Birmingham Bowl: Auburn vs Houston

[Win4AU 4,052]

14 hours ago, woodford said:

What’s the impact for waiting until signing day and what heavy hitters? Do we have any 5* guys even hinting at us? Thought Emmanuel Henderson was the closest we got. 

Just having Auburn on tv all day with commitments.  I think most have been rumored for awhile.

[Gowebb11 9,321]

9 hours ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

You miss a play and come off that field you can expect good coaches like Dye and Nick to ge in your face.

Then there’s legendary hall of fame coaches guys like Tom Osborne and John Wooden who rarely raised their voices or got in faces and yet hung many championship banners. Takes all types. 

[cole256 17,066]

3 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Every coach in the history of coaching has done it once. They don’t/didn’t do it very often. Saban does 

He just talks....he doesn't know what he's saying. You point out guys not known for it he'll just say they do.....as if there are coaches who literally NEVER raises their voice......

[Hank2020 3,199]

10 hours ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

Oh I agree completely. You can bet Nick didn’t fail to use the fact that AU almost beat them, everyday at practice last week. That’s why Nick is a great coach. He doesn’t water down mistakes like Some of our coaches do. He looks players straight in the eyes and calls out their manhood and he usually gets their attention. Harsin will never be that type of a coach. Pat Dye was that type. You miss a play and come off that field you can expect good coaches like Dye and Nick to ge in your face. Doesn’t matter who you are. Saben has chewed Young’s butt on many occasions this year. That’s what good coaches do. 👍

Saban uses the kids urinal too. Guess that is what makes a great coach!! Everything a successful coach does, isn’t necessarily the practice that makes him successful.

[passthebiscuits 6,846]

21 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

My only thing is that you have to be absolutely perfect in your portal evaluation for their current strategy to propel us anywhere. And even as well as they did, they still had quite a few misses, esp in the defensive backfield. Didn't get more receivers or OLinemen last cycles unfortunately 

Playing the game of odds with transfer guys and leaning on some lesser recruited 4 stars and some 3 stars might work for Bruce Pearl, but....don't know if it works for football 

Agree 1000% DTR, and may I add that Harsin is no Bruce Pearl. And hiding a talent gap is easier in bball IMO. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,667]

1 hour ago, passthebiscuits said:

Agree 1000% DTR, and may I add that Harsin is no Bruce Pearl. And hiding a talent gap is easier in bball IMO. 

I’m not gonna assume Harsin desires lesser talent, but I do feel like his comfort zone when it comes to talent intrinsically lends to not competing for highly contested blue chips. And I really do hope he brings in someone that can modify his strategy. 
 

I agree he should be able to get as many as his guys as he wants, but there is nothing that can that a Zak Hill or Eric Kiseau can teach him about recruiting that he doesn’t already know. I went on a tangent from the original point, but that was just my thoughts about the talent gap issue. We really need a Craig/Trooper type WR hire that can really expose him to the mud flinging that the SEC requires! 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,667]

And I only single those past guys out, bc our receiver coaches in the past have seemed to understand the level you want to be recruiting at (plus Kodi). Development was what it was, but I guarantee it’ll be easier to build up from a 4 star freak athlete than a 2 star with a chip on his shoulder underrecruited type. One succeeds a lot more than the other around these parts! 

Edited December 7, 2021 by Dual-Threat Rigby

[McLoofus 35,182]

8 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I’m not gonna assume Harsin desires lesser talent, but I do feel like his comfort zone when it comes to talent intrinsically lends to not competing for highly contested blue chips. And I really do hope he brings in someone that can modify his strategy. 

I agree he should be able to get as many as his guys as he wants, but there is nothing that can that a Zak Hill or Eric Kiseau can teach him about recruiting that he doesn’t already know. I went on a tangent from the original point, but that was just my thoughts about the talent gap issue. We really need a Craig/Trooper type WR hire that can really expose him to the mud flinging that the SEC requires! 

 

8 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

And I only single those past guys out, bc our receiver coaches in the past have seemed to understand the level you want to be recruiting at (plus Kodi). Development was what it was, but I guarantee it’ll be easier to build up from a 4 star freak athlete than a 2 star with a chip on his shoulder underrecruited type. One succeeds a lot more than the other around these parts! 

As far as development, I'm just hopeful that what these guys really need is to continue playing in a normal, functional offense where they run the same routes other programs' receivers do and they have a quarterback who is afforded and takes advantage of the opportunity to throw them a catchable ball on occasion. 

