CTT Mea Culpa

[DKW 86 7,439]

http://auburn.scout.com/2/589450.html

I dont think is insiders so I will share.

Tuberville: Loss Is "My Fault"

By Mark Murphy

Inside the Auburn Tigers

Posted Nov 11, 2006

Auburn's head football coach gives his view of his team's 37-15 loss to Georgia.

Auburn, Ala.--Tommy Tuberville took the blame for his team’s dreadful performance on Saturday as the Georgia Bulldogs came to Jordan-Hare Stadium and controlled all phases of the game on the way to a 37-15 victory.

“First of all, congratulations to Georgia,” Auburn’s head coach said. “They came in here today on a mission, and they got it done at the expense of us. I probably tried to do too many things on defense, and we couldn’t get the ball back from them. That’s my fault. These players played their tail off. They played hard.

“Offensively, when you turn it over against a team that is going to control the ball on you, then you are going to have problems,” Tuberville added. “We’ve been living on that all year long. We’ve been on the other side--controlling the football, playing good defense, getting off the field and having a good kicking game. Today was one of those days where it wasn’t anything going on our way.

“Don’t take anything away from Georgia,” the coach said. “They are a good football team. You find out a lot about yourself when you stumble a little bit like they did, and they bounced back. It was just a tough day for us all the way around. It’s none of these players fault. It’s mine. We’ll get it corrected because we have a big game next week.”

Auburn, which fell to 9-2 overall and 6-2 in the SEC, will play at Alabama next Saturday. Tuberville said his team would be emotionally ready for that game despite the whipping they took from the Bulldogs.

One the players who had performance he would truly like to forget is junior QB Brandon Cox. He completed just four passes and was intercepted four times and was also sacked four times.

He went down on a sack on Auburn’s first play of the game. Tuberville and Cox both said after the game that despite that hit, Cox was not hurt on the opening sack.

“He’s been gimpy all year,” Tuberville said. “That wasn’t anything. They got to him a little bit. He was trying to force the ball in. He made some plays this year. They did a good job reading him and breaking on the ball and getting to it and making plays.”

Tuberville added that he never considered benching Cox in favor of backup Blake Field. Told you so... Brandon is our guy. We know what he can do. He is more than just a thrower. He gets us in the right running plays and all of those things. I am proud of Brandon. He has fought all year long. We have had a couple of new offensive tackles. He has been tough. He has been hit. He has been hurt. Today wasn’t one of his better days.He’ll bounce back next week.”

Tuberville had praise for UGA quarterback Matthew Stafford, who passed for one touchdown and ran for another. “He’s tall and able to see over the defensive line. He made some good throws, but their receivers caught the ball. Their receivers have been talked about and criticized quite a bit this year. They’ve lost some to injury, and Mark (Richt) has battled back from that. Again, their receivers caught the ball today. That is a credit to them. Take nothing away from them. They played an excellent football game and wish we could have given them a better battle when they played one of their better games. We just didn’t do it today.”

Despite getting flattened, Tuberville said he didn’t believe his team came out flat for the 110th renewal of the SEC’s oldest rivalry. “We were ready to play. We had good practices all week I probably tried to do too much with them going into this game thinking that we could have done some more things defensively. Offensively, we probably didn’t run the ball enough the first half. Again, that is my call. We went in with that game plan and it didn’t work.

“We couldn’t get it off the field,” Tuberville added. “We couldn’t make the big play. When we did score, we looked like we were just controlling the line of scrimmage. Misdirection helped us a little bit, but we never got the ball back consistently. They had the ball almost three quarters. We probably had it a quarter. Again, a lot of that is our offense’s fault. We didn’t move the chains. We went three and out. I think a couple of times they got defensive points. When that happens in a game like this, you are not going to win many of them.”

Last year Kenny Irons rushed for 179 yards vs. Georgia, but wasn’t a big factor this year. The senior tailback has been battling injuries.

“Kenny’s been up and down,” Tuberville said. “He has been fighting different battles. He is a good running back. Today, we were hoping that we would get a little bit more out of him. We got behind so quick, and we threw the ball down the field. We just seemed to never get in any rhythm with any running game.

Brad (Lester), Kenny, Bo Jackson--it wouldn’t have made any difference who we had back there you know. We just weren’t executing and getting the ball down the field. When we did, they ended up with it, and we didn’t.”

[CCTAU 3,339]

Change the score. Change the opponent. Didn't I read this a few weeks ago after the Arkasas game?

Also, how do you "FORCE" the ball when its thrown so soft it floats. That's not forcing, that's throwing scared. We needed more "confidence" passes, short, catch and runs. I love COx, but there is only so much he can do. Quit running the plays that he is not successful at. Set up a game plan assuming the line will stink. Then everything else is a bonus. We had only 1 BONUS today, a Nice 15 yard in to RS for a TD. That, BTW, was thrown nice and hard. But we had NO confidence passes. I thought this offense was predicated on the short pass? I saw it in 2004, a little last year, none this year.

[Ranger12 46]

Well, as I thought, Cox's problem was not his injury. He made mistakes trying to force passes. That happens when you have no OL blocking and the WRs not getting up. Fields may be more mobile then Cox, but considering how our OL can't block, it would not have mattered because Fields would just have been running for his life the whole game.

[AWK 0]

No offense, but he said the same thing about Arkansas and let it happen again. I'm not bashing Tubbs, but you learn from your mistakes.

[the deacon 0]

No offense, but he said the same thing about Arkansas and let it happen again. I'm not bashing Tubbs, but you learn from your mistakes.

