The Joe Cribbs Car Wash

MOVED MOVED MOVED MOVED MOVED

2009-09-02T18:41:00.003-04:00

Jerry Hinnen has packed up his Internet bags and moved to War Blog Eagle, www.warblogeagle.com. Auburn coverage is available there; mid-major basketball coverage will be at a second site yet to be determined.

Thank you for visiting and/or reading the JCCW. Please enjoy the new site.

FYI

2009-08-31T15:51:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm alive. And ~~in perfect hibernation~~ as of this afternoon, rocking the DSL from Frontier Communications, "one of the nation's largest rural local exchange carriers."

So, a quick FYI: in anticipation of the coming re-purposing of the warblogeagle.com URL, this space will be momentarily reverting back to ye olde joecribbscarwash.blogspot.com URL.

Warblogeagle.com should begin redirecting to the new site ... oh, sometime tonight or tomorrow morning. Content should begin appearing there tomorrow afternoon or first thing Wednesday morning, when (I am told) Jeremy will be taking the full site live.

It's all very confusing, I know. But I'll make it easy for you: type in warblogeagle.com. You'll find me.

Your patience is very much appreciated in this time of great personal and professional upheaval and anticipation. Or something.

War Eagle.

Time to move on

2009-08-26T16:14:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I would say that, as the (full version of the) song above goes, that under my feet, baby, the grass is growing, not when I'm still enjoying living in Ann Arbor and writing under the banner above.

But nonetheless: it's time for your humble Auburn Blogger to move on. As in "this week," and in two separate and distinct fashions:

One. Our time in Michigan is up, the Mrs. JCCW's and mine. We're moving. Over the past two days virtually all of our worldly possessions have been packed away and loaded into a large truck, and are now being driven across the country to meet us in a couple days' time. So I hope you can forgive the absence of regular posts this week, but there's been a lot of vacuuming and tub-scrubbing and such.

The destination is one I'm sure you're all familiar with: Chinle, Arizona, in the northeast corner of the state and the heart of the federal Navajo reservation. There's a few different words to describe Chinle, but "remote" might be the most apt. To answer your question: yes, I realize we're moving even further away from the Plains and my football team than we already are, and yes, this is a drawback that's been a matter of discussion in the JCCW household. (Appointments for Internet and satellite television services have long since been arranged.)

But, to cut to the quick of it: you only get so many adventures. We wanted to take another.

Two. To any of you worried about such a thing by the post title and those opening paragraphs: no, I'm not quitting. You'll be able to read the same the two or three posts a day from me this fall you got last fall, I'll still crank out the usual recaps (or something like them), there'll still be jokes at the expense of Tommy Trott's ability to block.

They just won't be in this space, exactly. Jeremy Henderson, who I hope you know as the driving force of the War Eagle Reader, is currently driving forward a new Auburn website, the kind of project that's going to bring to the Auburn community something new, something important, something fun. And the JCCW is going to be part of it.

Except that it won't be "the JCCW." It's going to be named ... wait for it ... War Blog Eagle. You'll be able to type in www.warblogeagle.com and you'll get the exact same things you've been getting for the last year-plus at that URL. It just won't be on Blogger. The only thing that's changing is the host, the look of the thing (no more white-on-black text, good news for those of you who hate it and have told me so in no uncertain terms), and the name. Oh, and that my mid-major ramblings will be moving somewhere else I haven't determined yet. Everything else: the same.

So yes, beginning next week you'll have to say good-bye to the JCCW ... but saying hello to WBE will be like saying hello to an old friend anyway. (I hope.) Tentative launch is set for Monday or Tuesday, and if you think I'm not going to take my few precious remaining days before the La. Tech previewing the hell out of things .. well, you're wrong. I'll leave it at that.

I have one more post left for this space, a kind of eulogy for the Joe Cribbs Car Wash banner I've written under for the past 3 1/2 years. It'll be done sometime early next week. See you then--here, and there.

Camp report, 8/26

2009-08-26T14:57:00.000-04:00

Getting right to it:

--The most surprising development from Tuesday's practice:

Auburn's first-team defensive front was Antonio Coleman, Jake Ricks, Mike Blanc and Nick Fairley. Antoine "Hot" Carter also subbed in.

Attention Michael Goggans: if this is an accurate representation of the current starting front four, I'm afraid you've just been officially put on notice. A returning starter getting beaten out for his own job by a JUCO newcomer who's not even playing his natural position? Cut it, spin it, parse it however you want: it's a bad, bad sign. Rocker didn't seem happy with Goggans coming out of spring and it's a good guess he's not particularly enamored with him now.

--The Toro is back! Sort of. Kind of. OK, so not he's not necessarily "back," but I think it's safe to say he would be if the opener was this week instead of next week. As tricky as hamstrings can be and as indispensable as Freeman already is, I don't blame the staff for being 100 percent absolutely sure Freeman's ready to go before they let him loose.

--Why is Freeman indispensable? Wade Christopher, starting redshirt sophomore walk-on linebacker, that's why. Just to recap: Evans is hurt, Pybus still isn't even in pads, Herring apparently practiced for the first time this fall just yesterday, and it looks Gaston is still just banged-up enough to not make up for the whole "I'm a freshman" thing.

However quickly Freeman or anyone happens to return to full-speed, however, it's become clear that the linebacking depth chart is going to continue to be a major, major headache. Welcome to the two-deep, Mr. Christopher. Here's to hoping we enjoy your (extended) stay.

--As with Freeman, I suspect that despite his injury Byron Isom would still be in the starting lineup if the opener happened to be Saturday. But that John Sullen has held on to his spot as "first guy off the bench" over the last few practices suggests that he is, in fact, going to be the first guy off the bench. To which I can only say: Yikes. (I suppose I could also say "good for Sullen," and I should, since he was a late addition to '09 class that the Tubby regime didn't deem good enough to offer. All of that true. Still, I can't help it. Seriously: Yikes.)

--If Sullen's already in line for playing time, that means a few of the down-the-depth-chart vets are probably reading the writing on the wall ... which might be a big reason Rudy Odom has hung his cleats up after an injury-hampered career. Best of luck to him. (With fellow walk-on Jorell Bostrum having seemingly passed Odom onto the two-deep in recent weeks, I doubt Odom's departure will affect Auburn's depth chart in any substantial way, even at offensive line. I hope, anyway.)

--Can't say it's surprising to have Taylor and Chizik say two completely opposite things about the same issue--i.e. Billings's status, and whether it's Chizik or the University that has the final say on his eligibility--given that Taylor's happy to speak whatever happens to be crossing his mind even when reporters are present and that Chizik wants the media as in the dark and/or confused as possible at all times. But it is interesting, and I have to wonder if there's been any behind-the-scenes discussion about it.

--Tommy Trott's description of Dr. Gustav's attention-to-detail was encouraging to read. We've all read "Such-and-such coach is a stickler to detail" a thousand times, but to have a player explain why his coach cares so much was intriguing and helps explain, I think, why Malzahn has had the kind of success he's had.

Trott expressing confidence in Todd's arm is nice, too. Anyone expressing confidence in Todd's arm is nice. I'd like to see all the confidence the team can muster, please. (Will it reassure me until we see him in action? No. But it'll still be nice.)

--Maybe there's a new curfew, maybe there isn't. My question: how do you enforce a curfew for 100 players who live in 100 different places all over the city? Deos Chizik have access to the Chevron surveillance videos to see who's making a midnight Doritos run?

OK, a post on what the hell I've been doing this week (and will be doing the rest of this week) momentarily.

Todd 2: the Toddening

2009-08-25T11:10:00.000-04:00

The official poster:

I think the misspelling is particularly apt here. He'll have to earn the "a," right?

If you've got any other "Todd 2: the Toddening" 'shop submissions, send 'em on.

(Thanks to friend-o'-the-blog Rod for this one.)

Camp business, 8/25

2009-08-25T08:27:00.001-04:00

Quickly going through the list of developments from the past couple of days ...

--SHOCKER: DeAngelo Benton will start. This update sponsored by the Department of the Obvious.

Darvin Adams and Terrell Zachery are the other two confirmed starters, as expected. I'm not going to look up how many catches our three leading receivers have combined for in their careers, because it'll just depress me. (Even if you toss in likely No. 4 wideout Emory Blake, that's not helping.

--Readin' between the lines on Taylor's Billings- and Frenchy-related comments, the guess here is that we see Billings sooner rather than later but that PPL's got a long, long way back. Oh, and that Chizik is taking a harder-line stance than Taylor would, but that's not a surprise.

--Eric Smith: what can you do but shake your head? We'll see him when we see him.

--That's about it, right? Also recommended: Jay G. Tate's guesses at the Auburn depth chart. Though they're not for the faint of heart.

Blogpollin'

2009-08-24T10:32:00.000-04:00

Behold:

Rank	Team

1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Southern Cal
4	Alabama
5	Oklahoma State
6	Illinois
7	Penn State
8	Oklahoma
9	Brigham Young
10	Mississippi
11	Boise State
12	California
13	Virginia Tech
14	Ohio State
15	TCU
16	LSU
17	Iowa
18	Nebraska
19	Georgia Tech
20	Georgia
21	North Carolina State
22	Arkansas
23	Rutgers
24	Notre Dame
25	Southern Miss

Unlike last year, when I ignored strength-of-schedule in my preseason Blogpoll ballot in favor of a pure "power poll" ballot, this year I went the more traditional route and filled out a "hey, so, how do you think they're going to finish the year?" ballot. So: schedule is a major factor. I also tried to put a special emphasis on the offensive and defensive lines. Runnin' it down:

Florida over Texas. Even if there's a possibility the Horns have the better offense, there's no way the gap between the two O's will be nearly as wide as the gap between the two D's, not with the talent Charlie Strong has at his disposal. Besides, shouldn't we keep betting on the SEC team in the national title game until they lose one?

There's a huge gap between Nos 2 and 3. Everybody behind the top two will lose at least two games. I'm not really all that fired up about USC, not with the general "eh" factor of their offense ever since Bush and Leinart left, a schedule that has all four of their hardest games on the road, and a ton of defenders to replace. Wish I liked someone better.

Alabama No. 4? I know, I know. I don't like it any more than you do. But with that defense, no way they lose more than two games ... and though I'll get into my SEC picks another time, I think they emerge from the scrum atop the West.

Okie St. No. 5? Illinois No. 6? That makes even less sense than 'Bama No. 4. I figured Texas Tech was overrated at this time last year; I'm not making that mistake again and figure the Pokes will swipe one from the 'Horns or Sooners.

The Illini are the biggest outlier on the ballot, but look at their schedule: they've got the roadie at Ohio St., but Penn St.'s the only other game in which the Illini won't be favored ... and the guess here is that between Juice, Benn, and their smart new OC from TCU, there's too much firepower for Penn St. to keep up with on the road. And so Illinois finishes the Big 10 slate with one loss, the tiebreaker, and a ticket to the Rose Bowl.

(Wait, they're still coached by Ron Zook. I must be insane.)

Hatin'. I don't like Oklahoma's overhauled offensive line or rugged schedule; don't like Ole Miss's hype; don't like how toothless Ohio St. has looked without Beanie Wells the last couple of years. So they're all a little lower than elsewhere. (Like everyone else I'd like to rank the Rebels even lower, but there's only so far they can drop with that schedule.)

Boise. I think they run the regular season table, rise a bit too high on the back of their win over an overrated Oregon team, and then look a bit inferior in their bowl game. Just like last year. This year's mid-major hotness is BYU: the Cougars have everyone back on D, the best schedule of the MWC contenders, and their usual array of offensive skill talent. Here's to guessing they beat FSU and wrap up the year with one loss.

This year's Tulsa is Southern Miss, who return all nine starters along their two lines and a ton of talent at the skill positions. Larry Fedora should have the most explosive offense in all mid-majordom.

Pac-10. With their entire defensive front returning I like Cal to make a clear-cut case for the second-best team in the league, but who's No. 3? Oregon has to revamp both lines and gets a brutal schedule. Oregon St. lost a ton. Arizona's not there yet. Steele loves UCLA but ... no. One of those teams will probably end up forcing their way into the bottom of the poll, but it's also possible they all end up canceling each other out.

SEC. 2009 LSU seems so volatile I'm sure they'll either end up in the top 6 or 7 or at the very fringes of the poll; I ended up just sort of splitting the difference. Georgia's easily the second-best team in the East, but at Oklahoma St. is a hell of a way to kick off a season. And Arkansas is probably better than 22nd ... but they also share a division with 'Bama, LSU, and Ole Miss.

Big 10. Iowa was secretly the most underrated team in D-I last year and should have the best offensive line in the league (again). But if the top four in the Big 10 are all quality teams, I don't see much of anything behind them. (Trust me: Michigan St.'s not that good.)

Big 12. Pelini's too good not have Nebraska relevant again this year, but the bottom's fallen out at Missouri and I just don't think Kansas has the defensive horses. Leach will probably have Tech back in the top 25, but the schedule's still a little too tough for me to pull the trigger.

ACC. In a league with as much parity as this one, I think you finally have to settle on whichever teams have the best coaching--and Va. Tech and Ga. Tech looks like a pretty solid 1-2 in that regard. N.C. State was on fire down the stretch last year and have a seriously friendly schedule; I don't see why you'd rank them behind a North Carolina team they destroyed at the end of last year. (And though Tech didn't "destroy" Georgia, that result does explain why the Jackets are one notch ahead here.)

Notre Dame. Eh, they'll go 8-4 and hover around the edges of the poll. No big deal.

Big East. Cincy and Brian Kelly will be back to make this league its playtoy next season, but losing 10 starters on defense is a little too much for even Kelly to overcome at a program of this size. West Virginia and Pitt don't have the coaching and USF is the flakiest program in America, leaving Rutgers and their outstanding lines as the de facto winner. It's only enough for 23rd, but it's something.

Real Life duties are calling; afternoon posting will be minimal, if at all. Sorry./ More on this later.

That's ... that's not good.

2009-08-23T11:42:00.000-04:00

No wonder Chizik seemed a little bit more upset than the circumstances seemed to call for on Friday:

Auburn University tailback Eric Smith will surrender to Auburn police Monday in the wake of additional charges filed by the victim of an alleged, third-degree assault early Friday morning, the Opelika-Auburn News has learned.

A warrant for the arrest of Smith was issued Friday, according to the victim’s mother, Sandra Jenkins, and Assistant Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson. Smith’s attorney contacted the court and has made arrangements for Smith to turn himself in Monday, Dawson said ...

According to Alabama code, assault in the third degree is a Class A misdemeanor. The punishment for a Class A misdemeanor is not more than a $6,000 fine and one year in jail.

"Not more than" means neither of those options are realistic on the table (I'm fairly sure), but "third-degree assault" is a hell of a lot more serious charge than "disorderly conduct." I said that if the charges didn't go beyond the original arrest report that Smith wouldn't/shouldn't miss more than the Tech game, but now that they have ... well, we'll see.

I'm guessing, as I said before, that if Chizik had already made his mind up to give Smith the boot we'd know about it. But that's only a guess, and in any case, I don't think we'll be hearing from Smith again until that second-string tailback slot has long since been filled.

Camp report 8/22

2009-08-22T14:35:00.000-04:00

It's a Saturday, so this is going to be brief.

-- Eric Smith is apparently hanging by a thread, but the guess here is that if he was gone for good, Chizik would be straightforward enough to at least tell us that. (I think.) Which, you know, fine. Severe punishment (for what looks like a pretty severe lapse in judgment), sure. Make him earn his way back, sure. But a straight boot from the team for a (sober) disorderly conduct arrest ... not my team, I know, but I don't think I'd be alone in saying that would be more than a little on the draconian (and potentially morale-sapping?) side.

-- The eternal clash of swords between reporter and coach, illustrated.

-- The scrimmage today was apparently more about polishing up the rough edges than breaking any new ground. Which isn't surprising when the coaches are unanimous in declaring the depth chart "90 percent" filled out.

-- That Ted Roof was in a better mood is a good sign, I guess. Given that he's having to play a nasty balancing act between hitting enough to have his guys ready for the season and not hitting so much as to shatter Auburn's already egg-fragile depth chart, I wouldn't expect him to be in a good mood under any circumstances.

-- Todd 2 (the Toddening) allegedly led a successful two-minute drive. Signs of life, that's all we're asking for.

-- Luper and Lolley look headed for the coaches' box. Not surprising in the cerebral Luper's case, but I would think an old hands-on high-school grinder like Lolley would want to be within screaming distance of his players.

-- Anthony Gulley's name continues to pop up. He may redshirt, but it won't surprise me at all if he doesn't. When was the last time you heard anything--anything--about, say Derek Winter or Quindarius Carr?

-- Not much at all to report from Friday's practice, apparently. (Other than Smith's absence, of course.) McNeil was back on the bike, at least. But D'Antoine Hood was back on the sidelines.

See you Monday, most likely.

Assorted afternoon newslinks

2009-08-21T15:31:00.001-04:00

Let's get this out of the way. Here's to hoping Eric Smith's timing in hitting the hole is better than his timing in getting freaking arrested. Eric, some of us are trying to get our holier-than-thou on out here, all right? This isn't helping.

Punishment depends on whether the details go any further beyond a quick round of wrasslin' or fisticuffs or whatever in the bar. If not, he misses the La. Tech game, and we move on.

Worth noting: I believe this to be Auburn's first player arrest of any kind in two years. All good things, I guess.

Running backs on the loose! OK, wait, I should probably change that after the item above ... but ah, screw it, that's the been the theme of a couple of stories this week as Andy Bitter's looked at the way Malzahn's offense will get its many playmakers on the field and Luper's talked up the backs as "a strong point for our football team." It's not a shock, of course, and it would be tough not to be a strong point on this team the way the LBs, secondary, receivers, etc. are shaping up, but if Luper's happy I'm happy.

Your most intriguing Luper quote comes from Bitter here:

"This offense will enable you to put Ben Tate, Mario Fannin, Kodi Burns, Onterio McCalebb all on the field at the same time."

Bitter's skeptical, but as a commenter points out, it's not hard at all in the Wildcat. And if Burns is at WR and McCalebb in the slot--not unimaginable--you could do it in what should be Auburn's base set. In any case, the point is this: for all the hand-wringing over the receivers, Malzahn does have some shiny toys he can play with.

The Low-down. As you've probably seen by now, Chris Low paid Auburn's camp a visit yesterday and today. There's his talk with Zimeba, his two-parter with Chizik, the "depth is a concern" overview, and the Niffer's corn nuggets shout-out.

The "overview" post mentions that Hawthorne and McNeil both aren't expected back until well into the season--it's the closest we've gotten to confirmation of that, I guess, but I wasn't expecting anything different. Low also dropped in that last post that an Auburn coach told him that Rollison is "exactly what you're looking for in this offense." Again: not news, exactly, but good to hear.

As for the Chizik interview, most of it's the same boilerplate we've been getting from Chizik since Day 1. (Which , you know, fine.) But his argument for closing practice is a bit sharper than we've heard before:

Things over the last few years have gotten so out of control with technology. It's changed the whole world. The world right now is different, so I do what I think is in the best interest of our football team at all times. That's our players. That's injuries. That's rumors. That's whatever gets out there. I want to be able to have control of whatever's out there. I still won't always have control, just like no coach has complete control. But to the best of my ability, I'm here to protect and do what I think is best for our players, and that's the bottom line. I don't close practices because I want to close practices. I close practice for a reason, because the people I need to be at practice are the ones I want to know what is going on in depth with Auburn football, and I don't need it in 200 chat rooms 15 minutes later.

Oh, coach ... trying to control the flow of information these days is like trying to hold back a river with a fishing net. But keep trying.

Look, I don't want to read about this. Andy Bitter's piece on John Sullen and his push for playing time is a good read, and if there's any freshman that would be able to handle the mental aspect of all his recent position-switching, I would hope it would be one who's supposedly got a good head on his shoulders.

But it's not really possible to read about your overweight true freshman project offensive lineman and how he's an injury away from starting and not get the heebie-jeebies. I mean, even his weight loss isn't an unambiguous positive:

It’s a balancing act for Grimes, who wants to get Sullen and Bostrom to a weight where they might be able to help Auburn’s depleted line this season. But he’s been informed by the team nutritionist that losing too much weight too fast could lead to pulled muscles and other injuries that would keep a player off the field.

“In an ideal world, you’re talking about redshirting and you’re taking that weight off in the course of six months,” Grimes said. “You try to get them into spring ball as quick as they can and take some more off, and you’re talking about them competing a year from now. But with the depth where it is, that’s where we are.”

The season seriously cannot get here fast enough.

Etc. Todd 2: The Toddening answers five quote-baiting questions without offering up anything too juicy ... I'm not sure whether anyone who hasn't worked at the sports desk will appreciate precisely how hysterical this is, but trust me: hysterical.

I believe in

2009-08-21T11:29:00.001-04:00

Lee Ziemba on Gene Chizik:

Ziemba said there's no mistaking what the identity of this program will be under Chizik.

"He's always preaching to us about continuing what Auburn was built on, and that's down and dirty hard work," Ziemba said. "A man can only count on what he earns. That's basically what coach Chizik is trying to instill in us.

A head coach that preaches the Creed to his players, a head coach that tells his charges not to work hard because they represent Auburn but because hard work is what Auburn represents, that looks to build the foundation of his team not even on the tradition of Auburn's proud football program but on the tradition of our our even prouder, even stronger institution, our community, our family ...

This is a head coach who I will stand behind. War Eagle, Coach Chizik.

( p.s.: Yeah, I know it's just one quote from Ziemba, I know you have to ask if a guy who left Auburn for Texas really loves Auburn as much as I want him to. I don't care. He's "always preaching" the Creed to his players. That's it. I'm in.)

Camp report, 8/21

2009-08-21T10:29:00.000-04:00

As we'd expect for this point in the process, not a ton of new info to report.

--If there is any bright side to the continuous onslaught of defections to "Muscle Beach," it's that many of them are probably--well, hopefully--more precautionary than legitimately, uh, playing-time threatening. That's always been the hunch, and when Malzahn says of Terrell Zachery (or maybe Darvin Adams) ...

"We just want to make sure all of our guys are 100 percent when we get to the first game," Malzahn said.

... I'm assuming he's not the only guy that statement would apply to.

--Of course, I don't think that's the case with the linebackers. Your daily dose of panic:

Roof said "the No. 1 thing'' for Auburn is ``to continue to develop depth. That's my concern."

When asked if he's ever had such little depth, he said, "Not that I can recall."

"But that's where we are."

Roof did say Harris Gaston's "light" is "getting brighter every day" ... but Gaston was also apparently working behind Ashton Richardson yesterday, so that light needs to get a whole lot brighter in a hell of a hurry if Freeman and Evans don't return.

--Not really any movement on the QB situation; Malzahn is dodgy about a redshirt for Rollison and isn't yet ready to even declare him the backup. I think we're still at the same status quo we had when Todd was starterized: they'd like Rollison to be the backup, but they'd also like to get away with a redshirt for him if they can.

--Of course, if there really is an injury to Todd, Burns is still getting too much attention at quarterback to not be in the mix. Hopefully we won't have to find out what the actual "no Todd" plan is, but I have to think Burns might be involved somehow.

--"Everybody Loves" Nosa Eguae is currently working with the second string at end according to Tate, and the lovefest isn't going to end any time soon with quotes like these:

"Some people questioned it. Some people were like 'Go to (Texas) Tech, go to (Texas) Tech.' Some people were like, (Texas) A&M came in at the last second. When you come here and you see what's in the SEC, I keep telling the boys back home that are being recruited by Auburn right now, it just doesn't compare. I've been in those Big 12 schools, the SEC is the place to be."

Keep that up, Nosa, and even the Tide fans will be rooting for you.

Compare and contrast

2009-08-21T08:27:00.000-04:00

One

LB Brandon Fanney, LB Prince Hall, DB Alonzo Lawrence and former Davidson RB Jermaine Preyear "violated some type of team rule or policy and were not invited back on our team," Saban said.

and Two

“That’s something that isn’t true, but I’m not going to say anything about that,” Lawrence said.

vs.

Three

"At this time, Upshaw grabbed Gryzb by the back of the neck and hair with his right hand, and pushed her downward in what appeared to be an attempt to push her to the ground," Officer Rusty Romine wrote.

and Four

Alabama coach Nick Saban confirmed that sophomore linebacker Courtney Upshaw will not be suspended from the team in the wake of a verbal altercation with a girlfriend that police say became physical.

--------------------

(As an aside: if you're wondering whether 'Bama fans are paying attention to the message their head coach is sending about the importance of violence against women, judging by the RBR commenters [click for big] ...

... I'd say they're following his lead as closely as always.)

Cheese Puff Previews: Kentucky

2009-08-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

Kenny Irons, Tristan Davis and Tre Smith combined for 365 yards rushing and five touchdowns as No. 17 Auburn posted its best offensive output of the season in a 49-27 win over the Wildcats ... Auburn had 589 yards of offense, wearing down the Wildcats with touchdown drives of 80, 69, 80, 75, 81 and 80 yards. Irons scored on runs of 9, 1 and 2 yards, while Davis - a part-time defensive back who had only two previous carries this season - took over in the second half and sprinted 75 yards for a score the first time he touched the football.

"I'd probably say my future is at running back," Davis said.

That's right, it took place so long ago Tristan Davis wasn't even a running back yet. Also: Auburn's offense gained 365 rushing yards and 589 total yards of offense over an SEC opponent, and demons didn't burst out of the ground at the 50-yard line to start the Apocalypse.

So, like I said: it's been a while.

Last year: In the wake of Andre Woodson's (and a fat wad of other contributors') departure, Kentucky wasn't supposed to a bowl game in 2008, and they very nearly didn't: the 'Cats were outgained by an average of 105 yards in SEC play (only Mississippi St. was worse), finished 2-6 in the league, and won those two games--over Arkansas and Mississippi St.--by a combined two points. (Even that little factoid doesn't tell you that State had an extra point blocked early and missed a 27-yard field goal in the fourth.) Even a nonconference schedule consisting of the ghost of Louisville, Norfolk St., Western Kentucky, and Middle Tennessee St. had its drama:

But when all the dust had settled, and even the 63-5 destruction at the hands of the rampant Gators had gone by the books, Kentucky snuck into the Liberty Bowl at 6-6 and fumble-returned their way past East Carolina for their third straight winning season.

Notable previous meeting: Shug Jordan didn't make too many mistakes during his tenure at Auburn, but one of the few he would admit to occurred in 1961 in the week leading up to the Auburn-Kentucky match-up at Cliff Hare Stadium.

The year before, an Auburn team that would finish the season 8-2 responded to an opening-week loss to Tennessee with what Jordan called a "lackluster" effort against a Wildcats side that the Tigers had pummeled 33-0 in 1959, winning 10-7 on a late touchdown. Jordan blamed the loss on the team "thinking more about the team we played last week than the team we were playing this week," and the following year, as a reminder of both who the Tigers would be facing that Saturday and their poor play in Lexington the year before, Jordan planned to paint his team's practice fields blue. "We wanted to show them that if they weren't going to play on the bluegrass on Saturdays, they'd have to play on it all week long," Jordan said.

Unfortunately, the student managers assigned the task of painting the fields struggled to find a field paint the appropriate shade of blue and failed to finish their painting of the field until just before the Auburn players began practicing. Although Jordan soon realized the problem and began to slow and eventually postpone the practice, the combination of severe paint fumes, an unseasonably hot day for early October, and physical exertion prompted a number of Auburn players to grow sick and experience intense headaches. Four players were eventually taken to the hospital.

The fiasco resulted in a lost day of preparation for the Tigers, the replacement of the managers responsible, and on the following Saturday a surprise 14-12 victory for the visiting Wildcats, Auburn's only home loss in the 1961 season. "If I had it to do over again," Jordan said, "I'd have just yelled at 'em." That seemed to work better: Jordan went 10-2 against the Wildcats for the remainder of his Auburn tenure.

Actual series history: This much I'm not making up: whoever's been Auburn's coach, Kentucky hasn't had much success against the Tigers. Auburn leads the all-time series 24-5-1 and hasn't lost to the Wildcats since 1966, a span of--do-the math--43 years.

