The Aftermath

[djsimp]

Is there any room for him?  You can only have eleven on the field at a time.  If you put four quarterbacks out there, and five linemen you can only maybe have one back and one receiver.  That would be a stupid formation.  But three quarterbacks?  Yeah.  That makes sense.

You no funny haha.

[Kaos]

I'm going to say this again. 

I've coached in games where we looked at the opposition, saw what we were up against and privately decided that we could not line up and beat them.  We were an option team primarily but did it out of the offset I.  Once we put in the wishbone before we played a much better team. Still lost, but we kept it close enough to win.  Another time we put in a pass heavy package that relied on bubble screens and slants.  Beat the fuck out of a team that we should have lost to. 

At no time, though, did our ENTIRE offense consist of monkeyshit trick plays. 

Changing the offense?  That's what you do when you honestly believe you have vastly inferior talent to the team you're playing and that's the only chance you have to win.  You do it because you believe it gives you the best chance to win. 

That was not the case Saturday.  That tomfoolery denied us the opportunity to win. 

[GH2001]

I'm going to say this again. 

I've coached in games where we looked at the opposition, saw what we were up against and privately decided that we could not line up and beat them.  We were an option team primarily but did it out of the offset I.  Once we put in the wishbone before we played a much better team. Still lost, but we kept it close enough to win.  Another time we put in a pass heavy package that relied on bubble screens and slants.  Beat the fuck out of a team that we should have lost to. 

At no time, though, did our ENTIRE offense consist of monkeyshit trick plays. 

Changing the offense?  That's what you do when you honestly believe you have vastly inferior talent to the team you're playing and that's the only chance you have to win.  You do it because you believe it gives you the best chance to win. 

That was not the case Saturday.  That tomfoolery denied us the opportunity to win.

And at some point the D is gonna do what they did in 2008. They are gonna say what's the use.

[Snaggletiger]

And at some point the D is gonna do what they did in 2008. They are gonna say what's the use.

Sure hope not.  That would be brutal to watch. 

Unfortunately, if Gus doesn't scrap what he did Saturday, pick a QB and go with him the whole way, I can see this weekend looking a lot like UT vs. Appy.  Then you have the Faggies and LSU chomping at the bit to come to JHS and embarrass the Tigahs.

[Kaos]

Sure hope not.  That would be brutal to watch. 

Unfortunately, if Gus doesn't scrap what he did Saturday, pick a QB and go with him the whole way, I can see this weekend looking a lot like UT vs. Appy.  Then you have the Faggies and LSU chomping at the bit to come to JHS and embarrass the Tigahs.

He's not going to scrap it. 

He's smarter than you.  He makes $4 million a year.  He drives a BMW 14b.  There's only one in the whole world.  He takes helicopters from the field to pick up his wallet at home when he forgets it (which isn't often because it weighs 109 pounds). 

We are in big, big trouble.  Everybody sees it but the people who can actually impact it.   Jacalzhlee.

[Jumbo]

He's not going to scrap it. 

He's smarter than you.  He makes $4 million a year.  He drives a BMW 14b.  There's only one in the whole world.  He takes helicopters from the field to pick up his wallet at home when he forgets it (which isn't often because it weighs 109 pounds). 

We are in big, big trouble.  Everybody sees it but the people who can actually impact it.   Jacalzhlee.

He's never going to scrap his brilliance.

[GH2001]

He's not going to scrap it. 

He's smarter than you.  He makes $4 million a year.  He drives a BMW 14b.  There's only one in the whole world.  He takes helicopters from the field to pick up his wallet at home when he forgets it (which isn't often because it weighs 109 pounds). 

We are in big, big trouble.  Everybody sees it but the people who can actually impact it.   Jacalzhlee.

Unfortunately many of these red flags were seen/re-seen back in July and August before the debacle on offense happened Saturday.

[Snaggletiger]

This quote from Kevin Skrudinski summed it all up perfectly for me.

"Auburn's offensive approach in its rather important season opener against No. 2 Clemson didn't come across as an ingenious game plan from a once-respected guru. Instead it more closely resembled a fingerpainting splashed together by an entire kindergarten class."

[dallaswareagle]

This quote from Kevin Skrudinski summed it all up perfectly for me.