But I agree that this staff needs a killer to help with recruiting on offense. Thing is, Harsin very quickly jettisoned two guys- one of whom was spoken of as a rising recruiting star- for not pulling their weight on game day. I had assumed that his history as an OC and QB developer meant that he wouldn't necessarily need ace technicians all over the sideline with him, but that might've been a bad assumption.

And that's in keeping with what seems to be his recruiting philosophy. Build the locker room to his liking, maximize those players' development and performance, and then let the product on the field do the recruiting for him. Which is probably redundant to what you said. 

I just think back to after the uga game and he had that quote along the lines of "that's what we want our team to be more like". I hope he meant that. I've said all along that I'm going to withhold judgment until the 2023 class is in but I'd love to start farting rainbows a lot sooner, lol. 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,667]

54 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

 

As far as development, I'm just hopeful that what these guys really need is to continue playing in a normal, functional offense where they run the same routes other programs' receivers do and they have a quarterback who is afforded and takes advantage of the opportunity to throw them a catchable ball on occasion. 

But I agree that this staff needs a killer to help with recruiting on offense. Thing is, Harsin very quickly jettisoned two guys- one of whom was spoken of as a rising recruiting star- for not pulling their weight on game day. I had assumed that his history as an OC and QB developer meant that he wouldn't necessarily need ace technicians all over the sideline with him, but that might've been a bad assumption.

And that's in keeping with what seems to be his recruiting philosophy. Build the locker room to his liking, maximize those players' development and performance, and then let the product on the field do the recruiting for him. Which is probably redundant to what you said. 

I just think back to after the uga game and he had that quote along the lines of "that's what we want our team to be more like". I hope he meant that. I've said all along that I'm going to withhold judgment until the 2023 class is in but I'd love to start farting rainbows a lot sooner, lol. 

Yep, everything seems to center back to this staff’s belief that results/development will lead to better recruiting.
I think the disconnect for this fanbase has been, that’s more of a plucky mid-major belief. And maybe, and I’ll admit to it myself, there should be leniency given to see if that strategy can yield something. We recruited our ass off (for the gap in facilities, the seemingly superior recruiting regimes at a handful of other SEC programs, so on and so on) during 09-19, and we had a real lack of elite products from that. 
 

Perhaps building a foundation with lesser guys and miring in the middle of the conference for a couple years can pay off. If it was any other school, I’d be interested to wait this out, because the beauty of CFB is that there should be multiple ways to succeed, and that ideology has been diminished as CFB has become more monopolized. I’d like to see more Michigans

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

On 12/6/2021 at 9:59 AM, oracle79 said:

In a strange way this makes me feel better. In past hires, that was the main criteria and it hasn't really worked out that well. Hopefully his "culture change" spreads far and wide and we start putting together some double digit win seasons.

The culture change still has to be a good fit within the SEC, and address the challenges faced by playing and recruiting against other SEC teams like UGA and bammer.. I think that's what ptb was talking about. Harsin does not have the frame of reference for that. 

[Tigerbelle 5,299]

3 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Yep, everything seems to center back to this staff’s belief that results/development will lead to better recruiting.
I think the disconnect for this fanbase has been, that’s more of a plucky mid-major belief. And maybe, and I’ll admit to it myself, there should be leniency given to see if that strategy can yield something. We recruited our ass off (for the gap in facilities, the seemingly superior recruiting regimes at a handful of other SEC programs, so on and so on) during 09-19, and we had a real lack of elite products from that. 
 

Perhaps building a foundation with lesser guys and miring in the middle of the conference for a couple years can pay off. If it was any other school, I’d be interested to wait this out, because the beauty of CFB is that there should be multiple ways to succeed, and that ideology has been diminished as CFB has become more monopolized. I’d like to see more Michigans

Michigan would never make it as an SEC school. Auburn won't either with that philosophy.  You cannot change the toughness of SEC. Adding Texas and OU will only make things more difficult. 

[Eagle Eye 7 2,535]

5 hours ago, Tigerbelle said:

Michigan would never make it as an SEC school. Auburn won't either with that philosophy.  You cannot change the toughness of SEC. Adding Texas and OU will only make things more difficult. 

