Turmoil: Real or Perceived?

Nowhere on Earth are college football dreams sent crashing, like they are at Auburn. 

2018 was widely looked upon as the year Auburn was going to cement itself as a top tier program in the SEC along with UGA and Alabama. 

The disappointment that unfolded with these expectations has brought on the turmoil we the fans are facing today.

Reports are that Gus Malzahn has been asked to renegotiate his contract. Wednesday 11/28/2018 Tom Greene of AL.com reported a statement had been released by University officials: 

"“We don’t have a statement, and nothing has changed since statements made by both the Athletics Director and the President, which you have previously reported,” a university spokesman said in an email Wednesday afternoon."

Whether or not any such re-negotiations are in fact ongoing, one has to wonder, are the reports real, or perceived? 

The email sent by the university spokesperson would indicate the reports are false.

I am counted among those that thought, even with one of the toughest schedules in the country, Auburn should end the regular season with no more than one loss, and as a candidate in the CFB Playoff. 

Wrong.

It's been said: "Auburn is a perennial 4 to 5 loss program. Occasionally putting together great seasons." 

Today, as I type this, I can't offer evidence to suggest otherwise. Yes, there have been several seasons where Auburn went undefeated. Many more however, have suffered 5 losses.

My hope has been that Gus Malzahn could get Auburn over that hump. I would like nothing more than to have Auburn football highly ranked, at the beginning and end of every season with a shot at playing for the national championship. I would prefer Gus Malzahn be the coach that gets them to that point. 

War Eagle!

More Questions Than Answers

Life has a way of throwing you curve balls. I must admit I was never really good at hitting. Please accept my apologies for not posting as often as I have in previous football seasons. I won't bore you with the details, just know, I never meant to abandon you.

Now That I am back on the keypad, I'll try to keep the posts coming somewhat regularly.

Now, let's review the Iron Bowl.

A stinging, yet not unexpected loss to our cross state rival has us all questioning the state of our football program. Will there be coaching changes? Will there be coordinator changes? Will someone try to poach any of our defensive coaches?

These are just some of the many questions I have asked myself.

Auburn lost in a different way against our intrastate rival. Our DB's were beat almost consistently with the deep pass.

With Greg Brown, and the addition of Marcus Woodson, I had hoped that would not be the case. Yet there we are in our last game of the season giving up 377 passing yards with 14 passing first downs, 11.4 yards per attempt, and 6 TD's.

Incredible as those numbers are to digest, Auburn's defense held our opponent to their worst first half numbers of the season, and were only down 17-14 at the half.

The worst quarter for Auburn all season against their top opponents has been the 3rd. So it was again in the Iron Bowl.

Still, I can't lay the blame for the loss solely at the feet of the DB's. The Tiger offense finished the regular season 72nd in scoring offense. By far the worst for a Gus Malzahn coached team.

In time, we will recover from the sting of this loss. We will look at our Bowl opponent, and then to recruiting to bolster the loss of some key players from the past two seasons.

It's Great To Be An Auburn Tiger!

Auburn putting the "L" in U"W"

Wow, oh what a night! Auburn Men's basketball faces its first top 25 test of the season being ranked higher than their opponent and boy did they deliver like the "Mailman!" The Tigers "Glided" to an 88-66 win over University of Washington which was ranked 25th in the nation coming into this game.

The Tigers jumped out to an early lead Like "The Magicians" they are. Like "The Baby Faced Assassin" The Real Vinoo does not disappoint! With another strong night commanding the floor doing what he does hitting 50% from beyond the arc and perfect from the charity stripe.

With the third most minutes played one Tiger went into Double/Double land with the second game picking up where he left off with his great performance in the first game against South Alabama. With the AP headline reading "Okeke Leads No.11 Auburn past #25 Washington..." All I can say is Chuma is looking smooth like a "Dr." What a great game and I am sure everyone is excited to see what is in store for game 3, 4, 5, and on! Chuma filled every column of the stat sheet with Offensive rebounds, Defensive Rebounds, Blocks, Assists, and Steals! The Auburn high scorer for the night showed that Big Cats can tame Huskies not only football but basketball too.

Okeke with spectators on an amazing statement dunk!

McLemore, Bryce and Doughty did what they do and provided the stability and contribution to allow the Tigers to coast to victory draining the bench with a little over 2 minutes left in the game.

So happy, so many Tigers got onto the court as this campaign continues. We must have a "Next Man Up Mentality." We are deeeeeeeep on talent and when the opportunity presents itself, I expect everyone of our Auburn Tigers to step on that court and do the job as good if not better. This team has amazing chemistry, camaraderie and belief in themselves to finish some business they started last year!

War Eagle y'all this is only the beginning. Shout out to the @AUJungle too for making our 9,121 person arena feel like opposing teams are playing to a packed house in the United Center in Chi-town! What a comment from the UW coach post game about our Auburn Arena atmosphere!

Thank you Justin Lee (@ByJustinLee) for the post.

As Greg Duckworth (@Duck4Auburn) put it best this morning... 

