rexbo

You're forgetting the fumble on the first drive. Until that final drive Thorne looked pretty shaken, and has been shaky in every other road game too. I know this is just Vanderbilt but he needs to look poised and confident on the road before I am confident he's turned the corner. I do believe the 2 QB system has added to his lack of confidence and poise though, at this point it's ride or die with him...

This felt like a prototypical Malzahn win. Purposely just enough offense to stay ahead. This is why he lost so many games he should have won. When he won the big games, he kept his foot on the pedal until the end. And that's what the Top 10 teams are doing every week. I had hoped that Freeze would come in with this attitude, and I understand he has some lack of confidence in Thorne and the receivers. But, he's going to have to start pushing this offense all game long if he wants to have a chance for SEC road wins and the Iron Bowl. Malzahn didn't have back then, and Freeze doesn't have now, an OL good enough to just to run the clock out when up by a few TDs...

I was Junior the Fall going in to '83 football season. Your memory is sharper than mine, but you did trigger a slight memory of seeing, I mean hearing about the AU Coed's...

With his elite running skills, he doesn't have to improve his throwing significantly for Auburn to move the ball consistently. Just finally having an OL will make a big difference. We all saw what a real (although elite) OL did for Nix at Oregon...

I heard or saw a comment that they had a major issue with injuries this year...

Dang. Jealous.

Wait, Sandra Bullock was there? 😉

That's my point, they're going to spin negatively against Auburn at every chance they get, the last thing we need to do is give them a softball pitch. But more importantly, Auburn needs to make the right move ethically. Some people deserve a second chance, Pearl comes to mind. I don't believe Freeze is deserving of a leadership position at Auburn.

Alabama media is 90% Bama grads, and National media too would keep this front and center for as long as he is at Auburn. I won't be surprised if we hear it today during the Iron Bowl broadcast...

I'm not convinced Gus couldn't have replicated Dabo's success at Clemson the last 10 years. And I am not convinced Dabo would have done any better than Gus if he had been here playing in the SWC West the past 10 years. With FSU and Miami's slide over that period, and the SEC eating themselves alive except for Bama (and now UGA), Clemson was in perfect shape to sit there quietly and slip into the championship games those years, fresh as a daisy...

We all know where Rece Davis graduated from - Rece Davis Unloads on Auburn Co-author Aaron Suttles is also a Bama grad - Bryan Harsin and Auburn This is standard procedure when Auburn is in the process of hiring a coach, Bama powers-that-be and biased journalists making the best case they can that Auburn is a bad place to go, and trying to pour water on any high-profile coach that might be interested. From Aaron in the second article - "Another name that will burn up the message boards is Lane Kiffin. Kiffin has SEC experience at three different stops (Tennessee head coach, Alabama offensive coordinator and Ole Miss head coach). His offensive scheme would please the Auburn fan base and help attract offensive skill players. He’s also proven adept at working the transfer portal to fill in his roster as needed. The fact that he knows the state of Alabama pretty well would be a feather in his cap as well. The issue with both Stoops and Kiffin is that each already is the head coach at an SEC program that is currently performing better than Auburn. Someone would have to convince either one that Auburn’s ceiling is higher, but that could be difficult given everything that has happened at Auburn in the past two years." So now all of sudden because Harsin was a terrible head coach, Auburn's ceiling is no higher than UK and Ole Miss? Really? How many SEC Championship appearances do these teams have between them? It's zero. This is a hit piece by a Bama grad.

Look at it from opposing coach's viewpoint, who do you want Auburn to start?

My hopes for this season are a somewhat more effective OL, so Tank can get through some holes. If he and the other RB's can average over 5 ypc, whenever the defense starts crowding the box we should have an automatic 10-15 yards with any of our TE's going over the middle and finding the opening. Let's get them in the film room to watch Travis Kelce a few hours every day...

That was the most memorable game I ever attended. I was under those goalposts when they were about to topple, and took off running because I didn't want to get conked on the head...

If the offensive game plan is to flood the short routes with our 3 dozen TEs, we're going to nickel and dime our way down the field and end up with lots of FGs. My gut tells me we are going to lose a number of close games this year from kicking FGs instead of punching it in. We're going to have to find an explosive receiver, like KC had with Tyreek Hill to balance out Kelce, or we are going to have to figure out some really crafty goal line plays. I thought KC over the past few years had done a fantastic job coming up with high percentage goal line plays, but that's what cost them against Cincinnati in the playoffs.

Coaching.

I've posted some similar comments on Reddit threads. The ball is in Harsin's court to turn this around, an opportunity for him to take advantage of the spotlight on him right now publicly, and to ask for whatever behind-the-scenes support he needs personally to, kindly put it, correct some issues with his leadership skills. I am sure the Administration will provide him whatever he needs. And the example of how Pearl (himself with a target on his back) took the basketball team from the very bottom of the SEC, a laughingstock program in much worse shape that our football program right now, not only to the top of the SEC, but to the top of the nation, is something Harsin can and should learn from. We all know he does not have the same personality as Bruce, but I have seen firsthand in my professional and personal life people with significant control issues make some major changes in how they deal with people, and grow into very effective leaders and build positive relationships.

95% of the college teams are out of any contention for any championship by mid-November. And switching attention to basketball around that timeframe is perfect timing, at least for me now that Auburn basketball is so much better than football. Watching Auburn beat Bama in basketball the day after they lose the championship is about the best taste of excitement we are going to get for awhile...

Rich alumni stepped up with some great NIL deals?

I can’t stop thinking about “what if Sharife” had stayed; in this game against an undersized, slower team he would have had at least 10 assists and Kessler easily would have had 3 or 4 alley-oop dunks. It would have been a 20+ point blowout…

"How Bo Can bounce Back" aka Groundhog Day. But, I have no confidence now that Bo Nix is ever going to win the heart of Andie MacDowell, I mean Auburn fans...

Just the fact we have 19 pages of comments on this subject in the middle of the season tells you all you need to know about whether he is making the right decision or not as the Head Coach of Auburn Football. 19 pages of controversy within our ranks is distracting for the fans, and is a huge potential negative for the players and recruits. I won't check them but I am pretty dang sure on the Bama forums there isn't a huge controversy about Saban being public about his stance on the vaccine.

Bend-but-don’t-break defense against a team using their fourth downs is going to have to be really good in the red zone, the offense is going to end up there plenty of times…

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You can kind of see this same contrast in the Super Bowl. Mahomes is a fantastic QB, one of the best playing the game right now; but in that game with the poor OL play, and now into this season, he is starting to play a little panicky and is beginning to make mistakes that his pure athleticism cannot overcome. On the other side of the line in that Super Bowl was the one guy that's never panicked a play in his life, except for a few times maybe. For Bo, this panicky mode prevents him from completing the simplest little halfback pass, unless it's against Alabama State. If he had a couple of fantastic receivers that were making plays for him, and keeping Auburn in the big games, Iron Bowl 2019 comes to mind, I think he could eventually get there. But with the receivers he has this year, I don't think he will have much opportunity to get settled into a good rhythm in a tight game.