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.
--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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 everywhereyoulooked: 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 interestingquote.
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.
"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.)
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.
--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.
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.
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?
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".
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.
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:
--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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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:
Auburn’s big annual series all seem to have an overriding trend, even if they haven’t held up perfectly over the last couple of seasons: the LSU game is won by the home team, the Georgia game by the road team, the Iron Bowl by the favorite. The Arkansas game, however, belongs to the underdog. Tubby may have struggled madly as a favorite against Houston Nutt’s Hogs, but don’t forget that the turn from outright catastrophe to passable accomplishment in both 2003 and 2007 was made, in part, at the expense of what were supposed to be Nutt’s two best teams.
So Auburn will at least have this going for it when the Tigers square off against the Hogs this season: it’s supposed to be their year for once. Or, at the very least, it's not supposed to be Auburn's year. So, uh ... we've got them right where we want them, right?
Last year: After five games, the Hogs looked like the worst team in the SEC, having squeaked past I-AA Western Illinois and UL-Monroe by a combined five points before getting annihilated by Texas, Alabama, and Florida by a combined 98.
From that point on, while the Hogs didn't exactly catch fire--no team legitimately "hot" loses in Starkville, do they?--they were more-than-respectable, winning at Auburn, downing eventual bowl winners Tulsa and LSU, and losing nailbiters to Kentucky and Ole Miss. Despite the hiccups to start the year, one questionable pass interference call against the Rebels (one the Hog partisans I know will be more than happy to swear at you about) might have been the only thing keeping a team gutted by graduation from making a bowl anyway. Thus, you know, the optimism for 2009.
Notable previous meeting: In 1984, first-year Arkansas coach Ken Hatfield took over for Lout Holtz and guided the Hogs to a 7-3-1 record and a berth in the Liberty Bowl, where they prepared to take on Pat Dye's 8-4 Auburn team in the first-ever meeting between the two proud programs. That year, Liberty Bowl organizers adopted a new logo including the famous Liberty Bell, and at the annual team dinner, unveiled a mini-replica of the bell to be used as a centerpiece for the head table and a trophy for the winner.
Unfortunately, the replica had been made with one noticeable flaw--namely, that it didn't include the instantly-recognizable crack featured on the original. According to reports, Arkansas players and coaches were milling about with bowl organizers after the dinner, and joking about the missing crack, when starting Hog defensive tackle Jackson "Wild Man" Jennings offered to put a crack in the bell free of charge. Before organizers could ask Jennings what exactly he meant, Jennings viciously headbutted the bell in what he later admitted was his attempt to crack it. Unfortunately for him, the bell had been cast out of the same iron alloy that made up the original, and Jennings would suffer a mild concussion that would hold him out of the game two days later.
With Jennings absent from the Razorback line, Bo Jackson would roll to 193 yards and MVP honors in a 21-15 Auburn win.
Actual series history: Auburn and Arkansas have still played just 18 times, with Auburn holding a 10-7 edge and the two teams playing a single tie, 24-24, in 1992. The road team has gone 6-1 in this series over the past seven years.
Causes for Alarm
1. Look, we can be honest about this, can we? "Razorbacks" is an incredible nickname. I mean, come on, it's a feral pig with a razor for a back. According to Wikipedia, not only are the Hogs the only team with a porcine nickname in D-I (or professional sports), but the name was chosen in a vote of the student body in 1910. Pretty shrewd choice there, 1910 Arkansas students, and no doubt it's the resulting approval of the football gods that enabled the Hogs to escape the collapsing SWC for the cushy confines of the SEC ... unless you think it's just coincidence the lame-O SMU "Mustangs" and Houston "Cougars" are still kicking around Conference USA.
2. The weird thing about playing Arkansas is that your odds are much, much better that you're going to wind up playing some multiple-overtime instant classic ... and much, much better that you're going to end up losing said classic, as the Hogs have compiled a 7-1 overtime record since 1996, a record that includes games lasting six, six, and seven overtimes. If Auburn's going to win, they'd better od it in regulation, is what I'm saying.
Causes for Confidence
1. If there's any karma to be had from the coaches on the two sidelines, it's all going to be in Auburn's favor. Petrino is still the same slimeball who decided he'd be more than happy to listen to the slimeball Auburn administrators flying into Louisville in the dead of night while he still had games to prepare for; now that those particular slimeballs are nearly all gone or emasculated, Petrino should have some debt to our fine football program that needs to be paid in the form of, I don't know, a heartbreaking last-second loss or something.
On top of that, Arkansas is still the same program that hired Gus Malzahn in what was quickly revealed to be a transparent attempt at recruiting his players, then ignored many of his schemes and ideas in the process of eventually running him out of town before the cultists behind him caused the man in charge too much trouble. Arkansas still owes Malzahn a debt, one that needs to be paid in the form of, I don't know, a heartbreaking last-second loss or something.
2. Man, what's happened to Arkansas? Consider some of the, um, characters from the Hogs fairly recent past: Nolan Richardson, Darren McFadden, the Dick brothers, Joe Kines, Matt Jones, Houston GIGGITY Nutt and the Flying Circus trailing behind him, Corliss Williamson ... dude, not only was there a freaking President showing up to their games not that long ago, it just happened to be the President who'd do things like this:
Not that all of these guys were totally upstanding role models at all times, but at least they were interesting. Now their head football coach is a bloodless robotic mercenary, the only defining characteristic of their current basketball coach's tenure is a willingness to suspend anything that moves, and as for the players, well, we don't even have so much as a Dick joke to make at their expense any more. It's just not the same scene, man, and I know I can't be the only one disappointed by this turn of affairs. They'll pay for not keeping us entertained one day.
Actual alleged analysis: I'm not going to enjoy this section of the preview. Here, I'll quote Phil Steele (slightly de-abbreviationed) on the Hogs:
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.
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: onetwothreefour. 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.
"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."
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...
“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.
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.
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.
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.
