SB Nation User Blog: PowerOfDixieland

Congratulations

PowerOfDixieland — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 04:46:55 -0000

Hey everyone -

Well, the 2008 Iron Bowl has come and gone, and it will go down in the history books as a forgettable game, particularly for us Auburn folk. The outcome was almost never in doubt, and when the final whistle blew, everyone who watched (I could only stomach 2.5 quarters) knew that one team dominated the other in every phase of the game: offense, defense, special teams, coaching; you name it, Alabama was better yesterday. So I just thought I'd take a break from licking my wounds to come over and congratulate you guys on a very impressive win and the most lopsided Alabama victory over Auburn in my 24 years of living. Good luck against the Gators next weekend. They look very impressive and hard to beat, but anyone who says it will be a cakewalk for Urban Meyer's squad doesn't know what he's talking about. See you next year!

An interesting national championship scenario

PowerOfDixieland — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:06:13 -0000

With Oklahoma slamming Texas Tech last night, the Big 12 South is now in a 3-way tie. Everyone seems to be in agreement that the BCS championship game will come down to the SEC championship game winner vs. the Big 12 South winner, and it's only natural, considering that the top four teams are all in either the SEC or the Big 12 South. However, it got me to thinking about an interesting scenario.

For argument's sake, let's say that the Alabama-Florida winner is in the BCS championship game no matter what. Then, let's say that Texas and Oklahoma both win next week, and the BCS stays as it is this week, with Texas above OU. That sets up a Big 12 championship game of Texas vs. Missouri. Now, imagine that Missouri wins that game. What would the other team in the BCS championship game be?

Would it be Oklahoma, which did not win its own conference? How about USC, which won't win the Pac-10 outright unless it beats UCLA next week and Oregon State loses to Oregon? Utah is the MWC champion, sitting undefeated at #6, should they get a shot? Should Texas Tech get back into the conversation? Basically, what I'm saying is that if Missouri beats the Big 12 South winner, we are almost guaranteed to see a team that didn't win its conference playing Florida or Alabama.

Is that okay with you? What if the team that didn't win its conference beats Florida or Alabama and is deemed the national champion? How would you feel about a team without a conference championship ring wearing a national championship ring? Does this make a playoff even more needed/wanted?

I've been a playoff proponent for years, even before the 2004 fiasco. I also had the basic Barack Obama college football playoff plan a year ago, before he stole it and made it his. Eight teams, the 6 major conference champions, and 2 at-larges, either mid-major conference winners or a very good team that didn't win its conference. Now you may be saying, "but POD, isn't that counter-intuitive to what you said earlier about conference champions should win national championships?" And yes, it is. But the difference here is that the champion is determined on the field, not by some arbitrary computer system. It's like the NCAA basketball tournaments. Nobody disputes those winners because they were the best in the tournament. As everything stands this year, this is how I would set up the playoffs:

1. Alabama/Florida vs. 8. Oklahoma

2. Texas vs. 7. Utah

3. Penn State vs. 6. ACC Champion

4. Cincinnati vs. 5. Oregon State

Use the BCS for seeding, and switch Oklahoma and Utah to keep Texas from playing Oklahoma in the first round. What do you guys think?

How I Would Fix The Football Situation At Auburn

PowerOfDixieland — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 01:53:56 -0000

This season has been a disappointment, to say the least. We started in the top ten, and it will take a win over Georgia or Alabama to become eligible for a bowl berth (assuming we beat UT-Martin). We got rid of Al Borges because the offense wasn't performing at the level we needed it to in order to be a top-tier SEC team. Tony Franklin came in, and all our numbers were lower than they were under Borges, so we fired him. Before yesterday's game, the offense was even worse than it was under Franklin. The defense has seen its share of injuries, for certain, but was its early-season success a matter of being really good or playing really terrible offenses? It's obvious that what we have right now don't work. If I were in charge of making the decisions about Auburn football, here is what my plan would be, for what it's worth.

For this description, I'm going to assume that we beat UTM and lose to Georgia and Alabama to close the season and finish at 5-7 (2-6). On the Monday after the Iron Bowl, I call Tuberville and all of the people in charge to discuss the football situation.

The first thing I would tell him is that he has done an admirable job as head coach at Auburn. His record at Auburn is 85-39, including 52-30 in conference. He has won an SEC title and won or shared five SEC division titles, two of which ended with a berth in the SEC championship game. He has gone 5-5 against LSU and Georgia, and 7-3 against Alabama. Against all other SEC teams he has a winning record. He has taken us to eight bowls in ten years. He has won five of those bowl games. He has kept the program out of trouble, has done a good job graduating players, and has represented Auburn University with class and dignity. By all accounts, he is a good football coach.

