Two articles from CFN

[Tiger Wench]

By: Russ Mitchell

So much for taking a step backward.

Moments after the initial glow of its national championship victory began to fade, Auburn University faced a rather daunting overhaul of its offensive line. Four of its five starters were walking away on top, and head man Gene Chizik identified the position as a top priority heading into the final stretch of recruiting season.

Feel free to check that one off the list.

In one of the bigger surprises of Signing Day, the nation’s top ranked offensive tackle Cyrus Kouandjio announced he would become an Auburn Tiger. He just didn’t put a timeline on it. Kouandjio decided to hold off on faxing in his Letter of Intent, though we’ll take the young man at his word (yes, perhaps not our first mistake).

At 6’7”, 325 lbs, Kouandjio has a ton of upside – a scary prospect given his already significant aptitude.

Chizek and crew then went out to the desert to steal from the University of Texas another top five tackle in Arizona’s Christian Westerman. Exceptionally strong, Westerman is known first as a run dominating blocker, not shy about showing a bit of a mean streak.

Already cracking books on campus is arguably the nation’s best center prospect in Reese Dismukes from Spanish Fork, Alabama. Throw into that mix one of the nation’s top five guards in 6’5”, 300 lb Greg Robinson from Thibodaux, Louisiana to go with another guard from Georgia (Thomas O'Reilly), and the Tigers from the Plains have assembled a starting line for the ages.

Contingent to each of them living up to expectations, of course – which, as all of us knows, is hardly a given. Recruiting is as much an art as a science, and rating recruits an even more uncertain assignment.

Yet what might stand out as even more impressive than the quality of these recruits assembled are their zip codes: Maryland, Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana and Georgia. A very impressive showing indeed.

Now let’s see what happens in the coming days with new CBS soap, As the Kouandjio Turns.

[Tiger Wench]

Fiu is back on the shit list:

By Pete Fiutak

Alright, SEC, I’m calling you out.

After sitting through another eight-hour Signing Day infomercial about why the SEC is so superior to everyone else, it’s time for the best league in college football to come down from its little talent party and finally separate itself from everyone else by 74 miles.

The SEC is obviously great, but with the talent the league gets year in and year out, it should be better, ??? WTF???? 5 straight BCS champs?? and if it's not, it might be time to wonder if all that goes into recruiting actually hurts the finished product a little bit.

All 12 SEC teams, and that includes Vanderbilt, finished in the Scout top 45 recruiting rankings. Let that sink in for a moment. EVERY TEAM is in the top 45. Imagine if Duke, or Indiana, or Washington State, or Iowa State could crack the upper-echelon … along with every other team in their respective conferences. The Big Ten would be going nutso if it had the recruiting success the SEC just had. The talent gap between the SEC and every other conference is getting to a frightening level, and now it has to translate to the field from top to bottom and not just with the one or three jaw-dropping good teams whose turn it is this year.   Why not?  What's wrong with that?

Oh sure, the SEC won another national title, took home another Heisman, and looked great in key games on New Year’s Day, but there’s no excuse for any more Georgia losses to UCF. There’s no rationale for Kentucky to lose to Pitt, for South Carolina to lose to Florida State, or for Auburn to need a late field goal to beat Oregon. It’s time for the SEC to take things to a whole other level.

There’s no excuse for the East to be as bad as it was last year, and there’s no such thing as a rebuilding year at places like Alabama, Ole Miss, or Tennessee. Not when ten of the Scout Top 25 recruiting classes of 2009 belonged to the SEC, and not when year after year after year the talent keeps stockpiling up.

Going forward, the questions have to keep being asked of the SEC after so many great recruiting classes. Is there a sense of entitlement among the top players? Why is it that Wisconsin is outside the velvet rope, yet can be as good as it is? How can Boise State and TCU be so consistently great without the top-shelf, SEC talent? Does the SEC need fewer primma donnas and more try-hards who didn't get their butts kissed since eighth grade? 

It’s almost as some SEC programs are so busy trying to beat each other in the recruiting wars that they sometimes forget how it's all supposed to translate to the field. There’s something inherently wrong with the mindset that Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen had on Wednesday as he and his staff were already working for the 2012 Signing Day when the ink wasn’t dry on the signatures they just received, but that's what they have to do to keep up the pace.

