Malzahn's Postgame Presser - Mississippi State

[chimesAU 89]

Gus says: "Our defense did good enough to win"

Did good enough to win? Yes Gus, they only gave up 17 points!! How many did you score with three 5 star running backs; a four star QB, three 5 star O linemen and 2 four star O lineman; a 5 star WO plus, another two - four star WO's?

With the above talent playing at home, how many points did you score?

Someone's salty.

[FoundationEagle 637]

What I can't figure out is why so many people expect perfection or firings. You guys realize that Gus is in his 4th year ever as college HC, right? He is still learning. Do you guys reize that Saban never had an undefeated season at MSU or LSU? Maybe they both should have run him off...

Gus has got the best DC in the business on board. Gus himself usually finds a way to make his offense unstoppable. This year may not be a championship year. Let's get real. Expectations are higher than they should have been this year. We still have a great chance at 8-9 and maybe 10 wins. White played his first college snap ever tonight and played like a warrior. His passing on the last 2 drives was unreal. The Oline is to blame for the failure to score on pretty much every occasion outside of the INT.

Gus is a great HC overall I believe. Should he be blamed for things need improving? Absolutely. Will he get them fixed, most likely. Will we compete for championships more times under him than any other coach we've had? Yet to be seen but I like the odds. He WILL get his offense together. A few bad games doesn't make a bad coach. Hell, our D was pathetic last year yet we still scored regularly, even when the season was lost. Gus is having hiccup right now and needs to do some soul searching. I suspect he will, he will study film like crazy, figure out who best helps us win and get the season in gear. My guess is next year, with all the young talent we are bringing along, we will be damn near unbeatable. Hope the fans let him hang around long enough to show it.

[chimesAU 89]

What I can't figure out is why so many people expect perfection or firings. You guys realize that Gus is in his 4th year ever as college HC, right? He is still learning. Do you guys reize that Saban never had an undefeated season at MSU or LSU? Maybe they both should have run him off...

Gus has got the best DC in the business on board. Gus himself usually finds a way to make his offense unstoppable. This year may not be a championship year. Let's get real. Expectations are higher than they should have been this year. We still have a great chance at 8-9 and maybe 10 wins. White played his first college snap ever tonight and played like a warrior. His passing on the last 2 drives was unreal. The Oline is to blame for the failure to score on pretty much every occasion outside of the INT.

Gus is a great HC overall I believe. Should he be blamed for things need improving? Absolutely. Will he get them fixed, most likely. Will we compete for championships more times under him than any other coach we've had? Yet to be seen but I like the odds. He WILL get his offense together. A few bad games doesn't make a bad coach. Hell, our D was pathetic last year yet we still scored regularly, even when the season was lost. Gus is having hiccup right now and needs to do some soul searching. I suspect he will, he will study film like crazy, figure out who best helps us win and get the season in gear. My guess is next year, with all the young talent we are bringing along, we will be damn near unbeatable. Hope the fans let him hang around long enough to show it.

Interesting post. I wholeheartedly agree with half of it and wholeheartedly disagree with the other half. That's rare.

[Wrights_Mill_Road 2]

No way we get 9 or 10 wins. It isn't bc we are losing, it is how we are losing. We are dead on O. We had to take Jax St to overtime.

I think if we improve, 6-6 could be done. If we lose to either of the next two teams, and I think KY beats us, I think the wheels fall off. Maybe not on D, but the wheels fall off on O.

If we win the next two games, and we start stretching the field with some deep passes, we could do better but in 3 games I've seen little to no improvement on O.

D looks much improved. The freshmen are hungry.

[FoundationEagle 637]

What I can't figure out is why so many people expect perfection or firings. You guys realize that Gus is in his 4th year ever as college HC, right? He is still learning. Do you guys reize that Saban never had an undefeated season at MSU or LSU? Maybe they both should have run him off...

Gus has got the best DC in the business on board. Gus himself usually finds a way to make his offense unstoppable. This year may not be a championship year. Let's get real. Expectations are higher than they should have been this year. We still have a great chance at 8-9 and maybe 10 wins. White played his first college snap ever tonight and played like a warrior. His passing on the last 2 drives was unreal. The Oline is to blame for the failure to score on pretty much every occasion outside of the INT.

Gus is a great HC overall I believe. Should he be blamed for things need improving? Absolutely. Will he get them fixed, most likely. Will we compete for championships more times under him than any other coach we've had? Yet to be seen but I like the odds. He WILL get his offense together. A few bad games doesn't make a bad coach. Hell, our D was pathetic last year yet we still scored regularly, even when the season was lost. Gus is having hiccup right now and needs to do some soul searching. I suspect he will, he will study film like crazy, figure out who best helps us win and get the season in gear. My guess is next year, with all the young talent we are bringing along, we will be damn near unbeatable. Hope the fans let him hang around long enough to show it.

