Is Gus Sandbagging?

[Weegle777 78]

Just a thought, but could Gus be going vanilla through the first four, knowing that the nastiest part of the schedule is coming up? Seems that we haven't really seen much other than just about four, maybe five looks so far as far as alignments and playcalling. No link and no insider stuff, just wondering what you guys think. Thoughts?

[RkyMtnTIger 0]

No

[N2AUtigers 5]

With the inconsistent play let's hope not. I'm sure we haven't seen everything. But I truly believe we haven't seen much of NM running the read option. I don't know if they wanted to save him for the meat of the SEC schedule? It seems like a lot of times when he should have kept it and ran outside he just handed it off. Not sure if because of play calling or bad reads or what.

[Altima 200]

To put it simply... Yes

I'm not saying we will come out and look like world beaters against LSU, but yes Gus is being as vanilla as possible through the first month, at least through the last three games... almost to a fault.

Remember, Gus is stubborn. He's gonna run a play til it works. In all honesty, after the Ark game, we could've beat SJ, KS, and LT with our third stringers. Look back, our O looked much more effective against the hogs. Why?... Mainly because Gus had to coach. These last three games have been glorified scrimmages.

The offense will be ready to go against LSU.

[IronMan70 3,277]

Just a thought, but could Gus be going vanilla through the first four, knowing that the nastiest part of the schedule is coming up? Seems that we haven't really seen much other than just about four, maybe five looks so far as far as alignments and playcalling. No link and no insider stuff, just wondering what you guys think. Thoughts?

I think some of that is going on, so yes, there is merit to what you are saying Weegs. It appeared in the La Tech game that he was determined not to show LSU what he has planned to counter the Kansas State defense model that La Tech copied. Instead he worked on a very basic set of running plays on 1st and 2nd down, running it right into the teeth of the defense for much of the game.

[au75 75]

YES.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

I doubt that very much. So you believe Gus is coach Grimes to not coach the guys how to block for our RB's and his telling Rhett to coach Nick how to over throw wide open WR's?

[JasonsDad 0]

Yes Gus has been sandbagging a little or to rephrase, experimenting with a variety of looks to see what his teams strength really is. We have a few holes to fill and a few coaching challenges, but you ain't seen nothing yet. This not last years team, but make no mistake. Auburn is a very dangerous team. The real season begins Saturday. I expect to see real improvement week to week now, and our true identity to take shape. The fist four games has been a soul search. expect to see more play action and shots across the middle. I expect to beat LSU in close one. LSU is in a must win position. This game will be a nail biter.

[gman87 398]

To put it simply... Yes

after the Ark game we could've beat KS with our third stringers.

You DID watch the game right?

I'm not sure how much sandbagging we are doing. I don't think the coaches are instructing the OL, Fulse and WRs to miss their blocks to gain some sort of mental edge against LSU. Are we opening the playbook up for our money plays? No. But we aren't executing the vanilla plays very well either, which isn't sandbagging, it's lack of execution.

[Mwideman 0]

To put it simply... Yes

after the Ark game we could've beat KS with our third stringers.

You DID watch the game right?

I'm not sure how much sandbagging we are doing. I don't think the coaches are instructing the OL, Fulse and WRs to miss their blocks to gain some sort of mental edge against LSU. Are we opening the playbook up for our money plays? No. But we aren't executing the vanilla plays very well either, which isn't sandbagging, it's lack of execution.

Exactly, we would run variations of four plays last year and dominate the los. Our O-line just isn't as physical as last year and no Prosch to destroy people in the second level.

[lutzintheredzone 0]

blocking is fine not hard to defend a dive behind center and jet sweep to grant and marshall keeps either to lg or behind center. Were running 3 plays. Passing game not much either screen.Their simply outnumbered in the box and gus doesnt care.Not many pass calls either screen to rb,louis,coates and slant to duke. We do of few streak routes that is either hit or miss. Very basic, very slow,not alot of eye candy.

