Thanks Maisel

Since the beginning of the season ESPN's Ivan Maisel has believed in Auburn. He predicted they would play for the National Championship before the season started, and still projects them to. At least someone believes in us. Granted it may not happen, but we can all hope. We just need a little help from Arkansas, Louisville, and West Virginia. Rutgers can help us out by beating the winner of this Thursday's WVU-Louisville matchup. Texas probably needs to lose too. Anyway, here are Maisel's projections.

BCSucks

Auburn's 23-17 win this weekend was just that, a WIN. Ill take 3 more just like it. While many have viewed the game as lackluster or unimpressive, I was pretty pleased. The score is not indicative of how well Auburn played. As i watched the game, I wrote down some things I felt worth mentioning:

The poor excuse for commentators known as the 3 headed Dave, did not disappoint. The were just as bad, if not worse than ever. At one point Dave Rowe called CT "courtney cox" (which also happens to be a shirt). He also described the running of Ole Miss RB BenJarvus Green Ellis as "he is a north south runner, that means he runs straight ahead". I had no clue thats what north-south meant. WOW.

Auburn's defense, aside from Tray Blackmon, just cannot tackle. Everyone is just running around slamming into the ball carrier, and they just bounce off of them.

I think the "O" in Coach O should stand for ogre, because that's exactly what he looks and sounds like. His voice is deeper than Michael Clarke Duncan's (John Coffey in The Green Mile).

Tristan Davis need to have the ball in his hands more often. Period.

John Vaughn = money.
Auburn doubled Ole miss in every statistical category. The only reasons the score looked as bad as it did were penalties, and the 2 turnovers, which Ole Miss turned into points thanks to the penalties. We ran 75 plays vs 45 from Ole Miss. TOP was AU 37:00 to their 23:00. That's pretty good.

Cox, Irons, and CT all had great days. The offense played extremely well and the defense played OK.

Moving along to the worst championship system ever created, Auburn drops to #6, even after USC lost to OSU. Florida, which Auburn beat without an offensive touchdown and most recently beat an impressive (not) Georgia team, jumped ahead. I guess moving everyone up as they were would make way too much sense, so they say to themselves, hey we should flip flop Auburn and Florida, even though Auburn beat them and has a better record (8-1 vs. 7-1). Maybe they wanted to keep us guessing. Congrats, mission accomplished. This whole system just pisses me off. The whole concept of letting other people and computers decide who is the #1 is just ridiculous. The players should decide it on the field, in a playoff; which happens to be the system that EVERY other NCAA sport uses. Also, so do the NFL, NHL, MLB etc. Style points are also gay. I don't think I need to say anything more about it. Everyone knows it. They are about as cool as Chad Johnson's hair.

I guess that's all for now. War Eagle!

I only know two things (written by Scott)

I told one of my good friends (Scott) and fellow lover of Auburn about my blog, and told him it'd be great if he wanted to post. He and I discuss the games weekly and I always enjoy what he has to say. He is a sharp, funny guy who knows a lot about Auburn and football in general. Actually, he knows a lot about just about everything, especially the show Doug or Rocko's Modern Life. Anyway, here is what he has to say:

I really only know two things. One is that Auburn went into the locker room against Florida, trailing by 6 points and allowing over 11 yards per play. Drives that with exception to the safety on a holding penalty produced a field goal, a passing touchdown, and a rushing touchdown netting 75, 70, and 80 yards respectively. Defensively Auburn was making big plays, but far more often, Auburn was giving up big plays. The intensity was there, but so were missed tackles, open receivers, and one very large quarterback running the ball into the end zone. While staying in their base package, Muschamp was often sending a linebacker (often Tray Blackmon) to the line of scrimmage for extra pass rushing, but this was leaving strong safety Eric Brock key player in the run support, and in the first half the keys just weren’t fitting. When switching to nickel formations nickel back Patrick Lee couldn’t keep up with a receiver who was open for what should have been a Gators touchdown if not for Blackmon making Leak a little too nervous in the pocket. Not long after it was a touchdown as a slightly under-thrown ball was snatched by Dallas Baker over Jonathon Wilhite who could have easily made the tip if he had only known where the ball was.

The second thing I know is that Auburn came out with the best defense it has played all season. Six Florida plays later and Tre Smith is somersaulting into the end zone. The only drive over 20 yards for Florida in the second half ended in a Chris Leak fumble.

After the game ESPN analyst Desmond Howard asked Karibi Dede what half-time adjustments were made? Howard didn’t believe Groves when he said their defensive game plan didn’t change. All Groves admitted was that Tuberville challenged the players. Tuberville said, “That’s the first time one of my half-time talks worked.” The defensive schemes seemed to be the same, but missed tackles turned into sacks and tackles for loss. Unaware coverage turned into interceptions. The X’s and O’s looked the same, but the players looked different.

