It's been a long year, and it's turning out to be a long postseason.

We had our best player do something stupid. McCalebb looking at the pros? He's not ready. Not yet. Another good year and he increases his draft stock exponentially. Same thing with Lutz. Lutz is the most pro-ready player we have at this point, though. If he were to go, I wouldn't blame him. A lot of us were saying that Darvin Adams really screwed up last year by going pro and being undrafted, but in hindsight, would this year really have helped his draft stock? I say with Adams we might have won the Clemson game, but that's about the only difference I see.

It's time to think about the future, which is all we should have been doing most of the year, and the coaches and most of the fans were too short-sighted to do. This year is a wash. It's over. We have an upper mid-tier bowl game against a mediocre opponent, albeit an overacheiving mediocre opponent.

I don't give 2 flaming piles of dinosaur shit if we win the damn bowl game. Nobody here should either.

What we need the most is something to get us excited for next year. A win would be nice, but it is NOT the most important thing. What I want to see is IMPROVEMENT. I want to see Frazier at QB and him do something that gets me excited about his future at that position. Why in the hell would we start Moseley or Trotter again? What the hell is the point? They've already blown their shots. I know, the OL sucked, but a good QB would make plays regardless. It's time to see if Frazier is indeed the future, or if we need to be looking elsewhere.

I want to see improvement in the defense with Chizik calling it. I want to see something that makes me can't wait for the first snap next year. I want to see our damn secondary actually make a play on the ball, or at least play more physical.

As it stands right now, I am dreading next year. Our only saving grace will be a much easier schedule, with more of our tough opponents at home. Of course, it didn't much matter this year, did it? We got our butts blown out at home by Bammer. I can promise you, it won't matter a damn bit next year either unless this team gets WAY better.

I guess my biggest Christmas wish of all is for our coaches and our fans to remove their heads from their posteriors, stop looking 5 feet in front of their faces, and look a bit farther. We are rebuilding. It's been that way all year. Treat it as such. It is a travesty that Kiehl Frazier doesn't have more time at QB then he has now, because our short-sighted coaches could only think about winning next week, and not winning next year. The reason he hasn't developed any is because he's not getting any game time, and getting very few reps at practice. WAKE UP!!! He is either the future, or we need to look elsewhere. The problem is that after a full season, we are STILL ASKING THAT QUESTION BECAUSE FRAZIER HASN'T GOT A SHOT!!! We are no better off than we were at the beginning of the year.

Please, stop giving a crap if we win the bowl game. I don't. You shouldn't either. The only thing you should care about is seeing a reason for us to get excited next year. If we lose, but improve in losing, I'll be on here afterwards writing that shiny happy blog that you've all been waiting for.

Until then though, I'm still an asshole.

Hello all. You know I usually only spew garbage out of my piehole once a week, but this week I feel a follow up is warrented. It seems that everyone is agreeing with what a few of us have been saying since about game 3. It's time to fire some coaches.

I read Jay's blog earlier yesterday, where he said he expected 8 or 9 wins preseason. Well, counting a bowl game, we have a chance to win 8. 9, to me, was the ultimate example of homer-esque dreaming. I predicted we'd be very lucky to win 6 games, and even then we'd have to win a game that we weren't supposed to win, and not get upset at all. The combination of an absolutely brutal schedule, plus the loss of so much talent and experience, we all knew that this was going to be a bad, long season.

Well, as luck would have it, we won 7. Utah State should have beat us, as should have Mississippi State. We somehow pulled those wins out of our rear ends. At that time, most of the kids still knew they were National Champs, and still believed. That quickly went away after the Clemson game, which ironically, was another game that we could have and should have won. Then we played our best game of the year against USC on the road, and won thanks to them playing their worst game of the year. We played a vastly undermanned Florida at home and squeaked that one out thanks to Chris Rainey's temporary amnesia on how to field punts. A glimmer of hope shines through. Then LSU murders us, Georgia murders us, Bammer murders us, and Arky murders us. Against our biggest rivals, we didn't even put up a fight. That is the worst thing about this season. Not that we lost 5 games, it's that in 4 of those 5 losses, we weren't even competitive! We never had a chance to win!

So, it's time for some coaches to be fired. I see a lot of hate directed toward both Roof and Malzhan. Both, right now, are equally deserving of whatever fate befalls them. However, I see a lot of people on here questioning why I am so critical of the defense, and not so much of the offense. I'd like to clear that up. It has to do with one simple thing:

Track record.

The offense stunk this year. There is no arguing that. A large part of it is due to the freshman factor, but they stunk. The defense stunk too. They were awful. Beyond awful. Once again, due to the freshman factor. The most disturbing thing to me, and the reason I am so vocal in calling for firings, is the fact that they stunk ALL YEAR WITH NO IMPROVEMENT.

I can live with losing 5 games. I can live with only winning 7 games, especially with this team. It's a hell of a lot more than I expected. I'm not going to sit here and pretend that luck didn't have more than a few things to do with it, but we still won 7 games with probably the youngest, least experienced team in the country. That is a very good accomplishment. Chizik and the staff deserve at least a small amount of credit for that. They didn't lose any of the games they were supposed to win, and picked up 2 wins they weren't supposed to have. Good for them.

But, that doesn't excuse what happened. this year. That doesn't excuse how poorly we played in the losses, and it doesn't excuse the most important thing to me: WE SHOWED NO IMPROVEMENT ALL YEAR. Especially on defense. In the Alabama game, we still made the same mistakes we were making in the Utah State game, with the exception of tackling. I still hate the scheme more than I hate slamming my man parts into an industrial freezer door. I hate that we play 12 yards off the line on 3rd and 4, and our moronic coaches wonder why we can't stop anybody on 3rd down. I hate that either Chizik, or Roof, or both are either too stupid or stubborn to see what is right in front of their face. I hate that our DB's still have no idea how to look for and make a play on the ball. I hate that our LB's still have absolutely no idea how to help in coverage or get through a pick. I hate that our DL is still undisciplined at times, and won't stay at home and guard their zones, they just blindly run after the ball,, although they have at least gotten a bit better. I hate that we still have times where we couldn't tackle cheerleaders. And most of all, did I say this already......I HATE OUR DEFENSIVE SCHEME MORE THAN THE MOST FOUL, EVIL DEMONS OF HELL HATE THE GOODNESS IN OUR HEARTS.

God I hope Chizik and Roof read this, even though I doubt it. YOUR DEFENSIVE SCHEME SUCKS MORE THAN THE SUN IS HOT. As long as that defensive scheme is run, you have no hope whatsoever of stopping anybody on 3rd down!

The offense stunk too, no doubt. QB development was nonexistent. Playcalling was terrible. The OL couldn't pass block a high school rush. I could probably QB the team better than Mosely or Trotter. The jury is still out on Frazier. He is a great athlete, no doubt. But he can't throw downfield at all. I blame a large part of this on him not getting many reps in practice. I'm praying he gets good enough next year to take the reigns for good, because it is painfully obvious that at this time, we have no hope with the other two. I agree with what a lot of people on here have said. Frazier should be the man from here on out. The bowl game should be treated like spring ball. He should get all the reps in practice, start the game, and run the offense. We no longer have anything to lose. It's time for him to get a real shot. If he stinks, pray to God there's a good JUCO QB somewhere looking to jump, or that Zeke Pike turns out to be all-world.

However, I'm not ready to fire Malzhan, assuming he doesn't take a head coaching job somewhere. Why? It's really simple. Gus has a track record of success here, while Roof does not. In 2009, Malzhan had a ragtag, junkballer offense led by Captain Spaghetti-noodle arm himself, Chris Todd, and managed to do well. Better than well, actually. Then, the next year, he won a national championship, albeit with the best college athlete ever at QB. This year, he had no offensive line, no QB, 1 proven WR and 2 good RB's that had no blocking. Gus's playcalling was terrible because no matter what he called, nothing worked. Go back the last 2 years and watch him. 1 play sets up another play. Each move creates a specific reaction in your opponent. That reaction leads you to your next move. This year, he never got the chance to get the first move off, because it never worked due to lack of personnel. I don't blame Jeff Grimes either. Jeff Grimes coached probably the best OL in the country last year. This year, he didn't just suddenly forget how to coach. The OL was simply outmanned. Gus didn't just suddenly forget how to call his offense, he just had no talent on the line or at QB to execute it, which are the two most important positions. Why was he calling so much Dyer up the middle? Because it was about the only thing that worked. Trotter or Mosely never had any time to throw downfield and open up the defense because of the lack of blocking, and even when there was blocking, they threw the ball so poorly that it didn't matter. You can't blame Gus, at least not yet. He has been successful in the past, there's no reason to think he can't be again. He gets another year if he wants it. However, two bad years in row removes all the excuses I'm giving him right now. Next year, a lot of the OL problems should go away, which is the root of everything that has gone wrong. No improvement next year = boot out the door.

Roof is different by far. Roof and Thigpen are the two primary culprits of the poor defense in my mind. Roof is the LB coach and the DC, and Thigpen is the DB coach. They have sucked all year, and have shown ZERO improvement. This is the third year in a row that our defense has been terrible, our LB and secondary play has been terrible, and this awful, slit-your-wrist scheme has been employed. There is a three year track record of sucking, and that is more than enough. Fire them, NOW. The biggest thing to me is the ZERO improvement. This has gone on at least 2 years in a row now. The DB's should have been worlds better this year. They weren't. If the team had lost, been undermanned, but had gotten better this year, I would NOT be calling for the firings of Roof and Thigpen. I can live with being undermanned and losing. But as of right now, there is no reason whatsoever to think the defense will be any better next year with these coaches at the helm. It's been two years, and it's still the same poor play, same mistakes, same terrible scheme, and same problems on 3rd down. The DL coach gets a pass, because the DL play last year was probably among the best in the country, and this year, the DL did actually show a bit of improvement as the year went on. Again, they were young, inexperienced, and undermanned. But they got BETTER. That is the PRIMARY thing. I didn't expect us to win this year. I didn't expect us to contend for a title. Hell, I thought we had a 50/50 shot at best at going to a bowl. But, I expected to see our team get BETTER as the year went on. I expected the youngsters to grow up, gain experience, and to be excited about next year. Right now, I'm dreading next year. We are no better now than we were against Utah State. There has been ZERO development this year of our young talent, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.

Time for some firings.

I'm quite ready to see the bowl game. I want to see Frazier at the helm. I want to see them go all out. I don't give a flying rat's ass if we win the game or not. I could care less. What I want to see is something that gets me excited about next year. Right now, there is nothing but dread. If we don't improve, and I mean drastically, we are looking a 2011 part 2. We will get our butts handed to us by every quality team we play. That is unacceptable. If we lose, we lose. I can live with it if we are competitive, in the game, and making it interesting.

If we get blown out by all our rivals again next year, it's time to look at firing Chizik. Not this year, not yet. He gets a chance to fix the problems that we have. If he can't do it, then it's time to find someone that can.

Come on, Gene. Give me a reason to defend you. Give me something to get excited about. Right now, I got nothin'. I'm counting on you.

Here we go.  Another blowout to a quality team yesterday, you can't think CapnVegetto would be nice about it.  I've already seen more than one of the super-positive gumdrop lollipop guild people on here defending the team, defending Ted Roof, defending the coaching staff for yet another blowout, defending yet another time the team was completely uncompetitive against a quality opponent. 

I'm effing sick of it.  I've had enough.  Time for some firiings after this season.  What in the hell is it going to take for you people to face reality?  0-11?  I just read a comment from someone saying that we gave up 'ONLY' 397 yards of offense.  SERIOUSLY?  REALLY?  I am at a loss for words at that.  You REALLY find that acceptable???????  She's nice and I like her, but COME THE HELL ON!!! PLEASE!!!!

This is not going to be pretty.  The shiny happy people of TET that defend our coaches and players no matter how bad they are on a given Saturday will hate me after this.  I don't care.  What I saw yesterday was despicable.  Not by the players, but by the coaching staff, specifically the defensive coaching staff.  I am sick and tired of the piss poor performances and scheming.  What I saw yesterday made me want to puke.  The players put forth incredible effort and never quit.  The defensive staff never gave them a chance to shine.

First let's start with the positives.  There are a lot of people blaming the offense, the offensive line coach, and the playcalling, among other things.  The offensive line coach gets a pass.  The OL is young, inexperienced, and can't match up physically with the better teams in the league.  Wait, everyone will say, the defense is young and inexperienced too!  True, but the OL was good last year.  It was among the best in college football.  Coaching is not the problem there.  They are physically overmatched and undermanned.  That will change.

Malzhan is fine.  His playcalling has been suspec t this year, but I believe that is mostly due to being hamstringed by the lack of a good quarterback and lack of decent offensive play.  Offensive playcalls are set up by other successful playcalls.  For example, the play action has been non-existent this year because we can't throw the ball downfield at all.  The delay handoff is completely ineffective because teams don't respect the pass against us.  Gus has been unable all year to use one play to set up another.  We have been completely one dimensional and predictable all year because of the lack of effectiveness of the players, which starts at the OL and QB positions.  The OL will get better, QB worries me.  We have no viable option at that position right now.  Those of you that defend Mosely due to the lack of an OL should have been quieted last night.  He is TERRIBLE.  Even the short throws are bad.  I remember one play in particular to Trovon Reed where he was thrown the ball behind the line and had to turn all the way around 360 degrees to catch it and then run.  The INT he threw was beyond bad, and he had just missed a wide open Lutzenkirchen on the throw before that with PLENTY of time on one of the few plays the OL was able to pass block effectively.  Frazier threw two balls downfield, and they were both HORRIBLE.  One should have been intercepted, one was overthrown by 10 yards into double coverage.  Personally, I think it's dumb to have him throwing downfield right now.  He should be throwing bubble screens, short crossing routes, stuff to get his confidence up, but that is a whole other discussion.  I still say Frazier is the best option at QB.  The only time the offense moved at all yesterday was when he was in.

Now on to the bad.  The defense!!!  Yes, we are undermanned.  Yes, we are young.  I know this.  But I am amazed at how poorly coached and schemed our defense is, and even more amazed at how people on this site keep defending the incredibly poor performance of the defensive coaching staff, including Chizik.  Let's look at this year in a nutshell:

First, was the terrible decision to hold non-contact practices until football started.  As a result of this, conditioning was bad, toughness was bad, and tackling was even worse.  This was fixed after the first 3 or so games.  However, the primary problem that we've had since this staff showed up is horrendous pass defense.  I believe that 90% of this is due to horrible coaching.  Here is the difference between the OL and the defense:  The OL was among the best in the country last year, that proves it is not due to coaching.  The defense has gotten progressively worse every year since Roof and company have been in charge.  How can you not acknowledge this?  How can you not see it?  Last year the defense was bad, too!  With the exception of the DL, we were BAD!  We gave up tons of yards, we gave up 40+ points to Arkansas, we let Bammer and their average at best offense get up 24-0 on us!  The reason we were national champions last year was because we had probably the greatest college football QB ever, the best, most experienced OL in the country, and the most underrated receiving corps in the country.  The offense overcame the piss poor play of the defense last year.  Tell me you didn't cringe every time the opposing team dropped back to pass last year!  I sure did!

This year, the problems we had last year are magnified due to youth, inexperience, and a poor offense.  The poor coaching that the LB's and Secondary has received are compounded.  We are seeing the lack of coaching that we have first hand right now.  The poor scheming and horrendous defensive 'bend but don't break' philosophy that we saw last year have been burdened additionaly by youth, experience, and lack of conditioning.  I hated our defensive scheme last year, I hate it more this year.  We are the worst in the country on 3rd down.  Of course we are!  How in the motherf-ing hell can you expect to stop someone on 3rd and 4 when your damn DB's are playing 12 yards off on a soft zone?????  It is absolutely the dumbest thing I have EVER SEEN, and yet the CONTINUE TO DO IT, DESPITE THE AMAZING FAILURE!  It's like telling your kid to not touch the stove because it burns you, and watching him keep doing it.  I am amazed at the stupidity of our defensive staff. 

It is unclear whether the piss poor scheming is Roof's fault or Chizik's fault, but one thing is for sure:  it is time for some firings.  This defense is completely unacceptable, period.  Roof is probably going to take the blame.  He is the LB coach and defensive coordinator.  We fire him and the DB coach, hire a new coordinator, and go from there.  We have a major defensive scheme problem.  To all the people calling for continuity, PLEASE WAKE UP!  This isn't a damn union.  You don't keep incompetent people around just because they have been there a while.  That is a flawed, foolish ideal.  It's not the offense's fault, it's not the players' fault.  They do what they've been coached to do.  There is a reason for busted coverages and blowout losses:  POOR DEFENSIVE SCHEMING.  With DB's and LB's playing a soft zone on 3rd and 4, the down is going to be converted every time!!!!  Take a look at our 3rd down conversion percent and argue with me.  I am so sick of this flawed, pathetic, poorly coached, wimpy defensive scheme.  I hate it.  I despise it.  It is a monumental failure, and the coaches that believe in it are monumental failures, whoever they are. Look at the last 3 years and the decline.  The numbers don't lie.  PLEASE, PEOPLE!!!  STOP DEFENDING FAILURE!!!!!!!   I don't care if we won a national championship last year, our defense still sucked.  We are NEVER going to be competitive again with this scheme unless the NE Patriot offense decides to come to school at Auburn. 

I am sick and tired of going in to every game against a good team KNOWING we are going to lose, and lose big.  Every quality team we have played this year, we never had a chance to win.  We weren't competitive.  No, shiny happy people, South Carolina and Florida don't count.  Hell, Georgia shouldn't count either.  USC is bad, just watch them play.  We played Florida with their starting QB hurt, plus one of their two best players hurt.  On top of that, they just aren't that good this year.  It doesn't count.  We won 7 games.  That is a good thing.  I don't credit the coaches with it, though.  I credit USC and Florida being bad.  By reality, we should be 5-7 right now, with our season over.  We should have lost to Utah State, again due to poor coaching choices in the offseason.  We won that game due to them being even more undermanned than us.  They were completely gassed the entire 4th quarter, and we moved the ball at will.  You can't credit our coaches for that.  We should have lost. 

Yesterday was an example of everything that was wrong with this team, especially defensively.  The shiny happy ones are saying that we played well defensively in the second half.  Put down the crackpipe, people.  Saban was playing conservative before the 1st half was up.  The entire 2nd half, he played safe football, because he knew that our offense wouldn't move at all.  We didn't stop squat.  They held back.  Make no mistake about it, Saban could have scored 80 or 90 on us if he wanted to, same as Richt could have done last week.  If you don't see that, you don't know anything about football. 

The coaches aren't on notice anymore.  I want them fired.  I want some changes.  Chizik gets another chance.  Roof needs to go.  Thigpen needs to go.  After the season, there had better be some firings.  The defense is poor, the recruiting is poor, and the coaching is poor.  Fire them, NOW.  I am not calling for continuity.  I'm not a damn union president.  If somebody sucks and does a shitty job, I want them FIRED.  NOW.

Remember how instantly better our WR's got when we fired Greg Knox and hired Trooper Taylor?  Good coaching is the difference in college. 

After the bowl game, it's time to clean house. 

