AUloggerhead

True -- for 1 year in 1979. His record the rest of the time he was there can't be ignored either. I consider myself a Barfield Survivor because I was in school suffering through his incompetence as a head coach. I still have nightmares of the game (in '78, I think) where AU near the visiting team's goal line had 2 SUCCESSIVE delay of game penalties. Inconceivable as that seems ... it wasn't the worst of it. They very nearly had 3 (!) successive delay of game penalties if not for Phil Gargis calling a TO literally at the last second. The debacle against Clemson for the delay of game penalty followed by the TO brought back that memory. Incompetence like that can't be excused.

Well said. I'd only add that our biases are influenced most by who we saw. I was there during the Cribbs/Brooks era so I naturally compare all other backs to those two. My last quarter at AU was Fall 1979 -- the year AU was on probation and prohibited from being on TV. What a shame too because unless you went to the games, you couldn't ever watch those two in action. In only 11 games (no bowl game due to probation,) both Brooks & Cribbs each rushed for over 1,000 yds. One or both would break off a long run (50+ yds) at least once every game. And I mean every game. Brooks earned his nickname "Bye-Bye" because if he got to corner and turned it up-field, he was gone. Down by 7 in the Iron Bowl that year after uat scored a TD with about 25 seconds left, Brooks took the KO and nearly ran it all the way back, getting tripped up a shoestring tackle at about the uat 20. Even Bear Bryant said afterwards, "I nearly had heart failure every time he touched the ball." Brooks WAS electric.

Being able to pass the ball anywhere, anytime is not only desirable, it's essential -- especially in the red zone against quality defenses. Note the last-second scores in both the AU-uat & the Clemson-uat games. Unless you've got 7 road-graders up front blowing the opposition off the line, you're not always going to punch it in from the 3 on 4th and goal. And it's not just for red-zone effectiveness, either. Give me more of (insert QB) to Eli Stove or Kyle Davis on a 70-80 yd bomb every game. Or how about a quick strike with time running out in the half to set up a FG by Legatron (or mini-Legatron as the case may be?) Don't worry about the running game because it will only be enhanced by a credible passing attack. I say, bring on the Air Raid -- it's about damn time.

Thanks Coach, for posting this all season long. I think I can safely speak for all other AU fans in saying none of us would mind if you would kindly consider adding one more of these posts for the bowl game. I'd like to comment on your QB observations. I know a lot of people don't like Gary Danielson but his analysis is usually spot on and devoid of fluff. He said AU needed consistent QB play to beat uat, and that he thought JFIII gave them the best chance to do that. I agree with your assessment that the constant revolving door at QB is a huge disappointment, especially this late in the season.

As far as Lashlee's playcalling, I about fell on the floor when he had Sean White fake the hand-off to Pettway and bootleg it around the right side for a score. Perfect set-up by bringing in the "heavy package" for that play too!

I'm not criticizing but just trying to understand. AU kicked off 10 ten times and of those KOs only 1 was actually returned, and it effectively mimicked a patented Carlson touch-back to the 25-yd line. And that one return resulted in an overall Fail for all KO returns on your scorecard. (??) Pretty harsh. Your threshold for passing on defending KO return is limiting the receiving team to 21.3 yds or less, but then the same passing grade for returning KOs is averaging over 22.3 yds. Why the difference? What about on-side kicks? We didn't have any in this game but let's take a look at a reasonably typical result: on-side KO fails and the receiving team takes over on or about the 50-yd line. By your scorecard, the kicking team limited the 'return' to zero yards and would receive a passing grade for this KO defense, even though field position is 25-yds greater than if they had kicked it to the goal line and the return team ran it out to the 25 before getting tackled (and getting a Fail.) The reason I'm bringing this up is that I was surprised to see an overall 50% Pass grade (3 of 6 categories) for the Special Teams when what was witnessed on the field was certainly an above-average result. Although it was still an overall Pass grade, your methodology meant that if just one more category had been a fail, the overall grade would've been Fail. In fact, you counted 'punt return defense' as a pass when we didn't even punt once. Net field position on KOs (less than opp 25-yd line) might be a better pass/fail indicator of KO return defense. Just a thought.

Stat, I believe you could revisit a couple of items on your Special Teams Scorecard: (1) if there are no punts, then why count the 'punt return defense' category at all? (2) Why is the 'kick-return defense' a Fail when Daniel Carlson boots all his kick offs beyond the end zone preventing any kick returns from ever happening? The placement of the ball at the 25-yd line is just a rule and doesn't mean that the receiving team actually gained 25 yds on the kicking team. The standard you chose: below 21.2 ypr seems to be an arbitrarily chosen number. I could see gigging him for kicking off out of bounds and incurring a penalty, but that didn't happen in this game. Carlson's kicking performance was ideal. Even the no punts (& no punt returns) were ideal.

Moving Forward is a good title for this thread. Everyone recognizes the inherent problems of trying to win with 3 QBs & 2 other wildcat formations, but another glaring issue with the offense involves the blocking up front & on the edge. The OL was supposed to be a strength of the team yet there were clear indications of as much confusion up front as was evident in the backfield. Both tackles had issues with pass protection and the center was getting pushed back too easily. One time, I saw Kozan fall backwards on a pass play without anyone in front of him. Wha ...? The WR blocking effort can at least be explained due to inexperience but what happened to our OL veterans? Here's hoping the blocking on offense gets on track for this week to set the tone for the rest of the season. WDE

Not at all. It's great to get an informed opinion on these kind of injuries. The news article said that Nick 'currently has a brace on his knee.' Care to speculate on possible ligament damage there?

Yep. It's his cover of that. He grew up surrounded by music (his father was a high school jazz teacher) and was influenced by 70s funk & Earth, Wind & Fire among others. Here's his cover of Serpentine Fire:

Those links weren't any good. Try this one: Culbertson is a genius -- in addition to playing the instruments, he does all the writing & arranging.

Used to be really into the hard rock sound but my tastes have changed somewhat and I really appreciate good musicianship more now. I've seen Brian Culbertson in concert a few times now and I've made up my mind to see him every time he comes to town. Brian primarily plays the piano but also trombone & bass guitar. Also, it doesn't matter who tours with him, you can count on a tight set and a big sound: https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Brian+Culbertson&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002 https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=Brian+Culbertson&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-002

So true -- I don't "hate" the uat, it's student-athletes nor it's coaches. I hate the entitlement attitude of its fan base, though. And the fact that they are so clueless to how insufferable they present themselves to opponents: The rammer-jammer song they sing after a victory, any victory, even if over a cupcake is the epitome of classlessness. Yet, then they have no problem ignoring the irony of quoting the bear about "winning with class." I have to agree with Clay Travis -- no other fan base comes close to being so collectively stupid.

Cecil has been consistently critical of Shulla all year. I still believe uat won't get rid of him until the end of next season. He has one year to produce some significant wins or he's gone. A few coaching staff shakeups are in order, though.

THURSDAY GAME MAC Championship: Akron FRIDAY GAME Fresno St SATURDAY GAMES SEC Championship: GA Big XII Champsionship: TX ACC Championship: VaTech Conf USA Championship: UCF Navy UCLA West Va

SEC West 1. Auburn 2. LSU 3. (Tie) Arkansas 3. (Tie) Alabama 5. Miss State 6. Ole Miss SEC East 1. Tenessee 2. (Tie) Georgia 2. (Tie) Florida 4. South Carolina 5. Vandy 6. Kentucky SEC Champ Auburn BCS Winner Auburn Total AU Touchdowns 47