An interesting message
I received this in the ol HABOTN inbox around midnight.
It was a good missive. I think I'll share. I'm going to withhold this guy's name because he didn't beg for publication or anything. We'll just call him "TB".
It was a good missive. I think I'll share. I'm going to withhold this guy's name because he didn't beg for publication or anything. We'll just call him "TB".
As an Auburn fan I sit here at 11:30 CST and I am trying to figure out what is happening.
I finished watching the last 8 minutes of the ball game again and I am convinced something is going on that we just aren’t aware of or are being told. When CBS would show the Auburn side lines it was obvious that when Burns or Todd were not on the field they were not engaged in the happenings of the game. That is concerning. Having had to miss the last two home games due to illness I have not had the opportunity to watch what is going on the sidelines. But there does not appear to be any type of communication going on between our starting QBs. That tells me there are problems.
Additionally we have been spoon fed all summer long that there was not that much difference between the two QBs, but when the game is on the line and they pull Todd for Burns what is the play call? Three running plays!! It is only when Auburn's back is up against the wall that they allow Burns to throw the ball and he throws the strike to get the first down. This does not take into consideration the play Burns made prior to half time.
So I ask, what is it with Franklin? Just think about it. In game two Burns get a cut on his leg 7 stitches. OK that’s bad, but we saw Cox take the field playing on one leg, & you are going to tell me that stitches gets Burns benched? I don’t buy it. I also don’t buy this taking responsibility stuff. Don’t get me wrong. I like it when a coach takes responsibility but we are now are the point of ridicules. So what is Auburn going to do?
I am sure that Todd will start next week and we will hear from Franklin that Todd didn’t do enough bad stuff to get benched. But, Todd is not the leader of this team I just believe that he has been accepted by his team mates. By the same token I am not sure Burns is either.
After watching Alabama tonight totally destroy Georgia I feel sure we will be facing an Alabama team that could very well be 9 -1 or 10 -0. I also feel that if they are 10 -0 we will be facing the number one team in the country. Please explain to me how an Auburn program that has totally dominated its rival over the last 6 years is now taking second fiddle to them in less than 2 years. At 53 years old I have lived thru the dark ages of Alabama dominance. I will find it very hard to stomach if that’s where we are headed there again.
I think there are serious storm clouds on the plains and it could get alot worse before it gets better.
posted by Jay G. Tate at
10:35 AM
30 Comments:
I'm no insider but i do know some people close to the team who say there is some fricton between certian team memebers/
members...sorry
There's friction on 12-0 teams, too.
come on Jay, we can play semantics all day...you dont think there is something going on down there that is troubling?
Scott, so you have "sources"? Ha! Just kidding. The visitors don't like it when you know something.
The older generation certainly doesn't want to revisit the '70s or the '90s...uh...when we played 11 game regular seasons.
The 53 year gent makes sense to me. When you're pissed on the sidelines you're certainly not focused on the game at hand. Didn't Todd admit his guilt there? He said that he has to do a better job controlling his mental state on the sidelines, meaning he can't let his ill feeling disrupt what could be his snap next.
Ah. The perceptual dismantling of a power. We've already been through this under Tubs. He has found ways to fix it throughout. But, right now, this is his "fix". It's not working.
Like I've said all along, Kodi is a guy that can be a very memorable Auburn QB. Never a pro. He can be very memorable. It's time for us to take the plunge and let him earn his way. We will lose again. But, right now, I just want to win those last two. We won't do that without a QB and a set of coaches with chemistry.
Scott, of course there's something troubling. It's obvious. Coaching and punting. The punting's fixed with Durst back. He's the league's best. UGA could have used him last night. Next up is coaching. Who can fix that?
Yeah, Im the 'sources' guy now. Just had an interesting conversation after the LSU game (hope I remembered it right :)....anyway, if we beat Vandy, Ole Miss, WVU and UA or UGA I will be one happy fan.
Is Phillip Marshall on Auburn's payroll? His journalism is just too pro Auburn coaching staff.
I really just couldnt believe it when Tubs said he was going to the spread...it goes against everything he ever has been a part of. And I dont pay tht much attention to recruting but when Enrique Davis went to Ole Miss, CTT had to pay attention that he was all in, like it or not. And then to pluck Tony frankling was the icing on the cake. I had my fingers crossed but it doesnt look good so far.....one of my biggest wonders is ....Why does the offesne look so freaking slow!
It's slow because, according to Franklin, they can't even run 40% of it. I certainly don't believe that since every high school in American can run it OK (tad bit of sarcasm). Now he's going down to 10%. So we'll never see the end zone again is my guess.
All this gigantic wave of discontent and perception spin is pushed right along by Bama's big win last night over UGA. Everyone is so afraid that they're "back". Said it the beginning of the year they're winning 10 games. They do it every third year. Senior QB. Very experienced OL.
