I do agree with you. Auburn's players seemed to be out of focus and the game plan did not seem to be well prepared. Also, I did notice that Auburn's defensive backs did not cover very well and UGA took advantage.

Auburn needs to regroup and prepare for the game with Bama. If Bama wins the game it could set our recruiting back a few years. I am sure that many key recruits will be in attendance.

It is obvious that we do need an offensice makeover. Borges has lost his touch or TT is focusing more on that Texas A&M job. Of course, his stock will go down if he loses the next game.

WAR EAGLE!

I am a bit ashamed of what is posted above, although some, if not most of it is true. There is plenty of talk of on field issues, we were totally blacked out, but does anyone want to "blackout" what was going on in the stands as well?  I was sitting the right on the Auburn fan/UGA fan line in the lower level.  I was with mostly older (40-55 years old) fans.  The Auburn Players families were also right in front of me.  I have been to every SEC schools stadium as a fan, and this game was one of the worst I have ever seen.  Not quite as bad as LSU but close.  Grown men yelling at the players parents?  I do not get that.  Throwing footballs as hard as possible into the Auburn Section, and at the band with intent to injure?  I always thought that AU/UGA was a friendly rivalry.  What happened?  I know that AU sucked it up, but come on.  Oh well, maybe our team can show some emotion next week and win, and show more class then we were shown in Athens.

Let’s all relax a little bit, slow down and not let one game’s emotions cloud the whole season.  To that point let’s think about what has happened this season.  But before that though let me state that I am in no way making excuses or ignoring what happened Saturday.  I too am extremely disappointed and appalled.  To my point about the whole season:

First and foremost we are a young team led by an inconsistent QB.  Our offensive line contains three freshmen, of which one has been injured since the AR game and only played a portion of this game.  Our receivers are juniors and sophomores, our tail backs are a junior, sophomore and red shirt freshman.  I know we have a fifth (rather sixth) year QB but lets face it what has he done in the last three years.  True he has beat UF and UA the last two years and UGA in ’05 (on a 4th and long-15, if memory serves, conversion) but outside of that nothing.  And while I admit that I could not do any better (truth be known I wouldn’t start on the local HS JV team) he is not consistent; you never know who is going to show up.  The Cox that led Auburn back against UGA in ’05 or UF and LSU (before getting beat at the end) this year, or the Cox that threw four interceptions to UGA last year, two interceptions against USF, two interceptions against MSU (after which he was pulled), and four more interceptions to UGA this year (although one wasn’t entirely his fault as it bounced off of our receiver’s (Billings - I think) chest).  Or the Cox that missed a wide open Billings or McKenzie in the end zone on Saturday for an easy six because he didn’t look left to the middle and left side of the field on the opening drive.  You see my point - inconsistent.  True poor route running has been the cause for some of the interceptions but at the same point a sixth year senior should know when to hold the ball or throw it away.  That is not the fault of coaches; they do not throw the ball.  The fault of the coaches is not developing a replacement more quickly- Fields and Burns are still too green to be leading the reins of a top SEC team.
As far as the defense goes, cut them some slack.  Yes they did not play well in the first half and unraveled (to say the least) at the end of the third quarter but for crying out loud they have played 11 straight games and for the most part have had to play at 110% every down because of our young offense and inconsistent QB.  I challenge anybody to play and practice at an SEC level 11 weeks in a row. Oh yeah and carry a minimum of 12 credit hours at top University.  As Tuberville was concerned about before the game, the defense was flat worn out by the end of the third quarter!!!  And they have every right to be!!!  I will elaborate more of this later.   But as far as performance, our front seven held their own on the line.  The weakness came in the secondary.  While there is a lot of room for improvement (as there always seems to be with our secondary) let’s keep in mind that this is the same secondary that held Tebow to 201 yards in the air at the Swamp.  The only team to hold him to less was LSU at Death Valley at 158.  Otherwise Tebow has thrown for more than 230 yards in every other game.  The same secondary that only allows for 185 yards a game, has intercepted 13 passes and allowed fewer TDs with 11 (including Saturday’s debacle).  The only other teams to pass for more than two TDs on us in a game were LSU and New Mexico State.  And for more than 200 yards in a game were LSU, UF, New Mexico State, and KSU.  So in short not to make excuses but let’s cut them some slack they too are human will have a bad game.

