Jax State QB

[alexava 6,973]

I would not expect too much from Stevens.

Bummer. Well, at least my expectations are set now.

Was told the starting wide receivers did not play in the A-Day game. I believe AU is going to be good at the WR spot next year.

i am having a hard time remembering who played and didn't play? I think you are mostly correct though. I like Stevens but not expecting much.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

I'd bet on Marcus Davis starting somewhere in that WR group. He has some shake and a decent set of hands. When given the chance, he's been making plays since 2013. I don't have high hopes for Stevens. I'd love to be wrong, but to this point, I haven't seen toughness out of him. He's a liability as a blocker, and he doesn't fight for the football. In the open field, he looks legit. I just don't see it when he has to fight through a jam or make a contested catch or block a dude on the edge. Jason Smith is too much of a question mark for me to say. He has the speed to play. He can create space, but to this point, he's made less of an impact that you would expect. That can change quickly for a WR. I mean, under Tubs, we had a tradition of Senior WRs coming from nowhere to lead the team in receiving their final season (dudes like Jeris McIntyre... who nearly doubled his combined career receptions as a senior). I'm not writing Smith off. He'll be a factor in the rotation regardless.

Still, I expect at least one of those freshmen to start. They have NFL bodies, and we don't have anyone providing that kind of physicality or big target right now. One of them is going to start opening day. I don't know if that's Kyle Davis, NCM, Eli Stove, or Marquis McClain, but it'll be at least one of them.

Should be fun to watch.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Davis is promising. When he's on, he's on, but he's had a bad habit of disappearing the past 2 years. I don't know if that is just the way the plays have been called or he's not getting open, but I often wonder why his name isn't called more.

Stevens has made some solid catches, but he does need to work on getting open and blocking.

Smith is an issue for me. He has legit speed to get open deep, but his hands are totally unreliable. He's dropped as many deep passes as he's caught... maybe more.

[AUwent 3,756]

I would not expect too much from Stevens.

Bummer. Well, at least my expectations are set now.

Was told the starting wide receivers did not play in the A-Day game. I believe AU is going to be good at the WR spot next year.

I too think that at least one of our freshmen WRs will be a starter. I'd say Davis is the most likely.

[keesler 5,926]

I just have to imagine if Auburn had Watson last year, we could have won the championship and bama wouldn't have even been in it. It's hard to say we don't have solid, developed talent when you look at the fact that we were in every game even though we had a lame duck QB most of the time and limited options at receiver. I think Auburn, with Watson is better than Clemson with Watson. Of course, we'll never know.

We will never know what could have been last year at AU. Clemson had Watson and some very good WRs (Renfroe was a beast).They also had a top ranked defense that helped them get to the playoff and on to the NC game with one of the best DC's in the country.

Auburn hasn't fielded a top shelf defense in over a decade. To say that AU would have won the championship game if they just had Watson last year is stretching it IMO. It's been glaringly obvious that we have had development issues for a while in multiple positions. Couple the poor development with head scratching play calling and we saw how the season panned out - AU put an inferior product on the field last year and I doubt one superstar QB would have taken them to the playoff all by himself.

I'm still of the opinion that the play calling was an effect of the issues at QB and injuries. I still stand by my belief that we were on the cusp of actually being really good, last year, and having one superstar player could have easily been the thing to take us from the mess we were to a real contender.

As for Clemson's top ranked D, I direct you to their schedule and this fact...

bama droped 473 yards and 45 points on Clemson. They were only able to get 465 yards and 29 points against us. They obviously weren't that much better than we were by the end of the year.

Difference of opinion.

Where you see Auburn on the cusp of greatness the last couple of years, I see an Auburn team in decline unable to gain any traction in our own division that has somehow allowed the Mississippi schools to pass us by.

Where you see all we needed was a superstar QB to get us to championship caliber, I see a total lack of development and proper evaluation at the most important position on the team. I see a slow and predictable offensive scheme in addition to really screwed up play calling from the coaching staff. Now add all that up and sandwich in a bottom of the SEC barrel defense and the result landed us in a stadium at the end of the season that many AU people swore they'd NEVER return.

Gus is still in training and learning as he goes, I just hope he learned from his mistakes and can get this thing turned around. I have enough patience to give him 2-3 more years to figure out how to coach in the SEC. Will the powers that be at AU feel the same way?

[augolf1716 21,223]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CuNBengxaQ

[lionheartkc 6,150]

I just have to imagine if Auburn had Watson last year, we could have won the championship and bama wouldn't have even been in it. It's hard to say we don't have solid, developed talent when you look at the fact that we were in every game even though we had a lame duck QB most of the time and limited options at receiver. I think Auburn, with Watson is better than Clemson with Watson. Of course, we'll never know.

