AUwent

Def takes some of the sting off this season.

RAMMER JAMMER, YELLOW HAMMER, GO TO HELL ALABAMA!

One more thing, can we stop with this “I don’t care if we have a better record, I just want iMpRoVeMeNt?” I find it hard to believe that anyone would be okay if we lost six games by single score margin.

1 hour ago, woodford said:

If I had to guess, they are saving NIL funds for next year when we’re a bit more ready to make a playoff run.

See previous comments—I don’t think we’ll be a playoff contender until year 4 but I do think this team has a better shot at a 9-4 (w/ bowl win) type season than next. Both need to be better than 6-6 obv.

Honestly I WISH Josh Pate were correct here, claiming that we would be a very young team (13 minute mark). Getting some playing time just isn’t the same thing as starting, sorry!

33 minutes ago, JerryAU said:

Auburn returns 66% of its '23 production - I don't know it that's good or bad?

Our SEC opponents return the following:

OleMiss 70% - UGA 68% - UAT 53% - OK 65% - Mizzou 71% - UK 72% - aTm 67% - Vandy 64%

Ole Miss/UGA/Mizzou/UAT will be tough.   OK/Vandy/aTm/Arkansas we should be able to handle.  

There's absolutely no excuse for even one OOC loss this year.  I've got 8-4 at worst and get a dang bowl WIN for 9-4. 

Yup, after going out and getting Lewis, Lambert, Raikes and Blidi thereby adding even more seniors to the lineup does not indicate to me that CHF is viewing this as another recruiting year (assuming “another recruiting year” means 6-7).

9 minutes ago, woodford said:

Depends on CFH’s long term strategy. Does he think he needs another top 10 or 5 class to survive past 2025? If so then we should expect 6-7 wins because 2024 will again be a “recruit first” season. 

If we had only 10 seniors in the (projected) starting lineup, he could possibly get away with that.

16 minutes ago, TigerOne said:

And ours isn’t 

LMAO! Remind me of how Drink’s first three years at Missouri went again? He was the ONLY P5 coach Potato Man beat without Bo.

Oh man, my sides…that was a good one.

I’ll default to 7-5 for now. It’s just frustrating that nowadays QB can override all other positions, since everywhere else would set up quite nicely for 9-3. -.-

On 5/8/2024 at 6:12 AM, Rednilla said:

In fairness, they didn't have a lot of booster support, so I think they reverted to their small school thought process because they were fighting such an uphill battle. That hire was an unmitigated disaster from beginning to end. I blame Allen Greene.

I just wanted to add that because of Leath, we had zero leadership in December 2020. Put yourself in Jay Gogue’s shoes. You have to be called out of retirement because your replacement was such a [redacted]. You then have to guide the university through the biggest global crisis since WW2. Are you doing anything BUT mailing it in at that point? I fully believe the Gus-Steele saga, and therefore the Potato hire, wouldn’t have happened had Roberts been prez by that point.

14 hours ago, woodford said:

The tall buildings in Vegas would like a word with you. 

 

I think I’m more blown away that TAMU and OU are within a FG than the UGA line. OU might be the most winnable game on that list which is hard to wrap my head around right now.
 

Georgia is going to be insane this year. It wouldn’t surprise me if Auburn got blown out and we still go on to win 8 games. Auburn has not seriously been competitive in Athens in 19 years. Why would it start this year? Yes, new staff and all but this program knows that Georgia owns them. It would take an old school Auburn defensive masterpiece to beat Georgia in Athens. 
 

Hope I’m wrong. 

Not sure why you’re “blown away,” those two and Kentucky should be considered toss-ups.

14 hours ago, Rednilla said:

I didn't mean to say we would necessarily hit the mark of 10 wins with a bowl victory, only that it's not at all unattainable.

Are you referring to this year or next? Because you talked, as many others have, about ‘25 being “our year.” And if the current starting lineup holds, we’re only going to have seven returning starters next year.

29 minutes ago, Rednilla said:

I know this was a response to a misunderstood joke, but I like the bit, so I'm going to respond to it. I didn't think it was a 3-5 year job in any way except for getting us fully back to national prominence, but I didn't realize Hugh was going to have to do so much work in recruiting to get us back there. Let it be clear, the man worked tirelessly this past season re-engaging with high school coaching contacts in order to reopen the lanes of recruiting over our footprint area, and the groundwork that has been established will serve us exceedingly well for years to come.