Of course, because of the rarity of the series it's also only a span of 15 games, but that's much less impressive-sounding.

Causes for Alarm

1. Like a lot of SEC fans, I kind of wondered what the hell Kentucky was thinking when they hired Rich Brooks. Then I wondered with even more vigor what they were thinking when they kept the old crank around after the 3-8 2005 season that took Brooks' three-year record in Lexington to 9-25.

Now, kids, do you see what happens when you're nice to old people and have patience with a new coaching staff? You get three straight winning seasons and your program's first-ever back-to-back-to-back bowl victories. Faith, kids, gets repaid. And then you get to make this for him:

And if you can't tell, kids, that's pretty awesome.

2. I figure there's two ways that the hiring of this guy will work out for Kentucky football:

One is that the karma that should go towards the hoops team will all be siphoned off towards the football team, which--as opposed to being a cash-flush juggernaut run by the sleaziest character in a business so sleazy it makes college football look like English cricket--is a likable underdog with few natural advantages that deserves a spot outside the hoops team's shadow. And thus the football team will be more fortunate than ever. On the other hand ....

Causes for Confidence

1. ... the second possibility is that the stain of Calipari will taint the entire athletic department. The football gods and the basketball gods are good chums, you know.

2. There's also this: the good times have to come to an end sometime. I mean, come on. It's Kentucky. I know they must have built up a tremendous amount of goodwill when they were on the butt end of this sort of thing ...

but seriously. Three years should be enough, right? Kentucky being good for four doesn't compute. (Especially when--as I mentioned--they were fortunate as hell not to go, say, 4-8 last year.)

Actual alleged analysis: In some ways, Auburn and Kentucky have a lot in common. Both programs have a questionable quarterbacking situation in which the best athlete at the position (Randall Cobb in UK's case) will be lining up at wideout. Both have questions at receiver but boast depth at running back and a veteran offensive line. Both have defenses with some big shoes to fill but a handful of star-caliber players to help hold things together ... if they can stay healthy.

But with all of that said ... our running backs are better. Our "other guys" on defense are better. Our receivers are better--possibly. Our specialists (they lost a top-notch punter and their PK is shaaaaaaaky) are better. Our 15-game winning streak in the series is better. And, of course, our home-field advantage is better than their road-field advantage.

So I think this is a game that Auburn ought to win. Both teams went 2-6 last year; Auburn should be much improved while Kentucky--with their five returning starters on defense and continued lack of skill position talent--projects to be about the same. But the 'Cat D will have something to say about it, and if the injury bug has bitten Auburn by the time week 7 rolls around ... well, I'm not certain Auburn's return home after the two-week trip to Arkansas and Tennessee will be a happy one.

The Works, swine flu-style

2009-08-20T10:55:00.000-04:00

Maybe that explains it? Everyone's favorite porcine strain of influenza is back in the news, causing the cancellation of Ole Miss's "Meet the Rebels" Day and prompting the guys at RCR to round up a, uh, call it a bevy of less-than-flattering portrayals of fans of everyone's favorite porcine-nicknamed SEC team. And while I generally don't go in for the whole LOOKIT THIS DUMMY WHAT ROOTS FOR UR TEAM brand of trash talk, I have to admit I found this particular video ... intriguing:

The problem here isn't that these are college kids riding a carousel (I've been a fan of ironic carousel rides for years), or that they're "calling the Hogs" in the process, or that one of their number thought it was a cool enough moment to document and put on YouTube as a gift to the world. The problem is that this is a carousel in a mall. A mall carousel. Ewwww.

I wish I had your confidence. I think we've already found our winner in the 2009 contest for "Most Wildly Optimistic Auburn Football Projection by a Neutral Observer." Please accept your award, Fanhouse's Brian Grummell:

3) Auburn (8-4 overall, 5-3 conference) ... Its not that we necessarily like the Gene Chizik hire but it came with a great offensive coordinator and a schedule in which the Tigers are constantly in a position to ruin others' seasons, something they're adept at. They'll be involved in a pair of SEC shockers this year, losing to woeful Mississippi State in week two but also felling powerful rival Alabama in the final week of the regular season. Oh they'll lose to West Virginia, LSU and Georgia as expected but the rest of the SEC slate is winnable including games against Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and upstart Ole Miss.

That's right--Auburn's projected ahead of both Arkansas and the Rebels despite losing to Mississippi St. Even Phil Steele thinks this is a bold, bold move. How highly does this post think of Auburn? Here's a snippet from the Arkansas blurb:

They'll drop the obvious games to Alabama, Auburn, Florida and LSU, but also pick off mighty Georgia at home in week two

Man, I'm as orange-and-blue as it gets, but if Arkansas losing at home to Auburn in 2009 is "obvious" my name is Jorell Bostrom.

(As an aside, what the hell happened at the Fanhouse? Just last year they were playing host to stuff like this, and now they're pumping out mind-numbing pabulum like this. Actual paragraph:

But the quarterback who has taken the state of Oklahoma and college football by storm just wants to be another guy on campus, even if his face is everywhere in Norman. Obscurity, even in the classroom, is just not an option after became the second sophomore to win college football's most prestigious award last December.

I swear, the first 1,000 words of that piece would work as a satire of brainless jock-fluffery if you took them out of context. Fanhouse: Working Every Day To Become More and More A Crappier USA Today!)

TBD. I hate to file this K-Scar column on how Chizik really isn't going to screw with Malzahn's offense under "believe it when I see it." But ... I'll believe it when I see it, particularly when Auburn's nursing a 7-point lead halfway through the fourth quarter and Malzahn's ordering up the usual no-huddle, hurry-up sets.

No. Charles Goldberg put up some outtakes from a Chizik chat a couple of days ago, and most of it's worth a read, particularly the Chiznick's obvious frustration with his depleted roster. In response to a question about it affects the coaches' planning:

It affects everything from top to bottom. It affects right now what time of day you practice. It affects how much you're going to run after practice. Are you going to condition or are you not going to condition? It affects everything from top to bottom of your practice and it affects everything in recruiting. It affects everything in your special teams. The list goes on and on and on.

``We don't have a break till week 12. We're going 11 straight. Think about that. Put that in the equation.

Wait, what? Think about what? Put what in the equation? I don't know what you're talking about, Coach I can't hear you [*puts fingers in ears*] LALALALALALA DE DA I CAN'T HEAR YOU

Player stuff. Some assorted links worth passing on: Wes Byrum seems to have his head screwed on correctly (thanks in part to some feedback Jay Boulware gave him that I don't understand why he didn't get last year); Antonio Coleman is going to have to change his middle name to "Watch List"; and Travis Williams is back on the Plains as a grad assistant.

2005. Evan Woodbery takes a look back at Auburn's class of 2005, the group that, you know, signed immediately in the wake of the 2004 season. Given that even an undefeated season only gives a staff so much time to put it to use on the recruiting trail, the '05s were about as productive as we could have hopes. It's the 2006/2007 classes that should have seen the biggest benefits of '04--and haven't really quite worked out the way we'd have hoped.

War Eagle, ladies. Auburn's women's soccer team is picked second in the West behind LSU and opens play this Sunday; the 2009-10 Auburn women's hoops schedule is released. At Florida St. should be the biggest date on the nonconference schedule, with Vandy looking like the biggest home game of the year.

Etc. Will is unhappy--to say the least--with the editorial decisions at the Auburn Magazine ... I still believe the Colonial failure is much ado about nothing in Auburn football terms (if not a net plus because of Lowder's decreased influence), but Smart Football has some links you should probably peruse anyway ... somebody out there doesn't like Nick Saban; I can't imagine why, he's so friendly ... and from the "not Auburn-related, but funny" department, that word Cris Carter's using doesn't mean what he thinks it means, and courtesy of The Run of Play here's a very, very NSFW video of an English soccer streaker getting completely and totally pwned by the local mascot (seriously, do NOT watch this video at work unless you have an unusually penis-friendly work environment):

Camp report, 8/20

2009-08-20T09:47:00.000-04:00

With two-a-days and the quarterback brouhaha behind us, there's not as many new developments to keep track of on Auburn's practice field. Thank goodness. But with the usual thanks to the beat hacks, here's what we did learn:

--New additions to the walking wounded: Tate, Zachery, Isom (!), Thorpe, Jonathan Evans (!!), newly-minted scholarship wideout John Cubelic, Jake Ricks. Clayton, Hood, Herring and Pybus, Eddins, and Roseman are all still out. The Toro was back in shells but apparently not fully participating just yet.

--If you know your linebacker math, you've already figured out that Evans's ding brings us to three operational 'backers again, with Harris Gaston probably also still nursing whatever it was that kept him out for a while ... which perhaps explains why walk-on Ashton Richardson was seeing time with the first-team yesterday.

--Ted Roof, I've been hailing you as a linebacker guru since the day you was hired. You make chicken salad out of this heapin' helpin' of chicken excrement, and I'll say that's a reputation that is 100-percent fully earned.

--Not surprisingly, Chizik said he and Roof have discussed ways of putting together that salad. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like they've come up with much:

Apparently no one is going to be moving to linebacker.

"Not right now," Chizik said. "Those type of candidates aren't on our team. They're somewhere else right now."

His assessment was not rosy.

"Obviously, we can play some nickel and things to help us. Take a linebacker out and play with two instead of three. Other than that, there's really no other options right now."

Yes, nickel, because we do have a lot of depth in the secondary! Safeties and corners galore! [*sobs quietly*]

--Seriously though, with all due respect to walk-on linebacker Ashton Richardson, sticking Mike Slade or Demond Washington on the field might be preferable to walk-on linebacker Ashton Richardson. And several teams on the schedule--Mississippi St., Ball State, maybe West Virginia, Kentucky at times--will play from a three-wide base offense. So maybe there'll be something to this.

Maybe.

--Zac Etheridge was playing as the nickelback according to Andy Bitter, which I assume would move Bates and Slade to the safety slots.

--There is some good news re: Thorpe: Walt McFadden said (amongst many other things) Thorpe's absence was just an ear infection.

--With Isom missing--the first time one of the starting five on the offensive line has missed time, saints be praised--your first lineman off the bench was ... drum roll please ... John Sullen! Good for him.

--But bad for Auburn? From Bitter again:

(Sullen) told us he weighed in at 357 pounds by the end of his senior year. Naturally, the reactions from the coaches is not printable, even on a blog. He's at 332 now and making progress.

Well ... OK, progress. That's good. (By the way, the other guy mentioned as working at that right guard spot? Walk-on Jorell Bostrum. 1) Eek 2) Why did no one tell me we had a kid on the team with an incredible name like "Jorell Bostrum"? If he ever has a male child, will he be Superman?)

--Jay Tate said The Toro has a new black cast he described as "menacing." I don't know whether to hope the cast comes off by the Tech game or not.

--All right, time for some good news, and there's a good chunk of it in this Goldberg post. Your 8/20 positives include:

1. Ryan Pugh is happy with how the offense is coming together and specifically said the o-line had a solid day in the last scrimmage.

2. Chizik had nice things to say about both Byrum and Durst. After the placekicking uncertainty to close '08 and Durstgate in the offseason, it is nice to have that much clarity at positions that important.

3. Maybe it's just coachspeak, but Chizik doesn't strike me as the kind to say he was happy with a practice if he wasn't honestly happy about it. And he has been happy about the overall "tempo" of practice. I know it's probably a little weird for everyone to have these night practices, but with a team as young as this one is in so many areas, Auburn can't afford to lose any reps to the heat. So: in my extremely unprofessional opinion, it's a good idea.

4. Tracy Rocker spoke to the press for the first time in a while and had some praise for Nick Fairley and (you get one guess on this one) Nosa Eguae. Eguae, like Clayton and Goggans, is getting work at both end and tackle.

--According to Lee Ziemba, the team started watching La. Tech film yesterday. (Also, he likes Toomer's lemonade.)

--I'm not going to steal even more of Bitter's post by quoting Luper on Taylor's 2:30 a.m. whale-watching habits, so I'll just say I LOL'd, encourage you to read it yourself, and leave it at that.

Krootin': woe-line edition

2009-08-19T14:03:00.001-04:00

It's a good thing Chad Slade is so freaking big, because he may have a lot of weight to carry on those shoulders.

This is a perfect time to panic. Just so we know where we stand, here is a comprehensive list of scholarship Auburn linemen with eligibility remaining beyond the 2010 season:

1. Jared Cooper
2. A.J. Greene
3. Andre Harris
4. Aubrey Phillips
5. Vance Smith
6. John Sullen

Bear in mind that that list includes two converted tight ends, two true freshmen, and just one player who received a grade better than 5.6 (i.e. "middle-of-the-road three-star") from Rivals. However, that player--Phillips--may of course never play football again.

So unless Auburn signs a player or two in 2011 capable of starting as a true freshman--anyone want to take odds on that?--the entire 2011 starting lineup will be comprised of the players listed above and whoever Auburn will sign this February. With the high school season about to kick off and the bulk of the recruiting for 2010 behind us, here is a comprehensive list of Auburn's current offensive line commitments:

1. Shon Coleman
2. Chad Slade

Bear in mind that Coleman has planned on taking visits to other schools and has been listed as a "soft verbal" since essentially the day he was signed; Auburn will have to work to keep him. Meaning that Slade--currently unranked by any service and with a second-best offer of Miss. St.--is the only lineman our staff can be said to have truly "wrapped up" by this point.

This is why it was a serious blow to read the following news:

Chase Hughes has named a new leader: Ole Miss. He says after a visit they slightly lead.

Under normal circumstances, missing out on a three-star, top-25 in-state, top-20ish center/guard wouldn't be a big deal. But as you can see above: these are not normal circumstances. When you've gotten three new linemen (counting Phillips) on to campus in two years, every body you can add to the mix is crucial, every opportunity to give Grimes another shot at developing a starting-quality player is one that has to be taken advantage of.

So I don't understand why the very next thing Beaver writes in the above post is:

The guys at Rivals seem to think Auburn has a shot at getting one of Kyle Prater's official visits even though he has cut Auburn from his top choices. Trooper Taylor is quietly working hard on Prater.

Yes, I'm sure he's an unbelievable prospect and all, but that's not going to stop me from making the following statement: I don't give the first crap about getting one of Kyle Prater's visits. He's not signing with Auburn. He's just not. Maybe Taylor--who's listed as Hughes's recruiter--is making every possible effort to reel Hughes in and the energy he's spending on Prater isn't detracting from Auburn's chances with Hughes. But if it is ... well, I'll just say that if you ask me whether I want Taylor trying to sew up a solid in-state lineman or chasing after the nation's No. 1 wide receiver from a thousand miles away, I take option A a thousand times over.

If this was the only instance of the current staff seeming questionably ambivalent about our offensive line recruiting, I'd let it pass. But it's not. Last spring, you'll recall, Tampa lineman Hunter Stout (who Grimes knew from Colorado) took a late visit to Auburn. He wasn't a stud by any stretch of the imagination, but he would have been something. The staff passed. He signed with Louisville. 2010 JUCO lineman John Cullen has had Auburn listed as one of his favorites for a while, but after the Phillips transfer, apparently Auburn backed off. Say whaaaa? Back to 2011: would we really rather have, say, redshirt sophomores Harris or Sullen starting with a true freshman backup over a senior Cullen starting with Harris/Sullen as backup? Really?

This is the point where--I can hear the chorus now--I'm reminded that I don't know what's really going on with recruiting, that our coaches have a plan, that they've forgotten more about this business than me, my children, and my grandchildren will ever learn, etc. And all that may be true.

But what's also true is that it's going to be awfully hard to put together a good offensive line from a collection of one or two solid players, five or six run-of-the-mill prospects, and bewildered true freshmen. But that's exactly what Auburn's looking at two years down the road if things don't change on the recruiting front, soon.

(For you rankings skeptics out there: remember 2007? Ziemba, Ramsey, and Pugh were all four-stars. Cooper? A low three-star. It wouldn't surprise me for the likes of Harris or Smith or Sullen to dramatically outperform their guru ranking, but expecting them all to--as Auburn will need them to unless something phenomenal happens--is delusional.)

A few other odds and ends ...

Goodwin. I was on my little sojourn when Antonio Goodwin committed, and so I didn't get to really make as big a deal out of it as it might have been, given that Goodwin is the first consensus four-star in the class and had the folks at ESPN--who invited him to their All-American game and rate him the No. 23 prospect in the country, period--say this about him:

ESPN's Billy Tucker added, "This was huge pickup for Auburn and in our opinion the most significant commitment under Chizik thus far. The Tigers are adding an explosive receiver and excellent overall athlete to their future roster."

"We feel Goodwin will challenge for the top receiver spot out of the state Georgia upon the release of our ESPNU 150 and will give Auburn an immediate vertical threat when he arrives in the Plains. Aside from his great vertical speed and elusiveness after the catch, this is a kid with the body length, leaping ability and strong hands to create matchup problems as a downfield pass catcher. Needs a bit of polish but Auburn is getting a much-needed playmaker in our opinion and a receiver with a very high ceiling for development."

Between Goodwin, Blake, Benton (if he sticks around), Jeremy Richardson, and the various slicky tricksters in the slot--not to mention Lutzenkirchen--it looks from here like Auburn should see its receiving go from being the weakest unit on the team to one of its strongest in the space of a year or two.

Super Senior fluff GO. Jawara White and Kenneth Carter both get the B'ham News Super Senior profile treatment. Interesting stuff on both, although reading that Carter would be willing to look around is a little bit disappointing. (I do think he'll have to have a hell of a year to draw any stronger offers, though.)

Camp report, 8/19

2009-08-19T10:36:00.000-04:00

Attention linebackers: you're eating this for breakfast every morning through the end of the season. Also, here's a Black Cat Repellent system to wear on your belt and a Ladder Warning Siren to alert you to any you might walk under. No chances left at this point.

Better and better. The good thing about finding out that Eltoro Freeman was wearing a cast on his hand was that the coaches didn't seem all that worried about that. The bad thing turned up last night as we found out why ...

Chizik clarified LB Eltoro Freeman's injury. Apparently the cast on his right hand is not the reason he is not practicing right now. It's a hamstring injury. There is not set date for the sophomore's return to practice.

A hamstring. Great. An injury that will likely nag at him all season and has to be given extra recuperation time to make sure it doesn't totally blow up on him. Wonderful. So let's see, assuming he'll be healthy again soon, Freeman would probably be replaced in the lineup by Great Story Pybus ...

Spencer Pybus is out with a concussion.

%$&%! Seriously: %$&%! At least they've moved Dee Ford to LB so they've got a body back there to ...

Freshman Dee Ford said he's back at defensive end after spending about a week at linebacker.

So ... we're back to a grand total of four practicing scholarship linebackers, then? And just two that aren't true freshmen? Tate is right: the reason Josh Bynes can't say who's working behind him is because nobody is playing behind him.

This is all going to work out beautifully.

The glass is half-empty. It was pretty sweet when alleged project/stopgap recruit Daren Bates showed up, started knocking heads, and wedged his way into the two-deep discussion at safety. But I don't know if I'm ready for this:

Chizik said true freshman safety Daren Bates is working some with the first team. He could press sophomores Mike Slade and Drew Cole for the starting job until Mike McNeil returns.

Look, I don't care how impressive he's been, there's no way around this: for a true freshman who Auburn stole away from Arkansas St. to show up and threaten to grab a starting safety position is an awful sign. Bates is obviously much, much better than anyone but this random commenter thought he'd be, but his ascension still says just as much--if not more--about the failings of Mike Slade and Drew Cole as it does about what Bates has accomplished.

We do have this particular bright side, though: if he's making this kind of impression now, Bates (like camp surprise Neiko Thorpe before him) should be ready to give us three or four years of solid-to-outstanding contribution. (Before you use this opportunity to rag on the recruiting ratings, by the by, recall that Cole was as anonymous as three-stars get and that Slade wasn't viewed as a prize, either.)

Andy Bitter wrote a feature on Bates, his arrival at Auburn, and his summer preparations you can read here.

At least he's here. Chizik on Frenchy the latecomer:

Asked if Pierre-Louis has some catching up to do after missing 15 spring practices and 11 days in August, head coach Gene Chizik agreed but didn't elaborate: "Yes, that would be very fair to say."

I'm not expecting him to see him before midseason, but that's more than I expected back when we figured we was off the team.

Good news? I'm trying really hard to find some. At least Chizik seemed encouraged by both the practice and the scrimmage film. That the offensive line is still healthy KNOCK ON ALL THE WOOD WITHIN REACH and looking like the line it should have been a year ago--by both Chizik's and Grimes's recent accounts, not to mention the spring game--is the best possible sign for the offense.

Other than that ... uh, Kodi thinks the Wildcat's going to be awesome, and I'm not going to disagree, but I'll also wait for a more unbiased source before getting too excited.

Really? Anthony Gulley is doing work at H-back. Which doesn't make sense at first, since the position (as I understand it) carries blocking assignments much of the time and Gulley is, um, "diminutive." Then again, the position also carries "grab a short pass and do something with it" assignments, and that Gulley should be able to handle with aplomb at some point in the future.

Well, that's reassuring. Chizik on Aubrey Phillips:

"Aubrey is into the swing of everything trying to rehab and just addressing some issues, medically, we’re really going to have to watch," Chizik said. "But he’s doing a great job. He’s in the flow of everything. He’s back in school. We’re very encouraged by where he’s at." Asked if Phillips will play football again, Chizik refused to speculate. "I’m fairly confident but I’m not a doctor so I have no idea," he said. "He’s doing really well."

Sorry, but if we're still not even past the point where we know if Phillips will ever play football again, I can't bring myself to expect anything from Phillips's presence in Auburn. I'm glad he's feeling better and in class, but when he hits the practice field, then I'll start worrying about what he can do for the football team.

The Works, Todd for tat-style

2009-08-18T17:57:00.000-04:00

He-said-he-said. Given how much help the man has been in helping us understand what we're going to be seeing from Gus Malzahn's offense, it's only fair I point you towards Chris Brown's new Smart Football site. But new site or no, Chris's most cutting comment about Auburn of late came on his Twitter feed, where he summarized:

(Yes, the "slmandel" in question is that Mandel.) The knee-jerk Auburn fan in me wants to say HEY CHRIS TODD'S ARM IS NOW MADE OF TITANIUM AND SPIDER-SILK FISHING LINE, but we can be honest here: it's terrific news that the quarterback battle is already decided, but that doesn't change the fact our starting quarterback was the least threatening QB in the SEC last year, that rarest of college signal-callers who had neither an arm nor legs. (The most threatening quarterback, of course, was Jarrett Lee. He just happened to be threatening his own team.) Yes, that Auburn's best quarterback is Chris Todd is bad news until Todd proves us wrong.

The nice thing is that there's reasons to believe Todd will do just that, and in the first truly worthwhile post from resurrected al.com Auburn blog Tigers Corner, PPL's Kevin Ives offers a goodly number of them. Some of them we've seen before, but this one I thought was particularly incisive:

3. HE HAS A BETTER OFFENSE TO WORK WITH: Better receivers, more experienced lineman, and an offense that can actually rely on Auburn's strengths (Running Backs) instead of it's weaknesses (receivers). King Gus's offense is all about timing (which he's repeated in numerous interviews. The biggest knock on Chris Todd is arm strength. Not a problem in this Offense. From what I've seen from watching film of Malzhan team's in action, the QB just needs good timing and good decision making (both of which Todd has). He doesn't need a cannon. However, Auburn fans will probably get a pleasant surprise now that Todd has had a full year to rehab his shoulder.

I'm not entirely sold on Todd's decision-making just yet--there were some seriously shaky moments last year that had nothing to do with his arm strength--but that can probably (OK, maybe hopefully) be ironed out by Malzahn in time for the opener. At the very least, we can say this: Todd has both way, way more recruiting pedigree and just as much experience as the two QB's Malzahn turned into TD-machines at Tulsa. Doesn't guarantee the same results, of course, but I for one will take my reasons for optimism where I can get.

Quickly ... speaking of Mandel, he's got a new column running down the prospects of all of D-I's new head coaches. Nothing insightful in the least re: Chizik and Auburn, but it's out there if you want a look.

Welcome back. Not a secret by now, but with classes starting yesterday Frenchy Pierre-Louis is back in the fold. Who knows what we'll get out of him, but if he's healthy and focused, he showed enough pre-injury last fall to think he could still be a big help.

Still no help. K-Scar writes a column applauding Chizik for the quick quarterbacking decision, and while I agree that this staff's decisiveness is a good sign for their future prospects, Scarbinsky still can't help out those of us who'd like a little more personal detail on Chizik--even though he's trying:

When you sit down in Gene Chizik's office and look around to get some insight into the new Auburn head coach at the end of two-a-days, there are few clues.

There's not a picture on the walls.

There's not a knick-knack on the shelves.

Which is a clue in itself.

The man who occupies this office doesn't have much use for decoration.

Oh, he'll get around to personalizing the place -- "that'll happen about next March," he said -- but he has more pressing business.

Like proving he belongs here.

I'm going to take this as a metaphor for Chizik himself--just as he's got decorations for his office but just hasn't put them up yet, so I'm assuming he's got a personality and a less-reserved side the public just hasn't seen yet.

Mid-term exams. The switch from two-a-days to one-a-days prompted beat hacks Jay G. Tate and Luke Brietzke to both issue "state of the team" blog posts. And speaking of Chizik's businesslike approach, Tate had this to say:

Chizik doesn't like mess.

That's the primary reason behind three players leaving the program this summer. The coach has instituted a reasonably strict dress code and holds his players to reasonably lofty behavioral standards. He also demands that helmets be lined up almost perfectly during warm-ups.

No detail is too small.

It was reasonable to assume the no-frills aura he created upon arrival would wane as fall arrived. That was an errant assumption. Chizik is as guarded and focused as ever these days.

The same complaint I had in the spring--that this approach won't fly if Auburn starts losing--still basically stands, but at least we haven't heard any complaints from any players yet, and you won't hear any from this end either with what appears to be a stronger core of leadership than we saw last year. Burns and the other quarterbacks would be part of that, of course, but it sounds like Walt McFadden is joining Antonio Coleman in taking the reins of the defense, too. (Which we need like crazy: with Aairon Savage gone, the defense will start a whopping three seniors, one of which is the relatively fresh face of Jake Ricks.)

Getting back to mid-terms, Tate's forecast that the thinness of Auburn's defense will result in more snaps for the starters is bad, bad news--because with the no-huddle on the other side of the ball, that's going to mean a freaking ton of snaps for those guys. In a year when Auburn will play its first 11 games in 11 weeks, color me already worried.

We'll figure this out later. At TWER, Jeremy (or maybe J.M.?) has trouble tracking down the "Authentic Films" company supposedly partnering to create Auburn Football: Every Day ... . At least the two gentlemen do exist and do have TV experience, but I'm pretty sure that "12 Emmys" claim is a wee bit exaggerated. Google does connect them with the Emmys, but, um, it's these Emmys. (Note that I'm sure these guys will do a fine job with the show: it's just interesting, is all.)

This is just sad. CFN's SEC bloggers on the OBC at Media Days:

The most interesting thing I saw during the SEC Media days was how flustered and uncomfortable Steve Spurrier looked at the podium. The once mighty Darth Visor looked awful. A self-admitted 7-6 head coach, it looks like 4 years at South Carolina has taken away his swagger, his attitude and his confidence. It was quite a change from the man that came into Media Days 4 years ago with the opinion that he could win the SEC at South Carolina and it seems evident that even he doesn’t believe that any longer.

I'm not the first person to say it, but against the schedule the 'Cocks are facing, I just don't see any way Spurrier's still in Columbia next year.

Etc. It'd be an even better story if she was American, but if Jamaican Olympic and now World Championship 100-meters silver-medalist Kerron Stewart was going to go to school in the States, I'm glad she went to Auburn ... PPL ties up some Auburn baseball odds and ends ... I don't have anything to add to the Brett Favre story, but the blog-takes here and here simply have to be passed on (language warning on that second, as you could probably guess from the URL alone) ... nd just so you know, Woodstock sucked.

