If you were one of the ones penning sonnets to the genius of new Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn at the beginning of the season, it might be time to start singing a different tune.
If you were one of the ones marveling at the transformation of Auburn quarterback Chris Todd, further examination is now due.
Don’t feel alone, nearly every observer of Auburn football got caught up to a degree in the blistering offensive pace of the 5-0 start. Glaring defensive deficiencies were overlooked, the relative level of competition was ignored.
It was just too easy to pick up stones and hurl them at former head coach Tommy Tuberville for his 2008 failures while basking in the faux glow of a quick start to 2009.
Others may not be ready or willing to take this step just yet, but it’s time to wonder if the 2009 Tigers are any better off than the 2008 version that crashed and burned to a 5-7 record.
Short answer? No. They’re not. In some ways, this team may be worse.
Despite a five-win start, aided by six West Virginia turnovers, the Tigers are staring at the very real possibility of a 6-6 finish, particularly when you consider that the four toughest opponents on the schedule (LSU, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama) remain.
Yes, with Furman looming for Homecoming chances are that this team will at least make bowl eligibility, but is that really so much better than last season’s abomination?
No.
This Tiger defense is markedly worse. Over the past two games, the offense hasn’t been much better than the abysmal sludge that stunk up the 2008 campaign.
Auburn’s defense played well in patches in Saturday’s loss to Kentucky. It still missed far too many assignments and failed to make routine plays with the game on the line.
Kentucky started a freshman at quarterback who had never taken a collegiate snap. The Wildcats relied on a career backup in the second half. Still, Kentucky was able to smack the Auburn defense in the mouth.
There’s no excuse for that.
Kentucky wasn’t doing anything fancy. Auburn helped make the ‘Cats look like beasts with shoddy fundamentals, dreadful tackling and repeated mental lapses.
It’s nothing new.
The Tiger defense has a habit of doing that. The doomed no-pressure defensive scheme employed by defensive coordinator Ted Roof has given every team on the schedule, including Ball State, highlight reel material.
Through five games, Auburn’s offense was able to hide those deficiencies by scoring points in bunches.
Points are no longer coming.
After authoring a comeback story that had begun to draw national attention, Chris Todd’s performance against Kentucky was reminiscent of some of his worst efforts a year ago.
Todd missed open receivers, continually fired into double coverage, underthrew receivers, overthrew receivers and played with all the finesse of Pinocchio — before he was turned into a real boy.
But the offensive suicide was en masse.
Twice, Auburn drives in Kentucky territory were bogged down by asinine penalties, the kind of repetitive mistakes you’d expect from a pee-wee team.
The offensive line dragged around like it had somewhere better to be.
Mario Fannin, a legitimate offensive threat, was misused.
The reason behind the regression is a mystery. The results are not.
Malzahn’s stock has crashed harder than Wachovia’s. That wizard hat he was wearing after an offense-fueled 5-0 start has looked an awful lot like a dunce cap the last two weeks.
With the exception of some hard-nosed running by senior tailback Ben Tate, Auburn’s offense was at least as ineffective as a year ago. It wasn’t clever, it wasn’t cute, it wasn’t innovative.
It was predictable, plodding and pedestrian.
The play-calling, particularly in critical situations, would have made even Tony Franklin sputter in disbelief.
It looked, quite frankly, like that of a high school offensive coordinator suddenly realizing he was in over his head.
Is it possible that former Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt was actually right when he wrested control of the Hog offense from Malzahn midway through Malzahn’s one-season tenure with the Razorbacks?
Auburn’s wunderkind coordinator Malzahn has been outmaneuvered by two middle of the pack SEC lambs in Arkansas and Kentucky. Both the ‘Hogs and ‘Cats were winless in the league before facing Auburn.
It’s gruesome to think what feast the lions remaining on Auburn’s schedule will have at the Tiger’s expense if Malzahn isn’t able to conjure up something more effective than the gory mishmash he’s gagged out the past two weeks.
What happened Saturday night was simply an epic failure. A slight improvement by the defense — but again remember that Kentucky was playing without its starting quarterback — was completely squandered by a dreadful offense.
Auburn is not a good football team by SEC standards.
There are some legitimate excuses regarding talent and depth, but much of what happened on Saturday can be directly attributed to poor coaching. No offense to Kentucky fans, but Auburn should not lose to Kentucky at home. period.
The Arkansas loss was supposed to be a learning situation. What Auburn learned is that it just isn’t as good as the fast start indicated.
Photo via.