We will never know what could have been last year at AU. Clemson had Watson and some very good WRs (Renfroe was a beast).They also had a top ranked defense that helped them get to the playoff and on to the NC game with one of the best DC's in the country.

Auburn hasn't fielded a top shelf defense in over a decade. To say that AU would have won the championship game if they just had Watson last year is stretching it IMO. It's been glaringly obvious that we have had development issues for a while in multiple positions. Couple the poor development with head scratching play calling and we saw how the season panned out - AU put an inferior product on the field last year and I doubt one superstar QB would have taken them to the playoff all by himself.

I'm still of the opinion that the play calling was an effect of the issues at QB and injuries. I still stand by my belief that we were on the cusp of actually being really good, last year, and having one superstar player could have easily been the thing to take us from the mess we were to a real contender.

As for Clemson's top ranked D, I direct you to their schedule and this fact...

bama droped 473 yards and 45 points on Clemson. They were only able to get 465 yards and 29 points against us. They obviously weren't that much better than we were by the end of the year.

Difference of opinion.

Where you see Auburn on the cusp of greatness the last couple of years, I see an Auburn team in decline unable to gain any traction in our own division that has somehow allowed the Mississippi schools to pass us by.

Where you see all we needed was a superstar QB to get us to championship caliber, I see a total lack of development and proper evaluation at the most important position on the team. I see a slow and predictable offensive scheme in addition to really screwed up play calling from the coaching staff. Now add all that up and sandwich in a bottom of the SEC barrel defense and the result landed us in a stadium at the end of the season that many AU people swore they'd NEVER return.

Gus is still in training and learning as he goes, I just hope he learned from his mistakes and can get this thing turned around. I have enough patience to give him 2-3 more years to figure out how to coach in the SEC. Will the powers that be at AU feel the same way?

We totally agree that Gus is still learning. Heck, he has flat out admitted it. I just see legitimate reasons for everything that has happened and none of them signal a huge decline for Auburn.

I see our D finally being on an upswing after a long time under 2 different head coaches, mainly because Gus learned that he needed to hire not only a good, but a tough D-coordinator who would make the team work and work hard, and also maintain a philosophy for more than a year.

I see Jeremy as being one mental adjustment away from being not just good, but a top QB and no real way for anyone to have known he would break-down... but again, Gus learned and made them all go live in an effort to avoid a repeat.

The Mississippi thing doesn't bother me at all. State lucked out with Dak and will likely return to their old ways sooner rather than later. Ole Miss, we now know, cheated to get top players. In any case, we can't feel bad about losing to them when they beat bama 2 years in a row. In both cases it wasn't Auburn regressing, it was those two schools achieving... legitimately or not.

I still believe, had we not had the worst luck in the world last year, we would have won at least a couple more games. Let's face it, we went into the season riding high on 3 star players. One fell apart, one lost his mind and got the boot, and one got hurt. Then we looked to our other top players. Two more key players were lost to injury for much of the season.

Throwing out the possibility of Jeremy not melting down, imagine last year if Lawson and Robinson didn't get hurt in game 1, Duke did what he should have done, and Sean started against Louisville instead of Mississippi State. I see us beating State, Arkansas, Georgia, and giving bama an even better game with a possible win. Robinson would have had 1200-1500 yards. Sean would have had probably close to at least 3000 in the air. Lawson would sadly probably be on an NFL roster now. Finally, Duke could have 1000+ yards receiving and maybe been drafted.

[McLoofus 35,182]

I still believe, had we not had the worst luck in the world last year, we would have won at least a couple more games. Let's face it, we went into the season riding high on 3 star players. One fell apart, one lost his mind and got the boot, and one got hurt. Then we looked to our other top players. Two more key players were lost to injury for much of the season.

...a center who had never played the position before, nothing but freshmen at HB and TE... Funny how all of that makes play calling look dumb.

I'll keep saying it until I'm blue in the face: Feel free to criticize Gus all you want for allowing our roster to become what it was last season. I might not agree, but I won't argue against it. But nobody has the right plays when you have a bad or brand new quarterback surrounded by inexperience. Maybe Gus and Rhett really are dumb, but last season's play calling isn't the proof that some are looking for.

[ellitor 33,109]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CuNBengxaQ

Finally something relevent to this thread.

[Tiger 8,829]

I think last year was finally the other foot coming down. We had benefited from a ton of fortunate bounces and plays that went our way in the past few years and eventually the law of averages will make an appearance. I'm hoping that 7-6 is our absolute floor in the current state of AU football and we will be bouncing back starting this year. We had injuries hit us in the very first game.

[McLoofus 35,182]

We had benefited from a ton of fortunate bounces and plays that went our way in the past few years and eventually the law of averages will make an appearance.

No doubt.

It would be really interesting to tally the total margin of victory/defeat for each of 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Not total points scored and surrendered, but margin of victory/defeat. I wouldn't be surprised if there was very little difference between the best and the worst, presumably 2015.

