92 penalties for 896 yards -> lack of discipline

[Sani-Freeze 552]

That was nearly twice the total by our opponents. Sure, many of those were late hits by the defense. But there were plenty of motion/shift/formation calls on the offense too.

I am still optimistic for 2015, but this team has a discipline problem that Gus has to address somehow.

It's a problem off the field as well. During the offseason, AU had two senior starters busted for weed. Then another senior suspended during the season for fighting with a coach. Then the best player was out for the bowl game for doing something stupid. I don't have any insider perspective, but their punishments didn't seem to get much of a message across. Every team has kids get in trouble, but that was four key starters/upperclassmen who should have been leading the younger kids by example.

The 2014 Auburn team had a lot of talent, but not much focus and discipline and not much leadership from the senior class. Adding Muschamp should help, but it will have to start with Gus and the rising seniors to set a different tone for 2015.

[PigskinPat 2,563]

Hard to argue with that!

[Tiger 8,817]

Getting these players, that Chizik failed , gone will be good for AU as long as Gus can discipline his players in a manner that they LEARN from their mistakes.

[imaolgatiger 523]

And probably 35% were B.S. calls!

[lionheartkc 6,150]

A decent number of those penalties were bad calls. Many of the "late hits" wouldn't have been called in previous years because initial contact started in bounds, but refs are getting oversensitive because of "player safety". As for the off the field issues... our team's issues were mild in comparison to most teams.

Lets not take a disappointing end of a season and go looking for things to blow out of proportion.

[Tiger 8,817]

I think you mean 35% of them were late hit personal fouls lol

[Sani-Freeze 552]

A decent number of those penalties were bad calls. Many of the "late hits" wouldn't have been called in previous years because initial contact started in bounds, but refs are getting oversensitive because of "player safety". As for the off the field issues... our team's issues were mild in comparison to most teams.

Lets not take a disappointing end of a season and go looking for things to blow out of proportion.

This wasn't specific to the end of the season - it was a problem for the whole year. I agree there were some bad calls, but AU had DOUBLE the penalties of its opponents. That is hard to fathom, and you simply can't blame officiating for a season-long stat like this.

I'm going to let the bowl loss go. These guys just lost a brother two weeks ago, and I can't imagine how hard it must have been to focus this week. But discipline was a problem for all of 2014.

[JamesG 0]

This defense was good for 2 late hits out of bounds, EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.

[GoAU 1,599]

Take away the late hits and interference calls and we're probably close to average. A new DC should really help there

[Mikey 16,545]

We aren't the only team that gets bad calls. We aren't the only team that gets flagged for late hits and interference. When you have DOUBLE the penalties of your opponents, something is bad, bad wrong.

[Newbomb 193]

Getting these players, that Chizik failed , gone will be good for AU as long as Gus can discipline his players in a manner that they LEARN from their mistakes.

I am a fan of Gus but two of the four upper classmen were Gus players not Chizik recruits.

[fredst 9,064]

That was nearly twice the total by our opponents. Sure, many of those were late hits by the defense. But there were plenty of motion/shift/formation calls on the offense too.

I am still optimistic for 2015, but this team has a discipline problem that Gus has to address somehow.

It's a problem off the field as well. During the offseason, AU had two senior starters busted for weed. Then another senior suspended during the season for fighting with a coach. Then the best player was out for the bowl game for doing something stupid. I don't have any insider perspective, but their punishments didn't seem to get much of a message across. Every team has kids get in trouble, but that was four key starters/upperclassmen who should have been leading the younger kids by example.

The 2014 Auburn team had a lot of talent, but not much focus and discipline and not much leadership from the senior class. Adding Muschamp should help, but it will have to start with Gus and the rising seniors to set a different tone for 2015.

I made a similar point in another thread. This was not a fun team to watch because of its lack of discipline. That starts at the top and I hope something is done to change it and soon. I love Gus but time for him toreevaluate the whole process after the kind of year we just had.

[AUBwins 10,064]

I also think refs start looking for the late hit once we have a reputation for it. I did see some hits in the bowl games that were not called that are typically called when auburn is making the tackle. What's bad is that offensive players are tip toeing the sideline to get extra yardage and step out right as the defender tries to take them down. This was especially true against Wisconsin. Their guys were always trying to stay in bounds to get extra yardage. The one called on frost was a little bogus. They need to stop the ball carrier. The offensive guy has the advantage when the sideline is supposed to be a defensive advantage. Our guys do need to just bear hug them instead of taking them to the ground or giving a shove.

[JDUBB4AU 5,102]

Discipline will be handed out by champ. We kept so many drives alive for the opponent. I wonder how many points that translated to???

[Raven_tiger 5]

That's on the coaching staff.

[AUenginerd 16]

, but refs are getting oversensitive because of "player safety".

They are selective as always. How Rueben Foster wasn't ejected after his clear targeting on kick coverage last night proves that.

[lca408 366]

I also think refs start looking for the late hit once we have a reputation for it. I did see some hits in the bowl games that were not called that are typically called when auburn is making the tackle. What's bad is that offensive players are tip toeing the sideline to get extra yardage and step out right as the defender tries to take them down. This was especially true against Wisconsin. Their guys were always trying to stay in bounds to get extra yardage. The one called on frost was a little bogus. They need to stop the ball carrier. The offensive guy has the advantage when the sideline is supposed to be a defensive advantage. Our guys do need to just bear hug them instead of taking them to the ground or giving a shove.

