Minnesota Post-Game Thread

[au701948 998]

5 minutes ago, cole256 said:

Nah we 're not going to put this on Bo. I tried to tell everybody that Bo wasn't a super star right now. Just because fanatics are loopy with expectations and blaming other players for mistakes of another doesn't mean in the end it's on him for not living up to unrealistic expectations in the first place. 

Gus gave him the reigns, held his hand,ran the other QB off. So it's not Bo's fault.....he did everything he was supposed to do in the situation he was in.

I agree. I wish I could say otherwise, but it is true.

[jAUSon 2,836]

1 hour ago, GwillMac6 said:

I would like to add in D. Jason Benetti the play by play guys. Dude is the Beth Mowens for men announcers. His monotone voice is absolutely awful.

ESPN is a whole blatant skinny-pants ice latte company. This is our new life as sports fans.

[au701948 998]

27 minutes ago, Randman5000 said:

Agreed. And if you watch the playoff games the Clemson, Ohio St and LSU offensive line protected their QB well, and playcalls to get the ball to their gamebreakers. Ohio St had a really really good championship caliber offensive line. They surrounded their first year QB with good playmakers and allowed him to be a good position to win games. 

Good points...first, we do not have the offensive line to protect "any" QB regardless of his name and second, playcalls do not get the ball to our game-breakers nearly enough. I was hoping after the sorry first half that CGM would turn the QB and Offense loose and go after them like we did in the latter part of this year's UGA game. BUT, he didn't even do that tonight. When is this man going to quit playing "not to lose." He truly has no reason with 5 more years still on his contract. He should roll the dice every play.

[DAG 33,981]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

I realize this is aou  sensitive subject and I might be the only one...but I've lost confidence in Bo.....13 games and making the same bad decisions....still missing open receivers or not even seeing them.    

You ready to give up on Bo, but you stay loyal to Gus after 7 years of pure inconsistency. 

 

 

 

[around4ever 4,139]

When we started with three straight screens to Schwartz, I thought that when the defense moved the corner or safety up that a stop and go by Schwartz was being set up.  Nope.  We never saw it.  Missed opportunity for a game breaker. 

[jAUSon 2,836]

29 minutes ago, AU64 said:

That could be....but I keep thinking he wants to win...

you can't be serious.

[DAG 33,981]

30 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

Cristobal is 2-0 in bowl games at Oregon. With 1 Rose bowl win and a 9 win and 12 win season. Is that good enough to meet Mikey's criteria to be worthy enough for AU to hire him!?!?! Hahaha.

Mikey response would be how did he do against Gus? He can't say that with Minnesota though. Holy crap we freaking just loss to Minnesota. The last great thing coming from that state was when Gordon Bombay led a rag tag group to victory against team Iceland and here we just got defeated by them.

[ChltteTiger 649]

29 minutes ago, Farmer Brown said:

I just did that cut and paste from AL.com, to aggravate Aubfifty. He does that a lot. I like fifty, he just doesn't need to lecture me like I am a kid, because I don;t like Gusto.

You are going to continue to be lectured but only if you allow it. Boundaries!

[GwillMac6 20,671]

 

[Gowebb11 9,319]

3 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

 

Strange, I don’t remember any of those three ‘next year’ all-Americans names called today. 

[tigerman1186 537]

After his interception, Javaris Davis, I didn't see him in the game...does anyone know what happen, or did I just miss seeing him??? Saw Jordan Peters (#15) playing a lot in the secondary....

[japantiger 4,051]

13 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

Strange, I don’t remember any of those three ‘next year’ all-Americans names called today. 

It doesn't matter...All Americans coached by Barney Fyfe won't change the outcome.  

[Eagle-1 3,821]

1 hour ago, Farmer Brown said:

 

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Auburn was denied a rare 10-win season on Wednesday, falling to Minnesota, 31-24, in the Outback Bowl to open up 2020. The Tigers finished the year 9-4 overall.

Gus Malzahn met with the media after the game to review the loss and what went wrong for Auburn. Below is a full transcript of Malzahn’s remarks.

GUS MALZAHN

OPENING STATEMENT: "First of all, I think I need to start out by giving Minnesota and their head coach, P.J. Fleck, congratulations and credit. They’re a very good football team. We knew that before we played them. After you play somebody, you have more information.When you look at the game, we started out, I think we went up 10-0, had momentum, felt pretty good. I think we had a fumbled punt, they scored. It was tied at halftime.Of course, the second half, it was really a dogfight back and forth. Bottom line is they made plays. They made plays to win the game when the game was on the line. You have to give them credit.

 

You look at it, you have to give them credit. We didn’t overlook them. I think our guys were ready to play. I think our guys played hard. They made the plays we didn’t.Really appreciate our seniors. They just did an outstanding job their whole career. I’m disappointed for them that we couldn’t get them out with a victory.

