Thoughts - First Half Review

[Townhallsavoy]

Auburn

- This season has so far been a rollercoaster. I've gone from thinking we were assuredly going to go 3-9 to now, honestly, thinking we might just have a shot at winning the West. Hear me out.

- Maybe it's because I got 8 hours of sleep last night for the first time in months, but I woke up feeling good about this Auburn team. We're still on ice with Malzahn as our head coach. There's no telling what our offense will look like next week. I don't trust the guy. But I see tremendous improvement, and it seems like it has improved each week.

- Call me crazy - and I am - but I'm now thinking our schedule sets up nicely for us to have a showdown with Alabama the last week of the season.

- Why? I'll tell you why:

- Our defense is one of the best in the country and only needs our offense to be a 20+ point performance to have a shot at dominating the other team.

- We have one of the best 1-2 punches at running back in the country.

- We can throw down field and have some play makers that can move ball after the catch.

- We've won the time of possession battle in every game except against Clemson when it was nearly dead even despite our offensive gameplan being just that: offensive.

- Arkansas is a patty cake. They have no defense, which means our offense should be able to score points at home. Their offense has been able to score some points against good teams, but I like our defense to hold them down while our offense scores.

- @Ole Miss is the biggest test before the Iron Bowl, and we get @Ole Miss after they play @Arkansas and @LSU with @Texas A&M still on their plate. We can easily sneak in there and give them a good game. Again, I like our defense. Any team that spreads the field on offense has put up at least 28 points against Ole Miss. I think we're going to beat Arkansas fairly well giving us a lot of confidence going into Oxford.

- Vanderbilt and AA&M are blowouts.

- @Georgia won't be easy, but I'm not sold on them being a good team. This will be a tougher game that I'm expecting probably because Kirby Smart's defense is only going to get better but at this point, I like our chances.

- Am I crazy? I think so.

- Am I still questioning Gus Malzahn as being our head coach?

- Most definitely.

- What in the fuck was that Clemson game? Is it excusable? It isn't. At all. Like fire-him-now kind of bad.

- Earlier I said we had one of the best running back duos in the country. Pettway got zero carries against Clemson.

- Earlier I said White is doing well at QB and spreading the ball around. He got substituted in and out with Jeremy Johnson who has proven he isn't capable of competing with FCS programs.

- Our red zone woes against Clemson, A&M, and LSU were indicative of an offense having zero identity.

- He's admitted that his play calling was subpar because he was the head coach and had too much to do. Lashlee - who was the scapegoat the past few years - gets the official nod to do his job and now we're starting to look like the Malzahn offenses of old.

- Malzahn has always had a problem figuring out his team's offensive identity. He wasn't completely sold on Cam (probably more of a Chizik thing). Couldn't figure anything out in 2011. Took the first quarter of the season to realize what he had in the 2013 team. Squandered one of the most talented SEC offenses in history in 2014. Had zero idea about what to do in 2015. Luckily passed off the offensive duties this year after taking way too long to discover we had players that could actually compete in the SEC.

- Some say he's still learning on the job. I guess. Some of this seems elementary. Learning on the job is "what do I do when one of my star players gets arrested for a bar fight and we need him this week?" That's a learning on the job question. Not "Should I give the ball to my slow white fullback more times than my monster running back who can carry it 40+ times for 180 yards against an SEC defense? I should!"

- But alas, I just want to win and have a good football team. I see the potential of the 2016 squad. No, we aren't going to win the West. We'll probably drop one to @Ole Miss, @Georgia, and @Alabama. Maybe two. Maybe all three. But I see how good this team CAN be. That makes me excited for the rest of the season. It still gives me pause for why we lost to Clemson and why Texas A&M ran away from us so easily in the 2nd half.

Everyone Else

- Tennessee is about to get ass-pounded in Tuscaloosa. They take too long getting started and what's worse for them, they are completely banged up. I think they've lost like five starters over the past few weeks.

- Florida is a bunch of cowards and may have locked themselves into the SECCG by cancelling the LSU game. Tennessee will have two losses. All Florida has to do is beat Georgia and they should be able to handle the rest of their schedule easily.

- Alabama continues to look like a professional football team and not just their preparation and execution. They hit harder than any team in football. They're faster than every team in football. Their lines are impenetrable. Now they have a big quarterback that can run. It's getting old but oh well.

- My top 10 so far:

1. Alabama

2. Ohio State

3. Washington

4. Michigan

5. Clemson

6. Texas A&M

7. Louisville

8. Ole Miss

9. Wisconsin

10. Tennessee

- EDIT: These big time programs are foolish for looking new, young, flash-in-the-pan coaches. Auburn included. We learned yesterday that Tom Herman is not the best candidate in the country. He's a good coach with plenty of potential, but he's green. He hasn't been a head coach for more than two seasons at any level of football. He lost to UConn in 2015 and shouldn't have. Now he has a loss to Navy. Herman will have to learn on the job, and if Texas or LSU want to take a chance on him, go ahead. But he's going to need four-five years of experience to figure out how to build, handle, and sustain a big time program.

