An FYI: I'm on the road in a SECRET LOCATION I'll divulge when I have a travel slide worth sharing, and while I'd hoped I'd have enough Internet access to have gotten that last post up earlier and a second one up, well, now, it's not happening. Back tomorrow.
Well, probably tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Krootin' 7/14
Grant. If you haven't seen this, well, Corey Grant is fast (and the audio, as always, is NSFW):
Grant's made a whole series of unofficial visits to the Plains recently, and if he makes one more to Auburn's big senior camp this weekend, RBR's OTS says that could bode very well for us:
As for what Grant might mean to the class, well, if he's serious about sticking to receiver he would potentially give Auburn a huge boost at that position. And of course it would be an awfully nice statement--stop me if you've heard this before--about Auburn's ability to at least occasionally beat out the Tide in-state. Likewise, if both Grant and Brian Vogler leave Auburn's backyard to enroll across the state (as is expected in Vogler's case), that's not going to look so good. (The optimistic Auburn fan would point out that running back and tight end aren't the two biggest positions of need for Auburn ... but still. It won't look good.)
Speaking of this weekend ... Charles Goldberg is reporting that Auburn is "prepar(ing) to blend some big-time recruits with a high-profile high school senior camp next weekend," in what ought to be the long-awaited major July event Luper and Trooper have been promising basically ever since the end of Big Cat Weekend. Right now that's about all that isn't rumor, speculation, expectation, etc. but a visit from Lache Seastrunk's been hinted at for a while and Beaver has a list of other potential visitors. I'd say for an event as big as this is supposed to be we're not hearing much, but then again we didn't find out Big Cat was happening until the day it began, so with any luck it'll live up to expectations.
K-Scar wrote today that the only way to do that is with a boatload of commitments, but geez, acknowledging that we're SO FAR BEHIND and all, it's still July. If Auburn can add another couple of guys to the list on the same level with the first eight, is anyone really going to be disappointed? (And as for that piece-of-trash AP reworking of Evan Woodbery's recent "selective" recruiting piece, yes, Auburn would like to have 15-plus commitments of Texas or 'Bama's caliber, but just because Tubby racked up umpteen commitments last year doesn't mean last year was "better" when the average quality of those recruits just wasn't what this year's is to this point. Ohio St. currently has only eight commitments; should they be worried too?)
And hey, speaking of Seastrunk ... Via Auburntron, everyone's favorite fun-loving top-ranked Texas running back had a little more fun with the recruitniks and the fans who obsess over them at the big Texas 7-on-7 tournament:
But, yeah, there's also this:
More of those running back-type guys we seem so fond of. Lattimore and Dyer make it 3-for-3 this week on Auburn's top-five running back recruits getting a media report worth linking up. Lattimore is profiled by Carolina paper The State here and Dyer by the ArkansasSports360.com here. Neither article provides much insight into where either is headed, but they're about as in-depth as recruit profiles get and I'd recommend reading both.
Hmmmmmm. So, after multiple reports--one of them mainstream--that Joel Bonomolo had already committed and multiple other reports--from guys like Phillip Marshall--that Bonomolo was likely to make it official on Monday, there's still no word from the latest Auburn JUCO hottness. It makes Sunday's post look awfully silly (hey, P-Marsh, I'd appreciate it if you stopped handing me guns to jump, please, since apparently I can't help myself) and you have to wonder what's holding Bonomolo up when every indicator we had showed an impending commitment ... but at the same time, in all likelihood this is just delaying the inevitable. I think.
Grant's made a whole series of unofficial visits to the Plains recently, and if he makes one more to Auburn's big senior camp this weekend, RBR's OTS says that could bode very well for us:
At this point I imagine it could go either way and he may still be undecided at this point. Hopefully he will commit to the Tide sometime this week, but if he delays his decision until this weekend, he may be tipping his hand by which camp he attends. Alabama has a big camp this weekend, as does Auburn, and if he shows up at one of those two, that ought to tell you where he is headed.Also worth noting: Grant has apparently said he would prefer to operate out of the slot rather than line up in the backfield, and while I have no doubt 'Bama will accommodate him, this has to work in Auburn's favor, doesn't it? We're talking about two offenses, one of them that virtually always has a slot receiver on the field, and the other that goes without it in the base offense (and easily more than half the time) in favor of a fullback or extra tight end. For comparison's sake, check out the highlights of Auburn's spring game (in which a third receiver is on the field for every offensive play in the clip) vs. this selection of 2008 Alabama highlights, in which of the 8 or 9 plays that aren't goal-line sets (and where you can see the Tide formation) there's a slot receiver featured in 2 of them. I'm not saying this gives Auburn any kind of definitive advantage, but I do think it might explain why Auburn's got as decent a shot with Grant as they seem to have.
As for what Grant might mean to the class, well, if he's serious about sticking to receiver he would potentially give Auburn a huge boost at that position. And of course it would be an awfully nice statement--stop me if you've heard this before--about Auburn's ability to at least occasionally beat out the Tide in-state. Likewise, if both Grant and Brian Vogler leave Auburn's backyard to enroll across the state (as is expected in Vogler's case), that's not going to look so good. (The optimistic Auburn fan would point out that running back and tight end aren't the two biggest positions of need for Auburn ... but still. It won't look good.)
Speaking of this weekend ... Charles Goldberg is reporting that Auburn is "prepar(ing) to blend some big-time recruits with a high-profile high school senior camp next weekend," in what ought to be the long-awaited major July event Luper and Trooper have been promising basically ever since the end of Big Cat Weekend. Right now that's about all that isn't rumor, speculation, expectation, etc. but a visit from Lache Seastrunk's been hinted at for a while and Beaver has a list of other potential visitors. I'd say for an event as big as this is supposed to be we're not hearing much, but then again we didn't find out Big Cat was happening until the day it began, so with any luck it'll live up to expectations.
K-Scar wrote today that the only way to do that is with a boatload of commitments, but geez, acknowledging that we're SO FAR BEHIND and all, it's still July. If Auburn can add another couple of guys to the list on the same level with the first eight, is anyone really going to be disappointed? (And as for that piece-of-trash AP reworking of Evan Woodbery's recent "selective" recruiting piece, yes, Auburn would like to have 15-plus commitments of Texas or 'Bama's caliber, but just because Tubby racked up umpteen commitments last year doesn't mean last year was "better" when the average quality of those recruits just wasn't what this year's is to this point. Ohio St. currently has only eight commitments; should they be worried too?)
And hey, speaking of Seastrunk ... Via Auburntron, everyone's favorite fun-loving top-ranked Texas running back had a little more fun with the recruitniks and the fans who obsess over them at the big Texas 7-on-7 tournament:
On Friday, the first day he and his teammates competed in the Texas 7-on-7 state championships, Seastrunk showed up wearing an LSU shirt and Southern California armbands and socks. He also wore a pair of Auburn shorts during the event.I know a big chunk of college football fans will frown on anything any recruit does to draw attention to himself, but ... a recruit who knows his every move is being watched to determine if he's going to USC, LSU, or Auburn showing up wearing articles of clothing representing USC, LSU, and Auburn? Sorry, I think that's pretty funny. And as Burnt Orange Nation pointed out, the joke's on all of us. I'll say it: well-played, sir.
"It's just clothes, man," he said. "It's just the clothes I wear."
But, yeah, there's also this:
Seastrunk, who also told at least one reporter that he plans to visit Texas again unofficially, offers no hints at even when he may decide.Cue the howls of the Fall of Western Civilization and all that. (Me? I'm curious. I can't help it.)
"I've got a plan and all I can tell you is it's super funny," he said.
More of those running back-type guys we seem so fond of. Lattimore and Dyer make it 3-for-3 this week on Auburn's top-five running back recruits getting a media report worth linking up. Lattimore is profiled by Carolina paper The State here and Dyer by the ArkansasSports360.com here. Neither article provides much insight into where either is headed, but they're about as in-depth as recruit profiles get and I'd recommend reading both.
Hmmmmmm. So, after multiple reports--one of them mainstream--that Joel Bonomolo had already committed and multiple other reports--from guys like Phillip Marshall--that Bonomolo was likely to make it official on Monday, there's still no word from the latest Auburn JUCO hottness. It makes Sunday's post look awfully silly (hey, P-Marsh, I'd appreciate it if you stopped handing me guns to jump, please, since apparently I can't help myself) and you have to wonder what's holding Bonomolo up when every indicator we had showed an impending commitment ... but at the same time, in all likelihood this is just delaying the inevitable. I think.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Your complete Google guide to Auburn's class of 2009
With Emory Blake profiled earlier today, the Google Surveys the Recruits series is now complete for Auburn's 2009 class. I figured it might be a helpful resource to get a link to each profile of the members of that class in one location ... so, uh, this is that location. Every player that signed with Auburn last February, save confirmed academic casualties Reggie Taylor and LaVoyd James, has a dedicated JCCW post linked below. In alphabetical order:
1. Dontae Aycock
2. Daren Bates
3. Deangelo Benton
4. Emory Blake
5. Terrance Coleman
6. Robert Cooper
7. Nosa Eguae
8. Jonathan Evans
9. Nick Fairley
10. Dee Ford
11. Eltoro "The Toro" Freeman
12. Harris Gaston
13. Anthony Gulley
14. Andre Harris
15. Josh Jackson
16. Brandon Jacobs
17. Izauea Lanier
18. Philip Lutzenkirchen
19. Onterio McCalebb
20. Clint Moseley
21. Taikwon Paige
22. Tyrik Rollison
23. Travante Stallworth
24. John Sullen
25. Jamar Travis
26. Demond Washington
If you're a masochist who just likes reminding themselves of Auburn commitments that didn't work out, you can also read about JUCO refugee Jamontay Pilson, Aaron Moore, or Raymond Cotton.
Final thoughts? I thought about listing the signees in order of how excited I am to have each of them at Auburn or organized in rough groupings of how I'd project their Auburn careers to play out, but there's basically no way to do that without sounding like I'm writing off the kids at the tail ends of lists like those. I'd rather pass--there's genuine reasons to believe every single member of this class will become a solid contributor (or more) during their time at Auburn, and even if there's no way all 26 of them wind up panning out (hell, the odds seem good there's at least one more academic casualty out there) my guess isn't better than anyone else's as to who the real sleepers are or aren't.
So I'll just tack on a few scattered observations and positive vibes:
--I've made note of this before, but this class seemed to have more guru disagreement than you'd expect: Lutzenkirchen, Rollison, and McCalebb were the only three prospects to garner four stars from both major services, but 10 other signees picked up a fourth star from one or the other. (11 if you include Stallworth's "80" from ESPN.) Maybe this means that even the relatively modest "team rankings" for the class were overshooting things, since there's so few "sure things" ... but I'd prefer the glass-half-full viewpoint, which would be that when this many kids have someone recognize some kind of legitimate athletic potential, there's more collective promise here than any service recognized individually.
--Just for comparison's sake, once you account for academic casualties and Raven Gray's no-show, do you know how many Rivals/Scout consensus four-stars Tubby signed in 2008? Zero. None. Signees from that class garnering four stars from one or the other? Six. (Again, this season: 13. After 5-7. After the coaching change. This was either a hell of a job by Chizik and Co. or a measure of how unbelievably bad the 2008 effort was ... or, of course, some combination of both.)
--Personal favorite "sleepers"? Stallworth, an undersized burner who (like Neiko Thorpe the year before) was ignored by Rivals and Scout but got a rave review from ESPN and should be a great fit in the Spread Eagle 2.0; Moseley, who strikes me as having just enough athletic potential to turn his intangible gifts into a quality backup role or even the starter's job somewhere down the line in this offense; and Gaston, who should be able to combine his ample raw athleticism with early playing time and tutelage under a bona fide linebacking guru like Ted Roof into a big-time career.
--In addition to the obvious gains at wideout, I think we're going to remember this class are having particular impact at two positions: Quarterback, where in addition to Moseley, I think Rollison in the spread could someday a match made in an All-SEC-caliber heaven, and Defensive Line, where Fairley and Coleman (if he qualifies) are immediate-impact players and Travis, Eguae, and Ford should all be in the rotation no later than next year.
--As little help as Auburn got on the offensive line, this class isn't anything to write home about in the secondary, either. Taylor failed to qualify, Lanier and Bates have yet to be cleared and are both "project"-type players to start with (though projects with upside, of course), and past that it's Paige and possibly Washington, both of whom only have two years of eligibility even if they qualify ... which they haven't done just yet. The heavy (and successful, actually) emphasis on the defensive backfield in '08 means this isn't a crisis on the level of the o-line, but it's worth keeping an eye on.
--Lastly, three guys who I think Auburn fans could be even more excited about than they already are: Coleman, who was a top-25 end to both Scout and ESPN, always got raves from the Alabama newspaper gurus, and who I think just has too much motor not to flourish under a pro like Rocker; Aycock, whose combination of speed and size gives him the best shot of any back in the class of being an every-down guy, and that's before we start talking about his potential in the Wildcat; and Lutzenkirchen, whose hands make him as sure a thing as there is in the class, but who seems to have been just the teensiest bit forgotten in the wake of the Rollison/Benton/Blake surge and Freeman and McCalebb tearing things up in the spring.
