replacing 4 starters on offensive line

[auburnphan 6,050]

On 2/24/2018 at 6:55 PM, AUsince72 said:

Would Ashley make a good LT?  Seems Tega struggled a bit iirc, so I'm wondering if they should be swapped.

Otherwise, solid choice IMO.

Tega had never played OT in his life before this season.   skill set is there.

[Mikey 16,638]

6 hours ago, AUIH1 said:

  We need a coach who is a good blend of good recruiter and very good (great is not a word associated for the vast majority of coaches) coach. The problem is that Gus has no clue how to hire outside if his straight (which is too limitedly incestuous) coaching tree.

 

Why don't you make a list of O-line coaches that are very good coaches and good recruiters and mail it to Gus? I'm sure he would appreciate your genius input. As far as the highlighted part of your post, Woodson, Brown, T-Will, Steele, Grimes the first time and Porter demonstrate that you don't even care about truth, you're just flapping your jaws to hear your head roar.

6 hours ago, AUIH1 said:

 

 

 

 

[AUsince72 11,084]

2 hours ago, auburnphan said:

Tega had never played OT in his life before this season.   skill set is there.

Football, for that matter.

Not saying he can't ever.  Just strictly referring to the open of 2018.

[bigbird 60,571]

14 hours ago, AUIH1 said:

JB Grimes was a decent on the field coach at AU (of which there are very many decent ones) while at AU (which would include the hated Hugh Nall depending on the season when in 2004 would have been considered great by message boards (which was just as dumb as thinking we are good with JB Grimes struggling through another season as a decent coach on the field is a good hire versus thinking we have a great or promising OL coach).  

This was harder to read than a drunk A4E post.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

Maybe a bit OG, but

one of those leaving a vacancy made a "freakish athletes" list (SI):

"...8. G Braden Smith, Auburn: Here’s hoping the 6'6", 303-pounder will break the combine record in the bench press. The reason? He’s making a donation to Autism Speaks for every bench press rep that he does at the combine.

Smith can put up 500 pounds on the bench, but he’s also got pretty nifty wheels. Auburn strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell said Smith has been clocked at 4.95 in the 40, vertical jumped 33 inches and broad jumped 9'9½". If he replicates that last mark in Indy, it will be the best broad jump showing by an O-lineman at the combine in the past four years..."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/these-freakish-athletes-set-to-turn-heads-at-the-nfl-combine/ar-BBJCQoZ?li=BBnba9I&ocid=mailsignout#page=4

[gman87 398]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:07 PM, AUIH1 said:

But Gustav rehired the greatest of all OL coaches (after he ran him off the 1st time and that OL coach can't recruit) so we are set.  No worries and Gustav is here for at least 7 more years based on his new contract.  Just trying to do this right.

 

wde

AUIHI, if I wanted to hear constant bitching every day I could have stayed married. Why not wait until we lose the A-day game or something before you crank the negamode up.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

16 hours ago, AUIH1 said:

Show me on the field and I will gladly eat crow.   JB Grimes was a decent on the field coach at AU (of which there are very many decent ones) while at AU (which would include the hated Hugh Nall depending on the season when in 2004 would have been considered great by message boards (which was just as dumb as thinking we are good with JB Grimes struggling through another season as a decent coach on the field is a good hire versus thinking we have a great or promising OL coach).  But JB Grimes is an average recruiter on his best day and is a decent OL coach on his best day.  We need a coach who is a good blend of good recruiter and very good (great is not a word associated for the vast majority of coaches) coach. The problem is that Gus has no clue how to hire outside if his straight (which is too limitedly incestuous) coaching tree.

And before someone posts "what about Kevin Steele".  Kevin Steele was hired after LSU wanted to fire him after one season and to Steele's credit he has tried to continue what Will Muschamp instilled in our D (after only only season with Muschamp as DC).  Steele gets credit for (IMO) continue the Muschamp influence, but I am concerned based on critical situations that Steele is not up to the task.  I welcome to be proved wrong other than insults.

wde

Well, you're correct about the fact that Grimes has struggled as a recruiter in the past. There rest of your post, however, is naive at best.

Grimes is far more than a "decent" on field coach. Grime is the coach that took Greg Robinson from just another freshman to a #2 pick in the NFL draft as a sophomore, which is no small feat. He also was the man behind Shon Coleman going from cancer patient to the guy Miles Garrett said was the toughest O-lineman he faced, including the likes of Laremy Tunsil and Cam Robinson. To call him a "decent on the field coach" is to show bias against him because you, as you have made abundantly clear in a lot of threads, don't like Gus.