It’s that time:  Iron Bowl week!  The deep south’s most bitter rivalry, perhaps even the nation’s most bitter rivalry, is upon us once again.  I honestly believe that Ohio St./Michigan, Ole Miss/Miss State, and whatever other rivalry that you want to try to lump into that category has absolutely nothing on the in-state war known as the Iron Bowl.  From your first day of life in Alabama, you pick a side:  Bama or Auburn.  That choice remains with you forever.  During that one week a year, the entire state of Alabama is polarized.  On that Saturday, businesses shut down.  Families divide.  Everyone is on one side or another.  There is simply no way to describe it, you just have to experience it.

Of course, everyone on this site knows my affiliation.  I am an Auburn man, pretty much to a fault.  I am terribly unforgiving of anything in the program I see as failure, but it only comes out of love.  I consider myself a decent, Christian human being.  However, when it comes to Auburn football, and the Bama/Auburn rivalry, I tend to display the ugliest side of my personality and fall short of my values all the time.  What can I say?  I love Jesus, but I friggin hate Bammers.

Born of this hate is my desire to belittle them and make fun of them as much as humanly possible.  Trust me, Bammers are easy to make fun of.  Just go to RBR and read the commentary on pretty much any thread to get a good laugh.  Now, I must preface what is about to be put down here with a disclaimer.  Not all Bama fans are ‘Bammers’, or ‘Turds’ as we not-so-lovingly refer to them.  There are many civil, intelligent, and normal Alabama fans out there.  I run into them every day.  A nice, civil, jab at me from a Bama fan that sees me wearing my Auburn lanyard at work is perfectly acceptable, and the verbal sparring that commences with them afterwards is usually witty and fun.  It’s the inbred, uneducated, trailer trash, tobacco spitting, sister-screwing, overall wearing,  Updyke-esque Bammers that I despise.  Last year I put down on an Oregon Duck website the definition and behavior of a Bammer.  This year, for the benefit of anybody that might be visiting TET out of curiosity about this bitter rivalry, I shall attempt to put into words why Bammers are so universally hated not just by us, but by most of college football in general.

1.  THEY ARE THE MOST DELUSIONAL FANBASE IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL.

Yes, that’s right.  They are worse than ANYBODY.  Notre Dame fans, Ohio State fans, USC fans, none of the hold a candle to Bammers.  There are several subsets to this reason to hate Bammers, but we will just focus on the main one:  the whole ‘we have 13 national championships;’ thing.     Make no mistake about it, Alabama has won some national championships.  But not 13.  Not even close.  For those of you that are unaware,  the whole ’13’ thing started in the mid 80’s when Alabama hired an SID named Wade Atchinson.  This guy decided to go back about 50 years, and any time some now-defunct hillbilly hick publication decided to declare Bama a national champion, he put it down on the list.  Before he was hired, the number was much lower, but at least it was honest.  The typical Bammer will argue this until blue in the face, saying things like “well there wasn’t a true national championship back then,” or “it was decided differently then”, blah blah blah.  It’s laughable.  By their standards, Auburn has 9 national championships.  Fortunately for us, we live in the real world, and we only claim truly recognized national championships.  For example, Bammer claims a national championship one year back in the 1940’s or so where the DIDN’T EVEN WIN THE SEC.  It’s just really sad.

2.  THEY’VE NEVER ACTUALLY LOST A FOOTBALL GAME TO A SUPERIOR TEAM.  THEY JUST ‘SHIT THE BED’. 

If you listen to Bammers, they have NEVER lost a football game.  It’s never their fault.  It’s always bad coaching, bad calls from the refs, or the team not showing up.  Take the LSU game last week.  They lost that game due to a bad call on an interception, and bad playcalling from McIlwain.  They refuse to acknowledge the fact that LSU whipped their asses.  “We had better stats!”  “We got screwed on that interception call!”  Blah blah blah blah.  YOU GOT BEAT.  The fact that you managed 6 points, AT HOME, against LSU is not relevant?  LSU made mistakes, too, you just won’t acknowledge it.  Don’t even get me started on the Iron Bowl last year.  According to them, they ‘shit the bed,' which is one of their many usual excuses they spew out of their faceholes when they lose.  Here's what really happened:  Auburn made adjustments in the second half.  They had no answer for Cam Newton.  They had no answer for Ted Roof's halftime adjustments.  They didn't move the ball and managed a paltry 3 points.  They lined up and got their Crimson asses whipped by a superior team that went on to be National Champions.  Trust me, it burns them up, and a Bammer will argue you till you are blue in the face.  But that is the indisputable truth of what happened.  Now trying to get a Bammer to admit that is like trying to convince an Islamic terrorist to sing Kumbaya with a Jew. 

3. HARVEY UPDYKE

            This one is a slam dunk.  Need I go on?  Harvey Updyke is the typical example of a Bammer.  Uneducated trailer trash, tobacco chewing, sister-screwing, fatass, worthless waste of humanity that cheers for Bama because he's too stupid to aspire to anything else in life.  Look up his kids’ names on the internet and laugh out loud.  Need I go on?

4. THE DAMN ELEPHANT

How in the hell do you connect an Elephant mascot to ‘the Crimson Tide’?  The only way I can think of is if you fed said elephant a large amount of red velvet cake with Ex-Lax frosting and they were talking about the resulting defication.  I don’t know, it’s just stupid. 

5.  NICK SABAN. 

If there was ever a money-grubbing scumbag, it’s him.  The Bammers worship the ground he walks on, despite the fact that the man has the morals of a Nazi interrogator.  Take a look at his past record, his stint in Miami.  It’s just a matter of time before he leaves them high and dry.  I wonder if he’ll take his statue?

6.  THE FACT THAT THEY CAN’T ACCEPT THAT BEAR BRYANT IS GONE, AND WAS JUST AS HUMAN AS ANYBODY.

Anyone who knows anything about the history of college football knows that Bear Bryant is pretty much totally responsible for the scholarship limit rule.  Sorry folks, but he wasn’t the perfect icon of angelic innocence that you portray him to be.  Sure, he didn’t break the rules, but only because they didn’t exist at the time.  The rules were written because of him.  They call it brilliance.  I call it questionable morality.

7.   THEY ARE THE BIGGEST HYPOCRITES EVER

I still remember their reactions to the completely unfounded and unproven accusations thrown at Cam Newton.  The months and months of ‘enjoy your championship until it’s vacated.’  Well, guess what kiddies, IT WASN’T.  No wrongdoing was found. Still waiting for acknowledgement and apologies on that. Sorry, but you are still the ONLY program in the state of Alabama on probation.  Hope Mark Ingram enjoyed that brand new Escalade and Julio Jones’ family enjoyed that beach house.

The list could go on forever, but there is only so much you can write and still keep interest.  I’m also too lazy to research the numbers and look everything up at this time.  However, I hope that has shed some light on why Bammers are so universally hated not just by us, but by most of college football in general.  Watching them lose is really fun, beating them is even more fun.  I don’t harbor any grand delusions that we are going to win the Iron Bowl this weekend.  Quite simply, they are better than us this year.  We are too young and not nearly as talented on the defensive side of the ball.  See?  That is the difference between a Bammer and us.  We are not morons, and we can admit when someone is better than us, even them.  However, it is the Iron Bowl.  Rivalry games have that special air about them.  You never know.  I would however, like to make some observations: 

1. Michael Dyer is as good as or better than Trent Richardson.  He’s just played a tougher schedule and doesn’t have the supporting cast Richardson does.
2. Bammer’s offensive line is among the best in the country.  LSU could not get to A.J. McCarron until the end of the game.
3. A.J. McCarron WILL screw up if you get in his face.  He has failed his only true test this year, against LSU.
4. Bammer’s receivers are not that good, but neither is our secondary
5. Forcing A.J. McCarron to beat us is the only chance we have.
6. Gus had better get less predictable and more creative to have a chance at all to move the ball against that defense.
7. I don’t know if LSU can beat them again.
8. I don’t care.  They don’t deserve a shot at the BCSNC.  They had their chance, at home, and blew it. 

Nothing would be better then pissing in Bammer’s cornflakes this Saturday and ruining any chance of them getting another shot at LSU.  Realistically, the chances are minimal, Bammer is a hell of a team this year.

But you never know.

As most of you are aware, we took an epic beatdown at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs last night.  You might have noticed a lot of my comments dissappeared and I got a nice warning from the mods about my multiple creative usages of the 'f' word.  They said something to the effect of 'I'm better than that.'  The hell I am.  I'm from the deep south, I love Auburn football, and I refuse to accept the pathetic, worthless, joke of a performance that was last night's game.  I can't curse in front of my 2 year old daughter, so I have to relegate myself to venting on the internet.  Perhaps I should join alsports.com or something and use that as a comment forum. 

Anyway, to the point.  Last night sucked.  It sucked a golf ball through 12 feet of garden hose.  It could have suck started a leaf blower.  I was embarassed to be an Auburn fan last night, largely because the team was ill prepared, made a couple of mistakes, and then just flat out quit. 

You heard me, they QUIT. 

Did anyone see the second half?  Nobody blocked, nobody played hard, nobody cared.  They just went through the motions, took their beating, and left, like Western Kentucky playing LSU or something.  One can hardly blame them, their leaders were so outcoached by Mark Richt and his staff that I wanted to throw things.  I found myself wondering how in the blue hell this staff managed to win a BCSNC last year.

Oh yeah, there was that Cam Newton guy.....

Cam Newton.....that brings us to problem number 1.  WE HAVE NO QUARTERBACK.  You can blame the OL, the receivers, the playcalling, whatever all you want, but our QB play this year has been (insert numerous curse words here) TERRIBLE.  Niether Barrett Trotter or Clint Mosely have what it takes to be a good QB in the SEC.  Mosely is slightly better than Trotter, but not much.  Kiehl Frazier is the answer talent wise, but he can't seem to understand the offense well enough for the coaches to have to confidence in him to let him play.

This is the biggest problem that Gus Malzhan has right now.  Zero talent at the QB position.  To effectively run Gus's offense, you HAVE to have a quarterback that is a legitimate threat to run.  Someone that can scramble out of the shotgun and make things happen.  Someone that can run the zone read play, the option, and actually make the defense focus some of their attention to him, which also serves to open up the passing game.  Right now, that is nonexistent, which completely destroy's Gus's ability to run the hurry up offense and call plays.  I have been seriously questioning Gus's playcalling lately, as have many here, but I honestly believe that a large amount of the failure has been due to him feeling limited.  We have no passing game.  Teams stop our running game, they stop our offense.  Since we have no ability to open up the field by throwing the ball, Gus is calling plays with one hand tied behind his back.  Emory Blake has been the only bright spot in the receiving corps this year.  Trovon Reed has been largely ineffective, even when he is healthy.  Philip Lutzenkirchen has been good, but boy do we miss Darvin Adams.

Bottom line:  We will never be good offensively again as long as Mosely and Trotter are the best two options we have at QB.  Both are bad players, hold the ball too long, make big mistakes, and have no mobility.  I'm sorry if you are a happy gumdrop dancer and love everything, but it's the truth.  Until Kiehl Frazier or even Zeke Pike are the starting Auburn QB, we have no chance to be a good offense.

I will add that the offensive line has been less than stellar on pass blocking, and that is an OL coach problem.  However, the run blocking has been fairly decent.  The OL will get better next year because our most talented offensive line prospects are redshirted this year.  OL is a difficult, if not impossible position for a true freshman to come in and make an immediate impact.  95% need a year in the strength and conditioning program to be effective.  I'm not ready for the OL coach to be gone yet.  He gets another year for improvement.  The OL was great last year, with the same coach.  Right now we have a depth and talent problem there.  That will change.

Now on to the defense.  There is no doubt that the defense is on a whole new level of suck.  This year the defense at Auburn has been the worst I can EVER remember.  The defense was bad last year, but they were good enough to win, at least.  In 2010 Auburn had probably the best front 4 in college football, 1 or 2 linebackers that were pretty good (i.e. Josh Bynes), and a horrendously bad secondary.  This year, all the players that were good last year are gone, and the one and only bright spot on the defense has been Corey Lemonier.  The defensive scheme is bad, the coaching is even worse, and the defense is NOT getting better.  Every time that they have a decent game, it is against a bad team.  Against a good team, they have no chance. 

Whose fault is this?  Easy, the coaching staff's.  Most people are very quick to blame Ted Roof for this, myself included.  However, after a bit of research, you find that it is not all his fault. 

What the hell has CapnV been smoking?  I know I know.

First of all, there is the 'we are young and inexperienced' crowd.  That ship has sailed, people.  It's GONE.  We are 10 games into the season, and we are still bad.  Some aspects are worse.  Few are better.  Overall, there has been little to no improvement.  We beat SC, I know, but that was more due to SC being terrible.  We beat Ole Miss.  Big fricking whup.....they lost to KENTUCKY.  I'm tired of people making excuses for all these piss poor performances.  What's it going to take before you people accept reality?  0-11?  Last in the country in defense?  What is it going to take?

So then we come to the blame.  We have three problems:  A scheme problem, a coaching problem, and a recruting problem.  The only problem that is mostly Roof's fault is the recruiting problem.  Evaluation and recrutment of talent is largely the DC's responsibility.

The coaching problem lies mostly in the secondary.  That is a quick fix by firing the Secondary coach.  I've heard some people say that Thigpen is one of the best secondary coaches in the country.  Really?  I mean REALLY?  If that is true, then why is our secondary so fricking bad?  Why was our secondary so damn bad last year?  The LB's have been average at best.  Roof is the LB coach.  Problem there?  Yep. 

Finally we have the scheming problem.  I've been one of the ones calling for Roof's head on this.  I've been wrong to blame him on this one.  This one is TOTALLY head coach Gene Chizik's fault. 

Where does this come from?  Research Ted Roof.  Look at his earlier career.  He was the DC at Minnesota.  He took them from LAST in the country in total defense to a vast improvement.  He was also DC at Georgia Tech and Western Carolina.  Go back and look at their defenses the year he was running them.  Roof is NOT a soft coverage guy.  He wants to blitz every down, play physical bump at the line coverage, and pressure the other team.  It is Head Coach Gene Chizik that is forcing him to scheme this pathetic, 15 yard soft off the line crap.  What we have here is two defensive coaches that have COMPLETELY different philosophies of defense.  Chizik prefers his DB's to play way off the line and make a play on the ball.  Roof doesn't believe in that, and doesn't coach it well, scheme it well, or call it well.  This is akin to having oil and water trying to coach your defense.  You've seen Chizik and Roof yelling at each other on the sidelines more than once this year.  Well, Chizik is the boss, the buck stops with him.  Unfortunately, in my eyes, so does the blame. 

Chizik's philosophy of defense requires experienced, talented corners to make it work.  We have neither.  Our secondary is the worst part of our team, and has been since Chizik and Roof have been here.  Chizik's scheme WILL NOT WORK.  Our defense will get better only in 1 of 2 ways:  1.  Chizik fires Roof and hires somebody that agrees with his philosophy and knows how to recruit and coach it.  2.  Chizik gets the hell out of Roof's way and allows him to coach and scheme the defense how he wants.  Roof is not a bad coach.  He's had success in the past.  But as long as he is being hamstringed by his boss, he will never be successful. 

This situation has been compared a lot to the Tony Franklin situation.  That was doomed from the start not because of Franklin, but because of Tuberville.  Imagine being hired by your boss, then being told how you HAVE to do your job by someone who knows nothing about your job.  Tuberville hired Franklin to install a spread offense, but then hamstringed him by telling him how he wanted it run.  Chizik is at least a defensive coach, and knows a lot about defense, but doesn't believe in the way Roof wants to coach.  This is a HUGE problem.

Coaches are among the most stubborn creatures in existence.  They NEVER want to admit they are wrong.  Chizik is in that same position.  He and Roof have been fighting over it.  I personally believe Roof is gone at the end of the season.  Malzhan might be as well.  Ole Miss is talking about him a lot.  They've been compared to Vanderbilt offering him a job, but the difference is Ole Miss can afford to pay him.  Good chance he is gone as well.  I believe that this coming Saturday, we will be looking at our next offensive coordinator coaching against us on our opponent's sidelines. 

One way or another, something has to be done.  We stink right now.  We all knew we'd be bad this year, and chances are, we're going to win 7 games, which is more than anyone expected.  However, that is no excuse for the level of play we have seen in the losses this year.  We haven't even been competitive with the good teams.  I'm not happy with that.

I'll leave you with a quote from the outgoing Joe Paterno:  "Never win a national championship!  Your fans will never be happy again afterwards." 

The world of college football is a bit funnier this week, as our little brother from the oversized trailer park known as Tuscaloosa lost this weekend.  That's right, the turds now have a loss, and were able to manage only a paltry 6 points at home against LSU.  That being said, LSU only managed 9, but it was 2 more than was required to win. 

That brings us to the hilarity that is the Bammer meltdown.  Quite frankly, this week isn't as bad as I've seen it before, as most of the really good stuff were on the postgame threads.  As usual, the Bammers are completely unable to accept that they got their butts kicked by a better team, blaming everything from their OC, to the officials, to a clear INT towards the end of the game, to everything under the sun other than them just getting beat.  When you look at the numbers, Bammer is better statistically than LSU, as they have been all year, (albeit their schedule wasn't near as difficult as LSU's), but they were unable to win.  With the exception of 3 blown coverages on dumpoff pass plays, Trent Richardson was largely shut down by LSU's defense. 

One thing I did notice was that despite dialing up quite a few blitzes, LSU was pretty much completely unable to get to AJ McCarron and put him on the ground until the very end of the game.  Bammer's line did some amazing pass blocking, but at the end of the day, it wasn't enough.  Bammer never even came close to a touchdown, and also missed 4 field goals, despite getting good field position several times.  LSU's special teams won the day, while Bammer's lack of a kicking game and lack of a talented, battle tested QB cost them the game.  

It is official, Nick Saban is the Mad Hatter's bitch.  Two losses in a row to the Hat, with this one costing Bammer a shot at the National Championship, barring a miracle.  This, of course, led to some really funny material eminating from RBR.  I'm sure there will be more on their 'official' meltdown thread, as I am too lazy to troll any sites other than that one, but this will, er, TIDE  us over until Tuesday. 

Be warned:  after the jump, there is lots of bad language, so if this kind of thing offends you, best to steer clear.  It's not as bad as when Texas loses, but there are references to Hitler, necrophilia, Finebaum, hair frosting, feminine hygeine products, corn dogs, and numerous uses of the 'F' word, which is technically the most expressive word in the English language, as the Bammers prove every week. 

Enjoy and War Eagle!

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What a great win against Florida.  That makes 2 wins this year that we weren't supposed to get.  What was looking like lucky to be 6-6 a few weeks ago, with questions about the coaching all over the place, myself largely included, has dissolved into 2 wins in the month of scheduling hell known as October where we weren't supposed to win any, and 1 more week to go.  The young Tigers have an incredibly daunting task this week, heading to Red Stick to take on the #1 team in the country in LSU.  A team who has beat the living crap out of everyone that has dared to step on the field with them this year, including several ranked teams, two of which were out of conference, one of which played for the BCS National Championship last year. 

We should be scared to death.  We're not.

This season, without a doubt, the team are already winners.  They have accomplished more then anybody thought they would all year.  I was one of the naysayers.  Now, let's be honest here, folks.  We've gotten a lot of help in the way of Stephen Garcia sucking and Florida losing two of their three best players.  But still, you have to look at what this team is done and be proud.  No experience, 26 freshmen playing 2 deep, Poor QB play.  Our 2 best receivers getting injured.  The list of adversity is nearly endless, and yet this Tiger team is sitting at 5-2, one win away from a bowl bid.

