Perspective

[AUINSY 2,228]

49 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

Do you shut the football program down and focus on baseball and basketball.   What do you do?

Not a bad idea…we’d likely finally be the best at something 

[JDUBB4AU 5,123]

So I guess Hugh is not going to take credit for calling the offense for this game? I bet He will continue to throw Montgomery under the bus to make himself feel good. I guess he decided not to step in?? 

 

[Tiger Refuge 6,673]

15 minutes ago, DAG said:

Need at minimum a top ten recruiting class and a #1 transfer portal class. Only way he can redeem himself from this embarrassment...guys giddy taking photos on our logo smh.

This is where we are now. We are not gonna win  the game next weekend. So there better be top tier class in the wings.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Tiger Refuge
Bad spelling

[Bro Johnny Mac 1,399]

8 minutes ago, AUwent said:

I know Gus is finally off the payroll after next year but we absolutely cannot afford to give him less than four years (correct me if I'm wrong, but Potato Man is off the payroll after 2026, and Freeze's contract doesn't run much past that).

Big reason we hired so many Liberty coaches was because we couldn't afford anything different after those awful buyouts.

I  think CHF’s buyout is pretty affordable compared to other HC contracts.. 

I could be wrong 

My Hope is that we will have a couple of great recruiting/portal cycles and we have an 8 win season next season and firings and buyouts won’t even be a discussion 

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

1 hour ago, LPTiger said:

So while ya'll were watching this game I was celebrating the life of a larger than life cousin who graduated from AU in '79 with a BS in Forestry.  It was in Monroeville, AL and the fried chicken from the Pig in Monroeville is something to behold.  There was plenty of it available to all after the memorial.   If Steve had not died his way earlier in the week, one of either this game or some of the comments on this board would have surely killed him in a worse way.

Maybe it is because I didn't get to watch it, I don't know.   But, some of the reactions here are like we just lost to a middle cchool coached by Sister Teresa --- by a hundred.   Obviously, nothing good happened today, and I know we were like a 75 point favorite, but New Mexico State didn't look at the odds and they have somehow won 9 ball games.   We should never lose to New Mexico State anytime anywhere, but it just happened. Now, because of that loss, Hugh Freeze is a fraud.  He is a mediocre coach and should have never been hired in the first place.   Indeed, we should have just kept Gus Malzhan.   Come on folks.   This is a terribly flawed football program r/n.   Our best wide receiver is 5'6".   We haven't had a 100 yard receiver in 11 games.   We don't have a legit pass rusher.  We have 40% of our OL playing pretty good and the other 60%, well when they aren't getting flagged, they are getting beat.   This is where we are TODAY.

And, we aren't coaching well.   But, better players make for better coaching.  Here is an example.  3rd and goal from the 17, we call a blitz and man up the receivers (instead of not blitzing and trying to keep everything 17 yards in front of the goal line).   Larry Nixon is the only non-db not blitzing.  Instead, he fakes the blitz for 2 steps and then drops into coverage.   But, herein lies the player problem.    Nixon HAS to cover the back out of the backfield.   The back lines up to the QB's left near the left hash.   Guess where Larry limes up and fakes his blitz from -- the opposite hash.   The back releases, and he is wide open because Larry is 10 yards to the back's right.   As much as I hate the blitz call (I assume we were trying to push them out of field goal range) all 4 of the Db's had really good coverage on the play but Nixon had zero chance because of where he lined up.   If he lines up on the hash that the back is near, there is no TD.   I feel pretty confident Larry wasn't coached to line up as far away as possible from the back you need to cover. 

@Didba has made a post about us averaging nearly 8 yards per pass play in this game and under 3 per rush.  Yet, we rushed it 9 more times than we threw it (and we only had 45 snaps I think).   The OC has to have better in game awareness.   This was a big problem during the 4 game losing streak.   It got much better during the 3 game win streak.  In any event it is unacceptable.   I strongly suspect a change will be made here heading into next year. 

At the end of the day, this was a horrible game in a year that we all knew was going to be horrible.   We weren't 38 points better than Arkansas anymore than we were just 7 points worse than UGA.    This is a rebuild project.  It will not be easy or fast.       

I tried to explain this over and over. We have Group of 5 roster. At WR we are worse than G5. Somehow, people watch us play and think we have all this talent. We should never lose to NM St. But, that's the reality. The last 3 wins got everyone thinking we are better than we are. It's still the same roster. Good post BTW

[AUwent 3,767]

3 minutes ago, Bro Johnny Mac said:

I  think CHF’s buyout is pretty affordable compared to other HC contracts.. 

