Calm my nerves about the first game

[McLoofus 35,182]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

[JFDTiger80 790]

This game should not be close. Big AU win.

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

You can probably calm down after the first possession of the game. If Arky stuffs our first drive or we play Roof-ball on their first drive, it could be a typical difficult SEC game. Otherwise, at home against this Arky squad, we'll probably come out focused & smoking. So again, look to relax after sme ball's been played.

I can't wait for the thread re "what will be Auburn's first O play"? If ever Auburn needed to make a positive statement in it's first drive, this is it. Snap on the chinstraps and go fast & fierce.

[Wrights_Mill_Road 2]

Arky will finish last in the west.

Need not worry.

[Weegle777 78]

Unlike many of my Auburn friends here, I'll join you in the worry booth. We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better. I certainly hope otherwise, but this game could serve as the wake up call that we are a year or two away from getting into that newfangled playoff system.

Still have that 2012 mindset after what you witnessed last year? Did you sleep through last season?

[AUenginerd 16]

Unlike many of my Auburn friends here, I'll join you in the worry booth. We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better. I certainly hope otherwise, but this game could serve as the wake up call that we are a year or two away from getting into that newfangled playoff system.

Ahhh yes, I remember my first beer. Good times! WDE!

[keesler 5,924]

Why should I care if you chew your fingernails off? We will take care of business.

Awesome. I feel better. Reading on Tigerdroppings, they have funny posters, anyway the hog posters there are pretty level headed and they are feeling pretty good about the game. For some strange reason they are happy with the fat boy.

I think I found your problem. :-\

[keesler 5,924]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

+1

I think Gus had to intentionally dial back his offensive scheme last year -it was the most vanilla gameplan I saw. If he had kicked it up a notch, AU would have beat the Hogs even worse than they did.

[Weegle777 78]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

+1

I think Gus had to intentionally dial back his offensive scheme last year -it was the most vanilla gameplan I saw. If he had kicked it up a notch, AU would have beat the Hogs even worse than they did.

He didn't have to, he did it purposely. If I remember correctly, fat boy kept talking trash about how the "spread" was dangerous and bad for the game, so Malzahn showed him that we aren't a "spread" team, but a downhill running offensive team. We only attempted four passes I believe, and Marshall had the highest QB rating in a single game from last season in that game.

[tigerbrotha12 2,362]

May take a drive or two to get going but I expect the defense to come out attacking and show us just how much Ellis Johnson defenses improve from year 1 to year 2.

[Milnewd 0]

Give me reasons why I should stop biting my fingernails off already about the opener against Fat Boy. Without the known punishment for Marshall, I'm still calm with JJ at QB but I have an unsettled feeling about the first game. So, friends of the board, give me something to calm me down. Go!

Gus may keep the QB1 a secret up until game time, but he will have the starter fully prepared. QB should not be a worry. The only worry should be Auburn's tendency to start the season slow, and our recent struggles with Arkansas.

[gravejd 3,270]

There is reason to worry over the game because arky is an SEC school and on any given day you can get beat by an SEC school. They also play a very physical style of football and use a ball control offense that could really put the breaks on our high powered offense should they be able to run the ball and pick up first downs consistently. Now with that said there are plenty of reasons to be feeling pretty good going into this game. Last years game is one reason. They were actually fairly successful with their offense with running the football and controlling the clock. However we were still able to handle them fairly easily without throwing to many offensive wrinkles at them. Fact is that arky's D will have problems containing our guys and they have a new coordinator on that side of the ball as well. Their secondary last year was a big weakness and one we didn't even have to exploit to beat them. Their secondary will likely be a weakness again this year as well which I expect to be a problem for them if Marshall has improved in the passing game like everyone is saying.

Another reason to feel good about the game is that I think our D will stack up pretty well against their offense. One area of our D that I feel pretty good about is the ability of our DL to clog up some running lanes. We are DEEP with run stuffers on the DL and that will be an issue for their offense which is predicated on controlling the line of scrimmage. I also love the rhino package that incorporates more DTs on the line when they come out in their jumbo sets. This should give them problems since a DT tends to be better equipped to handle double teams and fight through them. And that is the point of the jumbo sets. To get a OT an TE on the DE, blow him off the ball and get the LBs caught up in the wash. Gabe and Adams will hopefully be able to hold their ground against those double teams and if arky can't get a push up front then their offense is going no where fast.

Really the only way I think arky wins this game is if AU comes out flat and gets pushed around in the trenches. I don't expect that to happen with this coaching staff and the senior leaders we have on this team, but with college athletes you can never be too sure of what you have until you see them in action

[sevenlee36 1,654]

You should be nervous. We didn't really beat the heck out of em last year and knowing our history of poor performance against ark, you should worry. Plus Beliema would do anything to beat Gus.

[augolf1716 21,207]

Give me reasons why I should stop biting my fingernails off already about the opener against Fat Boy. Without the known punishment for Marshall, I'm still calm with JJ at QB but I have an unsettled feeling about the first game. So, friends of the board, give me something to calm me down. Go!

Beer and more beer will help.