Saying Gus has no idea how to hire outside of his tree is also incorrect. Yes, there is Steele. There is also Brown, who the most knowledgeable person on this board about secondaries lauds, and Porter, who is starting to make serious inroads into Texas in recruiting... something Auburn has never been able to do. Horton's only connection to Malzahn was they both coached at Arkansas... but they weren't there at the same time. Horton came in when Gus went to Tulsa. Garner had no connection to Malzahn prior to his joining the staff. I could go on. You, like a lot of other people, rail on Gus's hiring because of Kodi, who is the only "project" coach on our staff.  Every other hire Gus has made, outside of Ellis Johnson, has been a successful hire (yes, Woodson remains to be seen), and Kodi continues to improve, year after year. 

As for Steele, giving Muschamp the credit for what Steele has done is borderline insulting. Muschamp was with Auburn for 1 year where we had a better defense than the garbage that we threw on the field years prior, but was far from stellar. Since Steele has come on board, Auburn has had one of the top rated defenses in the country. Yes, Muschamp deserves credit for starting to turn the ship around, but to insinuate that Steele is just doing his best Muschamp impression is out of line. In fact, I've heard several player interviews where they have said they prefer Steele's style to Muschamp, which plays a large part in us going from good to great.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Muschamp and Steele both deserve massive praise.

Steele doesn't have us where we are without *Muschamp coming through first. At least not this quickly. 

Muschamp might not have had us where we are had he stayed. Or maybe he would have. But Steele has definitely taken the baton and ran with it.

*There was this dumb show where this A-hole British chef would show up at a failing restaurant and scream at everyone until the restaurant was running okay again, drill sergeant style. That was Muschamp. 

 

 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

3 hours ago, McLoofus said:

*There was this dumb show where this A-hole British chef would show up at a failing restaurant and scream at everyone until the restaurant was running okay again, drill sergeant style. That was Muschamp. 

Classic

[doc4aday 1,887]

On 2/24/2018 at 5:07 PM, AUIH1 said:

But Gustav rehired the greatest of all OL coaches (after he ran him off the 1st time and that OL coach can't recruit) so we are set.  No worries and Gustav is here for at least 7 more years based on his new contract.  Just trying to do this right.

 

wde

I think Coach Grimes will do the job that Hand could not seem to get accomplished. We will be fine with our OL in that we are in good hands with Grimes.

 

[doc4aday 1,887]

7 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Muschamp and Steele both deserve massive praise.

Steele doesn't have us where we are without *Muschamp coming through first. At least not this quickly. 

Muschamp might not have had us where we are had he stayed. Or maybe he would have. But Steele has definitely taken the baton and ran with it.

*There was this dumb show where this A-hole British chef would show up at a failing restaurant and scream at everyone until the restaurant was running okay again, drill sergeant style. That was Muschamp. 

 

 

I know you are not thinking of Sgt. Vince Carter of Gomer Pyle USMC! (lol)

[shabby 1,958]

losing a lot of starters but we still a lot of experience on the line

[McLoofus 35,182]

Just now, shabby said:

losing a lot of starters but we still a lot of experience on the line

Agreed. 3 guys with starting experience isn't horrible. I just hate that one of our best candidates at center is one of those 3 guys, and most of his experience is at... guard.

 

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

22 hours ago, lionheartkc said:

Well, you're correct about the fact that Grimes has struggled as a recruiter in the past. There rest of your post, however, is naive at best.

Grimes is far more than a "decent" on field coach. Grime is the coach that took Greg Robinson from just another freshman to a #2 pick in the NFL draft as a sophomore, which is no small feat. He also was the man behind Shon Coleman going from cancer patient to the guy Miles Garrett said was the toughest O-lineman he faced, including the likes of Laremy Tunsil and Cam Robinson. To call him a "decent on the field coach" is to show bias against him because you, as you have made abundantly clear in a lot of threads, don't like Gus.

Saying Gus has no idea how to hire outside of his tree is also incorrect. Yes, there is Steele. There is also Brown, who the most knowledgeable person on this board about secondaries lauds, and Porter, who is starting to make serious inroads into Texas in recruiting... something Auburn has never been able to do. Horton's only connection to Malzahn was they both coached at Arkansas... but they weren't there at the same time. Horton came in when Gus went to Tulsa. Garner had no connection to Malzahn prior to his joining the staff. I could go on. You, like a lot of other people, rail on Gus's hiring because of Kodi, who is the only "project" coach on our staff.  Every other hire Gus has made, outside of Ellis Johnson, has been a successful hire (yes, Woodson remains to be seen), and Kodi continues to improve, year after year. 

