Post-game fallout
Hey everyone. I left the press box much earlier than usual so I could get home. You gotta have the internet these days. It's important; perhaps even critical.Here are a couple of statistics I found interesting:
UGA offense (first quarter): 17 plays, 158 yards
UGA offense (after that): 40 plays, 193 yards
Mario Fannin prior to final two drives: 2 TDs.
Mario Fannin during final two drives: DNP
Answers for why Fannin wasn't playing late: 0
Auburn in the red zone: 0-for-2
Burns interceptions: 0
Sacks by Auburn: 0
Estimated number of fade-route passes Kodi Burns can complete out of 100: 0
Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University
Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.
posted by Jay G. Tate at
6:56 PM
109 Comments:
Hey maybe Mississippi St. will beat Alabama 3-2. That would be the greatest thing that happened all year.
Jay, do you know why Fannin wasn't in the game late? Tate had ankle issues, correct?
Cool stats, I don't understand why Fannin wasn't on the field. Yet another thing to question Tubs for.
Georgia's playcalling was horrible. Agree?
I couldn't get an answer on Fannin's mysterious disappearance. No idea.
Georgia's play-calling: Not good.
Georgia gave us every opportunity to win the game.
Our play calling in the second and third quarters was questionable. They seem to want to pick one thing and stick with it. As soon as Kodi had some success running, they got away from mixing in the pass. I am not sure why we have to wait until the fourth quarter to give Kodi a chance to pass down field. It is as if they don't trust his throwing ability unless they have no other choice.
Jay G.
Good stuff today. I enjoyed following the blog from the blackberry some 40 rows above your seat today. (Nice hat by the way.)
I wondered about Fannin's absence as well. Nice to see the answers from the coaching staff haven't changed much. At least that's consistent.
Very proud of the tigers today. They made great progress in O and D
Is it true that Tommy Trott tore his ACL today?
I'm not sure Fannin would have made a difference considering the plays that were called the last 2 possessions. Still, you have to wonder. If his pass blocking is bad, use him as a receiver.
I was impressed with both Tate and Fannin's efforts today, but Fannin seems to have a better chance of breaking a big run. When he was having a good day, I can't see going away from him.
I'm not even upset anymore.
Answers on Trott's situation were elusive as well.
HAHA, nice fade route stat.
Why in the world would we call that play knowing the chances of Kodi completing it are between 0-5%?
Mr. Sensible, I am not sure. They said he was injured in the first half and tried to come out and play in the second but couldn't. If he had a torn ACL I don't think he would have seen the field in the second half.
Hmm...thanks Jay.
AUWADE, were you there? I was way up top today.
oh, and put me down on the t-shirt order form.
You know, I thought Auburn's offense made considerable progress today. Yeah. I do. Burns looks like a different kid out there. It's pretty amazing.
That's not enough to offset other problems, but I think Burns is going to be a valuable asset one day.
(That's assuming he learns to repeat his delivery and throw accurately.)
Thanks, Steve. The guys on 93.9 were saying they had reports of that in the postgame.
Mr. S, no. Unfortunately I'm stuck in Indiana through Tues. I got to watch it somewhat on espn360.com. There's about a 2 minute delay, but at least I got to watch.
My hat was awes.
At least my head wasn't cold.
Steve from Columbia,
Just ignore Anon. posters, they are today, gone and forgotten tomorrow. They eschew logic and the past. Your insight and knowledge of Auburn without question and is an invaluable portion of the HABOTN. I saw some rather gauche anon posters displaying extreme lack of class on the previous thread.
Jay, I thought Kodi looked good too. It seems like the coaches are challenging him a bit more, but the plays are still pretty safe.
How about Gabe McKenzie? Talk about doing what your team needs you to do. That drop wasn't good, but I thought he played well considering he hasn't been at TE for several weeks.
OK, Just got home so I didn't read the other 490 comments. I thought AU played a very GOOD game. Yes, many mistakes were made, many BAD calls were made. However, I thought AU had a viable game plan?
I thought the team played w/ great heart and intensity.
It's hard to grade a team w/ a loss this high but I give them a 85%.
If we had played w/ this much enthusiam throughout the year I think we would all be happy.
Any comments on this?
Jay-G,
Nice Siberian Hat!!!
Denny Crum, the anonymous poster doesn't bother me. I assumed he was a kid from the points that he made.
mark me down as the guy who said Kodi would progress when given actual playing time (as opposed to the pretend series at a time crap he had under the TF experiment).