"Hard Knocks: Auburn" coming to a TV near you, and a computer monitor near me

2009-08-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

OK, so the real title is "Auburn Football: Every Day ...", and if I have the nagging feeling they could have picked out a catchier title (who uses ellipses in their title? Pretentious socially-conscious hip-hop acts, that's who), this is an outstanding development on a couple of different levels:

1. There is no such thing as not enough Auburn on one's television set, and this promises to be a good deal more interesting than the Auburn Football Review, particularly now that Tubby has given way to the Chiznick.

2. Attention recruits: not only will you be on TV every single week thanks to the new SEC TV deal, but you will also be on TV every single week during practice, on the sidelines, etc. And if your parents or cousins or certain expatriate Auburn bloggers want to watch but don't live in the area, no sweat--it'll all be online.

3. A second recruiting note: ya think Trooper Taylor and Curtis Luper might come across as more than a little bit charismatic on camera? I'm not saying the show's going to singlehandedly turn any tides or anything, but it's not gonna hurt, either.

4. Maybe the biggest nagging question I have about our new head coach, and it's one I'm going to delve into a bit as the season approaches, is this one: who the hell is he? His interviews, his press conferences, his newspaper profiles ... none of them have felt satisfying yet. Trooper's the kid-at-heart, Malzahn's the coffee-addicted nerd, Luper's the smooth operator, Roof and Lolley are the grizzled Southern old-school types, you get the picture. We know Chizik is detail-obsessed and something of a disciplinarian ... but there's got to be more to this picture than that, right? Maybe being able to see him in a more natural environment than when the press are around will help.

5. This is more of a personal note, but for those of us who don't live in the CSS/"local listings" footprint, that this will on the Interwebs is very, very good news indeed.

Justin Delaine commits and no, I hadn't heard of him either

2009-08-18T11:16:00.001-04:00

Auburn's new commitment ... Mysterio!

So last night Auburn picked up their 15th commitment of the 2010 class in Linden (and/or Sumter County) defensive end Justin Delaine. Beaver's rounded up the pertinent details I suggest you take a look at, but to review ...

--Delaine not only hasn't been ranked by the major services, at the time of his commitment he didn't even have a profile up at Rivals or Scout. I haven't following this recruiting thing very long, but I don't think that happens for SEC commitments very often. This is as deep a sleeper as you're going to get at Auburn.

--He's listed as a defensive end, but Delaine seems like the kind of guy you get on campus first and find a position for later: 6-5, 225, track speed, played just one year of football. I don't have much doubt he's sushi-raw, but for Auburn to go ahead and accept a commitment from him now suggests to me that someone on our staff--Lolley, apparently--saw enough in Delaine not to take any chances on anyone else getting there first.

--Getting him on campus might prove tricky, though, since even he apparently admits he's got academic issues to work on. At the very least, if he's really transferring from one school to another solely in an attempt to drag his GPA up, at least he's taking things seriously.

--No doubt the Tide fans are having a good laugh this morning at Auburn taking a commitment from a kid whose offer list includes two Mississippi schools and Troy and hadn't even drawn enough attention for an evaluation from the gurus ... but as I've mentioned before, I lived and worked for a while out in that part of the state, and it would be unbelievably easy for a legitimate prospect like Delaine to fly under the radar at a place like Sumter County. There's virtually no press coverage, the football team is almost an afterthought compared to hoops, the facilities and equipment are, um, lacking, and while I thought much more highly of Sumter's coaching while I was there than some of the other schools in the area, the infrastructure's just not there that can turn a kid who's never played organized football into a superstar overnight. Beaver hid away some uncorroborated info on Delaine's living situation in his comments thread, but that sounds about par for the course in places like York and Linden.

In short, I'm not worried. This staff's not going to offer a player with one year of football experience unless he's got some serious athletic goods. And if Delaine does stick at defensive end, there's not a position coach on the staff I'd trust more to turn those goods into something useful than Tracy Rocker.

--So, yeah, Delaine's not going to move the guru needle; yeah, he's very likely going to need a redshirt even if he qualifies; yeah, it would be nice if Auburn could land another high-profile prospect to get some of that good ol' Big Cat feelin' back. But seeing what guys like Daren Bates and Anthony Gulley are doing already, it's already fair to give this staff the benefit of the doubt when it comes to evaluating under-the-radar prospects like Delaine.

QB feedback, 8/17

2009-08-17T15:04:00.004-04:00

Once again, it's time to look over a smattering of comments left in the JCCW's comment threads that deserve an airing and more public response, this time with a special emphasis on Auburn's quarterbacks because, hey, that novel we're all collectively writing about them isn't finished just yet.

We'll start with a question that's cropped up in more than one Auburn-related Internet gathering area recently, as asked by reader "SW-al":

So, just how big a cheer does Kodi get the first time he steps on the turf at Jordan-Hare this year?

I would say "a cheer big enough to make you forget all the previous 'We love you! We really love you!' cheers," except that there's the whole snap-the-ball-in-7-seconds thing our offense should, theoretically, have going on. If Burns runs out there mid-series--and assuming he'll see his first action as the Wildcat "QB," wouldn't starting a series with him sort of ruin the element of surprise?--by the time the crowd realizes what's happening, it'll already be time for Kodi to start calling the play and readying the snap count. In a perfect world, Burns will check in for the first time as a slot receiver during a TV timeout ... but otherwise, am I wrong in thinking it could be awkward? Which is a shame, because I think Kodi's fully worthy of hearing the proverbial roar from the Auburn crowd.

This seems as good a space as any to also mention the remarkable irony of Burns receiving the biggest blow to his career, living down to the expectations of all those fans who expected him to get passed for the job in the offseason, and being dealt what's almost certainly the final, official confirmation he's been a bust as a quarterback recruit ... and still coming out the other side as big a fan favorite as he's ever been? I'm telling you, Auburn's quarterbacking situation is just weird.

Midwestern visitor "mpf004" asked after news of the Toddening came down:

I'm just curious why you have so much faith in your coaching staff. It's Gene Chizik, after all.

There's a very simple answer to this: I don't think Gene Chizik had a damn thing to do with Chris Todd being named the starter. At least, I hope he didn't. Chizik has an offensive staff made up of Gus Malzahn, Trooper Taylor, and Curtis Luper. Those three guys should be perfectly capable of handling the offense and Malzahn, in particular--who's produced nothing but quarterbacking studs as long as he's been in the college game--should be perfectly trustworthy to entrust the QB decision to without any Chizikian meddling. I'm sure the Chiznick rubber-stamped Malzahn's decision, but it's Dr. Gustav rather than Chizik who's been saying from Day 1 he wouldn't brook any quarterback controversy chatter and would name a starter at his earliest possible convenience ... and that's exactly what happened. I don't think it's too tough to tell at this junction who's in charge of the offense, and it's not the ex-star defensive coordinator.

The real question is: let's say Malzahn's offense blows up and carries a depleted Auburn D to a series of victories. Do we give Chizik the credit for being smart enough to hire Malzahn or we do we withhold credit because Chizik won't have anything to do with the actual operation of Malzahn's offense? I don't know the answer (though I'm sure the media would deify Chizik in short order), but I'm hoping we find out. (Well, I'm hoping we win every game 50-0 and everybody gets an avalanche of credit, but I'll take a series of victories however we can get them.)

More on Burns from commenter tiger7_88, who takes issue with my characterization of Burns as being particularly wronged by his various coaching regimes:

(I)f this is true, the same thing can be said for Neil Caudle x1000.

In the conventional "wisdom", Todd was Franklin's "boy".

That being the case, then Burns was Tuberville's "boy".

See whose left out here?

Now who has been done wrong (if any wrong has been done) by the coaches again?

Or does that view just get in the way of the "Awwwww... poor Kodi!" Squad?

Hey, I won't argue that Caudle didn't get a particularly fair shake from Tony Franklin--did anyone?--and maybe even less of a fair shake than Burns did. At least Franklin thought enough of Burns to yank him around and platoon him before giving him the hook on the basis of a minor injury. Caudle never even seemed to enter Franklin's picture.

However: in 2007, I continue to believe it would have been Caudle as Cox's backup and Caudle that came in in relief vs. Mississippi St. had Caudle not gotten hurt (again) in fall camp. By the time Caudle was healthy again, Burns's redshirt was burned, Cox was competent again, and it was too late. I don't think Borges was particularly unfair to Caudle here, not in the way I think he might have been to Burns in treating him not so much as a backup QB as a Wildcat-esque gimmick.

As for 2006, well, Caudle was a freshman and he was injured. Not much to say there. And you can't say he hasn't had his fair shot this year.

So in the end, I think Caudle has a gripe with Franklin--but not the same amount of griping over the course of his career that Burns has racked up, and seeing as how (unlike Burns) he's never been able to convince his coaches that he deserved time on the field, I'm not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt that his coaches have been all that unfair. Maybe that makes me a Burns sympathizer, but oh well, I'm a Burns sympathizer, then.

The Works, no camp report today-style

2009-08-17T11:12:00.000-04:00

I know it's a pretty sweet football, Zach, but you really should give it back now. (Via.)

How far we've come? No practice over the weekend, so no real developments to follow from, you know, an actual football perspective. But Fan Day is a good opportunity to reflect on the tidal surge of optimism that's swept the fanbase since Chizik started hiring his assistants ... and the OA-News's Mike Svetitz takes advantage of that opportunity:

It was an honor to be there, they said. An honor to shake hands with the coach. An honor to speak with him. The chips were just a bonus — two and three bags at a time.

What a far cry from Dec. 13, 2008, when Chizik was first announced as the man to replace Tommy Tuberville.

You remember. Just YouTube “Auburn + Heckle + Airport” in case you forgot.

Did you ever think that now, eight months later, fans would line up hours in advance in the 90-degree-plus heat just to get a plastic helmet signed by Chizik?

My, how things change. And Sunday proved just how much.

On the one hand, I always feel like stereotyping the Auburn reaction to Chizik's hire using the airport heckler shorthand is awfully disingenuous--that was one guy, and when Chizik finally made it to Auburn, there was a lot more people there than "one." (They also happened to be just a bit friendlier.)

On the other hand, Svetitz is right that the pendulum couldn't have possibly swung further from one direction to the other. Chizik's hire was greeted in nearly every orange-and-blue corner (this one included) as a colossal mistake, a career-ending error for Jacobs, a small step for the program but one giant leap towards Auburn irrevelance ... and eight months later, Chizik can elevate Chris Todd to the starting quarterback position after nine practices and receive nothing but hosannahs. Countless columnists said Chizik would have to work hard to "win over the Auburn faithful" or some such. For the time being, Chizik can keep that goal safely crossed off his checklist, I think.

To be frank, though, I wonder if the pendulum hasn't swung too far in the opposite direction. Much as we can try to go Eternal Sunshine on that 5-19 thing, it happened, and it didn't happen entirely by accident ("accident" here being code for "Iowa St."). If the Chiznick really goes 9-3 (!), he won't just have learned his lessons from the ISU debacle, he'll have become coaching Einstein or something. (That, or Dr. Gustav will be an even bigger genius than we think he is.) When Svetitz mentions fans who get defensive in the face of even a "whiff of doubt" ... well, we haven't seen Chizik coach one quarter at Auburn. I think retaining at least a whiff of doubt is only healthy at this stage, if not outright necessary.

Fannin. We've got a quote on his permanent home at H-back:

“This position I’m playing in, you’ll have great games in some games and some games will be OK,” Fannin said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “I understand that now, so I’m just waiting for my time.”

I'd guess he's reached the Kodi stage: not thrilled, but at peace.

Condolences. The JCCW of course joins the rest of the Auburn family in mourning the loss of former Auburn pitcher Brent Schoening, who passed away Sunday morning after a battle with leukemia. I strongly recommend reading Jay Tate's recollection of Schoening's 1999 Super Regional performance against Florida St.

I suppose I have to mention this, don't I? As you've no doubt heard, Colonial's gone under. Impact on Bobby Lowder's trusteeship or Auburn football: zero. I guess perhaps, maybe, possibly, it makes it just that little bit harder for Lowder to pull the various strings he's acquired over the years ... but I doubt it. The story here are the jobs lost and the failure of one of the state's premier financial institutions, not the bank's connections to Auburn.

Todd 2: the Toddening. More blAUgosphere reaction, as Jay Coulter weighs in (and pays Burns his due respect) and Guaranteed to Satisfy makes the worthwhile point that once you get past the shock of Todd's ascension, there's not really much to get genuinely excited about here. That post is also worth reading for the following description of Dr. Gustav:

The guy walks around with an IV of the blackest coffee in the southeast and probably takes more caffeine pills than Jessie Spano.

I was never as big a fan of that particular program as most of the other members of my generation, but I can still recognize a killer reference when I see it.

LOLZ. I can't say I enjoy Gump4Heisman's choice of team allegiance or the occasional requisite Auburn needling, but damn, the dude can photoshop a Sports Illustrated cover. My favorite from the inspired above-linked collection:

Punditry. Two Auburn mentions you may want to see from the college football MSM, the first coming from yesterday's "Ask CFN," and I'm as surprised about this as you are:

I love what you do for college football but I couldn’t help but think that you have lost your mind entering the 2009 season. I just noticed that you picked Auburn to beat Alabama. That is a complete joke! It will take a team who can throw the football and is at worst comparable to Alabama on the offensive and defensive lines. Auburn has none of those things. They will have one of the worst offensive lines in the SEC and their QB situation is a joke. They will be lucky to make a bowl and I can promise you that one of their wins won’t be over the Tide. – Michael H.

A: Remember, there are always, always, bizarre upsets that come out of the blue each and every year. When doing the preseason picks, we look for the perfect storm of conditions to predict an upset. Is Auburn better than Alabama? No, but the Tigers should be much better and much sharper by the end of the season, all the pressure will be on the Tide (this could be Auburn's BCS Championship game), and it's at Auburn, where Bama hasn't won since 2001. And then there's the timing. Alabama has just six days between the scrimmage against Chattanooga and the Iron Bowl, while Auburn has close to two weeks off to rest up and prepare.

Hey, he's right! Or at least more right than the guy who thinks Auburn has one of the worst offensive lines in the SEC. Not right enough to actually be right about Auburn beating Alabama, mind you--even I have a hard time making myself believe that--but it's nice to have a neutral party recognizing that we've got a few building blocks to build our overindulgent optimism around.

Secondly, this is all kinds of old, but if you missed it, check out what Tony Barnhart--who has seen his fair share of exciting SEC games, I'd wager--picked out as his "most memorable moment covering college football":

December 2, 1989.

Pretty sure I don't have to tell you what that date's referring to, but I strongly recommend reading Barnhart's recollection of that rather incredible day.

Vol-denfreude. That's my new word for the delight I can't seem to help taking in the tribulations of Lane Kiffin and the Volunteers. In this week's edition, Ivan Maisel warns that Tennessee's poor offensive scrimmage performance is an ill omen and Holly reacts appropriately to news of Jonathan Crompton's spectacularly Cromptonian performance in said scrimmage. I've gone on record a couple of times as saying I think the Vols will be better than Kiffin's bumbling would suggest they will ... but that doesn't mean the continued Cromptoning isn't going to be tons of fun to watch.

Etc. SEC campuses prepare for an onslaught of night games, and though I may be in the minority, I think the positives of night games vastly outweigh the negatives ... Trooper Taylor continues to hype up his freshmen receivers, and Charles Goldberg espouses a theory behind said hype I'll be happy to co-sign, having already espoused it myself.

Camp report, 8/16

2009-08-16T13:09:00.000-04:00

Now that we know how his name is pronounced, I have a question: When he starts completing touchdown passes against Auburn's opponents, are we going to say they've been "Tyrik-rolled?" I hope so.

Yesterday was scrimmage day. Developments:

--The post-scrimmage theme was pretty much the same everywhere you looked: the offense go things done yesterday. No turnovers, touchdowns on three of their five first-team drives, not even a single incompletion if you believe Mario Fannin. (I'm not sure you should, but still.) Scrimmage or not a scrimmage, practice or not a practice, depleted D or no depleted D, going against a first-team defense with as much talent as Auburn has and humming along in the fashion Auburn's offense (allegedly) did is something to build on. It's not time to start expecting the Spread Eagle 2.0 to hang half a hundred on La. Tech, not by a long shot, but as long as it keeps improving it'll be fine--and it couldn't be much clearer that after the first scrimmage's QBpalooza and resulting turnovers, three-and-outs, etc., that progress is being made.

Of course, there's always a chicken-and-egg question that has to be asked after one of these scrimmages: should we really be happy that the offense looked like world-beaters when they looked that way at the expense of, you know, our first-team defense?

To be honest, I'm not sure. Obviously, with Jonathan Evans starting at weakside linebacker and Roof admitting that they were shuttling second-teamers in and out, the defensive unit that saw the field yesterday won't be the one that shows up on Sept. 5. But they were also facing an offense that just named a starting quarterback two days earlier, that just doesn't have the same caliber of established SEC players, and was generally supposed to be the problem area.

Since no one really knows what the defense looked like, I think it's just as premature to worry about them as it is to proclaim that the offense has arrived. But if they don't find a way to hit back at the O the next time the two sides square off, it might be fair to get a little uneasy ... especially if the depth issues continue to worsen.

--In that same vein, it's terrific that Chizik felt impressed enough to single out Demond Washington and Darn Bates. Healthy, competent players in the secondary appear to be at such a premium for Auburn, it's a huge coup that both those guys look capable of playing this soon. (Not that it's a shock in Washington's case.)

But still--with Josh Bynes, Antonio Coleman, Zac Etheridge, Neiko Thorpe, etc. out there, is it a good sign that the players that come in for praise are a true freshman and a new JUCO player? I realize it's mostly a matter of expectations and the press asking for new names to pass along, but when Walt McFadden admits that "the defense is still going to have to do a lot of work," I can't help but think some of the defensive vets might not yet be up to full speed yet.

--It doesn't get much more direct than this, does it?

Kodi Burns, who lost the race to be the starting quarterback, played receiver and had a couple of nice plays out of the Wildcat position, said the coaches. He had a long run for a touchdown.

"You'll see that guy on the field a lot," Malzahn said.

So there you go. I'll be stunned if Burns doesn't start the season as the numero uno Wildcat "QB."

Also worth noting that after multiple offseasons of whispers about Burns's work ethic, Taylor says he's putting in extra practice time at receiver to balance out the time he's spending with the quarterbacks.

To paraphrase arguably the greatest film comedy of all time, how much more impressive could Kodi have been over the past few days? The answer is none. None more impressive.

--Saturn V Durst has his scholly. All is right with the world.

--I think the growing consensus that Caudle will only be the backup for the first couple of games of the season, if then, is probably accurate. Malzahn just sounds too pleased with Rollison's progress (to me, anyway) to think otherwise.

--To hear Chizik talk, Dee Ford still has a little ways to go before being ready for game action.

--The part of me that still wonders if Mario Fannin is the team's best tailback was a touch disappointed to read that Fannin took snaps exclusively at H-back in the scrimmage. But most of me is just happy that this offensive staff has a position for him and seems to know what they want from him. And hey, we've got photo evidence that he was touching the ball during the scrimmage. No worries.

--Seriously, how much of a godsend has Daren Bates been? Auburn gets down to the point of lining up waterboys at safety, and right in that hour of greatest need the two-star, no-hype, barely-qualified recruiting afterthought rides in to start knocking heads and having Chizik himself admit he'll have a shot at immediate playing time. Say wha? He even seems like kind of an interesting quote.

The best news, of course, is that the world might not end if Zac Etheridge picks up a nick or Mike Slade or Drew Cole can't hack it. But it's also a good sign that so far, the new staff seems to be showing as much of a propensity for finding recruiting sleepers (Bates, Eguae, Washington) as the previous one.

Camp report, 8/15

2009-08-15T14:09:00.000-04:00

A few quick notes before Saturday's scrimmage, which will assuredly clear up nothing whatsoever:

--Chizik and Roof on The Toro's injury:

"He wasn't in full gear this morning, but I'm encouraged," Chizik said.

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof did not specifically comment on the injury, either.

"I coach them when they are ready to go," he said.

Oh heavens. I suppose if the Chiznick is encouraged I ought to be encouraged, but it's hard when we still don't know what the injury is, even harder when rather than flat-out saying "He'll be back," Chizik's just "encouraged." With Great Story Pybus and Adam Herring both still out with injuries themselves last we heard, you know who would start in The Toro's place is the season started this afternoon? Harris Gaston, probably, or maybe Jonathan Evans. Go True Freshmen, Go!

--Speaking of which, maybe Dee Ford would be in on some of that action as well. Roof on Ford:

"He's never played from a stand-up position before, so it's a little different for him," Roof said. "But what jumps out for me on him is that he doesn't get stuck up on blocks. He doesn't get Velcroed to blocks. He uses his hands and gets off blocks. And he seems to have a nose for the football. So we just have to keep working and teaching the position and we'll go from there."

No one was doubting Ford's quicks when he came out of school, so there's nothing stopping him athletically, and you would think if anyone could teach the ins-and-outs of linebackerdom in a short period of time, it'd be Roof. So, hey, who knows.

This much is clear, it seems: a couple of true freshmen are going to see some playing time at LB this season. We're just waiting to find out who.

--Also coming in for some praise from Roof were Nosa Eguae and Michael Goggans. The Eguae thing is almost old hat by now--I think the only coaches left who haven't had something positive to say about him yet are, like, Boulware and Lolley, and we'll probably hear from them next week.

The Goggans news is legitimately encouraging, however. As the end opposite Antonio Coleman, Goggans is playing one of the--if not the, period--most critical positions on Auburn's 2009 defense, since it's up to him to make sure opposing pass protection schemes can't quadruple-team AC and still feel OK about having the other side shored up. Goggans wasn't bad last year, but there were games he was just a little bit too anonymous, and with two new starters inside, Auburn can't afford for him to be anything less than an impact player this go-round.

(This, of course, assumes that Goggans plays at end rather than tackle, which may not be a safe assumption, particularly if Rocker and Roof decide they need the help inside and can get by with Carter and Henderson at end.)

--Jay G. Tate sums up how mind-meltingly frustrating it must be for Neil Caudle to potentially slip to third-string behind Rollison:

Caudle is in his fourth season at Auburn.

Rollison is in his fourth week.

Ouch, babe. Do spare some sympathy for Caudle this fall: as with Burns, you can't say any longer he didn't have his fair shot, but unlike Burns, his coaches aren't raving about his athletic ability and sounding for all the world like they're planning to squeeze him onto the field come hell or high water. Tough, tough stuff, man.

In other quarterbacking news, Rollison isn't quite as loud on the field as he is on his Facebook page. Oh, and a second pronunciation update: the emphasis is on the second, -RICK syllable rather than the "Ty." We're all all clear on this by now, right? Right?

--Don't expect a ton of insight fro mthe scrimmage today, as 1. it's closed to the media, as always 2. it sounds like Chizik is planning on using it to help fill out his special teams. Thrilling. I somehow doubt Chris Todd's first scrimmage as the starter is really going to have quite so much emphasis on figuring out who the second-string punt coverage gunners will be, but that might be all we find out, is the vibe I'm getting.

--Holy crap, Ben Tate got named to the Maxwell watch list? The Maxwell is kind of the Heisman's evil (or possibly good) twin--goes to the country's best player, straight up. 55 kids got named to the list. I think Tate's primed for a huge season, but I'm not totally convinced with Fannin around he's the best tailback on Auburn's team--but the Maxwell club feels he's one of the best 55 players, at any position, in the entire country? Hey, cool with me. Here's to hoping they know something I don't.

--How much money would you have paid to participate in a game of pool with Bo Jackson and Antonio Coleman?

Paige denied, class of 2009 complete

2009-08-14T15:41:00.000-04:00

Via Rivals and Beaver, Taikwon Paige has been denied eligibility by the NCAA Clearinghouse. He hopes to enroll in January.

With Paige's status squared away, you can close the book on Auburn's class of 2009. A few brief data points:

--Not including the late-arriving Aubrey Phillips, Auburn signed 28 players. Six of those players--Terrance Coleman, Josh Jackson, Izauea Lanier, Reggie Taylor, LaVoyd James, and Paige--failed to qualify. Add in baseball-bound signee Brandon Jacobs, and a full quarter of Auburn's class failed to make it to campus.

--Including "athletes" Demond Washington and Lanier, three of Auburn's five signees in the secondary failed to qualify.

--While this class won't do much to repair Tommy Tuberville's (or Auburn's) reputation for recruiting academic risks, the new staff didn't have any better luck--of the six academic failures, three were originally Tubby recruits and three were late additions by the new staff.

--Although still better than the 2007 class (in which more than a third of Tubby's 30 signees failed to enroll), the 7-to-28 ratio still represents a slight step back from the 2008 class, when 6-of-29 failed to qualify. (Several of those players, like Deron Furr and Raven Gray, didn't hang around for too long. But they did make it campus.)

As for the upshot of Paige's failure to qualify, well, at least it's not a surprise by this stage in the process. But obviously every body Auburn could have gotten its hands on in the secondary was a precious body after the rash of injuries, and Paige had enough experience and an endorsement from Roof to have been more than just a body. It's not the end of the world, but it hurts, and it'll hurt even more if Auburn suffers any more setbacks at corner.

The Works finds an abuse of executive power it can get behind

2009-08-14T14:48:00.005-04:00

If you're going to protest, do it for the right reasons. Via Flickr user "granitepics" and a tip from friend-of-the-blog "Anthony":

This is not an excuse to get political in the comments, mind you, but we can all agree that this would be a better use of PBS than Italian opera broadcasts, right?

Gamblor. So the lines for Week 1 are out*. Auburn? A 12 to 13 point favorite over La. Tech. Which, um, attention Auburn players: please do not believe you are a de facto two touchdowns better than a team that went 8-5 last year and returns almost everyone. Please? Thanks.

The beat goes on. Antonio Coleman was named to the Bednarik Award watch list. This is awesome, not because it's awarded to the nation's best defensive player or because it's Coleman's third watch list mention this pre-season, but because Chuck Bednarik himself was awesome. Of the many tidbits of awesome from his Wikipedia page, this is my favorite:

Bednarik has been an outspoken, even bitter critic of today's NFL players for playing on only one side of the ball, calling them "pussyfoots", noting that they "suck air after five plays" and that they "couldn't tackle my wife Emma".

See? Awesome.

BlAUgosphere. More Todd reaction, this time with Grotus Acorn weighing in in his usual style:

In that first moment of incredulity, I was tempted to write something snide and/or panicky. Sure would have been easy. But the fact of the matter is that Franklin heavily favored Todd and has since high school, Mike Leach at one point named him heir to the Red Raider stat sheet, Tuberville let him split reps with our then-heir-apparent, and now Malzahn is also buying in. Franklin, I could dismiss as a Svengali. Tuberville, I could believe he just didn't have his head in the game. Leach, I could contend that he made that decision prior to Todd's shoulder injury. But when Malzahn names Todd the starter after only seeing him in summer ball... there's just got to be something there. Maybe, just maybe, I don't know as much as Malzahn, Leach, and Franklin put together.

Word. There's lots more there, on a potential Burns-vs.-Fannin duel of mismanagement, on Todd's resilience, on what the choice of Todd means for Malzahn's professed love for "smash-mouth" football. I recommend it.

Elsewhere, PPL adds some more pro-Todd thoughts.

Those who cannot remember the past? Blutarsky is less than stunned by the choice of Todd, since his chosen theme for Auburn '09 is that it's essentially a repeat of '08. To wit:

Same noodle-arm starting quarterback, same offensive philosophy, head coach with same defensive-minded background. As far as I can tell, the biggest change on the Plains is that Jimmy Sexton isn’t in the picture anymore.

While he's mentioned it before, he forgot to add here "same reassurances from head coach he won't interfere in the operation of newfangled offense." I'm not going to sit here and say that the parallels aren't enough to make me at least the teensiest bit worried.

But today seems like a strange day to bring them up, since the overall handling of the quarterback situation is the clearest sign we've had yet how much difference there is between last year's offensive brain trust and this year's. Yes, both coordinators settled on Todd as their man, but last year that didn't take place until the second game of the season, only took place then because of an injury to Burns, and was met by both the participants and the team with confusion and distrust throughout the process. This year? We've got a defined starter a full three weeks before the start of the season and both the participants and the team are openly discussing how much more unified the team is over the issue than they were last year.

