburn is after having the experience of playing on the road at Florida this team will be more prepared for the challenge of playing on the road in the second half of the season. Combine that with a bye week to make any necessary changes offensively and defensively and I am excited to see how the Tigers play this Saturday. This group of Tigers has a chance to do something special or they could turn out to be just another good college football team that has some nice wins, but isn’t strong enough to win a championship. There are lots of those types of teams out there. As a former coach, who is a fan now, I don’t see anything in front of this Auburn team that is impossible to handle. My take on what is going on in the SEC may be a little different than the opinion of some. For example, there has been a lot of discussion about Florida being a great team, which I don’t necessarily believe is the case even though the Gators are highly ranked. I know Florida is a good team, but if you look at the Auburn game the Tigers made more mistakes than they have made in an other game they played this season, which allowed Florida to win. As good as LSU has looked, I think Florida would have played LSU a lot closer if the Gators had not just played a physical football game vs. Auburn a week earlier. Also in trying to figure out how good Auburn is in relation to Florida and LSU is more difficult because the Gators played almost the entire game at LSU without No. 58, who was injured. His ability to rush the passer has been a key to Florida’s success this year. As the Tigers begin the second half of the season we will soon find out if they are good enough to compete for championships or if this bunch will fall into the middle of the SEC pack or if it just falls flat altogether. My opinion has not changed from when I previously wrote that I like the 2019 team’s players and coaches. I would expect a positive response from the Tigers after their first loss of the season and I believe we will see signs of that this Saturday in Arkansas.
aubaseball 2,583 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 I hope Coach is correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keesler 5,923 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Of course we'll see a positive response after the UF loss, this staff is great at getting their guys to buy in and re-focus. We're playing a pitiful 2-4 Arkansas team where their HC has racked up 4 whole wins out of 18 games. AU will beat the brakes off them and THEN it's on to Baton Rouge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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