The Bammers say we've fallen ass backwards into wins.  Screw them.  If you believe them, they are the best team ever, could beat anyone in the NFL, and are the only team in the country that wins every single game on their own merit all while never getting a call from the refs.  Oh yeah, and when they lose, its always because they 'shit the bed' , or got a bad call, or were incredibly unlucky.  It couldn't possibly be that they got their asses whipped by somebody better.  They are largely a joke to the rest of the country, even when they are as good as they are this year.  The sad thing is, they don't even realize how universally laughed at they are.  Now, let's be realistic, which is something they are incapable of.  There is no doubt that we've had some luck.  Only a fool would say otherwise.  But likewise, only a fool would write off the amazing improvement on the field that this team has shown on the field the last few weeks.  This team is getting better.  Every week there are fewer blown coverages, missed tackles, and missed assignments.  The coaching that this defense is receiving is glaringly obvious.  This week, against Florida, the defense was disciplined, focused, and just flat out good.  Coverage was great.  Tacking was improved yet again from the former week.  Roof dialed up blitzes at the right time and there was no wimpy 15 yard soft zones.  He is showing more confidence in the young secondary and allowing them to play up on the line more.  It is paying off!  There is no doubt that some serious coaching mistakes were made in the beginning of the year.  There is no disputing that.  But they have been corrected with overwhelming success. 

The only question we have right now is QB play.  It pains me that it took the coaching staff as long as it did to bench Trotter and give either Mosely or Frazier a shot at really running the offense.  I would still rather see Frazier in there, but from what was shown Saturday, Mosely is a DEFINITE improvement over Trotter.  Even though Frazier is the more talented player, and a better fit for Gus's offense, I'm willing to watch Mosely now and see how it goes.  Trotter's had his chance, and he should be the backup now.  He's done.  Good call by the staff.

LSU this weekend.  On the road.  22 point underdogs.  Nobody in the country giving us a chance.  Just another week of Auburn football.  I'm not unrealistic.  LSU is better than we are.  They are more talented and more experienced.  They should beat us handily.  But as the old saying goes:  'There's a reason why we don't play the games on paper.' 

To the LSU faithful, I can only say this:  Do NOT count this team out.  You do so at your own peril.

You have been warned. 

Well, we lost again.  No I'm not going to rant.  OK, I'm going to rant just a little.  I promise it won't be much.  The only thing I saw that invoked some murderous serial killer rage in me was the last touchdown drive of the first half by Arky.  The entire drive, the defense went back to the pathetic, flacid penis, 15 yard soft zone crap that literally makes we want to drive a dump truck full of lead bars over Ted Roof's throat.  I remember screaming and cursing at the top of my lungs on a 3rd and 4 in Auburn territory watching the corners play literally 10 yards off and the safeties 23 yards back.  I swear, the thoughts I had about the defensive coaching staff in that situation couldn't possibly have been legal.  I mean, for God's sake, it would have been easier to just sit down on that drive and LET them score.  That's pretty much what you did.

My wishlist for the defense remains pretty consistent:

I wish Ted Roof would start taking testosterone shots, or at least rubbing some of that cream that they prescribe on his wee wee so he would blitz more.  I mean, it WORKED when he did it.  He called a few brillian blitzes in the first half, and with the exception of the last drive, the D did well.

I wish T'Sharvin Bell could cover as well as he can run his mouth.

I wish Eltoro Freeman was consistently as good as he looked at times in this game.

I wish that our tackling was as good in the Clemson game as it is now.  BIG improvement.

and finally:

I wish that we could keep improving every week.

I think the last wish is coming true......the kids are getting better.  The only real problem we still have is some bad scheming, and that is all coaching.  The kids are coming around, becoming more disciplined, sticking to their assignments more, and becoming more physical.  There are still holes, to be sure.  there were some WIDE OPEN receivers that were missed, but overall, they are getting better.   I'm still not happy with Roof's scheme, although the 38 points we gave up Saturday was not entirely the defense's fault.  (read: TURNOVERS)

That brings us to the offense.  End of the first half, the coaches panicked, completely abandoned the run, and put the game in Trotter's hands.  He failed miserebly.  Gus's playcalling was EXTREMELY predictable in the second half.  Dyer up the middle, McCalebb sweep, Frazier run, rinse and repeat.  I love pounding Dyer.  I love seeing Frazier in there, but for God's sake, mix it up!  The offensive coaches are still coaching scared, coaching not to lose instead of coaching to win.  Granted, the strategy was good.  Run the ball, keep the Arky O off the field, and pound them into submission.  It is widely known that Arky's defense is not good.  They can't stop the run.  They couldn't stop us.  We stopped ourselves.  How many 1st and 20's were there?  How many penalties?  How many dropped balls?  TONS.  You can bet Trooper Taylor will be doing some hardcore yelling at the receivers this week in practice.  There was some good playcalling in there by Gus, though, and the team just didn't execute.  Saturday night, we saw a bunch of kids show that they were indeed just kids.  They have a LONG way to go before they will be a good football team. 

The team, all year, has shown problems handling adversity on the offensive side of the ball, with the exception of the Utah State game.  The further behind we get, the worse the execution gets.  That will go away with time, hopefully, as those boys grow into young men.  You have to remember, we have a lot of 4 star and 5 star recruits.  A lot of them are the best players from some of the best high school teams in the country.  That same lot has probably never faced adversity.  They've never been on a mediocre at best football team.  They've never played a game where they weren't the best athlete on the field, a man amongst boys.  It's a new experience.  Cam is experiencing it in the NFL now.  Despite his incredible performances and gaudy stats, the Panthers can't win.  You can see it in him after the game.  He's not used to losing.  He's used to walking all over the competition.  The difference is, Cam is a mature adult, and is handling it well.  A lot of these freshman and sophomores are just plain old kids.  This is their first experience with not being an all powerful all winning superstar.   

Now we top it all off with a quarterback controversy.  I read Jay's article, and I've read the comments.  I see a lot of talk about 'Frazier isn't ready right now' and 'who can help us win now'.  I couldn't disagree with you guys more.  I think Jay, and most of the people commenting are completely wrong, and are looking at the problem from the wrong angle. 

First, let's start with Barrett Trotter.  He wasn't helped with the dropped balls.  He's 4-2 as a starter.  He beat USC on the road.  Everyone is defending him.  I'm sorry guys, I'm done.  Trotter has had his chance, and he blew it.  He was downright awful Saturday.  He seems to get worse every week.  He is missing throws badly, holding the ball WAY too long, making poor decisions, and generally being completely ineffective as a QB.  He looks like Jerry the mouse getting beat up by Tom the cat for the first half of the cartoon before Jerry inevitably wins, except Trotter isn't coming back and winning.  He's gotten worse every week I've watched him, and this week, he was unable to create a spark against an Arkansas defense that is NOT very good.  I know we had penalties, I know we had drops.  Blah Blah Blah Blah.  I don't give a rat's ass.  A good QB doesn't either.  He finds a way to win.  We had the same stuff last year, and Cam Newton just willed us to a win, no matter what kind of bad stuff happened.  I wouldn't say Trotter gives up, but he panics and becomes even more ineffective then when things are going well.  Trotter's chits have run out.  He's had his chance, and as far as I'm concerned, he should be done.

So, one thing most of us agree on is that Trotter is not the answer.  That leaves us with 2 options.  Kiehl Frazier and Clint Mosely.  There's a tossup on the site, with everyone arguing that Frazier is not ready and that is where the fundamental difference between myself and everyone else comes in.  I agree that Frazier is NOT ready to be a primetime QB in the SEC.  But here's the problem:  We don't have ANYBODY that is. 

Clint Mosely has been unable to best Trotter in practice since the beginning.  People are always saying, we don't know what happens in practice, we don't see practice, blah blah blah blah. I DON'T FREAKING CARE.  Practice is just practice.  IT'S NOT A DAMN GAME.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to match game intensity, game pressure, game speed, and game thinking and logic in practice.  IMPOSSIBLE.  Some people just respond differently, whether it be positively or negatively in an actual game environment, and the ONLY way to find out for sure is to give them a chance in a GAME and see what happens.  I'll bet Curtis Painter in the NFL looks good in practice, just like Kerry Collins.  How are the games going?  Yeah, that's what I thought. 

Kiehl Frazier's responsibilities and playing time has increased more and more this year.  However, the coaches are still afraid to cut him loose.  They finally did a little bit on Saturday.  He threw two downfield interceptions.  Everybody on this site is screaming 'OMG FRESHMAN MISTAKES!'  'HE'S NOT READY!' NO NO NO! THAT'S BAD! '  Now I see Jay, as well as others saying 'well we have to play Trotter or Mosely because Frazier isn't ready.  I say you are all fools.  Fools!

You are looking at the problem we have from an incorrect angle.  Guys, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we are NOT a good football team this year.  We are NOT going to beat LSU.  We are NOT going to beat Bammer.  We are probably NOT going to beat Florida, although I give us about a 35% to 40% chance of winning that game.  We are going to beat Ole Miss because they are just a whole new level of suck, Samford because they are a cupcake gimme win, and we have a chance agiainst Georgia because they are the same perenially overrated underachievers they have been for the past 12 years.  But we are NOT going to compete for the SEC or a BCS bowl. Not this year. Freaking deal with it. 

Where does that leave us?  It leaves us with 2 goals:  

1.  Acquire at least 6 wins for a bowl bid and win the bowl game.  Get the money for the program and end the year on a high note.  We have 4 wins.  We need 2 more.  That's it and that's all.  Anything else is just butter.

2.  (The most important goal).  PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE.  That's right.  This is the MOST IMPORTANT thing we can do this year.  PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE.   What does that mean?  That means we play Kiehl Frazier right now, take our lumps, and get him the experience and the confidence he needs to be a deadly effective starting SEC quarterback next year and beyond, when we DO have a chance to compete.  Make no mistake about it kiddies.  The future of this program rests in that kid's hands.  He is EXACTLY the type of player Gus Malzhan needs at that position to make his offense as deadly effective as it was when Cam was running it.

Now here comes all the whiners:  BUT BUT BUT HE'LL MAKE MISTAKES!  HE'S A FRESHMAN!  HE'LL MAKE FRESHMAN MISTAKES!  Damn straight he will.  He'll throw ints.  He'll screw up.  He'll make bad reads.  He'll tuck and run without going through the progression.  I DON'T CARE.  Would you rather him make those mistakes now, this year, when we have nothing to lose?  Or would you rather him make them next year, when we're trying again to compete for an SEC title in a big game?  He is GOING to make the damn mistakes.  They are GOING to happen.  Every single fricking QB in the damn league has to go through the growing pains of learning the realities of being a starting QB in the toughest college football conference in the land.  You can't hold him out forever and hope they never happen.  THEY ARE GOING TO HAPPEN. 

What if we don't play Frazier now?  Well, we'll be right back here next year.  We can either play an ineffective Barrett Trotter or we can play an untested inexperienced Kiehl Frazier that will make the mistakes next year that he should be making and learning from this year. 

Here come more morons screaming, 'But but but how are we going to win?'  'How can we win this year??"  Come on, idiots.  We all knew this was a rebuilding year.  We all knew we had a schedule from hell this year.  Anybody that thought we were going to win 9 or 10 games need to put down the damn crack pipe.  We aren't.  This is what I mean by looking at it from the wrong angle.  I don't give two tenths of a hairy gorilla ass if we win this year.  If you do, then remind me to never ask you for financial investment advice.  You are an idiot.  This is a rebuilding year.  We take the wins we can get, get a bowl, and PREPARE FOR THE FUTURE.  Don't sacrifice the future for wins now.  If you do, you are dumber than Forrest Gump tripping on acid. 

Even if you insist on trying to win every game this year, do you HONESTLY think that Barrett Trotter gives us a better chance to win the Kiehl Frazier?  REALLY?  Have you WATCHED the damn games?  The offense MOVES when he is in there. It is just that fricking simple, people.  When Trotter is in there, if the run is ineffective, we have no offense.  Frazier hasn't thrown much, but that is only because of the coaches.  Defensive coaches have to completely change a game plan when he is in there, because of his threat to run.  I saw Trotter try to run the zone read a couple of times Saturday and could do nothing but bury my head in my hands.  He'll never get through the D-line if he runs the damn ball because he runs about like ME.  The coaches can zero in on the RB and ignore him, because he is NOT going to hurt them with his legs.  With Frazier, it is TOTALLY different.  You HAVE to play D on him. 

His throwing will get better.  It will get better by leaps and bounds every week.  But you HAVE TO LET HIM DO IT.  You have to get him in there, let him screw up, and let him learn.  He WILL get better.  But think about your choices.  Him learning now, or him learning in the future.  The mistakes and screwups are GOING to happen.  The only choice you have is WHEN you allow them to happen.  I say allow them now.

Florida is next week.  They are going to be pissed.  They got whipped like Michael Vick's dogs the last couple of weeks by the top 2 teams in the country and are going to be looking to take it out on us.  I say Frazier should be the starting QB after the LSU game.  In the meantime, increase his role.  Let him throw more.  Give him some freedom.  Give Mosely a shot just in case he happens to be worlds better than Trotter in games or something.  But Trotter has had his chance, and the pooch has officially been screwed as far as I'm concerned.  Let's think about the future people.  Get your minds off the here and now and look at the big picture.  Now is the time to develop our next starting QB.

See you Saturday!

Those of you that have muddled through my wrist slitting blogs the last couple of weeks were no doubt looking forward to seeing me eat some crow.  Time to grant that wish.

Amazing.  That's the only word to describe it.  An absolutely amazing turnaround.  I honestly think at least a couple of the coaches glanced at the blogosphere last week and were insulted or at least pissed off.  Trust me, I wasn't the only one that was seriously questioning their way of going about things.  Pretty much every message board and every website that dealt with Auburn football had at least 1 or 2 guys just like me that were infuriated with the piss poor performance since at the beginning of this season.  Last night, we all got last week's dirty socks stuffed in our collective mouthes.

For the first time all year, the Auburn defense looked good.  I was literally amazed at the turnaround.  The piss poor tackling, although there is still much room for improvement, looked WORLDS better.  Some great open field tackles were made.  The great Marcus Lattimore and his silly hat tricks was held far below the century mark yet again.  Auburn simply has his number.  As good as he is, he can't seem to do anything against us.  The soft, wimpy, 15 to 20 yard cushion zones were gone.  The corners were playing up!  The D-line and linebackers were so much more disciplined I was literally blown away.  Very few missed assignments.  They stayed home on the run and did their job. 

T'sharvin Bell did as good a job as he could have against Alshon Jefferies.  The touchdown catch in the first quarter was just Jefferies being a freak.  Bell was all over him, and Jefferies just made a play.  There is no fault on anyone anywhere for that.  But it proves something:  Yes, coaches, these guys CAN play up without the huge cushion!  Let them play a bit and they might surprise you.

Now, let's be realistic.  Are we an elite team?  Nope.  Not this year.  We are still young.  There are still problems.  I can count at least 5 passes off the top of my head where the receiver was wide open, possibly for a touchdown and Stephen Garcia just flat out missed them.  There were a couple of QB runs where we made Garcia look like Barry Sanders. There were still bad angles, some missed tackles, and some missed assignments.  The difference is that, unlike the last couple of weeks, it was nothing more then you should usually expect from such a young team. I honestly believe that we owe the victory this week mainly to Stephen Garcia sucking.  But, the biggest difference is that this week, the team was ready to play.  The game plan was sound.  And most of all, the coaches weren't scheming not to lose, they were scheming to WIN.  Hell, I even saw a couple of blitzes.  There was more than one occasion where Garcia was planted by an unblocked linebacker.  The D-line got some penetration for the first time this year, and forced some early throws and mistakes.  This week, the defense went from among the worst in the country to shutting down the best RB in the country and holding the #10 ranked team to 13 points.  I bow to your superiority!  GREAT job.

Now on to the offense.  Once again, it's like Gus Malzhan was reading the blogosphere this week, and finally decided to pound the ball with our best football player, Michael Dyer.  It worked.  141 yards for one thing, but the most important thing was the noticable difference in USC's defense toward the end of the game.  Dyer took a toll on them.  141 yards, while impressive, wasn't a blow your mind number.  But that didn't matter, because the physicality that Dyer forced upon them took a definite toll towards the end.  Remember McCalebb gashing them for big runs on two big third and longs?  That was a direct result of Malzhan's game plan.  Make no mistake about it, folks.  USC has one of the best front 7's in football, and this week, Dyer was superior.  

Probably the worst spot of the game was the play of the OL.  While the run blocking was not bad, the pass blocking was horrendous.  Barrett Trotter has a piss poor game, but I don't blame him for all of it.  It's hard to have a good game when you are running for your life for 4 quarters, because your O-Line couldn't pass block a pee wee team.  However, that does not excuse some of the unbelievably horrible decisions he made.  I am really starting to want to see Kiehl Frazier start.  I'm sorry, Barrett, I know you have seniority, you know the offense better, but it's just a fact that Frazier is far more talented.  On top of that, he is a much better fit for Malzhan's offense.  Remember the whole Chris Todd vs. Kodi Burns argument?  It's the same concept.  When Frazier is in, the offense moves better.  It is just that damn simple. 

Trotter came through in the end with the big TD pass to Lutz.  But when you are judging, you have to look at the entire body of work, not just 1 play.  You can't forgive a bunch of mistakes and bad plays because of 1 good one.  Trotter is supposed to be getting better by now.  He's not.  He's not a bad QB, but I honestly believe we have a much better option in Frazier.  Frazier is the future, no doubt about it.  If you ask me, the future is now. 

One last thing to address, the fakes and the 'too cute' plays by Malzhan.  There was lots of blowing up here when that happened.  I tend to disagree.  With all apologies to the ladies on the site, it has to be said.  The coaches FINALLY grew some cajones.  I don't care if the fake failed.  It showed me one BIG thing.  The coaching staff isn't scared anymore.  They are leaving it out on the field, and are NOT afraid to take risks.  Admit it, if the play had worked, everyone on here would be singing the praises of the amazing genius call.  Really.  I try to look at things subjectively.  Sure, the play didn't work.  But it's all about mentality!  No more coacing scared!  They are taking shots!  You can't say it was stupid because just because it didn't work any more than you can say it was genius because it did work.  I like the call.  I like them going for it.  And you know what else?  I'd bet the team does too.

The one 'too cute' play that Malzhan called took a lot of heat.  Why?  Why are you upset?  Because it was an INT?  The damn play WORKED!  The receiver was WIDE OPEN, and got a lousy throw.  The play was well designed, called at a good time, but the throw was poorly executed.  The only thing I might have done differently is have Kiehl Frazier in there making that throw.  I don't fault Gus for it.  I think it was a good idea that just didn't happen at the time.  But once again, that's what you get with Gus.  He is going to do things like that.  I have no problem with it.

Overall, we saw a different team.  I can't believe the improvement.  I think a ton of it has to do with the coaches waking up and not coaching like a bunch of wimps anymore.  I stand by what I said the last two weeks.  The coaching was terrible, the scheming was terrible and the philosophy was terrible.  I said the coaches should be 'on notice.'  I cussed a LOT.  I was pissed, what can I say.  All of that is gone, and I'm more than happy to call myself an idiot and call for renewed faith in our coaching staff.  I would be saying the same thing if we had lost the game, too.  I am amazed by the turnaround and can't praise the coaching staff and the team enough for a job well done this week. 

