3 weeks in review

Sorry for the lack of posting. School has gotten pretty busy. Luckily it has backed off a little. Anyway on with the recaps.

Vandy: Solid win. This is what we should be doing against the likes of lower tier SEC teams. e.g. Miss St. Although I will say that Vandy has been no slouch this year, just ask Steve Spurrier. The offense continued its imporvement and the 4th string defense end up letting the Dores score in the 4th. Not too shabby at all.

@ Arkansas: What a nerve wracking game to watch. Watching us march down the field and eitheer 1) Kick a field goal 2) miss a field goal or 3) punt/turn the ball over was frustrating. However the defensive effort was noithing short of spectacular. Holding possibly the 2 best RBs in the nation to a combined 87 yards? I doubt LSU will be able to accomplish that. Cox continued his souless robotic last minute game winning drive ways, marchiung down to the 12 to set it up for Wes Byrum, whom I could not be happier with. Muschamps antics I missed on TV and when I saw the youtube video, I thought for sure was editted. But sure enough after going back to the ole Tivo, there it was clear as day. I have to say that I like the way he coaches. It seems that the players agree, as does their play.

@ LSU. That was gut wrenching. Those are always thge hardest to lose. We came out in the 1st half and completely dominated. Our offense did everything it wanted. Of course, Glen Dorsey going out on a much dispute chop block helped a little. But I concede we should have been penalized for that. However, Auburn got the short end of the stick wehn it came to the officiating. The waved off 6 men on the line of scrimmage should not have been waved off and the spot on a thrid down on LSUs last drive was a good foot extra.  

 

Cout them: 6 men on the line

Also worth mentioning were the countless facemask tackles that went unflagged. But aside from all of that, the bottom line is that Auburn couldnt maintain its level of play inthe 2nd half that it enjoyed from the 1st. We let LSU back in it, our offense couldnt give our D a rest and so it happened the way it did. This is a loss that hurts. We can most likely kiss going to Atlanta goodbye unless LSU somehow miraculously loses 2 more games (big time unlikely). Nonetheless, we must move on and focus on an Ole Miss team that isnt sure what it is. They scared Florida and lost big to Ark. Who knows which tema we will face. I just know that Auburn needs to focus on winning out. 

By the way, I wont repost it because Erik at Deepsouthsports has done so in a way that cant be duplicated. Check out the pics of classy LSU women that I sent to him.

Other things worth noting:

Quentin Groves tied the Aubrun career sack record with his sack this weekend.

Montez Billings has emerged as a great option for Cox. Im sure Rod Smith is grateful for the attention taken off him.

Speaking of emerging, Cox has brough himself out of the depths since Miss St and is playing great. 18-28 for 199, 2 TDs, 0 INTs against LSUs D is impresive. And yet again another last minute go ahead drive, even though we lost. If there was another minute left I have no reson to doubt that he would do it again.

The Kodi Burns situation is getting retarded. Everybody now knows that when he comes in he will run a quarterback draw to the right out of bounds for two yards. I like what they started to do against Florida throwing to him in the flats for a possible trick play. They need to let him come in for a series and run the offense, which includes throwing. It will only help him. If all else fails on a dropback, he can scramble for 20 yds instead of 2 on the draw.

This coaching situation with TAMU is both silly and scary. I have heard so many scenarios. Finebaum, of course is leading the parade with the Tubby will leave blah blah blah. I, along with every other Auburn fan would love to buy Phillip Marshall's view that he would never leave, but Im sure any Ole Miss fan would tell you not to fall for that. Even funnier situations that Ive heard are 1) Saban has no buyout so hed go to TAMU for a pay raise. 2) Ive heard Les Miles is gonna be gone after this year no matter waht at LSU and they are going to hire Steve Spurrier (crazy, I know, even though Miles has proven to be an idiot with is prayer agaisnt us with no time left). Theres also the Miles to Michigan rumor. The rumors are good and plenty. While I hope that Auburn is left out of the coaching carousel come seasons end, I cant help but wonder who they would go after if it actually happened. My vote would be for Will Muschamp or Bobby Petrino. Just a thought.

War Eagle!