No offense, but put the pills down and step back from the ledge. We can’t recover from a Katrina level event that was Tubs last year in a half a season, especially when his shit recruiting depleted us and then he left with anybody we had left. When Gus gets a QB qualified to run his offense (Rollison) we will be aight. Just have to call in FEMA to clean this years left over mess up.
None taken.
You’re fooling yourself and drinking the Chiz-aide if you think last season was “Katrina level”
Yes, Auburn had some issues that needed addressing. Nobody’s denying that. But the baby is laying out in the street with the bathwater now.
Agreed, Wes. Do not nibble on the gun. Penalties are the direct result of a lack of concentration and discipline. I stated in August that we would go 7-5. That would include some painful losses in the meat of our schedule. I have stood by that prediction for 8 weeks now. I realize now that we would have to sneak away with a win at Georgia, or win the Ole Miss game at home to go 7-5. The only game we will be favoured in will be Furman. A 6-6 record will land us in the Pizza Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama! All that having been said, I remain firm on my 7-5 prediction.
K,
If Tubs had remained HC, we would NOT be 5-2. It would be worse!
I refuse to post on the bunker anymore but today would be an interesting day over there.
It is not Todd bashing to say that his arm looks dead IMO. He took some hard hits in the Tennessee game and maybe he hurt his shoulder again. Against Arkie the strength had only dropped off a little, but this week it was just awful. The missed pass to a wide open Fannin was the case and point. Todd rolled out, had time, set his feet and fundamentally threw a perfect ball that one hopped to the receiver. Not good.
The defense cannot stop the simplest of offensive plays, and I don’t ever like to player bash, but they were running it at Adam Herring all night with great success. He chases the ball instead of taking good angles. When you are not a great athlete, you have to be smarter than that. I could hear my high school coach in my ear all night “DON’T CHASE”
I don’t know if anyone on the defensive staff knows too much about the 5-2, but with our issues at linebacker I’d like to see us work it in. We seem to have a rotation of 8 DL so why not? It would help us out against the run which is our biggest weakness. The only team (except Furman) left on our schedule who can’t run it down our throats every play is maybe UGA. The season may be getting very long, very soon.
And don’t bash Tuberville, we were competitive in every game last year except Alabama. If the cupboard was that bare Chizik should have snatched up some freshman LBs.
I call last year a Katrina level event because of the mixture of problems that by themselves may not be catastrophic, but altogether could destroy a post-modern city for 3-5 years.
1) Overall apathy of Tubs in coaching. Impossible to prove, but the downward trend the past four years points towards it.
2) Apathy of Tubs in recruiting. See Alabama’s last three classes
3) Saban reaching the tipping point last year
4) The Franklin flop all around
5) football team slpit between QBs which caused a riff in the team
6) West Virginia and Bama games. Complete undressings in both of them. The football team quitting v WVU and the raping that occured in Ttown.
That is just a sampling of some of the stuff that had been building or occurred last year. By themselves I don’t think any one of those destroys a program for 2-3 years (except maybe the complete lack of recruiting) but the perfect storm that occured last year is just going to take this entire year to overcome. And then there is the depth issue, which will take 3 years to completely build up proper depth.
Kevin, that was a very poorly thought out post. And your response to a previous poster (Chizaid? Throwing the baby out with the bathwater?) is just as poorly thought out.
I have no idea why you seem to be pining for Tommy Tuberville, or why you are suddenly (if it is suddenly) so down on Malzahn. But I’m as happy as I can be that Tuberville is gone and only sad that he wasn’t gone sooner. Malzahn will be just fine.
The issues with this team in terms of talent level and depth lie squarely at the feet of Tuberville and his staff. That wasn’t a baby that got thrown out with the bathwater, it was a changeling.
Yes, the destruction of the program by Tuberville was very bad. Katrina level? I dunno. But the funny thing about Katrina, at least where NOLA is concerned, is that they also thought they had dodged the bullet when the storm moved east. And then they found out about the levees…
The defense is paper thin and has very questionable talent on the line and at linebacker. The offense has a QB that may be in the midst of a physical breakdown and starting wideouts that would be walkons at most other SEC level programs.
We all knew this year would be a test. We knew there would be losses. And those of us paying attention know that if Tuberville was still here, it would be worse.
War Eagle!
You live and die by the QB in this offense whether it’s run based or not. When the QB plays poorly we are going to struggle. Poorly does not begin to explain the performance Saturday night. I think he’s got arm issues again. And I don’t think it’s fair to say the O line didn’t perform well. They gave him plenty to time for the most part all night and he just couldn’t make the reads or the throws. They blocked well enough for Tate to run for 131 yards. That should be a win every time with even marginal QB play.