However, the program has slid in the last five years. The SEC record since 2004 is 8-0, 7-1, 6-2, 5-3, 2-6. We are winning fewer and fewer SEC games each year. Our offense has been regressing every year since 2004 as well. We are having a hard time recruiting talented offensive skill position players. Other SEC schools are passing us by in terms of recruiting ability and prestige. We haven't seen the SEC championship game since 2004. We have still had a good overall record since 2004, but we are trending in the wrong direction.

I would tell Tuberville that he has one year to make positive improvements. He doesn't need to go undefeated or win the conference title in 2009 to keep his job, but he needs the team to play better and have better results. Something like at least a 5-3 or 6-2 conference record, an 8-4 or 9-3 overall record and a New Year's Day bowl game are goals. If he fails to meet these goals in 2009, then it's time for him to hit the road. If he meets or surpasses these goals, we see what he does in 2010. If the program continues to improve, we look at an extension. If we have another stinker year like we did this year, then we let him go.

As far as the offense goes, let Tuberville make his own decision about whom he hires as the next offensive coordinator, but we are involved in the process. The new coordinator either is allowed to bring in his own position coaches, or understands up front that he will have to work with the ones we have. Let offensive coordinator candidates meet with the position coaches to determine if the relationship is going to work. Let Tuberville know that his loyalty to the offensive position coaches is in question. But ultimately, let him make the final decision about the next offensive coordinator.

Auburn's football program is definitely in better shape right now than when we hired Tommy Tuberville. We have loads of talent on the defensive side of the ball, and we have some decent offensive talent. However, if we continue to deteriorate as a program, we could just as soon be in the same position as we were in 1998. And with the high level of coaching in the conference and the amount of talent at other SEC programs, it would be a much harder task to rise back to the top from that level than it was back then.

War Damn Eagle!!

Pat Forde Smears Auburn

PowerOfDixieland — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:19:30 -0000

Pat Forde didn't hold back any punches in his most recent "Forde Yard Dash." The senior writer from ESPN.com gave our beloved school a tongue lashing when descrbing some of the events of the last ten years. Here's the particularly slanderous passage:

Fitting that the two schools engaging in the cold-blooded, NFL Lite practice of kneecapping coaches in October are Auburn (1) and Clemson (2). They historically rank among the most warped perspectives in college football. Check the NCAA infractions database: Auburn has had five major infractions cases in football alone; Clemson has had three.

Patience has never been a strong suit at Auburn. Terry Bowden resigned there at midseason 10 years ago under direct pressure from super-booster Bobby Lowder. Five years later, the school orchestrated a clandestine interview with Bobby Petrino to replace Tommy Tuberville (3) while Tuberville still had the job. And Tubs has changed coordinators like underwear in his tenure.

Given that cuckoo's nest context, it's not shocking to see Auburn trap-door offensive coordinator Tony Franklin (4) all of five games into his tenure at the school. Sources told The Dash that the coaching staff had become embroiled in turmoil and Tuberville felt compelled to do something to stave off an internal insurrection -- but shouldn't the head coach and administration be able to settle disputes with something less rash than an in-season firing? Isn't that part of the reason a coach and athletic director get paid the big bucks, to handle personality and philosophy conflicts?

I don't know about you, but it angers me that he says we have a "warped perspective" and calling our football program a "cuckoo's nest." Am I overreacting or does this strike y'all the same way?

War Eagle!

Tommy Bowden fired at Clemson

PowerOfDixieland — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:26:00 -0000

Tommy Bowden fired at Clemson

This is pretty hot off the wire, so I'm not 100% sure it's accurate, but be on the lookout for more information.

List of Teams Whose Offensive Coordinators We Should Consider

PowerOfDixieland — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:10:28 -0000

I've made several posts on this site (before Franklin was fired) about why I prefer to look at yards per play than yards per game when judging an offense's effectiveness. Some of you have disagreed with me, but let me offer this argument for yards per play vs. yards per game:

Imagine a team who gains 500 yards in a game. Sounds impressive, no? Well, let me also tell you that through some amazing use of timeouts, running out of bounds, and incomplete passes, that team had 100 offensive possessions, and went 3 and out every time. Now, the 500 yards in the game looks great, but when you look at the 1.33 yards per play, it's not as impressive. Now, it's an extreme example, but I think it illustrates my point.

Now that I've got that out of the way, take a look at the national leaders in yards per play:

Click here

Notice anything? Only five teams have a worse yards per play average than Auburn. It's hard to imagine it getting much worse, that's for sure. The reason I'm posting this, however, is not to point out how bad we've been offensively, but look at teams who have done a good job in yards per play. I'm omitting major teams from BCS conferences (no, we're not getting USC's or Oklahoma's OC), because for most of those offensive coordinators, coming to Auburn would be a lateral move. I also want to leave out coordinators from Sun Belt teams, because for one, we've already been down that road, and for another, it might be the worst conference in the country. Here's a list of guys I'd be interested in:

Matt Canada - Indiana
Jeff Brohm - Louisville
Philip Montgomery - Baylor
Mike Locksley - Illinois
(special case) Chris Klenakis - Nevada

I say Klenakis is a special case because he runs an offense that is only run at Nevada, and I wonder how much of their success is his and how much is Chris Ault's. Anyway, these are guys whose teams have high yards per play averages, with special emphasis on yards per rush, since we want to be a running team.