[autigeremt 6,652]

We had benefited from a ton of fortunate bounces and plays that went our way in the past few years and eventually the law of averages will make an appearance.

No doubt.

It would be really interesting to tally the total margin of victory/defeat for each of 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Not total points scored and surrendered, but margin of victory/defeat. I wouldn't be surprised if there was very little difference between the best and the worst, presumably 2015.

In 2015 we were in contention in every game heading into the 4th quarter except LSU. All we needed was stable QB play in 2015. It would have given us ample opportunity to win 10 plus games. Bounces one way or the other can help you get to a championship no doubt....but we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of those bounces with solid play.

[Charhair 345]

I would not expect too much from Stevens.

Bummer. Well, at least my expectations are set now.

Was told the starting wide receivers did not play in the A-Day game. I believe AU is going to be good at the WR spot next year.

why hasn't Stevens become a threat of any sort? He seems to be everything you look for in a WR, 6'4, 200lb, long arms. What is it that keeps him off the field?

[McLoofus 35,182]

We had benefited from a ton of fortunate bounces and plays that went our way in the past few years and eventually the law of averages will make an appearance.

No doubt.

It would be really interesting to tally the total margin of victory/defeat for each of 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Not total points scored and surrendered, but margin of victory/defeat. I wouldn't be surprised if there was very little difference between the best and the worst, presumably 2015.

In 2015 we were in contention in every game heading into the 4th quarter except LSU. All we needed was stable QB play in 2015. It would have given us ample opportunity to win 10 plus games. Bounces one way or the other can help you get to a championship no doubt....but we put ourselves in a position to take advantage of those bounces with solid play.

Yep. I think many of us are in agreement there. Watch out, #hottake alert, but...

...as much as folks like to claim that bama's QBs under Saban aren't good and that they merely benefit from being surrounded by copious NFL talent- ahem, as I pointed out elsewhere very recently, all of them made it to the NFL at least for a minute, so either they're good or some of y'all should be making a lot more money- I'll say confidently that we're probably a touchdown a game better with any of them than we were in 2015 with what we had- a head case and a redshirt freshman without a single college snap under his belt.

Now, that only takes 2 Ls off the board going just by final score, but it puts us close enough in 3 of the remaining 4 losses that it changes the dynamics of the entire game. Not only that, but the "bad wins" aren't nearly as bad and the bowl win is a total blowout.

So, again, I agree. Slightly better play and all of a sudden we're not so different than the 2010 or 2013 teams.

[mcgufcm 4,107]

McLoofus, I'm not sure exactly what you were looking for, but I'm bored/have some time to waste so I tried to fill a hole that I couldn't even fully describe.

2010

Overall margin: +240 (14 wins)

Average margin in wins: +17.1

2013

Overall margin: +207 (12 wins)

Average margin in all games: +14.8

Average margin in wins: +18.7

Average margin in losses: -8.5

2014

Overall margin: +114 (8 wins)

Average margin in all games: +8.8

Average margin in wins: +21.6

Average margin in losses: -11.8

2015

Overall margin: +19

Average margin in all games: +1.5

Average margin in wins: +12.9

Average margin in losses: -12.8

******

Based on that, it looks like we were miles away from 2010 or 2013. You could argue we were close in 2014, and for half a season, you'd be right. We just melted in the back half of the season. Last year though, our wins were by the narrowest margin of any of those three seasons, and our losses were substantially worse as well. Based on margins, last year looks nothing like 2010, 2013, or 2014. Much like what we actually saw, it looks like a team that couldn't handle outmatched opponents (you'd expect the margins to be high if you restrict seasons to your easiest/best games) and couldn't hold up against good ones (getting beaten by an average of two touchdowns over the six worst games).

By the way, the difference in first-half of 2014 and second half of 2014 is unreal.

2014 (first seven games)

Overall margin: +130 (6 wins)

Average margin in all games: +18.6

Average margin in wins: +24.2

Margin in only loss: -15

2014 (last six games)

Overall margin: -16 (2 wins)

Average margin in all games: -2.7

Average margin in wins: +14

Average margin in losses: -11

That team just fell apart. Through the first half of the season, they were on pace to crush the overall margin of the 2010 and 2013 teams. Even with the MSU hiccup, they were blowing out good teams (Arkansas, KSU, and LSU were all good teams). Still, the narrow overall margin and relatively narrow average margin of defeat (given the UGA game accounted for -27 of the overall margin) show a team that was close to winning at least two or three more games down the stretch.

[augolf1716 21,223]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CuNBengxaQ

Finally something relevent to this thread.

