In case you were wondering if Gus Malzahn was really going to make that U-turn…
No doubt that will last until Gus needs another scapegoat for a lack of offensive production.
Category Archives: Auburn’s Cast of Thousands
His work there is done.
Shot.
“When I decided to go back and call plays, that’s really who I am. I’m an offensive guy,” Malzahn said at SEC Football Media Days. “When I’m back in the swing of things, the day-in and day-out coaching on the field, what happens is the whole team takes on my personality. It just feels natural. I wasn’t really good at standing back and watching you.”
Chaser.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands
Incorporating the rabbit’s foot into the game plan
I have long enjoyed Jerry Hinnen’s writing, and this piece on the last Georgia-Auburn game is no exception. He makes a cool comparison with the way the key fourth down play in the 2005 game went with the way the key fourth down play this past Saturday went.
What’s most enjoyable is Jerry’s exploration of karma as it’s effected the series.
What he does is fumble. What the fumble does is stay in-bounds. What Taylor does is make the recovery. And what Auburn does immediately afterwards is run out the clock, kick a chip-shot field goal, and move to 15-7-1 against Georgia over a 23-year span.
As more than one than one gleeful Dawg has pointed out since Saturday, in the series’ 15-year-span since that play, Auburn’s gone 3-12. THREE AND BLEEPING TWELVE. A Georgia fan might argue that if not for the bounce of the ball in Athens in 2005 and Jordan-Hare in 2013, we’d be talking about a 2-14 stretch, but it’s hard for me not to feel like those two games are some form of repayment for all the do-or-die late-fourth-quarter drives Auburn hasn’t finished.
I’m not sure enough is ever going to happen for the 2013 ending to constitute repayment in full. At a minimum, Georgia’s gonna be owed for many games coming. But enough on that, what I find worth noting is the notion that reliance on luck is part of Auburn’s formula if it’s to turn the series around.
Contrasting Cox’s throw with Nix’s is to point out that if Auburn’s going to bring this series back to parity, it’s going to take both ends of that 2005 play. It’s going to take better luck than Georgia’s lone fumble tumbling out of bounds from several yards away while Auburn’s is recovered by the Dawgs; than the officials reversing a critical late-game catch they could have easily let stand; than the accumulation of events that left Auburn with zero points from 5 separate trips inside the Georgia 40.
No, he’s definitely not claiming that luck is the only way the Tigers are going to beat Georgia. But he’s not kicking the old adage about being lucky rather than good out of bed, either. I know, almost every great team is the beneficiary of a good break or two now and then. It’s just that it’s not something I count on for my team to win. Maybe that’s just the difference between being a Georgia fan and an Auburn one.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
Is this good? Asking for a fan base.
I’m curious. Back when Richt was in town, there was a consensus from a sizeable group that Auburn’s ups and downs were preferable to Georgia’s steadiness — that an occasional, truly lousy season was worth the price for playing for national championships every so often and beat a regular ten-win trip without the glitter.
In light of Auburn’s current state and Georgia’s, how many of you feel that way now?
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
Outsourcing to Spencer Hall
From the current Banner Society email:
This is what it’s like to watch 2019 Auburn football, by Spencer
Someone in this game had to be fun, because it sure as shit wasn’t going to be Georgia. Georgia is this year’s excellent zero-fun-added football team of record, doing nothing to make a game any more interesting than it absolutely has to be. Jake Fromm will throw for 100 yards, and all of them will be crucial and necessary yards to get. D’Andre Swift will run for almost exactly 100 yards. Kirby Smart will coach the game like it’s 1982 and he is possessed by the spirit of Pat Dye, because Kirby Smart a) is the kind of coach who would happily ban football games involving more than 40 points combined, and b) has definitely lost at least one pair of pants in Lake Martin. Note: I bet Kirby Smart is so football-conservative that he misses ties.
What’s your point, dude?
Georgia is the wealthy funeral home director of college football teams right now. They may be well off, but no one wants to watch what they do to get there. The Bulldogs got exactly what they wanted when they hired Nick Saban’s defensive coordinator: a team that looks and plays just like 2009 Alabama. No one liked watching them win things, either.
Well, almost no one. Personally, I couldn’t take my eyes off the game in the fourth quarter.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
Fergit, hayell.
I surely do hope the coaches used a special moment during this week’s game prep to get the proper amount of hate on.
There’s a tried and true way to stop a man from gloating, Dawgs. Just sayin’.
Filed under Auburn's Cast of Thousands, Georgia Football