What do you guys think?

Vote on the title of Tony Franklin's newest tell-all book!

PowerOfDixieland — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:41:01 -0000

Well, I guess everyone's heard by now that Tony Franklin is no longer our offensive coordinator. That drastically changes the dynamic of this season, to say the least. It's hard to tell whether this will have a positive impact or negative impact on the rest of the season, and I don't know about you, but this news strikes me as bad considering it's in the middle of the week and we have a bye next week.

So I thought I'd have a little fun with it and consider some titles for Tony Franklin's tell-all book about his 10-month Auburn experience. Feel free to add your own in the comments, but these were the best I could come up with.

War Eagle!!

Poll

What will be the title of Tony Franklin's new tell-all book on Auburn and Coach Tuberville?

Run out by a WingNUT

6 votes

Three yards and a cloud of injustice

10 votes

Fourth down and life to go 2: Electric Boogaloo

3 votes

Spread Eagle my ass!

18 votes

I spent ten months as Auburn's OC and all I got was this pink slip

5 votes

Hey does anyone still have Mumme's number?

3 votes

I kissed Chris Todd and I liked it

11 votes

56 votes | Poll has closed

Congrats on the big win

PowerOfDixieland — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 01:42:18 -0000

Huge win for your program. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong end, but you guys earned it. Obviously, I think our team played like absolute crapola after the first quarter, but I'm interested to see how you guys view it. That said, I think you outplayed and outcoached us, plain and simple. Good luck the rest of the season!

Oh, and Wes Byrum would like his payment in a briefcase full of non-sequential twenties. Don't want the feds to get suspicious ;)

War Eagle!

Good luck this weekend!

PowerOfDixieland — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:12:17 -0000

Hello, everyone, and congrats on the new blog!

I just wanted to wish you the best of luck this weekend, and congratulations on getting College GameDay to come to your cittaaaaay. I've been very surprised and excited by Vanderbilt's transition into a much better team since Bobby Johnson showed up in Nashville. I've always thought he was one of the most underappreciated, if not best, coachest in the SEC and country. He's doing positive things for a program that hasn't done positive things in my lifetime.

Anyways, as I said, good luck, I hope y'all go 11-1. You can guess who the one is.

Now, if you'll kindly lose by 50 this weekend, I'd be much obliged :)

End of September look at the numbers

PowerOfDixieland — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 01:31:58 -0000

Now that autumn is settling in and October is nearly upon us, I think it's time to review the first five games of the season and see how we stack up against the rest of the SEC and nation in a few stats. Below you'll find a table that should give a pretty accurate depiction of how our offense and defense have done so far this year:

|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------||
|           |                   Offense                  |                   Defense                  |
|-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
|           | yds per rush | yds per pass | yds per play | yds per rush | yds per pass | yds per play |
|-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
| Number    |     3.8      |     5.9      |     4.7      |     2.9      |     4.6      |     3.8      |
|-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
| SEC Rank  |      9       |      t8      |      11      |      7       |      1       |      1       |
|-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------+--------------|
| NCAA Rank |      82      |     t90      |     t97      |      23      |      3       |      t3      |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Earlier this year I did a similar comparison between Tony Franklin's numbers and Al Borges' numbers from last year, and the conclusion was that Franklin's offense wouldn't be a great improvement over Borges', at least in the SEC. I guess I underestimated a few things: how playing SEC defenses would affect the numbers, and how long it would take for the system to click (if it ever will!).

Obviously, the numbers tell us what we already know: our defense is incredible, and our offense is inadequate.

That we rank #1 in the SEC and tied for #3 in NCAA in defensive yards per play is amazing. This may just be Tuberville's best defense yet. It also may be a product of already having played Mississippi St. and Tennessee, two teams whose offenses give ours a run for the money as far as ineptitude goes. We also played Louisiana-Monroe, a Sun Belt team. Once we start playing the big dogs of the SEC in the coming weeks, we'll find alot more out about our defense.

As far as the offense is concerned, the 11th place finish in the conference and tie for 97th place finish in the country should be enough to make your skin crawl or your blood boil. If this team wants to have a good season (a good season to me is making a New Year's Day bowl) the offense needs to wake up soon. Defense does win championships, but you can only rely on your defense so much. It could only be a matter of time before the defense breaks down from overuse.

The verdict, obviously, is that our offense sucks while our defense rules. Both of these things you should already know, but using these statistics, it just goes to show how good our defense has been and how bad our offense has been. Both are at extremes of the spectrum. It makes me wonder if we've scored an offensive touchdown in practice all season.

Well I guess that's all for this one. Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms?

War Eagle!!