Tigers X - Number one Source to Talk Auburn Tigers Sports
Pat Dye Field => War Damn Eagle => Topic started by: wesfau2 on August 19, 2014, 09:58:50 PM
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I keep hearing how brutal our schedule is...but it looks like our typical schedule to me.
The Bama/Georgia companion road games are a new twist, but fuck it.
Especially when a hard look is taken at the rosters of our opponents (mass replacement going on), I don't quiver in fear.
Tell me why I should be sweating this.
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The Georgia/cousin grinders road duet to finish the season is the only thing that really scares me.
Oh, and spiders.
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1. Miss State and Ole Miss are both improved. Maybe Miss State is not really an SEC contender, but the last three Auburn victories against them (coincidentally all when Malzahn was a coach at Auburn) were decided in 7 points or less. Auburn's two best teams since 2005 were pushed to the brink and in 2010 an argument could easily be made that we should have lost that one. If the wide open Miss State receiver catches the ball running down the sideline, we most likely do not win the national championship that year.
Ole Miss has upped its recruiting over the past two years and will have NFL-caliber players contributing at many positions. They have a seasoned quarterback in Bo Wallace and a hot coach in Hugh Freeze.
Further, both games will be played away. Over the last 20 years, the Mississippi schools are typically easy wins. 20+ points. Nothing to worry about and a complete embarrassment if we lose. This year is a very rare year that both schools seem to have put together good teams and we have to visit them.
2. AT Kansas State. What the hell is a program like Auburn playing AT Kansas State the third week of the season on a Thursday night? It's prime time opportunity for an upset. We should at most play a Big 9 school at a neutral site in week one.
Much like the Mississippi schools, this should be an easy OOC victory. It just so happens that we get Kansas State with Bill Snyder as the coach, we get them at their stadium, and we play them on a Thursday night.
3. South Carolina and Georgia from the East. We didn't land Florida when they just so happen to be sucking like Alabama did. We got the two favorites to win the East. One of them we play at their stadium. Both games will be incredibly difficult though we did luck out having a bye week before USCe.
4. The stretch: LSU, @Miss State, South Carolina, @Ole Miss, Texas A&M, @Georgia. It's not so much the quality of teams we will be playing (all should field competitive football teams) but rather the inconsistency in alternating between being at home and away.
Last season, we had a stretch of home, away, home, away, away, home and it worked out well; that might have been because Western Carolina and Florida Atlantic were two of those games and Arkansas and Tennessee were the other two. Only Texas A&M was respectable in that stretch.
Every team gets a tough stretch in their schedule even Alabama who will play a home, away, away, home, away, away, home stretch right in the middle of their season. It just so happens that two of those teams in their stretch are supposed to be horrible and Florida could very well be shittastic. To reiterate, Auburn's stretch features zero easy wins.
5. @Georgia, @Alabama. I don't know whose bright idea it was to approve this, but it's a dump truck of bullshit to give a school that kind of gauntlet not only in their rivalry games but also to close out the season. Some other schools have this issue as well (Alabama is @Tennessee and @LSU in back-to-back games with a bye between, LSU is @Auburn and @Florida in back-to-back weeks, and Florida is @Alabama and @Tennessee in back-to-back weeks). But looking at the quality of opponents, I'd say Auburn easily has the toughest back-to-back bullshit load of all even when considering Samford is between the two.
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I keep hearing how brutal our schedule is...but it looks like our typical schedule to me.
The Bama/Georgia companion road games are a new twist, but fuck it.
Especially when a hard look is taken at the rosters of our opponents (mass replacement going on), I don't quiver in fear.
Tell me why I should be sweating this.
Exactly...Butt Fuck It!!!
Our schedule is brutal, in name only. I'm not worried.
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1. Miss State and Ole Miss are both improved. Maybe Miss State is not really an SEC contender, but the last three Auburn victories against them (coincidentally all when Malzahn was a coach at Auburn) were decided in 7 points or less. Auburn's two best teams since 2005 were pushed to the brink and in 2010 an argument could easily be made that we should have lost that one. If the wide open Miss State receiver catches the ball running down the sideline, we most likely do not win the national championship that year.
Ole Miss has upped its recruiting over the past two years and will have NFL-caliber players contributing at many positions. They have a seasoned quarterback in Bo Wallace and a hot coach in Hugh Freeze.
Further, both games will be played away. Over the last 20 years, the Mississippi schools are typically easy wins. 20+ points. Nothing to worry about and a complete embarrassment if we lose. This year is a very rare year that both schools seem to have put together good teams and we have to visit them.
2. AT Kansas State. What the hell is a program like Auburn playing AT Kansas State the third week of the season on a Thursday night? It's prime time opportunity for an upset. We should at most play a Big 9 school at a neutral site in week one.
Much like the Mississippi schools, this should be an easy OOC victory. It just so happens that we get Kansas State with Bill Snyder as the coach, we get them at their stadium, and we play them on a Thursday night.
3. South Carolina and Georgia from the East. We didn't land Florida when they just so happen to be sucking like Alabama did. We got the two favorites to win the East. One of them we play at their stadium. Both games will be incredibly difficult though we did luck out having a bye week before USCe.
