Saturday night was a disaster. No two ways about it. I wound up watching a lot more of Cubs-Dodgers than I did Hogs-Tigers. Enjoyed it a lot more too; it was fun watching the facial expressions of the Cub fans, some of whom seemed to be absolutely certain that they were going to find some way to screw this up (memories of Steve Bartman, no doubt). I think I probably looked like that some on the night of April 4, 1994.
But getting back to the subject matter, we got steamrolled from the first AU play on. No excuses. It was as bad as it looked. But I still think we’re not as bad as we looked. Just the perfect storm. Nobody’s happy with this, though. Coaches, players, fans, AD, nobody.
It’s 48 hours later, and some thoughts and observations:
I thought BB’s postgame remarks set the right tone. Nobody did a good job Saturday, everything needs to be looked at, lots of things need to be fixed. Players, coaches, everyone.
Nobody’s going to get fired this week. And I doubt the depth chart will change all that much either. We’re kinda stuck with what we have, players and coaches, for the next five weeks. Maybe some more substantive things can happen in December assuming we get one more win to get into a bowl (Moo U and Misery still look very winnable to me even after that disaster).
In a related note, Bobby Petrino isn’t coming through the door, folks. Neither is Gus.
I will not be surprised at all if we have a new DC in 2017. But I also will not be surprised if we don’t. However, given BB’s tendency to pull the trigger on staff changes, I do expect Robb to move on, whether he’s encouraged to take a head coaching job or a lateral move a la Chris Ash or whatever (and boy, is Ash getting crushed at Rutgers this year).
It ain’t the first time we got hit by a perfect storm. USC did it to us two straight years. The second time, we won the next 10 games, even with a used car salesman as head coach. Lose by 3 or lose by 53, it’s still just one loss, unless we allow it to derail the entire season.
I do think the fatigue factor played a role Saturday. Auburn was coming off their bye; we were coming off four ranked opponents in a six-week period. Hopefully we get our legs back a bit when we take the field against Florida. We’ll need it. And we’ll definitely need it when the Fournette train rolls into RRS.
Talent is an issue. I’ve been following our recruiting for a long, long time (I remember when we signed Joe Ferguson, for cryin’ out loud). We are getting better players than we once got, but clearly not good enough – yet. Life in the SEC West in the Saban Era. Some of that talent, though, isn’t ready for prime time. They have to get ready. They used to say (when freshmen were ineligible) that the best thing about sophomores is that they eventually become juniors. Since we can’t run everyone off and start over, the goal is to continue to recruit like crazy and then still develop them when they get here.
That especially applies to the OL. I guess we should have known something was up when we took Froholdt off the DL and essentially made him the starting guard from Day One. OL has got to be fixed, and that means recruiting and developing.
Good post, Jeff. I feel the same way. AU was a dose of reality, but I don’t want to read too much into it. Our wins over TCU & Ole MIss looked like great wins at the time, but now look like good wins over good-not-great oppenents.
I’m convinced we’re on the right track, but I won’t pretend we haven’t had a big set back.
I think we’re a good-not-great team, so beating good-not-great teams seems appropriate. Still time to fix that though. LSU definitely, and maybe Florida, are better than anyone we’ve beaten so far.
I think we are trending in the right direction if you look at the last 4 years and the numbers look good over last season and this year. We have whiffed badly on some Oline recruits to the tune of 3-4 players that have not panned out or even played a down. We moved Ledbetter and Agim into the interior to be disruptive THEN asked them to be GAP control? That is not working against the NFL talent we are facing almost every week in the SEC.
We are in a conference that is SEMI Pro in the top half of the teams. We are going to have a hard time beating Bama and others enough to win the SEC unless we start buying players like OM, AU, UT, etc. I don’t want to become a cheater like OM to win but can’t stand trying to compete with teams that buy players to the degree some do in the SEC. I am glad that we have made a ton of money from the SEC but it won’t break my heart if we leave the SEC someday. There is just way too much money in college football now and it has changed CFB over the last 20 years.
I think we end up going plus/minus one 8-4, and we get a new DC next year. At 7-5 or less, I am worried. At 8-4 or better, I’m okay with it, because we keep taking the small steps.
The new OL coach gets one more year to fill in the numbers and put a better product on the field. Post-signing day I will be very curious if they are happy enough with the OL talent to avoid the temptation to move Capps to OL.
Good post. Saturday was a disaster. Not to be tolerated by the staff of players.
But, as fans, I think we need to temper our frustration and anger with an acknowledgement that, by season’s end last year, the Hogs were on a helluva roll. Defense was iffy then too. But the offense was great. And from that offense we lose the RB, QB, a TE, and 3 OL. And their replacements were all inexperienced. AA has been excellent in replacing big bro. Everyone else, even Rawleigh, has not produced what their predecessors did.
I think they will grow up. The offense will be very good again. It just might be next year. When the o-line develops alot more.
The “recruiting problems” are rooted in coaching transition years, 2012-13. Those recruiting classes were inadequate. Now, you can’t blame the 2012 class on Petrino’s firing, save for a couple of players who left afterwards.
The recruiting for OL, LB and DB in those seasons was miserable. It especially hurts the Oline now. Couldn’t redshirt the good ones we got, but overall numbers were low, and too many didn’t cut it.
Arkansas needed to make up for 2012-13 in 2014-15, and it didn’t recruit well enough. We aren’t talking about the school’s historical disadvantages. Not enough good players. Place the right emphasis on needs, and we’re fine. It did not happen.
2015: Third in the West. Not seventh. 2016: Currently fifth. Not seventh. But that doesn’t fit with your agenda, does it? Shame when things like facts get in the way.
[quote=“Dogen”]
how long do you fans really want to live in the sec standings cellar?
[/quote]I thought cellar was the bottom ? Not following you there.
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[/quote]Well damn, what were we last year ? Where are we this year ? So, for you, if we are in the cellar the first couple years, there is no recuperating from that. Good deal — Not sure of your point and damn sure don’t agree. Beating Ole Miss 3 years in a row and LSU 2 years in a row means nothing ? ---- like I said, not following you. Means a lot to me. If you think we will beat Auburn every year, and Alabama every year, and LSU every year ---- you really need to catch a clue. The best you can hope for is to win our home games ---- which by the way, we beat Auburn last year at home, if you forgot. this was their year.
Like I said at the beginning of the year, I’ll be happy if we can get one more win than last year. This loss stung, but we got a win against TCU that I didn’t expect so we are still on track. I think we beat MU and MSU, so all we have to do is get one out of FL or LSU (and a bowl win) to have a successful season.