More true now then ever

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

I will say this, if you look at the last part of the year, 2015 was much better team than 2014. We stayed and even led some of those games. I am not happy with how the year played out but other than LSU we were in every game into the second half. There was definitely no quit in the players last year. As to the WRs we are quite talented this year, but talent wasn't our worst problem the last few years. Someone has to teach these guys how to run routes not just block down field. I am hoping and confident that Kodi can get this done. We can't be throwing into a two foot window 95% of the time. I don't care how good our QBs are. I fully believe this defense will be in the top 3 in the SEC. If we can get even mid level offense (30 pts p/gm) we can make it to Atlanta. I don't look for the SEC West to be as strong as it has in the past few years for various reasons. WDE

[cole256 17,084]

Then you add in Clemson who had a bit lower raw talent but developed it better than we have overall & you could have a 4th loss.

I'm not ready to completely buy into Clemson having lower rated, better developed players. If you take away Watson, is Clemson still a great team or are they back at being just a better than average ACC team?

No question DW is a difference maker but he is not the only one that has been developed. Look at what they have done in the draft recently. They are definitely taking some at least a bit lower rated players & developing them.

Also they were 13th in team recruited talent last year but almost won the natty. They are definitely developing more than just DW. However with that said, 95% of the teams need big time QB play to win big. Bama is arguably the only team that can win big w/ a game managing QB right now because they have been so good at nearly every other area.

I just have to imagine if Auburn had Watson last year, we could have won the championship and bama wouldn't have even been in it. It's hard to say we don't have solid, developed talent when you look at the fact that we were in every game even though we had a lame duck QB most of the time and limited options at receiver. I think Auburn, with Watson is better than Clemson with Watson. Of course, we'll never know.

Better where? Their defense was better than ours. Their wr's were. O line was a push....how you decide this?

[GTNupe11 2,034]

Then you add in Clemson who had a bit lower raw talent but developed it better than we have overall & you could have a 4th loss.

I'm not ready to completely buy into Clemson having lower rated, better developed players. If you take away Watson, is Clemson still a great team or are they back at being just a better than average ACC team?

No question DW is a difference maker but he is not the only one that has been developed. Look at what they have done in the draft recently. They are definitely taking some at least a bit lower rated players & developing them.

Also they were 13th in team recruited talent last year but almost won the natty. They are definitely developing more than just DW. However with that said, 95% of the teams need big time QB play to win big. Bama is arguably the only team that can win big w/ a game managing QB right now because they have been so good at nearly every other area.

I just have to imagine if Auburn had Watson last year, we could have won the championship and bama wouldn't have even been in it. It's hard to say we don't have solid, developed talent when you look at the fact that we were in every game even though we had a lame duck QB most of the time and limited options at receiver. I think Auburn, with Watson is better than Clemson with Watson. Of course, we'll never know.

Better where? Their defense was better than ours. Their wr's were. O line was a push....how you decide this?

Orange and Blue goggles.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

I just have to imagine if Auburn had Watson last year, we could have won the championship and bama wouldn't have even been in it. It's hard to say we don't have solid, developed talent when you look at the fact that we were in every game even though we had a lame duck QB most of the time and limited options at receiver. I think Auburn, with Watson is better than Clemson with Watson. Of course, we'll never know.

Better where? Their defense was better than ours. Their wr's were. O line was a push....how you decide this?

Like I said in a separate post, I don't necessarily believe their D was better than ours, at the end of the year. bama hung 45 on them and only 29 on us. I think our D ended up being underrated because they were on the field too much. Their receivers were better than ours, though some credit for that goes to Watson for both accuracy and giving the D more to think about than passing. Our stable of backs were better than theirs and will be again.

Orange and Blue goggles.

Dream on. I analyze the situation. I never blindly just assume Auburn is amazing.

[cole256 17,084]

Oh well if you don't think their D was better...I don't know why you think that but it's your opinion. Did you watch them play?

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Oh well if you don't think their D was better...I don't know why you think that but it's your opinion. Did you watch them play?

Did you just read what I wrote? There are two legit comparisons between our D and theirs... Louisville and bama. Otherwise, they played in the ACC and let's face it, most of the ACC can make any D look good. Yes, they performed better against Louisville, but in our first game, our D was just getting their feet wet in a new system... and we lost Carl early. Against bama, our D outperformed theirs.

If they had shut down bama, I'd be all on board with you, but the fact that they gave up more yards and A LOT more points than we did tells me that a lot of their hype came from playing lesser competition.

[cole256 17,084]

Saying look at what they did to so and so and what we did isn't really a good way to compare. They were in a shoot out. We couldn't stop the run so all they had to do was hand the ball off and we couldn't score so it was an entire different tempo. Different scheme and approach to a game. I remember 2013 we could have destroyed Tenn and arky much more than we did but we just handed the ball off all game

[ellitor 33,109]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CuNBengxaQ

Finally something relevent to this thread.

More true now then ever

And people are so lost in their derailed topic they aren't seeing what we are getting at. lol

[autigeremt 6,652]

I'm just baffled......