My second point is with regards to bad games, let’s keep in mind that NO Tuberville coached Auburn team has allowed 45 points.  That is impressive and OBVIOUSLY the 45 PA is isolated considering this is his ninth year at AU.  Everyone has bad days.  I know it is not football but to draw a slimily to golf, Tiger Woods shot an 81 in the third round of the 2002 British Open after winning the Masters and US Open earlier that year.  My point is, even the best in the world will have a bad day from time to time.  For that matter look at College Football this year; other than Kansas (who in my opinion hasn’t played anyone) what team has not had just a flat out bad game this year?  To elaborate, we beat UF and VU, UF lost to LSU, LSU lost UK, UF blew out UK, S Car and UT, S Car beat UGA, UGA barely beat UA and VU and blew out UF, UA blew out UT, UT barely beat S Car but blew out Ark and Ark barely lost to UA.  I could go on but you get my point and that is only the SEC.  A quick further elaboration is we barely beat KSU, who had 73 hung on them by a horrible Nebraska this past Saturday.  And last but not least we lost to MSU and barely lost to USF, USF blew the doors off WVU, WVU blew the doors off MSU, MSU beat UK and UA.  I could go on and on about the other BCS conferences but again, you get my point everybody has had a bad game at one or more points this season.

With regards to the schedule, while Tuberville does have some say, Jay Jacobs has the most control over scheduling.  He needs to do a better job of scheduling than scheduling 11 in a row.  To that point I feel bad for the players and the coaches.  Again that is a long time to have to be going 110% without a break.  Keep in mind too that the team, players and coaches, travel home immediately following the game, which when you play a night game (which we have done a lot this year and why? because we have played well and tough more often than not and simply had a bad game Saturday) doesn’t allow you to get home until the early hours of the morning only to turn around and have practice on Sunday afternoon.  And after doing that for 11 straight weeks anyone would be tired.  Don’t get me wrong I am not bashing Jacobs or using him as an excuse rather my point is that this is not just a Tuberville problem, or a Cox problem or a Borges problem or a Muschamp problem.  This is an Auburn Football in whole problem.

With regards to the Borges-Tuberville issue, I too have heard the rumors.  Let’s all be realistic, rumors are what? Rumors!!!  Unless we are right beside Tuberville or Borges every single second none of us know the true extent (good or bad) of their relationship.  I agree that I would like to have seen the ’04 Borges more and open it up and spread it out a little more this year.  Who knows, Tuberville is conservative and maybe he is the reason for the conservative play calling but also look at the offense.  We all agree that our receivers leave some to be desired.  But they are young so let’s wait until they are at least juniors and seniors until we bash them because until the UF game the only reliable WR was the junior, Smith.  And any defensive coordinator could see that and put his best CB on him.  And when that happened our passing game was even more limited because of Cox’s inconsistency and the young o-line.  So with a young receiving core and o-line, and an inconsistent QB it is tough to have the confidence to open it up.  We all know what happens when we turn the ball over.  So to Tuberville and Borges’ defense we had to play more conservative to give our selves the best chance at the W.

Last but not least, WE DO NOT want Tuberville, Borges or Muschamp to leave within the next two to three years.  We have unbelievable group of athletes coming along.  Think about it, if the guys are playing this well in their freshman, sophomore and junior years just imagine what is coming when they are sophomores, juniors and seniors.  And with Burns being the new breed in a dual threat QB, you don’t think that Borges has an entire offense waiting for such a scenario that nobody has seen.  We need Borges for Burns.  Furthermore unless the administration (rather Lowder) fires Tuberville or insults him with an extension he is not going anywhere.  It took Tuberville 5+ years to build us to what we are now.  TAMU is in absolute disarray; worse than we were when Tubby took over.  It would take him at least 6 or 7 years to clean up TAMU.  He is 53 years old, he doesn’t want to waste the next 6-7 years (if TAMU even would give him that long) to get back to where he is today.  And while I admit he would probably go for the right price it would take a Saban+ contract to get him there because his current contract has an annual escalator of $200,000 by the time it is up he will be in the neighborhood of 3.5 million a year.  He doesn’t need or want the money, he wants a national championship and he knows that he is close to having the team that will get him it.  Furthermore his kids are in the height of their grade and middle school years and are happy.  He doesn’t want to take them away from that.  Now will he use this to get an extension?  Absolutely, who wouldn’t?  Keep in mind his agent is Jimmy Sexton who is also Nick Saban’s agent.  He is kind of the college football version of Scott Boras (A-Rod’s agent).  But more than that Tuberville knows he is loved by the true Auburn fan as seen in the boxes of supportive emails following the 2003 debacle of a season and jetgate.  Jetgate has longed since passed his memory as the emails came pouring in.  He knows that jetgate gave the University a BIG black eye and that when all was said and done he was the knight in shining armor.  And his record since has even added an exclamation to that!!!  So, when you combine his record, the team’s graduation rate and the gentleman of men that he creates as you never hear an Auburn players name mentioned in the media outside of football as well as the fact that players don’t bolt to the NFL early (Williams, Brown, McNeil, Groves, Thomas, Dansby) the University would do a serious injustice to the football and athletics program as well as to the school let him get away.  Besides was anyone else appalled at UGA’s players’ attitude and demeanor during the game and the last couple dating back to the UF game?  While they are always borderline obnoxious, they were beyond obnoxious this game and have been since their UF game.  Is that what we want to become?