Kevin Scarbinsky notes Auburn’s remarkable statistical decline this season from 2010:
This team has given up 52 more points than it’s scored this season. This team is on pace to give up more points than the 2009 defense, the worst in school history. This team has scored an astounding 335 fewer points than last year when the offense set the school scoring record.
Unless I’m missing something there, that means Chizik and Roof are in the process of presiding over the two worst defensive scoring seasons in Auburn’s history. (And it’s not like 2010 was any great shakes either.) Ouch.
Get The Picture 
I’m just proud we’re responsible for nearly 80% of that spread on the point differential.
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I dispute your premise that there is genius present.
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You forgot to cut your sarcasm detector on this morning. 😉
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Gotta give them credit for still having a winning record, seems, because that team doesn’t look any better than Vanderbilt.
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Seriously, how did they beat South Carolina at full strength?
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Bad offensive game plan plus Garcia did the ‘Cocks in.
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Bad is putting it mildly.
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Senator, Ditto to you about the sarcasm detector. 😉
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I sort of figured that after I made my comment…
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Now there are rumors that Gus Malzahn is the #1 candidate with a bullet for the UNC head-coaching job (their new AD is buddy-buddy with Malzahn from when they were both at Tulsa).
Auburn lost Cam Newton and managed to hold the line at mediocre. Without Newton or Malzahn, though, they are, in the words of Eric Cartman, F’d in the A.
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The correct spelling is: “Effed in the A”. Everybody knows that.
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Did someone say Fing?
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Most correct is Fstarsed
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That’d be outstanding — I’ll feel more at ease when he he just out of the league.
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Not trying to defend Chiz or Auburn, but sometimes I just shake my head. The guys won a national championship last year. They went through a season 14-0. They also lost a ton…I mean a metric ton at that. And they are still going to win 7 games and go to a bowl.
All rational folks knew that they would be down. I agree that they need to look at Ted Roof and maybe a change will be forthcoming.
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I like Roof right where he is at.
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I think rational people look at 14-0 and recognize that season as the anomaly. Unless they can keep buying Cam Newton’s and Nick Fairley’s, they’re not going to be better than a 6-5, 7-4 team, ever.
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They didn’t buy them, the NCAA said so.
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Yes. They said that Aub recruited fairly.
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Chizick’s book: All In: What it takes to be a champion.
Foreshadowing?
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Malzahn is a great offensive coordinator. His 2009 offensive team was tough. But seriously, all this really shows me is that Cam Newton is a once-in-a-generation player. Jokes about recruitment aside, the guy is truly remarkable. Screw Bo Jackson, Newton is the closest thing Auburn’s ever going to have to a phenomenon like Herschel Walker. He came in to a mediocre-to-good team and made it great. If you take him off of the 2010 Auburn Tigers, you’ve basically got this year’s team. I think Auburn’s staff has done a very nice job getting them to this point at 6-4. But without Newton last year, Gene Chizik’s seat would be damn hot in 2012.
As far as Chizik’s defensive “genius”, it’s remarkable how average his defenses look when he doesn’t have Tuberville or Coach Boom helping out.
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Nail, head. Cam was just that friggin’ good, period. Case in point: everyone thought he would take a year or two to adapt to the NFL game and look at what he’s done in his 1st year. Not to mention he didn’t have the benefit of mini-camp, OTA’s, etc. Like him or not, he was absolutely THE reason Auburn won a title last year.
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Agreed. I said last year that Cam Newton was much better than Timmy, and it’s been borne out in the pros. He’s the closest I’ve seen to a Herschel Walker in my 40+ years of watching college football.
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Not to downplay Cam’s role, but don’t forget that Auburn graduated practically all of its OL, had its leading WR take an il–advised flyer on the NFL draft, lost it’s top 2 d-linemen, and then lost 4 more guys to the Lee County jail. All that, plus the remnants of Tubberville’s last pathetic recruiting efforts. There’s been plenty of luck involved, but credit to those guys for getting to 7.
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“lost 4 more guys to the Lee County jail”
HA! +1
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Are they still in jail? Did they see the game from behind bars? By now they should be warming up to prison sex after watchin’ the screwing we put on their former team. I’d call that horizontal-striped foreplay.
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Agree 100%. Take Cam and put him on Mississippi State’s Team (who had a decent defense by the way) and they might have won the west. Cam was just that good.
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I hope the Malzahn to UNC thing is legit, and we get him the hell out of the SEC.
Newton’s immediate success in the NFL is undeniable, but it sickens me just the same. The guy was bought and paid for, and he played for a crooked program; I don’t give a shit what the NCAA says.
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That is called MERCENARY.
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It is probably the new paradigm for the USA, it’s every man for himself; though I guess it’s mostly always been that way.
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What we did to them would be called MERCY NARY!
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Hey, at least he’s paying taxes on his income this year.
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Ho-ho … that’s a nice one!
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I don’t get the fascination with Malzahn. If Tech’s offense is high schoolish then I would consider Malzahn’s offense to be more like flag football. Last week was the healthiest Auburn’s offense has been all year and we held them to under 200 yds and 7 pts. I agree with the above posts, it was all about Cam. He made Malzahn look great. The one thing I do like about Malzahn is that he doesn’t toot his own horn…he’s virtually non-existent in the media.
I do hope he goes to UNC though; not because of his offensive genius but because it will cause even more trouble for Auburn. 🙂
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And to think that if Cam had not stolen that lap-top Urban would still be coaching at UF. He would have had a great heart.
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“opinions on Chizik and his work on the field vary” but all agree that he knows how to make an entrance
(h/t Spurticus)
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I was pretty sure AU would struggle when 22 of 24 starters graduated…I think that is the right number. I do think Scammy was an anomoly and it will be interesting to see how long Chicik gets. These fans ran of TT after his undefeated season….
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Remember, Chizik is still the guy who went from 3 wins to 2 wins in his 2 seasons at Iowa St. Granted, the payroll differences is like comparing the Royals to the Yankees, but still. Any Wil E Coyote caliber Super Genius should be able to get at least close to .500 at Iowa St.
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I’m confused. The faithful at TET proclaimed him the best coach in America just a few weeks ago, so it must be true.
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