Auburn loses series at Vanderbilt
Hey everyone. Auburn lost at Vanderbilt on Friday night. Auburn won big at Vanderbilt on Saturday behind some surprisingly strong pitching from Cory Luckie.
Then the Tigers became greedy and came very close to winning a road series.
The series finale was a good one. We were live blogging for a bit. It was all fun and games until Grant Dayton, who pitched brilliantly, threw a belt-high fastball to Vanderbilt slugger Aaron Westlake.
The ball soon was deposited over the right-field fence. So it goes.
CURRENT SITUATION:
*Vanderbilt wins, 3-2.
Then the Tigers became greedy and came very close to winning a road series.
The series finale was a good one. We were live blogging for a bit. It was all fun and games until Grant Dayton, who pitched brilliantly, threw a belt-high fastball to Vanderbilt slugger Aaron Westlake.
The ball soon was deposited over the right-field fence. So it goes.
CURRENT SITUATION:
*Vanderbilt wins, 3-2.
- Top 9.
- Tony Caldwell grounded out to shortstop. (1 out)
- Creede Simpson struck out. (2 out)
- Wes Gilmer singled to left field.
- Justin Hargett filed out to center. (3 out)
- Tony Caldwell grounded out to shortstop. (1 out)
- Bot 9.
- Aaron Westlake homers to right field. Inside fastball, belt-high.
That's a wrap. Vanderbilt wins, 3-2. - Aaron Westlake homers to right field. Inside fastball, belt-high.
posted by Jay G. Tate at
3:04 PM
126 Comments:
Time to put some runs on the board!
Beisbol substantialness
Tight game!
Nice to see the baseball coach get a chance at the Bad Man title. Game On!!!
Auburn has a runner on.
Okay, who had money on QCarr being the offensive MVP of A-Day. Anyone...anyone...Bueller...Bueller?
It usually ends up as someone unusual.
I will be very pleased if he is able to contribute significantly this season. It seems we have a crap load of talent at receiver.
Bottom 9... still tied... Gotta hold 'em.
Crap!!! I find the game on ESPNU. The first thing I hear is homer. Crap!!! Crap!!! Crap!!!
shat
well....poop.
I still like that the baseball team seems to be very competitive these days. It is a lot better than dying like a flopping fish out of water.
May have left Grant in 1 batter too long... he had pitched pretty well all day. But, all it takes is 1 mistake.
AU needs to come back and get a series sweep vs. UK next weekend.
You can get away with that pitch if it's 92 mph.
Not 82.
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Okay, dadgummit.
But, on the bright side, Saturday and Sunday starter pitching pretty good complete games is a good thing.
Suck-tacular weekend in the Pup household.
Auburn loses on a walk off and the braves can't get runners home no matter how many walks they get.
(16 walks in two games, exactly 2 runs scored after 9 on friday night for the bravos, kind of like auburn winning 12-2, then losing 3-2 the next day.)
Check that last post, Jason Hewyard just made my weekend a lot happier.
It is becoming harder and harder to not see Heyward as the franchise player for the Braves.You can't get more clutch than that hit to win the game.
The Rays destroyed Boston. Going for the 4 game sweep tomorrow night.
A tough reminder that possessions are things, but life is special.
Our closest friends in the Gump have a daughter is a sophomore at Miss. State. She and 70 other students lost everything in a fire this a.m.
It appears no one was hurt, but it's not easy to have essentially everything you own taken from you at one time. It's the second fire at a student apartment complex in 12 days.
Water to fight the blaze had to be trucked in to the complex, as it has no fire hydrants, officials said.
tried twice.. here's the URL:
http://www.cdispatch.com/news/article.asp?aid=5818
Coyotes beat Red Wings, but lose their captain to injury. Shoulder and/or clavicle would be my guess, but it is officially "an upper body injury."
35 minutes without hockey :-( until the next game starts
Go Preds.
Seanzie's restaurant tour: Niffer's, Brick Oven, Mama G's, Nihon, Amsterdam Cafe. Not bad.
can someone find another reason not to go to state? two fires? sheesh!
Solid finish Seanzie, I love Nihon, and Amsterdam's is about the tops.
Out of those 5, I can't find a single bad pick.
Thanks Wells those were my reg places circa 2007.
2007 was the year of the burger night for me. I probably went every thursday that entire fall semester.
What/Where is Nihon?
I guess it is nice we have baseball to help spice up crootin season.
I just read about Bryce Brown quitting the UT team. Very sad. Supposedly he has personal issues.
Well Flapjack. Coach got carried away with Luckie's complete game and left him in too long. That's baseball you can never tell if a kid is ready after that many pitches but the odds are against it.
Watching the A-day game playback on CSS. I am thinking Newton looked better than I initially thought and I thought he did pretty good. Especially since they took away probably his best strength, which is running.