Everyone works hard to recruit, and it’s a true 365-day-a-year process, but recruiting isn’t nearly as crazy in other conferences and it’s not as much of a fight. Do SEC coaches have to spend so much energy dealing with recruiting that they’re fried when it’s time to actually coach? Unless the SEC can harness all the amassed talent and do even more with it, it might be time for someone in the conference to wonder if this is all worth it.

SEC, you have the rich TV deal. You have everyone kissing your butt. You have the talent oozing out of every team from top to bottom. So that’s it. No more 2010s. Be better. Play up to your talent level.

[eagleair89]

"SEC, you have the rich TV deal. You have everyone kissing your butt. You have the talent oozing out of every team from top to bottom. So that’s it. No more 2010s. Be better. Play up to your talent level."

using the CBSSports Power Rankings:

The SEC had 7 teams in the top 45: (1, 9, 11, 13, 20, 23, 36)

BIG 10:  5 teams (5, 6, 15, 41, 43)

BIG XII:  6 teams (7, 12, 17, 18, 19, 40)

PAC 10:  4 teams (3, 4, 37, 45)

ACC:  5 teams (14, 16, 21, 28, 38)

Big East: 3 teams (29, 30, 42)

I would say  the SEC is playing up to its talent level.

WDE

[Tiger Wench]

Our only true competition lies within our own conference.  I still think that had there not been a month between the SECCG and the BCSCG, Auburn would have KILLED Oregon.

[eagleair89]

Our only true competition lies within our own conference.  I still think that had there not been a month between the SECCG and the BCSCG, Auburn would have KILLED Oregon.

agree, if the break had been only 7-14 days......it would not have been close.

That team was dialed in in December.

and one thing that I do not think gets played up enough is how well AU played in Atlanta only 7 days removed from a physical and emotional road  game.  Beating uat the way they did and then not coming out flat against USCe was phenomenal.

The coaches had a real good handle on the pulse of this team

WDE

[AuburnChopper 3.0]

Our only true competition lies within our own conference.  I still think that had there not been a month between the SECCG and the BCSCG, Auburn would have KILLED Oregon.

I think it balanced out.  I'm not convinced that Roof would have had a defense THAT prepared without the extra time.  Offensively? Sure, probably would have done even better, but I thinnk it would have been more of the expected shoot-out had it happened earlier.

JMO...

[Tiger Wench]

I remember hearing about no curfew versus locked down tighter than Fort Knox, and thinking "We got this."

[eagleair89]

but I thinnk it would have been more of the expected shoot-out had it happened earlier.

JMO...

I think the shoot-out would have materialized and that Auburn would have won by more than 3 points.

WDE

[AUTiger1]

I think it balanced out.  I'm not convinced that Roof would have had a defense THAT prepared without the extra time.  Offensively? Sure, probably would have done even better, but I thinnk it would have been more of the expected shoot-out had it happened earlier.

JMO...

I'm not either, but he damn sure got it together and coached circles around Steve Spurrier in the SECCG. 

[Tiger Wench]

I think it balanced out.  I'm not convinced that Roof would have had a defense THAT prepared without the extra time.  Offensively? Sure, probably would have done even better, but I thinnk it would have been more of the expected shoot-out had it happened earlier.

JMO...

I agree - the D would not have been as ready, maybe, but the Offense would have scorched, assuming Cam does not get hurt again.

Back to the subject - how can you say for us to play up to our talent level when we don't have to do that and we still win.  That would be like Michael Jordan playing wes in basketball and not spotting him 100 points .

[djsimp]

I agree - the D would not have been as ready, maybe, but the Offense would have scorched, assuming Cam does not get hurt again.

Back to the subject - how can you say for us to play up to our talent level when we don't have to do that and we still win.  That would be like Michael Jordan playing wes in basketball and not spotting him 100 points .

I think that is why the O didn't do so well, not necessarily the layoff.

[wesfau2]

That would be like Michael Jordan playing wes in basketball and not spotting him 100 points .

Perhaps a spelling contest?

[GH2001]

Perhaps a spelling contest?

George Bush is shaking wes.

[wesfau2]

George Bush is shaking wes.

That's just the DTs.

[Jumbo]

Perhaps a spelling contest?

Can you use that in a sentence please.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Can you use that in a sentence please.

Wes said, "Perhaps a spelling contest?"