BHDAU1

OrangePearls, I am not normally someone who buys into conspiracy theories but even I have to admit any time we play in Tuscaloosa the refs seem to always call the game in favor of Alabama. And it's been that way since before I was a student at Auburn in the late 90's and early 2000's and remains that way today. It really doesn't even matter what sport is being played, and it seems to be particularly bad when Auburn is considered the better team or ranked higher. Honestly, after watching that clown show of officiating how could you not feel like you are getting screwed on purpose?

I wish someone would go in and edit the title of my thread here. I created it on my phone and totally missed the "d" that ended up on the word "foul"! Anyway, I re-watched most of the game again and it was just as bad, if not worse, watching it the second time when I wasn't worried about the outcome. The refs were absolutely terrible. GwillMac6 is exactly right in that the refs are simply calling fouls based off of the anticipation of a foul just because of Walker's size. That is about the worst mindset a ref can have. We have seen Jabari get the same type of bad calls as well. Someone mentioned Auburn learning to play without getting those type of calls but that is impossible unless they just give up on trying to play defense and back away from anyone handling the ball. We are talking about fouls being called on Kessler and others (to a lessor extent) where there is literally ZERO contact and still the foul gets called. There was also the foul called on Kessler in the 2nd half where he was inside the restricted circle and jumped straight up with his arms straight up in the air and the Alabama player totally jumped into him and Kessler gets the foul. It is inexcusable. The reality is that Auburn could have lost the game all because of terrible calls against Kessler, the leading shot blocker and arguably best rim defender in the SEC being artificially removed from playing. Someone needs to hold these refs accountable for these blatant terrible calls to make sure it doesn't keep happening over and over again.

In looking at the box score Auburn had 24 fouls called against them total, and Alabama was in the bonus less than 5 or 6 mins into the 2nd half. Alabama had 18 fouls called on them total, and 2 or 3 of those were at the end of the game and on purpose. Factor out the 2 fouls committed on purpose and the foul discrepancy was 24 vs. 16, eight fouls more called on Auburn. Can anyone that actually watched that game honestly say that Auburn and Alabama were playing with different levels of physicality and Auburn deserved 8 more fouls?!! That is potentially 16 more free points gifted to Alabama, but Auburn still found a will and way to win the game!

So yet again at Alabama we had the refs take one of our best players out of the game for virtually the entire game. The first two fouls called against Kessler were atrocious. Even the play by play guys were wondering what the hell just happened. Out of the remaining three he got in the 2nd half, 2 of them were questionable at best and the 1st one took him out of the 2nd half for all intents and purposes within the first few minutes of the half. It was almost a exact replay of the last game where the refs did the same thing. I would not complain if Kessler earned them, but he did NOT earn more than half of the fouls called against him the last two games. I wonder if we are going to keep seeing this for the remainder of the season? It's like the refs are so poorly trained that if Kessler is anywhere near the ball when on defense near the basket they are blowing their whistle. It's like a mindset of Kessler is a big guy so he is automatically going to foul each time. To make matters worse, the refs only called a couple of touch fouls on Alabama the entire game. We had guys getting nailed when driving the lane and no calls. The one that made me laugh out loud was near the end of the game when Green was guarding one of Alabama's big men who posted him up and literally ran him over as he pushed him further under the basket and Green gets called for the foul? It was so comical that it was unbelievable. Im not someone who normally gets on here to complain about bad refs but the last two games in a row have been so bad I felt like I had to. With all that said, how bout them Tigers? What a team we have this year. AU's depth and talent level is unreal. I've watched a lot of basketball this season even outside of every Auburn game and I can honestly say that we are where we belong in the top 5. If this team keeps getting better collectively they should win the SEC, and I don't think there is anyone in the country that can beat them if Auburn is playing their best game.