Interesting post. I wholeheartedly agree with half of it and wholeheartedly disagree with the other half. That's rare.

Care to elaborate?

[alexava 6,973]

We ran the ball well and stopped the run well. We didn't pressure the qb or protect our qb. Coleman is still not a pass blocker. It still all falls on red zone offense.

[FoundationEagle 637]

No way we get 9 or 10 wins. It isn't bc we are losing, it is how we are losing. We are dead on O. We had to take Jax St to overtime.

I think if we improve, 6-6 could be done. If we lose to either of the next two teams, and I think KY beats us, I think the wheels fall off. Maybe not on D, but the wheels fall off on O.

If we win the next two games, and we start stretching the field with some deep passes, we could do better but in 3 games I've seen little to no improvement on O.

D looks much improved. The freshmen are hungry.

While I agree that point wise, we didn't improve. There was some improvement however. Last week the O was a dumpster fire in every single aspect until LSU started playing their backups. The qb decision making improved by a ton. It's not on the stat sheet, but JJs late throw against LSU that should have been a pick 6 is a glaring case in point. Our run game against MSU seemed to come together. The pass protection, holding penalties, bad snaps, hands to the face penalties are all oline problems and lost us the game.

Guarded improvement. All phases of the game improved from the dumpster fire last week except the Oline. They showed they have ability to run block, but need a boatload of work in all other areas. So long story short, I saw improvement in the O, but the Oline regressed causing it to look worse overall than it was.

[cole256 17,042]

We ran the ball well and stopped the run well. We didn't pressure the qb or protect our qb. Coleman is still not a pass blocker. It still all falls on red zone offense.

Coleman wasn't the side all the breakdowns came from

[aubiefifty 16,753]

i believe if they still ran jj after msu called the timeout we score. that would have fired up everyone. but we did play hard and did not quit. still love my boys........

[chimesAU 89]

What I can't figure out is why so many people expect perfection or firings. You guys realize that Gus is in his 4th year ever as college HC, right? He is still learning. Do you guys reize that Saban never had an undefeated season at MSU or LSU? Maybe they both should have run him off...

Gus has got the best DC in the business on board. Gus himself usually finds a way to make his offense unstoppable. This year may not be a championship year. Let's get real. Expectations are higher than they should have been this year. We still have a great chance at 8-9 and maybe 10 wins. White played his first college snap ever tonight and played like a warrior. His passing on the last 2 drives was unreal. The Oline is to blame for the failure to score on pretty much every occasion outside of the INT.

Gus is a great HC overall I believe. Should he be blamed for things need improving? Absolutely. Will he get them fixed, most likely. Will we compete for championships more times under him than any other coach we've had? Yet to be seen but I like the odds. He WILL get his offense together. A few bad games doesn't make a bad coach. Hell, our D was pathetic last year yet we still scored regularly, even when the season was lost. Gus is having hiccup right now and needs to do some soul searching. I suspect he will, he will study film like crazy, figure out who best helps us win and get the season in gear. My guess is next year, with all the young talent we are bringing along, we will be damn near unbeatable. Hope the fans let him hang around long enough to show it.

Interesting post. I wholeheartedly agree with half of it and wholeheartedly disagree with the other half. That's rare.

Care to elaborate?

Posting from my phone, so it's difficult to hit on every point but here goes...

Agree:

White was a warrior and oline was mostly to blame for red zone ineffectiveness. I also think Gus struggles mightily calling plays in the red zone.

We're bringing along a lot of youth right now on defense and it'll pay dividends next few years.

Disagree:

I don't think people expect perfection. I think they expect more consistency. If they do expect perfection, they're crazy and in for a huge letdown.

I don't think Gus being in his 4th year is a valid excuse for much of what we've seen over the past 10 or so games. I'm not expecting championships every year but a good coach doesn't go to overtime against j state in his 4th year.

We've got a GREAT chance at 8-9 wins?

You think Gus is a GREAT HC...I don't see that right now. I think half of his Auburn hc career has been mediocre at best. He's had more than just a few bad games.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Gus is definitely not a great head coach. That's silly. He can be one someday, but he's not there yet.

[GoAU 1,599]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

[OnthePlains 2,014]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

Great post. 30 plus years of AU history tells us that firing the coach does not always make things better.

[chimesAU 89]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

What's fun about watching men who make millions of dollars fail to adequately prepare a football team week in and week out?