Now just fix the OL pass blocking and QB play.  Don't get wimpy!  Keep playing and coaching to win, guys!  If you do that, even if you lose, you can still hold your heads high.  Well done!!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages! Welcome to another week of Auburn football. We apologize for you having to watch this atrocity.

This is the worst Auburn football team I have ever seen. 

Here come the Homers:  We are 3-1!  We lost to a top 15 team, and beat another ranked team!  Come on!  We're not that bad!  We're just young and inexperienced!  Come on now!

I got news for ya, skippy.  We're worse.  After this weekend's masterful performance against a traditional national powerhouse known as Florida Atlantic, we managed to increase our amazing defensive ranking to 110th in the nation.  Whoooooo!!  Never mind that Florida Atlantic is statistically the WORST offensive team in the country while also being 91st in defense, 19 spots ahead of us.   That's right, party people.  We are giving up 477 yards a durn game. 

There are lots of people that will be dancing in the streets that Clemson won this week, because it makes us look better.  Really?  I don't give a crap.  We still gave them 624 yards.  I'm not frigging Bob Stoops.  I don't politic for frigging poll position (remember 2004?).  I just expect us to win and look good.  Every game this year our defense has looked like complete and utter crap. 

We just gave up 300+ yards to FLORIDA ATLANTIC people.  We gave them more yards in one game then they have had in every other game this year combined.  The broke their game yardage average early in the second quarter.  We still suck on 3rd down.  Florida Atlantic famously had ONE FIRST DOWN. this year before they played us.  We gave them 20.  FRIGGING TWENTY.  TWENTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!  They had scored 3 points in 2 games this year.  We gave them 14.  There is simply no excuse for this.  Ever.  In any universe. 

My faith is gone in the defense.  I've lost it in our defensive coaching staff.  Yes, that includes Chizik.  He is a defensive coach.  He has a lot of say in what goes on, mainly in schemeing.  There is a lot of dissension in the ranks as well.  Most recall the shouting match on the sidelines between Chizik and Roof during the game Saturday, ending with Roof walking away angrily with his head hung.  The coaches know their defense is bad.  They KNOW their scheme isn't working.  Yet they CONTINUE to give 20 yard cushions and play soft, all in the name of being afraid to get someone hurt, as well as having no faith in the lack of experience of the team. 

Guys, I've got news for you.  We are going to get our butts kicked this year.  We can't compete in the SEC.  Hell, according to what Utah State did to us, we can barely compete in the WAC.  We have the month from hell coming up.  Road games at USC, Arky, and LSU, with one homestand against a resurgent Florida.  With the exception of Florida, we kicked all their butts last year, and they remember it.  They want a piece of us.  It's like the bully from last year suddenly got wimpy, and it's payback time.  I am NOT looking forward to October.

So what's the problem, you ask?  All the homers whine about lack of experience, being young, blah blah blah.  Guys, please wake the heck up.  We have one problem and one problem only:  COACHING.  I'll say it again:  COACHING.  We have had top 5 recruiting classes the last two years.  We will probably have another one this year.  You can't blame it on lack of talent.  The talent is there.  Heck, our most talented players are the freshmen and sophomores.  There's problem 1:  the coaches are too stubborn and/or stupid to play the most talented players. 

Just 1 example:  Why in the heck is Christian Westerman not starting on the OL?  I don't care who he is behind on the depth chart, FRIGGING MOVE HIM THEN.  He is just BETTER. 

Don't get me started on Kiehl Frazier.  He ran the zone read 3 times Saturday, and averaged 10 yards a carry.  The coaches won't let him throw the ball, either.  COME ON GUYS!!  Pull your durn panties up, get you some durn courage and GROW A FRIGGING PAIR!!! 

I have never, in all my life, seen a coaching staff coach so scared.  It disgusts and sickens me beyond all words.  I literally want to throw up every time I see one of the coordinators, as well as Chizik.  I am so ashamed of our staff right now.  Literally, I am more ashamed of them then I am of Obama.  And that is bad. 

The list goes on and on:  constant 15 yard cushions in the secondary.  Little to no blitzing.  Playing players that are less talented than players behind them on the depth chart simply because they are freshman and 'don't have experience.'  Horrible playcalling.  Horrible scheming.  Lack of contact in practice leading to complete ineptitude at tackling.  (Yes, that was still there Saturday).  Linebackers missing assignments.  CB's and Safeties not playing the ball.  Poor DL play.  Poor OL play.  I have to stop now before I punch the computer.

The offense is still producing, despite the poor play calling that has reared it's ugly head from Gus this year.  It's not producing like last year, but that was expected.  Cam is gone, along with the OL.  I got the feeling Gus was trying a few things Saturday, seeing how they work, and didn't want to show too much to USC.  I can tell myself that for now.  I actually do believe it.  If he calls a poor game Saturday, at that point I'll be on his back.  But right now, I'm not ready to go there.  The game felt kind of like a scrimmage.  But Gus, let me give you a couple of super awesome hints:

GIVE DYER THE DURN BALL.  He is the best football player you have.  Get him the ball.  I know you didn't much Saturday because you are trying to save him.  Fine.  The offensive performance Saturday wasn't bad enough for me to scream about that.  But I'd better see a lot of him at USC or prepare for a cursing that you can tell your grandkids about.

STOP THROWING 5000 SCREENS EVERY DURN GAME.  3rd and 2, Screen.  3rd and 10, Screen.  3rd and a million, Screen.  Not to mention the 8000 screens that you throw on the other downs.  (Hand on side of mouth is super secret whisper mode) I think they're catchin' on Gus!  Try actually throwing for first down yardage.  If it's 3rd and 2, give the durn ball to your best football player (Dyer) and tell him, "Go get me 4 more downs."  Every 3rd down this year it's been 1 of two things:  Screen pass or play action to home run ball.  PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, JUST GET THE FRIGGING FIRST DOWN!!!!!!!!

TIME TO MOVE ON FROM TROTTER.  I'm sorry.  Trotter knows the offense better, sure.  But Frazier is so much more talented then either him or Mosely it's just not even close.  On top of that, Frazier is a genuine run threat, and brings an entire new dimension to the offense.  Play the most talented player.  Period.  Stop coaching frigging scared.  Urban Meyer is an butt, but at least he is smart enough to play the best player.  He won a national championship playing a true freshman.  Take a lesson, boys.

As far as the defense goes, I stand by what I said earlier.  The entire philosophy has to be changed.  I don't know if it's more Chizik or Roof that is responsible for this whipped, Brady Bunch, limp form of a defensive philosophy, but it seriously needs a revamping back to the physicality of the Tuberville days.  I don't blame the players one durn bit.  They are doing what they are told.  It is 100% absolutely the fault of the coaching staff, right up to the top.  Coaches are historically the most stubborn creatures on the planet.  We are seeing that now with Chizik and Roof.  I am afraid that they are so frigging stubborn that they will continue to play this piece of crap defense all durn year and lose every game rather than admit they are wrong and change the way they play.  I have no respect for this defense right now.  Chiz, you might as well not even put them on the durn field if you are so scared of getting people hurt.  Just concede 7 points to the other team every time you give them the ball.  That is pretty much what you are doing now, anyway.  Come on, Gene.  You led an undefeated defense here at Auburn.  One of the best ever.  What the heck happened to you?  When did your testicles get surgically removed and put in a jar?  Stop being a wimp. 

Now is the time to be thinking about the future.  This is the year from hell schedule wise.  We aren't going to win another durn game playing like this.  I'm not even sure we can beat Samford and Ole Miss.  Revamp the depth chart completely and play the best player.  Teach these kids to be physical and tough.  I don't care if we lose doing that, because at least then I can respect you.  I can respect the effort, and see the future looking forward.  Right now, the coaches are not helping us down the road.  They are teaching the team to be sissies.  Don't get hurt and maybe we'll get lucky and they'll drop a pass.  I seriously want to puke.  Not at the kids.  The coaches with all their weak manhood.  I am disgusted and ashamed right now. 

Come on Gene.  Stop being so frigging stubborn.  At least give us something we can be proud of.  Right now, there is nothing.  Fix your wagon, or find another job.  That goes for EVERY defensive coach.  EVERY DURN ONE.  Right up to the top.  I'm not going to be nice.  This job is unacceptable.  I can live with losing.  I can't live with being the biggest wimps in the conference.  This has to change. 

 Fix it, Gene.  You are on notice from me.  Last year is over

NOTE TO MODS:  Feel free to edit this and put (bleep) every time I cuss.  Might take you a while though.

I hope this gets on the front page, so we can point and laugh at all the inferior teams. Just got home from playing golf, and the wife and daughter are gone. So this will be an afternoon of football, unhealthy food, and whiskey.  At least until 6:00, when we get to beat up on poor Florida Atlantic.  They are so bad that even I am not worried.  Should be a fun day!

Even if this doesn't get moved to the front, I'll be on here, posting my unique brand of wit and commentary.  Should get less coherant as the day goes on though.  Just a warning.

Couple of small things that I heard this week that really make me scratch my head....

1.. Heard a rumor this week that players have been saying that they have NOT tackled in practice this year, at least until now.  Coaches afraid of injuries. 

This is totally unsubstantiated and might be untrue, but if it's not, it explains a lot.  And if it IS in fact true......wow.  No wonder our defense is so bad.  Whose decision would that have been?

2.  This is not unsubstantiated:  Gus Malzhan said to the press this week that 'We have to figure out a way to get the ball to Dyer more."   Seriously, he said that. 

Oh my Gus.  I love you man, but really, what are you smoking?  You ran the best offense in the country last year and you are doing a good job this year with a bunch of kids that have no experience, also while losing the best football player in the country, but COME ON MAN!!!

I'll tell you how to get Dyer the ball more.  YOU FREAKING HAND IT TO HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  It's not that hard.  Pay me $1.5 million a year and I'll figure that out.  TRY KEEPING HIM IN THE DAMN GAME!!!!!  This ain't rocket surgery.  Right now he is being rotated in and out a lot with Mason and McCalebb.  Dyer is the best back we have BY FAR.  STOP PULLING HIM IN FAVOR OF THE OTHER TWO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I wanted to throw something at the TV last Saturday every time I saw Dyer come in, gash Clemson's defense, and move the ball.  Then he'd get pulled by Malzhan and we'd go 3 and out.  What the heck OVER?? 

Also Gus, I love you, really.  You have done great!  But you have GOT to watch the cutesy crap.  When it's 3rd and 3, stop trying to throw a 20 yard pass, or throwing a receiver screen 3 yards behind the line, or going for the home run.  Sure, you do that some, but the majority of the time, you GET THE BALL IN DYER'S HANDS AND GET THE FRICKING FIRST DOWN.  STAY ON THE DAMN FIELD.  Last year, Gus made a lot of too-cute calls like that, and Cam would bail him out when the pass wasn't there and run for the first down.  That is gone this year.  Trotter can't do that.  The offense needs to be concentrated a lot more on moving down the field, ball control, running a large number of plays, and staying on the field.  Sure, go for the home run some.  I love that about Gus.  But don't do it all the time!  If the defense is having to stay on the field 90 plays a game, of course they are going to be gassed! 

Take some advice fellas.  The personnel is different this year.  Time to adapt or die. 

You guys are a good coaching staff.  You did an amazing job last year!  But last year is OVER.  The team different.   Time to make some adjustments. 

War Eagle!!

Good afternoon all.  I debated about whether to even write a blog this week because pretty much everything I have to say has been echoed, rehashed, and squawked about by just about everybody on here.  But, I decided to do it anyway because I feel like bitching.

Now, I know that we won the BCS National Championship last year, much to the inconsolable shagrin of the Bammers, (which, by the way, was more entertaining even then holding the Crystal Football).  I mean, come on, it's really hard to decide what was sweeter, right?  Hoisting the BCS National Championship after a hard fought season, tons of unsubstantiated crap rumors about our star QB, and naysayers from all over the the sports reporting world eating their words with a side order of 'shut the hell up'?  Or was it the incessant rambling of the pathetic rednecks over at RBR screaming 'F--K THE BARN' and 'B-B-B-But W-W-W-What about our DUH-DUH-Dynasty?'  'But DERPITY DERP I thought Saban was God!  I mean, he has a DERP statue, doesn't he?'  We all knew this was going to be a rebuilding year.  We knew we'd be down, right?  We have 26 freshmen playing 2 deep.  We lost 8 starters on each side of the ball.  We are SUPER young.  Anybody that expected 10 or 11 wins this year had to be smoking something illegal.

Well, I'm here to tell you, after what I saw yesterday, we're going to be lucky to become bowl eligible.  I think 7 wins is going to be damn good at this point.  If you have to find some positives, there are some.  Clemson played way over their head yesterday.  With the exception of #83, they are not that good.  They wanted to beat us bad.  On top of that, Dabo Sweeney is coaching for his job this year.  But think about it, folks.  We are going to get everybody's best shot this year.  We are still the BCS National Champs.  We beat everybody last year.  We even won some games that we shouldn't have won.  Everybody is out for our hides this year.  Clemson could have and probably should have beat us last year.  Remember the 1st South Carolina game?  You think they aren't going to want a piece of our rear ends in 2 weeks?  What about Bammer?  Remember that bitter pill they had to swallow last year?  You think Satan and company are not going to have that posted on their locker? 

Of course, these questions are all rhetorical anyway.  We all knew after week 1 against Utah State that it was going to be a long year.  But I REALLY thought we were better than Saturday.  Saturday was pathetic, ESPECIALLY on the defensive side of the ball.  Traditionally, at Auburn, we were awesome on defense.  We've had amazing athletes like Carlos Rogers, Karlos Dansby, Dontarrius Thomas, Will Herring, Nick Fairly, Takeo Spikes, the list goes on and on.  Just take a look on pretty much any NFL roster and you'll find defensive players that were at Auburn.  Right now, our defense is BAD.  I just don't see the talent that I've seen in the past.  As much as I hate to say it, I hope it's just lack of coaching.

I hope it's lack of coaching?  Did I really just say that?  Coaching can be fixed relatively quickly.  Talented recruiting takes a couple of years or more.  You can recruit talented players, but it takes a couple of years minimum before they are ready to be impact players, with few exceptions.  Even the most talented players often need lots of coaching and a year or two in a strength and conditioning program before they are ready to be prime time.  Think about it, how good was Nick Fairly in 2009?  Did anybody know that he was that talented? 

I think the time has come to question Ted Roof, as well as the entire defensive coaching staff.  The lack of fundamentals that was displayed Saturday was shocking.  Don't even get me started on tackling, which is the most fundamental of the fundamentals.  It was beyond terrible.  Atrocious.  Sickening, Horrible.  Pick an adjective.  Couple that with the linebackers missing assignments every other play (how else does an RB make a midfield reception out of the backfield and run for a TD), the DL getting NO push and NOT stopping the run, the DB's not looking for the ball AT ALL, and also having trouble with simple coverage, and oh yeah, about 10,000 MISSED TACKLES, you get a defense that gives up over 600 yards to an unranked, mediocre team. 

What is going to happen when we have to play GOOD teams in the SEC?  We are dead meat.  Arkansas could hang 60 on us with essentially the same offense that almost hung 50 on us last year.  LSU will shove the ball right down our throats with the run.  Hell, we'll make mediocre Jarrett Lee look like an All-American.  South Carolina?  Think we'll stop Lattimore if we couldn't stop what's-his-name at Clemson?  You think Charlie Weiss's new look pro style offense at Florida won't hang 50 or 60 on us, especially with those two RB's coming out of the backfield and our no-tackling LB's missing assignments?  And let's not forget Bammer.  Their brand new wet behind the ears rookie QB will torch us if our pass defense is that bad.  It also gives me wet-my-bed nightmares to think about our defense trying to tackle Trent Richardson.  Oh yeah, how about the new freshman sensation at GA? 

Cam Newton is gone, folks.  We don't have the luxury of not being able to play defense anymore.  We can't outscore everybody.  Our offense, while not bad, is nowhere near what it was last year.  I remember the days when 28 points scored was a sure win.  They are long gone.  Trotter, for the first time yesterday, looked shaky.  He made some bad decisions.  He's also been exposed as not being able to run.  There was that one play where he couldn't outrun a defensive lineman that weighed a good 160 lbs. more than him. 

There's a ton of questions to be answered.

1.  Why in the hell is Michael Dyer not the every down back?

Come on, Gus.  What gives?  Mason is a freshman.  He's still raw.  McCalebb is good, but Dyer is better.  By miles.  And Dyer sits on the bench for half the game.  All 3 backs are getting rotated.  This is BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD.  Dyer is the #1 back on the team.  He needs to have the ball in his hands a MINIMUM of 20 times a game.  More like 25.  I just don't understand it.  It makes no sense!! 

2.  What is up with the playcalling?

I'm seriously questioning some things this year.  Gus was able to get away with a lot last year because of Cam.  He'd call a long pass on 3rd and short, and if it wasn't there, Cam would run for the 1st down.  Hey Gus, CAM IS GONE.  Trotter can't do that.  On 3rd and short, you need to get the damn first down and stay on the field.  I never see Dyer with the ball in his hands when that happens.  Where are the RB screens?  Where are the speed sweeps to McCalebb?  Where are the short sideline receiver screens?  Where is all the genius stuff we saw last year?   

3.  What the hell are you doing with Kiehl Frazier?

It's obvious he's not being redshirted.  But I saw him 1 play yesterday.  What the hell?  I know he's new, and he doensn't know the offense as well as Mosely or Trotter.  But......he is SOOOOOO much better a fit for Malzhan's offense.  He is a legitimate threat to run, and that changes defenses drastically.  The zone read, which is a bread and butter play for us, is completely ineffective right now because defenses know Trotter isn't going to run.  You might as well run the zone read with me.  That play got us so many yards last year, and now it is GONE.  Frazier brings the zone read back in.  Hell, just teach him that one play in practice and bring him in for a few plays to run it.  But make up your minds.  Get him in the game seriously, or redshirt him.  Figure it the hell out.

4.  Why in the blue blazes of hell is Ted Roof so afraid to play physical?

I've never, in all the years of watching Auburn football, seen our DB's play so damn soft.  It is infuriating.  If you're going to play a 15 yard cushion on 3rd and 6, you might as well just GIVE them the damn first down.  Especially when the DB's aren't making a play on the ball.  Roof is so afraid to have them bump at the line, opposing receivers just run their routes completely unhindered.  It's like practice with no pads.  If there is no route disruption, it makes the QB's job so easy I could do it.  He knows exactly where his receivers are going to be and throws to a spot.  Might as well be flag football.  On top of that, Roof rarely blitzes, because he feels like he can never play man coverage.  Partially true, because our DB's are not very good.  But playing physical would help some of that.  If you disrupt routes, you buy time for LB's and DL's to penetrate.  You also confuse the QB and make his job harder. 