Someone in a position of authority around this program needs to sack up and answer a question or two. It is understandable as to the evasiveness of the coaching staff's future, but personnel inquiries? At this point, what is a straight answer on those issues going to affect? Someone around the Plains needs to step up and be a freaking man.
It looked like Gabe's drop was on a not so great pass, so it's hard to fault him. I was wondering what's up with our other scholarship tight ends. Didn't we play a true freshman already this year and have another redshirt frehsman on the roster? Are they that bad? Good thing Gabe was able to pickup the position back up.
Jay, what's your percentage now?
Another interesting stat would be the amount of times we played a base defense today. I can only remember one blitz of any sort. We had better stats on defense the last three quarters, but i credit that to them sucking. We have got to force turnovers to win games these days and a base defense is not the way to go.
I knew someone that tore his ACL and went back into a game. He came out because he said it felt "funny". Turned out it was completely torn. I have seen and personally experienced ACL tears and it is the most excruiating pain describable. So,,long story,,too late...but anyway, it is possible to tear an ACL and not realize it at first. If so, it is a shame he tore so late in the season, because he will not be ready for spring ball and maybe not full speed by summer practice.
Kris is calling for a Mike Gundy from Tubs.
"I'm more an Auburn man than most! I'm 50-something!"
LOL!
I think there was no doubt after watching today's game that this team hasn't given up. I thought there was a big chance of us getting blown out. This game was the first game I thought the offense played as a team. It is hard to believe it took until the 11th game for that to happen, but the offense looked like it knew what it was doing and we didn't have all the stupid penalties that killed us earlier in the season.
I must admit I am tickled to death with Kodi. I still think playing Todd early was the right decision, but Kodi should have had a role early on similar to in the Peach Bowl. The coaches had to realize that Todd's upside was limited and that eventually Kodi would have to take over. Todd's arm was getting progressively worse, not better.
Gabe McKenzie at DE is a waste of time and waste of a good tight end.
Give it up for Todd though. I didn't see him with as much as a helmet on today, but he was in the huddles on the sidelines, talking to guys. That was impressive to me.
I like Coach TT has much or more than anyone, but I sure wish he would be more forthcoming about things.
ron mexico, I have mixed feelings on the defensive style. People bashed Muschamp and our defense for giving up big plays against Georgia. This defense didn't give up as big of plays, but we still were giving up yards in chunks. I do think injuries are still affecting this defense.
Jay, I'll take a shirt. Scottie B said he could use a tarp/tent for my 5xl. Also, I may have missed something, but was Lester hurt? I thought I saw him play on special teams.
Exactly Sensi. At least with as much zeal as he showed when chewing the ref over one of the worst pass interference calls I have ever seen.
The thing with Todd was that you could see he knew what he needed to do, but I think his arm was on its last leg :) in the LSU game.
He was about to stick his foot in that ref's A today!
Jay, I am curious how they responded to your Fannin questions. Did they just say no comment or elude the question or what? Just curious how it was played off.
Now, I know we lost, but does anyone see this still as a confidence booster or no?
Kristina, it depends. players could see it as the end of the season, no motivation, or they could just want to ruin UA's season. it all depends on how the coaches prepare them. uh-oh....
The explanation I heard for not playing Fannin in the 4th was that Tate is better at picking up the pass rush.
I would contend that Fannin is better at SCORING.
I would have to say that I am pleasantly surprised about Kodi. It gives rise to the opinion out there that we should have taken our lumps with him early versus pin our hopes on a quarterback with an arm injury that would have required divine intervention for it to get better.
I had an informal rule when I was coaching that was if you had two people competing for the same position with the only difference was that one was older than the other, then go with the younger player. The younger player will develop more. If you compared the two early in the year, Todd's only asset was that he was more polished and schooled in the offense. Therefor, we should have taken our lumps early with Burns. We more than likely would have lost some games, but I think the record would be better than it is now.
I don't think this is a hindsight is twenty twenty statement. I think that as we learn more about how bad Todds shoulder truly is and we see how much Burns has developed, we see what a blunder Franklin made.
I can't imagine the team not getting up for the Bama game. That should be motivation enough. Eventually it comes down to who has the better team though.
Steve,
The base defense will work against teams that are playing below average, but it's a bend but don't break style and we end up losing field position which we can't afford. And if injuries are still the excuse, they need to change the schemes up and try to confuse the other offense to overcome injury issues.
A resonable person would not have complained about muschamp's defenses. He won us plenty of games with his defensive schemes.
