Mikey 16,579 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 In this, so far, disappointing season, there is an opportunity. Never in my memory have we had such a mid-season break. Over the next four weeks, we play only two games. One of those is San Jose State and the other is Kentucky. While Kentucky is improved, it's not like UGA is lurking there. If there need to be massive changes on defense, a change in QB on offense and a general re-wiring of the team, we have a very unusual chance to do these things. Extra time during a season is an extremely rare commodity. Here's hoping (and expecting) that our players and coaching staff will bring a team out of the other side of this break that shreds Arky on October 24 and goes on to the bigger and better things that were predicted. It's not too late to have an outstanding season. C'mon, players and coaches, bring it home! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUcivE09 582 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I like this. It may not be what we were hoping for, but a trip to the Capital 1 bowl would be a great ending at this point! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnthePlains 2,014 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I like it. I was hoping we could start it with a win over MSU but it is what it is now. Still an opportunity to finish strong. Play defense, run the football, knock the heck out of folks! War Eagle! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
urban meyer's pizza 0 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 This is a great point. There is enough time to straighten things out between now and the Kentucky game. Auburn has a very solid chance to enter the Ole Miss game at 5-2, and that could make that game very interesting - being at home and a Halloween game. Let's just hope they don't waste these next two weeks trying to decide what QB to go with, and actually spend time getting better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoundationEagle 637 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I keep saying it, but ATL is not completely out of the question. A lot of things have to happen, but I see zero dominant teams in the west this year. I think 4 weeks from now we will be as good or better than all teams in the west. Let's just hope everyone else beats each other up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auctoritas 2,828 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 I think by the end of the season, we will look back at the LSU game and see it as the low point of the 2015 campaign. We lost that game in 2013 and turned it around, and I think this year we turned the corner in the 2nd half of the MSU game. There are serious changes to be made but both the offense and the defense looked more like Auburn there than they have all season. Just gotta eliminate the stupid penalties and the lost yardage. There's a serious chance to come out of this year with only 3 losses if we use this time wisely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weagl1 1,782 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Amen to all of these comments. Gus spent all spring and fall trying to turn this into a passing team with all the eggs in the JJ basket. Well, it blew up in his face when JJ blew up. It ain't no time to be cute. Run the ball, play defense, toughen up and knock the crap of some folks. When you can run the ball the passing game opens up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McLoofus 35,182 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Since winning a lot and losing a lot both to bring a lot of folks out of the woodwork- some who genuinely want to gain some insight into why things are how they are, and some who just come to vent- I feel compelled to mention to those who might not be familiar that Mikey is about as pragmatic a fan as we have around here. Point being, he is making a legitimate (and very good, imo) point and not trying to make anybody feel better. Feel free to disregard the self-indulgent rambling below. A lot of folks have had a lot to say lately, and I don't expect folks to have time for my verbosity. ****************** BUT... I'm among those who were very encouraged by what happened Saturday. Obviously we're still a crap football team trying to work our way up to mediocre. But, like a good AA member, we took the first step by admitting we had a problem. And we made changes. And, like Mikey said, we have a dream tuneup month ahead of us to turn some young guys into SEC football players. Don't expect "good" when we come out the other side, but do expect "much better" and hope for "good". This is not a team that is going to make it to Atlanta, but this is a team that has a chance to crap on some other teams' seasons and position itself for something much better next year. And for those tired of hearing "next year", I hear ya. Me too. Difference is, folks said it about this year despite not having many returning starters at key positions. I didn't believe it this year. I believe it about next year IF Sean White progresses as I think he will. Let's look back at our post-Tubs roller coaster ride: 2009: A juco QB with starting experience (even if at a different level), an experienced OL, emerging receivers and RBs, serviceable-if-not-great defensive talent and experience 2010: Superman, a REALLY experienced OL, veteran receivers, a veteran speed back and a would-be superstar RB, slightly more experienced defensive talent 2011: No experienced QBs, a much less experienced OL, a much less experienced defense 2012: If anybody had expectations for 2012, then they didn't watch 2011 (not that we knew it would be THAT bad) 2013: A juco QB with starting experience (even if at a different level), an experienced OL, possibly the best blocking FB in school history, emerging WRs and