 5.  Is it time for a new Defensive Coordinator/Defensive coaching staff?

This question HAS to be asked, especially after Saturday's performance.  Anyone who reads my blogs knows I hated Ted Roof's defense last year.  Well, I hate it more this year, because we don't have the best front 4 in the country anymore.  Fairly and Co. made up for a lot of Roof's shortcomings last year due to their ungodly penetration and blowing up plays where DB's were missing assignments.  Our LB's last year, while not the best, were good enough.  Josh Bynes didn't miss assignments and could tackle.  The LB corps knew how to play their position and stop the run.  The front 4 were damn near unblockable.  Last year the only hole we had was pass defense, and the rare times Roof decided to blitz, we could even stop that.  But we were still soft.  We still played 15 yards of cushion or more on known pass plays.  I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!  I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE the piss-poor 'bend but don't break' mentality.  Ask LSU what their defensive mentality is.  Bend?  HAAAA!!  Their mentality is knock you on your ass and smile while we do it.  Good luck gaining 1 damn yard.  The 'bend' crap worked last year because of having the best offense in the country, as well as having a front 4 that could stop anybody's run game by themselves. 

It was my understanding that if you played defense or coached defense, you checked your damn vagina at the door.  You were a tough, nasty, mean bastard who loved to hit people.  You don't f--king BEND.  You BEND them.  Then you BREAK them.  Roof is the epitome of Tuberville conservative on the defensive side of the ball.  It's the defensive equivalent of the Sylvester Croom offense at Mississippi State.  Run up the middle, run up the middle, short pass, punt., with the mentality that they don't risk anything.  I got new for you fellas.  You just gave up 600+ yards to an average offense at best.  600 MOTHERF--KING YARDS.  It's time to get nasty, or go home.  You had better coach these kids up right, get them in the right mindset, while growing a damn set and calling something aggressive, or find another damn profession.  The mentality I'm seeing out there is the polar opposite of what a defense should be doing.  You don't play defense conservatively.  You hit them in the mouth, tear their f--king heads off, and sh-t down their necks.  If you lose, you lose.  Big deal.  But at least you went down fighting.  Our defense didn't go down fighting Saturday.  They laid down and got walked on.  

I don't blame the kids.  I blame the coaches.  They did exactly what they were told to do.  They ran the plays and schemes that the coaches called.  The coaches are the ones that failed to put them in a position to make plays, because Roof and company appear to be coaching scared.  I know we don't have the best defensive personnel in the country, but for God's sake, don't have the KIDS believing that!!!!! 

Wake up Roof.  You and your staff are on notice as far as I'm concerned.  600 yards given up is unacceptable at Auburn.  It will NEVER be acceptable.  EVER.  You had better figure out how to grow yourself some spare balls in a petri dish, and super glue them to your crotch, or you will be replaced.  Think on it. 

Nasty blog, I know.  But it had to be said. 

War Eagle everyone.  I still love my Tigers, and will love them even if they are 0-11.  I simply find it unacceptable to give the kids playing football for this wonderful and proud university anything less than the best chance possible to succeed.  Without improvement, Roof and company are not that.  If things don't get better, and soon, it's time to start looking for a change. 

See you next week!

Well, it was a win......sigh.  Coach Chizik's demeanor in the postgame conference spoke volumes.  He didn't mince words either, using phrases like 'we played poorly', and 'we have a long way to go'.  I couldn't agree more, Coach.  While there were quite a few positives, there were far more negatives.  Unless we improve, bigtime, it's going to be a looooooong year. 

Credit to our coaching staff.  Coming back like that, at the end of the game, is always a MAJOR credit to the coaching staff.  They had those kids believing.  Believing that the game is NEVER over, they are NEVER down, and they ALWAYS have a chance to win.  There was no quit in the Auburn Tigers.  I know, that is a major cliche', you hear it every week, from every team, etc. etc, but this is one instance where it is absolutely true, no cliche' no bulls**t.  Those kids NEVER stopped playing, and they NEVER stopped believing they could win.  That is entirely on the coaching staff, for getting them in that mindset. 

 I know, it's just Utah State.  They were supposed to be MWC whipping boys.  All in all, they are not a bad team.  They are much improved from last  year, with loads and loads of experience, and it showed.  At the end of the day, the only thing that beat them was lack of depth.  Towards the end of the game, their defense were zombies.  Dead men walking.  They were so tired they couldn't see straight, and there was nothing they could do to stop Auburn.  Our scout team could have scored on them.  But for the first 3 1/2 quarters, Utah State was the better team. 

Utah State was the better team.........aaaagghhh.  It pains me to write that, more than you'll ever know.  But it is absolutely true.  Do they have more talent than us?  No.  Were they better?  By a longshot.  Experience matters!  This game was a GLARING example of that.  From the beginning, Auburn looked like a bunch of kids that had never played a meaningful down in the SEC.  We have 26 freshmen getting meaningful playing time.  We lost 8 starters on EACH SIDE OF THE BALL.  Ladies and gentlemen, that is what you characterize as a BIG FRICKING DEAL.  The O-line was beaten all game.  Dyer, Mason, and McCalebb, as good as they are, have no idea how to effectively pass block.  The D-line was getting stuffed, the linebackers were missing assignments.  Trotter is good, and he's going to get better.  But he's no Cam Newton.  Trust me, that is not a knock on Trotter.  Cam was so good it was just ridiculous.  He won every single award there was to win in FBS last year.  He was the 1st pick in the NFL draft.  What the hell can you do?  It's like following Stevie Ray Vaughan at a blues/rock concert......nobody can expect you to be THAT good.  Every time the team made a mistake, Cam would make up for it.  That dimension is gone. 

There are two reasons that we are 1-0.  The first was discussed earlier, with Utah State being tired thanks to lack of depth.  The second was Special Teams.  They were GREAT.  By far the most experienced part of the team.  Just the kick return touchdown is enough to warrent their praise, because if you take that away, we lose.  Everything they did was right.  Kick and punt coverage was perfect.  Punting was as good as it could have been.  Trovon Reed made no mistakes in the punt return game.  Good job, special teams. 

Another huge bright spot was the receiving corps.  As much as I miss Darvin Adams, Stallworth, Reed, Blake, and Lutz are bigtime players, and probably the strongest part of our offense right now.  There were no drops, no bad routes, blocking was good (although not Kodi Burns good), and very few mistakes made.  I love our receivers.  And, like the rest of the team, they are only going to get better.

Michael Dyer is a monster.  He is just a sophomore, too.  The kid is damn near impossible to tackle one-on-one.  If he learns how to pick up a blitz and improves his pass blocking, he could be the 1st or 2nd RB taken in the NFL draft.  How many would that be from Auburn?  Good Lord. 

McCalebb is still the fastest guy on the field.  This year, also, you can't throw a feather at him and knock him down.  Now  it takes a rubber chicken.  He is  a bit tougher, but, like Dyer, really needs to work on his blocking.  HIs hands are starting to get soft, though.  Excellent receiving skills. 

Trotter is a good pick at QB, although I'd MUCH rather see Frazier.  Frazier is a better fit for the Malzhan offense.  To run the spread that we run, you have to have a legitimate threat to run at QB.  Trotter is BARELY good enough to qualify for that.  He's not a bad runner, but unlike Cam, he is just barely good enough to keep the defense honest.  Last year, on the zone read play, it was pure hell for defensive coaches because either Cam, Dyer, or McCalebb could get it and any one of the three could burn you.  Trotter is not going to burn anybody.  He might get some yards, but the defense can focus much more on the RB's than they could last year.  It's not as bad as trying to run a zone read with Chris Todd, but it's definitely not like running it with Cam.  Trotter is in the unenviable position of being the guy to follow Cam, and will be compared to him all year.  I feel bad because even I am doing it.  Make no mistake about it, Trotter is a damn good QB, and would have been playing a lot sooner had he not been hurt for so long.  It's just going to be that difficult to follow #2. 

Overall, I can't say I'm dissapointed.  We aren't very good, at least not right now.  But we all knew that we lost a LOT.  This has the potential to be a very long year.  We've lost the possibly the best college football player ever, 4/5 of possibly the best offensive line to ever start at Auburn, the best defensive lineman in the country last year, plus 2 others from possibly the best defensive front 4 in college football last year, and loads of other experienced leaders on the team like Josh Bynes, Fannin, etc.  Right now, we are a 5 or 6 win team at best.  If we play every game like we did yesterday, especially on the defensive side of the ball, it's going to be ugly when we start SEC play.  We have a schedule from hell.  We have only 2 or 3 'gimme' games, and this was supposed to be one of them.  Not only that, all the whoopings we gave everybody last year are going to come back to haunt us. (South Carolina comes to mind). 

I know, I just said that that I WASN'T dissapointed.  I'm not, that wasn't a typo.  Why?  The answer is simple.  Almost all of the bad stuff I saw yesterday can be attributed to one thing:  lack of experience.  These guys are going to get better.  Just watch.  They will improve every game.  By then end of the year, if our coaching staff is as good as we think they are, we will be looking at a different team, and be counting down the days until next season, when we get all of these guys back.  Keep the faith people.  We all knew it was a rebuilding year.  Let's cheer them on, watch them grow up, and stay behind them no matter what.  Good times are ahead!  War Eagle!

OTHER NOTES FROM OPENING DAY:

LSU is a monster.  I think you are looking at the SEC champs this year, possibly the national champs.  They are so talented and have so many athletes, it's going to be hard for anybody to beat them.

The jury is still out on Bammer.  They are good, but I don't think they are better than LSU.

Florida looked good last night, even against a cupcake.  I was looking forward to playing them, thinking it'd be a good chance at a win.  That is long gone.

Mississippi State is going to be dangerous next week, especially for our defense.  Their defense definitely is not as good as last year's but their offense is deadly.  Chris Relf, while much improved, still misses a lot of throws he shouldn't miss.  Going to be a close one, but I think this might be the Dawgs' year against us. 

OMFG Georgia, way to embarass the SEC!!  Losing a virtual home game to a MWC team that you are more talented than in pretty much every position on the field with the possible exception of QB and TE?  Boise looked experienced and well coached, while GA looked like the bunch of perennial underachievers that they have been for the last 10 years.  They outsized Boise at every position.  Please tell me how a 350lb DL gets blocked all night long by a 5'10, 252 lb offensive lineman?   Shameful.  Boise is the best coached team in the country.  If Chris Petersen ever decides to move to a real school with real talent, it's going to be ugly for the rest of the schools they have to face.  On the flip side, Mark Richt better win a minimum of 10 games this year or he is gone.  I'm actually hoping that GA has a good year because if Richt gets fired, look out.  I'll bet my left nut they go after Gus Malzhan.  Gus Malzhan at GA scares the living hell out of me, and should scare the living hell out of everybody in the SEC.  We'll have to keep an eye on that.

Ole MIss sucks.  I'm willing to put money down that Houston Nutt doesn't last the year.  I live in Arkansas.  I watched him coach at Arky.  Nutt is like a used car salesman.  He comes in, with somebody else's recruits, gets a team fired up, and does well for 1 or 2 seasons.   But sooner or later, his good line of bulls**t runs out and then you find out he's a terrible recruiter and average coach at best.  Good luck on your future coaching search, Rebs.

Arkansas is slightly better than last year, but they still have holes.  Will they improve?

South Carolina must have gotten a serious screaming by Spurrier at halftime.  Would love to have been a fly on that wall.

Kentucky sucks.

Vandy is Vandy.

And finally, Lou Holtz is still an insufferable idiot, and Mark May still comes to work every day wondering why he has to put up with that insufferable idiot. 

See you next week!

It's done. 

Auburn is the undisputed National Champions of College Football.  Best team in the country. Despite all the criticism of the defense, the coaches, the quarterback, and the university, Auburn is the best, and there is nobody that can say otherwise anymore. 

The analysis of this game by the so-called 'experts' have left so much out it amazes me.  How these guys actually get paid to be this incompetent is beyond me.  I wish I could fail as miserably at my job and still keep it.  Let's look at everything:

First and foremost, all we've been hearing all year is 'Auburn can't win without Cam Newton!' 'Cam Newton is the only reason they win!' 'Gene Chizik can't coach!' 'Their defense sucks!'  We've been hearing it from commentators, sportswriters, and especially, Bammers.  Well, the Auburn football team, the ENTIRE team, simply gave them all the middle-finger salute Monday night and proved them all wrong. 

Before I write this paragraph, I have to say that I love Cam.  I have no reservations about him NOT carrying us through more than one game this year.  I also have no delusions that we would be undefeated national champions without him.  However, in my humble opinion, Cam had his worst game of the year Monday night.  It was partially due to him taking a hard hit and not being 100% for the entire game, but even when he was healthy, he still wasn't the unstoppable force he had been for most of the year.  The 40+ day layoff will bear some of the blame, as will the jitters, but in the end, Cam was just a run-of-the-mill 'GOOD' quarterback Monday night.  He really didn't play much better then Darron Thomas, who  played a very poor game.  With Cam only being 'good', instead of the inhuman, unstoppable, Superman-esque version of himself that we've been used to seeing the entire second half of the year, it was quite a letdown.   At the end of the day, he got the job done.  His stats, while not the eye-popping numbers we've seen all year were still quite good.  Over 300 yards of total offense and 2 touchdowns is not a bad day's work for any QB in the country.  But think back to what we've been used to seeing over the past 7 or 8 games and compare it to Monday.  Lackluster, isn't it?

Overshadowing his 2 touchdowns and 300+ yards of offense were the turnovers, mistakes, and lack of execution that we haven't seen from him all year.  Auburn won the game by 3 points.  Had Cam not made the mistakes he made, it would have been at least 3 touchdowns, maybe more.  He didn't handle the blitz very well, he missed several wide open receivers on crucial plays, 3 of which were darn near sure touchdowns, and he turned the ball over twice, one time at a very crucial point in the game.  Cam hasn't done that all year.  He's come in when they needed a miracle, and has delivered.  He's been unstoppable, unflappable, and darn near perfect.  He wasn't Monday night.  While he still had a good game, and still made the plays needed to win, he wasn't Batman.  He was more like Robin.  Still a superhero, but not 'THE MAN'.  

The whole point I'm trying to make is that on Monday night, even though Cam Newton wasn't Superman, Auburn found a way to win.  The TEAM found a way to win.  Yes, that's right Bammers.  All  those guys that you have no respect for, the porous defense, the no-name receivers and backs, the big uglies in the trenches that never get any of the credit, they stepped up and beat the best team from the PAC-10, and the 2nd best team in the country.  WITHOUT CAM NEWTON CARRYING THEM.  All those guys that you say can't win without Cam Newton proved you wrong Monday night.  Cam, although still definitely good, was very human. And for once this year, the rest of the team carried HIM. Cam wasn't forced to win the game himself on Monday.  He didn't have to.  The defense won the game.

Huh?  The defense?

Yes, that's right.  The porous, depthless, weak defense that nobody respected and gave a chance SHUT DOWN the #1 offense in the country.  Oregon was held to more than 200 yards below their season rushing average, and more than 25 points less than their season scoring average.  I'm sure if anyone had told Chip Kelly before the game that Auburn was going to score 22 points, he'd have gone straight to Vegas and bet everything he owned that Oregon was going to win that game.  Hell, I might have done the same thing.  And you know what?  We'd have lost everything. 

The defensive line spent the entire night blowing up every running play that Chip Kelly could conjure.  The secondary, while making a few mistakes and getting beat a few times, pretty much blanketed Oregon's highly touted receiving corps and made every yard they gained tough.  Even when they got burned a few times they never quit.  They outran them and made touchdown saving tackles.  They didn't miss when they were one-on-one.  They didn't allow Oregon's receivers to get out of their clutches even when a catch was made.  The linebackers were  all over the place.  They blitzed with reckless abandon, covered when they needed to, and were instrumental and helping the front 4 contain Barner and James.  Let's not forget, Oregon was also the best red-zone team in the country.  Auburn's 54th ranked defense forced 2 turnovers, a safety, and shut them down from 1st and Goal on about the 4 yard line on a crucial drive.  The most effective that Chip Kelly was at moving the ball all night was on gimmick plays and big-risk plays.  Oregon's mighty offense was reduced to nothing more than a few marginally effective tricks.  Their highly publicized fast pace of play was a non-factor, since a large number of their drives were only a few plays resulting in a punt.  I've heard people nonstop the last 2 days asking over and over why Kelly tried 4 straight runs on that 1st and Goal inside the 5 yard line.  The answer is quite simple:  It had been working for him all year long!  At least until Monday night that is. 

One thing we can't forget is the man who brought this all together, despite uneducated wannabes such as myself who condemned his hiring as the dumbest move in the history of Auburn football.  That man is Coach Gene Chizik.  These players, this staff, this season, is all his doing.  He is the man that brought all the cogs and gears into place of this great machine.  From day 1, despite all the criticism, he has done everything right.  He's recruited relentlessly.  He went out and got the best support staff in the country.  He hired Gus Malzhan,  and even more so, he was smart enough to recognize the man's brilliance  and  leave him the hell alone to let him do whatever he deemed necessary on offense.  His coaching is apparent in the defense's night-and-day improvement as the year has gone on.  He is the man that got the Tigers ready to play every single week, despite all the controversy and criticism surrounding the program this year.  He is the man that lead this team to comeback wins against 4 very good teams this year, including a 24 point deficit on the road against the defending national champions.  And finally, he is the man that got the team ready to play and win on the biggest stage in college football, in the biggest game in college football, for the biggest prize in college football, all after 40+ day layoff in which the team was bombarded from every angle with distractions from the Heisman, to the Broyles award, to the Lombardi award,  to the Home Depot Coach of the Year award, and everything else in between.  Gene Chizik can't coach?  If you think that, you are a functional idiot.  Quite simply, you have no business walking upright.  Go back to the zoo.  Yes, that's right, I'm talking to YOU, Bammers.  

Oh, and by the way, Gene Chizik is now 8-0 in bowl games dating all the way back to being a graduate assistant.  The man knows how to win the big ones.  Maybe Bob Stoops should take lessons from him.

Auburn is the best team in the country.  That's right, the best TEAM in the country.  No matter how much anybody wants it to be true, Cam Newton is not the only reason.  He's a very large part of it, no doubt.  But is he the only reason?  No way.  Was Reggie Bush the only reason USC was that good?  Was Mark Ingram the only reason Bammer was that good?  Was Tim Tebow the only reason Florida was that good?  No.  If you think that, you are simply deluding yourself.  Now, on the same line, if you take any of those guys away, does that team win the National Championship that year?  Probably not.  What's the point?  The point is, as large a focal point as they are, they are simply part of the TEAM.  They are one gear in the machine.   I know, if your team didn't win, you're looking for any excuse to make yourself feel better.  But it's time to face facts.  Auburn University is the National Champion of football.  They are the best team in the country. 

And Monday night, they did it without Superman.

Hey guys! 

The Bammers have infested the sbnation Oregon Blog, addictedtoquack.com.  Fight back!

I just wrote what I consider to be a masterpiece over there about Bammers.  I love this!  They hate us so much and are so mad it's just hilarious.  Here's a link to it:

http://www.addictedtoquack.com/2010/12/10/1868122/an-auburn-fans-sincere-apology-to-the-duck-nation

Check it out!  I'm proud of it.  LOL

Hello Oregon faithful!  As you no doubt are aware, there is a little game of football to be played in a month.  I know that both sides are looking forward to the game, as it will no doubt be a fireworks filled, down to the wire contest.  We have nothing but respect for Duck fans, as they have shown class that we are not used to, being from Alabama.  With  that in mind, we come to the entire point of the article. 