"Auburn's offensive approach in its rather important season opener against No. 2 Clemson didn't come across as an ingenious game plan from a once-respected guru. Instead it more closely resembled a fingerpainting splashed together by an entire kindergarten class."

That is some serious disrespect to kindergartens all across this land.

[Kaos]

That is some serious disrespect to kindergartens all across this land.

Venables just tweeted a photo of the tip he got about the Auburn offensive "gameplan."  Apparently one of the players emailed a friend a copy of Lashlee drawing up plays. 

[WiregrassTiger]

Would we have won this game with Deshaun Warson on our side?

[Buzz Killington]

Would we have won this game with Deshaun Warson on our side?

Mrs. Warson's boy?  Doubtful. 

[jmar]

Would we have won this game with Deshaun Warson on our side?

Nick Marichal would have beaten Clemson's eyes out.

[Kaos]

Would we have won this game with Deshaun Warson on our side?

Look. We've already got four quarterbacks on the field with Barrett in there.  You add Watson and it just becomes water ballet.  People spinning around everywhere. 

Seriously.  At what point did he really think that 1A high school shit was going to work? 

[AUChizad]

I'm the lone voice in the wilderness that actually feels better after the game than I did before it.

Like everyone but apparently Gus and Rhett, I do recognize the 3 QB rotation was an utter failure, and Johnson particularly has no business ever seeing the field again.

I was ok with JF3 getting the snaps he did to mix it up a bit. He may not have done shit but hand the ball off, but for whatever reason it was working. But if all of Johnson's snaps were given to White, we would have beaten the #2 team in the country. Even in spite of that, we were in striking distance. Two on-target passes to the endzone that could have each won the game if not for being perfectly defended. Few out there thought we'd be in the same zip code as Clemson by the end of the game. Herbstreit was laughed at for saying it might be kinda a sort of close game with us losing. Everyone else said it would be over by halftime.

The fact that everyone else in the SEC (besides Bama, of fucking course) looked at least as much like shit as we did gives me hope. When I was predicting 4 wins, that was before realizing just about everyone else was gonna be as bad as we are. Now IF, and it's a huge IF, Gus can have the fucking humility to see that Jeremy Johnson was a huge fucking bust, and that White was constantly on the verge of getting in a rhythm before getting yanked, and needs to be THE guy, then we can easily unfuck this situation, IMO. But like I said, huge if. Not sure Gus is up to it. I hope he is. This defense is good enough to carry us with a competent offense.

[AUChizad]

Right after saying that:

https://www.seccountry.com/auburn/live-blog-auburn-coach-gus-malzahn-addresses-media-after-home-opener

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn didn’t come away with a victory in their home opener against Clemson, but they still managed to impress.

The home Tigers held Heisman candidate Deshaun Watson and his dynamic offense to just 19 points, and even had a couple of last-second chances for another Miracle on the Plains.

Here’s what head coach Gus Malzahn said following the loss.

Quick recap of Saturday: “After watching the film they played even better than I thought.”
On the offense: “Plan was to play three quarterbacks, we thought it would be successful, but obviously it wasn’t.”

Malzahn says moving forward sophomore Sean White will be the starting quarterback.
Junior college transfer John Franklin III will be the backup QB for Auburn.

Defensive back Stephen Roberts will play in Saturday’s game after missing the home opener.

About Arkansas State: “Outstanding head coach, one of the up and coming guys, in Blake Anderson. This is a team that has won the Sun Belt title four of the last five years.”

Malzahn says plan was to throw three different quarterbacks at Clemson’s defense. Each player had different skills sets that Malzahn felt could be successful.

“We’re bringing John along with the offense. When he was in there we moved the ball pretty well. That was his first time to be out there and we thought he handled himself really well.”

On Jeremy Johnson: “There is a lot that happens when someone looks tentative. There were a few protection issues that broke down that we thought would be more open.”

On the red zone: “We thought there would be some running opportunities for Jeremy to run the ball, that didn’t happen.”

Malzahn says Kam Pettway, “will have more of a role next game.”

On Kerryon Johnson: “He earned a lot of his yards after contact, I was very encouraged by him.”