In short: yesterday's news makes this year's Auburn team less like the Franklin-piloted train wreck, not more.

Better late than never. I'm very, very slowly catching up with the avalanche of stuff in my Google reader after returning from the sojourn. Here's a few choice bits you should take a look at if you haven't already:

--Ron Franklin appears set to retire at the end of this season, and if that's the case, and he goes out calling anonymous afternoon ABC telecasts ... well, that's just a crying shame.

--The New York Times placed Auburn at No. 46 on the Quad's preview countdown. Prediction: 7-5. Sounds about right to me, though the contention that "if (Barrett) Trotter does make a full recovery he’ll certainly battle for snaps" was a little unusual. (Not to say that it's not a contention I'm willing to overlook after the kind shout-out.)

--Kyle King argues the SEC should scrap their Outback Bowl allegiance to return to the Gator Bowl. Kyle has plenty of great reasons to back up his argument, but I feel like all you really need to know is that one game is called the Gator Bowl like a bowl ought to be called and the other is named for an overpriced fake Australian chain restaurant.

--Rocky Top Talk previews Auburn, and just as the Vols represent a massive opportunity for Chizik to show how much his team has improved since last year, so RTT says Auburn represents the same for Lane Kiffin.

Krootin'. I feel fairly certain this is the kind of thing that's been hidden behind the paywall in the past, but for the time being, AuburnUndercover's "Megaboard" is free and is worth a perusal. Except for the offensive line section. Don't look at that.

Well, yes, I have to agree with you on that. Fun with Photoshop from Arkansas Expats:

They're busy ranking which SEC coaches they'd most like to go on a road trip with, and the Chiznick comes in ninth, since he doesn't have much of a reputation yet for being a barrel of laughs. Eh, no complaints: judging from his press conferences, even I can't say he seems like the sort of guy I'd want to spend 10 hours in a car with. At least he ranked ahead of Kiffin, Saban, and Meyer, since those guys have acquired reputations for being Class A jerks.

Enjoy your weekend.

*I didn't find this link myself, but I've lost where I found it for the hat tip. Oh well.

Camp report 8/14: critical condition?

2009-08-14T14:35:00.000-04:00

Visual evidence from Jay G. Tate of how badly things have continued to go for Auburn on the injury front:

That's the one-and-only Eltoro "The Toro" Freeman at morning practice, sporting the cast we'd heard he was wearing yesterday. Although Freeman (according to Tate) worked with the LBs during drills in an orange non-contact jersey and Harris Gaston made a return to the land of the living, that doesn't change the fact that Ted Roof had three scholarship linebackers to work with in yesterday's practice.

Let's go over that again: Three. 3. Tres. Trois. One fewer than four. Scholarship linebackers. At an Auburn football practice.

As for that other area of deepest depth concern, the offensive line ...

Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes has an entire offensive line’s worth of injured players.

Andre Harris, Vance Smith, Darrell Roseman (sling on right arm), A.J. Greene and Bart Eddins all were inactive at Thursday’s practice.

Aside from his first-team group, Grimes had just two scholarship linemen (John Sullen and Jared Cooper) working with him.

I suppose things could be worse--the starters have thus far come through unscathed KNOCK ON A PIECE OF WOOD THE SIZE OF YOUR TELEVISION--but no, when you have seven scholarship offensive linemen to work with and one of them is a true freshman the entire world expects to redshirt, that's a bit of an issue.

What's been frustrating about Auburn's rash of camp injuries--even if I suspect that many of them would be the kind the players would be asked to play through if this was midseason, or if Auburn had enough depth to withstand a potential long-term aggravation of an existing injury somewhere--is that for every step Auburn seems to take forward in terms of depth, there seem to be two backward. Zac Etheridge seems to be over his spring shoulder issue? Too bad, Mike McNeil's not going to be ready and Bell and Hood are both dinged up. (Though Bell did return today.) Nick Fairley is as ready-to-contribute as advertised? That'd be great if Mike Blanc wasn't hurt and Zach Clayton and Derrick Lykes didn't both miss this morning's practice. Et cetera.

The bottom line: the longer these issues drag on, the more and more likely it becomes that at some point this year Auburn puts someone on the field somewhere that just doesn't deserve to be out there, someone that costs the Tigers a game. If you listened to my Internet radio appearance* you know I've pegged Auburn at 7-5, but I added with characteristic orange-and-blue homerism that I thought a surprise 8-5 year was more likely than 6-6. Seeing the brutal reality of how close we are to lining up walk-ons on the line, at linebacker, at safety, etc ... yeah, I'm not sure that's the case.

There are two silver linings: 1. No season-enders as of yet, hooray hooray 2. Assuming Freeman's and Blanc's injuries aren't enough to hold them out of the opener, the projected starting lineup is, somehow, still intact with the exception of McNeil. Glory be.

But at this rate, of course, how long is that going to last? Other developments from yesterday's and this morning's practices:

--It is, as expected, Caudle vs. Rollison for the back-up QB spot. Malzahn said not to read too much into Rollison's taking the greater share of reps since the coaches "have information" on Caudle already, but I still don't think I'd be too excited about my prospects if I was Caudle.

--Dee Ford is back from injury detail and is working with the linebackers because there are no linebackers. Not a surprise: with Coleman, Goggans, Carter, and Cam Henderson all still healthy--I think--defensive end is the rare position that's still relatively solid.

--Also not surprising: Walt McFadden saying the team was divided by quarterbacking loyalties last season and that the early decision this year will help prevent that sort of problem this year. At least until Todd throws an interception and puts the defense back on the field after a 23-second layoff.

--Punt return candidates during morning practice: Anthony Gulley, M. Billings, Q. Carr, M. Fannin. A little surprised to see Billings and Carr there, since I've never thought of either one as particularly fast or elusive, two qualities you'd expect in a punt returner. Was Demond Washington too busy learning cornerback to participate?

--Uh, wow:

Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said yesterday was a difficult day and he almost seemed to get emotional when talking about Caudle and Kodi Burns. He said he was "blessed" to be able to work with quarterbacks of such character, and they were the type of young men you'd love for your daughters to marry. He said Burns' response to yesterday's news was among the positive things he had ever experienced in coaching.

Emphasis added because I think that's a first. And while it seems like this might be just one of those little personal details, I'd wager that if Malzahn really has this kind of respect for Burns, it becomes much more likely he's going to go the extra mile to get Burns involved somehow.

--And lastly, I'm sure you noticed who stopped by practice yesterday and today:

Just a random thought: does Herschel Walker do this at Georgia? Does Barry Sanders at Oklahoma St.? Marshall Faulk at San Diego St.? Ron Dayne at Wisconsin? Maybe they do, for all I know. But I doubt it.

*If you're interested, I'm back on today to discuss my full name and square off with Will in a battle of wits of a sort. No football content, but it's only 10 minutes long and potentially entertaining ... so, yeah, just FYI.

You will never, ever guess who took a call from Tony Barnhart in the dead middle of the night

2009-08-14T11:10:00.002-04:00

Tony Franklin! Apparently, he had something to say about Chris Todd and his time at Auburn! I know, I'm as shocked as you are!

Todd 2: the Toddening green-lit

2009-08-14T10:41:00.000-04:00

So I just got home after an evening at a friend's house, it's just before 1 a.m., and I decide to double-check on how practice went just before I go to bed ...

and, you know, holy crap, man. Ho. Ly. Crap. Chris Todd. With Burns at receiver. And Caudle at ... well, Caudle at nothing.

One more time: this is why they pay me the nonexistent bucks. More first thing tomorrow, after I say my good-night prayers for Chris Todd's shoulder.

A.M. UPDATE:

I woke up, and it was all still very, very real, so forward we go. Full reports available by Bitter, Brietzke, Goldberg, Tate, and Woodbery. Thoughts:

--I've said many times that whatever quarterbacking decision this coaching staff made, I'd have faith it was the best one to make, and that's still the case this morning. Kodi Burns and Neil Caudle didn't just "have their shot"--they had all spring, all summer, and nine more practices to make the case they were better than Chris Todd. They didn't make it. Todd didn't throw a single pass in the spring, and they still didn't make it.

Which means that's the end of that little discussion, right? Unlike last season, when by week 3 or 4 we had enough evidence to convict Todd '08 of not being physically up to the task, right now any Auburn fan who would claim to know better than Gus Malzahn who should be the quarterback is not living in the land of the rational.

--Remember also: it's not unprecedented for Malzahn to take a senior quarterback who's never amounted to anything and turn him into a stud overnight. That's precisely what he did last season with Tulsa's David Johnson, who went from having attempted 22 passes the previous two seasons combined to one of the most prolific quarterbacks in the country. Certainly, Johnson had a couple of advantages on Todd in having had a year in the system and a little more mobility (he averaged between 6 and 7 carries a game, probably about 3 or 4 more than we'll want Todd to have), but Todd also has more total game experience than Johnson and was a more highly-touted recruit. So, you know, if he's healthy, no reason he can't succeed and succeed in grand fashion.

--If he's healthy. If he's healthy. If he's healthy. This is your new No. 1 story for fall camp: How's the shoulder? How's the shoulder? How's the shoulder?

--Seriously, how much better a plan is this one than last year's? After just this many practices I'm not sure if Chizik and Co. were really absolutely certain Todd was going to be the best choice, but they could do one of two things:

1. Pick whoever they had the best feeling about and let him get both the lion's share of reps and the support of the team in the effort to have at least one quarterback who'll be able to do the job.

2. Waffle for wait one guy to step up and claim the job, continue to split the reps evenly, and let the team stay in their various camps about who ought to be the starter ... in which case, as we learned last season, you end up with zero quarterbacks who are able to do the job.

It's no wonder that Burns sounds happier as a receiver under this staff than he did as a co-starter at QB under the previous regime.

--We'll get back to Burns in a moment, but there's plenty of Burns talk out there despite the fact that this decision is a substantially more crushing blow for Neil Caudle. Remember, Caudle arrived at Auburn with oodles of recruiting hype and the expectation of being the next Good Brandon. Then for three years it was nothing but injuries and third-string duty until this season, his big chance to impress a brand new staff with a brand new slate and finally, finally earn his way onto the field.

Now? With all the talk about reps, it sure sounds like Chizik wants to have Rollison groomed for the back-up role and good-to-go as soon as possible. Which would make Caudle third string. Again. And unlike Burns, there's no other position for him to play, no other way for him to get onto the field, no other way to stay involved. Unless Todd suffers an injury setback between now and, say, Week 3, Caudle's chances of ever starting a game at Auburn are effectively finished.

So, yeah, no wonder he didn't speak to the press. We wouldn't have if we were in his shoes. If you don't feel for him, your robot heart is due for a transplant.

--As for Burns, I'll be honest with you: I'd have expected him to transfer. He's always played the Good Soldier, but you could also tell he's a proud kid with big dreams. Entering this fall he seemed to have two ways to reach those dreams: 1. win the Auburn job 2. transfer and hope to make a big impression wherever he landed.

I've always had a ton of respect for the way Burns has handled his coaches' juggling act, but to swallow that pride and accept the loss of those dreams and ask to go in front of the team and all-but-order them to throw their support behind Todd ... what can you say? That's not just handling things with grace, that's not just being the Good Soldier, that's seizing things by the throat and being a Good General. I hate hate hate the cult of "leadership" in college football, something that usually amounts to "I yell at my teammates on the field, or I'm a quarterback," but this, this is genuine capital-L Leadership.

And some of you wondered why I was rooting for Kodi to get the job.

--Obviously those are some big words to eat if Burns transfers the next couple of weeks, which I'm not sure we can rule out if the receiving/Wildcat experiment doesn't work out as he's hoping, but there doesn't seem to be much wiggle room in "I'm not going to transfer."

--Besides, I don't think we've heard the last of Burns as an on-field playmaker. The Wildcat seems tailor-made for him--the combination of his elusiveness and an arm the secondary has to respect could produce some serious dividends. And while I doubt Burns has too much of a future at wideout (so much to learn, so little time) it's not that tough to envision him as one of those slithery slot guys who takes a screen and finds a way to make five yards out of it.

--With that said, this also has to be said: as quarterbacks, barring some miraculous comeback, both Caudle and Burns have finally, officially, landed in the "bust" file. It's not fun to call them that, but that's what they are. Both of them started fall practice with what must have been a huge head start on Todd, and they both lost that head start in just nine practices. To Chris Todd. Who, with all due respect, has the mobility of the rusted-out car on blocks in your Uncle Bobby's front yard and was last seen throwing the kinds of passes the Wounded Ducks Association of America publicly asked to be disassociated from, lest their reputations be harmed. Which tells me: Neil Caudle and Kodi Burns really just weren't/aren't particularly good quarterbacks.

Making QB yet another position where Tubby handed his successor a big fat cupboard full of nothing (what happens if Franklin doesn't bring Todd aboard?), and showing yet again that for all of Tubby's rampant successes in finding underrated gems in the recruiting process, he could also sign overhyped disappointments-in-waiting with the best of them.

--Responses worth checking out from the blAUgosphere: PPL has an awesome photoshop, Auburntron goes enjoyably all-caps on us, and while I can't quite get behind JRS's outrage at Lifetime of Defeats--that's, you know, kind of his bag rather than mine--I'll admit that this made me LOL:

It's the reference to "nerds" that makes it.

--Auburn has a starting quarterback. No more trying to glean from 10 minutes of open practice who had the better day, no more parsing Chizik's expert doublespeak to see if anyone has an edge, no more breathless press updates reporting that nothing has changed. The team is moving forward, we're moving forward. That alone is reason enough to be happy, isn't it?

2009 Cheese Puff Previews: Arkansas

2009-08-13T17:23:00.000-04:00

Arkansas was 6th best in SEC play last year (+.1 ypg). Arkansas (-9) almost made my Turnovers=Turnaround article and qualifies for my yards-per-points article on both offense and defense. They were #3 in the FBS in starts lost to injury (47). Their 18 returning starters are the most in the SEC.

In other words: if not for the turnovers, injuries, and bad luck in the red zone, the Hogs would have been in the top third of the SEC last year, and now they've got nearly everyone back and anothery ear in Petrino's system.

That's not to say Auburn doesn't have a few reasons to think they can win this game. Underdogs and road teams have had a freaking ton of success in this series, and if we know Auburn's going to be road team, we can be just about as certain they're going to be an underdog, too. While Arkansas's defense returns a ton of guys, most of those guys were terrible last season; if the Spread Eagle 2.0 takes off the way we're hoping, Auburn could put some serious points up, even at their place. And while virtually everything we've read over the past year regarding Ryan Mallett has been positive, he still hasn't, you know, played an actual game. The last time he did--take it from a guy who's watched more than his fair share of Michigan games over the past few years--he was a total train wreck. Yeah, he was a true freshman at that point, but aside from being able to throw the ball through a wall it's not like he showed off too many glimmers of his alleged potential, either.

That said: I think Steele is pretty much on the mark. Unless Mallett is a total bust (and he couldn't be better suited, physically, to a Petrino offense), the Hogs are going to be stout, a top 25-caliber team and a shoulda-been legit SEC West contender if their schedule wasn't such a bear. (Their four road games: LSU, Florida, Alabama, Ole Miss. Holy crap.)

I think that if the injury bug spares us, Auburn's going to be capable of upsetting a stout, top-25 caliber, shoulda-been legit (or just legit) SEC West contender. But on the road, with their offensive overhaul having a year's head start on ours, and Petrino unfortunately still a hell of a coach as well as a reptile, I'm guessing we'll have to look elsewhere for said upset. But hey, there's always hope: I bet a lot of Hog fans would have said the same thing about Auburn at this time last year.

Camp report, 8/12

2009-08-13T11:56:00.000-04:00

You could make a "what a surprise, Trooper Taylor's mouth is open" kind of joke here if you didn't know that whatever was coming out of his mouth was freaking hysterical, unless it was freaking insightful. His mouth should be open as often as possible. (Oh, photo by fellow DHS alum Cliff Williams at the OA-News.)

Have reports of wideoutpocalypse been premature? So Tuesday I was bemoaning the fact that our apparent top four wide receivers (Terrell Zachery, Darvin Adams, Emory Blake, Deangelo Benton) would have combined for a grand total of five catches last year. So maybe Trooper Taylor's a JCCW reader, because he spent yesterday praising his gaggle of freshman receivers to highest heaven. Examples: one two three four. It's worth noting that Taylor's not just talking about Benton and Blake, either: Travante Stallworth ("he can do so many things") and Anthony Gulley ("going to be a big-time player in this offense")(!) both came in for their fair share of praise as well.

Your nutshell quote from Taylor comes courtesy Andy Bitter:

"They got a short window to demonstrate what they can do and they took it to heart," he said. "I get in the room sometimes and say, ‘Guys, you older guys need to watch. Look what this young guy just did – exactly what I told him to do.’ That means I can trust him. It means I can put him out there. So I was really impressed with them yesterday. ... It will be hard to redshirt those freshmen. It really will. We may even look at redshirting some of the older guys that haven’t redshirted yet and giving them another year. It’s been a surprise of surprises that they’re as far as they are, especially with our terminology and all that."

As for who that redshirt quote might apply to, take it away, Luke Brietzke:

Derek Winter and Darvin Adams are the only two receivers who haven't taken a redshirt and Taylor has praised Adams all fall and spring. Wonder who Taylor could be talking about...

Yeah, me too. And hey, what about Quindarius Carr?

“The thing that keeps Q on the field is that he can play every position,” Taylor said.

It's not possible to damn any harder with fainter praise than that, is it?

Which is why I'm not sure if Taylor is honestly that excited about Gulley and Stallworth and Montana walk-on Jay Wisner (who you'll recall got his media tongue-bath earlier in the week). I'm sure Stallworth and Gulley have a ton of potential and that Wisner is busting his ass out there ... but Taylor's not an idiot. In Carr's case in particular, and maybe Winter's, is their experience something he can afford to just flat ignore? The guess here is that he wants more out of Carr and Winter, knows he can get it, and is actively attempting to piss them off enough that they prove him wrong. When Taylor says no-star freshman Gulley is "a big-time player" and that Carr's best attribute is that, well, he knows the playbook, he's more than aware of how Carr should take that.

So I'm glad Stallworth and Gulley are doing well, glad Taylor's happy with them, glad that maybe there's a little more depth here than we might have thought otherwise. But the story here is every bit as much about how unhappy Taylor is with some of his veterans as how happy he is with his newcomers.

More. Two other bits of good news for the wideouts: Taylor made it sound like both Montez Billings and Frenchy Pierre-Louis were on track to rejoin the team by the time the opener rolls around. Billings's addition, as we've been saying ever since he was sieelined in the spring, would be huge. Assuming he does make it back, we can find another unit to lift to the title of "most worrisome." (Which might be the secondary already, actually.)

Oh, and Trott and Lutzenkirchen are getting split out occasionally. Taylor says--with his usual style--that they're pretty happy about it.

Status quo. Jay G. Tate on the quarterback race:

--Caudle said he thinks he's done enough to start.

-- Kodi Burns seemed even-keeled as usual; said he thinks he's done enough to start.

-- Chris Todd seemed more jovial than usual; said he thinks he's done enough to start.

That's pretty much all the news we got on that front yesterday. Well, other than that Caudle apparently didn't have much success in the Tuesday scrimmage. But of course since we have no way of knowing how much that mattered, it's not like that even qualifies as being particularly important. Chizik and Malzahn were still their usual "any day now!" selves in front of the press. There's just nothing to see here just yet, other than that another day of work exclusively with the second team would seem to indicate that Rollison really is pretty much out of the running to start the opener. Oh, and one other thing ...

WildKodi? According to Brietzke, Blake told reporters that Burns took a lot of Wildcat snaps in yesterday's practice. I figure there's two ways to look at this:

1. Burns is not in line to earn the starting QB job and Malzahn sees the Wildcat as good way to get him on the field

2. Burns is in line to earn the starting QB job and Malzahn sees his being able to run the Wildcat as an opportunity to switch into that formation mid-series wihout losing any of his offense's precious tempo

Now, which of those two seems more likely to you? It's No. 1, isn't it? It's still way, way too early to rule Burns out, of course, but as has been the case for several months, what little indicators we have aren't trending in his direction.

Safety chatter. First, the bad news: D'Antoine Hood's injury is apparently a high-ankle sprain. I know Tommie Thigpen sounded optimistic about a quick return, but if that's an accurate diagnosis, Hod could struggle for a while. High-ankle sprains are the sort of injury that always seem to have the word "nagging" attached to them.

The good news: Thigpen said Daren Bates blew up in the scrimmage and could earn playing time if he maintains that level of intensity. For a guy Auburn grabbed away at the last minute from a Sun Belt team last spring, that's beyond encouraging. It's not going to be a good sign if he plays in 2009--actually, it'll kind of be a terrible sign--but that'll be quite the recruiting coup if Bates is in the mix in any way this season or becomes starter-quality down the road.

Unfortunately, there's more bad news: Thigpen said Mike McNeil was "starting to run now." Does a guy who's "starting to run" just three weeks before the season opener sound like he's going to be ready by then? Not to me. Mike Slade is your most likely starting free safety until further notice.

Defensive tackles. Yep, depth is officially a concern here too, with Mike Blanc watching Nick Fairley run with the ones while he nurses his injury and Michael Goggans--who never struck me as a likely candidate to move inside--now getting occasional work with the DT's. Still, assuming Blanc gets healthy, some combination of him, Zach Clayton (who's qualified for the NCAA discus championships the last two years ... did we know that?) and Fairley will give us a second string, which is more than we can say for the offensive line, the linebackers, the secondary, etc.

Saturn V. Everything you could possibly be interested in hearing Clinton Durst say is covered by Bitter here. To sum: Auburn's using the three-man personal punt protection scheme I'm not sure I like, he's experimenting with a one-step approach he tentatively likes, Boulware and Chizik are much more aggressive in their coaching than the previous regime, no he's not on scholarship yet but no he's not saying anything about it on the record even if you pay him. He also mentioned a "tweak" to his knee, which, Bleah, but otherwise, onwards and upwards here.

Backfield. More of the same here, pretty much: we're all hoping Mario Fannin gets used the way he should be, Onterio McCalebb is really fast (and can drop some serious quotes), and poor forgotten Eric Smith is "reliable" and potentially a Chizik favorite. We're probably just going to see these themes repeated until Sept. 5, when we really find out how the touches are going to be spread around.

One more thing. It's TYrick Rollison, not TyREEK. First-syllable emphasis, short "i" sound. Chances Verne Lundquist gets this right: zero.

The Works, Wearers of the A-style

2009-08-12T15:25:00.000-04:00

Four weeks is a long time to go without linking up any of the always fine work produced by the Auburn blAUgosphere, so we've got quite a backlog I'm attempting to remedy in this post, starting with the welcome return of regular content from Jeremy, J.M., and TWER. Like this scan (amongst others) from the 1919 Glomerata:

Dude, "Wearers of the A"? How cool is that? It's pluralized and non-gender-specific and kind of even more Auburn-specific than even "Tigers." If Kyle can get away with the pretension of calling Georgia the "Classic City Canines," I think I can get away with working Wearers of the A in for variety's sake every now and then, right? (Another awesome Glomerata scan from the 1960s available here.)

Rebuttal. Just before leaving on my recent sojourn I wrote a post explaining why I thought burning Tyrik Rollison's redshirt wouldn't be the disaster burning Kodi Burns's two years ago was. And though it's a pretty rare occasion when Grotus' Acorn and I don't see eye-to-eye, this was one of those occasions:

It's probably true that Tyrik Rollison fresh out of highschool is a more polished QB than was Kodi Burns right out of highschool. Sure, 73% completion rate is nothing to sneeze at, and a mobile quarterback (I think) has to lean on his accuracy. But in no way does that mean that Rollison can afford to just give up a redshirt year of learning. Decision-making and command of the offense are the QB's first and most important job - even before throwing the ball - and Auburn has failed in great part due to lack of not physical talent, but this sort of leadership. Sacrificing leadership for raw talent is exactly the same mistake we made in 2007 with Kodi vs. Brandon. Most of the time, the defense would be in good coverage of the handful of pass plays Kodi could execute, or he would not find his open man and would just run. If he ever displayed his inaccuracy, it was on the rare occasion that he had the opportunity to pass and actually took it. He wasn't in true command of the offense, and that - not his inaccuracy - hamstrung him. It doesn't matter if Rollison can throw a football through a moving moon pie from eighty yards away if he throws the ball to the wrong receiver, if he can only run two plays, or if he takes off downfield because he can't find the open man.

This is an excellent point, and Grotus has several more to make, including a refutation of my claim that Auburn is in "win now" mode. For the record, Rollison's high school coach agrees that a redshirt is the best course for him:

"I'd love to see him redshirt and then see how good he could get where he could really understand the system," Owens said. "If he was rushed into it I think he could handle it, yes, but if he redshirted, I think he would understand it better and get adjusted to college life."

Now, so we're clear, I've always maintained that the optimum result from Rollison's first season on the Plains is that he sits it out. The question is: What do we do if Starter A can't cut it and Rollison appears to be the next-best option? Grotus is right that "We are Auburn, and we will always be Auburn," but even if Auburn can rebound from another 5-7 losing season, it'll be much easier from a lot of standpoints to rebound from a 7-5 bowl-bound season. If playing Rollison could conceivably make Auburn more likely to have the latter record than the former, wouldn't it be worth sacrificing that extra season? Maybe redshirt freshman Rollison is a little better and has that extra year of eligibility than true sophomore Rollison, but I don't he's so much better that it's worth making a decision that doesn't give Auburn their best chance to win this season.

Co-sign. Section 13 is counting down his favorite Auburn players of all-time, and it's nice to see someone else who remembers one of the biggest, most valuable weapons of the early Bowden years:

#29. Terry Daniel

Some would say it's wrong to put a punter on here, but Daniel was different. By hangtime and distance he may be the greatest punter in Auburn history. He was an All-American in 1993 when he led the nation in punting average with 46.9 yards per kick. That's possibly the best average in Auburn history, and is definitely the best average since records were kept in 1960.

If you think it was coincidence that Auburn won 20 straight games at the same time they just happened to have arguably the best punter in school history ... well, you probably just haven't thought about it, but you get the point: Daniels was as big a part of those teams as Frank Sanders, Brian Robinson, James Bostic, etc.

And hey, speaking of Bostic, look what else Section 13 found:

Delightful.

Plug of a shameless nature. I spent a good chunk of last week in B'ham and had just long enough to pay a visit to the "studio" where friends-of-the-blog Reed and Will record their daily Internet radio show, Oh Brother. On yesterday's show I fired off a series of predictions on Auburn, Alabama, and the SEC season; it lasts about 10 minutes or so and you can listen to that here. I'll be back on to battle Will in their weekly guest contest tomorrow and around to answer questions on Saturday's show, so be sure to check back.

I did make one minor error, claiming that the Tide will be hosting both LSU and Ole Miss when they have to travel to Oxford and host Arkansas instead. Still, that doesn't change the fact I'm giving the Tide the slightest of edges in the West division race ... right now. I reserve the right to change my mind on his one. It's such a toss-up that I feel Blutarsky's pain when he tries to decide between the three consensus candidates using ye olde pros and cons list and finally decides ...

That didn’t help much at all.

We'll come back to this later as the season approaches, but right now, I can't remember a divisional race that looked this close in the preseason.

Rapid-fire. Many of these are seriously old cheese by now, but I enjoyed them, so I'm passing them on: The Auburner explores the price Saban paid for his Iron Bowl villainy ... PPL previews Auburn's season in haiku, always a welcome format in blogworld ... maybe the SEC should have gone with the SEC Network over the ESPN mega-deal after all, particularly since we're talking about a contract lasting 15 freaking years ... Lifetime of Defeats digs up some always-welcome Bo shots ... Jay Coulter asks "What if Chizik Never Worked in Ames?", and while I think it takes some serious orange-and-blue blinders to pretend Chizik's awful--no two ways about it--tenure at ISU shouldn't count against him, it's true that it's easy to forget how impressive his list of accomplishments leading up to his time in Ames really are ... Pat White didn't trust Nick Saban, a pretty shrewd move if you ask Alonzo Lawrence (via) ... "College Football Team X is like Thing Y" posts have been done to death (I should know), but it's not surprising that Black Heart Gold Pants can still pull it off ... and lastly, the excellent "10 Questions" series at the AUfficial site continues with Jay Boulware, Jeff Grimes, and Phillip Lolley.