As for Steele, giving Muschamp the credit for what Steele has done is borderline insulting. Muschamp was with Auburn for 1 year where we had a better defense than the garbage that we threw on the field years prior, but was far from stellar. Since Steele has come on board, Auburn has had one of the top rated defenses in the country. Yes, Muschamp deserves credit for starting to turn the ship around, but to insinuate that Steele is just doing his best Muschamp impression is out of line. In fact, I've heard several player interviews where they have said they prefer Steele's style to Muschamp, which plays a large part in us going from good to great.

Lets see if Grimes can teach the pass pro to his OL. One of the reason's he left/retired/moved on/coached his son, whatever. Nick Marshall ran for his life. Stidham can't do that like Marshall did. And it's a fact that Grimes / Gus parted ways because of what I just posted. As far as making the OL a bunch of road graders, Grimes is your guy. Argue if you want but this is the truth.

 Robinson has struggled in the NFL because of his lack of blocking in passing situations, which has been blamed on Gus and AU.  Little fact on Robinson, Gus has told many people Greg should have started as a freshman. Kid was a freak athlete and was ready. Said he wouldn't let that happen again, starting a true freshman. Which Gus has done now. 

Kim isn't physical enough to start in the SEC. I'd take him off any list. Same with Carr. 

Prince can't get back fast enough with a true pass rushing DE. His first step just isn't there. Struggled bad and had to be replaced. 

Ashley should be good. 

I'm very concerned with the OL.  I think the struggles with pass protection is going to make AU very one dimensional for most of the year. Going to have to more than one RB ready this year. Have a feeling we are going to be pounding the ball a lot. 

IMO FWIW. 

[abw0004 10,125]

@WarDamnEagleWDE, how do you feel about Troxell and Brahms?  I have heard good things so far, so with them plus Horton, Harrell, and Ashley we should be okay barring injuries.  

[WarDamnEagleWDE 12,737]

12 minutes ago, abw0004 said:

@WarDamnEagleWDE, how do you feel about Troxell and Brahms?  I have heard good things so far, so with them plus Horton, Harrell, and Ashley we should be okay barring injuries.  

Don't think Troxell is ready yet. Still recovering from the knee. Brahms, will play. Going to be real good. 

One thing I will say about the OL. They won't play soft like the last few years. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

9 minutes ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

Robinson has struggled in the NFL because of his lack of blocking in passing situations, which has been blamed on Gus and AU.  Little fact on Robinson, Gus has told many people Greg should have started as a freshman. Kid was a freak athlete and was ready. Said he wouldn't let that happen again, starting a true freshman. Which Gus has done now.

From what I've read about Robinson, his struggles in the NFL have come from the fact that he is playing in a completely different type of scheme than he played in college (because there's no denying, Gus Malzahn football is not NFL football, it's designed to win college games) and he's not picking up the new technique. He's struggled in both run and pass blocking since he's been in the NFL. He's also had outside coaching from a former NFL lineman turned technique coach to fix his issues  and it hasn't significantly improved his game. To me, that says even more about the fact that Grimes had him playing at a level in Gus's scheme that lead to him being drafted #2.  I mean, sure I want our guys to succeed at the next level, but I'll gladly take someone who excels at this level in our scheme whether he's NFL ready or not.

Incidentally, as freak of an athlete as Robinson was, he didn't come in ready to rule the world. He started in 2012 and didn't really make any significant waves. There was definitely coaching involved to get him to where he was in 2013. In fact, he gave credit to Grimes in interviews, even going as far as saying that he didn't really buy into what Grimes was selling at first, but he did what he was told and he learned that Grimes was right.

I'm sure there are all kinds of "reasons" that Malzahn and Grimes parted ways in the past, but I would lay odds that one of the biggest and most unspoken was that Gus wanted to work with his buddy Hand and see if they could recapture the magic they had in Tulsa, not considering the fact that his lines have been consistently abused at nearly every stop in his tenure. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Incidentally, as freak of an athlete as Robinson was, he didn't come in ready to rule the world. He started in 2012 and didn't really make any significant waves.

On 247, he was the #109 overall recruit in the country. You're supposed to have success with guys like that. (I was actually surprised when I went back and saw he wasn't a 5*.)

As for 2012, every corner of our football program was in ruin. Very good players who were much more experienced than Robinson failed badly that year. Nobody made waves.