1. Dontae Aycock
2. Daren Bates
3. Deangelo Benton
4. Emory Blake
5. Terrance Coleman
6. Robert Cooper
7. Nosa Eguae
8. Jonathan Evans
9. Nick Fairley
10. Dee Ford
11. Eltoro "The Toro" Freeman
12. Harris Gaston
13. Anthony Gulley
14. Andre Harris
15. Josh Jackson
16. Brandon Jacobs
17. Izauea Lanier
18. Philip Lutzenkirchen
19. Onterio McCalebb
20. Clint Moseley
21. Taikwon Paige
22. Tyrik Rollison
23. Travante Stallworth
24. John Sullen
25. Jamar Travis
26. Demond Washington
If you're a masochist who just likes reminding themselves of Auburn commitments that didn't work out, you can also read about JUCO refugee Jamontay Pilson, Aaron Moore, or Raymond Cotton.
Final thoughts? I thought about listing the signees in order of how excited I am to have each of them at Auburn or organized in rough groupings of how I'd project their Auburn careers to play out, but there's basically no way to do that without sounding like I'm writing off the kids at the tail ends of lists like those. I'd rather pass--there's genuine reasons to believe every single member of this class will become a solid contributor (or more) during their time at Auburn, and even if there's no way all 26 of them wind up panning out (hell, the odds seem good there's at least one more academic casualty out there) my guess isn't better than anyone else's as to who the real sleepers are or aren't.
So I'll just tack on a few scattered observations and positive vibes:
--I've made note of this before, but this class seemed to have more guru disagreement than you'd expect: Lutzenkirchen, Rollison, and McCalebb were the only three prospects to garner four stars from both major services, but 10 other signees picked up a fourth star from one or the other. (11 if you include Stallworth's "80" from ESPN.) Maybe this means that even the relatively modest "team rankings" for the class were overshooting things, since there's so few "sure things" ... but I'd prefer the glass-half-full viewpoint, which would be that when this many kids have someone recognize some kind of legitimate athletic potential, there's more collective promise here than any service recognized individually.
--Just for comparison's sake, once you account for academic casualties and Raven Gray's no-show, do you know how many Rivals/Scout consensus four-stars Tubby signed in 2008? Zero. None. Signees from that class garnering four stars from one or the other? Six. (Again, this season: 13. After 5-7. After the coaching change. This was either a hell of a job by Chizik and Co. or a measure of how unbelievably bad the 2008 effort was ... or, of course, some combination of both.)
--Personal favorite "sleepers"? Stallworth, an undersized burner who (like Neiko Thorpe the year before) was ignored by Rivals and Scout but got a rave review from ESPN and should be a great fit in the Spread Eagle 2.0; Moseley, who strikes me as having just enough athletic potential to turn his intangible gifts into a quality backup role or even the starter's job somewhere down the line in this offense; and Gaston, who should be able to combine his ample raw athleticism with early playing time and tutelage under a bona fide linebacking guru like Ted Roof into a big-time career.
--In addition to the obvious gains at wideout, I think we're going to remember this class are having particular impact at two positions: Quarterback, where in addition to Moseley, I think Rollison in the spread could someday a match made in an All-SEC-caliber heaven, and Defensive Line, where Fairley and Coleman (if he qualifies) are immediate-impact players and Travis, Eguae, and Ford should all be in the rotation no later than next year.
--As little help as Auburn got on the offensive line, this class isn't anything to write home about in the secondary, either. Taylor failed to qualify, Lanier and Bates have yet to be cleared and are both "project"-type players to start with (though projects with upside, of course), and past that it's Paige and possibly Washington, both of whom only have two years of eligibility even if they qualify ... which they haven't done just yet. The heavy (and successful, actually) emphasis on the defensive backfield in '08 means this isn't a crisis on the level of the o-line, but it's worth keeping an eye on.
--Lastly, three guys who I think Auburn fans could be even more excited about than they already are: Coleman, who was a top-25 end to both Scout and ESPN, always got raves from the Alabama newspaper gurus, and who I think just has too much motor not to flourish under a pro like Rocker; Aycock, whose combination of speed and size gives him the best shot of any back in the class of being an every-down guy, and that's before we start talking about his potential in the Wildcat; and Lutzenkirchen, whose hands make him as sure a thing as there is in the class, but who seems to have been just the teensiest bit forgotten in the wake of the Rollison/Benton/Blake surge and Freeman and McCalebb tearing things up in the spring.
Google surveys the signees: Emory Blake
Because someone needs to do the work of plugging in a given Auburn signee's name into Google and synthesizing the tidbits of information that trickle out. Previous entries in this series here.
One of the fun things--maybe the most fun thing--about coming down the recruiting home stretch last spring with the new Auburn staff was going from having pretty well zero prospects outside of the traditional Alabama/Georgia/Florida panhandle recruiting grounds to suddenly drawing the interest of a half-dozen solid prospects from Louisiana, Oklahoma, and of course Texas. And as awesome as it was reeling in the likes of Nosa Eguae and even Tyrik Rollison, Auburn's desperate need for wideouts, the general assumption that Rollison's chickens shouldn't be counted until they hatched their way onto campus (or something), and Emory Blake's Signing Day decision meant that of the new Lone Star State crew, none were welcomed more enthusiastically by Auburn fans than Blake. He'll begin fall practice with fans not just hoping he'll contribute as a freshman but expecting.
This is, frankly, all very heady stuff for a kid Auburn fans had never even heard of until a few short weeks before Signing Day and who Chizik and Co. stole away from uh, Texas Tech, but when we're talking about the Auburn receiving corps, I think we can be collectively forgiven, right?
Basics: For the final time (yes, this is the last entry for the 2009 class), let's go to the Auburn Signing Day information sheet:
Also worth noting in this space: that's a lot of carries on the ground, and for 8.7 yards a pop. There's some consensus that Blake's not a burner, but with numbers and experience like that, it seems clear he can do some good things with the ball in his hands.
Recruitnik hoo-ha: Like so many members of Auburn's 2009 class, Blake gets an enthusiastic review from one of the three services ... and a shrug from the other two. In Blake's case the cheerleaders are at Rivals, who give him a fourth star and a grade of 5.8 while ranking him the No. 42 wide receiver in the class. Perhaps even more impressively, he cracked Rivals' top 40 prospects in Texas for 2009, just ahead of Texas and Oklahoma commitments.
But ESPN and Scout are each much less enthused. At Scout, Blake barely makes their top 100 receivers and might be closer to losing his third star than gaining a fourth. ESPN's a little more forgiving, offering Blake their prototypical three-star grade of 77 and ranking him the No. 72 wideout in the class, but they're not overly impressed. From the scouting report:
Blake's offer sheet isn't eye-popping, but it's not the mid-major buffet of some other Auburn prospects, either. Blake committed and then decommitted from Texas Tech and definitely had offers from Colorado and Tulsa. Rivals reported offers from Oregon, Nebraska, and Boston College as well. With the possible exception of Nebraska, Auburn wound up still the "biggest" offer on Blake's table, but that's still a lot of legitimate programs to have come calling if Blake can't play.
Links of potential interest: There's a ton of film to watch on Blake. ESPN included video with their scouting report, there's film of Blake ANNIHILATING CAMP DRILLS here, another good highlight package here, and your requisite "wow, that's awesome, but you'll probably want to turn the sound off" clip is here:
What that clip and the first couple of plays on the ESPN clip make clear is this: Blake appears to have some top-notch vision and ability to move in traffic. OK, so he's not blazingly fast ... does he have to be if can move like that?
Given those qualities and his experience taking snaps, it's no wonder Blake says in this Signing Day interview that Malzahn's promised him a look in the Wildcat:
Blake comes across as refreshingly well-spoken and gracious here; his handling of the Barkley/racism question was fairly deft and it's nice to hear some genuine regret about Tech even after he'd decided to go in a different direction. (Jeff B. offers a couple of statements at the video's tail end, too.)
Speaking of Tech, here's a hell of an endorsement ...
Blake's not planning on redshirting or otherwise waiting around:
Beaver's already featured Blake in his "Know a Signee" series; that's here. He's rooming with Lutzenkirchen.
Still not sure what, exactly, "Offense-Defense Football" is, but they think Blake is the 9th-best receiver and 49th-best player overall in the class of '09. So more power to them.
The "Texas Testosterone Festival" noted that Blake made an Austin-area top 5 seniors list and advised him to go to Auburn for "the hot chicks." There are worse reasons, certainly.
This doesn't really have anything worthwhile to say bout Blake, but it is funny.
Awesome black-and-white photo of Blake reeeeeaching for what would be a touchdown grab here. Also, a community photojournalist says that he prepares for his Austin high school games the same way he prepared to shoot the Denver Broncos. So good for him. Except for the part where he's not shooting the Broncos any more.
Peculiarly, Blake is apparently an example of how tall wide receivers are changing passing games in Texas.
Lastly, for those of you who would find it reassuring for an Austin product to have received some attention from the college football powerhouse located there in Austin, there's multiple references out there to Texas having offered Blake as a greyshirt.
What conclusions we can draw, if any: I write stupid things on this blog all the time, of course, but that bit of worry over the slot position from the other day, after LaVoyd James had decommitted? Even stupider than usual.
Because, most likely, Blake's going to be in the slot. And he's going to be good. No, he's not tall. No, he may not be track-fast. But Blake's hands and body skills are by all accounts too sharp for him not to shine on those curl and crossing routes the Spread Eagle's slot receivers are going to have to run to pick up first downs on 3rd-and-5 or a quick five yards on 1st-and-10, etc. Blake might not be a shake-and-shimmy jitterbug like Frenchy or a straight-line home-run threat like Travante Stallworth should be, but he's also shown too much ability with the ball in his hands not to make some serious hay on the quick swings and screens that Malzahn's also going to make a major part of this offense.
It's easy to see why the gurus and even college coaches might not be all that high on Blake: they're looking for home runs, and "little" things like Blake's hands, ability to tightrope a sideline, and cutback ability are more "stand-up double." But of course, those "little things" are also the things that make for, you know, good football players. No, Blake may not wind up an NFL stud like his Dad, but for the past two seasons Auburn's best receiver has been a guy who was never going to get a sniff from the NFL but who turned those similar "little things" into an outstanding career. Blake is polished enough that he'll have a chance to do the same thing, but from Day 1, and maybe even do it better. And if that's the case, no one at Auburn is going to complain about how fast he is.
*Jeff's Wikipedia page also includes the following mysterious nugget of information: "Jeff can be seen in the background of the blockbuster flop, Totally Anal, wearing a Chargers jersey." Which is weird, because I would say I keep myself pretty informed about the goings-on in the entertainment industry, and I'm still completely unfamiliar with this particular "blockbuster flop."
One of the fun things--maybe the most fun thing--about coming down the recruiting home stretch last spring with the new Auburn staff was going from having pretty well zero prospects outside of the traditional Alabama/Georgia/Florida panhandle recruiting grounds to suddenly drawing the interest of a half-dozen solid prospects from Louisiana, Oklahoma, and of course Texas. And as awesome as it was reeling in the likes of Nosa Eguae and even Tyrik Rollison, Auburn's desperate need for wideouts, the general assumption that Rollison's chickens shouldn't be counted until they hatched their way onto campus (or something), and Emory Blake's Signing Day decision meant that of the new Lone Star State crew, none were welcomed more enthusiastically by Auburn fans than Blake. He'll begin fall practice with fans not just hoping he'll contribute as a freshman but expecting.
This is, frankly, all very heady stuff for a kid Auburn fans had never even heard of until a few short weeks before Signing Day and who Chizik and Co. stole away from uh, Texas Tech, but when we're talking about the Auburn receiving corps, I think we can be collectively forgiven, right?
Basics: For the final time (yes, this is the last entry for the 2009 class), let's go to the Auburn Signing Day information sheet:
Emory BlakeYes, if you're an Auburn fan who's been living in a moon cave, that's Jeff Blake of former Bengals and Saints fame*, making Blake not just the son of an NFL player but the son of a one-time Pro Bowl-quality quarterback. (I don't know if that's really all that different from just "son of an NFL player, but it sounds awesome, right? And hey, Papa Blake at the very least probably had some lessons to teach about work ethic and such, correct?)
WR, 6-1, 194
Austin, TX (Stephen F. Austin HS)
High School Coach: Rodney Vincent
HIGH SCHOOL: As a senior, caught 64 passes for 936 yards and nine touchdowns, while rushing for 643 yards and four scores on 74 carries ... Named the 2008 District 25-5A Offensive MVP ... Had 22 grabs for 412 yards and five scores in just six games as a junior, while also carrying 38 times for 289 yards and two TDs ... Caught 28 passes for 525 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore ... The No. 30-ranked prospect from Texas by SuperPrep ... Named to the Orlando Sentinel's 2008 All-Southern football team ... Selected to the All-Midlands Region team by PrepStar.
PERSONAL: Born July 18, 1991 ... Son of Jeff and Lewanna Blake ... Father was an NFL quarterback for 14 years.
Also worth noting in this space: that's a lot of carries on the ground, and for 8.7 yards a pop. There's some consensus that Blake's not a burner, but with numbers and experience like that, it seems clear he can do some good things with the ball in his hands.
Recruitnik hoo-ha: Like so many members of Auburn's 2009 class, Blake gets an enthusiastic review from one of the three services ... and a shrug from the other two. In Blake's case the cheerleaders are at Rivals, who give him a fourth star and a grade of 5.8 while ranking him the No. 42 wide receiver in the class. Perhaps even more impressively, he cracked Rivals' top 40 prospects in Texas for 2009, just ahead of Texas and Oklahoma commitments.
