B. Marcello on Finebaum

[keesler 5,924]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

I hope this doesn't come across as argumentative or nitpicking, but I didn't feel like we so much "changed systems", or at least don't think we should have needed to. In my not-very-educated opinion, it was more about experience and continuity. Switching QBs is tough, as you said, but when you're plugging in a guy without a single snap under his belt... and he's surrounded by other inexperienced guys... and then he plays hurt for a bit until you have to put the other guy back in... I don't know if that's as much about "system" as it is about there just not being a playbook for that situation. 

Look at the bowl game. After Sean threw the 2nd pick in the 2nd quarter, Kerryon Johnson took the next 2 snaps in the wildcat. We put a *true freshman running back* under center when we needed to settle things down. I feel like that was 2015 in a nutshell. 

Or, as has been said before, ask summer 2015 Auburn fans how things would go if Jeremy Johnson, Duke Williams, Jovon Robinson and Roc Thomas all failed to produce for the vast majority of the season. Most of us would have completely written the season off. 

Good post.  2015 was a bunch of band-aids and duck tape and the year-end record showed it when AU finished dead last in the division.  More experience, talent and healthy players "should" prove beneficial this year ~ hopefully the team can navigate a brutal schedule, win a few SEC home games and finish better than 2-6 in the conference.

[Strychnine 1,802]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

I hope this doesn't come across as argumentative or nitpicking, but I didn't feel like we so much "changed systems", or at least don't think we should have needed to. In my not-very-educated opinion, it was more about experience and continuity. Switching QBs is tough, as you said, but when you're plugging in a guy without a single snap under his belt... and he's surrounded by other inexperienced guys... and then he plays hurt for a bit until you have to put the other guy back in... I don't know if that's as much about "system" as it is about there just not being a playbook for that situation. 

Look at the bowl game. After Sean threw the 2nd pick in the 2nd quarter, Kerryon Johnson took the next 2 snaps in the wildcat. We put a *true freshman running back* under center when we needed to settle things down. I feel like that was 2015 in a nutshell. 

Or, as has been said before, ask summer 2015 Auburn fans how things would go if Jeremy Johnson, Duke Williams, Jovon Robinson and Roc Thomas all failed to produce for the vast majority of the season. Most of us would have completely written the season off. 

 

As I before in this thread, I think 2015 started with the coaches having absolutely no plan for Sean White to be playing in any capacity other than mop-up or emergency duty.  We were supposed to have a great QB getting his chance to start (and it was not just Auburn fans high on Jeremy Johnson), a great and clutch WR poised to have a great season with more throws coming his way, and a solid rushing attack.  As you say, there is not really a playbook for that situation when you're forced to replace two "star" players and come up with plan B at QB and WR in October in this conference.  Our high preseason ranking showed that it was not just us that expected good things out of that offense.

[ellitor 33,093]

39 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

 

As I before in this thread, I think 2015 started with the coaches having absolutely no plan for Sean White to be playing in any capacity other than mop-up or emergency duty.  We were supposed to have a great QB getting his chance to start (and it was not just Auburn fans high on Jeremy Johnson), a great and clutch WR poised to have a great season with more throws coming his way, and a solid rushing attack.  As you say, there is not really a playbook for that situation when you're forced to replace two "star" players and come up with plan B at QB and WR in October in this conference.  Our high preseason ranking showed that it was not just us that expected good things out of that offense.

While all true a good coach has the QB2's reps in practice catered to his strength in case he has to play. That did not happen per many AU insiders.

[Strychnine 1,802]

Just now, ellitor said:

While all true a good coach has the QB2's reps in practice catered to his strength in case he has to play. That did not happen per many AU insiders.

 

That is a point that I will not disagree on.  As I said in a subsequent post in this thread, I think the coaches (buck stops with Gus obviously) got caught with their pants down in a way that they should not have.  I do not think our coaches are incompetent or lazy, but I do think they may have headed into 2015 too confident or arrogant about what they had.  When you do indeed have what you think you have, you look brilliant.  When you do not, you spend the season wiping egg from your face.  My hope is that all involved learned from that one.