While Tuberville later said that the effects of his speech were “overrated,” but the opinions of the players and the effects on field seem to contradict that. Eric Brock said, “Coach Tuberville was just brutally honest, I think we needed to hear that. As the head coach he realizes that. I appreciate Coach getting after us and telling us how he feels about our effort and our play. He challenged us and it worked for us there.”

In the past Tuberville has not been one to get mad. If you’ve never seen a coach really mad check out this clip of Dennis Green after his teams Monday Night Football collapse. Thankfully Tuberville will never go crazy like soon-to-lose-his-job Green, but I have always wanted to know what kind of locker room presence Coach Tubs has. All I know is that he challenged several players by name, called their manhood into question, and made some strange remarks described by on player: “One of the last things he said - it was along these lines - that if we were defending this country, we wouldn't stand a chance. We weren't being tough. As players, it's funny looking back but at the time, we were like: `Wow.' After that, the intensity was totally different.”

Because I will never know what Tuberville might have angrily said, I am forced to make it up myself. While I have no way of verifying this, I am merely thinking of what I’ve heard Tommy say before, what was situationally logical, and try to piece together what it must have been like.

After a minute of silence, Tommy Tuberville clears his throat and addresses his team, “Boys, I can’t address you as men because you are acing like a bunch of kids. My kids and I enjoy the fine taste of Bryan Meats. My wife enjoys Bryan Meats as well; you must also be acting like women. My family and I discovered Bryan Meats a long time ago, and still enjoy its delicious taste today!

“I’ve said many times how hard it is to make it through the SEC undefeated. Shoot that’s why we lost to Arkansas last week. If you don’t come out like a rolling ball of butcher knives, Florida could go undefeated and I’d look like an idiot. Just picture a rolling ball of butcher knives and what that must look like. I actually have no idea what that means, but I think it must look something like Kenny Irons running into the end zone just to get his hands on the bag of Golden Flake Potato Chips I was waving in his face. If only our defense could have that intensity. Groves, you don’t look like you’re running after a bag of Golden Flake!!! Coach Muschamp bring me a bag of Golden Flake … what’s that Will? Borges and Nall all ready ate them?

“Just think about these two words out there on the field. Don’t over-think the play; just remember these two words: Click-Clack! Click-Clack! Can you hear us coming Groves? Can you hear us coming Wilhite? Click-Clack! Can you hear us coming Johnson?

“Think about this: if you guys were defending this country we wouldn’t stand a chance. That may sound harsh, but if you, a group of college football players were left to defend this country my children would be lead off into captivity to never eat delicious Bryan Meats again! If you were in charge of defending this country we’d be in a precarious war thousands of miles away from America, fighting for an ambiguous cause with no foreseeable exit strategy. Oh wait.”

Then the lights would dim and the room would get kind of muggy. The players would all start to hit their pads rhythmically waiting for a riveting call and response cheer from their coach. “It’s us versus them,” the coach says confidently, as the players circle around him. “We must protect this house. WILL YOU PROTECT THIS HOUSE?”

“I will, I will”

“Under Armour!”

“Huh!”

“We must protect this house!”

The defensive squad filled with confidence runs out of the locker room onto the field. Only Coach Muschamp remains, looking scared. Tuberville puts his hand on Will’s back, looks into his eyes, and says quietly, “Click-Clack, I think they hear us coming.”

Tulane Recap

Today's game wasnt as amazing as last week's (obviously) while we didnt look extremely sharp, it wasnt as bad as the Buffalo game. Here are some brief thoughts on what I saw.

-The defense once again maintained its' "bend but not break" level of play. Quentin Groves continued his great play from last week with two sacks. We had two or three huge redzone turnovers. We also dropped two or three interceptions, one of which i recall being right in the defenders hands. Our run defense needs to get better quick. Tulane racked up 389 yards. That is pretty bad. Especially considering LSU, Florida, and Arkansas didnt gain that much on us. Tualne;s quaterback is prety good but 283 yards passing is rediculous. I know most of the 2nd and 3rd stringers were playing, but our secondary has been lit up this year. We also allowed over 100 yards rushing. Again, backups played, but they should have allowed that many. Where is the tackling? It seems that everyone is running around diving like they are playing NCAA 07 and hitting the sqaure button instead of breaking down and tackling. The D missed several tackles this way. Tualne ran a draw play form the shotgun about 37 times and got several yards almost everytime, and we never caught on. We need to be more consistent.

-Tray Blackmon is a missle. I really enjoy watching him play. I can't wait to see how good he is once he learns where to line up. On one third down play, I watched Tray line up and show blitz, and i was sure that Lester Ricard probly began soiling his pants, and preceeded to fumble the ball to us before Tray could lay him out.