But ESPN and Scout are each much less enthused. At Scout, Blake barely makes their top 100 receivers and might be closer to losing his third star than gaining a fourth. ESPN's a little more forgiving, offering Blake their prototypical three-star grade of 77 and ranking him the No. 72 wideout in the class, but they're not overly impressed. From the scouting report:
There is a lot to like in Blake, a very polished football player. He doesn't run very well, but he has qualities that aren't seen in many faster players. Has good size and leaping ability. Can challenge for the ball while it's in the air and win some jump balls. Has the body control to adjust to the ball, shows good sideline awareness and can make some acrobatic catches. He's a sharp route runner who is aware that he must outwork his opponent to gain separation. Has phenomenal, quick hands. Plucks with ease and can catch in a crowd ... His best fit at the next level may be in the slot, where he can work underneath zones, exploit his size and avoid press coverage at the line. Could have significant trouble separating and getting vertical against college competition. His speed always will be a limitation.You'll notice that amongst the compliments, that the words "upside" or "potential" never appear. The reviewer likes what Blake is, but doesn't think much of what Blake will become ... or I'm guessing the grade and ranking would be higher.
Blake's offer sheet isn't eye-popping, but it's not the mid-major buffet of some other Auburn prospects, either. Blake committed and then decommitted from Texas Tech and definitely had offers from Colorado and Tulsa. Rivals reported offers from Oregon, Nebraska, and Boston College as well. With the possible exception of Nebraska, Auburn wound up still the "biggest" offer on Blake's table, but that's still a lot of legitimate programs to have come calling if Blake can't play.
Links of potential interest: There's a ton of film to watch on Blake. ESPN included video with their scouting report, there's film of Blake ANNIHILATING CAMP DRILLS here, another good highlight package here, and your requisite "wow, that's awesome, but you'll probably want to turn the sound off" clip is here:
What that clip and the first couple of plays on the ESPN clip make clear is this: Blake appears to have some top-notch vision and ability to move in traffic. OK, so he's not blazingly fast ... does he have to be if can move like that?
Given those qualities and his experience taking snaps, it's no wonder Blake says in this Signing Day interview that Malzahn's promised him a look in the Wildcat:
Blake comes across as refreshingly well-spoken and gracious here; his handling of the Barkley/racism question was fairly deft and it's nice to hear some genuine regret about Tech even after he'd decided to go in a different direction. (Jeff B. offers a couple of statements at the video's tail end, too.)
Speaking of Tech, here's a hell of an endorsement ...
Coach Mike Leach saw the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Blake as a natural addition to his offense and had even promised him that he could play Michael Crabtree's "Z position" in the Red Raiders' offense.Of course that promise could just be recruiting hot air, but still ... Leach wanted him, and you have to think Leach knows a thing or two by now about finding quality receivers.
Blake's not planning on redshirting or otherwise waiting around:
"I can't wait to get there and make an instant impact at Auburn," said Blake, who stands 6-1 and weighs 194 pounds. "We're going to get it turned around fast."If it's instant impact you want, 2009 wide receiving recruit, Auburn's receiving depth chart delivers!
Beaver's already featured Blake in his "Know a Signee" series; that's here. He's rooming with Lutzenkirchen.
Still not sure what, exactly, "Offense-Defense Football" is, but they think Blake is the 9th-best receiver and 49th-best player overall in the class of '09. So more power to them.
The "Texas Testosterone Festival" noted that Blake made an Austin-area top 5 seniors list and advised him to go to Auburn for "the hot chicks." There are worse reasons, certainly.
This doesn't really have anything worthwhile to say bout Blake, but it is funny.
Awesome black-and-white photo of Blake reeeeeaching for what would be a touchdown grab here. Also, a community photojournalist says that he prepares for his Austin high school games the same way he prepared to shoot the Denver Broncos. So good for him. Except for the part where he's not shooting the Broncos any more.
Peculiarly, Blake is apparently an example of how tall wide receivers are changing passing games in Texas.
Lastly, for those of you who would find it reassuring for an Austin product to have received some attention from the college football powerhouse located there in Austin, there's multiple references out there to Texas having offered Blake as a greyshirt.
What conclusions we can draw, if any: I write stupid things on this blog all the time, of course, but that bit of worry over the slot position from the other day, after LaVoyd James had decommitted? Even stupider than usual.
Because, most likely, Blake's going to be in the slot. And he's going to be good. No, he's not tall. No, he may not be track-fast. But Blake's hands and body skills are by all accounts too sharp for him not to shine on those curl and crossing routes the Spread Eagle's slot receivers are going to have to run to pick up first downs on 3rd-and-5 or a quick five yards on 1st-and-10, etc. Blake might not be a shake-and-shimmy jitterbug like Frenchy or a straight-line home-run threat like Travante Stallworth should be, but he's also shown too much ability with the ball in his hands not to make some serious hay on the quick swings and screens that Malzahn's also going to make a major part of this offense.
It's easy to see why the gurus and even college coaches might not be all that high on Blake: they're looking for home runs, and "little" things like Blake's hands, ability to tightrope a sideline, and cutback ability are more "stand-up double." But of course, those "little things" are also the things that make for, you know, good football players. No, Blake may not wind up an NFL stud like his Dad, but for the past two seasons Auburn's best receiver has been a guy who was never going to get a sniff from the NFL but who turned those similar "little things" into an outstanding career. Blake is polished enough that he'll have a chance to do the same thing, but from Day 1, and maybe even do it better. And if that's the case, no one at Auburn is going to complain about how fast he is.
*Jeff's Wikipedia page also includes the following mysterious nugget of information: "Jeff can be seen in the background of the blockbuster flop, Totally Anal, wearing a Chargers jersey." Which is weird, because I would say I keep myself pretty informed about the goings-on in the entertainment industry, and I'm still completely unfamiliar with this particular "blockbuster flop."
These are the important things
Last Friday, coincidentally--or maybe NOT coincidentally?!?--as Orson was writing this deathly-accurate paean to the humble perfection that is the Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich, I got a call from a friend here in Ann Arbor. He was driving to Bowling Green (yes, that Bowling Green), about 70 minutes away, and wanted to know if I wanted to ride along and make a stopover at the Toledo mall, home of the only Chick-Fil-A within a 100-mile radius of where we live.
I said yes many times and whipped on my souvenir Chick-Fil-A Bowl shirt. Around an hour later, this happened:
However: if you think I look excited--and I was, since Chick-Fil-A has been a twice-a-year-or-so experience ever since I moved here in the summer of '06--you should know that the cow was there as part of a promotion in which anyone who visited the Chick-Fil-A dressed as a cow would get a free combo. Midway through my second (deliriously good) sandwich, a couple in their 70s approached the counter. They were wearing matching pastel Chick-Fil-A shirts--his baby blue, hers light pink--and taped-on cow spots cut out of black construction paper. Oh, and Chick-Fil-A caps with attached cow ears. They picked up their free combos, chatted with the cow, and walked over to their tables looking as happy as, well, people who love Chick-Fil-A that have just received a big free bag of Chick-Fil-A usually look.
God bless them. We'd all agree it's a better life you lead for yourself if you can find things to love unabashedly, wholeheartedly, as long as those things are worthy, right? It's such a relief to know there are other people out there, like Orson, like that couple, that also believe there is so much out there less deserving than these sandwiches.
I said yes many times and whipped on my souvenir Chick-Fil-A Bowl shirt. Around an hour later, this happened:
However: if you think I look excited--and I was, since Chick-Fil-A has been a twice-a-year-or-so experience ever since I moved here in the summer of '06--you should know that the cow was there as part of a promotion in which anyone who visited the Chick-Fil-A dressed as a cow would get a free combo. Midway through my second (deliriously good) sandwich, a couple in their 70s approached the counter. They were wearing matching pastel Chick-Fil-A shirts--his baby blue, hers light pink--and taped-on cow spots cut out of black construction paper. Oh, and Chick-Fil-A caps with attached cow ears. They picked up their free combos, chatted with the cow, and walked over to their tables looking as happy as, well, people who love Chick-Fil-A that have just received a big free bag of Chick-Fil-A usually look.
God bless them. We'd all agree it's a better life you lead for yourself if you can find things to love unabashedly, wholeheartedly, as long as those things are worthy, right? It's such a relief to know there are other people out there, like Orson, like that couple, that also believe there is so much out there less deserving than these sandwiches.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Joel Bonomolo: good as committed
Beaver's already reporting it as a done deal, there's a report out of New Orleans saying the same, and at the very least there's an official announcement tomorrow not-so-coincidentally immediately following his weekend visit to Auburn, so I think it's pretty safe to assume at this point that Fullerton (Ca.) Community College defensive end Joel Bonomolo will become Auburn's ninth commitment for the class of 2010 tomorrow.
Like the rest of the JUCO world, Bonomolo doesn't have guru ratings issued just yet, but he was offered by Utah, Washington, and both of the Arizona Pac-10 schools. (Tennessee may have also offered, ubt of course, they offer everybody.) So that's not too shabby. He also has this (the usual caution regarding highlight film audio applies):
Who knows how much to make of that given the level of competition, but ... yes, I'll at least agree that he appears to be useful. He'll have ot be, of course: he's only got two years of eligibility remaining.
Three other things worth noting:
1. Bonomolo is a teammate of Fullerton offensive line target John Cullen, though I somehow doubt at JUCO the bonds of brotherhood are quite what they are on a high school team
2. Bonomolo's from the New Orleans area originally--check out this nice article on how he went from a no-star recruit whose only offer was Southern Illinois to, well, a guy committing to Auburn--and hasn't made much of a secret that he'd like to get an LSU offer. I guess Auburn would have a struggle on their hands in the unlikely event LSU did come across with an offer, but otherwise, this is probably a good thing: never hurts for an Auburn player to have a pre-implanted chip on their shoulder towards one of our rivals, does it?
3. Man, do I hope we get to hear announcers call out "Bonomolo" repeatedly in '10 and '11. Say it with me: "Bonomolo." Yeah. Sweet.
Like the rest of the JUCO world, Bonomolo doesn't have guru ratings issued just yet, but he was offered by Utah, Washington, and both of the Arizona Pac-10 schools. (Tennessee may have also offered, ubt of course, they offer everybody.) So that's not too shabby. He also has this (the usual caution regarding highlight film audio applies):
Who knows how much to make of that given the level of competition, but ... yes, I'll at least agree that he appears to be useful. He'll have ot be, of course: he's only got two years of eligibility remaining.
Three other things worth noting:
1. Bonomolo is a teammate of Fullerton offensive line target John Cullen, though I somehow doubt at JUCO the bonds of brotherhood are quite what they are on a high school team
2. Bonomolo's from the New Orleans area originally--check out this nice article on how he went from a no-star recruit whose only offer was Southern Illinois to, well, a guy committing to Auburn--and hasn't made much of a secret that he'd like to get an LSU offer. I guess Auburn would have a struggle on their hands in the unlikely event LSU did come across with an offer, but otherwise, this is probably a good thing: never hurts for an Auburn player to have a pre-implanted chip on their shoulder towards one of our rivals, does it?
3. Man, do I hope we get to hear announcers call out "Bonomolo" repeatedly in '10 and '11. Say it with me: "Bonomolo." Yeah. Sweet.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Works, checking in on ...-style
Man oh man, does the Works have a ton of topics to touch on today. Like, for instance ...
Math: This is how I should have approached it back in "the day":
Ben Tate: Courtesy Andy Bitter, here's a Ledger-Enquirer story on his lofty 2009 goals (and surpeme confidence he'll meet them) and the requisite b-sides. The most interesting tidbit for me came in the blog post:
The BCS: I've studiously ignored the Congressional hoo-ha surrounding college football's postseason because a) I haven't add anything to add to a discussion that widespread b) we all knew it was going to be just sound and fury all along, right?
Still, though, I enjoyed the Good Doctor's resulting defense of mid-major scheduling, and Blutarsky's counterpoint, and Year2's further discussion of 2008 Utah and how if the door wasn't necessarily unlocked, they could still have done more to pry it open.
Still, after Utah's and Boise's triumphs the last few years, the next time a MWC or legitimate WAC team (no, last year's Boise and 2007 Hawaii do not qualify) runs the table, they should crack the top four of the BCS ... which is why I still think a properly administered four-team playoff would settle all this.
Blackmon, receivers: One Bitter blog post, two things worth noting: 1) For those of you with CSS, you can watch Tray Blackmon play in the CFL tonight at 7:30/6:30 2) just to sum up how badly Auburn will need its freshman receivers to deliver:
Previewin': Acid Reign looks at Kentucky, a game whose pivotal nature I think Acid portrays accurately:
Beer: Via Doug:
This goes to show you that independent breweries have about the same impact on the general public that independent movies and music do: Michigan is packed with them (there's more brewpubs within walking distance of my friends' downtown Ann Arbor apartment than there are in all of Alabama) and there's essentially none in Alabama, but look who drinks more beer.
The U.S. Women's Open: Auburn's Candace Schepperle is participating. War Eagle, Candace.
Curtis Luper: Not that you'd expect him to think any differently, but guess what fellow former Oklahoma St. running back and teammate he's talking about here:
1957 Auburn cheerleaders: As TWER shows, they were awesome. One of them, at least.
Lists: As Blutarsky points out, it's stunning how stupid they can be. Honestly, Austin Murphy: I'm sure Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis were incredible players, but if a magical sports elf shows up on your doorstep tomorrow and says "Hey, look, magic tickets to either see Bo freaking Jackson in his prime or Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis ... pick one," you'd really take the tickets to the see the dudes from Army in the mid-1940s? Riiiiight. (Note that Bo did make SI's NFL list. But not the college list. It makes so much sense.)
Krootin': Look, yes, Auburn's being "selective" about their commitments compared to last season, when Tubby was taking on guys from all over the place. But are they being "selective" when compared to Alabama or Texas or Florida? Uh, no. Auburn would have been more than happy to have accepted a commitment from nearly all of the prospects who have committed to those schools. I wouldn't give Chizik and Co. all that much credit for being picky just yet.
