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.