I say that because there is some things to play for. Bowl game, .500 record, or winning record if we win the bowl game, spoil UA's season, go out with 7 in a row, (4 or 5 for the seniors), maybe save their coach's season... and with the IB, no one ever knows. We did make some impressive strides today.
I concur with Steve about the defense.
I disagree, respectfully, with Ron Mexico's assessment of Will Muschamp.
Hey Guys and Girls!,
You can pick through the game forever. My opinion is that we played a GOOD game, we actually looked like a quality SEC team and Alabama might get BEAT!!
THE GLASS IS HALF FULL!!!
JasonBourne...welcome and great statement.
I think we gained confidence Kristina. A lot of people didn't even think we could compete. Kodi played better than I expected and Mario Fannin played good too. And with a little help from Georgia's O-coordinator we held them to only 17 points. Not too bad.
Jay, I don't understand why you would be questioning Tubs about why Fannin wasn't in the game. Weren't you yesterday wondering why they would want to go to "The Mario Fannin Well again?" Also, I thought he won't "be a No. 1 guy" and "he doesn't seem all that quick" and "he misses assignments"?
Denny, one of my very first posts here had to do with just letting Kodi take the reins. I wasn't convinced that he was that good, but you could tell Todd just didn't have the arm.
Oo MSU score.
Uhmm...Troy is beating LSU 14-3
Ole Miss, Kentucky and LSU all showed that UAT is beatable.
Jason Bourne - That's what I heard about Fannin. Did you hear CTT say that immediately after the game?
I'm currently having a single person campfire and the embers are GLOWING!!
Jay-G,
Can I order that hat on the net??
My % remains at 75.
I see no reason to change anything.
It's just hard to watch people consistantly rush for over 100 yards on us when that rarely happened with muschamp. In the end that's got to fall on rhoads and not the injuries.
GO TROJANS!
Monica - it wasn't CTT, but one of the assistants. I came in late to the interview. I've been rolling that one around for 2 hours.
I do not think Mario Fannin is a No. 1 guy.
I do not think Tre Smith was a No. 1 guy, but he manned up against Alabama that year. He was a No. 1 guy that day. Same for Ronney Daniels against Georgia in 1999.
When a guy is hot, you get him the ball.
Jay G,
I think they need to bring in an OC and give him a little more say in coaching personnel on the offensive side of the ball.
ron mexico, there are benefits to Muschamps defense as well as Rhodes. They are different, but achieve similar results.
Same for Tristan Davis against Kentucky in 2005.
Or Junior Rosegreen against UT in 2004.
Muschamp's defense is better at masking deficiencies.
Rhoads' defense is better at defending the pass in coverage.
Anyone watching this Alabama game?
John P. Wilson is performing like you would expect with PRESSURE coming at him.
Alabama ... A&M?
Regardless of whether Fannin is a #1 guy, he's shown that he's a playmaker. Winning teams find ways to get the ball to their playmakers. That sounds like an obvious statement, but it apparently wasn't too obvious in that last drive.
Denny Crum, I think the OC needs to pretty much have a free rein in terms of his position coaches. I would expect Tuberville to make suggestions, but I do think Tuberville's philosophy limits how good our offense can be. He needs to bring in an offensive expert and leave the decisions and accountability up to the expert.
Barkley, that was my point. We took to the wire a team that a lot of people didn't think we would hang with at all. I'm just glad I see improvement for the most part each week as opposed to regression we had at the beginning of the year.
Tim, no matter what Jay said yesterday about Fannin, he is a reporter and needs to find out the story. Fannin disappearing is a story. So he asked the question.
Is the Troy-LSU game on TV?
Now, if MSU beats Bama and Troy beats LSU I may give up on predicting football games and try my hand at predicting professional wrestling.
Mr. S,
attempted to find your radio program on Sat. AM
Wanted to know if anyone sent Monica under the BUS. Ha!
Let me know how I can Pick it un in Mtgy and I will Tune In.
Their punter is keeping them in this game.
Jay, Troy versus LSU is on Gameplan.
Ugh. No gameplan at my homestead.
LSU had a first down in the first quarter. Troy had two touchdowns.
No, it's not Jay.
I agree with you Jay G. I think I take exception with others who argue that Muschamp was some irreplacable defensive genious. Against Oklahoma, Texas had to outscore Oklahoma. Against Tech they couldn't stop them. There have been quite a few other games where Texas has given up lots of points against inferior talent.
Jay, you should really get gameplan. It was only $108 for the season and you could probably write it off as a business expense.