That said, do I like this approach better than Tubby's? Given how much success Auburn had down the stretch last spring at finding solid kids who weren't entirely happy with their situation and getting them to the Plains, yes, yes I do. There's a lot fewer commitments on Auburn's list than at this time last year, but the average quality of that commitment seems much, much higher this go-round.
Also: Corey Grant visited Auburn again midweek, but Tide fans are still optimistic. We'll see what happens, but it seems like Auburn might have--at the very least--outlasted Florida in the race for Grant. That's something.
Clarifications: TSK wonders if, as I posted yesterday, the Vandy game last year was really more frustrating and anger-inducing than the Iron Bowl. And yes, yes it was: maybe I speak just for myself, but when Auburn played Vanderbilt, it was obvious they could win if they'd just coached and played the game correctly. When Auburn played Alabama, it was obvious early on the only way Auburn would win was if Alabama played the worst game of their season and Auburn simultaneously played far beyond their abilities. The Iron Bowl was more depressing, more painful, but it wasn't the kind of game to make me angry; the Tide were just better. It would be like getting angry at the sun on a hot day.
Arkansas: Dude, John Pelphrey is the suspendingest coach I've ever seen get his suspending on. (And while you're headed in that direction, check out the latest edition of the Wally Watch. Good stuff.)
The Mexican national team: As a U.S. Soccer fan, I abhor them with a great abhorrence, and this kind of horsedung is why.
This week: Play it off, 8-bit Keyboard Cat!
Enjoy your weekend, folks.
Math: This is how I should have approached it back in "the day":
Ben Tate: Courtesy Andy Bitter, here's a Ledger-Enquirer story on his lofty 2009 goals (and surpeme confidence he'll meet them) and the requisite b-sides. The most interesting tidbit for me came in the blog post:
Tate appears to have a much larger role in setting up the offense between snaps, which I found an odd responsibility for a running back. But that's how Gus Malzahn's system works apparently. "I have to know fronts," Tate said. "That’s different and it also helps you out. I also have to make protection calls. I have to tell the linemen what to do. If I mess up on a call, it’s always going to be on me. It’s not really going to be a lineman’s fault. Most of the time, if I mess up we’re going to be on the same page together, so we’re all messing up together, so most of the time it still gets picked up – it just might not get picked up the right way."Man, I bet the linemen love that.
The BCS: I've studiously ignored the Congressional hoo-ha surrounding college football's postseason because a) I haven't add anything to add to a discussion that widespread b) we all knew it was going to be just sound and fury all along, right?
Still, though, I enjoyed the Good Doctor's resulting defense of mid-major scheduling, and Blutarsky's counterpoint, and Year2's further discussion of 2008 Utah and how if the door wasn't necessarily unlocked, they could still have done more to pry it open.
Still, after Utah's and Boise's triumphs the last few years, the next time a MWC or legitimate WAC team (no, last year's Boise and 2007 Hawaii do not qualify) runs the table, they should crack the top four of the BCS ... which is why I still think a properly administered four-team playoff would settle all this.
Blackmon, receivers: One Bitter blog post, two things worth noting: 1) For those of you with CSS, you can watch Tray Blackmon play in the CFL tonight at 7:30/6:30 2) just to sum up how badly Auburn will need its freshman receivers to deliver:
With Hawthorne hurt, Montez Billings' academic standing in question, Harry Adams back on defense and Philip Pierre-Louis' role undefined, it's going to be a motley crew of receivers in the mix at the start of summer practice. Quindarius Carr, Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams have never had a better opportunity to seize playing time.Combined receptions last season for Carr, Zachery, and Adams: 11.
Previewin': Acid Reign looks at Kentucky, a game whose pivotal nature I think Acid portrays accurately:
This is a must win game for the Tigers. Auburn will likely be 4-2 heading into this contest, and a loss could prove to be disastrous. It's a pivotal game for Tiger bowl hopes, with LSU, Ole Miss, Furman, Georgia, and Alabama remaining on the schedule. If the Tigers can't defeat the Wildcats, the odds of upsetting any of the 4 remaining SEC opponents will be low.The level of glad I am that this game is in J-Hare: very, very glad.
Beer: Via Doug:
This goes to show you that independent breweries have about the same impact on the general public that independent movies and music do: Michigan is packed with them (there's more brewpubs within walking distance of my friends' downtown Ann Arbor apartment than there are in all of Alabama) and there's essentially none in Alabama, but look who drinks more beer.
The U.S. Women's Open: Auburn's Candace Schepperle is participating. War Eagle, Candace.
Curtis Luper: Not that you'd expect him to think any differently, but guess what fellow former Oklahoma St. running back and teammate he's talking about here:
I was bigger and he was a little quicker, but I was faster. He was probably a little more mature. He was more of a city guy and I was a country guy. Other than that, there wasn't much difference between us two.Why, just NFL Hall-of-Famer Thurman Thomas. Like all of the entries in this "10 questions" series, though, there's a ton of great stuff here: Luper's day at Okie St. with Thomas and Sanders, why the Blue Man Group is overrated, and, of course, the orange sunglasses and why they're not really sunglasses.
1957 Auburn cheerleaders: As TWER shows, they were awesome. One of them, at least.
Lists: As Blutarsky points out, it's stunning how stupid they can be. Honestly, Austin Murphy: I'm sure Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis were incredible players, but if a magical sports elf shows up on your doorstep tomorrow and says "Hey, look, magic tickets to either see Bo freaking Jackson in his prime or Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis ... pick one," you'd really take the tickets to the see the dudes from Army in the mid-1940s? Riiiiight. (Note that Bo did make SI's NFL list. But not the college list. It makes so much sense.)
Krootin': Look, yes, Auburn's being "selective" about their commitments compared to last season, when Tubby was taking on guys from all over the place. But are they being "selective" when compared to Alabama or Texas or Florida? Uh, no. Auburn would have been more than happy to have accepted a commitment from nearly all of the prospects who have committed to those schools. I wouldn't give Chizik and Co. all that much credit for being picky just yet.
That said, do I like this approach better than Tubby's? Given how much success Auburn had down the stretch last spring at finding solid kids who weren't entirely happy with their situation and getting them to the Plains, yes, yes I do. There's a lot fewer commitments on Auburn's list than at this time last year, but the average quality of that commitment seems much, much higher this go-round.
Also: Corey Grant visited Auburn again midweek, but Tide fans are still optimistic. We'll see what happens, but it seems like Auburn might have--at the very least--outlasted Florida in the race for Grant. That's something.
Clarifications: TSK wonders if, as I posted yesterday, the Vandy game last year was really more frustrating and anger-inducing than the Iron Bowl. And yes, yes it was: maybe I speak just for myself, but when Auburn played Vanderbilt, it was obvious they could win if they'd just coached and played the game correctly. When Auburn played Alabama, it was obvious early on the only way Auburn would win was if Alabama played the worst game of their season and Auburn simultaneously played far beyond their abilities. The Iron Bowl was more depressing, more painful, but it wasn't the kind of game to make me angry; the Tide were just better. It would be like getting angry at the sun on a hot day.
Arkansas: Dude, John Pelphrey is the suspendingest coach I've ever seen get his suspending on. (And while you're headed in that direction, check out the latest edition of the Wally Watch. Good stuff.)
The Mexican national team: As a U.S. Soccer fan, I abhor them with a great abhorrence, and this kind of horsedung is why.
This week: Play it off, 8-bit Keyboard Cat!
Enjoy your weekend, folks.
ESPN giveth, ESPN taketh away
Don't ask me what this is, where it came from, who created it or for what purpose. I just think you need to know it exists, that it's being hosted at Purdue's own site (?!?), and that "Jumbo Heroes" is, as Conan would have told us once upon a time, INAPPROPRIATE!.
So you may have noticed by now that ESPN has released their 2009 college football announcing assignments. Awful Announcing has your simplified nuts-and-bolts list if the info at the ESPN link seems a bit ... confusing.
The JCCW's review of the moves:
THE GOOD
Oh thank heavens--Mike Patrick has finally received his viciously overdue demotion, going from ESPN's Saturday prime time slot alongside Todd Blackledge to one of ABC's various Saturday afternoon regional telecasts ... with any luck, it'll be one of those Maryland vs. Boston College-type ACC games I never wind up watching. With both Patrick and Paul Maguire getting kicked down the ladder, it appears ESPN is finally realizing how mind-bogglingly awful their old NFL crew (Patrick, Maguire, and Joe Theismann) truly was and how much sports fans of all stripes really despised those guys. They're realizing it 20 years too late, of course, but better late than never, I guess.
Taking over for Patrick will be Brad Nessler. Like all of you I'd have given several of my toes--maybe even a big one--to have Ron Franklin back in the position he all-but-singlehandedly made famous, but if we can't have Uncle Ron back Nessler's likely the next-best thing. Smooth, familiar, and professional, Nessler should combine with Blackledge--the best color guy in the business going back to his days at CBS--to become college football's best announcing team this season.
I don't know how much of a "Save the Daves!" movement there really was, but it has one success story to tell anyway--ESPN picked up play-by-play man Dave Neal (always the strongest of the Daves) to stay over in the SEC regional 12:30 telecast. Pairing him with Andre Ware doesn't exactly get the blood pumping, but Ware should at least be an upgrade on the Daves Neal's had to work with at color before.
And while I think excellent play-by-play man Sean McDonough's well overdue to return to the kind of spotlight assignment he used to enjoy at CBS, I'm happy to see him at least get some kind of promotion: he's going from the random "wherever they can fit me in" slot on ESPN Saturdays to a regular ABC regional telecast. He's being paired with Matt Millen, who, despite "the stigma of reeking, carrion-strong failure" is technically an old pro at the announcing gig and should be competent at worst, and Holly Rowe. You already know how I feel about Holly. I'm thinking this should be a terrific team all the way around.
McDonough's old color partner Chris Spielman--who still flashes some really interesting "inside football"-type information from his linebacking days from time to time--is forming one third of another intriguing new team with worthwhile ex-Nessler partner Bob Griese and efficient play-by-play man Dave Pasch. They'll be an upgrade in ESPN's noon telecast.
And lastly, SEC fans will be introduced to Rob Stone as he works the studio desk for ESPN's regional SEC coverage. Stone's been stuck in the "niche sport"/sideline reporter rung of the ESPN ladder for a while, but he's always thrown himself hook-line-and-sinker into his assignments. I always enjoyed his soccer work--seriously, it's not easy to make an MLS match sound exciting--and from what I can tell the bowling folks love him. His willingness to get capital-P capital-U Pumped Up about whatever sport he's covering should be a solid match for SEC football.
THE BAD
SEC nation still turns its lonely eyes to you, Ron Franklin. There's no other word for his current role at the WWL than "a shame. I mean, just read this sentence from the ESPN release:
Returning announcer pairings to television’s deepest field of commentators include: Mark Jones and Bob Davie; Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham; Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore; Clay Matvick and David Diaz-Infante; and Charlie Neal and Jay Walker.One of those things is so much not like the others it's just sad. To top it off, if ESPN was going to keep Franklin down amongst the rabble in their steerage deck, they could at least assign him to one of their two new SEC slots so those of us who appreciate him can properly enjoy one of his last few years in the booth. No such luck, I guess.
If you clicked the Rowe-related link above, you know I'm one of the, oh, half-dozen or so heterosexual college football fans in the country who's legitimately disappointed Erin Andrews is taking over Rowe's duties on the Saturday prime time games. She's just not the reporter Rowe is. (Maybe Orson is one of the other half-dozen? Maybe?) WRAS and I may have to have some sort of non-lethal duel to settle our differences here.
Outside of Patrick, the one other demotion I was really hoping to see was the god-awful Pam Ward and Ray Bentley team evicted from their noon slot on ESPN2, which (like the rest of you) I always end up watching a good chunk of just because, of course, not much else has kicked off at that point. No dice. At least I'm not a Big 10 fan--they're understandably more disappointed than the rest of us.
The ??????
Selected to broadcast the new ESPNU SEC Saturday night game are ... drumroll please ... Eric Collins (play-by-play) and Brock Huard (color)? Can't say I know either of these guys. I have a vague recollection of Huard not sucking when filling in for someone else on some broadcast last year, but I might be confusing him for a sandwich I ate a couple of weeks ago. We'll find out how good they are this fall.
OVERALL
Some good moves here by ESPN, and no doubt the Patrick and Maguire demotions are a blessing, but their continued treatment of Franklin is inexcusable. They get a B in the JCCW's (extremely important) book.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Good news, everyone
So this past spring, Trooper Taylor didn't make much of a secret of the fact he wasn't totally enamored with the wideouts he'd been left from the previous regime. With Montez Billings out, Frenchy Pierre-Louis hobbled, Quindarius Carr getting compared to a limo panne d'essence*, and various other nagging injuries limiting Taylor's charges, Tim Hawthorne wound up just about the only wideout to receive consistent praise from their new position coach. It seemed likely that with Billings playing catch-up and DeAngelo Benton and Emory Blake coming in as true freshmen, talented as they might be, the safest bet for Auburn's No. 1 receiver in 2009 would be Hawthorne.
Naturally, Hawthorne broke his foot today and will be out at least four weeks but--knowing the tricky nature of foot injuries--quite possibly more. It seems likely he'll miss the beginning of fall camp at the very least, and if the injury robs him of the deep speed (such as it is) that's his best asset in this offense, possibly more.
It could be worse, as Aairon Savage would be happy to tell you. But it's sure ain't good, either.