[lutzintheredzone 0]

varied from 4 runs,they were in different formations. We stay in one formation. Havent seen the wing,inverted veer,unbalanced line,sugar huddle,diamond formation. Is been mainly a one back set and grant come in at slot for the sweeps

[tigersauburn217 2]

Yea, he was sandbagging against KSU. He knew their kicker was going to miss all those FGs. He knew our defense would force all those turnovers. He knew Nick Marshall was going to hit Duke on the 3rd down and long so that he didn't have to punt it away and give KSU a chance to win. Because he knew all these things, he decided to put in a vanilla offense for the game.

Of course he is not sandbagging. Did he do this last year? No. Coaches don't do this. It's delusion by the fan base. Our OL for whatever reason can't seem to block as well as last year.

[AUsince72 11,084]

Sandbagging? Sure, maybe he's not opening up the playbook so much for SJSU nor LaTech but I don't believe so against Arky nor KSU. Arky was actually a pretty solid effort...nothing to complain about. KSU, I still feel was a "weird" game and the team was not fired up....maybe they actually took KSU lightly, I don't know. I said before that I think AU's early season schedule has them out of sorts in terms of emotion (football is an emotional game). The season starts now... We'll, as fans, know more after this week for sure. Ugly win, pretty win, loss.....regardless, we'll know what AU has after this weekend. THEN, I'll "judge".

The only two criticisms I have thus far, besides playing very UNemotionally, would be how much I think the O-Line REALLY misses Kozan and Nick Marshall's RUNNING (NOT his passing) really seems lethargic this year. I SWEAR he's lost a step over the offseason and it's kinda strange to me.

[DivisionN 102]

I thought that Gus might be sandbagging. But the shuffling of the offensive line and the move of a linebacker to H back tells me that we are having some real problems.

[weagl1 1,781]

I think the improvement on defense has been very good. On the other hand, the OL play and HB play has been bad. No way around it. I think what we have been running is designed handoffs to CAP a lot more than reads, but there is no way around the fact that the blocking is not what it was last year. Nick looks better throwing the ball but is still as inaccurate as ever and some of those passes Saturday were just thrown up for grabs, it just so happened our guys (especially Bray) got them. Drops still plague the receivers. Maybe we are a little spoiled and expecting perfection, but so far we just haven't looked a sharp on offense as we expected. One thing is for sure, with the upcoming schedule our guys better get their stuff together because the room for error is about to disappear!

[JasonsDad 0]

I guess we can debate the term sandbag. Gus is just now settling in on what this team can and cannot do well. A Lot of experimenting going on the fist four games.. There is a lot in the Gus playbook we have not seen. So... if sandbagging is keeping some of your hole cards. Then yes. Remember 2010? Alot of those plays have yet to see the field. Personally I think Gus wants to pound the rock and he's been trying to force it. Look far a little sneaker pay calling as we move forward. Our run game simply is not as dominate as he would like. We are what we are, a solid run team, not a great run team. But.... make no mistake, Auburn is a very dangerous opponent for anyone left on our schedule.I feel pretty good as a whole. Looking at the competition I expect to win them all.No one looks unbeatable to me.

[sevenlee36 1,654]

I would of thought that he'd open up the playbook in the tight game against KSt so doubt he's sandbagging. I think he's making some real changes this week but it wasn't planned changes.

[OnthePlains 2,014]

I dont believe he is sandbagging but I do believe he has been trying to use these games to get better without displaying the full offensive abilities we have. Sandbagging to me would indicate he is intenionally holding back but I think its more he has been trying to correct mistakes in these games I felt like he was forcing the run game against La Tech to try and work out the kinks when he could have opened up the pass game more and prob put that game away earlier. We have rarely seen CJ Uzomah yet and thats one guy I have to believe he has some plans for eventually. I have to think we have more of an intermediate passing game than what we have shown so Im looking for that too. I think we will see a more diversified offense against LSU and then MSU the next week.

