Orange and Blue Hue » SEC Pussycats gored by Big East Bulls

SEC Pussycats gored by Big East Bulls

I can’t harp on it any more, Auburn is not an elite college football program. Tuberville was a mediocre coach before the miracle year of 2004 and somehow he gets far more love from the press than he deserves because he was “cheated” from a chance at a national title. The 2004 Auburn team was a mirage. The only thing those Tigers were cheated from is a blowout loss in a Title game matchup. Instead they were able to (barely) beat an inferior Virginia Tech team and at least claim they were undefeated. I doubt Auburn could have beaten Oklahoma let alone Matt Leinhart and Reggie Bush’s USC squad. That would have just ended up being an embarrassment to the league.

Let us put Auburn in perspective. Alabama is a state with a high football passion and produces a fair share of quality athletes. Tuberville’s heyday was helped considerably by the flagship program of the state, the University of Alabama, being on probation and in turmoil during Tuberville’s rise. It was during this time that Auburn was able to lure talented players like Jason Campbell, Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown (not to mention Giants running back Brandon Jacobs who transferred to Southern Illinois for playing time). Let’s not forget that although the Tigers were indeed 13-0 in 2004 Tuberville was only able to squeeze 8 wins out of those same great players the year before.

During Auburn’s pathetic offensive display on Saturday night we heard how Auburn has more wins over the past three seasons than LSU, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. Well la dee freakin da people. Were you overly impressed with Auburn’s 11-2 record last season? The Tigers were an opportunistic team that had the ability to beat better teams (LSU, Florida, Nebraska) by capitalizing on mistakes or poor coaching decisions but could also get easily run off the field if an opposing team played well (Georgia, Arkansas).

The SEC was a much different place in 2004 than it is today. There were no great teams in 2004 - LSU, Georgia and Tennessee were good but not great teams, Florida and Alabama were down and South Carolina was a patsy. Auburn didn’t have competitive non-conference games on the schedule back then. Games against South Florida and Kansas State were instead played against teams like Louisiana Tech and the Citadel. All the pieces fell into place for an Auburn team that was experienced and stacked with NFL talent (yet still not a dominant team despite all the future NFL draft picks).

Last year Auburn signed one of its best recruiting classes ever. Yet just over 6 months later the class has been decimated by academic casualties. Almost one third of the class, 9 recruits, were unable to qualify into school for Coach Tuberville. So much for what some pundits were calling the “best recruiting class in Tuberville’s coaching career”. Two other recruits Nick Fairley and Chris Slaughter are still awaiting word from the NCAA clearinghouse and thus are unable to practice with the team.

Anyone who watched Auburn’s season opener also knows that we are probably a Kansas State fumble away from talking about the Tigers 0-2 start and an SEC power losing to both the Big East AND Big 12 conferences early into the season. Kansas State outplayed Auburn for most of the game; although against that inept Auburn offense such a display is hardly surprising. Auburn doesn’t look like a typical SEC team. They are a smallish team on both sides of the ball but are better than middle of the pack in terms of speed. There isn’t a player on Auburn’s squad that scares SEC coaches (and I’m guessing that the Big 12 and Big East coaches aren’t all that intimidated either). They just don’t have the horses on the line to dominate their opponent nor the playmakers at the skill positions to create a sudden change of momentum.

Most of the Tigers talent is on the defensive side of the ball which causes the type of talent imbalance that the folks in Tallahassee are currently dealing with. While the recruiting errors aren’t as great as we see Tally (where the Noles will sign 5 High School All American linebackers and 2 average offensive linemen in a class and declare it “loaded” to their fans) they suggest a team that will be forced to play conservative on offense and hope the defense carries them. This leads to the type of conservative games that Auburn has played the past few years and also leads to the types of blowouts that occur if Auburn gets down early.

This takes nothing away from South Florida who is clearly as talented as Auburn and has better playmakers but this isn’t as much a win for the Bulls as a loss for the Tigers. It was just a matter of time before we saw the cracks in the foundation at Auburn. The Tigers can still finish the year with 7-9 wins and a lower tier bowl game. But this isn’t a rebuilding year. This is the current and future state of Auburn football. Tiger fans better start getting used to their annual trips to the Peach and Liberty Bowls in the coming years. At least until Auburn decides to make a change at the top and land a coach capable of competing against the Sabans, Spurriers, Meyers, Miles and Richts of the world.

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Thought this post was a little heavy handed. I grew up in Alabama, in the ’60s, as a Crimson Tide fan. Went to UF in ‘69 and never looked back. I have watched Auburn since the Shug Jordan days. Auburn has been an upper echelon SEC football program for a very long time. In all those years, they have rarely fielded a high powered offense. The majority of their teams have been scrappy offensively and tough, opportunistic defensively. They are very much like the UGA, Dooley teams in the regard. If you let them stay close until the end of the game they would almost always beat you.
Tuberville is not a great coach but I never look at the Auburn game as a sure win. Too many years to remember when they beat or kicked our asses.
It’s not time to write their epitaph.