I could be wrong 

My Hope is that we will have a couple of great recruiting/portal cycles and we have an 8 win season next season and firings and buyouts won’t even be a discussion 

Yeah. I'm mainly sick of this idea that we could so easily become what UAT/UGA and the only thing standing in our way is Rane. 🙄

Edited November 19, 2023 by AUwent

[Old fan 47 775]

20 minutes ago, Bro Johnny Mac said:

The reality is that this year is a Mulligan for CHF..

If it’s this bad next season,he will be gone unless the next two recruiting cycles are top 5 to top 10 ... Then he may get another season 

And that is apparently the AU way. Hire an inferior coach, give him 2 or 3 years to underperform and buy him out for a large amount! When will this cycle end? AU football is so much less enjoyable than AU Basketball, baseball, softball, gymnastics and hell, even swimming. Now a bottom tier SEC team. 

[AUwent 3,767]

4 minutes ago, Old fan 47 said:

And that is apparently the AU way. Hire an inferior coach, give him 2 or 3 years to underperform and buy him out for a large amount! When will this cycle end? AU football is so much less enjoyable than AU Basketball, baseball, softball, gymnastics and hell, even swimming. Now a bottom tier SEC team. 

Those other sports are in far more favorable circumstances.

Edited November 19, 2023 by AUwent

[NWALA Tiger 3,535]

5 minutes ago, Old fan 47 said:

And that is apparently the AU way. Hire an inferior coach, give him 2 or 3 years to underperform and buy him out for a large amount! When will this cycle end? AU football is so much less enjoyable than AU Basketball, baseball, softball, gymnastics and hell, even swimming. Now a bottom tier SEC team. 

Who would have rather they hired instead of Freeze?

[WarEagle1983 2,185]

30 minutes ago, Bro Johnny Mac said:

I  think CHF’s buyout is pretty affordable compared to other HC contracts.. 

I could be wrong 

My Hope is that we will have a couple of great recruiting/portal cycles and we have an 8 win season next season and firings and buyouts won’t even be a discussion 

And in my opinion, it starts with a difference maker at QB that several top-tier recruits and transfer players can get behind. And we clearly don't have a QB close to that on this roster. I'm happy that for the most part we beat the teams we were supposed to. However, this game feels like it wiped all the momentum we have gained the last few weeks. Blame goes all around from players to coaches and especially from a coaching perspective. But NMST is no slouch if you've been watching CFB outside of AU and the major teams. Their QB has been making plays all season with his legs and arm. So it didn't surprise me that we were going to struggle against them maybe in the 1st half but I didn't think they'd make us look this bad.  

I still believe in Hugh but we just have to continue to get better talent at every position. Outside of kicker, every starting position is up for grabs. Sell playing time ASAP until the cows come home!

[AUloggerhead 2,253]

A lot of venting going on ... not sure it's warranted because NMSU looked pretty good today.  I will say that Freeze's focus on recruiting now is absolutely what's needed if AU is going to compete in the SEC in the future.  AU's recruiting was in bad shape at the end of Malzahn's tenure, and Harsin's lack of recruiting for 2 more years put AU in an even bigger deficit.  Freeze recognizes it too because he's said he'll he gone if the situation isn't reversed in about 3 years.  Emergency situation, triage, however you want to characterize it -- AU needs a massive upgrade in quality & quantity of recruits.    

 

[Auburn93 558]

9 hours ago, Old fan 47 said:

And that is apparently the AU way. Hire an inferior coach, give him 2 or 3 years to underperform and buy him out for a large amount! When will this cycle end? AU football is so much less enjoyable than AU Basketball, baseball, softball, gymnastics and hell, even swimming. Now a bottom tier SEC team. 

Lots of inferior coaches have coached in the SEC over the past five years and that list is huge going back 10 years. Napier at Florida is an inferior coach. Then, looking at the college landscape, you got people like Lincoln Riley who is an inferior coach. They are all over the place. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Auburn93

[Carnell 592]

9 hours ago, Tiger Refuge said:

This is where we are now. We are not gonna win  the game next weekend. So there better be top tier class in the wings.

 

28 minutes ago, Auburn93 said:

Lots of inferior coaches have coached in the SEC over the past five years and that list is huge going back 10 years. Napier at Florida is an inferior coach. Then, looking at the college landscape, you got people like Lincoln Riley who is an inferior coach. They are all over the place. 

you are right a lot of inferior coaches has coached in the SEC and then our brilliant people in the the athletic dept seem to hire them for a second run.

[Barkchevious 75]

9 hours ago, NWALA Tiger said:

Who would have rather they hired instead of Freeze?

This is too easy a question for guys who want to complain.  All their hypothetical coaches are definitely WAY better than Freeze.  Easy to say from their keyboard. 
This loss is atrocious, but Hugh didn’t bring a magic wand in with him.  I’m going to have confidence that coach is building an SEC-caliber roster and we’ll be better next year and excellent in year 3.  Maybe I’m naive but WAR EAGLE

[Hopsing 585]

Everyone has their thoughts, and all for most part are valid. However, at the end of the day was that performance the best this team could give? The answer is a simple yes, or no. The rest is semantics.