It's not on mine, but you can tune into 96.1 in Montgomery and hear Barry rolling through the game. That's what I'm doing while Mississippi State begins the unthinkable.
I would agree he probably should have been in there, but it's not like they were having a ton of trouble moving the ball without him. They still got deep into GA territory on both of those last two drives. My main beef with Tubs would have been his indecision on the next to last drive that caused them to burn a timeout and then throw a fade to the end zone on fourth down when we only needed three yards.
can we have an impromtu campfire?
I think Muschamp is a good DC, but Rhoes is also. They just have different approaches, but get similar overall results. I do think Muschamp has the clear edge in terms of colorful language.
If you can get espn360.com through your ISP, it's on that too.
As a side note, does anyone else think that the Samsung commercial w/ Ozzy is hilarious?
We have to be able to contain Arenas in a couple weeks. He's dangerous.
Home but surprisingly happy. We are in the north end zone and could not have asked for better weather. Actually had a good time today and enjoyed watching the game. That's weird when you lose. Maybe when you have nothing to play for that's how it is. I loved the fact that we were in it until the last 7 seconds. Georgia tried every way they could to give it to us.
Not trying to sound like I have a man crush or a bromance as Jay likes to say on Muschamp. I am more of a chizik guy anyway, I just see the base defense getting very old in Paul Rhoad's future at Auburn.
How about Walt McFadden? Him and Powers are going to be the premiere corner tandem next year... no doubt.
Wade, anything with Ozzy is hilarious.
Arenas is very dangerous, but I still think the game will come down to who wins the lines.
Gang, Troy is moving the ball.
I wish we got ESPN360 here. Dang Knology.
I'm cool with an impromptu campfire. Let's do it.
Charter in B'ham blocks ESPN 360 too.
Texas has very soft players on defense, they have for quite a while now. You can't judge Muschamp on that.
Campfire loaded.
I am remembering a bunch of Bama fans telling me that MSU doesn't have a good defense. That was after we played them. I wonder how they feel now?
I'm glad I didn't have to dress warm today.
ESPN is perpetuating the myth of the Houndstooth hat. The plainly plaid hat is being called a houndstooth.
Jay-G,
Do We log into chatroll for the campfire??
mdaniel
I am remembering a bunch of Bama fans telling me that MSU doesn't have a good defense.
That's because they don't. Bama playing poorly (and they are) doesn't make MSU's defense "good".
MSU gave up 34 points to a very pathetic Tennessee. They gave up 38 points to Georgia Tech. They even gave up 22 to MTSU and also 22 to La Tech.
MSU does have the 19th ranked defense in terms of overall defense yards per game...but that's built on a schedule that includes La Tech, SE Louisiana, Vandy, Tennesee and MTSU.
NCAA stats are here: http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/natlRank.jsp
In terms of scoring defense, MSU is 41st against this schedule.
Good defense? Not so much.
Hey Eddie - you were right about it being an easy ticket. I found a pair on row 15 of Sec 58 for $80, not far from where my season tickets used to be.
A very fun game to watch. My biggest beef with the coaching was not that they didn't play Mario on the last desperation drive, but they didn't play him at all on the drive before when we had a very reasonable chance to score and win the game. He must have been hurt; otherwise it was insanity to not give him another carry after that beautiful TD run.
One other thing - do we not have a wide receiver screen at all in our playbook? Probably had to be at the game to see it, doubt the 3 daves noticed, but when we stacked 2 receivers to the weak side, GA put a corner about 5 yds off the front receiver and the safety was at least 15 yds back. Could have made 10 yds off it anytime we wanted. Must not have such a play at all.
My cough syrup dream of an 18-17 win with a score on the last play came pretty close. Oh well.
Yhprum's Law didn't make it either - "Sometimes systems that should not work, work nevertheless."
But most of the time they don't.
Still think we have a chance against bammer. All the pressure is on them.
I blame the playcalling more than anything for the loss, so I'm not blaming the officiating. But could someone go to autigers.com and look at the front page photo and tell me how that is NOT pass interference?
Watching Fox's NFL Preveiw show - Mario Fannin isn't there either.
Don't forget about A. Savage - If he can come back 100% the three CB's on AU's roster will be tough for a few years.
Thorpe is going to be a good one as well.
Personally, me wanting Muschamp has less to do with X's and O's - which I think he's better than most in that aspect - but enthusiasm and energy in recruiting.
Intensity is going to be needed to keep up with the elite SEC programs.
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