and he recruits fine. He gets a bad rap for recruiting at AU but its largely undeserved. How many Bowden recruits went on to the next level? If you check you will see it was quite a few, and that includes the much maligned scat back (Demontray Carter) that everyone seemed to point to when they needed an example of how “poorly” Bowden recruited. Also, don’t forget who opened up the pipeline to Dillard High school and the rest of south Florida as recruiting ground for the tigers. The Lowderites fed the fire upon his demise and it seems the bulk of the AU family bought into it. Bowden refused to be a yes man for Lowder and it cost him his job and his deserved legacy at AU…..thats a pity. Everyone always wants to talk about how Bowden rode Pat Dyes recruits to an undefeated season…….seems to me that he did what Pat Dye couldn’t do.

and you can blame the Gamecock offense for putting the USC defense in horrible field position and too much time on the field. Garcia turned the ball over 3 times in the first half and Smelley didn’t fare much better in the second half…….Iowa still couldn’t take advantage of the defense the way you would think with that many turnovers (kind of reminded me of several AU losses this season).

will implement the “Tampa 2” at AU again? That would make the AU UT game pretty interesting to watch.

WAR EAGLE Coach Chizik. Keep it up.

….but AU undercover is reporting that Trooper Taylor has flown back to Auburn with Chizik and the coach-search contingent. THAT would be a coup, if Taylor is hired!

…..In my (non-expert) opinion, Chizik didn’t really run all of the Tampa-2 at Auburn. We lacked a real wrecking ball in the middle, instead going with a couple of smaller guys (like TJ Jackson and Jay Ratliff) at tackle. They didn’t penetrate well, but could slide and plug two gaps each. Chizik jumped fronts and stemmed like crazy. He played cover-two (Tampa-two) behind the crazy front antics, with a linebacker dropped deep into the middle. But, the real Tampa two is basically a zone blitz scheme. 3 or 4 man rush from standard tackle positions and wide-split ends, and one blitzer from a different place each play. In Chizik’s scheme, linemen would set, then shift. An end might wind up over center, with a linebacker prepared to roar in behind him. The QB’s eyes would get big, he’d check off to an outside play, then Chizik’s front would jump to another alignment right before the snap. It left linemen not knowing who to block. We rushed more folks than the typical Tampa-two scheme. Gap control was sometimes lacking, but we made up for it with speed.

…..We usually rushed about six guys. The underneath routes were there, and we had guys like Rosegreen, Will Herring, Tavarious Robinson, etc., who would fly up and crack those underneath guys. Chizik would give up 5 yard completions all day. The logic was that as long as you made the tackle and tried to strip the ball, no one would be able to sustain a drive that way. Someone’s going to drop one, or the QB will miss a throw at some point. Then, you’re into a long yardage situation. And if you threw deep, you were going at double coverage. And all of Chizik’s safeties could catch the ball. Travis Williams and Dontarrious Thomas sitting in the middle of the field could catch well, too. Not a good equation for 3rd and 10…

…..The most telling statistic on defensive performance is always “points given up per game.” Nothing else really matters, when it’s all said and done. Before Chizik, we were giving up 20 or more per game. 21 in 1998 and 1999, 20 in 2000, and 23 in 2001. You had to go back to Wayne Hall in 1989, to find a year that Auburn gave up less than 17 a game. When Chizik arrived, his first defense, 2002, gave up 17.7. That included the 38-point massacre Arky put on us with a ton of rushing yards, and a big game of dink and dunk by Rex Grossman and the Gators. About mid-season, though, Chizik’s guys started to “get it.” Last six games of 2002, Auburn gave up only 14 points per game.

…..In 2003, Chizik’s guys were stuck playing opposite an offense that delivered a LOT of three and outs. Or even two and outs. We dropped AT LEAST 5 balls per game. Despite that, Chizik’s defense only gave up 16 per game, the best performance since 1989. And in 2004, opposite a yardage-chewing offense, Chizik’s guys led the nation, giving up only 11 per game.

…..After Chizik, we continued to reap benefits, even though the schemes modified. Chizik left guys that knew how to play their positions. David Gibbs brought in a more pro-style, multiple defense. Later in the year, sometimes, guys heads were swimming. Kentucky, Georgia, Bama, and especially Wisconsin figured out that we didn’t really have a strong-side linebacker. As we got run over down the stretch, the average swelled to 15.5 per game.

…..Enter Muschamp. Any semblance of the Tampa-2 disappeared. Muschamp was pressure, pressure, pressure. It was successful, but we began to give up big plays, too. Mushamp’s first squad gave up 13.9, the second 16.9. The second year stat is somewhat misleading, due to abysmal kickoff coverage with the new 30-yard line kickoff rules.

…..Paul Rhodes came in and changed things up again, favoring a 4-man rush and a 3-deep zone. Between injuries, and a linebacker corps not experienced in either “read and react,” or in pass coverage, our average ballooned to 18.

……Going strictly on points per game, Chizik’s defenses rank easily as the best performances since the glory days of Wayne Hall, 1986-1989. I’m excited to see what he’ll do, going forward!