Just felt the need to write it down.
When Auburn won the Natty in 2010, I didn’t get to go to the game. We had some family and friends over, grilled, drank and watched the game. When the kick went through the uprights, we jumped around like 6th graders at a sleepover, high fived, low fived, chest bumped, rubbed wieners (Just the tips) etc. Then, everyone went home, we cleaned up and went to bed. Got up the next morning, went to work and got back to the grind.
Saturday night, I drove home from the game, mixed up a brown likker and DCP, watched the second halves of two good football games between Washington/Oregon State and Florida/Missouri. Then I went to bed. Got up yesterday, went to church and hung Christmas wreaths all on the outside all afternoon. Barely thought about the game, until my cousin texts me, raging about Hugh Freeze and him saying, “I don’t know” in his presser immediately after the game. My only response was, “Take a deep breath. We’ll be fine.”
I have 100% faith in Freeze, and his ability to turn this program into national power. If he can’t, guess what? They’ll go get a another coach. There are/were plenty of naysayers about Hugh Freeze. I get it, and eventually they’ll be right. Somewhere down the line, he won’t be our coach anymore. It may be 2 years, or 10 years. The average tenure for a college football coach is 3.7 years, so the odds are, he’ll get us turned around, or he’ll be somewhere else. The point is, I quit worrying, or letting any of this shit have any effect on my life, or disposition a loooong time ago. I love it, and follow Auburn football religiously. It’s a passion, like hunting or fishing or playing certain sports are to some people. That’s all it is, and the sun came up yesterday and I got shit done.
As for the game, and the state of the program. Are there any excuses for that performance? Absolutely not. It was a team clusterfuck from the head coach down to the #3 Tuba player who was out of step on Glory Glory to Ole Auburn. The long snapper, kicker, and a gutsy effort by Thorne were about the only positives on the day. If they show up Saturday with that same effort, Bama will yank their collective pants down and go in dry, with no reach around, and only a text the next day asking, “How’s that asshole feel, bitch?” So no, no excuses for what happened Saturday.
So, where is this program? Aside from the odd prognosticator saying Auburn “might surprise people”, every expert, analyst and talking head picked us to finish last in the West, with many saying we probably won’t win an SEC game. We all still held out hope that a complete roster overhaul, and Auburn’s history of performing at her best when picked as the underdog, would yield much better results than predicted. But those analysts weren’t looking at this team through orange and blue glasses.
Here’s reality. This is not a very talented team, overall. We have some guys who will be playing on Sundays, and making a shit ton of money. Guys like Revolver Fairweather and 2 or 3 of our defensive backs are really good and will hear their names called on Draft Day. A few others will develop, but right now, there’s not a lot of future NFL talent running around out on that field. That’s not the case for the team that will roll in to Jordan Hare this Saturday. I heard a recruiting analyst say earlier this year, that if you simply take the 247 high school recruiting rankings of individual players, this Alabama team is the highest rated team in the history of rating players. Do NOT take this as an excuse for this past Saturday, but there’s no mistaking that Hugh Freeze inherited a mess.
The last couple of years under Malzahn, and the two under Breland Hatpin, decimated this roster as far as SEC caliber talent goes. Between the recruiting class and the transfers, there was almost a 50% turnover from the roster last year. That was out of necessity in order to make this program somewhat competitive. You want reality? Look at what we’ve been competing with:
4 of our 5 starting offensive linemen transferred in from Group of 5 programs. The starting center now, is a true freshman.
Our starting tight end, albeit a damn good one, came from Florida Atlantic.
Two of our wide receivers came from Jackson State and North Texas
Our 2nd string RB is 170 pounds from South Florida
One starting defensive end came from Vanderbilt
The other defensive end is a true freshman
Another DE in the rotation came from Liberty
Our outside linebacker came from Appy State
One starting linebacker came from North Texas
One inside lineman came from Purdue
Again, is this an excuse for Saturday? Nope! It’s just the state of the program right now. Another response to my cousin was that the only area that I care about is recruiting, which is the only way up out of this mess. And this staff is currently killing it. Hugh Freeze has work to do in all areas, starting with himself, and with his staff, namely his coordinators. I have to have faith that he recognizes that either Montgomery calling plays was a mistake, or him not running the offense was, or both. That needs fixing in a fast and sexy way. Freeze will get this program where it needs and deserves to be. It was Kirby Smart that said a couple of years ago, you will not compete in this league if you don’t go out and get top shelf talent. That may be a Captain Obvious statement, but what’s blatantly obvious as well, is Auburn has very little of it, and a long way to go.
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