[mom2kid 216]

We ran the ball well and stopped the run well. We didn't pressure the qb or protect our qb. Coleman is still not a pass blocker. It still all falls on red zone offense.

Exactly. It starts with the oline and dline and we sre being manhandled. We've had red zone issues fir 2 yrs now. The talent at leadt on the oline is there. Coaching, player development, and offensive play calling are big problems. RG is not getting it done. I thought Grimes was highly respected but now im questioning him. RL is not an OC and GM is not an O genius. Ole Miss in compsrison is getting it done on both sides of the ball. And kudos to WM for his impact

[ShocksMyBrain 9,362]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

What's fun about watching men who make millions of dollars fail to adequately prepare a football team week in and week out?

Indeed. "Fun" to me is entertaining. The way we've been playing this year and the latter part of last year has been the furthest thing from entertaining. We look forward to this time of year for 9 months, what we've been given so far is unfair to us as fans.

[AUbritt 611]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

What's fun about watching men who make millions of dollars fail to adequately prepare a football team week in and week out?

What's sad is that anyone can make millions of dollars to prepare a football team (adequately or not) week in and week out. Our priorities are out of whack.

[AU-24 3,063]

What I can't figure out is why so many people expect perfection or firings. You guys realize that Gus is in his 4th year ever as college HC, right? He is still learning. Do you guys reize that Saban never had an undefeated season at MSU or LSU? Maybe they both should have run him off...

Gus has got the best DC in the business on board. Gus himself usually finds a way to make his offense unstoppable. This year may not be a championship year. Let's get real. Expectations are higher than they should have been this year. We still have a great chance at 8-9 and maybe 10 wins. White played his first college snap ever tonight and played like a warrior. His passing on the last 2 drives was unreal. The Oline is to blame for the failure to score on pretty much every occasion outside of the INT.

Gus is a great HC overall I believe. Should he be blamed for things need improving? Absolutely. Will he get them fixed, most likely. Will we compete for championships more times under him than any other coach we've had? Yet to be seen but I like the odds. He WILL get his offense together. A few bad games doesn't make a bad coach. Hell, our D was pathetic last year yet we still scored regularly, even when the season was lost. Gus is having hiccup right now and needs to do some soul searching. I suspect he will, he will study film like crazy, figure out who best helps us win and get the season in gear. My guess is next year, with all the young talent we are bringing along, we will be damn near unbeatable. Hope the fans let him hang around long enough to show it.

Interesting post. I wholeheartedly agree with half of it and wholeheartedly disagree with the other half. That's rare.

Care to elaborate?

Posting from my phone, so it's difficult to hit on every point but here goes...

Agree:

White was a warrior and oline was mostly to blame for red zone ineffectiveness. I also think Gus struggles mightily calling plays in the red zone.

We're bringing along a lot of youth right now on defense and it'll pay dividends next few years.

Disagree:

I don't think people expect perfection. I think they expect more consistency. If they do expect perfection, they're crazy and in for a huge letdown.

I don't think Gus being in his 4th year is a valid excuse for much of what we've seen over the past 10 or so games. I'm not expecting championships every year but a good coach doesn't go to overtime against j state in his 4th year.

We've got a GREAT chance at 8-9 wins?

You think Gus is a GREAT HC...I don't see that right now. I think half of his Auburn hc career has been mediocre at best. He's had more than just a few bad games.

It's unfortunate, but I agree about Gus. Never thought it would/could be this bad under Gus. I was wrong.

[AUBehaviorScientist 0]

No way we get 9 or 10 wins. It isn't bc we are losing, it is how we are losing. We are dead on O. We had to take Jax St to overtime.

I think if we improve, 6-6 could be done. If we lose to either of the next two teams, and I think KY beats us, I think the wheels fall off. Maybe not on D, but the wheels fall off on O.

If we win the next two games, and we start stretching the field with some deep passes, we could do better but in 3 games I've seen little to no improvement on O.

D looks much improved. The freshmen are hungry.

While I agree that point wise, we didn't improve. There was some improvement however. Last week the O was a dumpster fire in every single aspect until LSU started playing their backups. The qb decision making improved by a ton. It's not on the stat sheet, but JJs late throw against LSU that should have been a pick 6 is a glaring case in point. Our run game against MSU seemed to come together. The pass protection, holding penalties, bad snaps, hands to the face penalties are all oline problems and lost us the game.

Guarded improvement. All phases of the game improved from the dumpster fire last week except the Oline. They showed they have ability to run block, but need a boatload of work in all other areas. So long story short, I saw improvement in the O, but the Oline regressed causing it to look worse overall than it was.

LSU didn't really play back ups until the last few minutes of the game. Offense started looking better in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Run game did look better in the MSU game. I think that was partially due to MSU's youth and partially due to the fact that we ran tempo and committed to the inside run.

