Long but hey, screw you, what else have you got to do?
Occasionally, but fortunately not often, you get to a point in the season where reality sets in and you accept that, well, your team sucks and there's just not a lot to do except get through it and look to the future. We haven't had to endure much of that under Tommy Tuberville. Even in the less than stellar seasons, there's always been that silver lining to grab hold of. There's always been hope that if they just do this or tweak that, it may be the right formula to get us back to Atlanta.
However, there's no silver lining or light at the end of the tunnel this time.....not in my mind, anyway. It's not just the funk of a season that quickly went in the dumper. This comes from stepping back, analyzing and putting the last few years in perspective as to how this program found itself in it's current state. The Franklin debacle is hardly to blame. Simply more of an exclamation point on a series of poor evaluations and bad moves on the part of this program's leader and his faithful followers.
For all of his shortcomings and outlandish, "My fault" and "I'm a dumbass" snaffus, Tony Franklin made several statements that could in fact be very prophetic...all of which referenced the lack of talent in this program. Personally, I wanted to drive to Auburn and bitch slap his ass for having the gall to compare these gazelle-like athletes at Auburn to those second rate pretenders at Troy. That's like having Carl Lewis run the 100 in the Special Olympics. Was he crazy? No, he was probably right or at the very least, not too far off.
Let's look at it for a second and take Al Borges or Tony Franklin or Norm Chow or Bill Walsh out of the equation. Do we have a quarterback on this roster who could start for most Sun Belt teams? Not right now, we don't. Do we have one running back who is any threat whatsoever to take it to the house or at the very least, take over a game? Better yet, do we have a line that would allow any of them to do so? (In case no one has noticed, Pugh, Ziemba and Bosley are all about 275 - 290 at best) Is there a receiver on this team that can out run or out jump DB's? And if so, can they catch the damn ball when they do? Are any of the WR's a threat to break tackles and actually rack up a little YAC? With the exception of the tight ends, which we really don't have..that about covers the O.
You can try (in total futility, if you must) to make the case for particular players, but the bottom line is that you can't name one right now on the offensive side of the ball that would sniff of 3rd team all-conference. That's not the result of Franklin's or Borges' schemes. Think about it...after 8 games, shouldn't you be able to pick out at least one guy and say, "You know, if we would just....". You can't because the plain truth is that the talent level on that side of the ball has slowly but surely declined since 04'. It doesn't seem to be right. RIVALS has given us some pretty good ratings with the exception of last year. But, didn't we argue the same thing about their ratings of Shula's classes? And...just as importantly..how much time have we spent justifying many of these recruits in recent years by pointing out how CTT and this staff find all these "Diamonds in the rough" and coach them up?
Okay, let me direct this to any players who might have somehow heard of the X and the expert analysis which flows daily from the minds and keyboards of it's members. If you're reading this and take offense...run faster, jump higher, catch the ball, finish your tackles, play better. You lost to Vanderbilt.
I watched some of Florida's dismantling of Kentucky Saturday. Athletes flying all over the freakin' field. About a quazillion yards of offense was on display between UGA/LSU.. Moreno's a pretty good ball player. So's Brandon Lafelle. Damn, LSU's got a big ole' bunch of former high school All-Americans on that O-line. Is every DB at UGA a Top 100 rated player? The point is, this staff has either grown totally complacent or done a very poor job of evaluating and/or getting aggressive on the top athletes around the South. Oh sure, we seem to sprinkle in a few blue chippers here and there but for the most part, we're looking at guys that force you to do a little spin job in your mind and convince yourself he was overlooked or he's certainly going to put on 20 Yox pounds and be something.
The hell with that. I want Carnell Williams. I want "Go crazy". I want 63-5 over UK and Vandy. I want Julio Jones and A.J. Green. I want Auburn football players to walk around with a Florida type swagger that says, "You'd better be on your fuckin' game today, baby. Now...try and stop this".
Yep, that's what I want. And if any of them happen not to graduate..that's their problem, their future...not mine. No, I'm not saying abandon any consideration of character. I EXPECT that. But right now, I'm talkin' about Auburn football.
Since 04' the record for this program in the SEC is 7-1, 6-2, 5-3 and currently 2-3 and staring 2-6 right square in the ass. There's not a soul on offense that will do anything other than watch games on Sunday unless they're out in the back yard with the kids. I like some of the kids that are verbally committed, but does this class give you real hope for the future? Looks like more of the same to me. Again players, if that pisses you off, remember, you got pushed around by Arkansas....and how does Noel Devine's ass look? You saw it enough while you tried to chase him down.
It's time for that to change...immediately. It's time for a change at the top. You've done really good things at Auburn, Tommy. Thanks for that. But it's time to move on and let Auburn find someone with the fire to take this program back to the top. The SEC is leaving Auburn behind and there's a lot of catching up to do. Giving Tommy Tuberville one more year to name his 11th coordinator in 10 years in hopes of turning it around is NOT the way to go about it.
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