All I can say is WOW

That was awesome. Me and some other fellas rented an RV and left Auburn around lunchtime. We arrived around 6, parked, and set up shop. We watched USF dominate WVU in a game in which there were 10, yep count em, 10 turnovers. So right off the bat, Auburn started to look better. We went out to a bar called "The Swamp" afterwards, to be pleasantly surprised that half the bar was filled with Auburn people. Yells/cheers were traded and the usual talking of trash. Although the women in Gainesville dressed a little on the trashy side (there was a midnight run in which the3 runner wore only underwear, wow) and the men wore enough gel to clog every drain in the state of Florida (it looked like a Backstreet Boys audition) Id say that 90% of the fans were very classy and polite. We tailgated in the RV lot next to a fella named Jim, who talked endless shit about Auburn being gay and Florida having more beautiful women, which was easily refuted once a few UF girls came by and we pointed out that Tebow kissed his roommate. But, all the usual remarks aside, he was a nice guy and offered anything we needed as newbies RVing. Saturday, we watched Corso and Herbstreit claim that UF would win and win big. We knew right away, that was the kiss of death and Florida had no shot (plus Corso was a nice shade of burnt orange, what foreshadowing). We then watched Miss St lead USC for a little while and give them a scare. Again, Auburn looking better. Then we watched Mark May, the only ESPN analyst who realizes Auburn's talent and has some respect for us (he picked us to win last year) said that Auburn could stay in it. Shortly thereafter, Lou Holtz goeth on a rant thaying that Florida wath too good and Auburn had ath much a chanth to win ath he did to be elected thenator of Florida. What an idiot, this is the SEC, Lou, teams rarely win by 19 points. . .especially when that team has an outstanding defense. 

Credit the guys at theauburner for this one

Anyway, we started the 2 mile trek to the stadium (yep, 2 miles). The campus is huge, and we saw no one tailgating unless they were a block away from the stadium. Whereas in Auburn, every inch of campus has tailgaters. It makes for a better atmosphere. I was impressed with the number of AU fans there. Tiger walk was good, the entire band was there too. Florida Field was pretty nice, the stadium was big, however the tiny-trons (they weren't near big enough to have jumbo as the prefix) looked as old as the guy leading the oldest cheer before the game. 

Once the game began, as I'm sure everyone else saw and experienced, that was not the AU team we have seen all season. I don't know where they came from, but I'm glad they showed up. They help UF to a 3 and out, only to drive the field and score on the first possession. The stadium wasn't as loud as I had expected it to be, for obvious reasons. I felt like the Auburn fans were pretty loud. After the game we went back to the same bar, where most of the Florida fans were once again classy and polite.

Other random game thoughts:

-Cox was back to his old self again. His stats: 17-26, 227, 0. He was 5/5 on the 1st drive and 10/12 in the first half. You cant ask for much better than that.

-Rod Smith was impressive, especially running after the catch and keeping his feet inbounds when he had to. He caught 9 for 102. AU receivers don't go for 100 in a game too often. It was also nice seeing Billings make some big grabs

-Fannin and Tate ran well. Only setback was Tate fumble, which happened after and extremely nice run up the middle.

-The freshmen O-Linemen are ridiculous. The holes were definitely there all night. Tommy Trott even had some nice blocks.

-The Defense, once again was amazing. Our DBs had superb nights tackling in the open field. Our D-Line got great penetration. Marks blocked a FG, had a big TFL in the redzone. Lee had a nice interception and FF. Chris Evans was all over the place, and Tray played well despite being hobbled by his ankle. It was a very solid effort by Muschamp and his D.

-It hurts to lose Davis and Groves. Davis is out for the season but Q will be back for LSU. 

-I really think Coach Tuberville won the game from us with his arguing the catch off the punt. The defense fed off of his anger, and in turn lit up the UF offense fro a - 6 yds in 3 p0lays and got the ball back to the offense for the game winning drive. That should be up for Pontiac Game Changing Performance (go vote), even though Byrum's kick will suffice

-It was great to see them bring back the wheel route to Stewart. That's been a big play for us in recent years.

-Last but not least, Wes Byrum, wow. What can you say about this kid. He kicked the game winner from 43 yds out twice!. He has ice water running through his veins. 18 yrs old, in a big time pressure situation and he delivers twice. We plucked this kid out of Florida (he was the #1 kicking prospect in the nation). That was one he will remember for a while, as will the fans. 

 

This was a big win, and big turning point for the team. They have a chance to turn things around. I'm not claiming that we will win out, but these last 2 games have built the confidence we've been lacking. WAR EAGLE!