I feel like we, as Auburn fans, owe you a serious apology.  As a result of your placement in this game with us, you will unfortunately face exposure from one of the most foul, vile, disgusting creatures on the planet:  THE BAMMER.

Shudder...

The Bammer is one of the most reviled creatures on Earth.  A typical Bammer is easy to recognize, usually by the smell of dirt, tobacco, and whiskey attempting to be masked by cheap cologne that usually extracted from a spray machine in a truck stop bathroom.  They typically are unemployed, and have never set foot an ANY college campus, much less the University of Alabama,  so they have a lot of time to post on blogs, when they are not engaging in mating rituals with a female of their species, usually from their own family.  A sister is generally preferred, but a cousin (as long as it is no distant than 1st cousin), will do.  Bammers are not exceptionally dangerous, as they rarely have more than a few teeth.  However, it is advised that you exercise extreme caution around a Bammer.  Although they are not inherently dangerous themselves, their typical presence is more than most people can stand.  Between the foul odor that they generate, as well as their nonstop mating calls, which include phrases like "(F-word) THE BARN!"  "BEAR IS GOOD!" and "ROLL TIDE!", most normal people are driven into madness and possible suicide after being in the presence of a Bammer for only a short time.

WARNING:

DO NOT attempt to reason with a Bammer.  They are incapable of it.  This warning is typically simple to comply with, as most Bammers are incapable of rational thought beyond words of more than one syllable.  However, in the rare instance you encounter a "Prime" Bammer, which is defined as a higher level Bammer that is capable of a small level of conversation,  you might be tempted to engage the stupid creature in a debate.  DO NOT ENGAGE THE BAMMER.  It requires special training and much research of things called facts that act as a type of Kryptonite for a Bammer.  For example, most Bammers, should they be capable of verbalizing it, like to claim that they have 13 National Championships.  Even though their SID back in the 80's, a guy name Wade Atchinson (spelling) ADMITTED IN AN INTERVIEW that he artificially inflated their numbers to make the university look better, they refuse to acknowledge this.  If you tell a Bammer that they don't get a national championship every time some now defunct hillbilly hick publication awards it to them, or that by their logic Auburn  has 8 national championships and is playing for 9, or that in one of the years they claim a national championship (back in the 1940's,) they finished 4TH IN THE SEC, they will typically revert back to yelling out their mating calls in an attempt to drive you insane.  Quite simply, the best course of action when you come across a Bammer is to cup your hands over your ears and go about your business.  Eventually the Bammer will go away.  It is quite difficult to handle, but it can be done. 

We, as Auburn fans, feel responsible for exposing you to the horrendously repugnant species known as the Bammer.  For that we are truly, deeply sorry.  They have infested your message board already, as I can see.  Bammers are like a virus.  Whenever Auburn is successful, they show up like a plague and completely ignore their own team.  They infest message boards and discussion groups with foul language and their mating calls. Prime Bammers like to claim that we all have 'little brother syndrome', yet they do this while all over ours and our opponents blogs while primarily ignoring their own business.  Most Bammers are completely inconsolable this year at the fact that Auburn is better than they are, competing for a national championship, and owns the state.  As a result, they simply have no recourse other than to trash Auburn to anyone who will listen, simply because they have nothing better to do.  The only solace they have is their hopeful speculation that we won't be as good next year. 

We, as Auburn fans have nothing but love and respect for the Duck Nation.  While we may debate the numbers and opinions of the upcoming game, we can both agree that it is going to be one hell of a fun game to watch, and may the best team win.  As a result of this mutual respect, the Auburn nation feels that we must express our deepest sorrow and regret at having exposed you to the Bammer. As a result of your involvement with us, these sad, pathetic creatures have migrated over here and infected your board with their stuipdity.   I'm sure, until a week ago, you had no idea what a Bammer was and couldn't care less.  Unfortunately, now you see what we have to deal with every day of every year.  Words cannot express how deeply sorry I and the rest of the Auburn nation are to have brought this blight upon you.  The only consolation I can offer you is this:  at least in a month they will be gone. 

Best of luck to the Ducks in the upcoming game.  I know all of us are looking forward to it. 

War Eagle!!

Hello again all!  After my profanity laced tirade about Holtz and company earlier, I'm back to my normal self.  You guys have seen me on here for a couple of years, and by now you know that I'm pretty darn pessimistic when it comes to football.  I've got to take a different turn here, and explain in short, simple terms why Oregon and their supposed high powered offense doesn't scare me a single bit. 

It's all in the numbers, plain and simple.  Here's a few stats for you:

COMBINED RECORD OF TEAMS ON OREGON'S SCHEDULE:  63-81

COMBINED RECORD OF TEAMS ON AUBURN'S SCHEDULE:  83-61

OREGON HAS 1 WIN OVER A TEAM THAT FINISHED THE YEAR RANKED IN THE TOP 25

AUBURN HAS 6 WINS OVER TEAMS THAT FINISHED THE YEAR RANKED IN THE TOP 25

OREGON HAS 3 WINS OVER TEAMS THAT FINISHED THE YEAR WITH A WINNING RECORD

AUBURN HAS 7 WINS OVER TEAMS THAT FINISHED THE YEAR WITH A WINNING RECORD

As they say, the proof is in the pudding. Oregon is averaging a crapton of points a game. Tons of offense, undefeated. I should be scared to death. I'm not.  Why?  Because they've done it on nearly a Boise State schedule.  They've put up point totals in the 70's a lot.  But against who?  Nobody. On top of that, who's to say that Auburn wouldn't have done the same every week had we not had more class in the SEC and refuse to do that? How many times this year did Auburn put in backups and kneel down, while Oregon was throwing for the endzone up 5 touchdowns with 1 minute left in the 4th quarter? 

We put up 60+ points on a BCS bound team, (Arky),  put 56 points on a team that beat the defending national champions a few weeks ago, (who we also beat), and played in a MUCH tougher conference, all without intentionally running up the score.  (I mean, come on, the last 2 drives against USC we ran the ball up the middle 8 times in a row and scored, only because they couldn't stop us.  All we were doing was eating clock.  We had 1 pass attempt, only to get a 1st down, and had our 2nd and 3rd stringers in on the last drive.) 

Mr Negative Nancy here is the opposite of his usual self.  I am not scared of Oregon.  I literally think we can beat the crap out of them.  The numbers support it.  They haven't played anybody, we have.  They run up the score, we don't.  Oregon hasn't faced ANYBODY close to our caliber all year, with the exception of MAYBE Stanford.  But honestly, Stanford doesn't hold a candle to us.  While Andrew Luck is likely a better pro prospect than Cam Newton right now, this ain't the pros.  This is college, and Cam and the Tigers is what the Ducks have to deal with.  I honestly don't think they have a clue what they are in for, and I truly believe we can beat the living snot out of them. 

War Eagle!  Beat the quackers!!

#1 in the BCS:  Check.

SEC West Champions:  Check.

Undefeated in the toughest conference in college football:  Check.

Underdog in the SEC Chapionship game:  Check.

Wait......what?

Underdog?  AGAIN?  I'm watching ESPN this morning and it's absolutely amazing.  ESPN hates us.  They are all picking South Carolina to beat Auburn in the SECCG Saturday. 

No, really, I'm serious.  Are these guys ever going to learn? 

First, they try their damndest to smear our quarterback, with ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF OF ANYTHING WHATSOEVER, then they pick us to lose every week, then they are absolutely sure Alabama is going to beat us.  I am now completely convince of one of two things:  1.  ESPN is full of functional idiots that have absolutely  no idea what they are talking about, or 2: An Auburn fan must have fucked ESPN's CEO's sister and never called her.  

Of course, you have to bear in mind that these are the same guys that have been pushing Boise freaking State as the best team in the country all year.  I'll say it again.....BOISE MOTHER-FUDGING STATE.  The best JUCO team playing in FBS.  They lose to Nevada, (who is BAD by the way, did anybody actually WATCH the game?)  and now ESPN is saying nothing, and hoping like hell that everyone forgets the last 3 months of them getting bluelip from blowing Chris Petersen and Kellen Moore.  Boise is undersized, slow, and plays against pathetically weak competition.  After Nevada beat Boise, ESPN spent a whole day talking them up.  I remember Herbstreit spewing something like "This Nevada team can beat anybody in the country!"  Are you freaking kidding me Herbie boy?  They SUCK.  I will say that I love their offensive scheme, and I think their OC is ready for bigtime college football.  (Coach Chiz, I hope you're reading this, when Malzhan goes, this guy might be a good one to go after.)  They have a decent QB and a couple of decent skill position players.  I'll say again, DECENT.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd put them in the 6.5 to 7.5 range.  The rest of the team SUCKS.  Their OL is undersized as hell and their defense is beyond bad.  They can't tackle, they are slow as hell, don't break on the ball, take bad angles, and are severely undersized.  Nevada would get decimated by nearly every SEC team.  LSU's defense would wipe the floor with their offensive personnel.  Auburn's offense would score 70 on them without even trying.  Boise is the same way......the talent level on their team is extremely low, but, to Petersen's credit, they are one of the most well coached teams out there.  Why is nobody talking about Kellen Moore for the NFL draft?  The reason is that he is a system QB with a VERY average arm, playing against pathetic competition.  He might go in the 3rd round at best.  He's accurate as hell, and throws very well on the run, but his arm strength is average on a good day, and he is very undersized.  He'll probably get on in the NFL somewhere and be a backup but that's all he'll ever be.  Reminds me a lot of Danny Wuerffell.  However, I'd love to see what Petersen and his staff could do in Texas or Florida, where they actually have a talent pool to recruit from.

Anyway, I'm glad that ESPN picked us to lose.  Hopefully, we'll make them look stupid again, and then they can pick Oregon to beat us in the NCG.  It's worked for us so far.  War Eagle!!

Wow.  That's all I can say about the amazing comeback.  This game will be remembered forever.  Down 24-0 at Bryant Denney Stadium, National Championship game on the line, and sure enough, the Tigers come through with a win that will be etched in the memory of everyone, Bammers and Tigers alike, forever. 

I haven't posted much this year, as life seems to be getting in the way.  Between watching my little girl grow up, and flying the friendly skies as an airline pilot, I don't get much time to write blogs these days.  I missed the game today, unfortunately.  I will have to buy the DVD, or catch it on a replay.  I must admit I probably misused the hell out of company resources, as well as the Air Traffic Control system today, as I kept bugging the controllers and our dispatchers alike to give me updates on the game while I was flying.  Ah well.....they'll get over it.  The feeling I had when I learned the final score is among the best I've ever had in my life.  I can count on one hand the times I felt better, and most of them have to do with things way more important than football. 

Auburn was outplayed, outcoached, and outhearted in the first half.  The receivers had Crisco on their hands.   The offensive line suddenly forgot how to block.  Malzhan forgot how to playcall.  And Cam, unbelievably enough, looked like a mere mortal.  Every single sportswriter in the country was absolutely sure we were going to lose this game.  They bought into the Rammer Jammer Bammer Nick Saban Mystique garbage and the undefeated, SEC West champion, in the driver's seat for a BCSNC game berth, was the UNDERDOG. 

Ummmm......what?

That doesn't make a lot of sense.  For the last few weeks, it has pretty much been us against the world.  Newton was paid, Fairly is dirty, blah blah blah blah.  Everybody has been hoping for us to fail.  ESPN ran a story that gets more and more discredited every week, so instead of admitting they have nothing substantial, they entered CYA mode and have spent the last month badmouthing Auburn to anybody that will listen.  It has caught on like a virus, spread throughout the nation, and for the first time, it looked like it actually affected Auburn in the first half. 

Then came the second half.  I don't know what was said in the locker room, but they came out different.  They came out stronger.  From what I've seen of it, and heard of it, in the second half, they KNEW they were better than Bama.  They KNEW they were going to beat them, and they KNEW there was nothing that  Bama could do about it.  The defense shut them down.  The offense moved the ball at will.  Newton was unstoppable again.  Fairly was double and triple teamed, and he STILL got to McElroy. 

The Bammers lost, despite a 24-0 lead.  3 losses this season, losing to Auburn at home, you can imagine the meltdowns on the Bama side of these blogs.  I spent some downtime this evening reading it.  I have come to the conclusion that if in fact all of the people that post there DID go to Bama, there must be some major program there on creative use of the 'F' word, and most of those guys graduated with honors.  Their message boards are the shining example of the difference between us and them.  We lose, we congratulate the other side on a game well played, and wish them the best.  They lose, the 'F' word takes on new meanings that never existed, and it was always bad officiating, they gave it away, the team quit, whatever.  It's never 'we got beat today by the better team'.  It's BAD over there.  It's also comical as hell.  I recommend anyone to head over there for a few good laughs.  It's worth the trip. 

We have 2 games to go.  1 more win  against South Carolina, and we're playing Oregon for the National Championship.  1 more game.  That's it.  I don't know if this will get to Gene Chizik and company, but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't forget about South Carolina.  We squeaked by them earlier this year.  They are very capable of beating us.  Hold on, stay strong, don't have a letdown.  We can do this.  We're there.  We beat the Cocks, nobody is denying us our rightful place in Glendale. 

The Auburn Nation is counting on you guys!  War Eagle!!!!

Auburn is back.  An excellent win over a superior-on-paper team Saturday laid to rest a lot of the critics of the coaching staff and the team itself......at least for a while.  For the first time in 3 weeks Saturday, Auburn showed up to the game ready to play.  The defense looked better than they have all year.  The offense looked brilliant at times, stagnant at times.  Overall though, we once again saw a glimpse of the 5-0 Tigers as opposed to the 0-3 Tigers.

Our glaring weaknesses remain the same:  We have no quarterback.  Chris Todd had a good game, but if you were actually watching the game, you would see that his numbers were very little of Todd's doing, and moreso of his receivers and backs making plays for him.  Todd's arm is still weak and floaty.  Put in Caudle you say?  I don't know.  There are 2 schools of thought here: 

1.  If the coaches are saying Todd is the best chance to win, then you believe them and are afraid because if Todd is the BEST QB AVAILABLE TO PLAY right now, then Caudle's MO is correct.  He will get interception happy when pressured and make huge mistakes.  If that is the case then blame Tuberville and co. for lack of recruiting.  Many have said that the best QB on the team in Barrett Trotter, but he can't stay healthy.  If he can manage to get through spring not hurt, he'll have a shot next year.  What about Tyrik Rollison?  He's redshirted, waiting his turn.  Why not bring him in now?  I think the coaches believe in Trotter, and want the extra year of eligibility for Rollison.  Trotter will be a junior next year, if he does well we've got him for 2 years, then we've got Rollison for 2 years.  Or maybe Caudle will wake up and win the job.  Athletically, Caudle is there.  He's got a great arm, and can run.  He can't run like Rollison, but he can run.  We'll have to see.

2.  The other school of thought is simple SCS, otherwise known as Stubborn Coach Syndrome.  It's simply the coach saying 'I know more than the fans and the media, so I'm not going to start Caudle because that would be caving to pressure!'  If this is the case, then I have one thing to say to the coaching staff:  DON'T BE A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.  Give your team the best chance to win.  Don't try to show that you're smarter than everybody else.  Don't be like Sean Payton at the Saints last year.  Don't sacrifice wins for your team because you want to prove to the media and the fans that you know more than them.  I've seen a little bit of this in Gus Malzhan.  I hate to badmouth him, but he's made some really questionable playcalls the last couple of weeks.  Gus.....when it's 3rd and 5, you don't have to go down the field every time.  You don't have to call a double reverse wildcat formation pass play to Kodi Burns.  Just get the damn first down   Run a quickout past the line and throw it.  Throw a halfback screen.  WR screen.  Give your guys a chance.  Stay on the field.  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we're taking shots down the field and making some big plays.  But there are times to do it, and times not to.  Quite simply, there's nothing wrong with taking a shot, even on 3rd and 5.  But don't do it so much that you're sacrificing a chance to just stay on the field. 

Next week we have Furman, which should be a gimme win.  Hooray for homecoming, and a 7 win season, which is what most of us predicted anyway.  Can we beat Georgia?  I think so.  Can we beat Alabama?  Yes we can.   It all depends on which Auburn team shows up.  One thing is for sure, the OL better save their best game of the year for Alabama.  Otherwise, Chris 'I-hold-the-ball-too-long' Todd will get slaughtered. 

Looking forward to a nice, stress-free weekend of Auburn football.  Great win Saturday!!!  I'm ready to get back in the Bowl fray.  War Eagle!!!

Well, here we go.  Everyone was thinking we'd be lucky to be 7-5 this year, and that's precisely what it's shaping up to be.  Saturday night was a really nice reality check for those of us that were hoping for 8 or 9 wins this year.  We just got beat, at home, by KENTUCKY.  Oh yeah, they haven't beat us since 1966, either.  I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

At least Arkansas made us look better earlier during the day by giving Florida all they wanted and more, but then we had to go and make ourselves look terrible in our own game.  We can forget about contending for the SEC west now.  At this point, I'm just hoping we can beat Furman and become eligible for the obscurewhateverwebsite.com bowl against some mid-major 6 win team who will show up and try to make us look bad.  The Arkansas game was at least excusable, perhaps going on the road for the first time against what is appearing to be an underrated team (at least after this Saturday), and then maybe Kentucky would have been excusable if we could be accused of looking ahead to LSU, but under these circumstances, there are no excuses.  Auburn was just flat out piss poor Saturday night.  I had to keep a can by my chair to constantly dry-heave into.

This week Auburn managed to get a measly 3 votes in the AP poll, after being #17 2 weeks ago.  Wow.  If that doesn't say something about our performance, I don't know what else does.  Ben Tate was a shining star on an otherwise pathetic offense, rushing for 132 yards.  The Auburn rushing attack was right about where it usually is, with Auburn rushing for a very respectable 220 yards.  The passing game, however, was awful.  Chris Todd looked like the holding-the-ball-too-long, spaghetti-noodle-for-an-arm Chris Todd of last year.  In fact, he has for the last 2 weeks.  2 weeks ago, I was on here making the argument that he has numbers as good as any Heisman candidate QB in the country.  And he did.......2 weeks ago.  Now he looks like Chris Todd from last year:  The Chris Todd that we all hated, the Chris Todd that was Tony Franklin's boy, the Chris Todd that we wondered why in the hell he was EVER in a game instead of Kodi Burns.  I was a Chris Todd fan until Saturday night.  Saturday night his ridiculously poor play cost us the game.  He missed so many throws, made so many bad decisions, that I was ready to see him replaced by ANYONE.

One thing I've noticed about Todd is that he lives and dies by his first few throws.  Earlier this year, the Auburn offense came out, looked stout, put together a strong drive, scored, and gave Todd his confidence.  As a result, he played beautifully.  The last couple of games, the offense has come out and sputtered, and Todd sputtered with it.  If he doesn't start well, Todd doesn't seem capable of bouncing back to a good game.  That is NOT a quality you want in your starting QB.