Yet more news of an assorted nature

2009-08-12T12:36:00.000-04:00

There's actually more going on in Auburnland than just fall camp, even if fall camp is, well, fall camp. A quick rundown:

Move along, nothing to see here. When Brandon Jacobs never bothered to even explain his absence from Auburn's camp the handwriting was on the wall--in, like, WAR!-headline letters--and sure enough, he's officially off to baseball. Baseball America has your details. Money graf from Bitter:

Jim Callis reported today that Jacobs, a 10th-round pick by the Boston Red Sox, agreed to terms for a $750,000 signing bonus. All that's pending is the physical. It's the largest bonus for a player taken after the eighth round so far this year.

Seeing as how the odds of Jacobs ever emerging from the running back scrum at Auburn to sign for half that in the NFL would have been perilously thin, there's not any logical way to argue he didn't make the right decision. Best of luck, Mr. Jacobs.

Further Profiles in Courage. There's still time for this to change, and the link itself has been gathering mold for weeks, but via WRAS, the Salt Lake-based Deseret News reported that Utah St. has been lined up as Auburn's fourth ~~punching bag~~ for the '11 schedule. Meaning that in addition to playing at Clemson, Auburn will face ... Utah St., Arkansas St., and UT-Chattanooga. Quite the set of nonconference home draws, huh? And for heaven's sake, if we're this insistent on a cupcake feast, can't we at least play UAB or South Alabama and keep the money a little closer to home than freaking Logan, Utah? Cripes.

Heart attack and die from Not Surprise. Yes, one of the SEC's first-team defensive ends did, in fact, make the 30-deep list of preseason finalists for the national Best Defensive End award. Now, when Coleman makes the Hendricks finalist cut in November, that'll be something. (Actually, of course, it's something now, but don't tell Antonio that.)

Thanks for the reminder, I guess. Kevin Scarbinsky helpfully catches us up with former Auburn signee DeRon Furr, who you'll recall enrolled early to compete at quarterback in spring '08, was told by Tony Franklin in no uncertain terms he had no future at QB, and was drilling in the secondary on the opening day of last year's fall camp when he was at the center of a fight that broke out. Furr transferred out the next day and is now--hurray--poised to become a starting safety at Memphis. In case you were wondering: yes, we could use a starting safety at Memphis in Auburn. Yes.

This is not to lay the blame for the Furr episode entirely at Tubby's feet, not when by most (whispered) accounts Furr was less than a perfect teammate in his brief Auburn tenure and it was hardly Tubby's idea for things to devolve into fisticuffs. Still, though, Furr was an athletic, talented prospect with his whole career in front of him, and Auburn lost him on Tubby's watch. It wasn't Tubby or his staff's biggest failure by any means, but it was a failure nonetheless, and like many of them it's one Auburn's current staff is still paying for.

Obligatory "other sports?" joke goes here. News from the basketball front this week as incoming Indiana transfer Brandon McGee is now outgoing Auburn transfer Brandon McGee and little-used, oft-injured JUCO big man Francis Aihe has been placed on medical scholarship. It's just not a Jeff Lebo offseason without some unexplained roster attrition, right?

And in the first-ever instance of the al.com comment section providing some actual insight, commenter "ilnscsm" has the following to say about the continuous wave of Auburn departures:

Yes, it is hard to play for [Lebo}. I played for him for a couple years. He is very arrogant and still acts like hes an All American at North Carolina. I've respected almost all the coaches I've played for in my career but left Auburn with a bitter taste in my mouth when it came to Lebo. The guy knows basketball inside and out and even had Dean Smith reviewing game film for awhile, but without people skills to connect with his players, I think he will have a hard time obtaining and keeping top notch players it takes to be competitive in this league.

"ilnscsm" goes on to say that the Auburn job is a tough one for various reasons (facilities, lack of fan support, zero recruiting cachet) and that he enjoyed his time at Auburn immensely anyway ... and, yeah, we have to at least acknowledge the possibility that someone decided to claim to be an Auburn basketball player in the al.com comment threads. But given that I can't think of a reason why anyone would go to that kind of effort and that the comment certainly has the ring of authenticity about it, I think we have to take it at face value and assume that, yeah, Lebo probably does rub his share of players the wrong way. It's not the end of the world, but that sort of approach is a lot easier to take when the team is winning, no?

Elsewhere, Lebo also picked up a recent commitment from Georgia forward Heath Houston, who, um, has a Cincinnati offer and is 6-7. That's about all I can tell you.

Obligatory "other other sports?" joke goes in this spot. After years of late-night Olympic viewing and covering the sport first-hand on the high school level, I've developed something of a soft spot for volleyball, and so it's been a legitimate disappointment for me that Auburn's program has been so gawd-awful for so long. The flip side is this: I'm legitimately excited that there seem to be some bona fide reasons for optimism surrounding the team under second-year coach Wade Benson. Under this newfangled SEC TV contract I might even be able to watch the Auburn volleyballers on television some day: it'll be nice if they'll actually be competitive if and when that happens.

Camp report, 9/12

2009-08-12T10:52:00.000-04:00

It's not much of a shock that a closed-door scrimmage yielded less information than we Auburn fans would like to receive, but ... uh ... yeah, I guess I was hoping for more than what we've got this morning. But there's a reason for that, as Andy Bitter explains:

These closed scrimmages are an absolute nightmare for us reporters. We don't get to see any action, don't get any stats and have to trust second-hand information from players who generally give about 20 different accounts of what happened on the field. For instance, we heard from three different players that Onterio McCalebb scored on a 5-yard run, a 30-yard run or a 40-yard run. Now, there's a pretty big difference in those numbers. So take any information coming out of this with a grain of salt.

If closing practice is important to the Chiznick--and boy howdy it appears to be--then fine, cool, whatever, I can live with that. I don't know how a television really works, but that doesn't keep me from watching that. Still, it makes a post like this one much more an exercise in guesswork than it would be otherwise.

On to what (we think) we know about the scrimmage:

Say wha? In the Great Quarterback Race of '09, Auburn's quarterback reps got distributed in seriously peculiar fashion. Charles Goldberg:

Five quarterbacks took turns with freshmen Tyrik Rollison and Clint Moseley taking more snaps than veterans Kodi Burns, Neil Caudle and Chris Todd. Burns and Todd were in for only two series each.

Giving the freshmen more work than the veterans seems like a great idea for furthering the younguns' development, but if the goal was attempting to evaluate which of the three vets ought to be the team's starting quarterback ... well, "counterproductive" is the word that comes to mind. Malzahn and Chizik have said over and over again that they don't want to drag out the quarterback battle, that they're anxious to start winnowing the field, that decisions will have to be made sooner rather than later. So why give themselves less information with which to make that decision?

So, yeah, I have to wonder if Evan Woodbery is on to something when he asks if Malzahn already has a starter in mind, particularly when the noises coming from the QBs themselves ...

"A week doesn't sound like a lot of time, but as much as we're in here and as much as we're out here practicing and stuff, I think he's got a good grasp of how he'll do things," Todd said.

... sound like they might expect Malzahn to have a decision stashed up his sleeve, too. (Then again, the very next sentence in this Todd quote is "I don't know. He might have a good grasp on it, he might not have a good one at all," so maybe we shouldn't get carried away.) In any case, we have to give some credit to Mad Dr. Gustav here, don't we? When even the players don't have any clue what he's thinking, how lost are the media and fans going to be? Secrecy and inscrutability are the order of the day, and I'd say Malzahn's achieved those goals with flying colors. Now if he'll be just as good at things like point-scoring, we'll be set.

Before we move on, one other note has to be made: with Rollison working with the other newcomers while Burns, Caudle, and Todd worked with the starters, we do have to assume that Rollison is (as expected) running fourth in the pecking order, right?

Yay. Jay Tate:

Someone here mentioned earlier that D'Antoine Hood, recently shifted from cornerback to safety, is out with an ankle injury. That has not been confirmed (or denied), but Gene Chizik said Hood did not participate tonight. Draw your own conclusion.

So who gets moved to safety next? Derek Winter? Gabe McKenzie? Antoine Carter? He's light on his feet.

Speaking of the secondary, I suppose it's nice to hear that Demond Washington picked off a pass. Obviously one play in a fall scrimmage does not a career make, but I'll take any positive news we can get when we're talking about a JUCO corner that's going to be asked (if the injury list and depth chart stands as currently constructed) to step in as the nickelback from day 1. (That Harry Adams grabbed a pick is encouraging as well, I suppose.)

D-lightful. By a couple of accounts, the starting defense didn't allow a point. As I've stated previously, my operating assumption is that the Malzahn Spread Eagle will put up its share of points, but make things more difficult for the defense when it runs into its inevitable hiccups ... meaning I worry a bit more about the D than I do the O, as insane as I know that sounds. So if the former stays out in front of the latter, that's nothing but good news where I'm concerned.

Then again, Ted Roof was upset about something and Antonio Coleman called it a "mediocre performance," so maybe I'm reading a little too much into it.

Done and dusted. I agree with Bitter regarding Ben Tate's lone carry in the scrimmage: the starting tailback job is decided. The immediate follow-up question, is, of course, whether Mario Fannin will really get the touches he deserves playing at H-back. We won't find out until Sept. 5, but if the answer is "No" and Tate doesn't set the world on fire, we'll have to ask a second question wondering whether anointing Tate as the clear No. 1 was the best allocation of our backfield resources. Here's to hoping it never comes to that.

Well, he's consistent. Kodi Burns's self-evaluation of his scrimmage performance sounded pretty well like all the rest of his self-evaluations since Chizik took over:

"My day was pretty solid. I didn't get that many reps. We were rotating five guys. The young guys got a lot more reps than the older guys. At the same time, if I had to evaluate myself? I did a pretty solid job."

Burns hasn't really made any secret of the fact he feels he ought to be the starter, and while it would be more of an issue if our potential quarterback didn't feel that way, Kodi's wealth of public self-confidence does make me wonder if a) he's compensating for a private lack of same b) he's showing off more pride than he's going to be able to swallow if someone else is named the starter.

This is far from a major dilemma--or even a dilemma at all at this point--but it bears keeping an eye on, I think, and at the very least I'd be curious to know what the other QBs thought about it.

Loose lips sink ships. Seriously, read over Gene Chizik's quotes from last night and see if you can learn anything from them. Check this beauty out:

"There were a good handful of explosive plays on offense that were good to see from the offensive perspective and there were a good handful of negative defensive plays that were good to see," said Chizik. "Overall, it is really hard for me to say until I really go see it, as far as who stood out or who did not. But, as far as full-speed tackling, it was about what I expected, there was some good and bad."

That's not playing it close to the vest, that's building a tent out of your vest and living inside it. And as I said before: if that's the way Chizik wants to roll, hey, so be it.

Quarterbacks: the JCCW goes spitballin'

2009-08-11T13:46:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought it was safe to put away the Evil Brandon comparisons ... he's back! TODD 2: THE TODDENING, possibly in ~~theaters~~ Jordan-Hare Stadium, this fall!

At 5:20 this afternoon, Auburn will go behind Jordan-Hare's closed doors for their first full-on scrimmage of the fall. The consensus is universal: if the Auburn quarterback race was "The Bachelor," this is our first rose ceremony. Malzahn's going to keep three (or maybe even two) guys around, and one (or maybe even two) guys are going ~~home~~ to the back of the depth chart.

With Barrett Trotter hurt, Robert Cooper as much involved in the race as Alan Keyes was in the last Presidential election, and Clint Moseley having essentially recused himself to redshirt duty over the weekend (wonderfully self-aware kid, that Moseley--we'll hear from him down the road or I'll eat a bucket of worms), we're down to four remaining candidates. However: neither you nor I nor your buddy whose buddy has a buddy who works in the field house and who swears Chris Todd has been outfitted with a secret half-mechanical/half-gorilla cyborg arm that makes him a cinch to be the starter has any idea who's going to win the job. At the JCCW, the level of surprise associated with any of the four being named the starter for Louisiana Tech would be minimal.

But an Auburn blog can't really just throw up its hands and say "Hell if I know," can it? Races as important as this one have to be handicapped, even if we can expect about as much accuracy as we could handicapping a race of housecats. So keeping in mind that the margin between the top two here is more nonexistent than even razor-thin and that the fourth is probably the best athletic fit for this offense of the bunch, here's how I'll project the depth chart to shake out heading into the Louisiana Tech game.

Starter: Neil Caudle. I've been driving the increasingly light Burns bandwagon for most of the offseason, and in the interest of full disclosure, I feel like Burns has been done so wrong by the various coaches he's toiled under that he's the guy I'm most hoping wins the job.

But I'm always reluctant to go against conventional wisdom, and the conventional wisdom amongst Auburn fans regarding the quarterback race has become: It won't be Burns. And while of course sometimes (even frequently) conventional wisdom can be flat wrong, there's some reason to think that right now, at the end summer, this particular consensus is accurate. Burns entered spring with several inherent advantages over his competition--his athleticism and play-making ability, his comparative wealth of on-field experience, his familiarity with Malzahn--and by the end of the summer those advantages still hadn't earned him anything more than the dead heat with Caudle. It's like a political race: from the end of last season, Burns has gone from being the unquestioned starter to battling like hell for the job; Caudle has gone from afterthought to one prominent expert's pick for the starter's role. However much I'd like to say otherwise, "momentum" was on Caudle's side coming out of spring, and nothing happened to stop it over a summer in which Rollison and Caudle seemed to draw more "buzz" from the whispers trickling out of workouts.

Having always been too erratic (or injured) to see any serious playing time, Caudle has a ton to prove in terms of decision-making and on-field poise, and if he's more mobile than Todd (can you damn with fainter praise than that?) by all accounts he's not in Burns's league athletically. (We've covered at-length why this is important.) But if Malzahn and the team don't have the necessary confidence in Burns to make the easy throws, he won't get the job, and Caudle is the most likely benefactor. With the excitement surrounding Burns seemingly at a low ebb, right now, today, I'd have to make his chances vs. Burns at something like 51-49.

Backup: Kodi Burns. There are still so many reasons to expect Burns to win the job. That he's faced Georgia and Alabama and West Virginia and Ole Miss before. The zone read. An arm that still wields more brute force, hands-down, than Caudle's, an important factor for a coach that wants to go deep as often as Malzahn likes to go deep. The dynamism we saw in that one beautiful glimpse against Clemson lo these many moons ago, which I'm still convinced is hiding in Burns somewhere. And hell, Burns wasn't as bad last year as you may have been led to believe--yes, his interceptions were devastating against Ole Miss, yes, he did nothing in the Iron Bowl, yes, he couldn't get the offense into the end zone when it mattered against Georgia and Arkansas. But, uh, he was playing 1) with one of the SEC's worst receiving corps 2) behind a battered, underweight, and in some cases confused offensive line 3) for offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger. Some slack should be given, particularly when Burns did hit the intermediate stuff against WVU, did hit the deep stuff against Ole Miss, did avoid the crippling interception against Georgia. He just never managed to put it all together.

So who's to say he couldn't do exactly that this season with another year under his belt? For the reasons listed above, the JCCW's crystal ball now shows Caudle coming out ahead by a nose, and if Malzahn goes in that direction (or in one of the other two listed below) you're not going to hear a word of complaint out of me. But I maintain that the Auburn quarterback with the highest ceiling for 2009, after everything, is still Kodi Burns.

Third-string: Chris Todd. First: yes, I do believe it's entirely possible Chris Todd will be Auburn's opening-day starter. You've all read the reports about how Todd's once-formidable arm strength is returning. You all know as well as I do that Todd was once Mike Leach's chosen heir to the Texas Tech quarterbacking throne, a recommendation we shouldn't take lightly. You all know that the competition in front of him is hardly intimidating. If Todd is truly healthy, look out.

But it's still hard for me to see him beating out Caudle or Burns, for several reasons:

1. I doubt he's truly healthy. The Chris Todd arm I saw in person last fall in the LSU game wasn't just a bit off: it was totally, irrevocably shot. I'm not a doctor, but to go from being that unhealthy to 100 percent good-to-go laser-rifledom in the span of one offseason just seems like asking a lot. I'll believe Todd has the zip we've all been promised he once had when I see it.

2. He didn't participate in the spring. This has to be a mark against him in comparison to Burns and Caudle, right?

3. His decision-making wasn't the greatest. Todd was as healthy as we've ever seen him in that first game against UL-Monroe, and he still threw a should-have-been pick straight into the arms of a Warhawk linebacker that Evil Brandon himself would have been proud of. His final appearance last season came against Arkansas, and his last two possessions of the year featured two incompletions, one sack, one 18-yard intentional grounding penalty, and one ghastly interception that was as bad as any I can remember at Auburn.

4. He's a statue. And the offense likes quarterbacks that aren't.

Because of Nos. 2, 3, and 4, it's not enough for Todd to just have the most accurate arm or be the best stereotypical "pocket quarterback" on the roster; he has to have the most substantially accurate arm and be definitively best pocket QB on the roster. It won't be a shock, of course, if it turns out he is and we're all treated to Todd 2: the Toddening. But it's enough for me to think Malzahn will finally settle on someone else.

Who knows: Tyrik Rollison. I'm not going to fully rehash what I've said once, twice already, but to sum up my take on Rollison: freshmen quarterbacks who are as accurate as Rollison was in high school aren't your typical freshmen quarterbacks. Add in the fact that Rollison's blend of accuracy and athleticism fits the Malzahn Spread Eagle more snugly than any his competitors, and you're looking at a kid who won't surprise me at all if he's the first choice off the bench if we need a new quarterback midseason.

That said: I think his chances of earning the job straight out of the gate aren't all that good. Still a freshman, still with tons to learn, still with three guys with far, far more experience than he has in front of him. We'll get to the Tyrik Rollison era eventually (in a perfect world, in 2010 at the earliest), but I'll have to think that if it starts against La. Tech, the first three candidates on this list will have been even worse than imagined. If we were discussing who's going to be the starter against, say, Furman I might have a couple of notches higher up the list ... but asking him to start the first game of his career is asking more than I suspect Chizik and Co. will feel comfortable with.

Any final thoughts? Just watch: now that I'm on the record, Caudle will be demoted to fourth-string by lunchtime tomorrow.

Camp report, 8/11

2009-08-11T11:03:00.000-04:00

Onterrio McCallebb, one of nine remaining players on the roster to not yet be moved to safety.

A variety of links and notes from yesterday's practice, heading into what Gus Malzahn has declared a pivotal scrimmage today:

The biggest leak in the dam? Auburn's 75-player depth chart (give or take a few Jay Wisners) has, of course, more holes than a cheese grater. But when you read the following, it's hard to think any position is worse off than wide receiver:

Receivers coach Trooper Taylor said if the season started today, he would feel comfortable with two receivers.

Those two are currently Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams. Montez Billings would be the other starter if he is not forced to sit out with a yet unspecified academic issue.

Zachery, Taylor said, has been the biggest standout of the group.

Taylor likes the progress DeAngelo "Voodoo" Benton and Emory Blake have made, but says they still have work to do and must learn how to practice at the collegiate level.

Emphasis added because: Terrell Zachery. The same Terrell Zachery that caught ... wait for it ... two passes last season. His partner in the current starting lineup, Darvin Adams? He caught three.

There's some legitimate hope here that Benton and Blake are secretly polished enough for SEC play and that Taylor is poor-mouthing them to keep their heads from doing too much swelling--a perfectly reasonable aim given that both are getting the "Benton/Blake is the next big thing" profile treatment from the state press--but even so ...

“Typically, in an this offense, I’d say maybe six guys would rotate through in a game of 80 plays,” Taylor said. “That’s it. You can’t get timing with the quarterback. How can I expect the quarterback to throw a slant on time if he’s doing it to three different guys? I don’t care what the steps are, no kid is the same.

“Once we find out who is going to play, the rest of the guys, their window is done unless somebody gets injured. That’s the way it is.

So, if Billings doesn't make it back, while Zachery and Adams are solid and Blake and Benton are too talented to keep on the bench, the other two guys in the rotation will be ... well, Taylor did mention at least one other guy by name: walk-on Jay Wisner from Bozeman, Montana. You know that old saying about how for every true freshman you start, you lose a game? I have to wonder that if for every time your wide receiver coach mentions a freshman walk-on from Montana as one of the standouts from fall camp, you lose two. Quindarius Carr and Derek Winter, I believe that thing that just landed at your feet was a gauntlet of some kind.

More required reading on the WR situation comes from Andy Bitter, who has notes on just about everyone, and if you want to hear Taylor discuss the situation firsthand there's video here. And hey, do read the Benton/Blake pieces linked above.

Tell us something we didn't know. Evan Woodbery catches up to Jeff Grimes:

We talked to offensive line coach Jeff Grimes for the first time today. He said his first unit was coming along fine. As for his backups?

"There's not anybody at this point that I'm ready to single out and say that they are really this close to being ready to play," he said.

Grimes did say he expects the starters to be a "really solid first unit," but if anyone out there was holding out hope an offensive line injury--to any starter--wouldn't be a well-nigh devastating blow ... it's just about time to put that hope away, especially with Bart Eddins joining the laundry list of players battling nagging injuries.

On the bright side, hearing that Grimes is happy with the starters is better than the alternative.

The JCCW will go dark again later this week as I'm shifted from blogger to safety. Your turn, D'Antoine Hood:

Sophomore D’Antoine Hood, a Phenix City native who went to Central High, is working at safety right now. The Tigers are low in numbers there with Mike McNeil (leg) and T’Sharvan Bell (knee) sidelined ... Tommy Thigpen said. “Hood’s got game experience. Him being a corner and playing under the lights, we had to ask, who’s the next best guy? He’s done it and he’s been in the stadiums before.”

Oh heavens. And at corner?

Hood’s move leaves Auburn with four scholarship cornerbacks: starters Walt McFadden and Neiko Thorpe, Harry Adams and junior college transfer Demond Washington. Freshman walk-on Rodney Cofield is the only other player currently working at cornerback. "That's where we're at," cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley said. "We've got to get it done."

So ... assuming Washington's the third corner, Auburn's one injury away from having a guy who's never played a meaningful down and spent the spring at wide receiver as our nickelback. Yay. (This is the part where I thank Taikwon Paige for repaying Ted Roof's faith in him by screwing up his academics at Georgia Military College. Thanks, Taikwon!)

For Auburn to leave cornerback in such a sorry state tells me McNeil just isn't recovering as quickly as they'd like. An injury to either Etheridge or Slade (who I'm assuming has the inside track on the other starting job) puts us in Defcon 1 in the secondary.

Yes please. Man, that's an awful lot of hand-wringing up there. So I'll note for the second time in as many days that Chizik making the punt team "his baby" is excellent news--Auburn's not the sort of team that's going to be able to afford giving up any yardage in that phase of the game. Any. Andh ey, you know what happens when the head coach takes special teams seriously? The players take special teams seriously.

Also good news: McCalebb continues to draw praise from the defense and five Auburn players graduated this summer: Rudy Odom, Gabe McKenzie, Jerraud Powers, Jonathan Vickers, and Chris Todd.

More on the biggest Auburn story of the fall--the ~~Auburn billboard campaign~~ QB race--in the next post.

So close now

2009-08-10T13:30:00.000-04:00

I'm typing this from Birmingham's Shuttlesworth International Airport--the wi-fi's still free here, God bless them--a few minutes from boarding a flight that will take me to Charlotte. A flight there will take me to Detroit, and a car there driven by a friend will take me home for the first time in 29 days.

In short: full service will be restored to the JCCW tomorrow. And I do mean full service: time is tight, so we'll be packing in as much Cheese Puffin' and DEATH reviewin' as possible over the next couple of weeks, in addition (of course) to covering all the developments out of Auburn's fall camp, all of which will be mere PRELUDE to the final week of countdowns leading up to the opener. I know the last four weeks have been a trial for you dozens of loyal readers out there and I sincerely appreciate your undying patience. But seriously: I'm going to make it up to you.

OK, a few things from practice:

--Hearing that Chizik had been over-the-top hands-on in his special teams practice is music to the ears and a salve to the soul. And while I'm not sure if Byrum going 7-for-7 in a drill and kicking on Arena League posts and all this positive jazz means all that much until he's standing on Pat Dye Field and kicking a 37-yarder in the third quarter of a tie game, but it's better than nothing.

--Four scholarship linebackers in Sunday's practice. Four. Good gravy. I never thought I'd type "Man, does it suck that Adam Herring can't get healthy," but man, does it suck that Adam Herring can't get healthy.

--A totally unsupported theory on Billings's academic troubles: if he's graduated, that means he'd have to get into grad school to continue playing for Auburn, right? He can't play without being enrolled. There are certain hurdles you have to clear to gain admittance, and while these are some low, low hurdles we're talking about for a guy in Billings's position, maybe Billings found a way not to clear them? It's a total guess, but it's all I've got, at least.

--AAARRRGGGHHH Aubrey Phillips medical condition line depth AAAAARRRGGGGHHHH

--Seriously, that the line on Mike McNeil has been "Well, he's coming along" as opposed to "Oh, he'll be ready in plenty of time" is not encouraging. Mike Slade to the courtesy phone, Mike Slade to the courtesy phone.

--So, how many Deangelo Benton write-ups have we had already? Yeah, I think we're going to need him this year.

Back tomorrow. Back for reals, as the kids say.

Oof

2009-08-07T16:10:00.002-04:00

Sorry: today hasn't left time for blogging. I do have to ask that you read Goldberg's breakdown of Auburn's current scholarship numbers, which, Yikes. At least we know they won't have a problem finding a scholarship for Clinton Durst. Chizik's surprisingly effusive praise for Demond Washington was also intriguing--at this point it'll be a surprise if he doesn't find a way to contribute this season.

Apologies again: the JCCW's great sojourn is, at least, close to being finished. Cross my heart.

And they're off

2009-08-06T15:13:00.002-04:00

So, one day of practice in the books and we’ve learned … well, not a lot about the team itself. But we know a lot more about the composition of it, courtesy of Tate, Goldberg, Bitter, and (in the case of JUCO destinations) Beaver:

--Whew: Frenchy’s still on the team. But the career your favorite mighty-mite and mine must be hanging by the slimmest of threads: he won’t join the team until Aug. 16 and Chizik straightforwardly stated that it wasn’t an injury issue. Taylor called it "personal things" and there's no real reason not to expect Pierre-Louis back ... but man, this is rough ride he's had ever since that ACL tear last fall.

Of course, it could be worse, as Justin Albert could tell you. Most of you will recall that the walk-on from Prattville was supposed to challenge for playing time even in Auburn’s crowded backfield and had at the worst a solid chance at the punt return job. He drew all kinds of notices in the spring even got a notice not too long ago from ESPN’s Chris Low as one of those Sleppers to Watch or whatever. Nevermind all that now: he’s gone, without Chizik offering so much of even a veiled explanation. This is how it goes, I guess, with a new staff intent on laying down ye olde proverbial law: here today, dismissed tomorrow.

As I was never too bullish on Albert’s chances for playing time, I don’t think there’s too much upshot to worry about here, but it does make finding someone to return punts a little trickier. (My useless, probably way off-base guess for that job: Washington.)

--The final ruling for three of the Clearinghouse Four: Daren Bates survives, Terrance Coleman and Josh Jackson do not. As mentioned yesterday, losing as deep a sleeper as Bates to academics wouldn’t have been a huge deal at the start of the summer, but with Reggie Taylor and Izauea Lanier already having fallen by the wayside and Taikwon Paige’s status looking murkier by the day, getting someone besides Demond Washington--who may wind up on offense anyway--to plug the class’s hole in the secondary is by now a pretty significant deal.