I see a recruit signing next week. Another OL coming to AU on Tuesday?
Nihon is Japanese hibachi style takeout.
Coaches are very high on Brandon Moseley. He did very well Saturday. Craig Sanders and Jeseel Curry also impressed Saturday, even though they were on the 2nd unit defense.
WTC- I agree with you. I think we will have to wait till the fall as fans to see how good Newton can really be.
UGA releases a QB today. Zach Mettenberg, the 11th rated QB in 2009. More details came out related to his spring break arrest in March. Two players released by UGA in the past 2 weeks. M Rbinson, a DE that AU was heavily recruiting that year was another.
During the 1st half AU threw a lot of passes to a receiver (WR or RB) in the flats. How many times would our QB throw that one too high or in the dirt over the past 2 years. These guys are much improved in that area. (Not bashing any QBs form earlier years just pointing out that these guys are much improved in that department) That play is now like a long hand off.
I think we had only 2-3 penalties yesterday. 1 face mask, 1 holding that I know of. That is usually a thing that most teams have a problem with. AU was penalized twice as much as their opponents last year (according to CSS)
All of those restaurants were personal favorites when I was at Auburn except the Amsterdam Cafe, I don't remember that one.
If this Cam Newton thing works out,bwhat are the chances Auburn picks up Zach Mettenberger for 2012? Kid's got an arm, and looked like UGA's best bet during their spring game.
PF- Don't tell the Uglay fans that. They have hitched there horses to Aaron Murray and feel they didn't need him anyways.
UGA VIII sucks.
Murray's good, and good enough, probably, that this won't hurt them too much, but there are def. UGA fans that think Mettenburger was going to be the man. The QB race that going on in Athens has been just as interesting as the one in Auburn, imo. The opinions have been just as varied.
WTC, are you suggesting there will be a new OLman for this years team?
Quickly watched the scrimmage replay and based on the minimal reps I saw for each QB, it seems that Barrett Trotter threw the best passes(most zip/accuracies). All QBs had more than acceptable field presence and made good decisions. Newton easily is the most mobile and has the most upside potential. Me-thinks his passing fundamentals need to be better in order to lead a Malzahn-type offense.
That being said, I'm sure Gus has a much better handle on this than I do.
uga just got real thin at qb. think AU 2008...
a great barometer of who is going to be good is who has the experienced qbs and who has the first time starters. the turds and arky and lsu all have returning starters. usce (uk or vandy?) appear to have a returning starter. i would think, of the newcomers, AU and uf will obviously have talent in newton and brantley. keep in mind, this is strictly qb play prognostication and not anything to do with how good said qb's team may be this year. i just think bammer, arky, usce should expect their qb's to perform the best of their careers at this point. uf and AU have guys ready for their time. lsu will go one way or the other with jefferson at qb.
i feel ok about AU's chances with either newton or caudle. injury just scares me with a running qb and i expect caudle to have to play for extended periods a few times with 11 in row before a break.
just got back from my A-Day tour. had a blast. exhausted, though.
we almost went to the ATL to see the Braves after A-Day was over. too bad we didn't. could've witnessed a no-hitter for the Rockies. oh, well. it was nice driving by the stadium on the way home today listening to the game on the radio. 4-3 Braves! gotta love J-hey kid!
nite hotties.
CHB-Another OL for next years class.
I must have misinterpreted what you were saying. I think we all believe that will be Dismukes.
I'll be interested to see if USC really does have a returning starter.
3 top OLmen this early is great. I think we will soon see the skill players follow.
I think we will have a few more committed within a couple of weeks.
AU is doing exactly what the need to do. They are getting needs filled in this class, just like last year.
After the announcement Wednesday, we should have 3 of our top OL targets on board... and solid (recruiting for us). I know of 3 DB's that are very high on the coaches board that we pretty much have locked up... already recruiting for us as well. One may announce in a couple of weeks, another in June. That would go a long way towards filling our needs... on OL and Secondary.
We're in good standing with some good D-linemen (ends and tackles), and a couple more OL as well...
I also hear that Barbee has made some positive in-roads int he Huntsville area... hopefully we will see some results of his hard work soon.
Feng speaks great truths.
The Jet Corollary to Feng's Axiom: One spring game does not make a spring practice.
For hose freaking out over some perception of a change int he uniform... please don't over-dramatize the situation, and please keep in mind that this was just a glorified practice... sheesh...
Good morning, Hotties! Rise and shine!!!
WARRRRRRRRRR EAGLE!!!
What a great night of hockey! PengWINS!!!!
Did y'all watch E-Bro's Avs? Wow! Sharks outshot the Avs 42-6 over the final 2 periods, but it still went to OT tied 0-0. Fluke goal less than a minute into OT gives the Avs a 2-1 lead in the series. Avs goalie was Ahhhh MAZING!
looks like I missed 2.0's HABOTN flyby by almost 2 hours. I'll be in a HABOTN-free prison today. Tell her I said hello if she drops in later.