Do not get over your skis y'all a lot of ball to be played and we all know how people love to tear down winners.... stay humble and take every step of this journey to March with confidence and a knowing you have to earn it, and every one wants to knock you down. Don't let it happen! We are already balling in mid-season form in November.

Basketball School too.....

Thank you for taking the time to read and as always love feedback and the debate. 

The un-Official Auburn University everything sunshine pumper!

War Eagle!

AURob (@AURobUSA)

You really are not fan if you didn't enjoy yesterday #justsaying

I am sure there are some who are not going to like this post at all, good because you are about to be called out. Warning the grammar may not be on point, maybe some typos but I had to get this one out because of the passion I have for the student athletes, the coaches, the teams and Auburn University.

A fourth quarter 10 point come from behind win against a ranked SEC West opponent in a series that since it was reignited in 2012 the home team never has won has our scrappy, never say day, short term memory, never quitting (yeah sort of said it earlier) players going out on the field and delivering a HUGE WIN for themselves, for the fans and for the school they play for. Wow, thank you team for this win, You EARNED it!

Ahhhh my first segue, they EARNED it. It would seem some of you that claim to be fans think you deserve or are owed something by student athletes and coaches. Life clue: no one owes you shit, and you do not deserve anything you, yourself do not earn!~ OMG but Rob, in today's time we expect everything and because we merely type the words, or we say them everyone around us should except them as facts. Sorry, not how it should work and not how it works with the adults in the room. What a couple tweets I came across last night. I am not sure why, but I will protect the owners of these tweets as they may be just off and I don't want to push them further into their dismal abyss...

Bad coach?

This is as of a few weeks ago....yeah, he is out performing in all categories the aggregate of coaches before him, so where did you get your expectations?

Wait, you cannot handle the truth, you do not like facts, you do not be called out for having expectations only set by you and the hype monsters and accept the fact that Gus us delivering. Got that! That is why you cannot be counted as rational.

In another tweet this twit decided to callout a player. This one infuriated me to no end. Seriously doing this to a 18-21 y/o when you do not even know him, obviously watch him, know his skill is amazing and I wish I could bring you up in front of the Family and make the case to eject your ass from the Family because Family never ever should act this way nor is it anywhere in the creed. Not only did the person not see where it "could have" not been the best thing but they doubled down and kept defending themselves. Here is the tweet:

Seriously!?! What fan after watching this team rise like a phoenix out of the ashes and 55 minutes of rock'em sock'em robot football does this to a student athlete starter who is out there and know what fans, his school, his coaches expect from him as an Auburn Tiger football player as well as go to class and get a college education? What fan does this? I will tell you, not an Auburn fan. May be a bammer or a Ugger or a Gator or just a consummate troll but not an Auburn Fan and especially not an Auburn Man.

By the way I will give you my response and this player, is the guy he led Kerryon Johnson into the end zone for the nail in the coffin TD.

And in case some of you forgot about that "Nail" here is the refresher...

One of the best post game tweets though came from a devoted member of the Auburn Family and a Coach in our family who has been leading our Women's Tennis Team.  I could not agree more and yes, this stings but what she says is so true. I think it screams that quality support is way more important than quantity support,

So, I think it is this simple, if you think after a huge comeback win is the right time for negative criticism you may just want to go cheer for another team. I believe 99% of us enjoyed, loved, and wanted truly to embrace that precious comeback moment. Unfortunately for the haters, you continued to scream and tweet the most brainless criticism on the planet when it comes to sport; "fire the coach." It does not take a genius to say this week in and week out. Constructive thought out, building, and not destroying criticism is always welcome if it is in context of the proper set of expectations and measured against the capabilities of what is being measured. All you "righteous fans" protecting us "sunshine pumpers" out there reed and heed this....

And if this was too convoluted a way to send the message let me let one guy that I am sure all of you cheered for and still  throw out there as being proud that he is an Auburn Tiger put it....

Consider all of you boo birds and negative nannies "shut-up" that is not from me that is from a major leaguer.

As I close out this recap of the buffoonery from what I am sure are a small percentage of people who self-identify with Auburn I would like to say War Eagle to the true orange and blue Auburn Family. I am blessed to be a part of you, I was blessed to graduate from this awesome school and I am blessed because of what this institution taught me coupled with my United States Navy career. 

Thank you for all that you all do beyond sport, make a difference and always be the builder not the destroyer. You only deserve what you earn....

God Bless

P.S. Here is the updated Bus Ticket and we are bowling again! My Coach just earned a bonus..... so why do you think he gets a bonus for getting to a bowl game? 😎 Yeah something to think about with 3 games to go in the season. #thankful 

A Friday night in Auburn

Sorry for the mixup Y'all - pictures should be viewable now. God Bless.

Some pictures for all of us who are not able to be in Auburn on a Friday night before the game - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

War Eagle

All photos taken by Randy Comer - thank you again Sir for sharing!

Hope you enjoyed these snaps Y'all! Truly the loveliest village....... anywhere....