Likewise, losing Coleman is tough. For months he’s been considered the most likely of Auburn’s freshmen d-line class to make an immediate impact and if those projections were accurate, he would have only been a couple of injuries away from major PT. Now he’s, uh, not. Attention Messrs. A. Coleman, A. Carter, M. Goggans, M. Blanc, J. Ricks, Z. Clayton, and N. Fairley: I’ve asked this of you before, but seriously, please stay healthy.

--Once again, the importance of academics in recruiting illustrated: T. Coleman was allegedly a must-sign prospect last spring, one of the top recruits in a loaded in-state class and all that blah blah blah. Meanwhile, no one in Auburn had ever heard of Nosa Eguae. But it’s Eguae who’s drawn raves from everyone he’s come in contact with and looks poised to kick off a solid Auburn career under Tracy Rocker while Chizik and Co. won’t see Coleman for at least two years--if ever--during which time he’ll burn his eligibility while receiving coaching and conditioning at Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.) that, while adequate, is not going to be Tracy Rocker’s.

In short: yeah, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, but the academics of our recruits matter, and matter a ton.

--The four freshmen spotted running with the varsity were Fairley, Deangelo Benton, Phil Lutzenkirchen, and Emory Blake. Not-so-coincidentally, these also happen to be the four players that were the answer to the question “Who are the four incoming freshmen most likely to be spotted running with the varsity?” Conventional wisdom wins again.

--Man, we all knew Robert Cooper’s time at quarterback was going to be short-lived, but I figured the staff would at least give him more than a day before moving him to tight end. Assuming Cooper picks things up quickly at TE, that this move has obviously been in the works for long before now helps explain why Auburn’s been so ambivalent about their potential 2010 tight end prospects.

One other quick note: with Cooper now catching passes and Trotter of course out for all of ‘09, this seven-quarterback battle you might have read about (and heard chuckled at in certain places) is actually a slightly more reasonable five-QB battle.
Of course, because it’s slightly more reasonable doesn’t mean we’ve yet crossed over into “normal” territory, much les “desirable,” particularly when at least three and possibly all five of those QBs have a legitimate shot at the starting job.

--Do you think Malzahn started the QB race with a starter’s pistol last night? I hope he did.

--That's about it, right? Back tomorrow.

I had forgotten what getting actual news about the football team was like

2009-08-05T15:05:00.000-04:00

Break out the kazoos, Auburn fans--the long, tortuous offseason of "news" cycles solely devoted to Limo Gambits, recruiting, billboards, recruiting, injury rumors, and recruiting has come to a close. Live practice starts in Auburn this evening. The players taking that practice field will be the 2009 Auburn football team, a thing that will exist in actuality for the first time. Truly, our long journey without college football is almost at an end.

We can tell this because yesterday we learned various important things about the 2009Auburn football team that will exist as of tonight. News arrives, as always, via Jay Tate, Andy Bitter, Charles Goldberg, and this snippet fom Phillip Marshall. To sum:

--The start of a new season following a disastrous one and the arrival of a new coaching staff in the wake of the previous regime is always going to result in a number of "Things used to suck. But now, everything's awesome!" quotes and stories.

But the vehemence with which Auburn's players spoke of the difficulties faced last year still has an edge that I think speaks to how rotten things got in the state of Auburn's Denmark last year. When one of your senior leaders describes your own locker room, practice field, etc. as a "battlefield," yeah, that's not so good. The proverbial fresh start isn't the universal salve it's sometimes made out to be--Mike Sherman ofering Texas A&M a fresh start hasn't worked out so well to date, right?--but man, hearing Tate and McFadden talk and thinking back to the opening of practice last season and the bevy of fights, transfers, and injuries ... it's kind of hard not to think this might be what's best for Auburn, you know?

--As for the cadre of signees who continue to await word from the NCAA Clearinghouse...

Auburn did of course get some good news from the Clearinghouse, as Demond Washington is now safely in the fold. Amongst the five remaining limbo dwellers--Washington, Paige, Coleman, Jackson Bates--you could make the argument that Washington's versatility, punt return skills, and potential at cornerback made him the most critical one of the five to get through the Clearinghouse briar patch. Particularly with Paige now looking unlikely to qualify, Washington provides some well-needed security in the secondary.

That said ... eh, Auburn could have hoped for some better news overall. If none of the other four make it this will be another Auburn class you could fairly describe as "wracked" by academic flameouts--seven total in a class of 29 (Phillips included) is a lot of casualties--and Coleman in partciular would have been a huge help on a defensive tackle depth chart that still goes four strong in Blanc, Ricks, Fairley, and Clayton and has precious, precious little behind them.

Worse, it now appears that Bates is the only one of the remaining four whose qualification chances are "decent" or better--and despite Bates's lack of hype, this would be a big boost for a class that otherwise is a near total bust in the secondary. Elsewhere, I'm hopeful, but this late in the game I'm not counting on Coleman, Paige, or Jackson to make it.

--Not that we needed any more evidence that the new staff is driven to field five colossi on the offensive line, but that Lee Ziemba--never exactly light in the pants, being a tackle and all--has added 35 pounds since December is, well, even more evidence.

--Newcomers the veterans have praised that I'm not surprised to hear get praised: Blake, Benton, Fairley. Newcomer that surprises me a bit: Nosa Eguae. It's one thing to hear coaches rave about his intelligence and work ethic. It's another to hear it from Craig Stevens. Also worth noting that Caudle also singled out Travante Stallworth.

--Uh-oh: Mike McNeil still isn't 100 percent and according to Zac Etheridge (via Tate) spent the summer coaching rather than working out. Sounds like McNeil should still be ready by the time the season rolls around, but good news on the development of Mike Slade, T'Sharvan Bell, and Drew Cole would be most, most welcome.

--Gabe McKenzie's return has been confirmed. Despite not being particularly surprising, it's excellent news: if Malzahn's as serious about running the ball as we're hoping he is, Auburn's going to need at least one tight end who can block ... and while Tommy "Almost a Blocking Tight End But Still Not Really" Trott has made some strides the last couple of seasons, with Vance Smith on the line McKenzie's still the only TE Auburn has that really can.

--Back tomorrow with the reports from first practice.

Recappin'

2009-08-03T10:51:00.000-04:00

Following is the comprehensive list of topics for the 10 posts put up by Jay G. Tate during the week since the end of SEC Media Days:

--Chad Slade commits
--not Auburn-related
--SEC title game still in Atlanta
--Kenneth Carter commits
--filler (though a CYOA reference makes this some pretty sweet filler)
--Trott makes Mackey Award watch list
--former Auburn baseball coach Steve Renfroe is hired at UAB
--Tate radio appearance
--Auburn practice schedule is released
--Chizik's salary

Meanwhile, over at the Gold Mine, Goldberg was covering tailgating policies and Andy Bitter's been busy previewing Auburn's opponents. So, yeah, news-wise, there might have been better weeks out there to have left the blog alone for a week. But there's been much worse ones, too. This is the final calm before the storm, one that will erupt for good starting with fall practice on Wednesday.

But before then, time to look back at that calm:

--One development that seems to have flown under the radar a bit: Izauea Lanier failed to make the grade and will be going the JUCO route. Of the three confirmed Auburn signees headed down that road, two of them were destined for the secondary. JUCO corner Taikwon Paige's status is still up in the air, as is potential corner Demond Washington's and safety Daren Bates. It's possible Auburn could see virtually its entire 2009 secondary class wiped out by academics--and at a position already decidedly on the thin side, this is not good news, not good news at all. Hopefully Paige, Washington, and Bates slide in under the bar and we can breathe a little easier, but regardless it will be interesting to see if secondary recruiting takes on any greater importance as we approach Signing Day.

--Man, here's to hoping that Terrance Coleman and Josh Jackson--the other two players still waiting on the final word from the NCAA clearinghouse--don't miss too much practice. Assuming, of course, they even make it. In these final days before practice kicks off,

--As expected, practices will be mostly closed to the media. Just as was the case in the spring, I don't see why it's necessary, but if that's what it takes for this staff (or their players, I suppose) to feel comfortable on the practice field, fine, you know, whatever.

--Goodness, are we still talking about billboards?

--'Krootin: as noted above, Auburn picked up a pair of commitments in the past week. One was mammoth (6'6", 315) offensive lineman Chad Slade, which ... you Arrested Development fans out there, remember when G.O.B. looks at Mrs. Whitehead the civics teacher and says of Michael, "Well, he's definitely got a type"? Well, Auburn's coaches definitely have a type when it comes to offensive lineman--tall, stout, probably in need of shedding a pound or two or 25.

As with John Sullen last year, despite Slade's size the gurus are far, far from being impressed: Slade doesn't even have a rating yet from any of the three services, quite an accomplishment these days when it's this late in the year. But hey--we all knew Auburn was desperate enough for lineman that we were going to get a couple of these commitments. And hey, Slade is gigantic, and with offensive lineman the gurus are usually more hit-and-miss--Grimes should have a good chance at turning Slade into a useful player (or, hell, more).

Elsewhere, Auburn also picked up an expected commitment from Greenville DT Kenneth Carter. Carter didn't wow the guys at Scout or Rivals but he's still on ESPN's 150 Watch List, so there's not quite a consensus. During my time in west Alabama I wasn't terribly impressed with Greenville's program, a bias that sort of got confirmed last spring when Jamontay Pilson didn't even have the grades to sign with Auburn ... but by most accounts Carter does have some talent and if things are different for him in the classroom, he could be huge.

--In non-commitment-related Krootin' news, LaDarius Owens postponed his announcement. Good thing, bad thing, who knows. Owens was back on Auburn's campus this weekend.

--Uh ... that seems to be about it for actual "news." Obviously things will change and how starting Wednesday ...

... which is why I'm going to do my damnedest to be around. Apologies for the silence over the past few days (and the lack of a Cheese Puff Preview today), but we had some family stuff that rearranged our travel plans ... instead of being back in Michigan as expected, we're now back in Alabama for a little while. But it'll definitely be better, blog-wise, than being in Canada, so there's going to be regular content this week. Cross my heart.

Back in a few

2009-07-27T17:08:00.001-04:00

It's going to be a couple of days before I'm in Internet range, just FYI. Should have some quality chances to get some Cheese Puff writing done between now and then, though, so hopefully it'll be worth the wait.

Catching up

2009-07-25T10:50:00.001-04:00

First off, congrats to commenter Joe Blow for putting Google to work and winning our little "Where in the World is the JCCW" contest with a guess of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. (An honorable mention as well to "snowhare" for the Vancouver guess, what with the two cities sharing the same bay and yours truly and the Mrs. JCCW having actually moved on to Vancouver by the time the post went up.) The Mrs. JCCW and I are slowly making our way across America's Hat, having taken the train into the Canadian Rockies and spending the last few days in Banff National Park, Alberta. War Eagle from, uh, I think this was Moraine Lake:

Moving on, after you guys savaged (and I mean savaged) the videoblogging effort last weekend I thought I'd try to blitz through this week's developments in text.

1. OK, so SEC Media Days and all that, but for my money the biggest news to come out of Auburnland last week was still giant OT Aubrey Phillips landing at Auburn after falling out with his coaches at Florida St. in something approaching near-record time. Phillips was a four-star (to Rivals, albeit with lower ratings by the other services), hotly pursued by the new staff, and if he'd picked the Tigers in February it would have been one of the biggest coups of Signing Day given Auburn's desperate, craven need for offensive lineman. Well, now Auburn's got him, just a few months later than we'd hoped and with a possible forced redshirt if the NCAA fails to grant Phillips a waiver from his transfer year.

Of course, Auburn does get him with the baggage of departing Tallahassee so fast he barely got his bags unpacked ,but I think that's more explainable given 'Nole offensive line coach Rick Trickett's preference for the kind of smaller, quicker, more agile linemen that he used to great effect with RichRod at West Virginia. At Phillips's weight, he probably already looked like a project to Trickett, and if he showed up for summer workouts above his target weight it probably didn't help matters at all. Both sides may have just come to the decision it wasn't a marriage worth saving with a quickness, and Since Auburn's staff has made it a point to not just tolerate behemoth line prospects but welcome them with open arms, the Plains were a natural landing spot.

While Phillips could probably stand to lose a few more pounds, I'm not sure I'd automatically assume a redshirt if the waiver does come through--when you're talking about a depth chart that includes converted tight ends and defensive ends and injury cases that have never played a snap all enjoying the two-deep, it's safe to say Phillips would become a back-up overnight, at the least. (Not to mention it was just two seasons ago when three different true freshman started for this team, so even that's not out of the realm of possibility.)

2. Media Days: Gene Chizik said some things, Antonio Coleman and Tommy Trott said some things. The big news: Montez Billings should be back in uniform come fall camp. Huge sigh of relief there--someone's got to catch the ball, right?

Also got confirmation that long snapper/starpilot Dax Dellenbach has left the team. This disturbs me a bit, and not just because Dellenbach had my favorite name on the team--if you were going to look over Auburn's roster and pick one guy to get Coachbotted, you'd have to pick the scholarship third-string long snapper, right? And now, at the end of summer, he's gone? Would like to hear more from Chizik and Dellenbach (if possible) on the situation.

There's plenty more quotes to parse from the Chiznick, but most of them are of the boilerplate variety--as is his m.o--and we're in a hurry, so ...

3. Commitments, Auburn landed two more of them, the "bigger" of the two being Antonio Goodwin, the wideout from Georgia who comes bearing a consensus four-star rating and a spot in the ESPN All-America game. He's the highest-rated commitment in Auburn's 2010 class to date, and shows once again that if nothing else, the new staff can recruit them some wide receivers.

Earlier in the week Auburn landed in-state athlete D.J. Howard. Howard is a running back at Lincoln who seems potentially headed towards safety at Auburn, and like fellow recent safety commit Demetruce McNeal, Howard doesn't get too much love from the gurus--three stars all the way across the board, though Scout has him in their in-state top 15. But he's drawn plenty of attention from Auburn's coaches in recent weeks and the gurus have been evaluating him as a running back rather than a safety or athlete--meaning whatever they say, Howard should have lots and lots of upside to explore in the secondary.

Auburn should nab another commitment today when DT Kenneth Carter announces his decision.

4. Not all the recruiting news is good. Opelika's Corey Grant and Columbus's Brian Vogler both committed to Alabama, and however you might want to spin it--Auburn's coaches never seemed to make Vogler a priority, Auburn's not hurting for quick-twitch backs/slots in Grant's case--watching two legit prospects head from Auburn's backyard to Tuscaloosa is not fun.

The sting of losing Grant will fade somewhat, however, if Auburn gets a commitment from LaDarius Owens when he announces this Friday. I've been saying for a while that Owens--an Auburn legacy of a sort, a heavy Auburn lean for quite some time, a highly-rated linebacker (which, you may have noticed, we need), and perhaps most importantly a high-profile in-state prospect that both Auburn and the Tide would love to have--was as important a recruit as Auburn would have in this class. Which is why it gives me the serious screaming willies that Owens apparently set an announcement immediately after visiting Tuscaloosa and potentially dropping Auburn as his stated leader. Yikes. Owens has been to both campuses and met with both staffs enough to know what he's getting either way, and a quick look around the Interwebs shows there's still a good bit of confidence in Auburn corners for an Owens commitment. So maybe the news will be good. But there's also a much better chance it will be bad than we'd have thought a few weeks ago.

5. Really, did anything else actually happen last week? Auburn got picked fifth in the West--no surprise there--and Coleman, Ziemba, and Durst got some preseason All-SEC love, but that looks like it's about it.

'Til next time.

2009 Cheese Puff Previews: Tennessee

2009-07-22T17:34:00.003-04:00

Back by ~~popular demand~~ blogger fiat, it's your No. 1 most ~~favorite~~ tolerated series of near-substanceless, air-injected preview puffery. As always, it should in no way be mistaken for actual preseason football nutrition, but hopefully you find the series unaccountably tasty and even habit-forming. And so it is unofficially sponsored by:

I’m not going to repeat the endless ways in which Auburn and Tennessee suddenly find themselves joined at the hip, in this case “hip” of course being defined as “controversial national laughingstock hired as head coach whose Kool-aid the partisans are desperately, rabidly swilling and selling.” Suffice it to say those ways are numerous and legitimate, and it’s why I think the Auburn-Tennessee game is a secretly one of the most interesting ones on the entire SEC schedule, even for the neutrals. By the end of it, one fan base is going to exhale and say “See, we could have hired that guy,” and the other* will weep into their beers the bitter tears that even Lane Kiffin/Gene Chizik might be a better head coach than their new coach. (Those tears would be particularly bitter on the part of Vol fans, whose coach comes with a much steeper price tag when you consider his father’s salary and obviously enjoys many, many times the national hype of the Chiznick.)

On the surface, it’s just two fallen, mediocre, middle-of-the-pack programs hoping to scramble one more rung up the ladder back to respectability at the expense of the other, the SEC equivalent of, say, UCLA taking on Cal. Beneath the surface? The stakes are huge, the storylines gripping, and the match-ups downright salivating. Yeah, I’m excited about this one.

Last year: Behind arguably the nation’s best player in free safety Eric Berry, the Vols finished third in the nation in total defense … and proved that ye olde “defense wins championships” adage only goes so far when your offense finishes 115th overall and proved remarkably committed to own-foot marksmanship. Phillip Fulmer was fired midseason as the Vols lost Wyoming and finished with just five wins over the murderer’s row of … wait for it … UAB, Northern Illinois, Mississippi St., Vanderbilt, and Kentucky. Auburn at least defeated, you know, Tennessee.

Notable previous meeting: I usually reserve this section of the Cheese Puff Preview for tall tales, jokey made-up anecdotes, and other assorted useless B.S. But I’d like to draw attention here to the actual Auburn-Tennessee meeting in 1985, the first time, at six years old, I can ever remember being disappointed in Auburn.

The God’s honest truth is that I don’t remember even the tiniest snippet of the game itself. Auburn had come into Knoxville for their Xth game of the season ranked No. 1, the second time in two seasons we’d hit the top spot in the polls … even if the first visit came on the preseason ballot and hadn’t even lasted past the Kickoff Classic, which (as I’m sure you know) Auburn lost to Miami 20-18.

And yet this trip to No. 1 might have been even less successful than that one. Auburn responded to their presence in the national title race the way they’ve more-or-less always responded, falling behind by multiple touchdowns before they’d even gotten off the bus and losing to the Vols in a 38-20 laugher.

At the time, I was still a little too attention-deficient to watch most live sporting events on television, so the way I kept up with what was going on was Sports Illustrated (well, specifically, the photographs in Sports Illustrated). Thursday afternoon was always the best day of the week to come home from school, because there was always going to be an SI waiting for me on the kitchen table or in the stack of mail on Dad’s desk. So if I don’t remember the game, I do distinctly remember getting off the bus, racing into the house, and snatching up the magazine only to be greeted with this:

Yep: Auburn had lost so badly they had put the other team on the cover of Sports Illustrated. It was confusing. Auburn was my team. They were supposed to win. But this time they had lost. And it had been a big loss, a rout, in an important game. They weren’t supposed to do things like that, were they?

But oh, they do do that, don’t they? All our teams do at one point or another. And so in some ways, I credit Tony Robinson and the SI cover above for making me a sports fan, for providing the moment when a kid who liked sports happened to become a kid who knew what was at stake and was forced to hope particular things happened … because this “Tennessee Waltz” business, man, that wasn’t much fun at all.

Series history: All-time it’s 25-21-3 in one of the two great rivalries Auburn lost in the divisional split. But the series has been awfully kind to Auburn of late: they’ve won the last four.

Causes for Alarm:

1. I mentioned Eric Berry already, didn’t I? I should probably mention him again, because on the list of reasons to think the Vols are going to be better this year, Berry’s Nos. 1-4, “the offense can’t possibly be worse” is No. 5, and Berry is Nos. 6-8 again.

The JCCW’s opinion is that, to paraphrase a T.S. Eliot quote about Dante and Shakespeare, Tebow and Berry divide the league between them; there is no third.

2. Although I think that in the end the overall karmic value of having one’s team coached by Lane Kiffin is in the negative (see below), I also think the backlash against him has been so over-the-top as to produce a potential positive karmic effect … since, as I’ve mentioned a few times on this blog before, for all of the teeth-gnashing and hand-wringing over Kiffykins’ blabbermouth and the flood of secondary violations, far and away the only truly important thing Kiffin had to do between getting hired and winning ball games this fall was salvage the 2009 recruiting class. And there’s not much debating he did that--the No. 1 recruit in the country, a five-star linebacker snatched away from Les Miles, a top-20 quark back stolen from Herr Meyer himself? That’s impressive, damned impressive.

So while I think Kiffykins is pretty much as in over his head as everyone says he is, it wouldn’t surprise me if the end result of all the “Lane Kiffin, LOLZ” chatter around the SEC photosphere the last few months is a lot of eaten words.

Causes for Confidence

1. That said, if you’re contrasting Chizik and Kiffin, one of the two seeks out reporters and asks them to interview him; the other’s media responses are so milquetoast as to make the local coachbox look like Yogi Berra by comparison. The hiring of one of the two was greeted as a nationwide punch line while the other was seen as a smart gamble, even though both of them arrived at their new jobs with near-identical resumes. While both of them hired assistants with high-visibility, region- (if not nation-) wide profiles, one of them decided the best way to announce the seriousness of his tenure was to take potshots at a rival both known to hold grudges and currently loaded-for-bear; the other has by all accounts kept his head down, worked hard, and earned the respect of his new team. Not to put too fine a point on it, but one of them had a consensus four-star, top-100 overall quarterback already committed to his team when he signed on, who the coach then told to take a hike; the other had no such quarterback and had his staff go out and find one, who along with an overlooked sleeper the previous regime had passed on should have his team set at quarterback for several seasons starting in 2010 at the latest. Meanwhile, the other coach has seen quarterback after quarterback reject his overtures and is in full crisis mode for 2010 and beyond.

Yeah, if you ask me from that description which of these two coaches was going to succeed in the SEC, I’m taking the Chiznick. We’ve seen these salesmen-type, all-talk-and-little-action coaches before in this league: Orgeron, Zook, Jim Donnan. They don’t work. Maybe doesn’t mean a whole lot for one game in Knoxville, I guess, but maybe it’ll mean something?

2. Trooper Taylor was, of course, a loyal Vol for a very long time and seemed to be in line for the offensive coordinator’s chair when Phil Fulmer gave it to Dave Clawson instead. Maybe the apocalyptic failure of the “Clawfense” was karmic revenge enough for that, but Taylor standing on the opposite sideline as his new team beats his old team might be one hell of a cherry on top of that particular schadenfreude sundae, huh?

Actual alleged analysis: Unless the Spread Eagle 2.0 comes out like a house afire and Kiffykins’ Vols look just as lost as last year in the early going, Auburn’s going to be an underdog in this game. And not without reason: the Vols’ terrific defense shouldn’t lose much if anything going from Chavis to Kiffin the Elder, winning in Knoxville will be a tall task for a team like Auburn likely still finding its footing with the new staff, and if the law of averages dictate Auburn’s offense can’t be any worse than in it was in the Season of DEATH, the same holds for the Vol attack the year after the Season of Constant Sorrow.

Whatever margin there is between the two teams should be slim, however, and so much rides on the play of the two teams’ oh-so-shaky quarterbacks that I was tempted to just fill this space with “Crompton vs. Auburn’s QB. Whoever wins wins the game. The end.” So until we have a bit more information, it’s tough to make a call one way or the other. We should probably assume a narrow Auburn defeat until such time as we have proof, rather than a guess, that Chizik and the Tiger staff will do more with what they’ve got than Kiffykins and the Vols’ staff.

But, of course, I do think there is some education behind that guess.

*Provided the Vols don’t finish 5-7 again, a close, competitive Auburn loss probably won’t really look all that bad for Chizik, given that it’s in Neyland. Then again, if Kiffin does look lost for most of the year and Auburn doesn’t even give the Vols a game, then there’s probably going to be some gnashed teeth.

That's right, I'm videoblogging

2009-07-19T13:06:00.000-04:00

It's shorter, easier, and dammit, I want to get something up ... awkward, unenlightening, and potentially loserish that thing may be.

Enjoy?

Where in the World is the JCCW?

2009-07-18T11:38:00.008-04:00

All right, so, yeah, sorry about that little disappearing act over the past couple of days. As I mentioned the other day, the Mrs. JCCW and I are gettin' our tourism on, and both Internet access and time to blog are, uh, erratic. The plan is to use whatever downtime we get to type up what I can and then toss it up whenever I get the chance to connect to the 'Nets ... but it hasn't worked out great so far. Sorry. Hopefully it will work out better in the future--we're not actually going to be back home until the first day of August, so please bear with this blog in the meantime. It's not going to go dark, but it might have some slow stretches.

As for what part of the world we're in, I was just going to tell you, dear readers, but then I thought "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool if I just posted a selection of our pictures and let them guess at it?" And then I thought, "Uh, that's only a good idea if the idea is to let on to everyone how secretly lame I am," and then I thought "Look, you once wrote an open letter to a new recruit comparing him to a Star Wars X-wing pilot and Nick Saban to Lord Voldemort. I think they know."

So here's a selection of pics. Guess go in the comments. (And you can sing the post title to the theme song if you put an accent on "The".)

(And oh, as for Auburn, I haven't missed too much, have I? Chaz Ramsey is suing Nall and Gamber and this is your last big recruiting weekend until next spring. Commitment watch in full effect ... which reminds me, glad to see Bonomolo make it official. More on all that sometime soon.)

Whoops, that's not from our trip, it's from General Hospital (which the Mrs. enjoys during her days off), but I figured the extra bit of WTF? Auburn content--the characters are in a sports bar far, far away from Alabama, leading me to believe there was an Auburn fan on set--couldn't hurt.

Back before too long, I hope.

Rollison and the redshirt

2009-07-15T14:11:00.000-04:00

Judging by the majority of the comments left on this blog and other Auburn-centric gathering places around the Internet, the majority--though not quite “consensus”--opinion on Tyrik Rollison is as follows:

We think he’ll be great. But he ought to redshirt this year.

It’s a perfectly understandable, legitimate position to take. Rollison is a talented, athletic freshman quarterback. In the overwhelming majority of cases, talented, athletic freshman quarterbacks (actually, “freshman quarterbacks,” period) benefit substantially more from a redshirt year learning the proverbial ropes than they do getting tossed headfirst through those ropes into the no-hold-barred cage match that is SEC football. And Auburn fans, of course, were reminded of this lesson in all-too-vivid fashion just two years ago when athletic, talented freshman quarterback Kodi Burns burned through both a year of his eligibility and a good chunk of his confidence reserves spelling Brandon Cox during his most Evil period of all. There is a consensus that playing Burns as a freshman did nothing for his long-term prospects at Auburn, and that’s a consensus I wholeheartedly agree with.

So I don’t blame anyone who’s not interested yet in changing their default setting for freshman QBs from “redshirt” to something else, even when the QB in question is as studly as Rollison. And in a perfect or even better-than-average world, yes, Rollison will redshirt this season.

It has to be said, however: Rollison is not Burns and 2009 is not 2007. And the JCCW will not utter a word of complaint (well, it’s not an airtight guarantee) if Gus Malzahn and the Auburn staff burn Rollison’s redshirt this season.

Why? Because of the differences between Rollison’s situation and Burns’s situation, which are:

1. Rollison doesn’t require the extra year to work on his accuracy. His mechanics, possibly, his decision-making, very probably, his familiarity with the offense, certainly. But when Burns arrived he was in many ways the prototypical raw athletic QB: dynamic with the ball in his hands and on the rollout where he could put his tremendous quickness, escapability, and cannon arm to its best effect. But of course--I’m not telling you anything you don’t know--Burns was still far too scattershot on the routine drop back throws to be a full-time quarterback. (We’ll find out this fall is he still is.)

Rollison, however--in case you missed it the first time--hit better than 73 percent of 428 throws his senior year of high school. Rivals called him the most accurate high school quarterback in the nation last year. Rollison is athletic, yes, but when you complete as many passes as he did it’s a more-than-safe assumption that he’s just not the loose cannon Burns was.