Questions.....how long is blackmon...lester out?
what time do the polls come out?
Crudup,
Sorry for getting you all wacked out on the "sources" comment. You may have legit sources, but for every person on here who does there are 10 who just make it up to sound like they are in the know.
It is obvious that the D plays as one unit and are seemingly really close, but the offense just seems to be there and not much more.
rk, nice return. But you haven't seen wacked out yet. You haven't heard about my phone call with Bobby Petrino yet.
I deleted salsa and all comments related to what he/she said.
Let's stick to discourse about facts and reasonable rumors/speculation/ideas.
Also, I don't agree with the shot against P-Marsh ... but I don't want to get super heavy-handed with the modhammer here.
Too bad, at least Salsa Shark was a good Clerks reference.
The polls have been coming out around 1 or 2 eastern.
My guess is that Lester will be OK next week. I think Tray will be limited for at least Vandy and Arkansas.
Coaches poll is out.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm
We need to be very careful this week, if we don't play well we can do for Vandy what we did for South Florida last year.
OK. Now Franklin says the offense will be boiled down to 10%. Wasn't one of the unofficial knocks on Burns was that he could not grasp the offense? If Todd starts and plays the bulk of the game against Vandy, what does that say about Burns? Burns must be a total space cadet. If he can't grasp 10% going into game six, he will never grasp it.
how did the CTF interview process go?
AUBURN VS. TENNESSEE
I wanted to comment on the game between Auburn vs. Tennessee game. First off as I have watched all these games in person I am beginning to believe I need a refund for my costs of tickets. If any of you watched the game you realized that if the Mississippi State game gave you stomach ulcers then watching the Tennessee game was like passing a kidney stone. Here are a few points.
1. All Blue – I don’t know if any of you noticed but because Tennessee wears neon orange, Auburn decided to send out a memo late Thursday that we (every person attending) had to wear blue. Now lets not even get to the fact that the memo went out to like 3 people a day before the game. But I think in today’s world its getting kind of ridiculous that the school tells you how you should dress for the game. I foresee a day when we all get a memo to wear various Indian, cop and construction uniforms so the whole stadium can do the YMCA during commercial breaks. You laugh, but tell me you haven’t obeyed the previous memos and worn orange when the school told you to. Having already received the memo from the school and my wife, I decided to rebel and I stuck with my original orange shirt. I guess I didn’t want to spend $40 on a blue shirt for one game all because of a memo. I think it all peaked for me when standing at the urinal an unknown man asked me if I got the memo; he was referring to my shirt. I politely asked him did he get the memo about asking me questions while standing at the urinal. So get ready for the next home game and be on the lookout for directions on what to wear.
2. Lee Ziemba – Bless his heart if he doesn’t average a penalty a game its just not right. The kid went from All-SEC Freshman to the albatross around the offensive lines neck. He has killed more drives than anyone on the team. If there was a category for most killed drives he would be front and center. I have heard the linemen are not in sync, well there not the backstreet boys either, let me tell you. There have been all kinds of excuses, we miss Chaz Ramsey and the linemen aren’t used to the spread. Whatever it is it needs to be fixed. I say from now on just ask Lee Ziemba to let us know when he feels like getting us a penalty so we can all be prepared.
3. Spencer Pybus – This is a kid you should all root for. He is a freshman linebacker from Dothan, Alabama. The kid had no scholarship offers on signing day. Then at the last minute Auburn called him with an offer. Already he has seen significant playing time and plays a lot bigger than his size. He may be undersized but he plays with a motor, he is a modern day “Rudy”. Well except he is not as fat as Sean Aston in Rudy and he has gotten to play more than one down so far.
4. Tony Franklin – Well children might read this so I just erased a half a paragraph of curse words. What can I say, if he comes back Monday morning and says I watched the tape and we didn’t look that bad I am going to run in front of traffic. I don’t know what games he has been watching but its getting ridiculous. Every week he has to tell us how he made a stupid call. I don’t know if he is just trying to beat us to the punch or what. I haven’t cringed so much at the word spread since I last went to the proctologist. Lets be honest, we are at the 6 game mark and we have not seen any improvement. We are all tired of the clichés. Someone also please give the man a razor. He makes half a million dollars a year and somehow he looks like Tom Hanks in Castaway. I keep hearing well it took a year to get going at Troy or it worked at Troy. Hellooooooooo….this not Troy. This is the SEC, if you don’t produce you get fired, plain and simple. Tuberville knows this and this is why I know he has his hand on the wheel so to speak. Our schedule does not get any easier. Our offensive is virtually last in every statistical category. Franklin please shave and please for the love of god get a first down, that’s all I ask.