*Milles Bornes reference is FTW, right?
QBlinks
You haven't forgotten that when it comes to Auburn player developments, the quarterback race still dwarfs all others the way Jupiter dwarfs its moons, right? (In this analogy, who takes over as, say, the third cornerback is like the possibility of life in the ice-covered ocean on the ice moon Europa ... interesting, important, but still just a thing in orbit around the much, much bigger thing.) But even if you have forgotten--I know that doesn't make any sense, just bear with me--there's been a burst of QB-related links the past 24 hours or so that'll remind you.
Tate on Caudle. Picking up where his post on Kodi Burns left off, Jay G. Tate offers his personal profile of Neil Caudle. He notes (as he had before) that Tony Franklin wrote Caudle off early, but with the new staff ...
Auburn wrapped spring practice without a clear No. 1 atop the depth chart at quarterback, which has to be considered a victory for Caudle. Armed with confidence, accuracy and an unusual drive to revive his career, Caudle is expected to be a major player in the quarterback race during two-a-days.As you might expect after reading that excerpt and knowing that Tate expects Burns to play back-up again, Tate predicts that Caudle will open the season as the starter.
It's my opinion that Caudle's interception problems of 2008 were a function of compromised confidence. Franklin's approach to coaching football, which includes surprisingly blunt assessments, clearly didn't work well for Caudle. He lost his swerve. He has regained most of it.
He speaks! A New Orleans television station offers a quickie video preview of Auburn as part of a series on LSU's 2009 opponents. Not much to learn from the committed Auburn fan's perspective, but you will hear from Ryan Pugh and Caudle on the coaching transition (albeit for about 12 seconds total). Here's a shocker: they're pretty damn happy about it, and my sense is probably even moreso than they can let on in front of the camera. For his part, Caudle--who has an accent every bit as thick as you'd hope, at least if you've been living in Michigan for three years--is up front that the switch is "great for me" before adding it's also "great for the program."
Chris Todd: yes, he's still here. The following Ben Tate quote from Luke Brietzke's blog has created a bit of a stir, because until it was said you would have most assuredly filed "Chris Todd throws the ball too hard" under "things that no one would ever, ever say under any non-torture-related and/or sarcastic circumstances." Butt here it is nonetheless:
“Chris Todd, he puts some zing on that ball. He can throw it pretty hard. You can definitely tell that his shoulder was injured last spring and it’s getting a lot better now. He’s going to be a guy to keep an eye on. He might start easing his way up the depth chart. You never know. … I have to tell him sometimes, ‘Hey Chris. Don’t throw it so hard to me. We’re just playing catch. We’re just trying to get warmed up.’”I mean, seriously: Chris Todd?!? Maybe his shoulder really is better. And if it is, you have to take Todd seriously as a possible starter. (Yes, you do. And finish your broccoli.)
I still think Todd has an uphill climb ahead of him, since he'll be the least mobile of the four quarterbacks seen as legitimate candidates for the job in an offense that does prize mobility. And while his gimpy shoulder was probably the biggest of his issues last season, it's not like his decision-making was exactly crisp and pristine, either. But who knows? If he's healthy, he'll have his say in fall camp. (If you've got a Rivals account, you can read more here.)
More. That must-read Brietzke post also features a basic breakdown of the QB position, some interesting quotes from both Burns and Todd, and Ben Tate's take on all the QB's, not just Todd. I don't how much I ought to read into this ...
“Kodi and Neil are both looking good. Neil’s working hard. I’ve never seen Neil work quite this hard. I guess now that the opportunity presented itself he’s working really hard. Kodi’s feeling the pressure. Neil and Kodi are out there throwing sometimes on their own. I guess they’re both thinking the same thing. Sometimes I look out there and they’re asking guys to stay out there and catch balls and they’re definitely working hard.”... but doesn't it seem, just a little bit, that the reason both guys are working as hard as they are is because Caudle made the decision to go all out and Burns is "feeling the pressure" and trying to make sure he doesn't fall behind? Again, I'm not certain that's what Tate is trying to say, but if that's the case, it's not really a great compliment about Burns's work ethic. Also from Tate: Rollison has "a cannon."
There's nothing stunning from Todd or Burns, but the former's description of his previous attempts to return from injury and the latter's obvious emphasis on being "the man" are definitely worth a look.
Lastly, if there's one way that two QB's are better than one ... it's in a hypothetical barfight.
Review of DEATH: Vanderbilt
The series that tries to look forward to what could go right by looking back at what went wrong.
What we expected: Well, after the second half against Tennessee I think "expectations" for the offense were well out the window. Anything could happen with that bunch. Sudden burst of explosiveness built on the steps taken against LSU? Sure. Regression to the futility of the Miss. St. and Tennessee games (or worse), even againbst a 'Dore defense that ranked dead last in the SEC coming into this game? Sure, that too. Some peculiar mish-mash in the middle where one thing (Burns QB draws?) works and everything else doesn't, and sometime towards the end of the third quarter a collection of armored knights riding ostriches emerge from the visitors' tunnel chased by a pterodactyl in the Vandy theater group's guerilla tribute to Joust? Everything was in play. Well, except for Auburn scoring more than, say, 24 points. That was out.
But the consensus? Auburn's D would choke enough life out of the erratic, turnover-fueled 'Dore offense to squeeze out a win, even if with Gameday on hand and a virtually certain bowl berth on the line, this was the biggest game for Vanderbilt in 20-plus years. The spread was Auburn -4, yours truly predicted a three-point scrape, and as much nervousness as there was about the haplessness of the offense, no one seemed comfortable predicting an Auburn loss to Vanderbilt just yet.
What happened: Vanderbilt 14, Auburn 13, a score that does nothing to suggest the unendurable frustration of the second half, in which Auburn's drive chart looked like this:
AU 3rd A09 15:00 Kickoff A17 13:18 Punt 3-8 1:42
AU 3rd A23 11:47 Missed FG A24 10:01 Punt 3-1 1:46
AU 3rd A32 07:09 Kickoff A35 05:56 Punt 3-3 1:13
AU 3rd A47 03:26 Missed FG V39 01:24 Punt 7-14 2:02
AU 4th A50 14:48 Punt A36 12:37 Punt 3--14 2:11
AU 4th A08 09:25 Punt A25 07:57 Punt 4-17 1:28
AU 4th A21 06:33 Punt A19 02:51 Punt 7--2 3:42
AU 4th A03 02:16 Punt A03 02:07 Interception 1-0 0:09
Take a look at the right column, and the number of plays per drive read like this: 3, 3, 3, 7, 3, 4, 7, 1. Not one of those drives covered more than 17 yards. One of them crossed midfield; stalled at the Vandy 39. I wrote in the game's wake--and if there was ever a game that deserved the fallout be dubbed a "wake," it was this one--that it was the most frustrated, the most angry I'd been watching an Auburn football game since Terry Bowden's final season, and nearly a year later, I stand by that. This was a game that would have been won with ease by any team with a halfway-competent offense, but Auburn's offense--featuring two quarterbacks, two-tight end sets, spreads, and everything in-between except success--was about 1/20th-competent. And despite giving up just 14 points and 263 yards and finishing dead-even in turnover margin, Auburn lost. I'm usually the type of fan who screams during or immediately after a big play but doesn't go ballistic at the final whistle in the event of a loss; this time I'd watched the game at a friend's house, stormed out as soon as it was finished, and swore a blue streak the whole drive home.
Looking back, I would call this game the low point of the decade for Auburn football and the Tuberville era. From 2000-2008, Auburn was a legitimate SEC contender. After this game, they weren't. It's kind of that simple.
One other note worth making here: the margin of victory here was provided by a missed extra point by Wes Byrum. If there's any single Auburn player who you might cruelly pick out as the Season of DEATH poster boy, it would have to be poor Foot Lauderdale, who went from Florida-beating savior to, well, missing game-deciding extra points in a one-point loss to Vandy.
The vibe when all was said and done: I think this FanPost at Track'Em pretty well summed it up. Plus, it gave the JCCW its nickname for the 2008 season and a title for this series, so, yeah, it's kind of a big deal.
More specifically, this is where Auburn fan support--or, rather, the lack thereof--for Franklin reached critical mass. After Tennessee, I think the general consensus was "Wow, this isn't working, but maybe it can get turned around somehow"; after Vandy, it became "this isn't going to work, and the plug should be pulled." In a recap of how Auburn's offense had come to such a state of disaster, even I said I would support Franklin's firing if he didn't improve against Arkansas.
My reaction to the result itself:
The JCCW, looking prescient for once: From the Friday preview:
The JCCW, looking foolish as usual: The very next paragraph from that same post:
What we learned about 2008: That whether the end came that week, in two weeks, or at the end of the season, Tony Franklin's Auburn career was finished, broken beyond repair. It wasn't that what Auburn was doing wasn't working--it's that Auburn wasn't even doing anything in particular. Betwene the quarterback controversy, the various new formations, the tug-of-war between Tubby and Franklin, the tug-of-war between Franklin and his assistants, the public calling-out of Franklin's play-calling by a handful of players after the Vandy game ... I mean, I'm not sure I've ever seen an offense anywhere being so obviously pulled in so many different directions. There was no there there. And so when the ax fell later that week, yeah, as I said at the time, it was probably the only move tubby could make. The offense would be in the hands of incompetents, but at least it would know whose hands it was in.
What we learned about 2009: First of all: we need the old Wes Byrum back. Please. I don't know if any team with Gus Malzahn as its offensive coordinator will ever find itself mired in a series of 14-12, 14-13 slugfests, but it doesn't change the fact that at multiple times this year Auburn will find itself in the kind of tense, tight game where an extra point or chip-shot field goal. And with all due respect to Dr. YellaShoes, I'd love to be able to rely on the guy whose been through those mental wars before and who we've seen win them at one time. Get ya head right, Wes.
Second, that Malzahn can't second-guess himself and start installing things that aren't what he'd usually install. (And, of course, Chizik can't order him to do so.) Yes, it was awesome when Auburn opened in the two-TE set and drove the ball down Vandy's throat for a quarter. But refining that set to the point where Auburn could put it on the field came at a cost: the offensive players lost whatever last bits of belief they had in the spread, lost some of their comfort within those sets, became even more divided mentally than they had been already.
Malzahn seems too smart to undermine his own offseason efforts halfway through the season, and hopefully Chizik's too smart to do the undermining for him. But even if the coaching staff is all on the same page, the page shouldn't get turned just because the offense is sputtering. Based on the results from the Vandy game (and the Tennessee game and Arkansas game, of course), the long-term answer is probably to get better at what the team has already learned rather than trying to learn something new on the midseason fly. Seems obvious, but if the Spread Eagle 2.0 limps along as badly as its predecessor did the first couple of weeks, you know there's goign to be plenty of calls from fans and in the media for Malzahn to start moving towards traditional sets.
We tried that last year. It didn't work.
What we expected: Well, after the second half against Tennessee I think "expectations" for the offense were well out the window. Anything could happen with that bunch. Sudden burst of explosiveness built on the steps taken against LSU? Sure. Regression to the futility of the Miss. St. and Tennessee games (or worse), even againbst a 'Dore defense that ranked dead last in the SEC coming into this game? Sure, that too. Some peculiar mish-mash in the middle where one thing (Burns QB draws?) works and everything else doesn't, and sometime towards the end of the third quarter a collection of armored knights riding ostriches emerge from the visitors' tunnel chased by a pterodactyl in the Vandy theater group's guerilla tribute to Joust? Everything was in play. Well, except for Auburn scoring more than, say, 24 points. That was out.
But the consensus? Auburn's D would choke enough life out of the erratic, turnover-fueled 'Dore offense to squeeze out a win, even if with Gameday on hand and a virtually certain bowl berth on the line, this was the biggest game for Vanderbilt in 20-plus years. The spread was Auburn -4, yours truly predicted a three-point scrape, and as much nervousness as there was about the haplessness of the offense, no one seemed comfortable predicting an Auburn loss to Vanderbilt just yet.
What happened: Vanderbilt 14, Auburn 13, a score that does nothing to suggest the unendurable frustration of the second half, in which Auburn's drive chart looked like this:
AU 3rd A09 15:00 Kickoff A17 13:18 Punt 3-8 1:42
AU 3rd A23 11:47 Missed FG A24 10:01 Punt 3-1 1:46
AU 3rd A32 07:09 Kickoff A35 05:56 Punt 3-3 1:13
AU 3rd A47 03:26 Missed FG V39 01:24 Punt 7-14 2:02
AU 4th A50 14:48 Punt A36 12:37 Punt 3--14 2:11
AU 4th A08 09:25 Punt A25 07:57 Punt 4-17 1:28
AU 4th A21 06:33 Punt A19 02:51 Punt 7--2 3:42
AU 4th A03 02:16 Punt A03 02:07 Interception 1-0 0:09
Take a look at the right column, and the number of plays per drive read like this: 3, 3, 3, 7, 3, 4, 7, 1. Not one of those drives covered more than 17 yards. One of them crossed midfield; stalled at the Vandy 39. I wrote in the game's wake--and if there was ever a game that deserved the fallout be dubbed a "wake," it was this one--that it was the most frustrated, the most angry I'd been watching an Auburn football game since Terry Bowden's final season, and nearly a year later, I stand by that. This was a game that would have been won with ease by any team with a halfway-competent offense, but Auburn's offense--featuring two quarterbacks, two-tight end sets, spreads, and everything in-between except success--was about 1/20th-competent. And despite giving up just 14 points and 263 yards and finishing dead-even in turnover margin, Auburn lost. I'm usually the type of fan who screams during or immediately after a big play but doesn't go ballistic at the final whistle in the event of a loss; this time I'd watched the game at a friend's house, stormed out as soon as it was finished, and swore a blue streak the whole drive home.