2. There’s no Brandon Cox. As long as Cox’s brain didn’t unscrew the top of his head and leap out of his skull--which, of course, it did at the end of that South Florida game, without returning until the second half against New Mexico St.--Burns was never going to be more than a change-of-pace, a cheap gimmick. Cox was a senior, with an impeccable record, the unflinching respect of his team, and the hypothetical (very hypothetical, but still) potential to regain his glory form of 2005. He was the starter, no ifs, ands, buts, or any other conjunctions you’d care to name.

No one currently in the running to be Auburn's quarterback in 2009 comes anything close to boasting that kind of status. Even if Burns had some value coming off the bench in '07, Auburn never needed him. It remains an unlikely possibility that in 2009, none of Burns or Caudle or Todd will be able to hack it and that Auburn will, in fact, need Rollison.

3. Gene Chizik is not in a position to waste any time. Coming off of what many observers considered his best coaching job in 2006, Tommy Tuberville appeared to be well entrenched and could have afforded to have waited and build for the future (at least, up until the point Cox and Caudle's injury in fall camp forced his hand).

Chizik? Not so much. That 5-19 albatross around his neck is going to be an anchor on the program every minute until he gets rid of it with--please oh please--a successful debut campaign. He can't wait; Auburn can't wait. The Tigers have to win now or risk cementing themselves as an SEC afterthought. If Rollison gives Auburn the best chance to win, even if that chance is better by only the tiniest of margins, he ought to be on the field.

Let me emphasize this again: this is not a prediction that Rollison will win the starting job, avoid a redshirt, lead Auburn to a 10-win season, slay the dragon, marry the princess, etc. I've said for months now that Burns deserves to be viewed as the favorite until Malzahn chooses someone else, and I'm still saying that today.

However: if Malzahn does choose someone else, and that someone happens to be Rollison, it won't be an occasion for gripe or complaint about Auburn not learning the lessons of 2007. It will just be an occasion to note that our coaching staff will have decided that a freshman quarterback happens to be the right guy to be under center. And if we can (and should) all wish that didn't have to be the case, we can all also realize that history doesn't have to repeat itself.

The Works, Chiroptera Nation-style

2009-07-15T09:15:00.000-04:00

Gonzo blogging. I'm not sure this caption for this picture as created by JRS for his Auburn schedule preview really makes any sense, but for some reason, I want to give it a hug:

I think that reason is probably just the built-in wonder of the phrase "bat country."

The Billboard top 100. On the scale of Completely Disproportionate Overblownness, where something like Auburn's swimming national title would be a 1 and the Limo Gambit would be a 10, I fully expect these billboards to wind up a solid 8.25 or so.

To be continued. Will Heath takes a crack at determining the SEC Team of the decade and damn near succeeds, I'd say. With this caveat: let's see what happens this year. If the Gators win the league, it's all them. Anybody else, it's LSU, I'd say.

Breakin' it down. From the realm of the MSM, Chris Low looks at Auburn's lack of wide receivers and Luke Brietzke looks at Auburn's abundance of running backs. This will stun you, but the latter was a lot more fun to read.

Oldie but goodie. I still haven't linked to one of the videos that popped up last week of the media's tour of the basketball arena construction site, so
here's Jay Tate's. It's worth a look because this facility is going to completely own you. You won't even realize it, probably, but it will.

HEY! A guest writer at DawgSports compares something I like very, very much--Auburn football--to something I absolutely cannot stand and despise with every fiber of my being, i.e. the Mexican national soccer team. The worst part is, I can't even get angry at him, because the comparison's pretty apt. It just kind of sucks all the way around.

Etc. Did Snopes really have to go to the effort of explaining that this picture was a joke? Really? ... Mario Fannin adopts a curious accent in a fake interview at Section 25 ... there's a real and very interesting interview with Tommy Thigpen at War Eagle Extra, and it would be a big deal if I hadn't read like 30 very interesting interviews with Auburn's staff this summer ... WRAS has a quote for you ... I'll chip in $5 bucks if it means we can get the Expats a subscription.

Travelin'

2009-07-14T15:28:00.000-04:00

An FYI: I'm on the road in a SECRET LOCATION I'll divulge when I have a travel slide worth sharing, and while I'd hoped I'd have enough Internet access to have gotten that last post up earlier and a second one up, well, now, it's not happening. Back tomorrow.

Well, probably tomorrow.

Krootin' 7/14

2009-07-14T15:24:00.000-04:00

Grant. If you haven't seen this, well, Corey Grant is fast (and the audio, as always, is NSFW):

Grant's made a whole series of unofficial visits to the Plains recently, and if he makes one more to Auburn's big senior camp this weekend, RBR's OTS says that could bode very well for us:

At this point I imagine it could go either way and he may still be undecided at this point. Hopefully he will commit to the Tide sometime this week, but if he delays his decision until this weekend, he may be tipping his hand by which camp he attends. Alabama has a big camp this weekend, as does Auburn, and if he shows up at one of those two, that ought to tell you where he is headed.

Also worth noting: Grant has apparently said he would prefer to operate out of the slot rather than line up in the backfield, and while I have no doubt 'Bama will accommodate him, this has to work in Auburn's favor, doesn't it? We're talking about two offenses, one of them that virtually always has a slot receiver on the field, and the other that goes without it in the base offense (and easily more than half the time) in favor of a fullback or extra tight end. For comparison's sake, check out the highlights of Auburn's spring game (in which a third receiver is on the field for every offensive play in the clip) vs. this selection of 2008 Alabama highlights, in which of the 8 or 9 plays that aren't goal-line sets (and where you can see the Tide formation) there's a slot receiver featured in 2 of them. I'm not saying this gives Auburn any kind of definitive advantage, but I do think it might explain why Auburn's got as decent a shot with Grant as they seem to have.

As for what Grant might mean to the class, well, if he's serious about sticking to receiver he would potentially give Auburn a huge boost at that position. And of course it would be an awfully nice statement--stop me if you've heard this before--about Auburn's ability to at least occasionally beat out the Tide in-state. Likewise, if both Grant and Brian Vogler leave Auburn's backyard to enroll across the state (as is expected in Vogler's case), that's not going to look so good. (The optimistic Auburn fan would point out that running back and tight end aren't the two biggest positions of need for Auburn ... but still. It won't look good.)

Speaking of this weekend ... Charles Goldberg is reporting that Auburn is "prepar(ing) to blend some big-time recruits with a high-profile high school senior camp next weekend," in what ought to be the long-awaited major July event Luper and Trooper have been promising basically ever since the end of Big Cat Weekend. Right now that's about all that isn't rumor, speculation, expectation, etc. but a visit from Lache Seastrunk's been hinted at for a while and Beaver has a list of other potential visitors. I'd say for an event as big as this is supposed to be we're not hearing much, but then again we didn't find out Big Cat was happening until the day it began, so with any luck it'll live up to expectations.

K-Scar wrote today that the only way to do that is with a boatload of commitments, but geez, acknowledging that we're SO FAR BEHIND and all, it's still July. If Auburn can add another couple of guys to the list on the same level with the first eight, is anyone really going to be disappointed? (And as for that piece-of-trash AP reworking of Evan Woodbery's recent "selective" recruiting piece, yes, Auburn would like to have 15-plus commitments of Texas or 'Bama's caliber, but just because Tubby racked up umpteen commitments last year doesn't mean last year was "better" when the average quality of those recruits just wasn't what this year's is to this point. Ohio St. currently has only eight commitments; should they be worried too?)

And hey, speaking of Seastrunk ... Via Auburntron, everyone's favorite fun-loving top-ranked Texas running back had a little more fun with the recruitniks and the fans who obsess over them at the big Texas 7-on-7 tournament:

On Friday, the first day he and his teammates competed in the Texas 7-on-7 state championships, Seastrunk showed up wearing an LSU shirt and Southern California armbands and socks. He also wore a pair of Auburn shorts during the event.

"It's just clothes, man," he said. "It's just the clothes I wear."

I know a big chunk of college football fans will frown on anything any recruit does to draw attention to himself, but ... a recruit who knows his every move is being watched to determine if he's going to USC, LSU, or Auburn showing up wearing articles of clothing representing USC, LSU, and Auburn? Sorry, I think that's pretty funny. And as Burnt Orange Nation pointed out, the joke's on all of us. I'll say it: well-played, sir.

But, yeah, there's also this:

Seastrunk, who also told at least one reporter that he plans to visit Texas again unofficially, offers no hints at even when he may decide.

"I've got a plan and all I can tell you is it's super funny," he said.

Cue the howls of the Fall of Western Civilization and all that. (Me? I'm curious. I can't help it.)

More of those running back-type guys we seem so fond of. Lattimore and Dyer make it 3-for-3 this week on Auburn's top-five running back recruits getting a media report worth linking up. Lattimore is profiled by Carolina paper The State here and Dyer by the ArkansasSports360.com here. Neither article provides much insight into where either is headed, but they're about as in-depth as recruit profiles get and I'd recommend reading both.

Hmmmmmm. So, after multiple reports--one of them mainstream--that Joel Bonomolo had already committed and multiple other reports--from guys like Phillip Marshall--that Bonomolo was likely to make it official on Monday, there's still no word from the latest Auburn JUCO hottness. It makes Sunday's post look awfully silly (hey, P-Marsh, I'd appreciate it if you stopped handing me guns to jump, please, since apparently I can't help myself) and you have to wonder what's holding Bonomolo up when every indicator we had showed an impending commitment ... but at the same time, in all likelihood this is just delaying the inevitable. I think.

Your complete Google guide to Auburn's class of 2009

2009-07-13T13:34:00.000-04:00

With Emory Blake profiled earlier today, the Google Surveys the Recruits series is now complete for Auburn's 2009 class. I figured it might be a helpful resource to get a link to each profile of the members of that class in one location ... so, uh, this is that location. Every player that signed with Auburn last February, save confirmed academic casualties Reggie Taylor and LaVoyd James, has a dedicated JCCW post linked below. In alphabetical order:

1. Dontae Aycock
2. Daren Bates
3. Deangelo Benton
4. Emory Blake
5. Terrance Coleman
6. Robert Cooper
7. Nosa Eguae
8. Jonathan Evans
9. Nick Fairley
10. Dee Ford
11. Eltoro "The Toro" Freeman
12. Harris Gaston
13. Anthony Gulley
14. Andre Harris
15. Josh Jackson
16. Brandon Jacobs
17. Izauea Lanier
18. Philip Lutzenkirchen
19. Onterio McCalebb
20. Clint Moseley
21. Taikwon Paige
22. Tyrik Rollison
23. Travante Stallworth
24. John Sullen
25. Jamar Travis
26. Demond Washington

If you're a masochist who just likes reminding themselves of Auburn commitments that didn't work out, you can also read about JUCO refugee Jamontay Pilson, Aaron Moore, or Raymond Cotton.

Final thoughts? I thought about listing the signees in order of how excited I am to have each of them at Auburn or organized in rough groupings of how I'd project their Auburn careers to play out, but there's basically no way to do that without sounding like I'm writing off the kids at the tail ends of lists like those. I'd rather pass--there's genuine reasons to believe every single member of this class will become a solid contributor (or more) during their time at Auburn, and even if there's no way all 26 of them wind up panning out (hell, the odds seem good there's at least one more academic casualty out there) my guess isn't better than anyone else's as to who the real sleepers are or aren't.

So I'll just tack on a few scattered observations and positive vibes:

--I've made note of this before, but this class seemed to have more guru disagreement than you'd expect: Lutzenkirchen, Rollison, and McCalebb were the only three prospects to garner four stars from both major services, but 10 other signees picked up a fourth star from one or the other. (11 if you include Stallworth's "80" from ESPN.) Maybe this means that even the relatively modest "team rankings" for the class were overshooting things, since there's so few "sure things" ... but I'd prefer the glass-half-full viewpoint, which would be that when this many kids have someone recognize some kind of legitimate athletic potential, there's more collective promise here than any service recognized individually.

--Just for comparison's sake, once you account for academic casualties and Raven Gray's no-show, do you know how many Rivals/Scout consensus four-stars Tubby signed in 2008? Zero. None. Signees from that class garnering four stars from one or the other? Six. (Again, this season: 13. After 5-7. After the coaching change. This was either a hell of a job by Chizik and Co. or a measure of how unbelievably bad the 2008 effort was ... or, of course, some combination of both.)

--Personal favorite "sleepers"? Stallworth, an undersized burner who (like Neiko Thorpe the year before) was ignored by Rivals and Scout but got a rave review from ESPN and should be a great fit in the Spread Eagle 2.0; Moseley, who strikes me as having just enough athletic potential to turn his intangible gifts into a quality backup role or even the starter's job somewhere down the line in this offense; and Gaston, who should be able to combine his ample raw athleticism with early playing time and tutelage under a bona fide linebacking guru like Ted Roof into a big-time career.

--In addition to the obvious gains at wideout, I think we're going to remember this class are having particular impact at two positions: Quarterback, where in addition to Moseley, I think Rollison in the spread could someday a match made in an All-SEC-caliber heaven, and Defensive Line, where Fairley and Coleman (if he qualifies) are immediate-impact players and Travis, Eguae, and Ford should all be in the rotation no later than next year.

--As little help as Auburn got on the offensive line, this class isn't anything to write home about in the secondary, either. Taylor failed to qualify, Lanier and Bates have yet to be cleared and are both "project"-type players to start with (though projects with upside, of course), and past that it's Paige and possibly Washington, both of whom only have two years of eligibility even if they qualify ... which they haven't done just yet. The heavy (and successful, actually) emphasis on the defensive backfield in '08 means this isn't a crisis on the level of the o-line, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

--Lastly, three guys who I think Auburn fans could be even more excited about than they already are: Coleman, who was a top-25 end to both Scout and ESPN, always got raves from the Alabama newspaper gurus, and who I think just has too much motor not to flourish under a pro like Rocker; Aycock, whose combination of speed and size gives him the best shot of any back in the class of being an every-down guy, and that's before we start talking about his potential in the Wildcat; and Lutzenkirchen, whose hands make him as sure a thing as there is in the class, but who seems to have been just the teensiest bit forgotten in the wake of the Rollison/Benton/Blake surge and Freeman and McCalebb tearing things up in the spring.

Google surveys the signees: Emory Blake

2009-07-13T10:12:00.000-04:00

Because someone needs to do the work of plugging in a given Auburn signee's name into Google and synthesizing the tidbits of information that trickle out. Previous entries in this series here.

One of the fun things--maybe the most fun thing--about coming down the recruiting home stretch last spring with the new Auburn staff was going from having pretty well zero prospects outside of the traditional Alabama/Georgia/Florida panhandle recruiting grounds to suddenly drawing the interest of a half-dozen solid prospects from Louisiana, Oklahoma, and of course Texas. And as awesome as it was reeling in the likes of Nosa Eguae and even Tyrik Rollison, Auburn's desperate need for wideouts, the general assumption that Rollison's chickens shouldn't be counted until they hatched their way onto campus (or something), and Emory Blake's Signing Day decision meant that of the new Lone Star State crew, none were welcomed more enthusiastically by Auburn fans than Blake. He'll begin fall practice with fans not just hoping he'll contribute as a freshman but expecting.

This is, frankly, all very heady stuff for a kid Auburn fans had never even heard of until a few short weeks before Signing Day and who Chizik and Co. stole away from uh, Texas Tech, but when we're talking about the Auburn receiving corps, I think we can be collectively forgiven, right?

Basics: For the final time (yes, this is the last entry for the 2009 class), let's go to the Auburn Signing Day information sheet:

Emory Blake
WR, 6-1, 194
Austin, TX (Stephen F. Austin HS)
High School Coach: Rodney Vincent

HIGH SCHOOL: As a senior, caught 64 passes for 936 yards and nine touchdowns, while rushing for 643 yards and four scores on 74 carries ... Named the 2008 District 25-5A Offensive MVP ... Had 22 grabs for 412 yards and five scores in just six games as a junior, while also carrying 38 times for 289 yards and two TDs ... Caught 28 passes for 525 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore ... The No. 30-ranked prospect from Texas by SuperPrep ... Named to the Orlando Sentinel's 2008 All-Southern football team ... Selected to the All-Midlands Region team by PrepStar.
PERSONAL: Born July 18, 1991 ... Son of Jeff and Lewanna Blake ... Father was an NFL quarterback for 14 years.

Yes, if you're an Auburn fan who's been living in a moon cave, that's Jeff Blake of former Bengals and Saints fame*, making Blake not just the son of an NFL player but the son of a one-time Pro Bowl-quality quarterback. (I don't know if that's really all that different from just "son of an NFL player, but it sounds awesome, right? And hey, Papa Blake at the very least probably had some lessons to teach about work ethic and such, correct?)

Also worth noting in this space: that's a lot of carries on the ground, and for 8.7 yards a pop. There's some consensus that Blake's not a burner, but with numbers and experience like that, it seems clear he can do some good things with the ball in his hands.

Recruitnik hoo-ha: Like so many members of Auburn's 2009 class, Blake gets an enthusiastic review from one of the three services ... and a shrug from the other two. In Blake's case the cheerleaders are at Rivals, who give him a fourth star and a grade of 5.8 while ranking him the No. 42 wide receiver in the class. Perhaps even more impressively, he cracked Rivals' top 40 prospects in Texas for 2009, just ahead of Texas and Oklahoma commitments.

But ESPN and Scout are each much less enthused. At Scout, Blake barely makes their top 100 receivers and might be closer to losing his third star than gaining a fourth. ESPN's a little more forgiving, offering Blake their prototypical three-star grade of 77 and ranking him the No. 72 wideout in the class, but they're not overly impressed. From the scouting report:

There is a lot to like in Blake, a very polished football player. He doesn't run very well, but he has qualities that aren't seen in many faster players. Has good size and leaping ability. Can challenge for the ball while it's in the air and win some jump balls. Has the body control to adjust to the ball, shows good sideline awareness and can make some acrobatic catches. He's a sharp route runner who is aware that he must outwork his opponent to gain separation. Has phenomenal, quick hands. Plucks with ease and can catch in a crowd ... His best fit at the next level may be in the slot, where he can work underneath zones, exploit his size and avoid press coverage at the line. Could have significant trouble separating and getting vertical against college competition. His speed always will be a limitation.

You'll notice that amongst the compliments, that the words "upside" or "potential" never appear. The reviewer likes what Blake is, but doesn't think much of what Blake will become ... or I'm guessing the grade and ranking would be higher.

Blake's offer sheet isn't eye-popping, but it's not the mid-major buffet of some other Auburn prospects, either. Blake committed and then decommitted from Texas Tech and definitely had offers from Colorado and Tulsa. Rivals reported offers from Oregon, Nebraska, and Boston College as well. With the possible exception of Nebraska, Auburn wound up still the "biggest" offer on Blake's table, but that's still a lot of legitimate programs to have come calling if Blake can't play.

Links of potential interest: There's a ton of film to watch on Blake. ESPN included video with their scouting report, there's film of Blake ANNIHILATING CAMP DRILLS here, another good highlight package here, and your requisite "wow, that's awesome, but you'll probably want to turn the sound off" clip is here:

What that clip and the first couple of plays on the ESPN clip make clear is this: Blake appears to have some top-notch vision and ability to move in traffic. OK, so he's not blazingly fast ... does he have to be if can move like that?

Given those qualities and his experience taking snaps, it's no wonder Blake says in this Signing Day interview that Malzahn's promised him a look in the Wildcat:

Blake comes across as refreshingly well-spoken and gracious here; his handling of the Barkley/racism question was fairly deft and it's nice to hear some genuine regret about Tech even after he'd decided to go in a different direction. (Jeff B. offers a couple of statements at the video's tail end, too.)

Speaking of Tech, here's a hell of an endorsement ...

Coach Mike Leach saw the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Blake as a natural addition to his offense and had even promised him that he could play Michael Crabtree's "Z position" in the Red Raiders' offense.

Of course that promise could just be recruiting hot air, but still ... Leach wanted him, and you have to think Leach knows a thing or two by now about finding quality receivers.

Blake's not planning on redshirting or otherwise waiting around:

"I can't wait to get there and make an instant impact at Auburn," said Blake, who stands 6-1 and weighs 194 pounds. "We're going to get it turned around fast."

If it's instant impact you want, 2009 wide receiving recruit, Auburn's receiving depth chart delivers!

Beaver's already featured Blake in his "Know a Signee" series; that's here. He's rooming with Lutzenkirchen.

Still not sure what, exactly, "Offense-Defense Football" is, but they think Blake is the 9th-best receiver and 49th-best player overall in the class of '09. So more power to them.

The "Texas Testosterone Festival" noted that Blake made an Austin-area top 5 seniors list and advised him to go to Auburn for "the hot chicks." There are worse reasons, certainly.

This doesn't really have anything worthwhile to say bout Blake, but it is funny.

Awesome black-and-white photo of Blake reeeeeaching for what would be a touchdown grab here. Also, a community photojournalist says that he prepares for his Austin high school games the same way he prepared to shoot the Denver Broncos. So good for him. Except for the part where he's not shooting the Broncos any more.

Peculiarly, Blake is apparently an example of how tall wide receivers are changing passing games in Texas.

Lastly, for those of you who would find it reassuring for an Austin product to have received some attention from the college football powerhouse located there in Austin, there's multiple references out there to Texas having offered Blake as a greyshirt.

What conclusions we can draw, if any: I write stupid things on this blog all the time, of course, but that bit of worry over the slot position from the other day, after LaVoyd James had decommitted? Even stupider than usual.

Because, most likely, Blake's going to be in the slot. And he's going to be good. No, he's not tall. No, he may not be track-fast. But Blake's hands and body skills are by all accounts too sharp for him not to shine on those curl and crossing routes the Spread Eagle's slot receivers are going to have to run to pick up first downs on 3rd-and-5 or a quick five yards on 1st-and-10, etc. Blake might not be a shake-and-shimmy jitterbug like Frenchy or a straight-line home-run threat like Travante Stallworth should be, but he's also shown too much ability with the ball in his hands not to make some serious hay on the quick swings and screens that Malzahn's also going to make a major part of this offense.

It's easy to see why the gurus and even college coaches might not be all that high on Blake: they're looking for home runs, and "little" things like Blake's hands, ability to tightrope a sideline, and cutback ability are more "stand-up double." But of course, those "little things" are also the things that make for, you know, good football players. No, Blake may not wind up an NFL stud like his Dad, but for the past two seasons Auburn's best receiver has been a guy who was never going to get a sniff from the NFL but who turned those similar "little things" into an outstanding career. Blake is polished enough that he'll have a chance to do the same thing, but from Day 1, and maybe even do it better. And if that's the case, no one at Auburn is going to complain about how fast he is.

*Jeff's Wikipedia page also includes the following mysterious nugget of information: "Jeff can be seen in the background of the blockbuster flop, Totally Anal, wearing a Chargers jersey." Which is weird, because I would say I keep myself pretty informed about the goings-on in the entertainment industry, and I'm still completely unfamiliar with this particular "blockbuster flop."

These are the important things

2009-07-13T09:56:00.000-04:00

Last Friday, coincidentally--or maybe NOT coincidentally?!?--as Orson was writing this deathly-accurate paean to the humble perfection that is the Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, I got a call from a friend here in Ann Arbor. He was driving to Bowling Green (yes, that Bowling Green), about 70 minutes away, and wanted to know if I wanted to ride along and make a stopover at the Toledo mall, home of the only Chick-Fil-A within a 100-mile radius of where we live.

I said yes many times and whipped on my souvenir Chick-Fil-A Bowl shirt. Around an hour later, this happened:

However: if you think I look excited--and I was, since Chick-Fil-A has been a twice-a-year-or-so experience ever since I moved here in the summer of '06--you should know that the cow was there as part of a promotion in which anyone who visited the Chick-Fil-A dressed as a cow would get a free combo. Midway through my second (deliriously good) sandwich, a couple in their 70s approached the counter. They were wearing matching pastel Chick-Fil-A shirts--his baby blue, hers light pink--and taped-on cow spots cut out of black construction paper. Oh, and Chick-Fil-A caps with attached cow ears. They picked up their free combos, chatted with the cow, and walked over to their tables looking as happy as, well, people who love Chick-Fil-A that have just received a big free bag of Chick-Fil-A usually look.

God bless them. We'd all agree it's a better life you lead for yourself if you can find things to love unabashedly, wholeheartedly, as long as those things are worthy, right? It's such a relief to know there are other people out there, like Orson, like that couple, that also believe there is so much out there less deserving than these sandwiches.

Joel Bonomolo: good as committed

2009-07-12T14:55:00.001-04:00

Beaver's already reporting it as a done deal, there's a report out of New Orleans saying the same, and at the very least there's an official announcement tomorrow not-so-coincidentally immediately following his weekend visit to Auburn, so I think it's pretty safe to assume at this point that Fullerton (Ca.) Community College defensive end Joel Bonomolo will become Auburn's ninth commitment for the class of 2010 tomorrow.

Like the rest of the JUCO world, Bonomolo doesn't have guru ratings issued just yet, but he was offered by Utah, Washington, and both of the Arizona Pac-10 schools. (Tennessee may have also offered, ubt of course, they offer everybody.) So that's not too shabby. He also has this (the usual caution regarding highlight film audio applies):

Who knows how much to make of that given the level of competition, but ... yes, I'll at least agree that he appears to be useful. He'll have ot be, of course: he's only got two years of eligibility remaining.

Three other things worth noting:

1. Bonomolo is a teammate of Fullerton offensive line target John Cullen, though I somehow doubt at JUCO the bonds of brotherhood are quite what they are on a high school team

2. Bonomolo's from the New Orleans area originally--check out this nice article on how he went from a no-star recruit whose only offer was Southern Illinois to, well, a guy committing to Auburn--and hasn't made much of a secret that he'd like to get an LSU offer. I guess Auburn would have a struggle on their hands in the unlikely event LSU did come across with an offer, but otherwise, this is probably a good thing: never hurts for an Auburn player to have a pre-implanted chip on their shoulder towards one of our rivals, does it?

3. Man, do I hope we get to hear announcers call out "Bonomolo" repeatedly in '10 and '11. Say it with me: "Bonomolo." Yeah. Sweet.

The Works, checking in on ...-style

2009-07-10T15:25:00.000-04:00

Man oh man, does the Works have a ton of topics to touch on today. Like, for instance ...

Math: This is how I should have approached it back in "the day":

Ben Tate: Courtesy Andy Bitter, here's a Ledger-Enquirer story on his lofty 2009 goals (and surpeme confidence he'll meet them) and the requisite b-sides. The most interesting tidbit for me came in the blog post:

Tate appears to have a much larger role in setting up the offense between snaps, which I found an odd responsibility for a running back. But that's how Gus Malzahn's system works apparently. "I have to know fronts," Tate said. "That’s different and it also helps you out. I also have to make protection calls. I have to tell the linemen what to do. If I mess up on a call, it’s always going to be on me. It’s not really going to be a lineman’s fault. Most of the time, if I mess up we’re going to be on the same page together, so we’re all messing up together, so most of the time it still gets picked up – it just might not get picked up the right way."

Man, I bet the linemen love that.

The BCS: I've studiously ignored the Congressional hoo-ha surrounding college football's postseason because a) I haven't add anything to add to a discussion that widespread b) we all knew it was going to be just sound and fury all along, right?

Still, though, I enjoyed the Good Doctor's resulting defense of mid-major scheduling, and Blutarsky's counterpoint, and Year2's further discussion of 2008 Utah and how if the door wasn't necessarily unlocked, they could still have done more to pry it open.

Still, after Utah's and Boise's triumphs the last few years, the next time a MWC or legitimate WAC team (no, last year's Boise and 2007 Hawaii do not qualify) runs the table, they should crack the top four of the BCS ... which is why I still think a properly administered four-team playoff would settle all this.

Blackmon, receivers: One Bitter blog post, two things worth noting: 1) For those of you with CSS, you can watch Tray Blackmon play in the CFL tonight at 7:30/6:30 2) just to sum up how badly Auburn will need its freshman receivers to deliver:

With Hawthorne hurt, Montez Billings' academic standing in question, Harry Adams back on defense and Philip Pierre-Louis' role undefined, it's going to be a motley crew of receivers in the mix at the start of summer practice. Quindarius Carr, Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams have never had a better opportunity to seize playing time.