[tbone4jc 2,241]

I think most everybody's expectations were way too high, I'm guilty, for this year's team. Considering what we lost on offense it's hard to replace Nick Marshall and Reese Dismukes. I'm looking forward to improvement every week.

Our defense took some huge steps forward but still cannot understand where our pass rush is?

Anyway, I will enjoy every game from here because before you know it this season will be over. War Eagle!

[Auburnguy101 325]

No way we get 9 or 10 wins. It isn't bc we are losing, it is how we are losing. We are dead on O. We had to take Jax St to overtime.

I think if we improve, 6-6 could be done. If we lose to either of the next two teams, and I think KY beats us, I think the wheels fall off. Maybe not on D, but the wheels fall off on O.

If we win the next two games, and we start stretching the field with some deep passes, we could do better but in 3 games I've seen little to no improvement on O.

D looks much improved. The freshmen are hungry.

While I agree that point wise, we didn't improve. There was some improvement however. Last week the O was a dumpster fire in every single aspect until LSU started playing their backups. The qb decision making improved by a ton. It's not on the stat sheet, but JJs late throw against LSU that should have been a pick 6 is a glaring case in point. Our run game against MSU seemed to come together. The pass protection, holding penalties, bad snaps, hands to the face penalties are all oline problems and lost us the game.

Guarded improvement. All phases of the game improved from the dumpster fire last week except the Oline. They showed they have ability to run block, but need a boatload of work in all other areas. So long story short, I saw improvement in the O, but the Oline regressed causing it to look worse overall than it was.

LSU didn't really play back ups until the last few minutes of the game. Offense started looking better in the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Run game did look better in the MSU game. I think that was partially due to MSU's youth and partially due to the fact that we ran tempo and committed to the inside run.

Agree whole-heartedly with AUBehaviorScientist. I was and am probably in the minority in this, but I never understood why we never called those plays like we did in the second half of LSU for the whole year with JJ, he looked more comfortable it seems. Also, and I'm going to keep saying this, I believe people's expectations of QB play is so low now because of JJ, that SW looked amazing, when in reality, he was very average, and didn't look any different than JJ. Only thing with JJ was that he was always trying to make a big play, be damned if it's in triple coverage, while SW was playing not to lose or make a mistake. Yes, he looked more confident and was more passionate, however, our offense still had no TD, and he was never a threat to Miss. State, which unfortunately for us, is not the best defense we will see this year. I guarantee you UAT, UGA's, Ole Miss', and A&M's defense are better than theirs, and will look at this film on how to prepare for SW, if he's still the QB by those games that is...

[alexava 6,973]

We ran the ball well and stopped the run well. We didn't pressure the qb or protect our qb. Coleman is still not a pass blocker. It still all falls on red zone offense.

Coleman wasn't the side all the breakdowns came from

true, but i saw him whiff 2x, center and RG were probably worse.

[chimesAU 89]

It's clear that our fanbase has more than its share of back seat drivers / Monday morning QBs. Sure, I think many of the questions are valid, but the insane talk about firing the staff and getting the lynch mob fired up is just silliness. Gus is a fine coach and will definitely continue to improve as a HC. Part of the problem is his early successes have set the bar u realistically high. There will be up and down years - years you exceed expectations and years you fall short. If you overreact every time you under achieve you will never develop consistency - and that is what you REALLY need to have a program that is consistently (there's that word again) in the running for championships. Too many people hide behind their keyboards, over simplify the situation and act like they're all experts and call for someone else to be fired - it's ridiculous. I'd love to see how they'd react if the roles were reversed. Of course they'd respond "but Gus makes more money..." blah, blah, blah.

Have faith, have patience, support the team, and most of all have fun - that's really what this is all about.

It's great to be an Auburn Tiger!

What's fun about watching men who make millions of dollars fail to adequately prepare a football team week in and week out?

What's sad is that anyone can make millions of dollars to prepare a football team (adequately or not) week in and week out. Our priorities are out of whack.

I completely agree. These guys coach football, and some aren't even very good at it. I also don't believe being a pro athlete should warrant $100 million contracts...strange society we live in.

[tbone4jc 2,241]

I completely agree. These guys coach football, and some aren't even very good at it. I also don't believe being a pro athlete should warrant $100 million contracts...strange society we live in.

Money equals loyalty in these days

[keesler 5,924]

We ran the ball well and stopped the run well. We didn't pressure the qb or protect our qb. Coleman is still not a pass blocker. It still all falls on red zone offense.

When you get beat on the LOS over and over, more times than not you get beat on the scoreboard.