On Sean White: “He’s a tough guy. He took some licks, he hung in there. He did an outstanding job, took a big lick.”

Right now, moving forward Sean White will be our starter and John Franklin will be our No. 2 guy.

On the offense: “We were curious about a few guys at each position. We had some guys who had switched positions or were playing for the first time. We’ll continue learning more going forward.”

“The positive is we can play with anybody in the country, that’s what we learned Saturday night.”

On freshmen receivers: “Both of those guys (Kyle Davis and Nate Craig-Myers) you’ll see a lot more. We’re trying to gradually bring them along, but both of them when they were in there, they did some really good things.”

“Rudy Ford is electric with the ball in his hands, you see that on kickoff returns.”

On Kam Martin and Jalen Harris: “Kam is a guy that can help and possibly get in the game this week. Jalen Harris did an outstanding job for us.”

On game planning: “What you do is put a plan together. Obviously it wasn’t successful like I thought it would be, but we’ll fix that going forward.”

“We’re a very close team. We’ll get behind Sean, we’ll bring John franklin along and we’ll be fine. As far as any negativity internally, there will be zero.”

On offensive line: “We’re talking about a pretty good defensive line who did some things that we hadn’t seen before. In the second half I think we made some changes and out gamed them.”

On close games: “Any time you have experiences, each year is a new team, new leaders, unless you have everybody coming back. The fact that we drove down and had two shots in the end zone… the reality is we have a real solid team and I think we have a chance to be really good.”

On Arkansas State coach Trooper Taylor: “He’s got a great personality, a great family. His son is a big time player, too.”

On wildcat formation with Chandler Cox: “I thought it would unfold better than it did, obviously, but he did that in high school. We’ll see where that goes. He’s a guy we wanted to get touches.

Wide receiver/kicker Will Hastings: “Will has some natural ability, two big third down catches. For a new guy you worry that the moment is too big. Obviously that wasn’t the case. He’s a quick guy, a fast guy.”

On offensive production: “We’re going to try to move the ball any way you can.”

On John Franklin III: “He’s an inexperienced guy, now he has some experience. We’ll see how the season unfolds as far as he’s concerned. He moved the football when he was out there. For the first time out there I think he did a solid job.”

“We felt like there would be some opportunities on the edge with WR Stanton Truitt. That first game is always about adjustments. We thought we could get on the perimeter, but they did a good job.”

On his time as the head coach at Arkansas State: “It was a special time for me there. They gave me a chance to be a head coach. The athletic director, fans, everyone treated me wonderfully. I have some special memories there.”

Hope he actually does this.

[dallaswareagle]

I read, blah, blah.

Take any loss from last season and read the same thing.

[CCTAU]

I read, blah, blah.

Take any loss from last season and read the same thing.

All I heard was puff puff pass. You guys pass that thing around and I'll take questions in a bit...

[Godfather]

I was ok with JF3 getting the snaps he did to mix it up a bit. He may not have done shit but hand the ball off, but for whatever reason it was working. But if all of Johnson's snaps were given to White, we would have beaten the #2 team in the country. Even in spite of that, we were in striking distance. Two on-target passes to the endzone that could have each won the game if not for being perfectly defended. Few out there thought we'd be in the same zip code as Clemson by the end of the game. Herbstreit was laughed at for saying it might be kinda a sort of close game with us losing. Everyone else said it would be over by halftime.

That is why I am more pisssed off then before.  Look if Gus had put us in a position to win and we lost, well shit things happen.  We didn't execute whatever. 

We win that game if he picks one QB (White) maybe JFIII.  What I don't understand is the game plan wasn't working the whole entire fucking stadium could see that, why couldn't he? That 4th and 1 on our own 5 and he trots JJ out I said aloud well here comes a rush up the middle by JJ.  That wasn't guessing everyone knew what was coming.   

I have it on good authority that Pettway took more snaps than Kerryon Johnson during practice last week and then what....doesn't play him?

(I'm not yelling at you) WE HAD 43 FUCKING YARDS AT HALFTIME, WITH 1 RUSHING YARD. I THINK I COULD GET ! RUSHING YARD. What does Gus do? comes out with the same game plan.  You can't bring a player in on 1st and 2nd down then ask Sean to come in and throw and try to bail you out.  Everyone was complaining about our OLine and I was disappointed as well but I don't think they are as bad as advertised the offensive gameplan was that fucked, you bring White in on 3rd and 8 they know he is going to pass the ball. 

