News of the day, 11/11

Hey everyone. I'm sure you're in a chipper mood today after that fine exhibition from the Auburn Tigers on Saturday. I gotta say it was the most alarming meltdown I've seen. This is only my 10th season covering Auburn, though, so I'm sure Phillip Marshall remembers that 1903 game against the Montgomery YMCA or whatever.

Only kidding. He wasn't even born until 1910.

Not much to say aside from the fact that Auburn played terribly during the final 25 minutes of that game. I don't think anybody quit. I just think Georgia knows exactly how to exploit Will Muschamp's defenses -- he laid an egg while at LSU, too -- and this team is not good when the defense isn't stout. This offense looks nothing like a wishbone but it has the same overall effect: Slow-strike, time-consuming attack. It generally doesn't play well from behind because it's so gradual.

This is what Auburn has. Nothing can change that soon. These wideouts aren't suddenly going to become above-average players. The quarterback won't suddenly gain the ability to throw deep passes after five years of 10-yard slants. It's a piecemeal approach to offense. Even when it's on, it's barely good enough.

Thanks for stopping by to read the obituary, I mean, today's Auburn coverage at the HOTTEST Auburn blog on the 'net.

Tuberville held his weekly press conference at 3 o'clock. He said three things that I would consider "classic" given the team's current situation.

Aside from the Hall-of-Fame comment in 1998 about not leaving Oxford unless it's in a pine box, Tuberville's Sunday assessment that the UGA-Auburn game is "just another ball game" is as wacky as it gets. Absolutely amazing.

a.) STATEMENT: "That was just another ball game yesterday. The one coming up is not just another ball game. This is the one that counts for Auburn, and we know that."
FACT: Georgia is a big game when Auburn wins it, apparently a sideshow when UGA wins.

**BONUS QUOTE**
From his Tuesday press conference (11/6): "I always tell the players that these next two games are ones that they will remember for a long time. I always tell the players that they may not remember that we went 7-3, but they will remember how they played, practiced and all the things that happen leading up to these games for the rest of their lives."

b.) STATEMENT: "We've been adequate on offense."
FACT: Auburn currently is ranked ninth among Southeastern Conference teams in points per game. Auburn is 10th in total yards -- and has a two-yard cushion between it and 11th-place Vanderbilt. This isn't a trend. That was the 11th game of a 12-game season. This is reality.

c.) STATEMENT: "Our players and coaches could care less about what the media thinks about. It's their own agenda. It's not ours."
FACT: I can say, with 100 percent certainty, that nobody in the Auburn media is eager to spend the next three weeks covering a coaching search that may or may not include Tuberville. There is no agenda. Newspapers in Texas report this stuff. We react to that. No agenda. Just ... life.

People who email me today asking about Tuberville's job status are getting the same answer: I'm guessing that he's planning to leave. That opinion is not based on facts yet. That is based on just how weird that press conference was today. Really awkward statements. Again didn't address the A&M situation despite a very blunt and direct question from TV's Mike Raita about the possibility of the A&M talk creating a distraction at Georgia. I remember how the Ole Miss people kept saying Tuberville was acting weird right before he left Oxford in 1998. A lot changes in nine years, no doubt, but things are not normal right now.