Looking back, I would call this game the low point of the decade for Auburn football and the Tuberville era. From 2000-2008, Auburn was a legitimate SEC contender. After this game, they weren't. It's kind of that simple.
One other note worth making here: the margin of victory here was provided by a missed extra point by Wes Byrum. If there's any single Auburn player who you might cruelly pick out as the Season of DEATH poster boy, it would have to be poor Foot Lauderdale, who went from Florida-beating savior to, well, missing game-deciding extra points in a one-point loss to Vandy.
The vibe when all was said and done: I think this FanPost at Track'Em pretty well summed it up. Plus, it gave the JCCW its nickname for the 2008 season and a title for this series, so, yeah, it's kind of a big deal.
More specifically, this is where Auburn fan support--or, rather, the lack thereof--for Franklin reached critical mass. After Tennessee, I think the general consensus was "Wow, this isn't working, but maybe it can get turned around somehow"; after Vandy, it became "this isn't going to work, and the plug should be pulled." In a recap of how Auburn's offense had come to such a state of disaster, even I said I would support Franklin's firing if he didn't improve against Arkansas.
My reaction to the result itself:
If there's any tiny, insignificant shred of silver lining in the freaking funnel cloud that blew through the Auburn football teams last Saturday, it's that there aren't any more illusions about the defense winning the SEC West title singlehandedly or sneaking some sort of backdoor BCS at-large bid. There's no expectations any more; I for one don't feel like there's any pressure on the team outside of the demand they don't completely embarrass themselves again between now and the Iron Bowl.I'm not sure every Auburn fan would have signed off on those sentiments, but in any case, the preseason expectation of SEC West titles and national acclaim--already on life support after the UT game--had finally had the stake driven through its feeble heart.
Because--as with 2007 after the LSU loss--that's the only game that matters now. Oh, a win over Georgia would be swell, don't get me wrong. But Auburn 2008 is now a one-game season, with every other contest between now and November 29 a glorified exhibition in order to get the Tigers prepared for Tuscaloosa and the Tide. It's not the way I'd like it, but that's the way it is.
The JCCW, looking prescient for once: From the Friday preview:
Boy oh boy, doesn't it feel like everything's perfectly in place for Vandy? They've had a week off, the place is sold out, they just need this one win to get over the hump, and it's all playing out in front of a national spotlight the likes of which Vandy has never seen. Remember a couple of years ago when Rutgers was in the middle of the same kind of "We've finally arrived!" streak, hosted Louisville in the big Thursday nighter in front of more fans than those players had ever seen, and won when the Cardinals jumped offside on a field goal try for no reason? Remember last year, when Mississippi St. needed one more miracle to wrap up a winning season, all looked lost, and Ole Miss handed them the ball at midfield for no reason--there's one TD--before Pegues returned a punt for the second score and the win? Weird things happen with these kinds of teams, man, weird things.Yes, I think Byrum missing an extra point, the goal-line stand for Vandy to start the game, and the wave of Auburn penalties all wound up in the category of "weird things." Even last year, I still think Auburn beats the 'Dores more times than not.
The JCCW, looking foolish as usual: The very next paragraph from that same post:
Three times this season Auburn has come out and looked thoroughly lost on offense. The first two times, they came back the following week and performed, if not brilliantly, at least competently. It seems only logical the seesaw would once again tilt in the opposite direction after the horrorshow last week.Not quite.
What we learned about 2008: That whether the end came that week, in two weeks, or at the end of the season, Tony Franklin's Auburn career was finished, broken beyond repair. It wasn't that what Auburn was doing wasn't working--it's that Auburn wasn't even doing anything in particular. Betwene the quarterback controversy, the various new formations, the tug-of-war between Tubby and Franklin, the tug-of-war between Franklin and his assistants, the public calling-out of Franklin's play-calling by a handful of players after the Vandy game ... I mean, I'm not sure I've ever seen an offense anywhere being so obviously pulled in so many different directions. There was no there there. And so when the ax fell later that week, yeah, as I said at the time, it was probably the only move tubby could make. The offense would be in the hands of incompetents, but at least it would know whose hands it was in.
What we learned about 2009: First of all: we need the old Wes Byrum back. Please. I don't know if any team with Gus Malzahn as its offensive coordinator will ever find itself mired in a series of 14-12, 14-13 slugfests, but it doesn't change the fact that at multiple times this year Auburn will find itself in the kind of tense, tight game where an extra point or chip-shot field goal. And with all due respect to Dr. YellaShoes, I'd love to be able to rely on the guy whose been through those mental wars before and who we've seen win them at one time. Get ya head right, Wes.
Second, that Malzahn can't second-guess himself and start installing things that aren't what he'd usually install. (And, of course, Chizik can't order him to do so.) Yes, it was awesome when Auburn opened in the two-TE set and drove the ball down Vandy's throat for a quarter. But refining that set to the point where Auburn could put it on the field came at a cost: the offensive players lost whatever last bits of belief they had in the spread, lost some of their comfort within those sets, became even more divided mentally than they had been already.
Malzahn seems too smart to undermine his own offseason efforts halfway through the season, and hopefully Chizik's too smart to do the undermining for him. But even if the coaching staff is all on the same page, the page shouldn't get turned just because the offense is sputtering. Based on the results from the Vandy game (and the Tennessee game and Arkansas game, of course), the long-term answer is probably to get better at what the team has already learned rather than trying to learn something new on the midseason fly. Seems obvious, but if the Spread Eagle 2.0 limps along as badly as its predecessor did the first couple of weeks, you know there's goign to be plenty of calls from fans and in the media for Malzahn to start moving towards traditional sets.
We tried that last year. It didn't work.
Heroes walk amongst us
Sorry for the lack of content this a.m., late start. To make it up to you, enjoy this concrete piece of evidence that the the younger generation is not, as so often assumed, lost:
Actual post up soon. (HT: Justin.)
Actual post up soon. (HT: Justin.)
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Krootin' 7/8
Banneker boys. First, for no other reason than that I haven't embedded them before now, seven-plus minutes' worth of Shaun Kitchens highlights:
Second, Auburn's next commitment could be Kitchens' teammate at Banneker High in College Park, Ga., Demetruce McNeal. According to J.C. Shurbutt:
Super, thanks for asking. The Press-Register has released its "Super Southeast 120" list and there's a goodly number of prospects with some level of Auburn interest involved. Beaver has that run-down for you. Items of interest:
--Auburn's commitments did maybe a little better than expected. At No. 47, Jeremy Richardson gets more of his four-star Rivals treatment than the Scout skepticism; at No. 86, Jawara White ranks above several consensus four-star recruits like Craig Sanders, Antonio Goodwin, Jalston Fowler, Eric Mack, etc.
--No surprise Marcus Lattimore tops the list, but Michael Dyer ranking third over guys like DeMarcus Milliner and Trovon Reed is interesting.
--At No. 41, just ahead of Florida wideout commit Solomon Patton, it's clear the gurus expect LaDarius Owens to be a stud. Speaking of which ...
Linebacker trouble? RBR's OTS in his weekly recruiting update:
On top of that, Nigel Terrell came back from a trip to Kentucky saying nice things about the Wildcats. Certainly nothing to panic about (in fact, it's possible that an Owens commitment would mean Auburn was done at linebacker, though as short as they are I doubt it), but it's something to be aware of.
Linemen. From that same Terrell link comes this article on Eric Mack from The State. If you want to be optimistic, he mentions that Auburn and Alabama are the only schools he's already decided he'll take official visits to. If you want to be pessimistic ...
Which means Auburn fans might want to shift their attention to ... uh, Wes Rea? He visited Auburn last weekend as part of a baseball tournament and apparently doesn't have an offer yet from the SEC's heavier hitters, so maybe Auburn can get involved (if he doesn't decide to just play baseball instead).
Now for some good news. Michael Dyer apparently told Rivals that not only was Auburn still his leader, but Tennessee and LSU were the teams with the best shot at prying him away. That last bit of data is probably the sort of thing that will change by the end of the month, but as long as Dyer's still saying good things about Auburn, the glass is going to stay half full.
Volswatch. Maybe the two events aren't connected. But maybe it's not coincidence that just after Jesse Scroggins admits he's troubled by Kiffykins' avalanche of secondary violations, the Vols became the second halfway-decent program to offer fallback quarterback Chase Rettig? We can only hope, since it would lead to even more awesome posts from 3SiB like this one.
Etc. Albertville center Zach Underwood is hoping for an Auburn offer ... the answer to the first question posed here is apparently yes, for whatever it's worth.
Second, Auburn's next commitment could be Kitchens' teammate at Banneker High in College Park, Ga., Demetruce McNeal. According to J.C. Shurbutt:
Athlete Demetruce McNeal (College Park, Ga./Banneker) recently received a written offer from Auburn, firming up the Tigers' interest in him. This makes Auburn the clear leader in the race for his services.McNeal would be the lowest-rated member of Auburn's 2010 class-to-date, with a 5.6 grade from Rivals, an icky 75 from ESPN, and the No. 72 spot in the safety rankings at Scout. But McNeal camped at Auburn not too long ago, so it's not like Auburn's coaches wouldn't know what they're getting, and it's also not like Auburn isn't in some serious need for a safety or two after Christian Thompson's dismissal.
Super, thanks for asking. The Press-Register has released its "Super Southeast 120" list and there's a goodly number of prospects with some level of Auburn interest involved. Beaver has that run-down for you. Items of interest:
--Auburn's commitments did maybe a little better than expected. At No. 47, Jeremy Richardson gets more of his four-star Rivals treatment than the Scout skepticism; at No. 86, Jawara White ranks above several consensus four-star recruits like Craig Sanders, Antonio Goodwin, Jalston Fowler, Eric Mack, etc.
--No surprise Marcus Lattimore tops the list, but Michael Dyer ranking third over guys like DeMarcus Milliner and Trovon Reed is interesting.
--At No. 41, just ahead of Florida wideout commit Solomon Patton, it's clear the gurus expect LaDarius Owens to be a stud. Speaking of which ...
Linebacker trouble? RBR's OTS in his weekly recruiting update:
LaDarius Owens has made some positive news for the Tide as of late. As I previously said, we really need to have him postpone his decision as long as possible, and now it looks like he will not be deciding before the season starts. Auburn is still his clear leader, but we are staying alive. And, interestingly enough, Owens recently said in an interview that the schools recruiting him the hardest were Alabama, Tennessee, and LSU. No mention of Auburn. Given the Tigers' great need for Owens, that struck me as really odd. You can make plenty of valid criticisms against Chizik and company, but a lack of energy and intensity on the recruiting trails certainly isn't one of them. Perhaps they feel they have Owens in the bag? I do find it to be a bit of a mistake to not be going after him as hard as others, given how badly they need him.They will probably get him regardless, but I see no reason to be taking chances.Suffice it to say, if Auburn's coaches are in fact taking it easy on Owens, I do not either. I would argue Owens is as big a recruit for Auburn in this class as their is: he's an Auburn legacy, a winnable in-state battle, by all accounts a tremendous prospect, and all at a position where Auburn is in desperate need. It's hard to see how letting him get away wouldn't be a massive blow to the new staff's claims about rebuilding Auburn's in-state recruiting, not to mention, you know, the football team itself.
On top of that, Nigel Terrell came back from a trip to Kentucky saying nice things about the Wildcats. Certainly nothing to panic about (in fact, it's possible that an Owens commitment would mean Auburn was done at linebacker, though as short as they are I doubt it), but it's something to be aware of.
Linemen. From that same Terrell link comes this article on Eric Mack from The State. If you want to be optimistic, he mentions that Auburn and Alabama are the only schools he's already decided he'll take official visits to. If you want to be pessimistic ...
But his college choice is not the only variable causing Mack to grow up fast.Uh, when those "distractions" also equal home cookin' and all your regular day-to-day friends, are they really a negative? Bottom line: I'll be surprised if Mack goes out of state.
Fatherhood weighs on his mind as well.
Mack has a 1-year-old daughter, Kaliyah, who lives with her mother in Orangeburg.
“It impacts a lot,” Mack said. “I don’t want to be too far so I can’t get home if something is wrong. But I don’t want to be too close and have all these distractions.”
Which means Auburn fans might want to shift their attention to ... uh, Wes Rea? He visited Auburn last weekend as part of a baseball tournament and apparently doesn't have an offer yet from the SEC's heavier hitters, so maybe Auburn can get involved (if he doesn't decide to just play baseball instead).
Now for some good news. Michael Dyer apparently told Rivals that not only was Auburn still his leader, but Tennessee and LSU were the teams with the best shot at prying him away. That last bit of data is probably the sort of thing that will change by the end of the month, but as long as Dyer's still saying good things about Auburn, the glass is going to stay half full.
Volswatch. Maybe the two events aren't connected. But maybe it's not coincidence that just after Jesse Scroggins admits he's troubled by Kiffykins' avalanche of secondary violations, the Vols became the second halfway-decent program to offer fallback quarterback Chase Rettig? We can only hope, since it would lead to even more awesome posts from 3SiB like this one.
Etc. Albertville center Zach Underwood is hoping for an Auburn offer ... the answer to the first question posed here is apparently yes, for whatever it's worth.
The Works, Orangeout!-style
Number of reasons not to do this against Furman: -3. If there's any blog that's possibly more intrigued by Auburn uniform possibilities than the JCCW, it's Auburntron, and they proved it once again this week with a sweet series of NCAA '10-created alternate football unis. Well, most of the designs are more "sweet" in the "whoa, so that's what that would look like" sense more than the actual "sweet" sense, since the navy helmets and pants just don't quite work. But this look?