RBs, Dee Ford, Chris Davis 2014: A veteran SEC starter at QB, a slightly less experienced OL (but with a 4 year starter at center), a somewhat-experienced RB, stud WRs, a defense that quit midseason 2015: No experienced QBs, a much less experienced OL (shocking to me that some of y'all still think otherwise), no experienced RBs, HBs or TEs, experienced WRs who have been disappointing, and a defense that has been thrown out with the bathwater and begun anew. 2016: Likely a returning starter at QB, an OL that should return almost completely intact (our tackles will have to improve mightily to get good draft grades; Danzey didn't win his job outright over Kozan, who should be coming back), 4 experienced RBs (unless Robinson takes his ball and goes home), HBs and TEs with a year under their belts, a few experienced WRs (and we won't be missing the "production" we're getting from the older guys too much*), and a young defense that will return some starters and a lot of guys who have at least gotten a lot of game reps. I'm guessing that StatTiger will graciously provide us with a statistical representation of how experienced our team is going into next season as he did this season. He warned us that this team was very inexperienced compared to previous teams that were successful. I think his post next season is going to paint a much prettier picture. *My main concern is at WR. My personal jury is still out on the coaching they're getting right now, so I'm not sure how much their experience will benefit us next season if CDC is still the WR coach. I hope I look like an idiot later on for beating this drum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaumak 174 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 the level of blind optimism in this thread baffles me. yes its great to be positive and all that but to think we have a sniffing chance at ATL and comparisons to 2013 is comical. I look and find it difficult to believe we even become bowl eligible this year. Correct me if I'm wrong but JSU doesn't count due to being a FCS team, right? So we need 5 more wins against FBS opponents. Who would that be? 1. SJSU 2.@UK 3.@ARK 4. Idaho. 5. ??? And that means we have to beat all these other 4 teams. We could easily go to Lexington and lose. Or Arkansas for that matter as they use it to save their season. In order to fix our various problems we need to first know thyself. Which is that we are just not that good. So temper those expectations a little and hopefully we can still recruit some studs but that will take a hit as well. And if all else fails maybe we should turn in that scoreboard for some cash and pay players, IDK? We seem to be paying our coaches too much. The NCAA doesn't seem to really care that much these days anyway with various programs blatantly cheating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerbrotha12 2,362 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 the level of blind optimism in this thread baffles me. yes its great to be positive and all that but to think we have a sniffing chance at ATL and comparisons to 2013 is comical. I look and find it difficult to believe we even become bowl eligible this year. Correct me if I'm wrong but JSU doesn't count due to being a FCS team, right? So we need 5 more wins against FBS opponents. Who would that be? 1. SJSU 2.@UK 3.@ARK 4. Idaho. 5. ??? And that means we have to beat all these other 4 teams. We could easily go to Lexington and lose. Or Arkansas for that matter as they use it to save their season. In order to fix our various problems we need to first know thyself. Which is that we are just not that good. So temper those expectations a little and hopefully we can still recruit some studs but that will take a hit as well. And if all else fails maybe we should turn in that scoreboard for some cash and pay players, IDK? :gofig:/> We seem to be paying our coaches too much. The NCAA doesn't seem to really care that much these days anyway with various programs blatantly cheating. you make a good point, but the progression of the team, we hope, will provide us with two huge home games to give it all we've got and pull out a win over UGA or BAMA; also have A&M who struggled against Arky this week. Also don't have running QB persay. Just a wait and see game honestly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUcivE09 582 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Its not like we are sitting 2-2 with Vanderbilt level talent. The hope is that something clicks like in 2010 SC game or after LSU 2013. The big difference we have to overcome is that the SECCG and NC hunt is more than likely over unless LSU loses 3 and we win out helped also by at least 2 upsets each of the Top 10. Can they overcome that if the goal is truly to win championships? I guess we will see. Hopefully they want a 10 win season as much as the fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
afblue 128 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 beau, you can count 1 FCS win (assuming they awarded an average of at least 90% of their scholarship limit over a rolling 2 year period) toward the total for bowl eligibility. If Jax St met the scholarship standard, that win would count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autigeremt 6,600 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 This "team" has the talent to win 6 more games, but we will have to dig deep and get things turned around over the next three plus weeks. I'd be very happy with 8 wins total and a decent bowl berth considering where we are right now. MSU isn't "great", but they are very experienced and have chemistry. We are still trying to find it and were close to putting enough points on the board to beat them on Saturday night. Get this....MSU had a senior or a junior starting at every position Saturday night. