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But they don't get a complete pass on accountability for 3-4 years, not at these prices. These guys are paid ridiculously to recruit and to instruct. They are accountable for their instruction from day one.
The coaches cannot control the talent level or the depth that have inherited, but they can and should get the most out it. When the team repeatedly commits stupid penalties and fails to cover kicks, these are more problems of instruction than talent and/or depth. True, the coverage teams do not have the front line players that at one time populated the Tuberville coverage teams (my stock example is that Ronnie Brown, a 2nd overall pick in the NFL draft, was probably the best player on the 04 punt coverage team), but SEC teams have been covering kicks with walk-ons my entire life -- and doing it effectively. It is also true that practice limitations make training the kicking teams more difficult, but every program is subject to the same rules. Auburn's kick coverage was declining over the last 2 years, but it is demonstrably worse this year compared to both past teams and the norm. These are costly problems. When your defense is as weak as Auburn's has been at times, field position is critical. This D will give up big points on a short field, as the LSU and Arky games demonstrate.
The coaches also have accountability for the fact that our punt return team frequently adds 10-15 yards to the offense's work because we don't field punts. I can understand letting them go when you've experienced as many muffs and fumbles as Auburn has, but I am not sure I have seen a big time college football program with a punt return team as incompetent as Auburn's has been through 8 games. There may have been one, or several, but none come immediately to my mind. 99% of D-I college teams can catch and modestly return a punt on a consistent basis. We can't.
I have read that the coaches decided to limit live contact during pre-season practice because of the depth situation. While that makes sense to me in one sense, it is dubious in another. You cannot improve tackling, or for that matter any other physical activity -- free throws, golf swing-- by not doing it. I am not sure you are better off having starters with rusty tackling skills in the game or a redshirt freshman back-up who has been knocking people down repeatedly. When the object of the game is to get the other guy on the ground as quickly and as close to the LOS as possible, it seems odd to limit practicing doing just that -- depth or no depth. I am willing to be patient, but the staff should be accountable for the fact that tackling has regressed from last season (and to my thinking, from the beginning of the season). I have seen at least two SEC teams with marginal depth and middling talent -- Kentucky and Vanderbilt -- whose defensive players tackle much more effectively than Auburn's. Auburn gets players around the ball, they just don't make enough plays. Instead, they take incorrect angles or come to the ball carrier out of control. To me, this is a teaching/coaching issue primarily -- not completely, but primarily.
I am not a fire the assholes now kind of guy. Our record is actually one game better than I expected it to be at this point in the season, so I am not upset that we are 5-3. I realize that these things take time, and I am willing to wait. I am concerened about certain aspects of this staff, however. I want to see improvement where improvement is reasonable and expected. I remember Pat Dye's first team pretty well. That was a team of limited talent, lacking in depth (Pat ran a whole bunch of guys off). That team went 5-6, but it tackled well and was relatively sound in the kicking game. It played two teams that were vastly superior -- Nebraska and Alabama -- on the road (Legion Field was the road) to the bitter end before losing, You have to be able to tackle and maintain field position to compete. We are not doing those things. That is on the coaching staff. This coaching staff.
As I have said before, I like the spirit and the energy that this group of coaches displays. I think the problems I have identified can get corrected. But probably not this year. But they should be corrected well before 3-4 years have passed.
Our coaches are trying to yield a productive team that's built upon someone else's recruiting philosophy(TT). We all know that TT's recruiting yield diminished over the last 2 to 3 seasons. I think CGC and company will put a team on the field that's mediocre until they've had a couple of recruiting season's under their belt. Tator Tot (like Nutt at OM has) inherited talent that Dye was already accumulating, he left the cupboards bare though for TT. TT did a great recruiting job for years....then went into Elmer Fudd mode around '06 (duck season) and basically left the cupboards "poorly stocked"...
Saying this new coaching staff is accountable is just wrong. They get 3-4 years to recruit, refine, and produce. What's happened over the past 3 weeks is a mystery to me. It seems like it should be the result of coaching, but maybe the element of surprise/overachieving by our offense was enough to sustain us for the 5 wins out of the gate. The defense and QB play are our most obvious liabilities this year, but keep in mind "We're rebuilding....and a hardhat is required on the AU construction site".....chin up and bob's your uncle, and all that.
