Fox Sports South Interview with Malzahn

[djsimp]

And many of the teams Richt had from 02-05 got by on a TON of luck and weird play. David Greene and David Pollack had friggin angels on their shoulders and shamrocks in their ass cracks I swear. Every bounce seemed to go their way and I saw some of the strangest plays happen to allow the dawgs to win games in that span.

aint that the damn truth. Just remembering the Old South Rivalry alone. Greene should be decapitated.

[GH2001]

aint that the damn truth. Just remembering the Old South Rivalry alone. Greene should be decapitated.

He wanted to wear Orange and Blue like the rest of his family did....but our staff said he wasnt a D1 caliber QB. They also told Phillip Rivers the same thing. They wanted them both as TE's.   

[djsimp]

He wanted to wear Orange and Blue like the rest of his family did....but our staff said he wasnt a D1 caliber QB. They also told Phillip Rivers the same thing. They wanted them both as TE's.   

Yep, and the little shit that ended up at WV; wasn't he from AL?

[GH2001]

Yep, and the little poop that ended up at WV; wasn't he from AL?

Yep- Pat White from Daphne. We never were able to even get a visit from him. I dont think our staff even went after him hard. A soft offer was all we ever gave him as an Athlete. I think WV and LSU were the only ones who said he may get a shot at QB. Dude was drafted 44th overall in the NFL draft in the 2nd round last yr.

White, Rivers and Greene - all bypassed and it makes me wanna poop my pants.

[djsimp]

Yep- Pat White from Daphne. We never were able to even get a visit from him. I dont think our staff even went after him hard. A soft offer was all we ever gave him as an Athlete. I think WV and LSU were the only ones who said he may get a shot at QB. Dude was drafted 44th overall in the NFL draft in the 2nd round last yr.

White, Rivers and Greene - all bypassed and it makes me wanna poop my pants.

Out of all of those, Rivers really puzzled me the most. The dude fit our system at the time perfectly.

[GH2001]

Out of all of those, Rivers really puzzled me the most. The dude fit our system at the time perfectly.

Greene and Rivers were both practically begging to come to Auburn and we shunned them both. I will say no more.

[JR4AU]

Greene and Rivers were both practically begging to come to Auburn and we shunned them both. I will say no more.

Easy in hindsight, which is 50/50 BTW, to dog these "missed stars".  Pat White, in no way fit what we were doing in the WCO.  He'd be a great catch in Malzahn's. 

Greene was a great HS and College QB, and would have fit nicely.  We did have Jason, and Brandon though, and I'm sure that factored in.  He was a miss though he would have probably only gotten one year of play in 2005, and battled Jason his entire career.  So...anyway.

Rivers is still a point of controversy today with his mechanics.  He's a damned fine QB though it's easy to see why he'd have been passed on coming out of HS.  And give credit where due, he had Norm Chow at NC State to coach him up.  He's not any kind of prototypical QB mechanics-wise.  Again, he came along during the same time as Jason and Brandon. 

Sometimes they miss.  A great number of QBs in the NFL were missed by colleges, or big time programs.  Kurt Warner, Rich Gannon, Ben Rapelerberger, etc, etc...it happens.

[GH2001]

Easy in hindsight, which is 50/50 BTW, to dog these "missed stars".  Pat White, in no way fit what we were doing in the WCO.  He'd be a great catch in Malzahn's. 

Greene was a great HS and College QB, and would have fit nicely.  We did have Jason, and Brandon though, and I'm sure that factored in.  He was a miss though he would have probably only gotten one year of play in 2005, and battled Jason his entire career.  So...anyway.

Rivers is still a point of controversy today with his mechanics.  He's a damned fine QB though it's easy to see why he'd have been passed on coming out of HS.  And give credit where due, he had Norm Chow at NC State to coach him up.  He's not any kind of prototypical QB mechanics-wise.  Again, he came along during the same time as Jason and Brandon. 

Sometimes they miss.  A great number of QBs in the NFL were missed by colleges, or big time programs.  Kurt Warner, Rich Gannon, Ben Rapelerberger, etc, etc...it happens.

But look at a lot of the "projects" and high risk guys we did take. We knew Greene and Rivers would be leaders. They were not high risk. I mean - we'll sign Steven Ensminger Jr and others but not take a chance on these 2? I just question a lot of his recruiting decisions sometimes. The attrition rate should have been a hint that things werent going right toward the end.

