nurbis

Blowing this last game was impressive even by Auburn standards for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Bottom of the 7th, first guy singles, second guy singles, Cannon should have been pulled right there. But instead, leave him in there, third guy doubles and ties the game and then you bring Carlson in once it is too late and the damage is done.

It is Teaford's first. Hudson's first year was 2020 but the season was canceled so really Hudson's first season was 2021 and we started 2-13 in SEC play that year also. It was an awful season. I am hoping there is just a big learning curve to pitching coaches but a lot of these losses have been lopsided whereas in 2021 we had a lot of 1 and 2 run losses. Silver lining is we have also played the top 3 teams in the East and after MSU this weekend, will have played the top 3 teams in the West but after that, we play the bottom 3 teams in the West and bottom team in the East so hopefully, we can turn things around a bit.

They are a 12 loss team. A team we beat by 18. Their tournament run consisted of beating a 13 seed, a 12 seed, a 1 seed, and a 6 seed. Not exactly a gauntlet of great teams. Remember, Auburn's FF run we had to go through a 12 seed, a 4 seed, a 1 seed, and a 2 seed and then got cheated out of a win over another 1 seed and a championship appearance. Oates is undoubtedly a good coach but let's not get carried away.

I think part of the issue is the change in pitching coaches, which sucks because the offense is pretty good this year. We had similar issues when we hired Hudson. He was hired for the 2020 season but it was cancelled so his first full season in 2021, we were awful. We had a very similar start to the SEC season as we have this year and finished that season with a 10-20 conference record. But then 2022 we had the run to the World Series so I think everybody mostly forgot about how bad 2021 was. We have been competitive in the last two series but probably just going to have a down year this year.

Kind of hard to argue the time zone factor when Yale had to come from Connecticut. Also have to remember the year we made the Final Four we were a hair away from losing the first-round game. NMSU had a last-second shot to win but missed. Pearl is a great coach but we have had some bad chokes with him as HC.

We didn't get run ruled today so that is something.

This is the part of NIL I could not get my head around. The primary issue was that schools and networks make so much money from the players but the players could not make any money for themselves or get a share of the revenue. So somehow we end up with a system where the fans have to pay the players and the schools and networks are still not required to give a share of what they make directly to the players? The fans are the source of the revenue for schools and networks as it is, how did it also become our responsibility to pay the players?

Sounds like a lot of spin to cover for losing him so fans don't turn on DeBoer already. Even if the kid doesn't fit DeBoer's system, it doesn't mean he could not excel anyway. They don't gain anything by pushing him out and never giving him a chance. Unless he broke some major rule and he is being kicked off the team, then why force him to leave? And if he had broken a rule, then they would come out and say it so it looked bad for him and not for them. It defies logic that DeBoer would force the kid out.

There are not many options. Players can't be forced to play when their college careers are at an end. I supposed the NFL could put a rule in place but they have no incentive to do so. Future draft picks not getting hurt in meaningless bowl games only benefits them. You could get rid of bowl games altogether and focus on the playoffs which is more ideal to me but will never happen because of the loss of TV revenue. The playoffs should somewhat take care of it. A situation like FSU where a high-talent team loses a third of their players will not happen since teams like that will be a playoff team in the future and players will want to play in those games. But it will always be an issue in lower-tier bowl games. The best option is to treat bowl games like spring games. Use it to get young guys more playing time and prepared for future starting roles in the next year. Just have the understanding going in that there really isn't going to be a big concern on winning the game. As Auburn fans, we should be used to that by now.

Still early but looks like we are going to give NMSU game level effort in this one.

Would be nice but don't think this will affect McCray. Batemen is an ILB coach and was not one of McCray's recruiters so doubtful it is impactful to him.

Except the Panthers were 7-10 last year and far from the worst team. I guess the Panthers did it backward, had the number one pick, and then became the worst team.

Especially when you are doing so in arenas that you have no control over the cameras. Maybe we do record teams at home, but we beat a lot of good teams on the road as well. Seems like we would win at home and lose on the road but in those years it was pretty mixed, especially in 2018/2019 with us winning the SEC tournament and making the final four all in road/neutral games.

Isn't that the way it is supposed to work? The first six teams in are the highest-ranked conference champs and the next 6 are the remaining highest-ranked teams. The top 4 teams will get a bye in the first round.

This. Being undefeated is extremely hard. And to do so when you lose your star quarterback shows some truly great coaching. Saban only has 2 undefeated seasons out of 28 years of coaching. Dabo has one in his career. Urban has two. Spurrier had none.

And Auburn had more top 25 wins than any of the other teams. And let's not forget that us only beating 6-6 bama by 8 points in Tuscaloosa was used as one of the excuses as to why we were kept out.

I did see somebody make a good point about FSU. If the committee truly thought they were a worse team after losing Travis, why did FSU not drop behind Texas, bama, and Oregon after the N. Alabama game when he was injured? If being undefeated truly did not matter and injuries are going to be that heavily weighted, then the rankings should have reflected that weeks ago. Also, we all know if we had beaten bama last week, it would be Georgia at 4 right now instead of bama. There was no way FSU was going to get in and leave out the SEC.

They were not going to leave out Saban and they for sure were not going to leave out the SEC. Too much TV revenue on the line. If we are honestly talking best teams, Georgia is the better team compared to bama. We all know if bama is not gifted a touchdown right before halftime then Georgia probably wins.

You are biased.

Why would you not call a timeout to get a review on that 4th down? Maybe it doesn't get turned over but it looked obvious it hit the ground and he did not have complete control. Georgia would have had the ball but instead, they give up a touchdown. Pretty dumb.

Thorne was a 3000 yard passer at Michigan State. Nix is a 4000 yard passer at Oregon. I don't think the QB issues are just because of a lack of capability at the position and I don't think capability is even the primary issue. There is a reason bama's quarterbacks are Heisman QBs when passing behind a 5 star O-line to 5 star receivers and why a walk-on QB was able to win two titles at Georgia.

How does Jefferson still have eligibility? I swear he has been at Arkansas for ten years.

I agree. In that situation, I would want the QB to run, not have a spy trying to keep him in the pocket. I would have preferred to have 3 rushing and basically give him a running lane to one side to try and goad him into running. If he takes the bait then the 8 guys in the end zone close in and make the tackle. If he is able to outmaneuver 8 guys and get to the end zone, then so be it, but giving him all day to wait for a receiver to get open and then have no pass rush to disrupt his throw made no sense. Seems like the worst of all options.

I understand the desire to compare to other coaches that have had bad losses but all of those losses were by one score. We were blown out. NMSU only has two other wins by that margin. I could somewhat be okay with losing by 3 or even 7 but a 21-point loss is crazy.

NMSU was not a good team. Below is their schedule and the records of the teams they have played before us. The teams they have beaten, not including us, have a combined record of (22-56). They have only beaten one team with a winning record before us. They have two losses to teams with losing records. Only UTEP and Middle Tennessee scored less than we did with 7 points each. Even winless Western Illinois scored 21 on them. Only three times this year, against FIU, Western Kentucky, and UMass, have they scored 30 points or more. This was not a great defense or a great offense we played. People want to bring up Saban's loss to La Monroe as comparable but it really isn't. If you want a more accurate equivalent, it is Chad Morris at Arkansas losing by 26 at home to (9-3) Western Kentucky. I don't think it can be overstated how bad of a loss this was. UMass (3-8) L Western Illinois (0-11) W Liberty (11-0) L New Mexico (4-7) W Hawaii (4-8) L FIU (4-7) W Sam Houston (2-9) W UTEP (3-8) W La Tech (3-9) W Western Kentucky (6-5) W