Money. Auburntron's posted a Photoshop preview of what it might sort of look like on a real-life Auburn player before ...
... and though this one would look a lot better with a navy stripe on the sleeve instead of more orange, either way you can see how much potential there is here. I don't it's the sort of gimmickry we'd want trotted out for a big game--the Dawgs kind of have the patent on that as far as the SEC goes, and even Tennessee knows it--but is there any reason not to give a walk-over past a I-AA patsy this kind of extra juice?
(One more brief uni-related link, for any long-time Birmingham residents out there: Uniwatch recently took a look at the CFL's brief expansion into the U.S., and have a couple of links to old pics of the Birmingham Barracudas' rather-hilarious outfits. I like a lot of things about the '90s, but professional sports uniforms aren't one of them.)
Tate, doin' work. The Auburn news is slow, but Jay G. Tate's handling that by making his own damn news at the HABOTN. That's perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it's not at all to say his profiles this week of Trooper Taylor and Kodi Burns are must-reads all the same. On Taylor:
Tate also mentions that he hasn't seen enough from Taylor to visualize him as an offensive coordinator, but I have to think that's just been an effect of Taylor's current role. The dude's spent the last few years hanging around David Cutcliffe, Mike Gundy, and now Gus Malzahn. You'd have to be pretty thick not to have learned enough from guys like that to competently run an offense, and I don't think anyone's going to accuse Taylor of being thick any time soon.
As for the Burns piece, Tate makes the point that it's not Burns's ability to graps an offense that's been his problem--it's his ability to grasp the fundamentals of throwing a football at the college level. Tate's final prediction:
BlAUgosphere. I didn't really think it was possible for me to get excited about a new baseball assistant, but PPL does the trick for new hire Link Jarrett:
Sigh. By now I'm sure you've read Orson's highly enjoyable fisk of the latest Schmaul Schmineschmaum "column," so there's not much more to say about that. But I do have to point out this post at ESPN's SEC blog which not only links up the Schmineschmaum column at face value but adds a second link where readers can find the SEC-related opinions of none other than ... Colin Cowherd.
Those two links were posted on the same day Smart Football expertly broke down why offensive diversity is so rare in the NFL, Gate 21 beautifully eulogized the career of former Vol radio play-by-play man John Ward (complete with soundboard!), and Blutarsky's continuing coverage of the BCS fooferaw that, thankfully, means I don't have to waste my time with it. But no: the people whose opinions you really need to be reading, visitor to ESPN's SEC blog, are Schmineschmaum and Colin freaking Cowherd. I feel like I ought to be wearing a $5,000 suit when I say this, but seriously: Come on.
McNair. Don't want to take up too much of your time with media whining, but the coverage of this story--whether it be from blogs (asOrson Spencer illustrates) or mainstream columnists (ATVS on Whitlock: "Oh, dear Lord")--has been abominable.
Etc. Mike Herndon combines SEC football and Michael Jackson with surprising cleverness ... once again proving why Auburn would never want to be associated with it, this year's Chick-Fil-A kickoff game has sold out ... A Syracuse kicker commit comments on the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Hey, I LOL'd.
Money. Auburntron's posted a Photoshop preview of what it might sort of look like on a real-life Auburn player before ...
... and though this one would look a lot better with a navy stripe on the sleeve instead of more orange, either way you can see how much potential there is here. I don't it's the sort of gimmickry we'd want trotted out for a big game--the Dawgs kind of have the patent on that as far as the SEC goes, and even Tennessee knows it--but is there any reason not to give a walk-over past a I-AA patsy this kind of extra juice?
(One more brief uni-related link, for any long-time Birmingham residents out there: Uniwatch recently took a look at the CFL's brief expansion into the U.S., and have a couple of links to old pics of the Birmingham Barracudas' rather-hilarious outfits. I like a lot of things about the '90s, but professional sports uniforms aren't one of them.)
Tate, doin' work. The Auburn news is slow, but Jay G. Tate's handling that by making his own damn news at the HABOTN. That's perhaps a slight exaggeration, but it's not at all to say his profiles this week of Trooper Taylor and Kodi Burns are must-reads all the same. On Taylor:
I've said before that Auburn has the sellers and the truthers when it comes to recruiting. Taylor is the No. 1 seller. He's the guy who's laughing, shaking hands, dropping references, patting people on the back and creating a party atmosphere."Politician" is of course a word as loaded as they come, but since we've all known a pol or two in our time that we could only shake our heads at in terms of how well they worked a crowd or made you believe in whatever plan they were backing, I don't mind hearing Taylor described that way. Auburn needs those guys.
He is the best seller I've seen at Auburn. He can seem trendy to a 17-year-old kid and seem genuine to his 70-year-old grandmother in the same sitting. Taylor is a politician ...
At the same time, he doesn't strike me as being all that cavalier when the curtain drops. I don't think he's as happy-go-lucky as he seems. He is task-oriented. Taylor works through a list each day because things can get away from him. His conversational style, by definition, can lead him into tangential enterprises. He's a guy who can engage and disengage quickly. It has to be that way.
Tate also mentions that he hasn't seen enough from Taylor to visualize him as an offensive coordinator, but I have to think that's just been an effect of Taylor's current role. The dude's spent the last few years hanging around David Cutcliffe, Mike Gundy, and now Gus Malzahn. You'd have to be pretty thick not to have learned enough from guys like that to competently run an offense, and I don't think anyone's going to accuse Taylor of being thick any time soon.
As for the Burns piece, Tate makes the point that it's not Burns's ability to graps an offense that's been his problem--it's his ability to grasp the fundamentals of throwing a football at the college level. Tate's final prediction:
Burns again plays second fiddle.I'm more optimistic, but Tate's obviously seen a hell of a lot more of Burns the last couple of years than I have.
BlAUgosphere. I didn't really think it was possible for me to get excited about a new baseball assistant, but PPL does the trick for new hire Link Jarrett:
1. Yes, the is an awesome baseball name. Continuing to prove the point that Baseball Players, and former players, always have the coolest names. Seriously, the name Link Jarrett sounds like either a) a 70’s Porn Star b) an 80’s Cop show or c) Awesome Baseball player name.Elsewhere, JRS's most recent update from the land of Auburn players' Facebooks finds new roommates Clint Moseley and Tyrik Rollison in less-than-chipper moods ... though, you know, not about rooming together.
3. He comes from East Carolina. A team that went to a Super Regional and ended ranked #16 last year.
Sigh. By now I'm sure you've read Orson's highly enjoyable fisk of the latest Schmaul Schmineschmaum "column," so there's not much more to say about that. But I do have to point out this post at ESPN's SEC blog which not only links up the Schmineschmaum column at face value but adds a second link where readers can find the SEC-related opinions of none other than ... Colin Cowherd.
Those two links were posted on the same day Smart Football expertly broke down why offensive diversity is so rare in the NFL, Gate 21 beautifully eulogized the career of former Vol radio play-by-play man John Ward (complete with soundboard!), and Blutarsky's continuing coverage of the BCS fooferaw that, thankfully, means I don't have to waste my time with it. But no: the people whose opinions you really need to be reading, visitor to ESPN's SEC blog, are Schmineschmaum and Colin freaking Cowherd. I feel like I ought to be wearing a $5,000 suit when I say this, but seriously: Come on.
McNair. Don't want to take up too much of your time with media whining, but the coverage of this story--whether it be from blogs (as
Etc. Mike Herndon combines SEC football and Michael Jackson with surprising cleverness ... once again proving why Auburn would never want to be associated with it, this year's Chick-Fil-A kickoff game has sold out ... A Syracuse kicker commit comments on the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Hey, I LOL'd.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Afternoonlinks
Man oh man, has it been a slooooooow couple of news days in Auburnland. When the biggest story of the day on the beat blogs is the hiring of a new "senior associate athletic director for external affairs," you know the illustration Joel Hollingsworth picked out for his news-starved Dr. Saturday post this morning is on the money.
But here's a few things worth taking a gander at:
-- AuburnUndercover was nice enough to leave their story on Clinton Durst outside the paywall. Durst unsurprisingly comes off as a pretty likeable guy, referring to himself as a "bum off the street," leading to this particularly interesting passage:
--You may have already seen this, but Braves and Birds' Michael offers some pretty conclusive evidence that a Coach of the Year trophy isn't the best omen for a team's karma going forward. The 2008 winner on that list I'll be watching most closely is Paul Johnson--you would think a second season of transition into a system as unorthodox as his option would mean nothing but improvement over the first, but the Jackets have arguably the toughest schedule in the ACC.
-- Auburntron says this billboard was spotted in Mobile:
To answer your question, yes, I think it's a recruiting billboard ... but for recruiting students. (Mostly, anyway.)
--South Carolina reports a secondary violation for offering "impermissible snacks," which is totally the name of my next fantasy team or Rock Band band or whatever.
-- Barrett Salleee runs down the top 5 non-conference games in the SEC this year, and all you need to know about the league's scheduling habits is that LSU at Washington makes the list. (I'd have gone with Carolina at N.C. State myself, but that LSU at Washington is even in play pretty much says it all.)
But here's a few things worth taking a gander at:
-- AuburnUndercover was nice enough to leave their story on Clinton Durst outside the paywall. Durst unsurprisingly comes off as a pretty likeable guy, referring to himself as a "bum off the street," leading to this particularly interesting passage:
Playing for the first time before 80,000-plus at Jordan-Hare stadium can be a daunting experience even for those who were high school stars. When Durst trotted onto the field for the first time against Louisiana-Monroe last season, it was his first football game, period.It's almost the usual athletic blither, but that little touch of honesty at the end gives it away. Of course, if nerves ever really did bother Durst last year, he didn't show it--it's more than a little ironic to read this and remember it was Shoemaker who helped gag a game away in his one appearance last year.
“My heart was beating out of my chest,” Durst said. “I couldn’t breathe. But after that first punt, it was just a game, just people, no big deal. That’s what I kept telling myself, anyway.”
--You may have already seen this, but Braves and Birds' Michael offers some pretty conclusive evidence that a Coach of the Year trophy isn't the best omen for a team's karma going forward. The 2008 winner on that list I'll be watching most closely is Paul Johnson--you would think a second season of transition into a system as unorthodox as his option would mean nothing but improvement over the first, but the Jackets have arguably the toughest schedule in the ACC.
-- Auburntron says this billboard was spotted in Mobile:
To answer your question, yes, I think it's a recruiting billboard ... but for recruiting students. (Mostly, anyway.)
--South Carolina reports a secondary violation for offering "impermissible snacks," which is totally the name of my next fantasy team or Rock Band band or whatever.
-- Barrett Salleee runs down the top 5 non-conference games in the SEC this year, and all you need to know about the league's scheduling habits is that LSU at Washington makes the list. (I'd have gone with Carolina at N.C. State myself, but that LSU at Washington is even in play pretty much says it all.)
2009 Cheese Puff Previews: Ball State
Back by popular demand blogger fiat, it's your No. 1 most favorite tolerated series of near-substanceless, air-injected preview puffery. As always, it should in no way be mistaken for actual preseason football nutrition, but hopefully you find the series unaccountably tasty and even habit-forming. And so it is unofficially sponsored by:
This Ball State matchup has a peculiar history from the Auburn perspective ... and of course, it hasn't even been played yet. But when it was scheduled, it was likely intended to be Division I Cupcake No. 1, a slightly milder version of the 63-3 slaughter in Week 3 of the 2005 season. Then head coach Brady Hoke turned nine years' worth of non-winning seasons into a 7-5 campaign in 2007 and a stunning 12-0 regular season in 2008 that prompted legitimate BCS bowl talk for, yes, Ball State, and all of a sudden scheduling the Cardinals was a USF-style mistake, a cupcake that Auburn was due to find out had a razor blade hidden in it.
And then, just like that, the game went back to being a standard home paycheck game against a MAC also-ran: the Cardinals lost to Buffalo in the MAC title game, got annihilated by Tulsa in the GMAC bowl, Hokeamania took its act west to San Diego St., star quarterback Nate Davis left a year early for the NFL, the allegedly cheapskate Cardinal brass hired 62-year-old offensive coordinator Stan Parrish as their new head coach. Voila: Ball St., consensus fourth-place team in the MAC West, perfect respectable-but-not-too-respectable appetizer for the two-week road trip to Knoxville and Fayetteville to come.
Right? "Appetizer," that's accurate, right? Please?
Last year: Seriously, it's still stunning and more than little unfair that BSU fans might look back at their 2008 season with anything other than unequivocal delight given how dominant their team was over their first 12 games. Yeah, the Cardinal schedule had its share of turkeys and wasn't anything to crow about, but this wasn't a case of 2007 Hawaii where they had their chickens counted before they hatched and had to duck upset after upset: when you win your eight MAC games by an average of 21 points and outgained the second-best team in the conference by 80 yards per league contest, you'd have to be a total birdbrain to think any other team was the league's cock-of-the-walk. Too bad the Buffalo game wound up an albatross around the program's neck, leaving all those good feelings dead as a ... sorry, I'll stop now. The point: for 12 games, Ball State had a total dream season. For two and an offseason, it was a nightmare. Not sure how you reconcile the two.