[ausburn 159]

Give me reasons why I should stop biting my fingernails off already about the opener against Fat Boy. Without the known punishment for Marshall, I'm still calm with JJ at QB but I have an unsettled feeling about the first game. So, friends of the board, give me something to calm me down. Go!

Beer and more beer will help.

That along with this image.....

[mcgufcm 4,104]

sevenlee, we kind of did beat the heck out of them last year (which has little bearing on what will happen this year). We scored at will in that game. We took the air out of the ball, which allowed them to pull within 11, but then we scored on the next drive (because we could score any time we wanted to score). We basically played the game at half-speed, won by 18, and called it a day. After we scored four minutes into the second quarter, they were never closer than 11. They were not a threat.

[AUbritt 611]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

^^^^Agreed.

[Weegle777 78]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

^^^^Agreed.

Stop with the logic britt and Loof! We are Auburn, and we should never think we will be better! TEMPER THOSE HIGH EXPECTATIONS!

[AUbritt 611]

We should be better than Arky, but not THAT much better.

Please provide specifics.

We are vastly better coached. We are at an incalculable schematic advantage. We are significantly more talented. We are returning a national championship offense almost completely intact. We were 3 touchdowns better than them last year on the road. We are playing at home.

^^^^Agreed.

Stop with the logic britt and Loof! We are Auburn, and we should never think we will be better! TEMPER THOSE HIGH EXPECTATIONS!

Sorry, Weegs -- I forgot.

Arkansas has been focused on beating us -- and their fans have claimed they will beat us -- since soon after Bert arrived. They have only become more adamant about it since last year. They want their first SEC win under Bert to come against Gus. But thinking it will happen just because they want it to happen is the very definition of wishful thinking.

We will dominate them on the football field.

[war eagle6 0]

I only got one thing to say about these nervous nellies, and it's our motivational theme this year,...............13 seconds!

[cole256 17,084]

I think we will be fine as long as the kids playing don't have a entitled attitude. Now here on the board we can talk all types of trash and it doesn't matter. Also we didn't dominate them on the level many are saying. They ran all over us and they had a couple of to's because of bad handoffs and such. We can't take credit for those plays. I mean we beat them and we're clearly better than them but I wouldn't say it was dominating. If we lost a game the way they did I would think being better at many things we can correct ourselves and playing with better discipline we would have a chance next time we play.

Lastly they are fans just as us, how many of you would say we don't have a chance in hell the first game of a season? I still laugh when I think about when we were horrible all of the excuses many made to make it be alright

[AU-Jess 0]

No need to worry.

Bielema is still their HC.

You're welcome.

[lca408 366]

I'm nervous about the game but I'm usually nervous about the opening games of the season anyway. I'm particularly nervous because the circumstances are similar to 2003 - BCS team, at 3 pm in August in a year with high expectations. But that's superstition.

On the field, Arkansas has the advantage in running the ball against our D. Collins is already one of the best SEC runningbacks and he'll be better this year. We didn't do too well against the run on defense last year and until I see otherwise, I'm gonna assume that we'll be better against the run but not necessarily elite against it. Bielema doesn't yet have the big uglies he wants up front but he's getting closer so I expect Collins to have a good day. I expect Arky to be very physical and they'll do as much as they can through the air though I'm not expecting them to be much better. Defensively, they'll throw everything at us but as has already been mentioned, with losses up front, we shouldn't be too limited.

Our problem in this game will be focus and execution. Auburn became one of the best executing teams on offense last year but it wasn't very solid right off the bat as evidenced by the miscues in the first 4 games. This is somewhat typical of any offense as well as a Malzahn offense but the big difference here, and we'll have to see if it makes a big difference on the field, is that Marshall is returning and there's not going to be a complete and utter overhaul of offensive playcalling. There will be consistency there that hasn't been present in an Auburn offense since the days of Cox and Campbell. That said, expect alot of rust to have to be knocked off of our players early in the game, especially if Arkansas comes ready to play on defense.

All that being said, I still see no reason why we should lose the game unless we turn the ball over multiple times. As has been mentioned many times, the talent level is not equal. Arkansas would have to have the perfect defensive gameplan to stop Auburn in this game and I don't think they're capable of doing it with their personnel. I expect to see some big hits and a close game through at least a half but I just don't see Auburn having to come from behind or fight it's way to win in the fourth quarter, especially with the home crowd on it's side. I suspect it'll take 3 or 4 quarters, but we'll score into the 30s and Arkansas may manage to get into the 20s, but in the end, they'll have to throw it to win it and we'll stop them when they do.

[war eagle6 0]

Won't be that close

[HarpyTrain 1]

The difference between this team and 2003 is that the coaching staff of this years football team has not changed. Tommy Tuberville's revolving door of coordinators bit him hard in 2003; not just because of the constant change but also due to his inability to find an experienced coordinator to call the shots. Plus its just not smart to tell an OC to use a previous OC's playbook. That is why we were horrible in 2003 against good teams. This year is much different. Arkansas is going to lose badly to us. 42-10. They may score 17. But this game will only be close in the 1st quarter and part of the second. Once we shake off the rust; we'll toast them.