[ellitor 33,093]

2 minutes ago, Strychnine said:

 

That is a point that I will not disagree on.  As I said in a subsequent post in this thread, I think the coaches (buck stops with Gus obviously) got caught with their pants down in a way that they should not have.  I do not think our coaches are incompetent or lazy, but I do think they may have headed into 2015 too confident or arrogant about what they had.  When you do indeed have what you think you have, you look brilliant.  When you do not, you spend the season wiping egg from your face.  My hope is that all involved learned from that one.

Agreed.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Yep, good points. 

[passthebiscuits 6,846]

I don't feel like last season was just one thing. Instead, I think it was a confluence of factors. There was JJ's confidence, infighting between major players on the team, a WR coach who felt that he had better plans for the offense than the OC and as many of you have pointed out, we had a pretty terrible injury list last season. Seriously, there were weeks where 5-6 of our starters were questionable midweek...ever tried to come up with a gameplan with many of your players not even practicing? Heck, I think Matthews playing last year was nothing short of heroic.

-anyway just my take

[McLoofus 35,182]

13 minutes ago, passthebiscuits said:

I don't feel like last season was just one thing. Instead, I think it was a confluence of factors. There was JJ's confidence, infighting between major players on the team, a WR coach who felt that he had better plans for the offense than the OC and as many of you have pointed out, we had a pretty terrible injury list last season. Seriously, there were weeks where 5-6 of our starters were questionable midweek...ever tried to come up with a gameplan with many of your players not even practicing? Heck, I think Matthews playing last year was nothing short of heroic.

-anyway just my take

Exactly. I hadn't even gotten into the injuries on defense. Another unit where one of our top 4 or 5 players was a freshman. 

[AUIH1 1,515]

4 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I hope this doesn't come across as argumentative or nitpicking, but I didn't feel like we so much "changed systems", or at least don't think we should have needed to. In my not-very-educated opinion, it was more about experience and continuity. Switching QBs is tough, as you said, but when you're plugging in a guy without a single snap under his belt... and he's surrounded by other inexperienced guys... and then he plays hurt for a bit until you have to put the other guy back in... I don't know if that's as much about "system" as it is about there just not being a playbook for that situation. 

Look at the bowl game. After Sean threw the 2nd pick in the 2nd quarter, Kerryon Johnson took the next 2 snaps in the wildcat. We put a *true freshman running back* under center when we needed to settle things down. I feel like that was 2015 in a nutshell. 

Or, as has been said before, ask summer 2015 Auburn fans how things would go if Jeremy Johnson, Duke Williams, Jovon Robinson and Roc Thomas all failed to produce for the vast majority of the season. Most of us would have completely written the season off. 

Agree.  Why is there this mantra of having to change systems from going from Jeremy to Sean?  Neither one of those are DT QBs.  The same game plan should have been good for either.

 

wde

[ellitor 33,093]

25 minutes ago, AUIH1 said:

Agree.  Why is there this mantra of having to change systems from going from Jeremy to Sean?  Neither one of those are DT QBs.  The same game plan should have been good for either.

 

wde

They still have different strengths & weaknesses  which JJ & Sean do even as passers. You can't just lump them into dual or non-dual QBs. It's just not that simple.

 

Let me be clear on the not having a plan in place in case QB2 had to play part. I am not saying nor implying our record would have been any better. The other factors that have been stated a million times on this forum the past 6 months by many, many people would have kept our record at or near the same. This topic was brought up because a poster thought developing & having a game plan for QB2 to work on was doom. It it comes in the course of hs normal weekly practice snaps it's not doom. It's proper preparedness which the staff fell short on that aspect.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

 

1 hour ago, passthebiscuits said:

I don't feel like last season was just one thing. Instead, I think it was a confluence of factors. There was JJ's confidence, infighting between major players on the team, a WR coach who felt that he had better plans for the offense than the OC and as many of you have pointed out, we had a pretty terrible injury list last season. Seriously, there were weeks where 5-6 of our starters were questionable midweek...ever tried to come up with a gameplan with many of your players not even practicing? Heck, I think Matthews playing last year was nothing short of heroic.

-anyway just my take

Thank you for posting this.  It's great to see someone with connections to the program speak to this.