It's still utterly befuddling how magnanimously Bryan Harsin screwed up our football program, and now, having full perspective on what his tenure meant for Auburn football, I shake my head that I bought in for the time that I did, even though I do feel I have an excuse. The last time we spoke, my friend who was the connection to Harsin's staff seemed to be trying to convince me to stand by him still, saying I wasn't one of the typical Aubs who couldn't see how much work Harsin put in, and while I don't doubt that he gave it legitimately his best shot, it's clear to see he was in over his head. He didn't get even a salt lick of support from TPTB, so it's not really a fair situation to judge him on, but he was reverting to full Boise on us. To hear my friend tell it, because Hars put a couple of players from his Boise teams in the NFL, their standard is just as good as ours. I think I may have lost the friendship when I explained, as gently as I could, that peak Auburn does more than put a couple of random guys in The League.

But as to the job Freeze is doing, honestly, he's doing about as I expected him to do, though his challenge was greater than I understood when he was hired. That 3-5 years until we're competing for championships is still in order, though we are on track to meet the early end of it due to the influence of the portal. I don't think there's a whole lot of chance that we get ahead of schedule and legitimately find ourselves in the hunt for the playoffs this season, but 10 wins (with a bowl victory) doesn't seem too far out of bounds. Of course, for next year (2025) to be our year, we'll need one of the young QBs to step up, but we do, at least, have a few seemingly capable options there who will get at least one full season in the offense before taking over.

We should definitely be more talented next year but there’s been countless examples of talented rosters that have struggled early before blossoming (2011 and 12, but also look at UCF in 2015).

In any case, the betting is 7.5 wins still, correct?

My current prediction is we split OU/TAMU and lose to KY to go 7-5.

3 hours ago, Zeek said:

Vegas decided to drop some lines recently and I think most of them are easy money.

• Oklahoma @ Auburn (Oklahoma -3)
  • I think this one is fair. They have a bit more consistency and typically receive more respect than us.
• Auburn @ Georgia (Georgia -24)
  • I think the under here is easy money. Yes, last week's game was at Jordan Hare but we only lost by 7. To think the game being in Athens is a 17-point difference is a stretch. Especially considering I think we are better at almost every position group than we were a season ago.
• Auburn @ Missouri (Mizzou -10)
  • I understand Mizzou being the favorite at home but I'm going with the under. Not seeing them as a double-digit favorite over us. They have done a good job building a solid program over there and the easy schedule will keep them fresh. Still, I think we win this game or at worst lose it by one possession.
• Texas A&M @ Auburn (TAMU -3.5)
  • Simply put, I think we are the better team, or at least even. So the home-field advantage should make us the favorite. I believe we beat this team comfortably this season.
• Auburn @ Alabama (Alabama -15)
  • Milroe is not good and I am not a believer in Husky Harsin. We struggle at BDS and shouldn't be the favorite but Alabama has been hemorrhaging talent this offseason.

Thoughts?

I’d love to hear you elaborate on why you think KDB is overrated? If Washington had been his only stop, I *could* see a Scott Frost type situation, but he’s done very well at other stops too.

Anyhow, I hate how CFB has reached the point where one certain position overrides positives everywhere else. -.-

That said, the analytics seem a bit higher on us (or at least this one highly regarded analytics guru—Adam McClintock—does). Has us going 8-4 with wins over TAMU and Kentucky.

On 5/5/2024 at 4:56 AM, cbo said:

Auburn is historically a top 15 football team. I'm willing to bet the NIL money for the football program is at least in the top 20. We are not some poverty program and we need to quit acting like one.

The problem is we hire coaches no one else wants. And then we act surprised when they suck. 

Get the right coach in here and AU is easily a top 10-20 football program. With a chance to win at all if we go on a run at the right time in the 12 team playoff.

The harsh truth is that we don’t have our pick of the litter when it comes to coaches. For the exact same reason Tennessee doesn’t—remember, Heupel got worse each year at UCF, they just got incredibly lucky that somehow against all logic and reason he has *so far* worked out.

On 5/5/2024 at 4:42 PM, WarTiger said:

I believe we have the right coach now.  We lost 2 years on the Harsin debacle but Freeze is getting stuff done and has significantly upgraded the roster. Once the wins start coming this year, things will be even better.  

If Potato had stayed 2023 would have been Chad Morris level bad. It was the year where all the neglect of the roster that admittedly started under Gus came home to roost. Jury is out on Freeze but I can def see a path to success under him.