Y'all have a great day, Hotties!
I watched my Avs up until the end of the third period. Not seeing a quick end to the game in sight during OT, I had to get to bed for a 4:20 wake-up call.
Oops.
I'll take it, though. Amazing that the previous game is a 6-5 thriller and then we get two goalies stonewalling each other.
Morning Hotties.
Continuing with Feng's theme: A flute without holes, is not a flute. A donut without a hole, is a Danish.
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As a uniform purist, I didn't get upset about the logo.
I'll admit it w/o remorse. I was slightly worked up about it.
It's not gonna make a difference to me in the end, but given a choice, I prefer the smaller decals. Maybe it was just one time deal anyway and they slapped on the only decals they had sitting around since it looks like they've spent most of the Spring w/o any decals.
Touch the uniform, and I'll cut you.
Bro- From all indications, this new Decal is here to stay. I find myself in the opposite position on this matter, not liking the change. I'd rather bring a new uni out than change the helmet. Someday, all these old geezers will be dead and we can change the uni's without a fuss.
I couldn't tell the difference with the helmet, but that could have been because DirecTV still doesn't have ESPNU in HD.
Does a 4:20 wake up call mean what I think it does?
ehyou - yes, it means you got up at the buttcrack of dawn.
I was at the beach saturday. How'd the game go?
ehyou- I don't think you really missed anything. It was a bore IMO, but I'm sure because it seemed like a dumb down practice to me.
If it was a bore that means the D played well, right?
ehyou- Wish that was the case. Defense game plan, base vanilla as expected...tackling, still bad like last fall. Hope it improves. It's a scare heading into the fall, the tackling that is.
Question for the crew:
During the "game" there were a few other folks on the field other than players and refs. Coach Chizik, a cameraman, and another guy. As I recall they were always in the offensive backfield. Who was that other guy?
Well, if the larger decal is here to stay, I guess I'll just have to adapt and overcome. It will just be like cheering on Marshall with their massive "M" decal I guess.
So it goes. Don't know why it needed to be bigger (she said that).
mytommy- Looks to be an equipment manager with balls to speed up the play.
TOmmyD- It was Tom Luginbill (spelling) the recruiting guru for ESPN.
I was hoping they would ask me or DMiller to get on the field, but alas that did not happen.
I should have pulled the 'I know Jay G Tate card' on them. That may have put us over the top.
WTC is correct also, Tom came down later on, but there is also an equipment guy that is out there at times. I just check it out on espn3.com
Cool, I found the game on the trey. I can watch it tonight. Thanks Eddie.
Melick said something in his recent article I found interesting...
"Auburn fans need to understand that no matter what, under Ted Roof, the defense is going to consistently be at the top of the league in takeaways. The tradeoff is that in going for the football, good defenders are going to miss tackles. I can almost guarantee that for as long as Roof is at Auburn, fans will complain about missed tackles."
JGT, you are on the Roof train, do you think this is accurate??
OK, wes, so interpret this for me. Is Melick saying that Auburn goes for the ball and therefore misses tackles?
cincy, best i understand...yes. AU defenders will be instructed to take the ball away and therefore miss more tackles. at least i think that is what Melick is saying.
Wes- That is probably the case, the fact is, that is the only meaningful thing you can really take away from the defense on A-Day, is tackling, because it is fundamental. I don't understand why take aways and tackling cannot go hand in hand. How many times are we causing fumbles 10 yards down the field when it is one on one situation and the defender has the angle. I don't know.
i guess i didn't realize that a focus on takeaways (perhaps at the expense of missed tackles) was a component of Roof's system.
I would argue that we lost more games by missing tackles last season than by getting turnovers.
Dangerous. Daring but dangerous.
The turnover thing is caused by people running to the football.
The strip is hardly ever going to happen on the intial hit. The first guy has stop the guy, the next two or 3 on the pile strip the ball.
Also, if you break down and put your head on the ball and deliver the lick, you will cause more fumbles that way than this arm tackle garbage.
I don't understand why one would have to be sacrificed due to the other technique
Everyone feels like Vince Lombardi behind the PC. Melick included.
well, my first question would be, is this an accurate portrayal of Roof's system, or just one man's opinion of that system?
last season AU missed a lot of tackles and the logic was that this was due to lack of talent and/or depth. i certainly agree our guys were gassed. i'm just wondering now if this "focus on takeaways" might also have contributed to the large number of missed tackles. it's april 19th...what else am i going to do?