[ellitor 33,093]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

Thank you for posting this.  It's great to see someone with connections to the program speak to this.

Been said multiple times by people with connections. That's why regurgitating these same conversations on a weekly basis is getting very tiresome.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, ellitor said:

Been said multiple times by people with connections. That's why regurgitating these same conversations on a weekly basis is getting very tiresome.

When I say people with connections to the program, I'm pretty much referring to 23, PTB, and Red, and until today I never read anything from them speaking to it.  I have heard from the others who know people who are connected and are therefor connected by proxy, but what I hear from them is "Gus is stubborn", "Gus can't coach QBs", etc.  This is the first time I've seen anyone that we know has first hand connection to the program say something to the effect of "you know what... last year was messed up and there wasn't much that could have been done about it."

[McLoofus 35,182]

Agreed, lionheart. Also, #offseason. Very few of the conversations are going to contain new information. 

[C'viewTiger 242]

22 hours ago, ellitor said:

Did not have to change the system that much because he was a dual QB like their 1st 2 QBs were. Just simplified things for him a bit.

That 3d string didn't do that great the next year when expectations were high. 

[augolf1716 21,153]

5 hours ago, ellitor said:

Been said multiple times by people with connections. That's why regurgitating these same conversations on a weekly basis is getting very tiresome.

Got that right.

[ellitor 33,093]

21 minutes ago, AU04ever said:

That 3d string didn't do that great the next year when expectations were high. 

Exactly. They opened the playbook for him & he did not do well.

[passthebiscuits 6,846]

To be fair, my take is opinion based on observation. Ellitor (who is as connected as one can be btw) is right, I'm not the first to say this stuff. 

Ready for the season to start, for sure!

[ellitor 33,093]

38 minutes ago, passthebiscuits said:

To be fair, my take is opinion based on observation. Ellitor (who is as connected as one can be btw) is right, I'm not the first to say this stuff. 

Ready for the season to start, for sure!

Thank you but I'm not connected. I get tidbit once in a while from people who are.

[Barnacle 9,064]

7 hours ago, ellitor said:

Thank you but I'm not connected. I get tidbit once in a while from people who are.

You are as connected to what's being posted to various sites, boards and social media outlets as anyone, I would imagine.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

8 hours ago, passthebiscuits said:

To be fair, my take is opinion based on observation.

Understood, but from what I understand about you, you have a much better vantage point to observe from than all but maybe 2 or 3 other people on this board.

[keesler 5,924]

23 hours ago, passthebiscuits said:

I don't feel like last season was just one thing. Instead, I think it was a confluence of factors. There was JJ's confidence, infighting between major players on the team, a WR coach who felt that he had better plans for the offense than the OC and as many of you have pointed out, we had a pretty terrible injury list last season. Seriously, there were weeks where 5-6 of our starters were questionable midweek...ever tried to come up with a gameplan with many of your players not even practicing? Heck, I think Matthews playing last year was nothing short of heroic.

-anyway just my take

Well, Gus now has plenty of healthy talent to work with, he's got "HIS" staff in place and plenty of  experienced players with actual game time under their belts.  The staff has had months to work on QB development and get them acclimated to the new WRs.  The defensive staff has had months to work on keeping the defense on a steady improvement path that carried over to the bowl game.  The sky is the limit for this AU team!  

[McLoofus 35,182]

Agree, keesler. I've made a lot of excuses for 2015- well, really just one big one over and over again- but I won't be making any for 2016. I'm not saying we have to win 10 games, but it's time we finally look like a competent football team in all phases. 

[Strychnine 1,802]

2 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Agree, keesler. I've made a lot of excuses for 2015- well, really just one big one over and over again- but I won't be making any for 2016. I'm not saying we have to win 10 games, but it's time we finally look like a competent football team in all phases. 

 

That is where I am at.  I give the Gus Malzahn regime a pass for 2015.  It should not have happened, but he is hardly the first coach that has happened to.  That said, I am forming my opinion based on 2016, specifically the offense.  If the offense struggles this year too, I will have no choice but to conclude that something is terribly wrong, and he is likely not the man to fix it.

[Maverick.AU 13,279]

Marcello is moving to Auburn 247...