2013 was as much a testament to how bad Chizik had let things get before then as it was to Gus's (and Grimes's) abilities. 

That all said, I think Grimes is the right guy for the job this season. I'm just not optimistic for what the ceiling is with the personnel this year. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

1 minute ago, WarDamnEagleWDE said:

They won't play soft like the last few years. 

This... so much this

[I_M4_AU 7,865]

31 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

I'm sure there are all kinds of "reasons" that Malzahn and Grimes parted ways in the past, but I would lay odds that one of the biggest and most unspoken was that Gus wanted to work with his buddy Hand and see if they could recapture the magic they had in Tulsa, not considering the fact that his lines have been consistently abused at nearly every stop in his tenure. 

This statement is a reason some believe Gus can’t get away from his tenacity to hire or re-hire from his coaching tree on the offensive side of the ball.  Gus doesn’t seem to like to get out of his comfort zone.  As WDE states; Have a feeling we are going to be pounding the ball a lot.  It’s a shame that one of our strengths on offense is the WR group and we have a QB that can chunk it, but it seems the OL may not be able to protect the QB long enough to take advantage of our strengths.

On top of this, we have unproven RBs and someone will have to step up early.  I hope we can identify a RB that will be ready to perform starting with the Washington game.  Another interesting season of Auburn Football shaping up.  Time will tell.

[Zeek 16,657]

On 2/24/2018 at 8:20 AM, aubiefifty said:

redshirt

It's fascinating that the majority of our OL seems to get redshirted at one point or another. I like it personally, wish more kids would get red shirted if possible and I wish more kids would stay longer as well. Just something awesome about 5th year seniors.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

33 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

This statement is a reason some believe Gus can’t get away from his tenacity to hire or re-hire from his coaching tree on the offensive side of the ball.

I get it, but he's hired just as many coaches not in his tree as he has hired ones that are. I, too, question the hiring of Hand, to this day, but I also get it. They were a successful team once.

I also am not a big fan of the Kodi hire, but I get it too. First, Gus loves to give guys a shot like he got one, but second, Kodi was trained from being a QB to being a receiver in Gus's system, so he was going to fit that perfectly. The fact that Chip likes him is what makes me relatively comfortable with him sticking around.

I don't see rehiring Grimes as being a weakness at all. He's a known commodity who teaches toughness and fundamentals, the things we need to fix what is broken. It's like many people have said, name an outstanding offensive line coach who was willing to leave where they were that we should have gone after instead.

33 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

As WDE states; Have a feeling we are going to be pounding the ball a lot.

I don't care who we get to coach any position, this isn't going to change. Gus believes in run first, and he's shown that it can be very successful when properly executed.

33 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

 It’s a shame that one of our strengths on offense is the WR group and we have a QB that can chunk it, but it seems the OL may not be able to protect the QB long enough to take advantage of our strengths

To me, that's a HUGE assumption. There could definitely be a drop-off, but it's more likely because we're replacing 3 very good linemen (yea, I know 4, but only 3 were very good and only 2 were great) than because coaching is lacking. I can't recall a single game that we lost because of the line when Grimes was here before... listing them when Hand was coaching would just be depressing. 

33 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

On top of this, we have unproven RBs and someone will have to step up early.  

This doesn't phase me at all. We've been in that spot plenty of times. No one expected Tre to shock the world in 2013. No one expected Barber to pull our running game from the ashes. No one expected Pettway to be a one-year phenom coming out of the H-Back position. No one (well, very few) expected Kerryon to take the huge step he did this year. We always just reload and the next man up runs for 1000+. That's why I can't understand the undercurrent of Horton hate that seems to be bubbling under the surface of the fan base. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

20 minutes ago, Zeek said:

It's fascinating that the majority of our OL seems to get redshirted at one point or another. 

The prevailing thought was that kids coming out of high school need a year to beef up to play O-Line in the SEC. Now high schools are getting advanced enough in their training that it isn't always the case.

[Zeek 16,657]

1 minute ago, lionheartkc said:

The prevailing thought was that kids coming out of high school need a year to beef up to play O-Line in the SEC. Now high schools are getting advanced enough in their training that it isn't always the case.

I always feel that way about RBs. It was a tremendous difference in Tre Mason's abilities after he bulked up.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

Just now, Zeek said:

I always feel that way about RBs. It was a tremendous difference in Tre Mason's abilities after he bulked up.

No doubt. I still remember seeing him play live, at Fayetteville, early in his career, and getting knocked half-way across the field by a hit. He was fast, but he was not strong early on.