Sorry- Here's the original article.... Offense back to drawing board By Jay G. Tate Montgomery Advertiser Southern California's Melvin Simmons, left, and Lofa Tatupu tackle Auburn's Courtney Taylor on Saturday. -- Karen S. Doerr, Advertiser AUBURN -- By the time Auburn coaches held their first meeting around lunchtime Sunday, offensive coordinator Hugh Nall already was well versed in Saturday night's 23-0 loss to Southern California. He'd seen the action from the field. And five more times on video. Nall couldn't sleep. No way. Not after his first game as a coordinator went down as one of Auburn's most inept offensive performances on record. "It won't ever be behind me. It hurts too badly," Nall said Sunday afternoon. "I can't stand to lose at all. Especially when you think you could have done a better job. I knew we had some problems, especially some things up front I was hiding. John Q. Public thought everything was great, but I knew we had problems." Those weaknesses were exposed in Saturday's nationally televised loss, in which Auburn gained 43 yards on 36 rushing attempts. It was bad enough that a flop like that happened at Auburn, a program built on a reputation for power football. Adding sting to Auburn's implosion was the unusual significance placed on Saturday's game -- the only contest featuring a pair of top-10 teams. The Tigers were national darlings, having earned top billing from The Sporting News and the New York Times. Then it sounded like this: Ker-plop. Auburn fell behind early, then seemed to suffer a game-long anxiety attack. Rather than calmly work its carefully built running game, the Tigers instead asked quarterback Jason Campbell to become the team's offensive focus. It seemed that the Tigers simply were bent on passing the ball. But on Sunday, coach Tommy Tuberville and Nall said the inept passing frenzy was a function of USC's dominance at the line of scrimmage, not a change in philosophy. "We hit a brick wall with our offense," Tuberville said. "If (people) believed what had been said about us for two months, we could have taken anybody on. We do have a good football team. But we're not good enough yet to go out there to play about 50-percent capability and get the job done." Both Tuberville and Nall said USC's defensive front was the best they'd seen. Ever. In history. What made the Trojans tough was the shrewd scheme they used Saturday. Rather than try to beat offensive linemen man to man, USC made educated guesses about where Auburn's plays were going and shifted their sights in that direction. It's called "slanting." But USC added a twist. It slanted two and sometimes three times more than usual. That created chaos along Auburn's front as players tried to decipher whom to block. Nall still is trying to figure it out. "Last night was a real learning experience. It was some stuff I've never seen before," Nall said. "They were slanting two or three gaps at a time -- stuff you just don't see much. It was really strange. I've seen them slant, but not like that." That confusion never was remedied. Not surprisingly, Auburn finished with only 164 yards of offense. That worked out to 2.6 yards per play, which is nearly as productive as three sneaks and a punt on fourth down. At least that wouldn't lead to the two fumbles Auburn lost Saturday. Nall said he'll continue to watch tape and try to learn from the team's mistakes. A game against Georgia Tech comes Saturday, and the Yellow Jackets run a defense similar to USC's. Tech likes to run slants, too. Until then, Nall will keep trying to improve things -- one tape and one disgruntled fan at a time. "I've already gotten a bunch of ugly e-mails and I deserve them," Nall said. "There are hurt people out there. But we all are. I don't spend 92 hours up here a week for nothing. I didn't try to come in here to come up with a gameplan to get us beat. We'll get better."
Re: Sorry- Here's the original article.... Did anyone else find this quote strange? I am not sure exactly why what he said strikes me as wierd. I don't know if I have ever heard a coach say this sort of thing.