-I really like Ben Tate. He is a big guy, with speed and he hits the hole quick. He kinda reminds me of Bo. Kenny sat out today, trying to get some nagging injuries healed up, and after Brad Lester played the first two or three possesions, Tate carried most of the load, occasionally being spelled by Tre' Smith. He ended up with 156 yards on 26 carries (a nice 6 yard avg.). He is gonna be a bad ass in the coming seasons.

-Tre' Smith...one minute you love him, the next you never wanna see him touch the ball. He came up big for us last week with the returned blocked punt for TD. Today, he had a few nice runs, and a great TD catch, but he dropped a wide open sure TD catch. There was no defender within 10 yards of him. I was glad for him that he had a good day though.

-Cox had a great day, going 16/19 for 212 yds and 3 TDs. Three passing TDs for this team is pretty good, even if it waas against Tulane, because we dont throw that much. I like seeing us throw the ball down the field a little. It seems we always throw safe short passes which isnt always bad, but it is nice to give defenses something to think about. Tommy Trott, Tre', and CT all had long TD catches. Believe it or not, that was CT's 1st TD catch of the year. He had a nice run after the catch to get the score. You could tell he wanted to get in.

-Tristan Davis is a threat anytime he touches the ball. He had a 53 yd return to open the 2nd half. He is just inches away from taking one to the house. I think they need to put him at punt return. I love the way he picks one hole and hits it. No dancing or hesitation.

-Kody Bliss can freaking kick the ball. He booted one for a whopping 71 yards. I was disappointed (Im sure he was too) that the gunners couldnt get to it in time to down it at the one. It sure was an amazing kick though, and a net yardage of 51 aint shabby. He also downed one inside the 5 later on.

-John Vaughn has been money this year. I think he is something like 14/17 on the year. Solid. Also, Matt Clark can boot the ball too. AUburn kicked off 6 times, 6 touchbacks. That is a big advantage. The special teams this year has been great. They almost blocked a punt today too. Kudos to Gran.

-This Auburn offense isnt flashy, but when it has the ball, it has it for a long time. This offense is not about scoring on 80 yard pass/run plays. They take the ball at the 10 and marches down the field eating up 8 minutes off the clock, and most of the time, they come away with points. To me, that's invaluable. I think we have the ablity to score quick, but we rarely need to. They wear down the defense and keep the opposing offense out of the game.

-For those of you who havent seen, the student section has started something called "Throw it Out" and it is pretty damn funny. Whenever the opposing team kicks a field goal or PAT at them, they throw it to the top of the stadium, and then over the top. They did it to Florida twice last week, and once this week. Personally, I like it.

-Tub called off the dogs as the clock ran out. They couldve punched in another score to make it 45-13 but Tubs has never been a fan of running up the score. While, I like how he does things, we couldve used the "style points" (which I think are stupid, but its how the system is (which is also stupid)) for the BCS rankings. Id like to believe that we will remain at No. 4 in the BCS rankings, I dont think it will happen. Our schedule strenth only gets weaker from last week on. While we still have Georgia and Bama, neither look to give us a huge boost (assuming we win). Georgia is fresh of an embarassing win over Miss St. which followed an even worse looking loss to Vandy.

-On another note, Arkansas looked good today, from the little that I saw. They returned the opening kickoff 100 yds to give them a 7-0 lead 18 seconds into the 1st quarter. Darren McFadden and Felix Jones are pretty good. Just ask the Auburn defense. We need them to lose 2 games, our best bet being Tennessee and LSU, but somehting tells me they wont go down without a hard fight.

Well thats all I have from the Too Lame game. Any feedback you wanna leave would be great. Look for a Rankings review and outlook tomorrow or Monday. War Damn Eagle! (Go Vols)

Epiphany

So I was lying in bed last night, pondering a story that I had come across amongst my lineup of Auburn news/blog sites that i visit daily. My mind then wandered to a response to the aforementioned story. I laughed to myself at how incredibly idiotic the story was, and how much i enjoyed reading this hilarious rebuttle. The more i thought about it, and my love for all things Auburn, the more clear it become how much i wanted to start a blog of my own. I am always predicting and analyzing with my fraternity brothers, family, co-workers, etc. so I figured this would be a good way to combine it all into one, you know eliminate the middle man. But who am I kidding? The day I only discuss Auburn and how much I love it once per day, will be the day when "The Bear" comes back from the dead, and leads 'Bama to their 43rd National Championship. There is nothing i love more than talking Auburn Football or recruiting. I figured I would give this a shot and see what kind of feedback I get, and perhaps it will turn into something good. So let me know what you think. More to come real soon.

War Eagle!