Most of you are going to think I am crazy, but I think the defense looked better last night then they have all year.  The only glaring problem was the inability to stop the run.  Of course, most of this was due to the same problem we've had all year:  tackling.  They only gave up 21 points, which you would normally think would be plenty for the vaunted Auburn offense to overcome.  And OMFGROFLCOPTERWOWZERS!!!  There were actually some BLITZ PACKAGES put in!!!  And oh yeah, THEY WORKED!!!!!!   Wow!!  Who would have thought that tossing in a blitz or 2 might actually create some positive results!!  I know I'm going to get destroyed on an Auburn website for this, but I have to bring it up:  Alabama's 1992 national championship team.  Probably the best defense ever seen in college football.  Why?  They blitzed, blitzed more, and blitzed on top of blitzes.  They had 10 guys up on the line every single play.  You knew they were coming, and there was nothing you could do about it.  They forced offenses to adjust to THEM, which is the exact opposite of normal.  The moral of this story is, BLITZING WORKS WHEN DONE CORRECTLY.  Saturday night was the first night that I've seen Auburn actually put in a blitz package or 2 and go after the QB on 3rd down.  Well done, coach Roof.  Despite the fact that our defense is weak, and everybody knows it, the strongest part of it is the secondary, in my opinion.  I'd trust them to man cover on a few blitz packages.  It's the best chance we have of stopping other teams. 

What about LSU?  Again, you guys are going to think I'm nuts, but I think we've got a real shot to beat them in Baton Rouge.  Why?  MATCHUPS.  Auburn matches up well against them.  LSU is not as good as they are ranked, I can promise you that.  They have a 1st year starter QB that will make some bad decisions.  Their defense is good, but not that good.  If Auburn's offense wakes up and executes like they did the first 5 games LSU will have a LOT of problems.  They'll have 2 weeks to prepare for us, which is bad.  But, at this point Auburn should be in we've-got-nothing-to-lose mode.  We've got 5 games left, and we are capable of winning any and/or all of them.  I'm not convinced we're dead yet.  As of right now, we have nothing to lose.  The pressure is off, there is no more talk of 5-0, contending for the SEC West, or anything like that.  The coaching staff needs to wake and get these kids ready to play.  Chris Todd needs to wake up and get his own game in shape, or be replaced.  He needs to get back to what I saw in the first 5 games, when I was singing his praises.  If his arm is gone, or he is hurt, he needs to be replaced. 

War Eagle everyone!  Don't give up yet.  I'll be very interested to see what happens Saturday!

My apologies to the maybe 1 or 2 people that actually care, for my lateness in writing this week.  Work is killing me.

So, where are we this week?  Pretty much exactly where I thought we'd be.  Do I hate the team right now?  No way.  I still think we're good.  I still think we can win 8 games.  And, I still hate our defensive scheme. 

Never mind the fact that Auburn had only 3 scholarship LB's playing Saturday, never mind that we have no depth.  Our defense was TERRIBLE.  We have NO pass rush.  At all.  Period.  We haven't all year.  Defensive coordinator Ted Roof isn't trying to make up for it with a blitz or two.  Ryan Mallett did exactly what I thought he'd do, he stood back there, with 5 to 7 seconds to throw every time, and picked us apart for 40 something points.  The only chance I thought we had was if our potent offense would score 50.  We didn't.  The coaches were right post game......Arkansas showed up ready to play, Auburn didn't.  Make no mistake about it:  Arkansas's defense still sucks.  They didn't stop anything.  We stopped ourselves.  The first half was rife with stupid penalties, mistakes, and bad throws from Chris Todd.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still a Chris Todd fan this year, he's done a great job to this point, but Saturday was the first game all year that Chris Todd has really looked like crap.  The first half he was making bad decisions, missing wide open receivers, and holding the ball way too long.  I'd love to have been a fly on the wall in the locker room at halftime, because there had to be some serious yelling going on from the coaching staff.  In the second half, the offense was back to their old selves, moving the ball at will, scoring points, but the mistakes didn't quite go away.  Though Todd looked much better, he was still missing throws he wasn't missing earlier this year.  Were it not for the Ben Tate fumble inside the 10 yard line, we likely would have put 30+ points on the board in that one half.  Even after that horrible first half, Auburn was in the game until the 95 yard drive put together by the Arkansas offense after that costly mistake. 

The only positive thing I can say about the defense is that the secondary did a good job covering on several series.  Considering that we can get absolutely no pressure whatsoever on the QB, our secondary is running their tails off for 6 or 7 seconds on every single dropback trying to keep the receivers covered, and since they can only do that for so long before they get too fatigued to cover effectiely, this failure has to be attibuted mostly to the DL and to coach Roof.  I know, I know, blitzing usually works off holes generated by the DL, and I know, I know, we don't have any depth.  But when was the last time you remember an Auburn defense giving up 44 points to ARKANSAS?  Or anybody for that matter?  We're giving up 27 points a game!!  And we haven't even played a RANKED TEAM YET!!!  We have been giving up 27 points a game to BAD TEAMS.  The best team we've played to date is West Virginia.  Yes, that's right, I think UWV is better than Arkansas.  If WV wins next week, they're going to be ranked.  If we beat Kentucky, I think we will be too.  Also, to our credit, Arkansas is a better team then their record.  Their passing offense is as good as any other in the country.  Their run game looked fantastic against us, but only because of our defensive scheme.  Michael Smith rushed for 145 yards against us.  He rushed for a total of 180 yards in the 4 games before that.  This was a direct result of how we play defense.  It's the exact opposite of 'run the ball to open up the pass'.   When you drop every single LB and DB back into zone coverage every single play and never try to pressure the QB or blitz, the offense will adjust.  On top of that, this is a BAD way to play defense simply because if the receivers have 6 or 7 seconds to get open, most of the time they will.  

There's going to be a lot of people disagree with me, but you can't argue the numbers.  This defensive scheme is NOT WORKING.  We have to try something different.  Something has got to be done to pressure the QB.  LSU has a rookie QB that is subject to throwing INT's and making bad decisions under pressure.  It's been shown numerous times this year that Jevin Snead at Ole Miss is NO GOOD if you pressure him.  And, the only chance in the world we have of beating Alabama this year is to stop Ingram and pressure the QB.  Something has to be done.  Recruiting is going to address the issues we have on defense, and we are going to get better.  I have every confidence in Coach Chizik.  But right now, at this moment, some changes have to be made.  The defense we are running is not working.  I mean, really, how much worse could it get?

Next week we have Kentucky.  Another game we SHOULD win.  We SHOULD have beat Arkansas.  I think we will beat Kentucky, simply because I see this week as a bit of a wake up call for the guys.  We'll see!!

On a side note, I have to throw a shoutout to Mississippi State.  MSU beat Houston up and down the field in pretty much every aspect of the game.  I mention this because War Eagle Atlanta said something about 'Mississippi State can't beat an OOC opponent.'  MSU SHOULD HAVE WON THAT GAME.  I have NEVER, in God knows how many years of watching football, seen more biased officiating by those CUSA officials.  Every single call went Houston's way.  It was CRIMINAL.  There were 2 penalties called that resulted in MSU touchdowns being negated on just RIDICULOUS, STUPID, TICKY-TACK calls.  First, an interference penalty was called on MSU that resulted in them getting pushed back instead of getting the ball 1st and goal on the 5 yard line.  Second, they called holding on an MSU receiver that was ON THE GROUND ON HIS STOMACH that resulted in a Dixon 20 yard touchdown run being called back.  Coach Dan Mullen is a bigger man then me, because if I were in that positon, I would have happily  written a fine check and lashed out into a profanity filled tirade at those officials in the post game press conferenece.  It is an absolute shame that they got away with it.  MSU won that game in my eyes.  They are a better team then Houston. 

I'd watch out for MSU in the coming years.  Coach Mullen has them going in the right direction, and he has a great offensive mind.  If he gets some talent in there, Mississippi State is going to be dangerous.  Dan Mullen has the ability to get them back to the Jackie Sherrill years where they were a top 15 team.  I'd be willing to bet it's going to happen. 

War Eagle everyone!!

5-0.  Who woulda thunk it?   Auburn is unbeaten in the SEC, blasted into the top 25 this week, and are one win away from bowl eligibility.  Most of us were thinking 6, 7, maybe 8 wins this year if we are extremely lucky.  Well, we're already at 5!  Plus, we still have at least 3 'should win' games left (Arkansas, Furman, and Kentucky).  We win those 3 games, we're an 8 win team.  And that is if we LOSE to LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia,  and Alabama!

Things are looking pretty damn rosy.  Especially after last year's mess.  Auburn has one of the top offenses in the country, and it was validated Saturday night against a VERY GOOD Tennessee defense.  Auburn burned them for 459 total yards, 224 rushing and 235 passing.  Chris Todd had another mistake free game, completing 59% of his passes for 218 yards, 1 touchdown, and NO INTERCEPTIONS.  He made very few bad plays all night, and seems to grow more confident each week.  He is playing with a LOT of confidence and trust in his teammates right now.  The most amazing part, I think, is the incredible balance.  Look at the numbers again:  224 rushing and 235 passing.  That is DANGEROUS for any team.  Line up to stop the run?  Fine, we'll throw it for 350 yards.  Drop back to stop the pass?  Fine, We'll hand the ball off to Tate and McCalebb all night.  Just TRY to stop us.  In order to stop Auburn, you have to stop both, and that is a hard thing to do.  Auburn is leading the country in total offense.  Let me say that again:  AUBURN, WHILE PLAYING IN THE SEC, IS LEADING THE COUNTRY IN TOTAL OFFENSE.  It's not a video game WAC team, or MAC team that never faces a decent defense, it is an SEC team.  That is special.  

A lot of people were waiting for this game to see if Auburn's offense is, in fact, for real.  That question was answered Saturday night with an emphatic YES.  Tennessee is no slouch on defense.  Eric Berry is one of the best linebackers in the country.  Probably a 1st round NFL draft choice.  Monte Kiffen is a brilliant defensive coordinator.  But, Auburn was just simply too much.  There were several plays where Kiffen had the right defense called, at that right time, and Auburn's skill players just flat out beat them.  The two plays that come to mind was the Ben Tate option play towards the end of the game.  Kiffen read the play, called a defense that stacked the option side, and Ben Tate reversed the field after the pitch, broke 3 or 4 tackles, and got 9 yards out of absolutely NOTHING.  Another play:  3rd quarter, 3rd and long.  A screen is called.  Kiffen guesses right, calls a blitz on McCalebb's side, Todd dumps the ball accurately to a double-covered Ontarrio McCalebb, he breaks 2 tackles and beats the defense for 17 yards and a first down.  The only thing Auburn didn't do Saturday that they did in all 4 previous games was finish.  They pretty much moved the ball at will all night, but once they got in the red zone, it was field goal city.  First time this year that has happened.  You have to credit that great Tennessee defense for that, because they did the same thing to Florida.  But overall, Auburn and Coach Malzhan systematically dismantled a very good defense Saturday night.  After watching that game, I feel like Auburn can play offense against anybody in the country.

Now for the defense.  I don't suppose that it's acceptable to make a 'barf' noise while writing a blog, and quite frankly I don't know how to put it into words, but that is the best description of our defense.  'Wait!', you say.  'Jonathan Crompton was held to 2 of 9 passing in the first half!  That's good defense!'  Well, that was clearly not the case.  Auburn COMPLETELY sold out to the run.  Tennessee's receivers were open all night.  Crompton was just that bad.  He threw the ball behind the receivers.  The receivers dropped every pass that was on target.  Auburn's defense didn't stop anybody.  Tennessee stopped themselves.  The crossing route over the middle was open all night, (even though Tennessee was running an illegal pick that was never called), and had Crompton not been so horrible, the score would have looked a lot different. 

I have one big question for Ted Roof:  WHY DON'T WE EVER BLITZ?  Every play we rush 4 and drop back into zone coverage.  Why are we doing this?  It is lack of personnel?  Maybe.  Roof has said a few times this year, "My first 11 guys are pretty good, but after that, we don't have much.'  Most of the recruiting this year will be focused on defense.  The LB corps REALLY needs to improve.  Are we not blitzing because Roof is afraid of getting somebody hurt?  Or is this just how he plays defense?  I REALLY hope that the latter is the case, because this defensive scheme is horrible.  We NEVER pressure the quarterback.  We gave up over 20 points to Ball State.  We gave up 22 points to Tennessee.  We are winning games this year because our offense is carrying the team right now.  The defense has scared me up to this point in the season, but Saturday night, I saw the scariest thing I've seen all year:

I saw Jonathan Crompton completely pick apart Auburn's defense on Tennessee's last 3 possesions.

JONATHAN FREAKING CROMPTON.

If that doesn't cause you concern, you must be made of steel.  It scares the Bejesus out of me.  Now, the last series you could maybe call a 'joke' series, with a 'joke' touchdown at the end, but still.......it's BAD.  They converted 3 4th downs.  They scored 17 points.  Crompton somehow gained some confidence, and finally started making the throws that were there the whole game.  What if that had been a GOOD quarterback, like say, Ryan Mallett? 

We have Arkansas this week.  We SHOULD win.  But......I can't say we WILL win, after what I saw Saturday.  How do you beat Arkansas?  You BLITZ.  Arkansas is completely one-dimensional on offense.  They have almost no running game, and a GREAT passing game.  Alabama beat them by blitzing the hell out of Ryan Mallett and forcing him to make mistakes.  Auburn has shown in 5 games this year that they rarely blitz.  If we drop back in zone coverage like we did against Tennessee, Mallett will stand back there, with all day to throw, and pick us apart.  We CAN'T allow this.  Arkansas has a passing game as good as anybody in the country.  They just don't have anything else.  They have no running game, and no defense.  Our offense could easily score 50 against them.  Problem is, their offense could easily score 50 on us if we don't play the right type of defense. 

This should be a high scoring shootout.  A 55-45 type game.  It'll look like a PAC-10 game.  If we win this week, we become bowl eligible.  This is a big game!  We are in the hunt for the SEC West.  There's a lot of games to be played, but we are right there in the mix.  We match up well against ANY team in the west.  I think we have a legitimate shot to be there at the end.  But we REALLY need to start playing defense.  This week will be a good indication, just like last week, of what Auburn is really capable of.  Either we're going to lose our first game, our offense will outscore their offense and we'll win, or our defense will finally wake up and start playing the kind of defense we are used to on the plains.  Which will it be?

War Eagle everyone!!!!

Another Saturday, another Auburn blowout.  Wow, what a change a year makes.  This time last year we were complaining about Franklin, complaining about Todd, complaining about Tuberville, and not enjoying college football at Auburn for the first time in years.  Now we're an undefeated offensive powerhouse, looking like one of the better teams in the country, and looking forward to Saturdays again.  I know most are wanting me to get to what I said in the headline, but don't worry, it's coming.  First let's dissect the game.

Offense:  Fantastic.  Simply fantastic.  I know it was against Ball State, and I know that Auburn had them physically outmatched at pretty much every position, but that was the case in quite a few games last year, and the results were very different.  Chris Todd has his arm back.  Terrell Zachary and Darvin Adams are on their way to becoming superstars.  Ontarrio Mccalebb and Ben Tate are pounding the ball with the best of them.  I was a bit dissapointed in Auburn's running game early, but it's not exactly easy to run when the other team is putting 8 people in the box.  But, for the second week in a row, Chris Todd made them pay, and the defense's gameplan quickly broke down when they couldn't stop Auburn's passing game.  They started dropping back into coverage, and Tate, Mario Fannin, and Eric Smith made them pay.  Ball State had no answer after that, nor has anyone else this year.  From what I'm hearing, Mccalebb will be fine, he was basically kept out of a blowout game as a precaution. 

Defense:  MUCH improved.  I can't agree with Acid Reign on the front page.  The tackling, while not great, was a lot better than last week.  Of course, they weren't trying to tackle Noel Devine and Jarrett Brown this week, but that is irrelevant.  Most of the points scored by Ball State can be credited to Auburn's poor special teams play, which will be addressed shortly.  Auburn's defense stopped the run, played soft on the short passing game, and made some great 1 on 1 open field tackles.  The defense is still not as good as I'd like to see it, but it seems to get a little bit better every week, and at this point, that is the best that you can hope for.  As much as I hate to say it, it seems they quit a little bit towards the end of the game, and gave Ball State a couple of easy scores that they shouldn't have.  Kudos to Ted Roof for getting in their faces, even in the middle of a blowout, and challenging them to make plays.  He's smart enough to know that the games aren't going to be this easy anymore, and he wants them ready for SEC play.  I'd still like to see them get a bit more aggressive in coverage.  Let's face it:  At Auburn, we're not used to an average defense; we're used to a GREAT defense.  We're used to the likes of Dontarrius Thomas, Takeo Spikes, Karlos Dansby, Carlos Rogers, David Irons and such.  This defense, to me, seems very average.  Not bad, but not good. 

Special Teams:  Atrocious.  Absolutely horrible.  We had an improvement in net punting this week but that was about it.  Two big returns negated by penalties.  Two fumbled punts.  A botched fake punt.  Poor coverage on opposing kicks.  Wes Byrum is the one bright spot on special teams.  If we needed a kick to win a game, I'd feel pretty darn good with Byrum's leg behind the ball.  But other than that, our special teams play has been HORRIBLE, and needs to be worked on the most.

Overall:  We're strong.  I honestly believe we are a top 25 team right now.  We've won an SEC game, dominated 2 weaker opponents, and beat a darn good West Virginia team.  On top of that, the Mississippi State win is looking better and better.  MSU should have beat LSU yesterday, and Dan Mullin is clearly changing the culture over in Starkville.  I think before Mullin is gone, they will return to the top 15 or so as they did in the Jackie Sherrill days.  MSU isn't a pushover anymore, and will only get better.  The fact that Auburn beat them pretty handily says a lot.  Honestly though, the Tennessee game is going to be a BIG test for one reason and one reason only:  MATCHUPS.  Monte Kiffin is the best defensive coordinator in the SEC, maybe in the country.  This guy can flat out coach defense.  Tennessee held Florida to 23 points.  They're only giving up 18 points a game.  Auburn leads the nation in total offense, and is 2nd in the nation behind Florida in scoring offense.  What did your first pee-wee football coach tell you years and years ago?  GOOD DEFENSE BEATS GOOD OFFENSE.  Next week will be the first real test of Auburn and Gus Malzahn's high-powered statistical monster.  Will they be able to crack Tennessee and Monte Kiffin?  Will Auburn's defense be able to stop the new SEC rushing leader (as of this week) in Monterio Hardesty?  We'll find out in 6 short days. 

Final Thoughts:  Now we're getting to the title of this blog.  Todd for Heisman you say?  Before you ask me what I've been snorting let me state my case; and I'd like to first point out that last year, and even in the beginning of this year I was one of the biggest Chris Todd haters in the Auburn nation.   Right now, the prime Heisman candidates are Tim Tebow, Colt Mccoy, Dez Bryant, and Jahvid Best.  Sam Bradford is out of the running after Oklahoma losing and him getting hurt.  Jahvid Best just turned in a 55 yard performance in a 42 to 3 shelacking Cal took at the hands of Oregon.  Dez Bryant isn't even sniffing the national lead in receiving, is only 6th in his own conference, and his team has a loss to Houston on his record.  That leaves Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow, the two other QB's.  Now Chris Todd's resume:  5th in the country is passing yards.  6th in the country in QB rating.  2nd in the country in touchdown passes.  1 interception.  Undefeated team.  He leads the #1 offense in the country.  And most importantly, he has STEPPED UP and led his team to wins when the game has been squarely on his shoulders.  Tim Tebow is behind Todd in almost every statistical category except for rushing yards and TD's.  You could make the argument that Chris Todd hasn't really played anybody yet but neither has Tebow.  Neither has McCoy.  On top of that, McCoy can't touch Todd statistically with his 5 interceptions thrown with only 9 touchdown passes. 

