Strychnine

2010 and 2013 taught me to not draw many conclusions from A-Day.

After Florida and South Carolina buyouts, I seriously doubt the man is very worried about his paycheck. This is a WFH job that he can basically do in his leisure, and he can evaluate football film in his sleep.

To take that further, I would like to see more former coaches working games as commentators.

Any experts picking Auburn to win were making their picks by throwing darts blindfolded. In the last 3 games alone, Auburn went to Arkansas and set off a nuclear weapon, then went back home and got rolled by New Mexico State, then nearly beat a Playoff team. If anyone can predict the 2023 Auburn Tigers with any reasonable degree of accuracy, hire that person to pick you lotto numbers.

I do not look at records in a vacuum either. I tend to assume that if someone had success, at a program that does not generally enjoy success, then they probably have some correct answers. Anyone posting a winning record at Kentucky within the last century is notable, and that is not just Kentucky notable, it is college football notable.

Restless for what? He is the first coach that has produced two 10 win seasons there. Over the last century, the list of coaches that have had much success at Kentucky is a lot shorter than the list of those that have not. He has a winning record. You have to go back to the 1950s to find another coach that can claim that at Kentucky. The last person that won more games than he lost at Kentucky, did it before Mark Stoops was born.

If I were in his position, that is what I would be doing, especially at this point. He knows he gets a pass for his first season, but has to do something. What to do? Pull your hair out trying to improve this team, or work to build a future? There are only so many hours in the day, and the latter is apparently more likely to be successful.

Any 4-5* recruit sees the potential for early PT on offense, at all positions. The only questions would be "will these coaches be here 2 years from now", and "can they develop me into an NFL player"?

I do mind a 2 QB system, but I also accept that there is not a QB on the roster that Freeze is 100% sold on. If he thought Thorne could get the job done with his arm, or that any defense might think Thorne could, he would not consider bringing in a runner to take snaps. If he thought Ashford could get the job done, he would be taking the starting snaps. He seems to think that a 2 QB system gives them the best chance to succeed, but is not even 100% sold on that either. At this point, I think he is not far from throwing things at the wall, to see what sticks.

I think the coaches started the season without being 100% sold on any QB on the roster, and that situation has not improved. It might be that they thought if Thorne felt some pressure, as if Ashford was nipping at his heels, it might motivate him to step up.

I think the most entertaining game I have ever watched was the 2013 SEC Championship.

While I trimmed the graphs, I would say those largely look like good indicators of forward progress.

Whatever it was, dude acted like you hit him in the face with beer bottle.

You are on a message board, not fighting for your life against a horde of Nazi zombies.

You might as well be asking water to not be wet.

If people are patient enough to let them build it, you might end up seeing it.

Including playcalling. If plays are there be made (open receivers), and are not made consistently, can we really blame playcalling? A one-dimensional offense has to be really good at that one-dimension in order to be consistently successful, otherwise that one-dimension ends up getting shut down too. There is no evidence that the offense is good enough at rushing to overcome being one-dimensional, against a defense that has a pulse. Freeze and Montgomery cannot really playcall their way around that, or harness sorcery to field a QB that can consistently make throws that are there to make.

I am not convinced that he was ever entirely confident in Thorne, just that he might have been the best of bad options. He showed up at Auburn knowing that he needed to import a starting QB, and I suspect he still feels that way.

Do head coaches frequently leave Auburn for greener pastures?

In the last 20 years, that program has won more than five games in a season four times. After winning one game last year, they are already 3-0 in what is effectively a complete reboot. In September, they are 3 wins shy of making their season notable by Colorado standards. People are talking about Colorado football, where no one talked about Colorado football before. Players will flock to it, as they should. They had a former 5* recruit playing defense and offense, and excelling at it. Why ride a bench at Alabama, when you can compete for starting reps as a freshman at Colorado? Last year, that question would have sounded ridiculous. This year, not so much.

This. I will be perfectly content with a scoreboard that reads 0:00, with Auburn 35 and A&M 31. The sequence of events that leads to that can be as ugly as it needs to be.

Since he is what the coaches consider their best option for throwing the ball, I was immensely nervous when he started attacking Samford like he was Cam or Nick. He made it even worse when he was willing to drop his shoulder and take hits to pick up yards/first downs/TDs. I think he is settling any need to bring Robby in to run, by marching it in himself. That said, I do not want to see the offense where he is injured.

So could UGA. The point is that TCU is a real team, and Colorado went on the road to beat them. They may not be national championship contender TCU from 2022, but they are still a P5 win.

The point is that they played in the championship. Teams that play for national championships are real teams. TCU is not UMass or Samford, they are a real P5 team, even if not as good as last year. Going to TCU, and beating them, with the 1-11 team you inherited is not a joke.

They kicked off their season with a road win against a P5 top 25 team.