4. The stretch: LSU, @Miss State, South Carolina, @Ole Miss, Texas A&M, @Georgia. It's not so much the quality of teams we will be playing (all should field competitive football teams) but rather the inconsistency in alternating between being at home and away.
Last season, we had a stretch of home, away, home, away, away, home and it worked out well; that might have been because Western Carolina and Florida Atlantic were two of those games and Arkansas and Tennessee were the other two. Only Texas A&M was respectable in that stretch.
Every team gets a tough stretch in their schedule even Alabama who will play a home, away, away, home, away, away, home stretch right in the middle of their season. It just so happens that two of those teams in their stretch are supposed to be horrible and Florida could very well be shittastic. To reiterate, Auburn's stretch features zero easy wins.
5. @Georgia, @Alabama. I don't know whose bright idea it was to approve this, but it's a dump truck of bullshit to give a school that kind of gauntlet not only in their rivalry games but also to close out the season. Some other schools have this issue as well (Alabama is @Tennessee and @LSU in back-to-back games with a bye between, LSU is @Auburn and @Florida in back-to-back weeks, and Florida is @Alabama and @Tennessee in back-to-back weeks). But looking at the quality of opponents, I'd say Auburn easily has the toughest back-to-back bullshit load of all even when considering Samford is between the two.
I remain unconvinced.
MSU has, recently, been our SEC opener. Not so this year. We get to tune up on the pigs.
Ole Miss has Gus-light and inferior talent.
K-State is a middling big XII...err X...team.
Everyone else on our schedule has gaping holes in key positions.
Championship, bitches.
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2. AT Kansas State. What the hell is a program like Auburn playing AT Kansas State the third week of the season on a Thursday night?
I believe that this is a payback road trip for when they came here in 2007
I'm with Wes. The schedule is no more daunting than any other year.
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On the one hand, over-rating our competition works in our favor from a selection committee standpoint.
On the other, when the final tally is in the revisionist talking heads will say that we had an easy go of it.
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I think its a hard schedule. But its nothing new. Ours always is...esp compared to the Turds.
Just a normal year for teh War Eagles.
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2. AT Kansas State. What the hell is a program like Auburn playing AT Kansas State the third week of the season on a Thursday night? It's prime time opportunity for an upset. We should at most play a Big 9 school at a neutral site in week one.
Much like the Mississippi schools, this should be an easy OOC victory. It just so happens that we get Kansas State with Bill Snyder as the coach, we get them at their stadium, and we play them on a Thursday night.
Everyone keeps turning to this game as a trap game, I just don't see it. We have 2 weeks to prepare for them Thursday night or not.
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I'm with Wes. The schedule is no more daunting than any other year.
I'm with Wes4au and Uncle Sani
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I'm with Wes4au and Uncle Sani
Face sandwich!
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Face sandwich!
I like to call it the "face value".
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I like to call it the "face value".
Classic twofer.
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It's tougher than normal IMO due to the way it sets up. And whereas we should be a well oiled machine, particularly on offense, I still have doubt's as to the dramatic difference against the pass we need in order to lessen the points against column. WOTS has it our strength is against the run which is just what the doctor ordered in a league void of experienced QBs. I just can't trumpet our chances until I see results...not just us dialing up a timely blitz, but battling receivers instead of looking stupid or collapsing as in the Georgia and FSU games. The scores from last season indicate we held on rather than rolled our opponents. So not having a third or fourth LB or weed smoking truants don't get it with me anymore than what Ted Roof did with less talent.
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Everyone keeps turning to this game as a trap game, I just don't see it. We have 2 weeks to prepare for them Thursday night or not.
Is it more or less difficult to play @Kansas State than Clemson, Washington State, Clemson, or Clemson at home? What about a neutral site?
Last OOC game we lost in the regular season was @Clemson the third week of 2012. Before that, it was the OOC matchup against West Virginia which landed on a Thursday late in the season.
As a top 15 program and a champion of the SEC, we should not be subjecting ourselves to away games against Power 5 programs in the middle of the week. Though it may be good for TV and excitement, it's something that Auburn - like Alabama, LSU, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee - can and should avoid but this year, we have one.
That's why people look at our schedule and think it's difficult. Combine it with the fact that we go to Athens and to Tuscaloosa and get the preseason favorite to win the SEC East while also going to the two Mississippi schools who just so happen to both have 7-8 win caliber teams with experienced quarterbacks and yeah, it's an incredibly difficult schedule.
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I agree with Mark from the Auburner, I am starting to get nervous. We are inside of two weeks before kickoff and Malzahn has yet to name a starting field goal returner.
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I agree with Mark from the Auburner, I am starting to get nervous. We are inside of two weeks before kickoff and Malzahn has yet to name a starting field goal returner.
Plenty of time for that. We won't need one until the last game.
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All true. And 2010 and 2013 played out like a story book WHERE WE WIN DAMN NEAR ALL THE CLOSE GAMES.
We aren't marching over opponents like the Nebr. & Okla. teams of the 70's did. Personally I love that most are the games are competitive instead of blood settings against 35 point UND's. It so happens that I'm old guard where I just expect us to have a harder path to get there whereas a choice few, namely Alabama, can almost trip twice before being eliminated. We need Ohio St. to choke last season and I would take the points and this year's State team over that team of Meyers.
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Plenty of time for that. We won't need one until the last game.
Chris Duhvees is in complete disagreement.