It was very heavy-handed. Keltic Gator and I don’t always agree but he never comes without a lot of passion, which I like. However, I think it’s absurd to say that Auburn would have embarassed the SEC had they made it to the BCSNCG in 2004 (actually January ‘05.)

Do you remember that game… ? Oklahoma was manhandled. USC rang up a video game scores against them.

I’m fairly confident that Auburn would have made it a game. That was a good team — Jason Campbell figured it all out in ‘04 after being a nonfactor in his earlier starts.

You also can’t take away from what Auburn and Tuberville have accomplished in the SEC. Yes, Alabama was down while Auburn thrived. Yes, Tuberville has had to rely on a bit of luck to get to his win record.

But he’s won a ton of games in the SEC and he’s done it with defensively tough teams, something I appreciate and respect. This is a tough conference to win with only one half of the team producing points and opportunities for you.

Is Auburn still elite… ? I don’t know. That’s a subjective term. Right now they’re obviously struggling due to the issues you described — QB play combined with a very poor O-line performance. I ranked Cox 9th on my list of pre-season SEC QBs and took some hell for Auburn fans for it, but I stood by that call and I’m looking pretty smart today. Brandon Cox has never been a very good quarterback and never will be one. But in his defense, he’s running for his life on almost every snap. That gets into a QB’s head after a while. We here at Florida have one of (if not THE) best offensive lines protecting Tebow. Auburn can’t stop USF’s defensive line — they are going to have a tough time winning 8 or 9 games this year.

So while I agree with some of your points I think the invective was a little over the top. Auburn came in as a Top 20 team and better play at one position would have justified that. Better play from the entire offense would probably have garnered them a Top 10 ranking.

Jealousy, Jealousy, Jealousy…..

Final Score:
Auburn 27 Florida 17

Look, you won the National Title. Good Job - Enjoy it. It’s just too bad that you lost 1 game along the way. Auburn played well on defense and Florida couldn’t figure out how to move the ball.

Is Tuberville a “great” coach? Well let’s see. He was a GA and Asst DC at Miami when they were loaded. He left there and worked the D at Texas A&M when the had this little thing called the “Wrecking Crew”. He then went to Ole Miss and managed to win games in the pre - Eli Manning era, something no one as done since. He came to Auburn and built us into a very consistent program. No one in the SEC has a better record over the past 5 years.
You mentioned Auburn getting players while Bama was on probation. I am sure that helped some but Cadillac and Jason Campbell were both lifelong Auburn fans. Cadillac only looked at going to Tennessee outside of Auburn. Campbell commited to Auburn early and never waivered. Remember the nam Kodi Burns, a lifelong Arkansas Hogs fan, who T Tubs got at Auburn. He will be Auburn’s quaterback for the next 3 years.
I will compare Tuberville’s last 5 years to Saban’s 5 years at LSU, and Urban Meyers last 5 years.
Tuberville at Auburn 50W - 9L
Saban at LSU 45W - 16L
Urban Meyer 53W - 11L
Tuberville head to head stats
Tubs vs Saban 3W - 2L
Tubs vs Meyer 1W - 0L
All three of these guys benefited from an undefeated season. Urban Meyer had 2 years at Utah playing no one. So Tubervilles stats aren’t skewed. Auburn was terrible when he took over. He was 5th in the SEC West his 1st year and has not been worse than a tie for 2nd since. Look, hate us if you want, we win ugly. It’s boring, stressful football but this guy wins games and runs a clean program.
A few more head to head records
Tubs vs Richt 3W - 3L
Tubs vs Miles 1W - 1L (thanks to 5 missed fg)
Tubs vs Spurrier 2W - 3L (2W -2L at Auburn)
One last thing - explain how 2004 wasn’t dominant. Auburn had only 2 games played within a touchdown. They won and won big.

Yeah it’s jealousy. We are jealous of your one SEC Championship of the last two decades and no national title since Ford built the Edsel.

If you guys ever sniff another National Championship be sure to let us folks here in titletown know about it.

Hey, nobody is saying we WANT Auburn to suck but this is about SEC big boy football. You can’t claim to be an SEC power and then lose to the 4th or 5th best team in the Big East at home.

As for Kodi Burns, either he’s not better than Cox or he’d be playing (which means he must not be very good) or Tuberville doesn’t realize that playing the better quarterback gives you the best chance of winning. Either you have a lack of QB talent for the future or poor coaching for the future. Either way you are SCREWED!!!

I generally have a high opinion of Auburn football (especially compared to Alabama) and like Auburn’s fans.