- EDIT2: I had to give up proofreading this. I wrote it while a 3 year old was screaming in the next room.

[AUownsU]

Disagree about Tennessee. I think they put 40+ on the board this week and win by double digits.

[Kaos]

Scores that interested me.

Washington 748 - Oregon 9   Chris Petersen is the real deal. If he's not on Jacobs' short list?
 
Michigan 936 - Rutgers 0  Don't necessarily like Harbaugh and thought he was a bad choice. Wrong.

Texas A&M 45 UT 38  Tennessee finally loses a game they should have won after winning several they should have lost.  The Vols are an utter fraud. This a  2-4 team with three SEC losses and a loss to a mediocre Sun Belt team in reality. But Bama will get mad credit for beating a team that hasn't truly been competitive in more than a decade. Red Face Jones is also a fraud.

Navy 450 Houston 400  Tom Herman should have taken that LSU job last week.

NC State 10 Notre Dame 3 Storm 38  Blame it on the rain. Kelley is in trouble.  Wrong about him too. Was a time I thought he would have been a better choice than Chizik.

Florida 10/7  LSU 0    Yaw yaw vs. Bucky would have been an interesting game but given that terrifying brilliant sunshine and dangerous 83 degrees, not playing the game made perfect sense.  If the widely circulated rumors that Florida went ahead with its recruitiing weekend and brought in a bunch of prospects for a visit are true?  They should be forced to forfeit. 

OU 88 UT 70  Charlie Strong announced that he was going to be more involved in the defense because he's a coach at heart and has to coach. He can fix the defensive woes by taking it over. Oklahoma proceeds to roll up 672 yards on the Horns.  (Does that sound familiar in any way?) Skrong is gone. Mark it down.

Alabama 680 Arkansas 200 Is anybody really surprised? 

And finally....

AU Any score it wanted running essentially four plays MSU Only what they were given 
Problem?  Nobody -- and I mean nobody -- outside Starkville or our circle really cares.  Watched two or three different CFB recap shows and didn't see a single mention of the game anywhere.  MSU is a terrible team.  With every passing day I rethink Dak Prescott a little. He might have been better than I gave him credit for.  And I rethink Mullen a little too.  Had Cam gone to MSU they'd have been a 7 or 8 win team. His entire life would be vastly different. Mullen isn't much of a coach.  His wife is a whore bitch with the imprint of Joe Schad's balls on her chin.  (Oops!  I can't run for president). 

[wesfau2]

I would have liked to see less wear and tear on Pettway in the late 3rd and 4th quarters.  I understand we're thin, but we were ripping off runs at will and could have let Cox handle some of that load...or some bench warmer.  Where are you, Chandler Shakespeare?

Otherwise, I don't really have any serious gripes about this game.  It was a convincing road win in the SECW.  Those are relatively rare (unless you have the Bham office assisting you) and I'm going to enjoy it.

We've got a week off to get KJ healthy and work on a gameplan to shove in Bert's face.  My hope is that the extra time isn't used to develop some kooky, overly-complicated game plan to show how geeeeeeenius our braintrust is.

K.I.S.S. (not that one, K, put your cock back in your pants) and keep doing what's working: power running with play-action.

With every passing day I rethink Dak Prescott a little. He might have been better than I gave him credit for.  And I rethink Mullen a little too.  Had Cam gone to MSU they'd have been a 7 or 8 win team. His entire life would be vastly different. Mullen isn't much of a coach.  His wife is a whore bitch with the imprint of Joe Schad's balls on her chin.  (Oops!  I can't run for president). 

With transcendent talent, Mullen is a decent coach: Smith, Tebow, Prescott.

With a standard MSU roster: he's middling at best.

That said, he's about the best coach that MSU can ever hope to have.

[CCTAU]

I would think that Pettway kept asking for the rock. He probably feels he needs to make up some yards.

I like KJ, but I love KP's brutality.

[djsimp]

Auburn could have scored another 14 easily. I don't mind they took the foot off the pedal. MSU could not stop Pettway. The 3 yrds and a cloud of dust offense I think will help in the long run setting the tone that Auburn could grind out a ballgame if needed. Also, I saw some new wrinkles in the offense plays that just makes more to account for later in the season.

Like mentioned, the Auburn D and sent notice to the rest of the SEC that we have found our hard hats and lunch pales. Bring it bitches.