Yep I remember folks saying TAM wouldn’t make it in the SEC but they did well. Michigan, OSU, Mich ST, Clemson would all adapt to SEC. Besides uat who in the SEC has been to many CFPs the last 10 years? Us and UGA twice and LSU once. We are not the power conference some believe. Right now because of uat we get some push towards the front but The SEC contrary to opinion is not way out front of all the rest. Adding OK and TX will help some but B1G is adding Clemson and Oregon and USC so they will improve as well. A lot of the chatter you hear about the SEC is by ESPN and that’s because they have a major investment in the SEC. 🤔

[McLoofus 35,182]

13 hours ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

Besides uat who in the SEC has been to many CFPs the last 10 years? Us and UGA twice and LSU once. 

Which, alone, absolutely crushes what any other conference has been able to do going back as far as 2003. No other conference can claim more than 2 teams having even *appeared* in a national title game in that time. The SEC claims 4 different *champions*. uga would undoubtedly be a 5th if they hadn't lost to bama on the last play of the 2012 SECCG and then again in the 20whatever national title game. 

Also, if you go back 10 national title games already played (as opposed to counting the current season), LSU has appeared twice, and lost the first one to... another SEC team. And uga lost to... another SEC team. 

I mean... we have 2 SEC teams in the playoffs right now. For the 3rd time in 11 seasons. And it will be a shock to everyone if they're not the national title game participants. 13 out of 14 member institutions are bowl eligible. 

Oh, as for us being top-heavy, these stats are from after the 2019 bowl season but certainly haven't changed meaningfully since. TL;DR the SEC has participated in more bowl games and won them at a higher percentage than any other conference over the last decade. And that was with Gus Malzahn in the league and appearing in a bowl game for most of those years.

 

We might not be at the same history-shattering level of dominance that we were in the mid 10s, but we're still far beyond any other conference. 

 

[aucom96 1,618]

23 hours ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

Perhaps building a foundation with lesser guys and miring in the middle of the conference for a couple years can pay off. If it was any other school, I’d be interested to wait this out, because the beauty of CFB is that there should be multiple ways to succeed, and that ideology has been diminished as CFB has become more monopolized. I’d like to see more Michigans

That sort of thinking was why we hired Malzahn and stuck with him so many years. Yes, he can't recruit lines, his defenses typically suck and his offense is monotonous...but he can beat the big boys with less. Look at his record against Saban! 

If we're going to fight with the Mississippi schools for third or fourth, we never should have bought Gus out. 

 

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

13 hours ago, Eagle Eye 7 said:

Yep I remember folks saying TAM wouldn’t make it in the SEC but they did well. 

Have they really?  In 10 years:

No SEC title game appearances

46-37 conference record

6 of those seasons have finished with Ags being unranked

They're basically another Ole Miss

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Have they really?  In 10 years:

No SEC title game appearances

46-37 conference record

6 of those seasons have finished with Ags being unranked

They're basically another Ole Miss

Another reason the Gus experience is the gift that keeps on giving. We feel like these other teams came up when in reality...

[woodford 3,655]

4 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

Have they really?  In 10 years:

No SEC title game appearances

46-37 conference record

6 of those seasons have finished with Ags being unranked

They're basically another Ole Miss

If I had a dollar every time I have heard “TAMU has money, potential, etc” since 2014 I would be able to pay for Gus’ buyout. 
 

TAMU is a wonderful opportunity if everyone is on the same page but it hasn’t quite delivered as predicted. 

[DAG 33,982]

1 hour ago, Brad_ATX said:

Have they really?  In 10 years:

No SEC title game appearances

46-37 conference record

6 of those seasons have finished with Ags being unranked

They're basically another Ole Miss

And they are still holding out hope. That is what I find so funny. They have actually under achieved big time in my eyes.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,667]

5 hours ago, aucom96 said:

That sort of thinking was why we hired Malzahn and stuck with him so many years. Yes, he can't recruit lines, his defenses typically suck and his offense is monotonous...but he can beat the big boys with less. Look at his record against Saban! 

If we're going to fight with the Mississippi schools for third or fourth, we never should have bought Gus out. 

 

I don’t have the answer brother! I just feel like I was on the more pessimistic end when the hire was announced, and now I feel like I need to ride the other end of the spectrum since everyone’s pessimistic! 

[CT7567 0]

The Fart In My Mouth Bowl. Greaaaaaat. Just great.

[C'viewTiger 242]

On 12/8/2021 at 8:27 AM, aucom96 said:

That sort of thinking was why we hired Malzahn and stuck with him so many years. Yes, he can't recruit lines, his defenses typically suck and his offense is monotonous...but he can beat the big boys with less. Look at his record against Saban! 

If we're going to fight with the Mississippi schools for third or fourth, we never should have bought Gus out. 

 

Remind me again, what was his record against UGA…