True, we had a reputation for it going into the bowl game. But I also think there's a "frustration" aspect to it for our guys. By usually letting ballcarriers get behind us and having to chase them down, our guys get frustrated and feel like they have to compensate for letting the 57th big play of the game get past them. I used to think it was all coaching. After watching yesterday and reflecting on what we saw all season, or especially the 2nd half, I'm convinced personnel is the root of our problem on defense. Not necessarily talent wise but what seems to be an apparent lack of toughness. Our guys never seem to meet ballcarriers at the point of attack except occasionally. We are constantly running ourselves out of position and in the second half against Wisky, it genuinely looked like our guys were purposely overunning alot of plays to avoid hitting Gordon head on. Hopefully that wasn't what I actually saw, but it sure seems like we get out of position alot more than we should.

And hey, I know that can be a symptom of bad coaching so sure, I get that. Ultimately, whether it's mental toughness or not, it all falls back on the coaches anyway - which is why Johnson and at least 1 or 2 more are leaving. But I really wonder what's going to happen at A-Day after Muschamp starts laying down the law and we see if there will be changes to the starting lineup. Bottom line, a wholesale change of attitude and discipline is needed on defense to get this ship moving in a competent direction. I could somewhat stomach a sub par defense if it was due to lack of talent, injuries, etc. But to have the "supposed" talent that we've accrued over the past 5 years continue to show up on highlight reels for the other team and look more suited to be scored to the Benny Hill theme due to lack of discipline and general idocy, that's unacceptable. Yesterday was simply more of the same of what we've already seen this year so I'm not any more upset than I already was at the way the season turned out.

[AU64 10,122]

This defense was good for 2 late hits out of bounds, EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.

Both of which would likely be on third down after the defense had stopped a drive. Again yesterday, two roughness penalties kept Wisky drives going ...which lead to points for them.

AU has a reputation for late hits and dirty play and refs give us special attention but frankly, I can't blame them. So even if some were over-enthusiastic calls, most were legit and we still had more yards and penalties than about anyone else in Div 1.

Blaming this year's discipline issues on Chiz....what a dumb comment ...IMO...like some politician blaming all of his current problems on someone who was in office 5 years ago.

[ShugMan55 0]

This discipline issue is the most worrisome thing about our program. It's not just the penalties and off-field issues. This year we regressed - which points to an inability to learn. Why? I hope that Muschamp's style will inject a bit of seriousness into the program. I remember Bowden's "friend of the player" style worked for a while but then not so much. 2012 was caused by discipline issues. I hope we are not heading down this road again.

[AU64 10,122]

This discipline issue is the most worrisome thing about our program. It's not just the penalties and off-field issues. This year we regressed - which points to an inability to learn. Why? I hope that Muschamp's style will inject a bit of seriousness into the program. I remember Bowden's "friend of the player" style worked for a while but then not so much. 2012 was caused by discipline issues. I hope we are not heading down this road again.

It's hard to know what "discipline" means these days....I tend to read it as respect for others...respect for the coaches, respect for team mates and respect for the AU logo they wear.

Just watch many of the "commitment ceremonies" from the 17 and 18 year old HS students headed for college anywhere and generally it's all about THEM, cute hat tricks, stuffed toys and making "business decisions". Unfortunately, I guess for many of them, it continues to be about what "they" want...without enough thought about what their actions mean to people around them.

Coaches have a difficult task to get the ME generation to think in terms of team and team mates. Some are better than others at the process. Maybe our guys are just not very good at it.

[mom2kid 216]

I'm not sure anyone really knows what happened in 2012. We have developed a "theory". The penalties were not a major issue last season so to now suggest that it's due to the Chizik players rings hollow to me . Some of the players have had too many penalties and should get special discipline. But some of the penalties are kids hitting in stride that couldn't stop momentum too. But yes we clearly don't have the discipline of UAT for instance.

[aubaseball 2,583]

They are selective as always. How Rueben Foster wasn't ejected after his clear targeting on kick coverage last night proves that.

Its not targeting when a player is running with the ball.

[japantiger 4,051]

We aren't the only team that gets bad calls. We aren't the only team that gets flagged for late hits and interference. When you have DOUBLE the penalties of your opponents, something is bad, bad wrong.

yep. They played like an undisciplined mob. I don't know what he does during practice in this regard; but it isn't working.

[StatTiger 3,188]

Though I agree there was a discipline issue with this year's team, I would not base it primarily on penalties. I'm not saying penalties wasn't an indicator of discipline issues but consider the following...

Over the past 25 years, Auburn has averaged 6.2 penalties per game with the 2014 team checking in at 7.1 per game. We're looking at 1 more penalty per game than the 25-year average. Is this on its own merit a discipline issue? Could be but not a given. The 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2009 teams had a higher penalty average than 2014 and I don't recall those previous seasons being associated with discipline issues.

Again, I agree the 2014 did have discipline issues but I just wanted to point out the history of penalties at Auburn.

[McLoofus 35,182]

I'm glad to see the conversation get back on football problems. Some of y'all really need to quit with the melodrama and hysterics about imagined problems off the field. The penalties are a result of ineffective coaching. They are not an indicator of some larger behavioral issue, nor are they- for God's sake, people- related to commitment announcements.

I'm glad to see the thread. Penalties were a huge problem this season and this team was too experienced to have an excuse. I'll make one exception with Shon Coleman. He reminded me of early Lee Ziemba a lot this season. That guy turned out okay, and I think Shon will, too.

I think a lot of the nonsense on the defensive side can get cleaned up. We'll probably see a few "aggression penalties" again next season, but not silliness to the extent of what we saw this season. What concerned me more were fairly frequent procedural penalties on offense. Between Gus, Rhett and our personnel on the field, that's a lot of talent and experience. A group like that needs to get the little things right.