My opinion - way back when the Ravens went to the superbowl, it seemed like every time they tackled a guy they ALWAYS went backward. It also seemed like they rarely missed any tackles. Sure they're pro's and the had the likes of Ray Lewis, but I just remember how hard the defense hit and how the ball carrier never seemed to go forward after the hit. Sure turnovers are cool. but I tell ya three and outs could do this D some good, too. Hopefully with the better depth, and guys not having to stay on the field the whole game will help.
I'm all for turnovers, but I sure do appreciate a good de-cleating every now and then.
Make the tackle and turnover will happen. There's no way Roof preaches going for turnovers at the expense of tackles. I think Melik is over-simplifying things.
I would say that is one man's opinion, unless he has researched the teams Roof coached prior to AAU and there is a track record of missed tackles and higher number of turnovers compared to prior years.
I will agree that tackling is preferred (3 & out) over trying to strip the ball and staying on the field for 8-10 plays a series.
WTC- Does he have a preference to Nike over Under Armour...I kid I kid. :)
he wants new pair of original first edition air jordan's available for each half of every game.
great tacklers know how to punch it out from behind as they wrap up. its almost a part of their natural motion.
SHould have read AU not AAU.
I am disappointed that Fannin still does not switch the ball to his outside arm when breaking away from defenders. He will lose the ball on a play then wonder why the fans think he fumbles too much. i hate fumbles, but fumbling because of wrong fundamentals is not good.
Chris Low of ESPN agrees with many of you - Cam Show
Chris Low on AU Day
WTC- That is exactly my biggest fear with Fannin. He is a great runner, but poor fundamentals in ball protection have killed him in the past and Saturday seemed like the same thing we have seen before in that area.
You know what I liked.
No signs of the Kodi-Cat.
No Kodi-Cat .....was there any Cat run?
I haven't seen the game yet.
digger-Newton will run the Cat formation. No need otlet the defense know you are about to run the ball by putting in someone different than the QB, unless Fannin takes it directly. no need to put KB back there.
It is my wish and worry that the only thing that's going to slow the offense's tempo is the officiating crew
wtc, I agree to some degree, although you have to be careful. We don't want to see Newton injured.
The thing is, I believe we have others that could also run the wildcat better than Kodi.
Thanks wtc/
And I agree Steve, that we have several that can run it but I think the defenses have caught up in regards to the wildcat and hope we don't run it with anyone.
One of the biggest surprises at A-Day, other than Shoemaker's onside punting, was how Fannin held the ball with the wrong arm. Many of you have mentioned this and that is fundamentals.
I don't get it. This is something I could coach, which says a lot. Carry it in the wrong arm again and you set the bench, period. I would think the coaches would have already beat that into his head.
I will take ball security over long runs anyday. It should be easy for someone to beat him out if he doesn't learn his lesson soon.
Digger, in terms of defenses catching on, I partially agree. If there is a wildcat QB that can throw, it is different.
The first example with Kodi was the MSU game his freshman season. In the first half he had some great runs. Sometime during the game MSU figured out he wasn't going to throw it. They shut him down from then on and running the RFYLK offense in the second half cost us that game.
I was also very pleased to see Newton saying he is a QB first, although Kodi said that too.
The bottom line is your QB has to be able to pass. If he can also run, that is great. But if he can't pass, he ain't no quarterback.
By the way, I am also convinced that Kodi's problems are more because of how he was developed as a QB, rather than his inability. He was thrown into the fire to early and developed bad habits.
Maybe Fannin only holds it in one arm because he realizes he fumbles more consistently out of the other arm. Mike Alstott only carried with his right arm, and he had a decent career.
Whatever works.
Being able to pass and run as a wildcat QB is essential but watching a lot of teams that run the wildcat it is evident to me that even if you can do both the defenses cover it much better now. You can do both with your normal QB from any position and not rely on someone else. The original idea of the wildcat was to put a fast runner in quickly and catch defenses off guard. That is what is missing now, the defenses recognize this immediately.
This poster over at TrackemTigers put out a detailed position-by-position summary of the A day game. I generally agree with his views.
http://www.trackemtigers.com/2010/4/19/1430123/pick-a-card-any-card#storyjump
Here's my attemp at posting the link
Pick a Card
Hoopie-Nice read. I disagre with much of it, but still a nice read.
I disagree with all of it but think he was dead-on for most of it.
The thing with the wildcat is you shouldn't bring a player in especially for it. It should be someone that is normally on the field and the QB shifts out to WR. We have been too obvious when we were running it.
Interesting article, although I disagree with a lot. Offensive line depth is not a problem this season.
There was little to learn from the A-Day game. I do feel better about our options at QB. Last year we had one QB. We seem to have more options this season.
Shoemaker demonstrated why I hope we find another option.
I disagree with all of you. Pick a topic and I'll disagree with you on it. There are a couple of exceptions; like how awesome I am, and probably something else.
Topic for Norm
I say pinworms are bad, unless they inhabit a bammer, in which case I pity them...the pinworms. Do you disagree?
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