Notable previous meeting: After the aforementioned 2005 meeting, the Cardinals' most lopsided defeat and worst defensive showing a 66-0 loss to St. Joseph's in 1956, famous Ball State alum David Letterman joked on his program "The Late Show" that it was the worst beating he'd seen "since I'd looked at last month's ratings," a reference to Letterman's continued deficit to rival Jay Leno in the Nielsen ratings. Letterman would go on to make note of the Cardinals' opponent, saying the following in his trademark deadpan:
Actual series history: Auburn's won both all-time meetings against Ball State with ease, shutting out the Cardinals 30-0 in 2001.
Causes for Alarm:
1. Oh crap, they've got Andre Dawson on their team! Look upon "the Hawks"'s chiseled physique and despair!
OK, so it's a different Andre Dawson. But for those of us who remember Dawson blasting a home run seemingly every other at-bat he took against the hapless Braves of our '80s childhood, it's worrying enough.
2. I'm sure Ball St. fans and alums are sick-to-death of Brian Collins references, and I guess I apologize to any that happen to stop by for dredging "the Collins incident" up once again, but a) seriously, dude, you can't mess with the classics:
and b) Collins continued Ball State's run of bad luck recently when he was apparently axed from his job at a Waco television station. I don't know how closely Collins's emotions are tied to the performance of his alma mater's football team, but if they are, the universe is probably due to grant him a break, right, even if it's only for a Saturday night?
Causes for Confidence
1. Look, I know all but one game of Stan Parrish's career 2-31-1 head coaching mark in D-I came at Kansas St. in the mid-80s, the most hopeless job this side of Temple, Buffalo, or Florida International ... but jumpin' jehosophat, 2-31-1?!?!? 2-31-1! 2 wins! 31 losses! 1 tie! A career winning percentage of .063! Back when he wasn't 62! After last season I don't think there's much doubting Parrish's offensive acumen, but still, this isn't going to end well. As Al Golden, Turner Gill, and Mario Cristobal are proving--and as Parrish's successor Bill Snyder proved right there at Kansas St.--a good coach can make strides anywhere. (Iowa St. excepted, of course, as any good Auburn fan will tell you.)(As an aside, teams facing off against Paterno or Bowden excepted, how many other college football teams teams are squaring off against 118 years' worth of head coaches in the span of two weeks the way Auburn is with Parrish and Bill Stewart?)
2. In lieu of coming up with another reason for confidence, of which, honestly, Auburn is not lacking when it comes to this game, please enjoy the following wonderful sentence from Ball State's entry in the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia:
Actual alleged analysis: Look, I'm the guy who had to resort to pictures of kittens to get through his preview of Louisiana Tech and two summers ago said he expected New Mexico St. to keep it close for a half. I know from mid-major paranoia.
But even I can't bring myself to worry about this game. 12-0 start last year or no 12-0 start last year, aside from nifty senior running back MiQuale Lewis and the Cards' veteran-if-undersized defensive line, there's just nothing left. Not the quarterback, not the offensive line, not the receivers (a matter of awful, awful luck in that case), not the corners, not the head coach, not--perhaps most importantly of all--that ineffable magic that makes a 12-0 start a possibility at a place like Ball State. All signs point to the Cards being just another MAC team, and just-another-MAC-teams have never accomplished much when traveling to SEC stadiums.
If the Spread Eagle 2.0 still hasn't shaken the hiccups, the Ball St. defensive front is playing over its head, and Lewis is moving the chains single-handedly, yeah, maybe this stays close for a half or even three quarters. But an actual loss is about as likely as Ball becoming the Hoosieroons again.
This Ball State matchup has a peculiar history from the Auburn perspective ... and of course, it hasn't even been played yet. But when it was scheduled, it was likely intended to be Division I Cupcake No. 1, a slightly milder version of the 63-3 slaughter in Week 3 of the 2005 season. Then head coach Brady Hoke turned nine years' worth of non-winning seasons into a 7-5 campaign in 2007 and a stunning 12-0 regular season in 2008 that prompted legitimate BCS bowl talk for, yes, Ball State, and all of a sudden scheduling the Cardinals was a USF-style mistake, a cupcake that Auburn was due to find out had a razor blade hidden in it.
And then, just like that, the game went back to being a standard home paycheck game against a MAC also-ran: the Cardinals lost to Buffalo in the MAC title game, got annihilated by Tulsa in the GMAC bowl, Hokeamania took its act west to San Diego St., star quarterback Nate Davis left a year early for the NFL, the allegedly cheapskate Cardinal brass hired 62-year-old offensive coordinator Stan Parrish as their new head coach. Voila: Ball St., consensus fourth-place team in the MAC West, perfect respectable-but-not-too-respectable appetizer for the two-week road trip to Knoxville and Fayetteville to come.
Right? "Appetizer," that's accurate, right? Please?
Last year: Seriously, it's still stunning and more than little unfair that BSU fans might look back at their 2008 season with anything other than unequivocal delight given how dominant their team was over their first 12 games. Yeah, the Cardinal schedule had its share of turkeys and wasn't anything to crow about, but this wasn't a case of 2007 Hawaii where they had their chickens counted before they hatched and had to duck upset after upset: when you win your eight MAC games by an average of 21 points and outgained the second-best team in the conference by 80 yards per league contest, you'd have to be a total birdbrain to think any other team was the league's cock-of-the-walk. Too bad the Buffalo game wound up an albatross around the program's neck, leaving all those good feelings dead as a ... sorry, I'll stop now. The point: for 12 games, Ball State had a total dream season. For two and an offseason, it was a nightmare. Not sure how you reconcile the two.
Notable previous meeting: After the aforementioned 2005 meeting, the Cardinals' most lopsided defeat and worst defensive showing a 66-0 loss to St. Joseph's in 1956, famous Ball State alum David Letterman joked on his program "The Late Show" that it was the worst beating he'd seen "since I'd looked at last month's ratings," a reference to Letterman's continued deficit to rival Jay Leno in the Nielsen ratings. Letterman would go on to make note of the Cardinals' opponent, saying the following in his trademark deadpan:
The victorious team here, Auburn University, fine school, fine institution, famous for this ... cheer that they use. Very famous cheer. Do you know the cheer, Paul? Are you familiar with the cheer? (Paul Shaffer: Rah-rah-rah, something along those lines?) No, it's "War Eagle." "War Eagle," Paul. I like it. I feel like it's the sort of cheer the country can get behind. War ... Eagle. So the symbol of our country, here, and then war, which is something I would say that we're good at. One of our nation's specialties. This is the sort of cheer that I could see our President, Mr. Bush, really standing behind and using to get the country fired up the way they, the way the fans do at Auburn. War ... Eagle. That's how he's going to begin his next address, his next ... speech in front of Congress. War ... Eagle.The following week Letterman called back to the joke and aired a brief clip of George W. Bush saying "War Eagle" during his 2002 visit to Auburn. Letterman again predicted that Bush would use it just before asking Congress for more money for the war effort in Iraq.
Actual series history: Auburn's won both all-time meetings against Ball State with ease, shutting out the Cardinals 30-0 in 2001.
Causes for Alarm:
1. Oh crap, they've got Andre Dawson on their team! Look upon "the Hawks"'s chiseled physique and despair!
OK, so it's a different Andre Dawson. But for those of us who remember Dawson blasting a home run seemingly every other at-bat he took against the hapless Braves of our '80s childhood, it's worrying enough.
2. I'm sure Ball St. fans and alums are sick-to-death of Brian Collins references, and I guess I apologize to any that happen to stop by for dredging "the Collins incident" up once again, but a) seriously, dude, you can't mess with the classics:
and b) Collins continued Ball State's run of bad luck recently when he was apparently axed from his job at a Waco television station. I don't know how closely Collins's emotions are tied to the performance of his alma mater's football team, but if they are, the universe is probably due to grant him a break, right, even if it's only for a Saturday night?
Causes for Confidence
1. Look, I know all but one game of Stan Parrish's career 2-31-1 head coaching mark in D-I came at Kansas St. in the mid-80s, the most hopeless job this side of Temple, Buffalo, or Florida International ... but jumpin' jehosophat, 2-31-1?!?!? 2-31-1! 2 wins! 31 losses! 1 tie! A career winning percentage of .063! Back when he wasn't 62! After last season I don't think there's much doubting Parrish's offensive acumen, but still, this isn't going to end well. As Al Golden, Turner Gill, and Mario Cristobal are proving--and as Parrish's successor Bill Snyder proved right there at Kansas St.--a good coach can make strides anywhere. (Iowa St. excepted, of course, as any good Auburn fan will tell you.)(As an aside, teams facing off against Paterno or Bowden excepted, how many other college football teams teams are squaring off against 118 years' worth of head coaches in the span of two weeks the way Auburn is with Parrish and Bill Stewart?)
2. In lieu of coming up with another reason for confidence, of which, honestly, Auburn is not lacking when it comes to this game, please enjoy the following wonderful sentence from Ball State's entry in the ESPN College Football Encyclopedia:
As might be expected, Ball State's original nickname, Hoosieroons, was not especially popular around campus.The week of the game, I promise to refer to Ball State by--and only by--the nickname "Hoosieroons."
Actual alleged analysis: Look, I'm the guy who had to resort to pictures of kittens to get through his preview of Louisiana Tech and two summers ago said he expected New Mexico St. to keep it close for a half. I know from mid-major paranoia.
But even I can't bring myself to worry about this game. 12-0 start last year or no 12-0 start last year, aside from nifty senior running back MiQuale Lewis and the Cards' veteran-if-undersized defensive line, there's just nothing left. Not the quarterback, not the offensive line, not the receivers (a matter of awful, awful luck in that case), not the corners, not the head coach, not--perhaps most importantly of all--that ineffable magic that makes a 12-0 start a possibility at a place like Ball State. All signs point to the Cards being just another MAC team, and just-another-MAC-teams have never accomplished much when traveling to SEC stadiums.
If the Spread Eagle 2.0 still hasn't shaken the hiccups, the Ball St. defensive front is playing over its head, and Lewis is moving the chains single-handedly, yeah, maybe this stays close for a half or even three quarters. But an actual loss is about as likely as Ball becoming the Hoosieroons again.
James goes JUCO
The biggest development of Auburn's week so far: signee LaVoyd James is, as has long been expected, off to junior college. James was a slot jitterbug recruited during the Franklin era and a middle-of-the-road recruit to everyone but ESPN (where, to be fair, James was a low four-star/high three-star type who they felt could particularly excel in the spread), and with his academic iffyness one of the worst-kept secrets of the Auburn Internet over the past few months, it's hard to call this much of a blow.
That said, at this time last year the class of 2009 boasted an entire fleet of potential sub-6-foot assassins--James, LaDarius Perkins, Brandon Heavens, and Travante Stallworth--ready to join Frenchy in turning slot receiver into a position of actual strength. Now, that group has dwindled to Stallworth and ... well, there's possible running back converts Demond Washington and Anthony Gulley, if they don't end up elsewhere. And of course Frenchy hasn't gotten off to the greatest start with the new staff. But compared to what Auburn had last summer, that's not much.
The slot's not quite as important to Malzahn's Spread Eagle as the Franklin version--at least, I don't think it is--but still, any offense that puts four wideouts on the field is probably going to want a little shake-and-shimmy versatility amongst those four. And unless Washington moves over from running back with a quickness, Stallworth now likely stands alone as the class of 2009's candidate to provide that versatility this season.
-- Updating the "did they make it?" tote board, of Auburn's 28 signees ...
Enrolled: 19 (Aycock, Benton, Blake, Cooper, Eguae, Evans, Ford, Gaston, Gulley, Harris, Lutzenkirchen, Moseley, Rollison, Stallworth, Sullen, Travis, Farley, Freeman, McCalebb)
Failed to qualify: 2 (Taylor, James)
TBD: 7 (Bates, Coleman, Jackson, Jacobs, Lanier, Paige, Washington)
Those remaining seven guys on the Clearinghouse fence are going to have a lot to say about how successful Chizik and Co. were at turning around Tubby's tide of non-qualifiers. Bring in 24 or even 25 recruits and that's a solid class of players to build on ... bring in 20 or 21 and it starts to look distressingly similar to the thinness of the last couple of Auburn classes.
That said, at this time last year the class of 2009 boasted an entire fleet of potential sub-6-foot assassins--James, LaDarius Perkins, Brandon Heavens, and Travante Stallworth--ready to join Frenchy in turning slot receiver into a position of actual strength. Now, that group has dwindled to Stallworth and ... well, there's possible running back converts Demond Washington and Anthony Gulley, if they don't end up elsewhere. And of course Frenchy hasn't gotten off to the greatest start with the new staff. But compared to what Auburn had last summer, that's not much.
The slot's not quite as important to Malzahn's Spread Eagle as the Franklin version--at least, I don't think it is--but still, any offense that puts four wideouts on the field is probably going to want a little shake-and-shimmy versatility amongst those four. And unless Washington moves over from running back with a quickness, Stallworth now likely stands alone as the class of 2009's candidate to provide that versatility this season.
-- Updating the "did they make it?" tote board, of Auburn's 28 signees ...
Enrolled: 19 (Aycock, Benton, Blake, Cooper, Eguae, Evans, Ford, Gaston, Gulley, Harris, Lutzenkirchen, Moseley, Rollison, Stallworth, Sullen, Travis, Farley, Freeman, McCalebb)
Failed to qualify: 2 (Taylor, James)
TBD: 7 (Bates, Coleman, Jackson, Jacobs, Lanier, Paige, Washington)
Those remaining seven guys on the Clearinghouse fence are going to have a lot to say about how successful Chizik and Co. were at turning around Tubby's tide of non-qualifiers. Bring in 24 or even 25 recruits and that's a solid class of players to build on ... bring in 20 or 21 and it starts to look distressingly similar to the thinness of the last couple of Auburn classes.
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