That being said, I don’t think Tuberville is a great coach. And it’s worth pointing out that Auburn is offensively challenged. All the wins in the world don’t add up to much when you don’t ever win the SEC, much less a national championship.

Auburn is not at Florida’s level. Yeah, we gave one up to you last year — some controversy involved, but it was Auburn’s win fair and square. This year we will return the favor and be split on the series. But Auburn doesn’t have the championship quality success that Florida enjoys, nor the national prominence.

So enjoy your time in Gainesville, but please also take your whipping like men.

Thank you.

Gatormike,

1)You base USF being the “4th or 5th best team in the Big East” on what?
They very well may win the conference this year- defenses seem to be lacking in the Big East this year, and USF’s is solid, while they have some playmakers on offense, as well.

2)As for Kodi Burns, here’s your fallacy in thinking “either he’s not better than Cox or he’d be playing (which means he must not be very good) or Tuberville doesn’t realize that playing the better quarterback gives you the best chance of winning” - Kodi’s a freshman, and Tuberville seems to be trying to keep the redshirt on him. He doesn’t know enough of the offense for him to be starting, anyway (although you may see something like what UF did with Tebow last year with Burns, if they decide not to red shirt Kodi). Kodi has better gifts (stronger arm, 4.5 speed), but Cox has been starting for 2+ years and knows the offense better.

Funny, it seemed like after the Auburn/Florida game last year, every UF fan was calling for Leak’s head and wanted Tebow to start- Leak then goes on to win a national title, and all the UF fans love him again- typical bandwagon mentality of many Gator fans.

As to the OP (Keltic Gator), keep spewing the vitriol, you know not of what you speak; emotion clouds your mind, and all of that stuff. Auburn may not have a great year this year, but they will be back. Strong words coming from someone whose team has yet to play anyone with a pulse. Your team has issues on the lines, and once you start playing SEC teams, it will show.

Auburn certainly has offensive line issues, which is why I think it was good to open up with two quality opponents w/ good D-lines- they’ll be better prepared for SEC competition.

Chris Slaughter has practiced and played. Your opinion and enthusiasm is great but if you don’t know your facts you losses all credibility. No one, other than me, thought that Auburn would go undefeated or thought that we were anything other than a young club. We will grow and win and loss some games, that is SEC football. You must have forgotten the Zook years in Florida, much of what people are saying today were said about that team, player, and coaches. War Eagle!

Me thinks this analysis might have been dead on. The Tigers might be lucky to win 7 games this year.

I think the only objective way that Auburn and Tuberville can be measured is by Auburn’s record during his tenure. Using that as a measuring stick, I don’t know how you concude that Auburn is anything other than a top tier football school. Playing in the SEC, where every game can be hazardous, Auburn had the 3rd best record behinf USC and Texas over the past several years.

Sure they’re having a tough year. They have an offiensive line that’s made up entirely of freshmen, their best running back suspended, and several key defensive players out with injuries. … It’s a rebuilding year and they’re not as deep as they would like to be. … Let’s check out this team over the next two seasons and see what those players do when they have more experience under their belts.

I predict that all the fair weather Auburn fans will love Tuberville again.

I guess you were in a coma in 04. You woke up just in time to get whipped by Auburn in 06 and again tonight.
What a kick! X2 after urban’s chicken s@*t time out………Ohhhh the pain!

The Auburn mirage filled the swamp with tears. A few more Auburn wins over the gators and there may be enough tears to help restore the everglades. What can say, I’m a Bama fan but I call it like I see it.
If Auburn was a mirage in 04, I think every team in the SEC hopes they never see that mirage again.
The 04 Auburn Defense was the best the SEC has seen since 1992.
The 07 Auburn defense, which isn’t very good, was enough to shut down Tebow and the gator’s hopes for a NC repeat.

Only 2 teams have gone undefeated in the SEC since the SEC championship game began.
Those two teams are Alabama and Auburn.
Florida may have won the NC in 06, but they also lost to Auburn in 06.
You should show a little more respect for a team who’s had your number the past few years.

I almost forgot. Somebody get urban a tissue.

Tubb 2 Urban Creyer 0

Keltic,

What does crow taste like?

Bamafan, as much as I hate to say it, UF (95, 96) and UT (98) have each gone undefeated in conference play since the divisional shakeup.

I meant undefeated for the entire seasonas in 13-0 not conference play.

This is the rant of a bias blinded mad man. Who probably still cant get over the fact that his prcious Gators were beat down and outplayed.
Ill check back when gators are 8-4 this season. Thats a terribly weak defence that will be exposed by much better offences then we have.You were dominated by three 18 tear olds on the line. No chance at winning the east this year. And talk about coaching Urban Meyer although he can recruit got schooled this weekend.
Maybe he could land a Kleenex ad.

HAHAHAHAHA at Keltic

Tuberville owns Meyer you jort wearer

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