[JR4AU]

Recruiting QBs is different.  If we had recruited Rivers, we may not have gotten Jason.  Would Rivers be the same Phillip Rivers at Auburn as he was at NC State?  Remember, we didn't have Borges then.  Easy to pick it apart now.  Hard to project leadership, especially when you don't even know if the kid will make it to the starting lineup until he's a Sr, which probably would have been the case with Greene, at least looking at it at the time.  You can't ever just not recruit a QB, but neither of these kids wowed recruiters as QBs coming out of HS.  Auburn wasn't the only program to "miss them". 

[GH2001]

Recruiting QBs is different.  If we had recruited Rivers, we may not have gotten Jason.  Would Rivers be the same Phillip Rivers at Auburn as he was at NC State?  Remember, we didn't have Borges then.  Easy to pick it apart now.  Hard to project leadership, especially when you don't even know if the kid will make it to the starting lineup until he's a Sr, which probably would have been the case with Greene, at least looking at it at the time.  You can't ever just not recruit a QB, but neither of these kids wowed recruiters as QBs coming out of HS.  Auburn wasn't the only program to "miss them". 

Fair enough - but it still stings, especially seeing some of the guys we DID sign who never made it to the field.

[JR4AU]

Fair enough - but it still stings, especially seeing some of the guys we DID sign who never made it to the field.

Personally, if it were me, in hindsight, I'd like to have seen Tubs make an offensive move in about 2002, and go with a kid like White, and what would have been then, a "new fangled" spread run based offense.  Easy to sit here and wonder "what if" Ronnie and Carnell were on the field as RB and HB like Ben and Mario last year, with Aromashodo and Obamanu out there as WRs...all on the field at the same time, and ALL a threat on every play, with Jason or Pat White to throw to them, or run the zone option every now and then.  But, then maybe 2004 would never have happened, and then again maybe jet-gate wouldn't have either...and so the Monday morning quarterbacking goes.  If "if's and butts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas". 

I agree it stings a little...but it's easy to look back after the fact.  I mean, what if, they'd done what they set out to with Bo?  Bo wasn't the #1 RB at McAdory, he shared carries and was used a lot as a blocker.  When he first arrived at Auburn, they first put him in the FB position in the wishbone.   Just a little anecdote.

[GH2001]

I agree it stings a little...but it's easy to look back after the fact.  I mean, what if, they'd done what they set out to with Bo?  Bo wasn't the #1 RB at McAdory, he shared carries and was used a lot as a blocker.  When he first arrived at Auburn, they first put him in the FB position in the wishbone.   Just a little anecdote.

Randy Campbell: Coach, you need to back him up some. Im putting the ball in his side everytime I go to hand it off.

Pat Dye: No, you just need to hand him the ball faster. This kid is good.

[War Eagle!!!]

Personally, if it were me, in hindsight, I'd like to have seen Tubs make an offensive move in about 2002, and go with a kid like White, and what would have been then, a "new fangled" spread run based offense.  Easy to sit here and wonder "what if" Ronnie and Carnell were on the field as RB and HB like Ben and Mario last year, with Aromashodo and Obamanu out there as WRs...all on the field at the same time, and ALL a threat on every play, with Jason or Pat White to throw to them, or run the zone option every now and then.  But, then maybe 2004 would never have happened, and then again maybe jet-gate wouldn't have either...and so the Monday morning quarterbacking goes.  If "if's and butts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas". 

I am pretty sure that we got Caddy and Ronnie on the field at the same time a fair amount....

[JR4AU]

I am pretty sure that we got Caddy and Ronnie on the field at the same time a fair amount....

We did, but the style of offense we run now would allow them to be much more of a dual threat, and with Ronnie's hands allow him much more freedom in the passing game out of the slot, than as FB.  

Then there's the whole wildcat thing too....

[wesfau2]

We did, but the style of offense we run now would allow them to be much more of a dual threat, and with Ronnie's hands allow him much more freedom in the passing game out of the slot, than as FB.  

Ronnie was hell on the wheel route.  Great, great hands.

[War Eagle!!!]

We did, but the style of offense we run now would allow them to be much more of a dual threat, and with Ronnie's hands allow him much more freedom in the passing game out of the slot, than as FB.  

Then there's the whole wildcat thing too....

I don't think the wildcat would work with Ronnie running it...

Wait...what?

[JR4AU]

Greene and Rivers were both practically begging to come to Auburn and we shunned them both. I will say no more.

"Hyuck hyuck, Awbren didn't even croot me as quaterbacks"

[djsimp]

"Hyuck hyuck, Awbren didn't even croot me as quaterbacks"

Ok, I admit, that was pretty damn funny. That pic almost makes you feel sorry for Rivers.