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antny 1 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Being optimistic is more fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McLoofus 35,182 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 This "team" has the talent to win 6 more games, but we will have to dig deep and get things turned around over the next three plus weeks. I'd be very happy with 8 wins total and a decent bowl berth considering where we are right now. MSU isn't "great", but they are very experienced and have chemistry. We are still trying to find it and were close to putting enough points on the board to beat them on Saturday night. Get this....MSU had a senior or a junior starting at every position Saturday night. It's almost as if experience matters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auburn4ever 1,266 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Everyone said we would walk all over JSU and look what happened. I say that because if you overall San Jose State and Kentucky their not Georgia or uat, you could be looking 2 more losses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredst 9,064 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Everyone said we would walk all over JSU and look what happened. I say that because if you overall San Jose State and Kentucky their not Georgia or uat, you could be looking 2 more losses. Solid post. I have no idea what the hell it means but it's definitely solid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
augolf1716 21,109 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Everyone said we would walk all over JSU and look what happened. I say that because if you overall San Jose State and Kentucky their not Georgia or uat, you could be looking 2 more losses. Solid post. I have no idea what the hell it means but it's definitely solid. very solid post 2 more losses what else could it mean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJBas 4 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 the level of blind optimism in this thread baffles me. yes its great to be positive and all that but to think we have a sniffing chance at ATL and comparisons to 2013 is comical. I look and find it difficult to believe we even become bowl eligible this year. Correct me if I'm wrong but JSU doesn't count due to being a FCS team, right? So we need 5 more wins against FBS opponents. Who would that be? 1. SJSU 2.@UK 3.@ARK 4. Idaho. 5. ??? And that means we have to beat all these other 4 teams. We could easily go to Lexington and lose. Or Arkansas for that matter as they use it to save their season. In order to fix our various problems we need to first know thyself. Which is that we are just not that good. So temper those expectations a little and hopefully we can still recruit some studs but that will take a hit as well. And if all else fails maybe we should turn in that scoreboard for some cash and pay players, IDK? We seem to be paying our coaches too much. The NCAA doesn't seem to really care that much these days anyway with various programs blatantly cheating. Quite honestly I think we're looking 4-8 dead in the eye. This Auburn team could very easily not win a single SEC game this year. They are that bad. All summer I wondered how so many people could be expecting us to be top 4 material. I had my doubts about JJ being able to adequately run this offense. But even I didn't think it would be this bad. Frankly it looks like somewhere between 2011 and 2012, coming in closer to the latter.After the Jax St game I thought that I didn't see any problems that could be remedied with any quick fix...nothing that could be cured in a few weeks certainly. It's going to take at least one off season to rebuild this program, maybe two. Where are the top 10 recruiting classes we were hearing about for years? Where is the fire Muschamp was supposed to bring to the defense? Where is the high scoring offense Malzahn is famous for? More like a dream than a reality. And a bigger question: Why does Auburn have to put up with this? It is a repeating circus we go through every few years; a great team followed by dismal seasons back to back to back. No other school is expected to put up with that. If we're going to look at coaches, lets look at the top one, Jay Jacobs. It's not like any of our other teams are setting the woods on fire either. I don't want to fire Malzahn or Muschamp. Goodness knows we're already paying too many coaches not to coach. I just want people to earn the millions of $$$ we're paying them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJBas 4 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 This "team" has the talent to win 6 more games, but we will have to dig deep and get things turned around over the next three plus weeks. I'd be very happy with 8 wins total and a decent bowl berth considering where we are right now. MSU isn't "great", but they are very experienced and have chemistry. We are still trying to find it and were close to putting enough points on the board to beat them on Saturday night. Get this....MSU had a senior or a junior starting at every position Saturday night. It's almost as if experience matters. We weren't that close to beating Miss St Sat night. I know, the two drives in the red zone that died to begin and end the 1st half would have made the difference. But we botched both those big time. And we really can't put the whole blame on an inexperienced QB (bless his heart). