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The Absurdity of Auburn’s schedule


jmcrosson

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4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

16 consecutive hand-offs on first down. There's no what-if about that. Gus changed the game plan and we lost because of it. 

I don't think he changed the game plan... I just think that LSU was the first team we played who was good enough that riding the clock with the ground game didn't work. Every team we'd played prior couldn't stop the ground game in the second half. We ran on EVERY first down in the second half against Ole Miss and 11/12 first downs against Missouri. We expected to get the LSU team that lost to Tulsa and instead got the LSU team who beat everyone but bama after playing us.

I think HAD he changed the game plan after it stopped working, we might have won. We kind of suck at changing the game plan.

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13 hours ago, AUloggerhead said:

The problem is uat's schedule, not AU's.  uat's permanent East opponent in UT.  I know it's hard to believe but they used to be a decent opponent (about 20 or so yrs ago.)  Whether a team is good or not is cyclical.  A 9-game conference schedule would be fairer to all -- every team would have to play all others  more frequently than they do now.  I would love for uat & UGA to play more often, though I'm sure Nick & Kirby want none of it.  It's been an historic issue:  in the latest SECCG, CBS showed a graphic where Nick Chubb moved into 2nd place on the all-time SEC rushing yards behind the great Herschel Walker.  How many remember Herschel Walker running over, through & all round the SEC in the 3 years he played at UGA?  The most remarkable thing about it is that uat never once played UGA while Walker was on the loose in the SEC.            

Which is why I’m starting to think it would just be better to drop permanent cross division games. Yep I went there.

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7 minutes ago, WDavE said:

Back in the late 80's and early 90's, Florida with Spurrier was the team to beat. It seemed like every year we had to line up against UF, UGA and UAT.

 

UAT would only meet up with UF in the Championship game.

There was a time when Tenn was incredible and of course bama played them every year.  It ebbs and flows.

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21 hours ago, SCTiger2011 said:

And then to top it off, next year has the murderers row BOTH ON THE ROAD, in addition to what would today be a #7 vs #11 matchup opening against Washington in Atlanta next year.  Yes, it's the gauntlet that so many love the SEC for, and what gives the conference so much respect, but I've always hated the Novembers since Mizzou and TAMU joined.  I hate those Novembers more now after it being confirmed about two hours ago that Auburn could be the best SEC team, be out of gas and lose an SEC championship, and have a team who played Tennessee and Vanderbilt coast right in.

Our In state rival has a much tougher path next year, right?  They wont even be tested until Early November,

 

Sept. 1 vs. Louisville (Orlando)

Sept. 8 vs. Arkansas State

Sept. 15: at Ole Miss

Sept. 22: Texas A&M at Alabama

Sept. 29: vs Louisiana-Lafayette

Oct. 6: at Arkansas

Oct. 13: vs. Missouri

Oct. 20: at Tennessee

Oct. 27: bye

Nov. 3: at LSU

Nov. 10: vs. Mississippi State

Nov. 17: vs The Citadel

Nov. 24: vs. Auburn

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2 minutes ago, Timbeaux38 said:

Our In state rival has a much tougher path next year, right?  They wont even be tested until Early November,

 

Sept. 1 vs. Louisville (Orlando)

Sept. 8 vs. Arkansas State

Sept. 15: at Ole Miss

Sept. 22: Texas A&M at Alabama

Sept. 29: vs Louisiana-Lafayette

Oct. 6: at Arkansas

Oct. 13: vs. Missouri

Oct. 20: at Tennessee

Oct. 27: bye

Nov. 3: at LSU

Nov. 10: vs. Mississippi State

Nov. 17: vs The Citadel

Nov. 24: vs. Auburn

aTm is not going to be a push over next year.  I may be completely wrong, but I really think JF is going to be a tough at aTm.

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5 minutes ago, 1856 said:

There was a time when Tenn was incredible and of course bama played them every year.  It ebbs and flows.

Yeah! It ebbed and flowed for them alright.

During the time period we're talking about their other cross division rival was always Kentucky or Vandy. How incredible were they?

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22 minutes ago, Timbeaux38 said:

Our In state rival has a much tougher path next year, right?  They wont even be tested until Early November,

 

Sept. 1 vs. Louisville (Orlando)

Sept. 8 vs. Arkansas State

Sept. 15: at Ole Miss

Sept. 22: Texas A&M at Alabama

Sept. 29: vs Louisiana-Lafayette

Oct. 6: at Arkansas

Oct. 13: vs. Missouri

Oct. 20: at Tennessee

Oct. 27: bye

Nov. 3: at LSU

Nov. 10: vs. Mississippi State

Nov. 17: vs The Citadel

Nov. 24: vs. Auburn

Holy crap that's a cakewalk for Saban. None of those teams have a defense except in November. Ughhhhhhh.

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19 hours ago, Tiger said:

I'd consider playing them in Athens again in 2019 just to avoid us having years where we go on the road to both....

Agree with this 100%. I think the new AD should make this happen. 

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49 minutes ago, AUwent said:

Which is why I’m starting to think it would just be better to drop permanent cross division games. Yep I went there.

I agree 100 % and they should rotate every year were your playing a different set of teams.

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2 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Not to disagree, but to maybe sugarcoat- we do return a lot of experience at LT and both of the guard positions. If we were returning our center, I wouldn't be worried at all. But we don't, and that's a big deal, hence me not disagreeing but instead just trying to halfway fill your half empty glass. 

