CONTEXT ADDED BY ADMIN:
END OF CONTEXT
I was there Saturday night and have seen this team in person at all games except Arky & LSU. I've been trying to look at things dispassionately in my mind and, truthfully we're pretty damn lucky we're not 4-6 right now, maybe even 3-7. Pre-season, we knew this would be an off year. You lose a couple of first round picks and maybe one the best QB's to play the game, 24 seniors, another junior who made a bad decision to leave early, 5 other kicked off the team and maybe a couple of other casualties and that is decimating to a team--maybe worse than being on probation. I think there are 6 semiors on this team with only 4-5 of those contributing. So yeah we're young, but even young 'uns grow up between game 1 and game 10. If you play 40 games in your entire college career, at 10 games you're 25% done with your career. You expect improvement as you go in other words. I have seen some in isolated areas, but not much, particularly as a team.
The way I see it there are 3 areas need to be able to compete at the high standard of the SEC-W. First is talent, by all accounts we've had something on the order of either top 5-10 classes over the past 2 years. Either they are top caliber talent or they are not. Most of these kids were pursued by our competition, so I don't think they were misjudged and even if so, compared to the past Auburn has done more with less than anyone in the SEC. Talented, yes but still 1-2 years out of playing high school. Other teams have talented freshmen too and for the most part they "seem" to be performing better than ours (see LSU), but that may be because they are on more experienced teams that cover their individual mistakes. All that said, I believe we have talent, but lack experience and the confidence that comes with it and we need more. We're plain short handed.
The second thing you need is coaching - both from coaching the talent up to the level it needs to be and scheme. This is the same staff that won a NC last year, so I'm willing to give MUCH latitude here, but something is clearly off. I have been saying ALL year from day one (Bald Tiger will back me on this) that something is off with CGM. He was more his old self earlier and we were putting up points. But clearly at this point, this is not his offense. Maybe CGC asked him to help the defense grow a bit, but CGM has done MUCH better with MUCH less than we have right now. He's clearly being reigned in. My only caveat to this is the O line play is not really allowing much to be done (more on this later). CTR is being held responsible for everything but the Kennedy assassination, but again, this D does not have CTR fingerprints on it in terms of scheme. It has all the earmarks of a CGC defense. I have been saying this all year too. In terms of coaching them up, I think we need a change in the secondary. We have not had a top 10 secondary since 2004. The other issue is insisting on proper tackling techniques. I am also unclear how we cannot produce better results with wide receivers. We've had disappointment after disappointment since Obomanu and Aromashodu. Lot's of potential that just doesn't develop. Despite rhetoric from the staff that the goal is championships and we're going to take what we're given, it's almost like every game is a tryout for next year. When you're disadvantaged for whatever reason, you take more risks to win. We've taken very few risks which is what you do when you have a bigger, stronger, faster more experienced team (see Bama) than the other guy. We're being very conservative and therfore more predictable on both sides of the ball. We mostly looked how we looked against LSU and UGA because they knew exactly what we were going to do on every play. They might as well have been in the huddle. We were done before the ball snapped. We haven't gotten trounced because we're not as good as everybody else, we've gotten trounced because CGC has reigned his coaches in for some reason and we're completely predictable as to what we're doing. Wayne likes irony and the irony is evident here. We don't take risks because we don't want to get burned and we get the result we don't want because we don't take risks. Taking risks may result in blowouts, but they may also result in unexpected wins such as Bama 2009 almost did.
The third thing you need is execution and I throw desire and determination in this category. These kids don't want to lose. They don't want to get boat raced by LSU and Georgia and probably Alabama. They WANT just the opposite, but how do you make that happen? How do you instill killer instincts and attitudes that "I'm not going to be beat by anyone in what I do"? It's confidence and confidence comes from success. This team has no confidence and confidence breeds leadership. You can see this in the line play, particularly the O-line. The D-line has improved a little, but still has miles to go. The O-line fires off, makes contact and then almost looks like they stand up and then look around. Nobody is driving of the ball and playing to the whistle. Honestly, they look lost. I think Clint M. has done an admirable job given the scheme limitations and no time to throw the ball.
All that said, I'm not mad or angry and I'm not a coach and I'm not screaming for anyone's head. I'm just putting my observations out there. We have performed as we have this year primarily because we purposely have done so for some reason that only CGC knows. If I were he, I'd get out of the kitchen and let CGM and CTR cook the next 2 meals and see what the heck happens.