Now, I know what you're thinking, no way in hell that Chris Todd wins the Heisman.  You're right, I don't think there's a chance either.  The Heisman is a popularity contest, nothing more.  I stopped putting any stake in it the year Charles Woodson was chosen over a clearly superior Peyton Manning.  That pretty much killed the Heisman for me.  However, the point I'm trying to make is that if Auburn keeps winning, and if Todd keeps putting up these numbers, he deserves to be in the conversation.  Right now, if you dissect it, his resume is as good as anybody's early on.  There's a lot of football yet to be played, and I honestly doubt this will ever go anywhere but this blog, but Todd deserves to be mentioned if nothing else.  So far, he's earned it.  I'm interested to see how much more he'll make his case as the year goes on. 

War Eagle everyone!!  It's shaping up to be a great year!  The more I see of Auburn, the more I think we are capable of pulling off a big win or 2!  The future looks nothing but bright!  I'm sure everyone is grateful to coach Chizik and the staff for making the Auburn nation look forward to Saturdays again!!

Chris Todd stepped up Saturday night.  Auburn had no running game in the first half, and wouldn't have even been in the game had Todd not made the plays when needed in the first half.  He finally threw his first interception, but Todd did exactly what he is good at Saturday night.  He managed the game, made plays when he needed too, and kept West Virgnia honest in the second half.  WV came into the game stacking the box, exactly like everyone predicted, and made Chris Todd beat them.  Well, he did it.  Todd beat them, and now other defensive coordinators can take note.  Auburn can throw the ball too.  Stacking the box against us still won't stop us from scoring 40 points.  Now what?  Try something else? 

Of course, a lot of what won the game for Auburn was WV's quarterback deciding that he liked throwing the ball to Auburn instead of his own team in the second half, but we still wouldn't have won that game had Todd not carried the Tigers passing game.  Auburn's defense is scaring me now with some of the worst tackling I have ever seen in my many years of watching Auburn football.  Sources are telling me that since AU is not very deep on defense, they spent most of the offseason doing non-contact drills, and now they are paying for it.  Noel Devine is elusive anyway, but I mean, come on!!   How many times in the last decade or two can you recall us on here complaining about Auburn's lack of tackling?  Very little, if any.  This has got to be worked on. 

Special teams got a bit better, but there is still a LOT of room for improvement. 

The young WR corps gets better every game.  We also already have commitments from 2 more 4 stars for next season.  Coach GM's offense is attracting some definite interest!! 

Ontarrio Mccalebb's weakness was exposed Saturday night....he needs to put on some weight and still keep his speed.  However, he is still just a true freshman, and awesome!  Given a couple of years to develop physically, he's going to be playing on Sundays for sure. 

Ball State will be a nice tune up game before Tennessee.  Monte Kiffin is the best defensive coordinator in the SEC, so I'm really interested to see how the offense performs against him.  Can''t wait for next week!  War Eagle!!

Here we go!!  It's another year of Auburn football, and the first year of the Gene Chizik era.  We're 2 games into the season, Florida is the clear-cut, unquestioned #1, and to date, nobody has stepped up to challenge them.  USC's offense looks weak.  Texas struggled in the first half against Wyoming.  Alabama looked terribad for a time against FIU, (terribad means worse than terrible). Oklahoma lost, and Ohio State just plain sucks.  Even SCHlobberin' Lew HoltzCH's prediSCHion about Notre Dame finishing undefeated is no longer valid, (Thank God).  But, this is trackemtigers.com.  There's only one team here that matters, and that is Auburn.  So where exactly are we right now?  

Well, quite frankly, we're right about where I thought we would be at the end of last year.  I'm thinking 7 wins will be a good season, 8 or 9 wins will be spectacular.  We still don't have a quarterback.  Chris Todd, although he has some of his arm strength back, has yet to show very much improvement.  He's still throwing a few floaters, still holds on to the ball too long before he throws it a lot of times, and still completely folds under pressure.  However, in the big scheme of things, we're doing well simply because QB play is about the only real problem we have at this point.  I think that there are a few early season heroes for the Tigers that warrent mention:

1.  KODI BURNS.  You simply can't say enough good things about this kid.  There are almost no words.  He loses the starting QB job, and instead of whining and acting like a baby, which is what a lot of high-profile athletes would do, he stands up in front of his teammates and gives a speech about commitment, and just wanting help the team win.  He doesn't care about himself, he cares about Auburn football.  WOW.  Just......WOW.  What maturity.  What leadership.  There isn't an athlete in the country, pro or amateur, that couldn't take a lesson in from this kid.  On top of that, as the Wildcat QB for the team, he is giving opposing defensive coordinators nightmares.  He's started a year at QB, so he's already head and shoulders better than anyone else in the country at that position simply due to experience.  He can run, catch, and throw.  When he's out there, literally anything can happen.  Any play can be called.  And as a defensive coach or player, the worst feeling in the world is not knowing what's next.  Kodi provides that element for Auburn, and for that reason, when he's on the field, I predict that Auburn's opponents' defensive coaches will be keeping the companies that makes Kaopectate and Maalox quite profitable this season.

2.  GUS MALZAHN.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm ready to have his children.  Auburn has one of the best offensive coordinators in the country in this guy.  I can only hope that we get at least 3 or 4 good years out of him before the inevitable parade of FBS schools begging him to be their next head coach starts happening.  His offensive play calling and schemes to this point have been absolutely fantastic.  He's utilizing what has always been a huge strength at Auburn, the power running game, while at the same time incorporating the spread formation passing that has become so popular all over the college game.  Auburn has a double-edged offensive sword now, thanks to this man, and is more dangerous offensively than we have been in years.  Once the 4 and 5 star offensive recruits start rolling in, Auburn is going to be deadly.  And believe me, they will.  Top offensive players want to play for top offensive coaches, where they will score points, get numbers, and be looked at by NFL scouts.  Malzahn provides that.  As long as he is here, Auburn will be a school that is looked at by pretty much every top offensive recruit in the country, and that makes for winning a lot of football games. 

3.  ONTERRIO MCCALEBB.  This guy is a beast.  True freshman, disgustingly fast, and a smart runner to boot.  They say that the guy can actually chase squirrels and catch them.  He's looked fantastic the first 2 games, and is making a case for Freshman of the Year.  This guy will be carrrying the ball on Sundays one day, mark my word.

4.  GENE CHIZIK.  The head coach warrents mention on this list.  Why?  Because, in my view, since he was hired at Auburn, he has done EVERYTHING RIGHT.  He endured the meltdown that came with his hiring from the Auburn faithful that wanted Mike Leach, Steve Spurrier, Turner Gill, or ANYBODY but Chizik.  I'll raise my hand as well, I was one of the meltdownees.  But Chizik showed up, hired a great staff, hit the ground running and got some amazing recruits in, and has pretty much done everything that has needed to be done to help Auburn recover from the disaster that was the 2008 season.  Since then, he's let his coaches coach, his players play, and he's stayed the hell out of the way and not micromanaged his employees.  My hats off to coach Chizik for enduring us fans that wanted a 'big name' coach and doing a better job then they probably would have anyway.  I, for one, and FIRMLY planted in coach Chizik's corner and am not going anywhere.  He's my coach now, and I'm proud to have him.  Us 'meltdowners' so far have been proven dead wrong, and I've never been more happy about it.  War Eagle coach!  We're all proud to have you!

Everything isn't perfect by any means, but it's way better than last year.  Besides QB play, the defense is scaring me a little bit.  We seem to have gotten away from pressuring the QB like we used to, but my sources are telling me that the coaches are purposefully playing a bit soft right now because they don't want anybody to get hurt. 

From what I'm hearing, the defense is going to open up a bit more as the year goes on.  I very much would like to see Chris Todd improve, because in my view, he is the weakest link on the team right now.  There were times on Saturday night where I'd watch him and get excited, and there were times where I'd watch him and want to throw something at the TV.  One word can describe him right now:  INCONSISTENT. 

There were throws that he made that were as good as anybody in the country could make, and there were throws that I could have made better.  But all in all, from what I saw, against a good defense, and especially against pressure, Chris Todd will NOT make the plays needed consistently.  I really hope I'm wrong, but I just don't think I am.  His arm is definitely better than last year, but last year he made Danny Weurffel look like Brett Favre.  His first real test won't be for a few weeks.  Until then, all we can do is wait and see.  One thing I do like about him, though:  He isn't turning the ball over.  That goes a long way. 

It's going to be a wild ride this year, and so far the Gene Chizik era is off to a great start!  I really feel like the sky is the limit for the Auburn football program right now, and it's a great feeling.  War Eagle everybody!!!!!!!!

For anybody that cares, Greg Knox (our former WR coach at AU) was hired as the RB coach at Mississippi State.  I don't know what they were thinking, because Greg Knox, in my opinion, was the WORST position coach in the country.  He was even worse then Ensminger.  Hard to believe that was possible, I know, but it was. 

I feel really bad for my Dad, b/c he's a die hard MSU fan.  Let's just hope that Dan Mullen doesn't expect his RB's to run routes and catch passes, because if he does they are screwed.

I know we have a lot of foolish pride in the South, and sometimes maybe a bit too much of it is tied up in how well we play football, but tonight was more proof of why we have that pride.  Now, during the regular season, most of us wouldn't piss on Florida if it was on fire, but tonight, I was a Gator fan, and I was proud of how well they performed and how well they represented the SEC. 

I simply don't understand why the rest of the country can't figure out that DEFENSE is what makes winning teams.  In the SEC, all the athletes are on the defensive side of the ball.  We've always taken pride in it.  Until the Big 12, the Big 10, the PAC 10, and all the other guys figure that out they will continue to put up big scoring numbers in the regular season, and get their butts kicked by the SEC in the last game of the year. 

The most obvious and glaring thing to point out is the supposedly vaunted, unbeatable, automatic Big 12 offenses that all the sportswriters and ESPN commentators were blaring about all year.  Once the bowl games came around, they were EXPOSED.  The huge Big 12 offensive numbers this year were more of a product of terrible defense then great offense.  The proof is in the Bowls.  Look at the numbers:

1.  OU vs FLA.  Florida wins, and Oklahoma's offense, which Skip Bayless (AKA  the only person on the planet that might possibly be dumber than Paul Finebaum) called "The greatest offensive unit ever in college football" was held to a mere FOURTEEN, that's right, FOURTEEN points by the 3RD BEST DEFENSE in the SEC.  Let me repeat that.  THE THIRD BEST.  There were two teams in the league that were better.  On the offensive side of the ball, everyone is raving about Tim Tebow and how fantastic he was.  He was fantastic in the second half.  He played a POOR first half.  Nearly every time that Florida was stopped in the game, Florida stopped themselves, either with penalties or Tebow throwing interceptions.  Now fast forward to the 4th quarter......the unbeatable, automatic, greatest offense in college football history gets the ball with about 3 minutes left, where they HAVE to score,  supposedly in their best element, (the hurry up offense), and get OWNED by the Florida defense.  Need I go on?  Insert the "Boomer Sooner" band music here, except you can sing "Overrated, Overrated."

2.  Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss.  Wow, what can you say about this game?  Texas Tech was a JOKE.  They were taken to the woodshed and embarrassed by Ole Miss.  So what happened here?  Another one of those supposedly amazing Big 12 offenses.  Ole Miss was even below Florida.  They were the 5TH BEST defense JUST IN THE SEC.  Texas Tech gave up 47....that's FORTY SEVEN points to the 3rd best offense in the SEC.  They managed 34 points against the #5 defense in the SEC, and 2 of those touchdowns were in Garbage time in the 4th quarter with Ole Miss way up. 

3.  OSU vs Oregon  Another Big 12 loss.  Gave up 47 points to a team that averaged 41 points per game in a no-defense, down league (the PAC 10). They folded like an accordian when playing against good competition, though, for the most part.....losing to USC 44-10.  Not exactly a bell-ringer in my opinion.

4.  Texas vs. Ohio State.  Ahh.....THE Ohio State University.  The second most perpetually overrated team in the country, next to USC.  They were epic fail this year, but they could actually play a little bit of defense.  Of course, Ohio State deserved to lose that game 24-21 because of the STUPID defensive play they called on the last play of the game.  Texas was the only team in the Big 12 that actually has a decent secondary, which is why they were able to beat Oklahoma.  However, another of the vaunted Big 12 offenses manages 24 points against a middle-of-the-road nationally defense.  Their defense gave up 21 points to Ohio state, who was ranked 45th nationally in scoring offense, and who played the majority of their games in an EXTREMELY WEAK Big 10 conference.  Another strike

Of course, now all the talking heads are mouthing off about how Utah and/or USC are deserving of a share of the national championship.  I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing it.  Let's break it down:

USC

Every single year, Pete Carroll does the SAME DAMN THING.  He plays in a weak conference, loses at least one game that he has no business whatsoever losing, beats up on a pathetic Big 10 opponent in the Rose Bowl, and then comes out and says "Well we're the best team in the country, nobody can beat us right now."  Well, Pete, if you are the best team in the country, then DON'T FRICKING LOSE!!!!!!!!  Don't lose to STANFORD AT HOME!!!!  Don't lose to Oregon State!!!!  USC managed to play 4 ranked teams this year.  They beat Ohio State, who lost a bowl game, lost 3 games this year, and was winning games in a conference that was widely regarded as the weakest in FBS this year.  Stop me when you're impressed.  Next, they beat Oregon, who finished the year 10-3 and beat OSU in a bowl game, which we already discussed.  Quality win.  Next, they beat Cal, who is a mediocre team at best.  Cal beat an underperforming Miami in a bowl game, sure....but they have JOKE losses to Maryland and to Arizona.  Good teams don't lose 2 sure-win games.  Finally, they beat Penn State in the Rose Bowl.  Penn State was a mediocre team at best, grossly overrated, that managed to take advantage of a PATHETIC Big 10 this year.  When your conference goes 1-6 in Bowl games, it sucks.  A victory over Penn State, to me, means almost nothing.  Penn State wouldn't have won 6 games in the SEC this year.  Oh yeah, and mighty mighty USC lost to Oregon State this year early.  OSU could only manage 3 points against Pitt, although they did win the game.  USC was a decent team this year, true.  But a loss to OSU and a complete lack of any tough games down the stretch doesn't speak loudly for a national title share.  Perhaps Pete should play somebody other than the Big 10.

Utah. 

This is the team that pisses me off the most.  Now don't get me wrong, there are fewer things in life more satisfying than watching Alabama get humiliated.  But I was actually pulling for Bama in the Sugar Bowl because I knew, if they lost, we'd have to listen to an entire year of CRAP about how Utah got robbed because they went undefeated on a pathetic schedule and should be national champions.  JUST SHUT UP.  Utah, I have a message for you.....if you want to be a national champion, you need to STEP THE BLEEP UP AND PLAY A DECENT SCHEDULE.  Get out of your pathetic conference, stop calling Boise State and BYU quality wins, and PLAY SOME REAL FOOTBALL TEAMS.  You say you beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.  I got news for you......you didn't.  You beat a shell of a non-caring team that was out until 1am drinking the night before and was missing it's best player.  John Parker Wilson was sacked more times in that game then he was all year, because Andre Smith was not playing.  Congrats on beating Alabama.  But.....I have news for you....you wouldn't have beat Alabama 7 weeks ago.  Of your other 3 'ranked team' wins, I consider 1, MAYBE 2 of them quality.  You beat Oregon State, a middle-of-the-road PAC 10 team, but everybody knows the PAC 10 was down this year.  You beat TCU by 3 at home, who managed to squeak out a 1 point win against perpetually overrated Boise State in a bowl.  Then you beat BYU.  How in the hell did BYU ever get ranked??????  HOW??  They played 2 ranked teams ALL YEAR, (1 of the Utah), lost both of those games, then got thumped by an unranked, 7 win Arizona in a bowl game!!  I say again, HOW ARE THEY EVEN RANKED??  The point is.....you played 1 quality game all year, an eight win ranked team from a BCS conference at home and managed a 3 point win.  That was your BEST WIN ALL YEAR up until the bowl game.  PLEASE shut the hell up.  You are NOT the national champion.  You are NOT the best team in the country.  You are NOTHING more than another Hawaii, except you happened to get lucky and played a BCS bowl team with nothing to play for.  Just SHUT THE HELL UP.  You want to be recognized?  Step up and PLAY A SCHEDULE.  Play USC.  Play Florida.  Play Auburn.  Play Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Georgia, ANYBODY. You beat a couple of those teams, then we'll talk.  Until you do, just keep your little mouth shut and have fun beating up weak teams. 

Amazingly, all the stuff I just typed can be summed up into 2 sentences:   1.  Florida is the National Champion. 2.  The SEC is the best conference in college football.  Anyone that thinks otherwise can be deferred with one final little statistic.  The SEC is now 5-0 in BCS title games.  That's right.  NOBODY has beaten an SEC team in a BCS title game.  If we're there, we win it.  Oh yeah.....we've now won the last 3 in a row.  Might have been 4 in a row had Auburn not gotten the great screwjob of 2004-2005.  Put that in your pipe and smoke it. 

Go SEC!!!!!

This is a MESS.  I've spent the last  couple of days hoping to wake up from a nightmare.  I've asked myself over and over again how our athletic director could possibly be this stupid?  Is he REALLY this stupid?  Is he REALLY that much of a failure? The stupidity and incompetence of Jacobs is staggering.  I remember when just a few years ago when we were a national powerhouse.....in the BCS mix every single year.  Now we are a national laughingstock.  Everybody in the entire country sees the stupidity of this hire except Jay Jacobs.  Why?  What, in fact, is going on?

The latest I'm hearing is that, believe it or not, Lowder is actually not happy about the hire.  The main driving force behind the hire has been Pat Dye with a few other prominent boosters, and Jay Jacobs actually being stupid enough to listen to them.  The latest rumors swirling is that the reason Gene Chiszik was hired, and the reason so many 'no name' candidates were interviewed is that they were looking for a candidate that would agree to let someone else hire their staff.  Chiszik was the only candidate that would ultimately agree to that. The way that this rumor will be verified is to look at who is hired on the staff.  Reportedly, Dye wants to hire a bunch of ex-Auburn players on the staff.  Watch and see.  A good way to gauge the beginning of this is if Patrick Nix gets hired as offensive coordinator.  

There are two positive things I am trying to take away from this.  One:  A lot of ex-Auburn players that used to play under Chiszik (Dontarrius Thomas, Karlos Dansby, Carlos Rogers, etc.) that are in the NFL now are speaking out in a positive way about him, saying that they loved playing for him, he's a good coach, etc.  Hopefully this will help recruiting.  Two:  if Chiszik does fall flat on his face, as many expect he will, surely this is the end of Jay Jacobs.  It'll take a year or two to get rid of him, but at least we'll be rid of him. 

I hope.

EDIT:  Was confirmed this morning that all assistants were told to 'look for employment' during a meeting last night.....including James Willis.  The only assistant that was actually GOOD at his job.  The loss of Willis is a TERRIBLE mistake.  He's a good coach and a fantastic recruiter.  Let the stupidity begin.....