ScotsAU

My top 3: 1. Dye 2. Shug 3. Hear me out before you criticize this one… Gus. I think the first two speak for themselves. As for Gus… He was fizzling out before he was let go. Partially, it to a fall off in recruiting after Kirby was hired. But he also was a little stagnant at times in letting his offense evolve. (Albeit, I feel like he gets a little more flack on this than is realistic. He did make some changes to his passing game, especially after Chip Lindsey was hired.) And his last few years, he was over-substituting, which tended to telegraph what play we were about to call. HOWEVER, he put a ton of guys in the NFL. He ran a clean program that kept players from getting into too much trouble. Including his OC years, he had us on 3 SEC championships and 2 natties within a decade. His win percentage was on par with other great Auburn coaches. He had a pretty even record against Saban. And oh yeah, he did all this with our biggest rivals(s) having unprecedented success.

Just to point out how much Harsin destroyed this roster… We’re at the end of round 4 and no Auburn players have been drafted. NO, ZERO, NONE. The university of British Columbia has had a player drafted, and we’ve not had a single player go.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NCAA_Division_I_FBS_passing_leaders Not sure where they got 2nd. He’s 6th. Still a great achievement though. He does now hold the record for completion percentage in a season.

This perspective feels like it is coming from someone who didn’t actually watch him play at Oregon at all. A switch flipped on him at Oregon. Were the defenses not as good? Sure. But he also was throwing the ball much more consistently. He was hitting receivers in tight windows. He was making better reads and not forcing passes like he did at times at Auburn. He finally got competent coaching, and it made a difference. The guy that couldn’t show any consistency throwing the football finished his last season with the best completion percentage in college football history. Think about that.

I won’t crystal ball predict on how Thorne will look this season. But I will point out the following: - At Michigan State, when he had a solid run game and had a solid receiver to throw to, he relaxed and balled out. -Last season, his best games were the games where we were able to run the ball effectively. Minus drops (which were a major issue last year), he had ridiculously good completion percentages in those games. If we can run block well, the added weapons should majorly open up the passing game. I’m not saying I think he’ll break Auburn records. But he should be good enough to manage the game effectively. In an RPO scheme like Freeze’s, you don’t need a world beater at QB. You just need someone who can confidently make the right reads.

IMO, I don’t agree with this decision. While the rules have changed, he knew what they were at the time and willingly broke them. But it is what it is. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it either way. As for teams in trouble being somehow affected, I don’t really agree with that either. I also think that would be harder to restore…

Here’s the joke… You know, he’s right. Bama is so much worse than Isis.

Most likely exit would be Battie. He’s a senior, and his carries will probably not go up this year. Alston and Cobb have great chances to be featured backs next year. Didn’t Battie even put his name in the portal previously?

I would argue that he did. He just took too long to get going following the suspension early last seasons

I think you’re reading too deeply between the lines. Per interviews in the past, Auburn was always his first choice. He chose to go to Florida at first because we seemed to be more interested in Kodi Burns. I’m sure that was a factor when he was looking to come back to D1. He was just stating that the deciding factor was the number of seniors.

I mean… I was at Auburn when this happened. The night the story broke, folks around campus were saying Mullen was behind it.

This interview just keeps getting better as I listen farther in. Apparently Cecil never considered an MSU offer. He took the hit because the investigation was taking a toll on Cam. He figured by saying he’d talked with someone at MSU, the investigation would end. I hate the NCAA even more now. And the Mullen family are the spawn of Satan.

I love this. “Coach Chizik claimed we got 180 k for me to go to Auburn. My mom and I just looked at each other and laughed.” Dan Mullen can suck a bag of d***s.

I love the confidence. But UK is a blue blood. There’s a ton of reasons for Pearl to stay put. There’s also some reasons for him to leave. And ever since the unexpected moves of Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley, I have no idea what’s in Pearl’s head.

To the OP… I think the answer is “it depends who you ask.” Glass half empty folks saw: -Thorne didn’t really make any exceptional throws. His deep balls came out rather wobbly. He threw a few balls up for grabs. - Brown was inconsistent. He threw one deep pass successfully, but it was slightly over thrown, negating what could’ve been a TD. -Holden only three to check down receivers, and generated no explosive plays at all. -White was very inconsistent and seemed to be lost in the offense. Glass half full folks saw: - Thorne did what the coaches have been wanting him to do since he arrived on campus. He operated the RPO system, made the right reads, and generally protected the football well. The few balls he did throw up for grabs went to Coleman, who showed out. It could be argued that Thorne just trusted Coleman enough to come down with those 50-50 balls. One time he did and scored. Another time, he drew a PI. -Brown may have some room to grow. But he showed flashes of potential for the future. -Holden took care of the football and managed the game. -White played reasonably well for his first college game in front of fans. Like Brown, he has room to grow, but did well considering. I lean glass half full for everyone except Holden. I have no issue with the guy. I applaud his decision to stay and fight. But I also think Holden is a good example of why we should have the transfer portal. This RPO scheme is not his natural skill set. If he overcomes that disadvantage, he could be a very good QB. But it’s an uphill battle because our scheme relies on the things he’s struggling to do well. I think he should transfer somewhere that runs a pro scheme.