Guys I've watched a lot of basketball in my days at 41 years old and growing up Big Blue country in Lexington, Ky., and I can honestly say without reservation this Auburn team has the players to be something really special. The season is young and Auburn already looks to be competitive with the best out there on any given night. Sure there are plenty of teams out there like this, but there are VERY few that are this good and this new as a team. The guys are really just learning where they fit in the team and how to play together. Give them another ten games and its going to be something special to watch. They all look 100% bought-in to Bruce's plan and the defensive effort is outstanding. Watching Zep and KD stick to their guys like glue and the rest of of them run around full-speed the entire game is so much fun. What can you say about Jabari? They are already calling him a top 3 draft pick and he is just getting started. The kid can do it all very well, and his pull-up jumper is a thing of beauty. This team is going to go really, really far this year, I have no doubts about that.

As an Auburn Alum that grew up in Lexington, Ky. and lives in Lexington now this makes me sick. Powell was definitely my favorite player when he was healthy and he was exciting and fun to watch. You could tell that he had a lot of talent and was going to develop into a deadly outside shooter that could still take it inside with the big boys with ease. My Auburn friends and I would talk about what the hell was going on with him as the season played out and he never came back. Now I have this terrible feeling that he was maybe faking the severity of his injury with the plan to leave after the season shortly after he got hurt. He got some great national exposure and I'm sure it didn't take long for people connected to certain programs to start talking to him. Oh well, nothing can be done about it now so screw it. If he ends up at UK I hope he plays like crap every time AU and UK meet. One other thought, I don't think he would be transferring had it been a normal year and the team got to play in front of the normal big home crowds and rowdy students. It had to be very weird as a freshman playing your first year in college in an empty arena.

How many times did we see our DBs pull up expecting the Georgia RB or WR to run out of bounds instead of tackling them? And when they did make contact it was either catching them and getting bowled over or diving at their feet attempting to trip them. Tackling was awful. BUT, as ive said in other posts, the defense was hanging bu a string being down 2 starting ends and kept AU in the game all the way deep into the 3rd quarter against a top 5 or 10 team, with even a little help from the offense Auburn would have been in the game to the end. This loss is almost entirely on the offensive coaches and their play calling, with some of the blame falling on Stidham not making easy throws. One more "fun" fact, even when the game is lost our head coach wont put in Malik or anyone else to get experiance. I would wager 99% of the other head coaches in the SEC sub in the back up in the last 2 minutes with the game lost and literally nothing to gain playing starters. We have the one stubborn and dumb sob that wont!

He also got maximum effort out of guys that werent 5 star recruits and coached them up to reach their potential. Something sorely lacking with Gus.

It really is a valid question when discussing who Gus recruits. It seems we take QBs every year that are the opposite of we are all led to believe is needed to have a good offense. Either recruit dual threat qbs or dont. This half assed take a guy and make him abandon his strengths to run this system is bs. What is our identity? Why is Stidham our starting qb if we are going to run an offense that requires a running threat at qb to be good? It flat out doesnt make any sense.

Yes i saw them all. He was doomed from the start because at this point EVERYONE knows when he comes in that it is going to be a run. Combine that with terrible blocking on the goal line and there is the result. If he were given a real chance to run the full offense and actually have the option of throwing it the results may be different. We will never know but honestly compared to what we have seen the offense couldnt get a lot worse. And who cares about the 3 posts in a row? I had some stuff I wanted to say that didnt come to me all at once and no one was posting at the time. Its not as if i was commenting on my previous posts....

One more comment, we all know it doesnt take a rocket scientist to run the zone read. Look how well Marshall ran it. If they havent taught Willis to at least be proficient in running that zone read concept at this point then thats just another sign of the coaches not developing players. Its either that, or Willis is not as smart as Marshall, which is almost a statistical impossibility!

Gus has been protecting Stidham all season. He hasnt let us see what any other qb is capable of. And i would argue it would improve the running game. It gives the defense someone else to worry about. Right now on likely running downs they just key on our one rb and our line isnt good enough to impose their will. Stidham rarely keeps it and when he does he doesnt have elite speed. Willis does!

My question would be how does anyone here know if there is a viable option behind Stidham? We are not in practice and you cant judge whether Willis can run the offense off of a few plays scattered here and there that are apparently always the same play call. In sure Willis can throw the ball to some degree right? He would be a running back otherwise. But Gus never lets him do it in a game. The one time he did he got in trouble bc Gus didnt want to run up the score.