Elegant!

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1 hour ago, Dan-0 said:

I agree, but we need an 8-team playoff roster that includes all five Power Conferences and three at large choices. Conference winners would get in automatically, otherwise what is the point of having the championship games?

I don't agree with three at large. Make every team join a conference if they won't a shot at a NC and work out the details from there for a playoff. But no at large teams that just leaves room for politics and back room deals.

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Auburn needs to get smart about things and start "playing the game".  1) Divide Amen corner out.  Play Georgia earlier in the year. 2) Or, somehow change both games to be home/away each year instead of alternating home/home and away/away between years.  Hopefully do #1 AND #2.  Probably impossible but it never hurts to try.  3) Consider moving Auburn to the Eastern division.  4)  There really needs to be a week off before the SEC championship game.  Its criminal to make these players play again at the end of the year without some rest.  There's a reason the bowl games are weeks later (besides just the holidays).  5) I hate to say this since we lost and it sounds like sour grapes, but complain to the SEC over Georgia's targeting of our players injuries and hurting players already down on the ground.  That's unacceptable. 

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1 hour ago, Tiger said:

How freaking lucky are we that Casey Dunn fell into our lap??

On one side it was lucky he did a pretty good job and on the other it was kind of sad we had to get a guy from where was it Jacksonville State. We should have had Tega or somebody ready so we could have left Golson at center, that's on the coach.

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13 minutes ago, AUwent said:

Good article.  I couldn't help but laugh at this quote "Bama/UGA/LSU would be a brutal group for Auburn".  Yes, it would, its also our schedule every year right now plus Mississippi State.

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As a program, are our chances to get to Atlanta increased or decreased by having our schedule set up with both Bama and UGA home or away in the same year? We've been to Atl twice in the last 4 years with this set up, and off the top of my head we went to Atlanta twice in Tubs' 10 years with the opposite schedule set up. How much of that is schedule based? Not a pointed question, genuinely curious as to how the board breaks it down.

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13 minutes ago, AUwent said:

I could live with that format. Seems more fair. The only problem I can see is maybe having to play uat or uga twice, but we had to this year anyway.

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1 minute ago, kd4au said:

On one side it was lucky he did a pretty good job and on the other it was kind of sad we had to get a guy from where was it Jacksonville State. We should have had Tega or somebody ready so we could have left Golson at center, that's on the coach.

Exactly. That's where the "functional depth" part comes into play as @lionheartkcput it. We'd be even sadder if Dunn decided to finish his career in the FCS ranks. Gus is probably the Arkansas coach right now if Dunn didn't transfer to AU as well

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1 hour ago, keesler said:

The ONLY team in this 14 team conference that wants this is Alabama.  It's been voted on several times and every program vote no except them.

I'm aware of who proposed it & who voted for it.  The question is, wouldn't a 9-conference schedule be fairer for all?  For the record, in a 20-year span from 2001-2020, uat & UGA will have scheduled each other 6 times:  2002-03, 2007-08, 2015 & 2020.  They also played in the SECCG in 2012, but of course that wasn't regular season.  Link

An 8-conference schedule may have made sense when there were only 12 teams.  Now that there are 14 teams ... it seems like they could schedule each other more often than twice in a decade. 

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So is Clemson an honorary member of the SEC seeing as they play us and Bama more than we play Florida and Tennessee?

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Also would we be better off just skipping scheduling a big power 5 opponent and just leaning on our conference schedule? Seems like the benefit of just playing an SEC schedule, having minimal losses, and no key OOC wins (or losses!!!) may be better than playing a tough team and losing. 

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27 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Also would we be better off just skipping scheduling a big power 5 opponent and just leaning on our conference schedule? Seems like the benefit of just playing an SEC schedule, having minimal losses, and no key OOC wins (or losses!!!) may be better than playing a tough team and losing. 

Given how many people here were angry with us playing “just” ONE P5 OOC opponent per year a few years ago...

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1 hour ago, Big Dog said:

Auburn needs to get smart about things and start "playing the game".  1) Divide Amen corner out.  Play Georgia earlier in the year. 2) Or, somehow change both games to be home/away each year instead of alternating home/home and away/away between years.  Hopefully do #1 AND #2.  Probably impossible but it never hurts to try.  3) Consider moving Auburn to the Eastern division.  4)  There really needs to be a week off before the SEC championship game.  Its criminal to make these players play again at the end of the year without some rest.  There's a reason the bowl games are weeks later (besides just the holidays).  5) I hate to say this since we lost and it sounds like sour grapes, but complain to the SEC over Georgia's targeting of our players injuries and hurting players already down on the ground.  That's unacceptable. 

You're right. Yes it's sour grapes, but at some point you have to do some "self serving". Uga and Bama will be top 5's again in November, so here comes Auburn having a nearly impossible road, irrespective of whether or not we're good enough. Yes we should win all games, but Yes- our path to the cfp's is silly.

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43 minutes ago, Tiger said:

Also would we be better off just skipping scheduling a big power 5 opponent and just leaning on our conference schedule? Seems like the benefit of just playing an SEC schedule, having minimal losses, and no key OOC wins (or losses!!!) may be better than playing a tough team and losing. 

We go 12-0 and win the seccg, our non-conference is a non-factor. If we have a great year, but in the end, we lose a game late (rival/seccg), our non-conference is again, a non-factor.

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