I doubt anyone feels worse than the team, and especially Caddy, and Zac. In my years of watching, loving AU this is definitely the worst performance I can recall though!

[Allen_D 72]

11 hours ago, auburnphan said:

perspective, we had more talent at every position and got the s*** kicked out of us at home by a team that has never had a win against an SEC team

I’d trade our QB1 for theirs… same with our OL and WR.

 

[keesler 5,928]

17 minutes ago, Hopsing said:

Everyone has their thoughts, and all for most part are valid. However, at the end of the day was that performance the best this team could give? The answer is a simple yes, or no. The rest is semantics.

I doubt anyone feels worse than the team, and especially Caddy, and Zac. In my years of watching, loving AU this is definitely the worst performance I can recall though!

I’m not so sure the team feels bad about this loss.  They beat us in the trenches and at every position group. There was a total lack of care, effort, preparedness or urgency in this game and it resulted in an asswhipping in our house.  

[Hopsing 585]

11 minutes ago, keesler said:

I’m not so sure the team feels bad about this loss.  They beat us in the trenches and at every position group. There was a total lack of care, effort, preparedness or urgency in this game and it resulted in an asswhipping in our house.  

You may be right. 
If your HC constantly talked about not having good players, at this point one may actually feel that way and this could be the results!

[LPTiger 5,173]

19 minutes ago, Allen_D said:

I’d trade our QB1 for theirs… same with our OL and WR.

 

You see something in our WRs that I am missing.  Our receiver with the most receiving yards is a tight end who has 349 yards (i.e. about 30 yards per game).   Our wide receiver with the most receiving yards has 300.   There are 31 SEC receivers with more yards receiving than our current leader.   UGA for example has 5 separate receivers with more receiving yards than our leader.  

[woodford 3,666]

9 hours ago, AUloggerhead said:

A lot of venting going on ... not sure it's warranted because NMSU looked pretty good today.  I will say that Freeze's focus on recruiting now is absolutely what's needed if AU is going to compete in the SEC in the future.  AU's recruiting was in bad shape at the end of Malzahn's tenure, and Harsin's lack of recruiting for 2 more years put AU in an even bigger deficit.  Freeze recognizes it too because he's said he'll he gone if the situation isn't reversed in about 3 years.  Emergency situation, triage, however you want to characterize it -- AU needs a massive upgrade in quality & quantity of recruits.    

 

I agree with you but also concerned with how horrible they looked. A win next week will sort of erase this but dang dude, ESD and NSD need to send a message. 

[AU120289 380]

10 hours ago, AUwent said:

Yeah. I'm mainly sick of this idea that we could so easily become what UAT/UGA and the only thing standing in our way is Rane. 🙄

This post brought to you by Yellawood. 🤪

[WillMunny 1,383]

If Jimbo does a rehab stint at Arkansas State...

Oh no, please no.

[bishoptf 697]

12 hours ago, DAG said:

You do none of that, but you acknowledge this was a bad loss and we DO HAVE MORE TALENT THAN NMSU. With that being said, I don't think freeze particularly cares for this group and it shows. I think his main focus is getting his recruited high school players in as soon as possible. That is where most of his energy is spent.

This right here...I think this explains what I have been seeing this year. I was frustrated with a lot of the games we lost and it looked like there was a lack of coaching, play calling etc..I think your correct and makes the most sense, still irritates me and I don't agree with what he is doing but its like he has gone all in with recruiting which we badly need, but you can't throw out the baby with the bath water so to speak. It's like he has sacrificed this season, I have read some say mulligan for the golfers out there, but that really rubs me the wrong way. These players came to Auburn from the portal or were already here and they deserve more than CHF has given them this year. I was hoping to see that we would have better coaching and we would have at least been competitive and some light but now after this utter collapse I have no faith that he really can coach anything so I'm glad we have a better recruiting class, I'm not convinced its going to translate to wins based on what I have seen this year....

At least for me being an older alum, this was about the worse loss I have ever see, trying to think of another one as bad but unable to think of one. I dunno as much as I want to beat Bama, losing to NMSU is just another JABA moment that everyone can laugh at our program, pretty tired of being the laughing stock of the SEC over the last few years just gets old, sigh...

[Win4AU 4,054]

Only way is up from here.  Auburn NIL supposedly is flush with money.  Auburn is supposedly about to flip all these 4&5*s that will get Auburn to a top 10 class.  The coaching staff should have zero doubt about what positions need help from the portal.  Too bad it’ll take 10 months to see if things are better.

[creed 1,648]

13 hours ago, auburnphan said:

perspective, we had more talent at every position and got the s*** kicked out of us at home by a team that has never had a win against an SEC team

I respectfully disagree.