I almost fell out of my chair yesterday when I heard him say "Garner is the best DL coach in college football." Please!!! He's not even the best in the western division. When LSU hired Steele we had a long conversation here about the hire. I still believe the same as I'm sure a lot of you guys do: good film guy, bad on the field coach. As to Auburn having a resurgence (part deux) on defense this season?
Their issue wasn't the ability to run the ball last season. There's only a hair of difference between AU, UA, and UArk. Their issue on offense was purely their passing attack. I don't see JFIII being a big difference in the results they had last year with Jeremy Johnson. Hell, we're not even a year removed from JFIII being a back-up at the JUCO level. A lot falls down on the offensive line. I wouldn't suggest you look at their recruiting over the last few years. Like the QB position, their relying on transfers—one of the most lauded is a guy that wasn't starting in Oxford.
It's seldom I encounter simple statements requiring explanations. I'm certainly not questioning your assertion that Davon will be more susceptible to injury if he lacks a quality back-up to give him a breather. It just makes sense. I'm certainly laughing at it being mentioned here, of all places—the same forum that laughed and derided other coaches when they questioned the very same thing a couple of years ago.
So you think I'm supposed to represent a forum? Who derided who way back when? Go make fun of them. Or can't you remember? Tusk asked some questions about our defense and I tried to answer them without any of the flaming you get often around here. Why are you being a dick?
I wouldn't even try to explain away the barn's offensive issues with one single quick fix. Their red zone offense was laughable. What Cam and Marshall were bringing to the rushing attack in pressure, White and Johnson scared no one keeping the ball. Johnson looked like he had the passing yips. The barn's brain trust gets lost out there. In the Georgia game, they had Jovon Robinson running up and down the field and the recipe should have been set for the day. Robinson stands on the sidelines in the second half and Johnson and White go in and out of the game like they were having tryouts. Oh, and the defense was terrible. Franklin III will not solve all the barns fundamental problems.
A dick? Dude, this goes back to having a little sense of humor. If the emoji, so plainly visible, doesn't give you a clue that my comment was a playful jab ... ? Did you miss this? I agreed with what you were saying. Did you miss my point?
Auburn struggled in what games with their red zone offense? They finished the season inside the top 10 in the nation converting over 90% of the time: over 60% of those conversations were touchdowns. Hell, they were 100% against Bama last season (1 for 1.) 100% against LSU (2 for 2.) We've seen the guys here talk about their offense and the passing game. Auburn finished the season last year with worse numbers. I want to say it was between 110-115 out of 128 teams. I agree the threat of the run opened up the passing game for both Cam and Marshall. I agree JFIII has some talent running the ball. But, that (running game) hasn't been the issue as cited earlier. The issue with JFIII is his accuracy. He's had issues when he's been working out down there. Issues, when facing air as a defense. Gus, and his staff, will continue saying "they're impressed." What does that mean? Hell, Johnson was a Heisman candidate, right? IF JFIII can improve with his accuracy then Auburn will be a team to watch: on offense. I don't see that happening. If he's having trouble with skel drills ... geez, put a defense in front of him. I don't know how they can be worse on defense this year but based on history it's coming. I put up the graph on what happened with LSU and Clemson under Steele. The same thing happened with Bama going from Kines to Steele as DC.