Combined receptions last season for Carr, Zachery, and Adams: 11.

Previewin': Acid Reign looks at Kentucky, a game whose pivotal nature I think Acid portrays accurately:

This is a must win game for the Tigers. Auburn will likely be 4-2 heading into this contest, and a loss could prove to be disastrous. It's a pivotal game for Tiger bowl hopes, with LSU, Ole Miss, Furman, Georgia, and Alabama remaining on the schedule. If the Tigers can't defeat the Wildcats, the odds of upsetting any of the 4 remaining SEC opponents will be low.

The level of glad I am that this game is in J-Hare: very, very glad.

Beer: Via Doug:

This goes to show you that independent breweries have about the same impact on the general public that independent movies and music do: Michigan is packed with them (there's more brewpubs within walking distance of my friends' downtown Ann Arbor apartment than there are in all of Alabama) and there's essentially none in Alabama, but look who drinks more beer.

The U.S. Women's Open: Auburn's Candace Schepperle is participating. War Eagle, Candace.

Curtis Luper: Not that you'd expect him to think any differently, but guess what fellow former Oklahoma St. running back and teammate he's talking about here:

I was bigger and he was a little quicker, but I was faster. He was probably a little more mature. He was more of a city guy and I was a country guy. Other than that, there wasn't much difference between us two.

Why, just NFL Hall-of-Famer Thurman Thomas. Like all of the entries in this "10 questions" series, though, there's a ton of great stuff here: Luper's day at Okie St. with Thomas and Sanders, why the Blue Man Group is overrated, and, of course, the orange sunglasses and why they're not really sunglasses.

1957 Auburn cheerleaders: As TWER shows, they were awesome. One of them, at least.

Lists: As Blutarsky points out, it's stunning how stupid they can be. Honestly, Austin Murphy: I'm sure Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis were incredible players, but if a magical sports elf shows up on your doorstep tomorrow and says "Hey, look, magic tickets to either see Bo freaking Jackson in his prime or Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis ... pick one," you'd really take the tickets to the see the dudes from Army in the mid-1940s? Riiiiight. (Note that Bo did make SI's NFL list. But not the college list. It makes so much sense.)

Krootin': Look, yes, Auburn's being "selective" about their commitments compared to last season, when Tubby was taking on guys from all over the place. But are they being "selective" when compared to Alabama or Texas or Florida? Uh, no. Auburn would have been more than happy to have accepted a commitment from nearly all of the prospects who have committed to those schools. I wouldn't give Chizik and Co. all that much credit for being picky just yet.

That said, do I like this approach better than Tubby's? Given how much success Auburn had down the stretch last spring at finding solid kids who weren't entirely happy with their situation and getting them to the Plains, yes, yes I do. There's a lot fewer commitments on Auburn's list than at this time last year, but the average quality of that commitment seems much, much higher this go-round.

Also: Corey Grant visited Auburn again midweek, but Tide fans are still optimistic. We'll see what happens, but it seems like Auburn might have--at the very least--outlasted Florida in the race for Grant. That's something.

Clarifications: TSK wonders if, as I posted yesterday, the Vandy game last year was really more frustrating and anger-inducing than the Iron Bowl. And yes, yes it was: maybe I speak just for myself, but when Auburn played Vanderbilt, it was obvious they could win if they'd just coached and played the game correctly. When Auburn played Alabama, it was obvious early on the only way Auburn would win was if Alabama played the worst game of their season and Auburn simultaneously played far beyond their abilities. The Iron Bowl was more depressing, more painful, but it wasn't the kind of game to make me angry; the Tide were just better. It would be like getting angry at the sun on a hot day.

Arkansas: Dude, John Pelphrey is the suspendingest coach I've ever seen get his suspending on. (And while you're headed in that direction, check out the latest edition of the Wally Watch. Good stuff.)

The Mexican national team: As a U.S. Soccer fan, I abhor them with a great abhorrence, and this kind of horsedung is why.

This week: Play it off, 8-bit Keyboard Cat!

Enjoy your weekend, folks.

ESPN giveth, ESPN taketh away

2009-07-10T12:41:00.001-04:00

Don't ask me what this is, where it came from, who created it or for what purpose. I just think you need to know it exists, that it's being hosted at Purdue's own site (?!?), and that "Jumbo Heroes" is, as Conan would have told us once upon a time, INAPPROPRIATE!.

So you may have noticed by now that ESPN has released their 2009 college football announcing assignments. Awful Announcing has your simplified nuts-and-bolts list if the info at the ESPN link seems a bit ... confusing.

The JCCW's review of the moves:

THE GOOD

Oh thank heavens--Mike Patrick has finally received his viciously overdue demotion, going from ESPN's Saturday prime time slot alongside Todd Blackledge to one of ABC's various Saturday afternoon regional telecasts ... with any luck, it'll be one of those Maryland vs. Boston College-type ACC games I never wind up watching. With both Patrick and Paul Maguire getting kicked down the ladder, it appears ESPN is finally realizing how mind-bogglingly awful their old NFL crew (Patrick, Maguire, and Joe Theismann) truly was and how much sports fans of all stripes really despised those guys. They're realizing it 20 years too late, of course, but better late than never, I guess.

Taking over for Patrick will be Brad Nessler. Like all of you I'd have given several of my toes--maybe even a big one--to have Ron Franklin back in the position he all-but-singlehandedly made famous, but if we can't have Uncle Ron back Nessler's likely the next-best thing. Smooth, familiar, and professional, Nessler should combine with Blackledge--the best color guy in the business going back to his days at CBS--to become college football's best announcing team this season.

I don't know how much of a "Save the Daves!" movement there really was, but it has one success story to tell anyway--ESPN picked up play-by-play man Dave Neal (always the strongest of the Daves) to stay over in the SEC regional 12:30 telecast. Pairing him with Andre Ware doesn't exactly get the blood pumping, but Ware should at least be an upgrade on the Daves Neal's had to work with at color before.

And while I think excellent play-by-play man Sean McDonough's well overdue to return to the kind of spotlight assignment he used to enjoy at CBS, I'm happy to see him at least get some kind of promotion: he's going from the random "wherever they can fit me in" slot on ESPN Saturdays to a regular ABC regional telecast. He's being paired with Matt Millen, who, despite "the stigma of reeking, carrion-strong failure" is technically an old pro at the announcing gig and should be competent at worst, and Holly Rowe. You already know how I feel about Holly. I'm thinking this should be a terrific team all the way around.

McDonough's old color partner Chris Spielman--who still flashes some really interesting "inside football"-type information from his linebacking days from time to time--is forming one third of another intriguing new team with worthwhile ex-Nessler partner Bob Griese and efficient play-by-play man Dave Pasch. They'll be an upgrade in ESPN's noon telecast.

And lastly, SEC fans will be introduced to Rob Stone as he works the studio desk for ESPN's regional SEC coverage. Stone's been stuck in the "niche sport"/sideline reporter rung of the ESPN ladder for a while, but he's always thrown himself hook-line-and-sinker into his assignments. I always enjoyed his soccer work--seriously, it's not easy to make an MLS match sound exciting--and from what I can tell the bowling folks love him. His willingness to get capital-P capital-U Pumped Up about whatever sport he's covering should be a solid match for SEC football.

THE BAD

SEC nation still turns its lonely eyes to you, Ron Franklin. There's no other word for his current role at the WWL than "a shame. I mean, just read this sentence from the ESPN release:

Returning announcer pairings to television’s deepest field of commentators include: Mark Jones and Bob Davie; Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham; Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore; Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante; and Charlie Neal and Jay Walker.

One of those things is so much not like the others it's just sad. To top it off, if ESPN was going to keep Franklin down amongst the rabble in their steerage deck, they could at least assign him to one of their two new SEC slots so those of us who appreciate him can properly enjoy one of his last few years in the booth. No such luck, I guess.

If you clicked the Rowe-related link above, you know I'm one of the, oh, half-dozen or so heterosexual college football fans in the country who's legitimately disappointed Erin Andrews is taking over Rowe's duties on the Saturday prime time games. She's just not the reporter Rowe is. (Maybe Orson is one of the other half-dozen? Maybe?) WRAS and I may have to have some sort of non-lethal duel to settle our differences here.

Outside of Patrick, the one other demotion I was really hoping to see was the god-awful Pam Ward and Ray Bentley team evicted from their noon slot on ESPN2, which (like the rest of you) I always end up watching a good chunk of just because, of course, not much else has kicked off at that point. No dice. At least I'm not a Big 10 fan--they're understandably more disappointed than the rest of us.

The ??????

Selected to broadcast the new ESPNU SEC Saturday night game are ... drumroll please ... Eric Collins (play-by-play) and Brock Huard (color)? Can't say I know either of these guys. I have a vague recollection of Huard not sucking when filling in for someone else on some broadcast last year, but I might be confusing him for a sandwich I ate a couple of weeks ago. We'll find out how good they are this fall.

OVERALL

Some good moves here by ESPN, and no doubt the Patrick and Maguire demotions are a blessing, but their continued treatment of Franklin is inexcusable. They get a B in the JCCW's (extremely important) book.

Good news, everyone

2009-07-09T16:52:00.000-04:00

So this past spring, Trooper Taylor didn't make much of a secret of the fact he wasn't totally enamored with the wideouts he'd been left from the previous regime. With Montez Billings out, Frenchy Pierre-Louis hobbled, Quindarius Carr getting compared to a limo panne d'essence*, and various other nagging injuries limiting Taylor's charges, Tim Hawthorne wound up just about the only wideout to receive consistent praise from their new position coach. It seemed likely that with Billings playing catch-up and DeAngelo Benton and Emory Blake coming in as true freshmen, talented as they might be, the safest bet for Auburn's No. 1 receiver in 2009 would be Hawthorne.

Naturally, Hawthorne broke his foot today and will be out at least four weeks but--knowing the tricky nature of foot injuries--quite possibly more. It seems likely he'll miss the beginning of fall camp at the very least, and if the injury robs him of the deep speed (such as it is) that's his best asset in this offense, possibly more.

It could be worse, as Aairon Savage would be happy to tell you. But it's sure ain't good, either.

*Milles Bornes reference is FTW, right?

QBlinks

2009-07-09T14:26:00.000-04:00

You haven't forgotten that when it comes to Auburn player developments, the quarterback race still dwarfs all others the way Jupiter dwarfs its moons, right? (In this analogy, who takes over as, say, the third cornerback is like the possibility of life in the ice-covered ocean on the ice moon Europa ... interesting, important, but still just a thing in orbit around the much, much bigger thing.) But even if you have forgotten--I know that doesn't make any sense, just bear with me--there's been a burst of QB-related links the past 24 hours or so that'll remind you.

Tate on Caudle. Picking up where his post on Kodi Burns left off, Jay G. Tate offers his personal profile of Neil Caudle. He notes (as he had before) that Tony Franklin wrote Caudle off early, but with the new staff ...

Auburn wrapped spring practice without a clear No. 1 atop the depth chart at quarterback, which has to be considered a victory for Caudle. Armed with confidence, accuracy and an unusual drive to revive his career, Caudle is expected to be a major player in the quarterback race during two-a-days.

It's my opinion that Caudle's interception problems of 2008 were a function of compromised confidence. Franklin's approach to coaching football, which includes surprisingly blunt assessments, clearly didn't work well for Caudle. He lost his swerve. He has regained most of it.

As you might expect after reading that excerpt and knowing that Tate expects Burns to play back-up again, Tate predicts that Caudle will open the season as the starter.

He speaks! A New Orleans television station offers a quickie video preview of Auburn as part of a series on LSU's 2009 opponents. Not much to learn from the committed Auburn fan's perspective, but you will hear from Ryan Pugh and Caudle on the coaching transition (albeit for about 12 seconds total). Here's a shocker: they're pretty damn happy about it, and my sense is probably even moreso than they can let on in front of the camera. For his part, Caudle--who has an accent every bit as thick as you'd hope, at least if you've been living in Michigan for three years--is up front that the switch is "great for me" before adding it's also "great for the program."

Chris Todd: yes, he's still here. The following Ben Tate quote from Luke Brietzke's blog has created a bit of a stir, because until it was said you would have most assuredly filed "Chris Todd throws the ball too hard" under "things that no one would ever, ever say under any non-torture-related and/or sarcastic circumstances." Butt here it is nonetheless:

“Chris Todd, he puts some zing on that ball. He can throw it pretty hard. You can definitely tell that his shoulder was injured last spring and it’s getting a lot better now. He’s going to be a guy to keep an eye on. He might start easing his way up the depth chart. You never know. … I have to tell him sometimes, ‘Hey Chris. Don’t throw it so hard to me. We’re just playing catch. We’re just trying to get warmed up.’”

I mean, seriously: Chris Todd?!? Maybe his shoulder really is better. And if it is, you have to take Todd seriously as a possible starter. (Yes, you do. And finish your broccoli.)

I still think Todd has an uphill climb ahead of him, since he'll be the least mobile of the four quarterbacks seen as legitimate candidates for the job in an offense that does prize mobility. And while his gimpy shoulder was probably the biggest of his issues last season, it's not like his decision-making was exactly crisp and pristine, either. But who knows? If he's healthy, he'll have his say in fall camp. (If you've got a Rivals account, you can read more here.)

More. That must-read Brietzke post also features a basic breakdown of the QB position, some interesting quotes from both Burns and Todd, and Ben Tate's take on all the QB's, not just Todd. I don't how much I ought to read into this ...

“Kodi and Neil are both looking good. Neil’s working hard. I’ve never seen Neil work quite this hard. I guess now that the opportunity presented itself he’s working really hard. Kodi’s feeling the pressure. Neil and Kodi are out there throwing sometimes on their own. I guess they’re both thinking the same thing. Sometimes I look out there and they’re asking guys to stay out there and catch balls and they’re definitely working hard.”

... but doesn't it seem, just a little bit, that the reason both guys are working as hard as they are is because Caudle made the decision to go all out and Burns is "feeling the pressure" and trying to make sure he doesn't fall behind? Again, I'm not certain that's what Tate is trying to say, but if that's the case, it's not really a great compliment about Burns's work ethic. Also from Tate: Rollison has "a cannon."

There's nothing stunning from Todd or Burns, but the former's description of his previous attempts to return from injury and the latter's obvious emphasis on being "the man" are definitely worth a look.

Lastly, if there's one way that two QB's are better than one ... it's in a hypothetical barfight.

Review of DEATH: Vanderbilt

2009-07-09T12:59:00.000-04:00

The series that tries to look forward to what could go right by looking back at what went wrong.

What we expected: Well, after the second half against Tennessee I think "expectations" for the offense were well out the window. Anything could happen with that bunch. Sudden burst of explosiveness built on the steps taken against LSU? Sure. Regression to the futility of the Miss. St. and Tennessee games (or worse), even againbst a 'Dore defense that ranked dead last in the SEC coming into this game? Sure, that too. Some peculiar mish-mash in the middle where one thing (Burns QB draws?) works and everything else doesn't, and sometime towards the end of the third quarter a collection of armored knights riding ostriches emerge from the visitors' tunnel chased by a pterodactyl in the Vandy theater group's guerilla tribute to Joust? Everything was in play. Well, except for Auburn scoring more than, say, 24 points. That was out.

But the consensus? Auburn's D would choke enough life out of the erratic, turnover-fueled 'Dore offense to squeeze out a win, even if with Gameday on hand and a virtually certain bowl berth on the line, this was the biggest game for Vanderbilt in 20-plus years. The spread was Auburn -4, yours truly predicted a three-point scrape, and as much nervousness as there was about the haplessness of the offense, no one seemed comfortable predicting an Auburn loss to Vanderbilt just yet.

What happened: Vanderbilt 14, Auburn 13, a score that does nothing to suggest the unendurable frustration of the second half, in which Auburn's drive chart looked like this:

AU 3rd A09 15:00 Kickoff A17 13:18 Punt 3-8 1:42
AU 3rd A23 11:47 Missed FG A24 10:01 Punt 3-1 1:46
AU 3rd A32 07:09 Kickoff A35 05:56 Punt 3-3 1:13
AU 3rd A47 03:26 Missed FG V39 01:24 Punt 7-14 2:02
AU 4th A50 14:48 Punt A36 12:37 Punt 3--14 2:11
AU 4th A08 09:25 Punt A25 07:57 Punt 4-17 1:28
AU 4th A21 06:33 Punt A19 02:51 Punt 7--2 3:42
AU 4th A03 02:16 Punt A03 02:07 Interception 1-0 0:09

Take a look at the right column, and the number of plays per drive read like this: 3, 3, 3, 7, 3, 4, 7, 1. Not one of those drives covered more than 17 yards. One of them crossed midfield; stalled at the Vandy 39. I wrote in the game's wake--and if there was ever a game that deserved the fallout be dubbed a "wake," it was this one--that it was the most frustrated, the most angry I'd been watching an Auburn football game since Terry Bowden's final season, and nearly a year later, I stand by that. This was a game that would have been won with ease by any team with a halfway-competent offense, but Auburn's offense--featuring two quarterbacks, two-tight end sets, spreads, and everything in-between except success--was about 1/20th-competent. And despite giving up just 14 points and 263 yards and finishing dead-even in turnover margin, Auburn lost. I'm usually the type of fan who screams during or immediately after a big play but doesn't go ballistic at the final whistle in the event of a loss; this time I'd watched the game at a friend's house, stormed out as soon as it was finished, and swore a blue streak the whole drive home.

Looking back, I would call this game the low point of the decade for Auburn football and the Tuberville era. From 2000-2008, Auburn was a legitimate SEC contender. After this game, they weren't. It's kind of that simple.

One other note worth making here: the margin of victory here was provided by a missed extra point by Wes Byrum. If there's any single Auburn player who you might cruelly pick out as the Season of DEATH poster boy, it would have to be poor Foot Lauderdale, who went from Florida-beating savior to, well, missing game-deciding extra points in a one-point loss to Vandy.

The vibe when all was said and done: I think this FanPost at Track'Em pretty well summed it up. Plus, it gave the JCCW its nickname for the 2008 season and a title for this series, so, yeah, it's kind of a big deal.

More specifically, this is where Auburn fan support--or, rather, the lack thereof--for Franklin reached critical mass. After Tennessee, I think the general consensus was "Wow, this isn't working, but maybe it can get turned around somehow"; after Vandy, it became "this isn't going to work, and the plug should be pulled." In a recap of how Auburn's offense had come to such a state of disaster, even I said I would support Franklin's firing if he didn't improve against Arkansas.

My reaction to the result itself:

If there's any tiny, insignificant shred of silver lining in the freaking funnel cloud that blew through the Auburn football teams last Saturday, it's that there aren't any more illusions about the defense winning the SEC West title singlehandedly or sneaking some sort of backdoor BCS at-large bid. There's no expectations any more; I for one don't feel like there's any pressure on the team outside of the demand they don't completely embarrass themselves again between now and the Iron Bowl.

Because--as with 2007 after the LSU loss--that's the only game that matters now. Oh, a win over Georgia would be swell, don't get me wrong. But Auburn 2008 is now a one-game season, with every other contest between now and November 29 a glorified exhibition in order to get the Tigers prepared for Tuscaloosa and the Tide. It's not the way I'd like it, but that's the way it is.

I'm not sure every Auburn fan would have signed off on those sentiments, but in any case, the preseason expectation of SEC West titles and national acclaim--already on life support after the UT game--had finally had the stake driven through its feeble heart.

The JCCW, looking prescient for once: From the Friday preview:

Boy oh boy, doesn't it feel like everything's perfectly in place for Vandy? They've had a week off, the place is sold out, they just need this one win to get over the hump, and it's all playing out in front of a national spotlight the likes of which Vandy has never seen. Remember a couple of years ago when Rutgers was in the middle of the same kind of "We've finally arrived!" streak, hosted Louisville in the big Thursday nighter in front of more fans than those players had ever seen, and won when the Cardinals jumped offside on a field goal try for no reason? Remember last year, when Mississippi St. needed one more miracle to wrap up a winning season, all looked lost, and Ole Miss handed them the ball at midfield for no reason--there's one TD--before Pegues returned a punt for the second score and the win? Weird things happen with these kinds of teams, man, weird things.

Yes, I think Byrum missing an extra point, the goal-line stand for Vandy to start the game, and the wave of Auburn penalties all wound up in the category of "weird things." Even last year, I still think Auburn beats the 'Dores more times than not.

The JCCW, looking foolish as usual: The very next paragraph from that same post:

Three times this season Auburn has come out and looked thoroughly lost on offense. The first two times, they came back the following week and performed, if not brilliantly, at least competently. It seems only logical the seesaw would once again tilt in the opposite direction after the horrorshow last week.

Not quite.

What we learned about 2008: That whether the end came that week, in two weeks, or at the end of the season, Tony Franklin's Auburn career was finished, broken beyond repair. It wasn't that what Auburn was doing wasn't working--it's that Auburn wasn't even doing anything in particular. Betwene the quarterback controversy, the various new formations, the tug-of-war between Tubby and Franklin, the tug-of-war between Franklin and his assistants, the public calling-out of Franklin's play-calling by a handful of players after the Vandy game ... I mean, I'm not sure I've ever seen an offense anywhere being so obviously pulled in so many different directions. There was no there there. And so when the ax fell later that week, yeah, as I said at the time, it was probably the only move tubby could make. The offense would be in the hands of incompetents, but at least it would know whose hands it was in.

What we learned about 2009: First of all: we need the old Wes Byrum back. Please. I don't know if any team with Gus Malzahn as its offensive coordinator will ever find itself mired in a series of 14-12, 14-13 slugfests, but it doesn't change the fact that at multiple times this year Auburn will find itself in the kind of tense, tight game where an extra point or chip-shot field goal. And with all due respect to Dr. YellaShoes, I'd love to be able to rely on the guy whose been through those mental wars before and who we've seen win them at one time. Get ya head right, Wes.

Second, that Malzahn can't second-guess himself and start installing things that aren't what he'd usually install. (And, of course, Chizik can't order him to do so.) Yes, it was awesome when Auburn opened in the two-TE set and drove the ball down Vandy's throat for a quarter. But refining that set to the point where Auburn could put it on the field came at a cost: the offensive players lost whatever last bits of belief they had in the spread, lost some of their comfort within those sets, became even more divided mentally than they had been already.

Malzahn seems too smart to undermine his own offseason efforts halfway through the season, and hopefully Chizik's too smart to do the undermining for him. But even if the coaching staff is all on the same page, the page shouldn't get turned just because the offense is sputtering. Based on the results from the Vandy game (and the Tennessee game and Arkansas game, of course), the long-term answer is probably to get better at what the team has already learned rather than trying to learn something new on the midseason fly. Seems obvious, but if the Spread Eagle 2.0 limps along as badly as its predecessor did the first couple of weeks, you know there's goign to be plenty of calls from fans and in the media for Malzahn to start moving towards traditional sets.

We tried that last year. It didn't work.

Heroes walk amongst us

2009-07-09T11:52:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of content this a.m., late start. To make it up to you, enjoy this concrete piece of evidence that the the younger generation is not, as so often assumed, lost:

Actual post up soon. (HT: Justin.)

Krootin' 7/8

2009-07-08T14:17:00.000-04:00

Banneker boys. First, for no other reason than that I haven't embedded them before now, seven-plus minutes' worth of Shaun Kitchens highlights:

Second, Auburn's next commitment could be Kitchens' teammate at Banneker High in College Park, Ga., Demetruce McNeal. According to J.C. Shurbutt:

Athlete Demetruce McNeal (College Park, Ga./Banneker) recently received a written offer from Auburn, firming up the Tigers' interest in him. This makes Auburn the clear leader in the race for his services.

McNeal would be the lowest-rated member of Auburn's 2010 class-to-date, with a 5.6 grade from Rivals, an icky 75 from ESPN, and the No. 72 spot in the safety rankings at Scout. But McNeal camped at Auburn not too long ago, so it's not like Auburn's coaches wouldn't know what they're getting, and it's also not like Auburn isn't in some serious need for a safety or two after Christian Thompson's dismissal.

Super, thanks for asking. The Press-Register has released its "Super Southeast 120" list and there's a goodly number of prospects with some level of Auburn interest involved. Beaver has that run-down for you. Items of interest:

--Auburn's commitments did maybe a little better than expected. At No. 47, Jeremy Richardson gets more of his four-star Rivals treatment than the Scout skepticism; at No. 86, Jawara White ranks above several consensus four-star recruits like Craig Sanders, Antonio Goodwin, Jalston Fowler, Eric Mack, etc.

--No surprise Marcus Lattimore tops the list, but Michael Dyer ranking third over guys like DeMarcus Milliner and Trovon Reed is interesting.

--At No. 41, just ahead of Florida wideout commit Solomon Patton, it's clear the gurus expect LaDarius Owens to be a stud. Speaking of which ...

Linebacker trouble? RBR's OTS in his weekly recruiting update:

LaDarius Owens has made some positive news for the Tide as of late. As I previously said, we really need to have him postpone his decision as long as possible, and now it looks like he will not be deciding before the season starts. Auburn is still his clear leader, but we are staying alive. And, interestingly enough, Owens recently said in an interview that the schools recruiting him the hardest were Alabama, Tennessee, and LSU. No mention of Auburn. Given the Tigers' great need for Owens, that struck me as really odd. You can make plenty of valid criticisms against Chizik and company, but a lack of energy and intensity on the recruiting trails certainly isn't one of them. Perhaps they feel they have Owens in the bag? I do find it to be a bit of a mistake to not be going after him as hard as others, given how badly they need him.They will probably get him regardless, but I see no reason to be taking chances.

Suffice it to say, if Auburn's coaches are in fact taking it easy on Owens, I do not either. I would argue Owens is as big a recruit for Auburn in this class as their is: he's an Auburn legacy, a winnable in-state battle, by all accounts a tremendous prospect, and all at a position where Auburn is in desperate need. It's hard to see how letting him get away wouldn't be a massive blow to the new staff's claims about rebuilding Auburn's in-state recruiting, not to mention, you know, the football team itself.

On top of that, Nigel Terrell came back from a trip to Kentucky saying nice things about the Wildcats. Certainly nothing to panic about (in fact, it's possible that an Owens commitment would mean Auburn was done at linebacker, though as short as they are I doubt it), but it's something to be aware of.

Linemen. From that same Terrell link comes this article on Eric Mack from The State. If you want to be optimistic, he mentions that Auburn and Alabama are the only schools he's already decided he'll take official visits to. If you want to be pessimistic ...

But his college choice is not the only variable causing Mack to grow up fast.

Fatherhood weighs on his mind as well.

Mack has a 1-year-old daughter, Kaliyah, who lives with her mother in Orangeburg.

“It impacts a lot,” Mack said. “I don’t want to be too far so I can’t get home if something is wrong. But I don’t want to be too close and have all these distractions.”

Uh, when those "distractions" also equal home cookin' and all your regular day-to-day friends, are they really a negative? Bottom line: I'll be surprised if Mack goes out of state.

Which means Auburn fans might want to shift their attention to ... uh, Wes Rea? He visited Auburn last weekend as part of a baseball tournament and apparently doesn't have an offer yet from the SEC's heavier hitters, so maybe Auburn can get involved (if he doesn't decide to just play baseball instead).

Now for some good news. Michael Dyer apparently told Rivals that not only was Auburn still his leader, but Tennessee and LSU were the teams with the best shot at prying him away. That last bit of data is probably the sort of thing that will change by the end of the month, but as long as Dyer's still saying good things about Auburn, the glass is going to stay half full.

Volswatch. Maybe the two events aren't connected. But maybe it's not coincidence that just after Jesse Scroggins admits he's troubled by Kiffykins' avalanche of secondary violations, the Vols became the second halfway-decent program to offer fallback quarterback Chase Rettig? We can only hope, since it would lead to even more awesome posts from 3SiB like this one.

Etc. Albertville center Zach Underwood is hoping for an Auburn offer ... the answer to the first question posed here is apparently yes, for whatever it's worth.