Wow. Never thought it would come to this. If only JJ was never the AD, where would the program be today?
Here's what I see. I see a team that has as much or more overall talent as at any time in program history. Never have we had this many consecutive years of top 10 recruiting. Yeah, I get that recruiting services aren't always right on every kid. But when you stockpile that many top 10 classes, there is absolutely no question the talent is there.
We have a 4* RS Freshman in Woody Barrett, who by all indications has big time physical skills. We have a 4* starter in Sean White, who proved that if he's healthy, he's a very competent and consistent QB. And we have a 4* or 5* (Depending on the recruiting service) QB on campus in Jarrett Stidham, who not only has a decent amount of experience at Baylor, but is the highest rated QB prospect in Auburn history. And now, we supposedly have a real QB's coach.
We have experience across the board at every single position. The one HUGE question mark is the man at the helm. I was all in his corner until last year happened. Certainly, injuries at key positions kicked them in the teeth but what he did against Clemson and the wishy-washy "I'm taking over...wait, I'm stepping aside....wait no, I got this" BS made me for the first time question if the man hasn't gone paranoid-schizo-retarded.
I've said it many times recently. I don't have a clue what Lindsey likes to run other than some have said he passes more. I don't know if Malzahn is going to make him run the HUNH or if he's going to say "It's your offense, go with it". Something tells me we're going to see Gus' O. Something tells me Gus won't be able to keep his hands off of it. He said it was Lindsey's to run, right? Well, what he said last year going in turned out to be a joke, didn't it? Ultimately, I see this as his last shot and the only way he can make it work is to put that head set on, walk the sidelines and stay the hell out of the way. If he does, we could be reeeeally good. If he can't change his stripes, we're going to lose 3-5 games again, including Georgia and Bama.