They led us today, played extremely hard.When I look at the game, they did a really good job of keeping the ball away from us. They stayed on the field. I know the first half, offense didn’t have the ball very many plays. Of course, offense didn’t make very many first downs.When I look at the stat sheet, what stands out to me is 53 plays. They kept the ball, waited until the play clock had about five seconds or less on it. They shortened the game. They had an excellent game plan. They were able to execute.I look at us, the third downs, 3 of 11. We’ve been solid all year. 53 plays, you’re not going to beat very many people with that.But I got to give them credit. I’m very disappointed that we couldn’t send our seniors out. Bottom line is they outplayed us and out-coached us. They deserved to win today. That’s just really the facts of the matter.Questions.

 

Q. (On the balance of building for next year versus winning a bowl game.)

GUS MALZAHN: It’s not a hard balance. The bottom line is your goal is to win a bowl game. When you’re playing a team that won 10 games, you got to play well. We’re focused on winning. I mean, when you’re back home, you start getting the young guys. When you get here, you focus on winning the game.We used the same formula we did last year. Like I said, you got to give them guys credit. They’re a really good team.

Q. (On Minnesota’s domination in the running game.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah. 215 yards rushing against our defense, that surprised me. We only had 56. That surprised me, too. They got after us up front. I mean, I just think that’s the facts of the matter.

Q. (On the offense not developing a rhythm.)

GUS MALZAHN: I think that’s fair to say. I think the first quarter, I don’t know how many plays we had in the first quarter, I think we may have had six or seven. Somebody may have the stat sheet. It wasn’t very many.The second quarter, I don’t think we had much more than that. They did a good job of staying on the field, too. Like I said, the offense, we didn’t get very many first downs early to stay on the field. I think it was a combination of both. The volume of plays in the first half, it wasn’t very much for us.

 

Q. What was your plan on offense and did you want to take shots down the field?

GUS MALZAHN: I mean, they played loose. I think everybody could see that. At the same time I think we called four or five or six shots. Couple of them we had a little protection breakdown. A couple of them we kind of under-threw, whatever.I mean, any time you put up 232 yards offense on 53 plays, I mean, we got to do better than that. But give them credit. They had a good plan. They did a good job of trying to keep things in front, stayed away from the big play.

Q. (On what Minnesota did to stop them on offense.)

GUS MALZAHN: There was a few little wrinkles. It was more of lining up and getting after us more than anything. Just the fact of the matter.

Q. (On Minnesota double-teaming Derrick Brown.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I mean, Derrick Brown got double-teamed all year and tripled. He’s a dynamic player. He’s one of the best players in all of college football. That’s what smart coaches do. I’m sure that happened again today.

 

Q. (On the decision to try a fake punt.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I liked it. It wasn’t really open, but the guy had his arms around the guy when the ball is in the air. I don’t know. They didn’t call it. That’s just part of it.Yeah, I mean, we’re trying to win the game. We’re going to be aggressive. That didn’t work out. If I remember right, I don’t think they scored. I think we held them on fourth down as far as that goes.We’re trying to be aggressive and win the game. It could have been easily called an interference, too. We would have had a first down in field goal range.

Q. (On Outback Bowl MVP Tyler Johnson and how he compares to receivers in the SEC.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I mean, he’s a good player. Not just him, I mean, they’re a good team. They got good players. We knew that coming in. They won 10 games in their conference. Their coaches had a super game plan. They executed it. They were a physical team, too.

Q. How hard do you look at the offense in the off-season? What do you have to do in the off-season?

 

GUS MALZAHN: Two-year trend?

Q. Yes.

GUS MALZAHN: You’re talking about this year?

Q. Yes.

GUS MALZAHN: I’d say this year I think we finished, if I remember right, third in our conference in total offense, fourth in points. It was solid.This game we’re disappointed, and we should be. But we’ll rebound. Chad Morris, I’m very excited about him and his future. I feel like he’s one of the best. Like I said, after this bowl game, we’ll put our heads together. He’s going to have great influence.We’ll get better. We didn’t play our best. Like I said, you have 53 plays you’re not going to be very good.I will say this. This year I felt like we did some good things offensively. I don’t think that’s accurate as far as the total assumption of this year.

Q. (On Auburn struggling to find a rhythm on offense.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I mean, we got in some rhythm some, but then we’d have a negative play. Bottom line, our third downs, like I said, we were 3 of 11. When you don’t convert third downs, everything is out of rhythm. That had a lot to do with it today.We had a couple opportunities on third downs that I would have liked us to have executed better. I think we would have picked it up. We didn’t get it done on third down, so it took away the rhythm, and it caused us to have 53 plays on offense.

 

Q. (On first down play calling.)

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I don’t know what it was, but I think we mixed it up decent on first down. Yeah, I mean, when you have negative plays, you definitely want to stay out of that, whatever gives yourself a chance to be successful.

Q. On Tyler Johnson’s 73-yard touchdown, what did you see?

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I think they had a little post. I think we kind of messed up on one of our coverages there. The guy came Scot free. Quarterback put it out in front. They were able to run the football effectively, too. When you do that, their RPO game, play-action, is more effective.I think the big one was late in the game. They were running the ball decent. They got us over the top. Executed that play. That was the difference in the game.