That whole loss was on Gus no one else, and I think that is what pisses everyone off because it was such a bumble fuck of epic proportions.  At the beginning of the year I would have said nothing less than an 0-8 SEC appearance would get Gus fired. I take that back I think if we end up at 7-6 with his mind fucking offense his ass will be gone and might be before the end of the year.  I also have it on good authority that that the Auburn President (who knew he even watched football) was highly embarrassed.  That we had a QB Recruit who's dad said WTF was that you don't need to play here.

And at the end of it all you have Gus saying, we played great, look what we did against the #2 team in the nation.  Why can't he just stand up and say look we as coaches didn't do a good job of preparing the kids.  Not we had a plan and I think the plan is going to work, when everyone, and I do mean everyone knew that isn't the case.  Don't feed me chicken shit and tell me it's chicken salad.

[Snaggletiger]

That is why I am more pisssed off then before.  Look if Gus had put us in a position to win and we lost, well shit things happen.  We didn't execute whatever. 

We win that game if he picks one QB (White) maybe JFIII.  What I don't understand is the game plan wasn't working the whole entire fucking stadium could see that, why couldn't he? That 4th and 1 on our own 5 and he trots JJ out I said aloud well here comes a rush up the middle by JJ.  That wasn't guessing everyone knew what was coming.   

I have it on good authority that Pettway took more snaps than Kerryon Johnson during practice last week and then what....doesn't play him?

(I'm not yelling at you) WE HAD 43 FUCKING YARDS AT HALFTIME, WITH 1 RUSHING YARD. I THINK I COULD GET ! RUSHING YARD. What does Gus do? comes out with the same game plan.  You can't bring a player in on 1st and 2nd down then ask Sean to come in and throw and try to bail you out.  Everyone was complaining about our OLine and I was disappointed as well but I don't think they are as bad as advertised the offensive gameplan was that fucked, you bring White in on 3rd and 8 they know he is going to pass the ball. 

That whole loss was on Gus no one else, and I think that is what pisses everyone off because it was such a bumble fuck of epic proportions.  At the beginning of the year I would have said nothing less than an 0-8 SEC appearance would get Gus fired. I take that back I think if we end up at 7-6 with his mind fucking offense his ass will be gone and might be before the end of the year.  I also have it on good authority that that the Auburn President (who knew he even watched football) was highly embarrassed.  That we had a QB Recruit who's dad said WTF was that you don't need to play here.

And at the end of it all you have Gus saying, we played great, look what we did against the #2 team in the nation.  Why can't he just stand up and say look we as coaches didn't do a good job of preparing the kids.  Not we had a plan and I think the plan is going to work, when everyone, and I do mean everyone knew that isn't the case.  Don't feed me chicken shit and tell me it's chicken salad.

I've said from the start that we have as much talent as anyone in the country.  For the first time...and yes, this is the first time I've really felt this way...I feel like we have a head coach that has no clue how to use it.  I honestly didn't read anything into last season. Kind of the perfect storm of things going wrong.  But Gus recognized that and said he's getting back to what he does best.  Okay, I can live with that.  Let's see what happens.

But what he did Saturday night....let me see if I can put it this way.  Since Malzahn got here, I've defended the guy against, and even laughed at all the detractors that said he's just a high school coach running a gimmicky offense.  How do you watch what he did Saturday night and try to say anything different with a straight face?  But then, even HS teams don't pull that garbage for 4 quarters. 

I've long since stopped getting worked up over the "State of Auburn football".  I love being passionate about it during the games and texting a few hearty "WTF's" to some of you assholes.  But like GH said earlier, I'm still going regardless because I love Auburn and the game day experience.  (Not this weekend.  It's mini's birthday and I'm taking him fishing in Destin) I just hate that it appears CGM may have, as they say, forgotten how to coach.  I see this weekend as being very telling as to whether he really, truly recognizes that what went on Saturday was a complete and utter brain fart on his part.  If he comes out doing anything resembling his "plan" for the Clemson game, I fear a coaching search will soon be in order.