For 2.2 mill he can take some bashing for that product he put on the field.

[quietfan 233]

These players played their tail off. They played hard.

Even if that were true, there's a difference between playing hard and playing well.

But beat Bama next week and all is forgiven. [Well, these are my Tigers, I love 'em, so I'll forgive them anyway--it'll just be quicker and easier for me if they give the Tide the thumb. ]

[edgecy 3]

We didn't pay 2.2 mil for you to take blames, CTT. We saw problems during Arkansas game and to this day they are still not corrrected.

[PChamp119 96]

We didn't pay 2.2 mil for you to take blames, CTT. We saw problems during Arkansas game and to this day they are still not corrrected.

So you'd rather have him make excuses? Every team is going to lose games, regardless of how much you pay the coach. He made corrections to defeat Florida - didn't hear you complain then. So Auburn lost to Georgia - they owned us. They played very well, Auburn did not. Let's hope they make the proper adjustments and Beat Bama!

I just did not agree with the following comment:

"We just seemed to never get in any rhythm with any running game. "

because we ran the ball really well. Whenever your rushing average is greater than the number of completions made, you could not have had a bad day running. If you told me UGA would have 3 TOs and Kenny would average 5 ypc on 10+ carries and Brad Lester to have the numbers he'd have - I would've taken it. No one could have saw the hit our passing game would've taken today.

[C-villetiger1 0]

No offense ranger but throwing the ball like a girl does not say to me he forced the ball. Saying that means that he was trying to do to much and that was not the case. He couldnt do anything because our pathetic o-line gave him no time to throw the ball period. I am scared to death and have been but "the sunshine gang" has tried to tell me im a BAMMER. Really reality does not lie point blank. WE WERE EXPOSED BY ARKANSAS AND BAMA WILL DO THE SAME THING GEORGIA DID. I dont feel good about that game and havent since the Ark game. We have played like premadonnas ALL SEASON. I love tubbs for trying to shoulder the blame but this looked like a team that felt this was going to be an easy game. Name one player that said throughout the week that they were ready for a fight. Call me a fool or, as usual when someone on here points out our faults, a bammer. But ranger the only thing aimed at you was the B.Cox throwing problems. No force on the ball could mean injury or lack of confidence. I think the one way that we can blame CTT is he doesnt ever see the handwriting on the wall. I fyour starter isnt getting it done try the next guy he is on scholly as well RIGHT. That means at some level he can play the game. What CTT did show is a complete lack of confidence in B.Fields. And that sux were not even going to give this guy a shot at showing what he has got. Question who is the better all time coach CTT or Steve Spurrior. As much as I love CTT Spurrior has a better record and is considered the better coach nation wide. Now to explain that question what did CSOS do when a heisman trophy canadate had some bad times at AU he benched his butt. He did give him a chance to come back but he never showed up again due to Wurfulball showing his great talent. SOme timeds we have to look for other options. A prime example of that is KI and BL. BL is running more full speed and deserves the chance but he gets nominal carries and cant show his stuff as much as a injured KI. Senior or not if you cant go you cant go. Rant over to frustrated to go on!!!!!!!!!!!

F*******************************************************ch

WDE BEAT BAMA FOR GOD SAKE PLEASE BEAT BAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[aubrandon 5]

Despite getting flattened, Tuberville said he didn’t believe his team came out flat for the 110th renewal of the SEC’s oldest rivalry. “We were ready to play. We had good practices all week I probably tried to do too much with them going into this game thinking that we could have done some more things defensively. Offensively, we probably didn’t run the ball enough the first half. Again, that is my call. We went in with that game plan and it didn’t work.

CTT should have put this on offense, "When we snap the ball get in front of the man that is in front of you and don't let him get passed you. When there is not a man in front of you, find someone and block them."

I know that is a difficult gameplan but they might want to try it. Four sacksand countless pressures.

CTT should have put this on defense, "Middle linebackers are called middle linebackers for a reason. They play in the middle. Outside linebackers are called outside linebackers because they play outside. If we blitz our middle linebackers from the outside that is going to leave the middle open. I remember this from the Arkansas game. We are going to leave our middle linebackers in the middle and our outside linebackers outside. If we need pressure from the outside we will blitz the outside. If we need pressure from the middle we will blitz from the middle linebackers.Everybody ready lets go get them."

[edgecy 3]

We didn't pay 2.2 mil for you to take blames, CTT. We saw problems during Arkansas game and to this day they are still not corrrected.

So you'd rather have him make excuses? Every team is going to lose games, regardless of how much you pay the coach. He made corrections to defeat Florida - didn't hear you complain then. So Auburn lost to Georgia - they owned us. They played very well, Auburn did not. Let's hope they make the proper adjustments and Beat Bama!

I just did not agree with the following comment:

"We just seemed to never get in any rhythm with any running game. "

because we ran the ball really well. Whenever your rushing average is greater than the number of completions made, you could not have had a bad day running. If you told me UGA would have 3 TOs and Kenny would average 5 ypc on 10+ carries and Brad Lester to have the numbers he'd have - I would've taken it. No one could have saw the hit our passing game would've taken today.

No, I'd rather him not make any excuses and see some changes. I didn't complain during Florida because for the first time since LSU we were playing Auburn football (2nd half) and I was willing to chalk it up a fluke. But ever since the one half we showed up to play we have been lackluster in every aspect and if you look you will see me complaining for the last few games. The last three games we committed many many uncharacteristic penalties and turnovers etc and things didn't get better this week did it?