Q. (On how you evaluate the season.)

GUS MALZAHN: 9-4 with the schedule we played, obviously if we won this game, I would feel completely different. There were some good things we did. We did play the toughest schedule in college football. Me personally, I don’t think it’s close.I’m proud of our players, I’m proud of our seniors. But, I mean, we’re disappointed right now. But there were some really good things that happened during the season that we can build upon, have a chance to be a really good football team next year.

 

Q. How much will this season help quarterback Bo Nix?

GUS MALZAHN: Yeah, I mean, Bo, he’s going to win a championship for us before he gets out of here. Went up against the toughest schedule in football as a true freshman. He learned. He’s going to be a great quarterback for us. More than that, I think he’s going to be a great leader for us. Those are my expectations. I’m glad he’s our quarterback. He’ll have a very good clear.

Q. New Year’s resolutions?

GUS MALZAHN: I mean, I’m thinking about right now. I’m just disappointed. We’ll be able to take it, kind of evaluate as coaches, look at the whole year. I said there were some good things that happened. We’ll turn the page for next year. I’ve not gotten that far.

Q. Do you expect your entire staff to return?

GUS MALZAHN: I mean, I expect. You never know, but I expect.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

 

Me at a Malzahn press conference

[AU64 10,122]

26 minutes ago, jAUSon said:

you can't be serious.

Someone implied that Gus would play a less talented QB because of  favoritism ….do you buy that?   I don't. 

[ToraGirl 5,498]

Just now, AU64 said:

Someone implied that Gus would play a less talented QB because of  favoritism ….do you buy that?   I don't. 

I thought @jAUSon meant were you serious that he wants to win? I've always wanted to believe that, but I am more than ever mystified at the seeming lack of making the self and programmatic changes necessary to heighten the chances! 

 

[leglessdan 1,934]

Another crappy and uninspired team performance to end the season. s*** rolls downhill once again from the HC.

[AU64 10,122]

34 minutes ago, DAG said:

You ready to give up on Bo, but you stay loyal to Gus after 7 years of pure inconsistency. 

 

 

 

Cute gif...but you obviously miss the point.   This ain't about gus…..it's about the QB who played today like it was his first college game.....after 12 previous games.  Maybe you fail to notice that winning games is more about the QBs than about the coaches and play calling.  

[DAG 33,981]

9 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Cute gif...but you obviously miss the point.   This ain't about gus…..it's about the QB who played today like it was his first college game.....after 12 previous games.  Maybe you fail to notice that winning games is more about the QBs than about the coaches and play calling.  

That is the dumbest logic I ever heard. So not only are you a hypocrite, but now you are putting the onus of the offense on the shoulders of a true freshman QB, instead of the guy who gets paid millions of dollars to find out how to make it work. So, now, you suggest we should get some random from Wake Forest as a grad transfer? Yet, we had a guy perfect for Gus's offense waiting in the background to play. You have loss all perspective at this point.

[dyehardfanAU 2,117]

3 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Cute gif...but you obviously miss the point.   This ain't about gus…..it's about the QB who played today like it was his first college game.....after 12 previous games.  Maybe you fail to notice that winning games is more about the QBs than about the coaches and play calling.  

Are you trying to blame this loss on a kid who should be someone else's understudy right now?

[AU64 10,122]

Not that it matters now but was AS injured on one of his catches..?   ...seemed he was limping a bit and was not much engaged in the game afterward.  

[Eagle-1 3,821]

1 minute ago, DAG said:

That is the dumbest logic I ever heard. So not only are you a hypocrite, but now you are putting the onus of the offense on the shoulders of a true freshman QB, instead of the guy who gets paid millions of dollars to find out how to make it work. So, now, you suggest we should get some random from Wake Forest as a grad transfer? Yet, we had a guy perfect for Gus's offense waiting in the background to play. You have losses all perspective at this point.

It's unbelievable the things that come from this guy. 64, please put out a comprehensive list of excuses for Malzahn so we can all refer to it when needed. Geez. 

[keesler 5,924]

7 minutes ago, AU64 said:

Cute gif...but you obviously miss the point.   This ain't about gus…..it's about the QB who played today like it was his first college game.....after 12 previous games.  Maybe you fail to notice that winning games is more about the QBs than about the coaches and play calling.  

This team got man handled in the trenches today and out coached as well.  Many units under performed and I keep seeing excuses of lack of motivation as the reason for such poor play.  A perineal 4-5 loss team has no reason to lack of motivation in a NYDay bowl game with a bunch of seniors wanting to leave a mark and a reason why they returned to play for AU.

This was a bad loss and yet another season without 10 wins. This is not the 18 yr old QBs fault in any way.

[GwillMac6 20,671]

 

[AU64 10,122]

Just now, dyehardfanAU said:

Are you trying to blame this loss on a kid who should be someone else's understudy right now?

Well that could be....but there he is out there playing the game.....a 5* QB who has been coached to be a QB since he could walk.  It's not an ideal situation but it is what it is and he's not a freshman now …. 

[GwillMac6 20,671]

Just now, Eagle-1 said:

It's unbelievable the things that come from this guy. 64, please put out a comprehensive list of excuses for Malzahn so we can all refer to it when needed. Geez. 

You are arguing with a guy in 64 who constantly shades Bruce and obsessively defends Gus. He is a lost cause and hopeless.