5. Defense – Again, what else can you say. They saved our asses. They should get second helpings at the dinner table, valet parking and the offense should carry their books to class. That’s the least they can do. I truly believe if we had anything that resembled an offense we would have held opposing offenses to a lot less points. No matter how good they are they cant stay on the field all day after our spread offense is off the field in less than 60 seconds. Here is a scary thought imagine next year when Antonio Coleman and Sen’Derrick Marks decide to go pro after their juniors years, whew, trouble. Of course they could decide to stay and see if the spread comes around? ……hahahaha, yea, they are gone.
6. Booing – I heard a lot of booing Saturday during the 2nd half. I know some people were booing the play calling. A caller on the radio show said players can’t separate who the boos are directed at. I agree booing isn’t an answer, but we as Auburn fans are very frustrated. If we could call the Attorney General and have Tony Franklin arrested for fraud we would. Hey, instead of booing we could send dog poo to Tony Franklins door step, let me know if you know the address. If the administration and some Harri Krishna fans don’t want people to boo then please help us turn the offense around or give us an outlet for our frustration. You can’t tell me Lowder and the boys are happy. At this point they are plotting something, maybe a voodoo high priestess, drinking goats blood, who knows, what ever helps I am all for it.
7. Ben Tate hand off – If I see another Ben Tate hand off to the outside….well…I guess I’ll do nothing, because in less than 25 seconds I will see another one and then another one and then we punt. We have a big, all-SEC back and he is running outside taking pitches and hand offs. Ben Tate has to be depressed playing in this offense. Tate doesn’t have the most alarming speed first off, but he is a great north and south runner, which he hasn’t been called to do all year. Well if I lose my sight tomorrow, I should be fine not watching the Tigers play again because I should be able to see in my head the next 100 handoffs to Ben Tate.
8. Tommy Trott – Well I will be the first one to say I was in the love triangle with Tommy Trott. I said here that Chris Todd overlooked him on every play. I think Chris Todd heard my complaint because now he passes it to Trott in triple coverage. However, lately Trott has dropped two balls that would have been first downs. He can not seem to hang out to the ball. Students I have spoken with have said Trott never drops 12 ounces, but the pigskin is a different story. Maybe we should paint the football like a beer, see what happens.
9. Wes Byrum – He is hanging with Lee Ziemba too much I assume. This kid was a freshman all-SEC kicker and this year has missed four straight field goals. What has happened to him this year. Has he been watching Scott Norwood instructional kicking videos (reference Super Bowl 25 ). I don’t know if the picture of him beating Florida last year is still in his head or what. He needs to remember people have very little patience with kickers. Its not like he cant be replaced. We replaced last years all-SEC punter with a kid who was punting balls from K-mart on the intramural fields. If I was Byrum I would get my act together and I would keep an eye on the sporting goods section at K-Mart.
10. Tuberville – The man knows how to spin. But I trust him. We have to remember that as much as I loved Pat Dye, Tubbs is a few wins shy of passing Pat Dye for all time wins at Auburn. The one thing we know about Tubbs is he handles business. He knows the offense stinks and we cant keep winning with this kind of production. I’m sure he has had many long talks with Franklin. Hell maybe he even handed him a few business cards from a moving company. I guess that’s less dramatic than a horses head in his bed. Hopefully Tuberville will turn the heat up and mix in some old school running with the new spread. Old Tubby isn’t the riverboat gambler as before. I’ve seen more gambling risks at Sunnydale retirement homes bingo night. He needs to get his mojo back and fast.
Look Ahead: This week is Vanderbilt. It’s on TV, I am not sure why, seems people would rather watch Antiques Road show re-runs than watch this match up. But this isn’t the same old Vandy. This is the first time Vanderbilt has been ranked in over 20 years. Normally their chess team is ranked higher than their football team. Hopefully our defense will keep us in the ball game. Maybe we will see Kodi Burns some more and hopefully we will run the ball for over a 100 yards this game. Either way I expect to curse way more than my grandmother would like and I will probably go through a whole bottle of Maalox.
Prediction: Auburn 21 Vanderbilt 10
Again I ask- after seeing this offense isn't NOT knowing it a plus for Kodi?
Good post wild turkey
I gotta put that on the blog front.
Too good, pdwt.
Jay,
After the games I cant afford therapy so I use your blog!
Bama number 2 in the AP
This business about only running 10% of the offense or scaling the offense back is such a fraud. Its just Franklin looking for anything to blame other than his system. i guess he thinks the average auburn fan is stupid enough to think that we can't find 11 guys on scholarship that can run this thing and that we'll just blame it on previous recruiting and give him a free pass. Don't think so coach.our coaching staff has worked hard recruiting kids like kodi and fannin and Tate and ziemba and hawthorne etc. If you can't find a few players on this team that can run your offense then your offense is screwed up.
bama will have at least 2 or 3 losses by the time we get em. They are good but not great and very thin at many spots. Georgia was ranked too high to begin with, they almost lost to S.C.
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