Last year, 100% agree. I’m actually watching someone break down the a day film as we speak. He did not play like that today at all. There was one play where the throw was a little late, and it was the first throw of the game. Other than that, he played very loose, and threw the ball right when it needed to be released. No idea if it’s maturity or better trust in the receivers. But Thorne did none of the stuff that held him back last year in the game today. So what did you see at A Day specifically?

Brown probably is not going to start. Freeze basically has said in multiple interviews that Thorne has separated himself from the others. His numbers were the best of the QBs today. Whilr things could change between now and fall, at the moment the order is clearly 1 Thorne, 2/3 Brown/Holden, 4 White. Would love for you to reply to my comment above though. I was frustrated with Thorne last year like everyone. But he looked hands down the best of the bunch today, which coincides with what most of the insiders have been saying through camp. So please, by all means let me know what you saw out of Brown versus Thorne that has them in this order in your mind. Like, was it just the deep pass to Coleman? Other than that, Brown’s numbers were 4-12 for 53 yards.

To those of you that didn’t think Thorne played well, can I ask why? And I mean like a real reason. Not just “trust me bro.” He went 9-13. Two of the misses were timing routes. One of them I believe was a drop. The last one actually should’ve been pass interference. In addition to that, he threw at least 3 great passes, most notably a deep ball to Lewis. So, those of you critiquing his performance today, can you please explain. What more did you want to see that you didn’t see?

Thorne: Didn’t make any jaw dropping plays. But did what Freeze has been wanting him to do from the start… play within the system. He made no bad reads and had no turnovers. Went 9-13 I think, but one of the incompletions came on a play that should’ve been called interference where he was probably going to connect with Coleman. 10-13 for 130 yards is pretty good numbers. He also had the lone TD pass. Brown: Had a few jaw dropping plays, including a bomb to Cam Coleman for like 50 yards. But played a bit inconsistently. Ended like 5-12 for just over 100 yards. Holden: He actually had a good completion percentage. But it’s because he kept hitting check downs. He also had the least yards of any of the QBs today. I’m going to guess he’s probably about to transfer. 7-10 for 46 yards. White: Showed some similarity to brown in that he was inconsistent, and had similar numbers. He had some pretty passes and then some that were not so good. I think he was like 5-13 for 85 yards. Thorne is clearly QB 1. He’s got a lower ceiling than some of the other guys. But Hugh has said that he’s taken steps forward this spring. It showed today. He was hands down the most consistent guy. Brown and White both have potential, but need to find more comfort/ consistency. Holden should transfer. I think he’s just not suited for this offensive system. He’d be better off somewhere that runs something more pro style.

Well I’m not going to overreact, but I was pleasantly surprised by our performance. Defense dominated the first half and made some incredible plays with the ball in the air. Offense showed what it was supposed to show. Per Hugh Freeze, they didn’t work much on running the ball or redzone offense during the spring. They know what our running backs can do. So, the focus was on installing the RPO game and getting the QBs comfortable making reads. I think they did a pretty decent job of that. It is also important to remember that 2 TDs were basically taken off the scoreboard and changed to field goals. Brown threw what would’ve been a touchdown pass if the QBs had been live. But the refs signaled him as “down” before the pass was thrown. We also had first and goal from the 2 after a PI call, and the coaches wanted the ball backed up anyway to work on something specific. If not for that, three of our QBs would’ve had scores. I have a lot of confidence in our kicking game though.

Seeing that Burton has made a bit of a splash in camp, but that it’s being kind of overlooked by the flashy play of Coleman. I’d have him second or third on the depth chart.

Fans, especially intense fans, have a tendency to overreact and try to find someone to blame. The reality is always that there’s more to it than one person. It is almost never one player, one coach, one QB, one anything when we lose a game in any sport. But fans want a single source to be frustrated at. With the ejection, CBM was an easy target for people frustrated with the loss. Not condoning it. I was pretty aggressively defending CBM after the game, and folks that do this annoy the heck out of me. But all fan bases do this. I wish Auburn fans would do better.

This was arguably his best team. We just fell flat at a few key times this season, most notably against Yale. Every team has off games. You just have to hope they don’t happen at key times. Unfortunately for us, they did. People griping about this season need to get a life.

I think there are too many hypotheticals to answer the OP. Maybe Bruce coaches for longer than that. What if SP strikes out on his own before Bruce retires? He may have already established himself as a solid head coach (or failed as one) by then. When the time does come, assuming he hasn’t flopped at another school as a head coach, I think he should get a look. And I think I’ll leave it at that. I don’t think he should be shoved to the top of the list because he’s a Pearl or because he coaches with Bruce. But he’s done enough for Auburn in his own right that, as of now, I’d say he deserves a look.

I didn’t say for sure that it was. Maybe it wasn’t. But I will say with confidence that this was the second worst showing of Auburn this year. We beat them 9 times out of 10.