[NoALtiger 3,849]

I dont believe he is sandbagging but I do believe he has been trying to use these games to get better without displaying the full offensive abilities we have. Sandbagging to me would indicate he is intenionally holding back but I think its more he has been trying to correct mistakes in these games I felt like he was forcing the run game against La Tech to try and work out the kinks when he could have opened up the pass game more and prob put that game away earlier. We have rarely seen CJ Uzomah yet and thats one guy I have to believe he has some plans for eventually. I have to think we have more of an intermediate passing game than what we have shown so Im looking for that too. I think we will see a more diversified offense against LSU and then MSU the next week.

^This is a good post^

[Weegle777 78]

Great discussion and great answers, except one smart alec one, but good nonetheless. I sometimes wonder if Gus is kinda holding Nick back a little to keep him from getting pounded too much because of the grind that they are about to hit. The one xfactor that really made our rushing attack last season was Nick's ability to run the zone read to perfection, and you don't just lose that over an offseason. We are about to go up against the best defenses in the country in this 8 game stretch, so maybe he is just pulling back the reigns a little.

[TitanTiger 20,471]

Just a thought, but could Gus be going vanilla through the first four, knowing that the nastiest part of the schedule is coming up? Seems that we haven't really seen much other than just about four, maybe five looks so far as far as alignments and playcalling. No link and no insider stuff, just wondering what you guys think. Thoughts?

I don't think he's sandbagging because he wants to hold back looks from LSU and MSU. I think we did purposely work on the running game against La Tech because of how much we're missing blocking assignments and such. We ran right into the teeth of bad looks just so these guys would work on those assignments. We could have scored 10-14 more pts had we decided to throw it more but that's not what he was concerned with.

[Weegle777 78]

Good point. Gus is a genius in that he can switch guys around and play with formations and personnel groups while still coaching a game. Amazing to watch.

[AUwingsfan 1]

I dont believe he is sandbagging but I do believe he has been trying to use these games to get better without displaying the full offensive abilities we have. Sandbagging to me would indicate he is intenionally holding back but I think its more he has been trying to correct mistakes in these games I felt like he was forcing the run game against La Tech to try and work out the kinks when he could have opened up the pass game more and prob put that game away earlier. We have rarely seen CJ Uzomah yet and thats one guy I have to believe he has some plans for eventually. I have to think we have more of an intermediate passing game than what we have shown so Im looking for that too. I think we will see a more diversified offense against LSU and then MSU the next week.

Good post! I too hope that we have more of an intermediate pass game. I remember reading some on here saying we don't have an intermediate pass game and so far this season that is mostly true I guess. I seem to remember when we had Chris Todd at the helm though, we had plenty of intermediate routes, so clearly it is in the playbook, we just haven't used it much. We haven't really seen the quick slants to Duke as much the past few games (like we used against Arkansas).

I would love to believe we are being vanilla, maybe we are, but like some have pointed out, being vanilla doesn't mean poor blocking/missed blocks. The good news is we have two games in a row where we've been less than stellar in the run game, so we should have plenty of film on what not to do! Haha

Looking forward to Saturday. War Eagle!

[AU-24 3,063]

I dont believe he is sandbagging but I do believe he has been trying to use these games to get better without displaying the full offensive abilities we have. Sandbagging to me would indicate he is intenionally holding back but I think its more he has been trying to correct mistakes in these games I felt like he was forcing the run game against La Tech to try and work out the kinks when he could have opened up the pass game more and prob put that game away earlier. We have rarely seen CJ Uzomah yet and thats one guy I have to believe he has some plans for eventually. I have to think we have more of an intermediate passing game than what we have shown so Im looking for that too. I think we will see a more diversified offense against LSU and then MSU the next week.

^This is a good post^

I second that. I also think we may see CAP catching the ball out of the backfield.