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hutchids 227 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 This is a great point. There is enough time to straighten things out between now and the Kentucky game. Auburn has a very solid chance to enter the Ole Miss game at 5-2, and that could make that game very interesting - being at home and a Halloween game. Let's just hope they don't waste these next two weeks trying to decide what QB to go with, and actually spend time getting better! do it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUBehaviorScientist 0 Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 the level of blind optimism in this thread baffles me. yes its great to be positive and all that but to think we have a sniffing chance at ATL and comparisons to 2013 is comical. I look and find it difficult to believe we even become bowl eligible this year. Correct me if I'm wrong but JSU doesn't count due to being a FCS team, right? So we need 5 more wins against FBS opponents. Who would that be? 1. SJSU 2.@UK 3.@ARK 4. Idaho. 5. ??? And that means we have to beat all these other 4 teams. We could easily go to Lexington and lose. Or Arkansas for that matter as they use it to save their season. In order to fix our various problems we need to first know thyself. Which is that we are just not that good. So temper those expectations a little and hopefully we can still recruit some studs but that will take a hit as well. And if all else fails maybe we should turn in that scoreboard for some cash and pay players, IDK? :gofig:/> We seem to be paying our coaches too much. The NCAA doesn't seem to really care that much these days anyway with various programs blatantly cheating. You are allowed to count one FCS opponent toward eligibility. We actually only need four wins. I agree with you though. MSU could be the second worst SEC team on our schedule. On paper, they look a lot like us in 2011 and their head coach is a joke. If we couldn't beat them at home, how are we supposed to beat UK on the road in two weeks. I see two probable wins: SJSU and Idaho. Arkansas is winnable, but could be a tough game. This UK team is better than any of the ones we have faced recently. We have to make serious strides forward in the next few weeks to beat them. Other than those games, I don't see any other games that we should be legitimately confident about our chances. Let's look big picture though. A six win season is not acceptable. The team of freshmen and sophomores in 2011 won 8 games. Any less than nine or ten wins would be a serious underperformance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUbritt 611 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Thanks, Mikey! Good post. Here's to hoping we continue to improve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FoundationEagle 637 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 the level of blind optimism in this thread baffles me. yes its great to be positive and all that but to think we have a sniffing chance at ATL and comparisons to 2013 is comical. I look and find it difficult to believe we even become bowl eligible this year. Correct me if I'm wrong but JSU doesn't count due to being a FCS team, right? So we need 5 more wins against FBS opponents. Who would that be? 1. SJSU 2.@UK 3.@ARK 4. Idaho. 5. ??? And that means we have to beat all these other 4 teams. We could easily go to Lexington and lose. Or Arkansas for that matter as they use it to save their season. In order to fix our various problems we need to first know thyself. Which is that we are just not that good. So temper those expectations a little and hopefully we can still recruit some studs but that will take a hit as well. And if all else fails maybe we should turn in that scoreboard for some cash and pay players, IDK? :gofig:/> We seem to be paying our coaches too much. The NCAA doesn't seem to really care that much these days anyway with various programs blatantly cheating. Quite honestly I think we're looking 4-8 dead in the eye. This Auburn team could very easily not win a single SEC game this year. They are that bad. All summer I wondered how so many people could be expecting us to be top 4 material. I had my doubts about JJ being able to adequately run this offense. But even I didn't think it would be this bad. Frankly it looks like somewhere between 2011 and 2012, coming in closer to the latter.After the Jax St game I thought that I didn't see any problems that could be remedied with any quick fix...nothing that could be cured in a few weeks certainly. It's going to take at least one off season to rebuild this program, maybe two. Where are the top 10 recruiting classes we were hearing about for years? Where is the fire Muschamp was supposed to bring to the defense? Where is the high scoring offense Malzahn is famous for? More like a dream than a reality. And a bigger question: Why does Auburn have to put up with this? It is a repeating circus we go through every few years; a great team followed by dismal seasons back to back to back. No other school is expected to put up with that. If we're going to look at coaches, lets look at the top one, Jay Jacobs. It's not like any of our other teams are setting the woods on fire either. I don't want to fire Malzahn or Muschamp. Goodness knows we're already paying too many coaches not to coach. I just want people to earn the millions of $$$ we're paying them. This board has hit a new low with this mess. 4-8...Fire Jacobs...any chance we have of being good is more a dream than reality.... Looks like 2012 ...blah....blah.....blah.... I'd refute all those points but it's not even worth it here. This one is too far gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredst 9,064 Posted September 29, 2015 Share Posted September 29, 2015 Everyone said we would walk all over JSU and look what happened. I say that because if you overall San Jose State and Kentucky their not Georgia or uat, you could be looking 2 more losses. Solid post. I have no idea what the hell it means but it's definitely solid. very solid post 2 more losses what else could it mean Sorry. I mistook it for English instead of the Jabberwocky that it is..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.