5 minutes ago, AU-24 said:

Not meaning to be nasty, just trying to make a point to those who still think Bo was bad at Auburn. Look at his freshman and sophomore year statistics. I’m too lazy to do it myself right now, but his numbers are not bad at all. As a matter of fact, they’re actually pretty good. Then consider he had a below average SEC offensive line, average to below average wide receivers, below average coaching at best, then his numbers are borderline great. 

Then he goes to Oregon, with better all of the above and an easier schedule than the SEC and he becomes the overall 12th player picked in the draft

Keep in mind it was a quarterback talent heavy draft… More-so than any other time in the past couple decades. I just tell you that to say, any year other than this one, Bo would’ve been a top five pick. Just so many talented QB’s in this years draft. 

 

Sorry to cause pain to anyone, but heading into that MSU game we had a wide open path to winning the west.

7 hours ago, mustache eagle said:

Never understood the effort folks go to give Bo a hard time.  Most QB’s are not successful in the pros.  He probably won’t be but I wish him the best.

He is all over the top 10-20 in different NCAA passing record books.  But the one that stands out to me … in the history of college football no one has ever had a single season with the completion percentage he did this year on 470 attempts (note: team had 437 rush attempts so they weren’t pass happy).  Regardless of the type of offenses or the variety of conferences played in or time zones or the previous all-Americans, heismans or all-pros … that record is his.  That is impressive. And completely immaterial to what he may do in the nfl.

Because a good portion of the fanbase (foolishly, I might add) saw him as being a nepo-baby.

Off topic a little but the number of sites that are basically defunct is quite sad. I miss Track ‘Em.

On 4/28/2024 at 12:09 AM, AURex said:

With all of the wingbut rhetoric (from both Democrats and Republicans) a lot of the actual reality gets buried inpolitics.

The trope narrative of "outsiders" is one of those blasts that every wingnut wants to broadcast -- without any actual proof. And even if there are some outsiders who come in, they are just minorities.

Most of the protesters on every campus (and there are many) nationally, ar students enrolled at the university. There are not BUSES  bringing in hundreds of activists. (If you can prove it, then do it, but legit news not wingnut propaganda).

DID YOU KNOW --

At Yale and Columbia and other universities, the Jewish students do not feel unsafe?

Did you know that, at Yale, there is a Jewish group "Jews for Ceasefire" that are protesting along with those who are protesting for Palestinian victims?

Did you know that the editor of the student paper at Columbia is Jewish and he has said he and other Jews on campus feel no threat from the protesters, meet with and talk to the protesters, etc?

Bringing in militarized forces to arrest peaceful protesters is unconstitutional abridgement of freedom of speech. Americans have the right to peacefully protests. The protesters on university campuses have not been involved in any violent acts.

This is just more wingnut response to peaceful speech they do not agree with. Despicable, disgusting. Even faculty at these universities have condemned administrators calling in police on peaceful demonstrators.

We condemn other countries (dictatorships) for criminalizing peaceful protests. Yet here we are, supposedly a free country with Constitutional protections for freedom of speech, doing exactly the same thing.

How sad for our country.

 

I’ll just leave this here. For the record I have been strongly against protestors trying to silence conservative speakers on campus (such as that event with Milo that went super viral).

Hate to say, but at this point who can win at those three?

6 reg season wins is a failure. 

7…I’m conflicted. A winning season would undoubtedly be an important step in the recovery process. So many are pointing to year 3 as the leap forward. However, we have so many seniors that I think it may be more realistic to win 8 then 7 than the other way around.

8 is a success.

Jaden Rashada is reportedly visiting. Georgia has been considered the favorite, but it seems like they have so many QBs already. Could we pony up the NIL here if we want to? Would we want to?

1 hour ago, Zeek said:

So hard to predict. I think we see an obnoxious amount of frosh playing this year. The portal has made it easier than ever to plug holes too. Year 3 is definitely a better schedule for us but it all focuses on QB play frankly. We’ll be looking for a new starter. Early signs of White aren’t impressive to me. 

We’ve had one really good QB signed out of HS since Campbell left, and really most starting QBs in the league are from the portal anyways. 

4 hours ago, Zeek said:

If the OL is as good as reported and Cobb is as talented as the staff believes and if Freeze really wasn’t calling/designing the offense last year, then we could see a drastic improvement even with Thorne. We have a better receiving group for sure. Defense looks better.

8-4 is attainable but I’m not convinced of anything more than that 

Do you expect year 3 to be better despite how many starters we lose? Because that’s where I’m conflicted with what I’m asking for this year…if only half our projected starts by lineup were seniors I’d for sure take 7 wins, no question.

Is Autry going to visit us again?