FanHouse Auburn Football

The SEC features only a handful of returning quarterbacks. The SEC West is filled with signal caller intrigue as LSU, Auburn, Ole Miss and Mississippi State all have question marks at the position. The Tigers of Auburn will be an interesting tale because not only has Brandon Cox left the building, so too has OC Al Borges.

Wearing the coordinator headset now is Tony Franklin, who covets spreading out the field and athleticism under center. Kodi Burns showed flashes of promise as a backup to Cox in '07, but seemed better when holding onto the ball rather than passing it. Chris Todd, the pure dropback passer, battled for the starting job in spring practice; but a shoulder injury kept him from being able to lock it up.

ESPN's Chris Low asked Franklin how he'd feel about running a 2-quarterback system:

"I've never done it my life. I did it when I first came here [with the now departed Brandon Cox and Burns] because when I looked at what we had to do to win the first game against Clemson, I didn't think either one of them could win it by themselves. I went into the spring hoping somebody would step up and be the best guy by far, but that didn't happen. I then looked at what we did in the bowl game, and I'd say that if we had to start tomorrow, we'd be better off by playing both Kodi and Chris. If it turned out where one pulled away this summer, that would be a good thing. I don't really foresee that happening right now. I foresee both of them playing."

Auburn could be very solid in the west if they're able to get production from these two. In the same interview, Franklin stated that even with Todd's shoulder at 65%, he was the best passer in practice and it "wasn't even close".

The SEC has long been known as a place where defense rules in college football. Maybe some of that had to do with the league's generally minimal focus on offense for so many years, but we can debate that in another entry. Regardless, its defensive credibility is rock solid.

But in recent years, a steady influx of offensive changes from coaches to schemes has balanced the league and made it all the more dangerous.

But, as noted at the Daily Texan, there's also been a barely noticed flow of defensive coaching talent away from the SEC. Former Auburn star defensive coordinators Gene Chizik and Will Muschamp have made their way to the Big 12. Chizik was Texas' defensive coordinator before being hired as the head coach at Iowa State. Muschamp, meanwhile, is Texas' new D.C.

Elsewhere, former Alabama defensive coordinator Joe Kines is now the D.C. at Texas A&M. Chances are, those three have been adequately replaced, but their departure and the SEC's changing offensive makeup seems to indicate a change from the All D, No O days of SEC past. I doubt wide open offensive football with not much defense like on display in the WAC ever finds a home in the SEC. OK, severely doubt it. But it is interesting to note a modest departure of defensive coaching talent as a steady wave of offensive coaching talent moves in.

Related: I wonder if this perks up the state of defense in the suddenly wide-open, quarterback loaded Big 12?

(Via: Football Rumor Mill)

This is heartbreaking.

Strolling the internets today I've already found two stories of college football championship rings being up for sale on eBay. Florida State and Auburn fans, you must be proud!

I realize hard times regularly happen to even the best of us, and good athletes sometimes get coddled and lose touch with reality and how to do the little things like manage their money. But this stinks.

Given the imperfection of college football's championship system, and the alignment of stars needed to even come close to a title even at a big time national power, it's almost absurd someone would want to part with an actual piece of evidence that they won a title. These aren't exactly like the "place" medals you get for competing in a basketball or football rec league as a kid, you know?

Especially damning is this happening to Auburn, where they didn't, in fact, win a championship in 2003/2004. But dammit if they didn't put it on t-shirts and a ring. Maybe I should be laughing, instead.

A regular trip through the college football blogosphere.

1. That list is how long? A list of Penn State malfeasance since 2002 has been kicking around message boards for the past few weeks and may have even spurred ESPN to sic Outside the Lines on the Nits. It has 61(!!!) separate incidents featuring Penn State players and the long arm of the law. Or, sometimes, the long arm of nothing in particular:

53. Joe Paterno - Road Rage - No Charges

As much as we all love the possibly apocryphal JoePa road rage incident, it resulted in no charges and, uh, did not involve a Penn State player.

Many of the other incidents are arrests that resulted in acquittals or college kids getting busted for holding a half-full Natty Lite, which is punishment in an of itself. The list is overstated. But how much?

Run Up The Score breaks it down for you. The general conclusion:

All in all, the Penn State Nittany Lions don't have a widespread, 1988 Miami Hurricanes style criminal gang disguised in plain football uniforms. They have a drinking and fighting problem. Players aren't shooting guns or selling drugs. They're getting loaded and brawling. While I take modest comfort in the fact that the football roster doesn't double as a suspect list from The Wire, there is still a rather obvious behavioral problem within the program.

This is probably because the man they should fear more than any other is kind of ancient and "works from home."

FanHouse is counting down the ten best, ten worst, and ten weirdest moments in the history of Big Ten football.

Look, any other year it would have been a laugher. Chuck Long would have won the Heisman and won it so resoundingly that people would still be talking about his decisive victory. He led the Iowa Hawkeyes to the outright conference title and in so doing became the first Big Ten quarterback with more than 10,000 career passing yards. His numbers from 1985 are just sick--260 of 388 for 3,297 yards and 27 touchdowns.

For crying out loud, so far as anybody can tell, Chuck Long is the only player in NCAA history who played in five bowl games. So where is his Heisman?

It's in the living room of one Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson.

Now, let's be perfectly clear about one thing: Bo Jackson was indeed a very fine football player, probably one of the best I've ever seen. So all you folks in east-central Alabama can put away your shotguns and stop composing that indignant message board post you started the minute you saw this headline. By no means am I suggesting that your beloved running back didn't deserve the trophy. I'm just suggesting that there was somebody out there who deserved it more.

As boring as we fans find the offseason, imagine what hell it wreaks on a coach. Nine months of praying all your kids are going to class (they aren't), that 6'5" quarterback who runs a 4.6 will commit (he won't), and that the offensive line can get its act together (it can't).

Luckily, Auburn's frontman Tommy Tuberville has figured out a way to inject some life into the offseason: brutal potshots at rival conferences!

In advocating a playoff, Tuberville pointed to Ohio State losing by a wide margin in consecutive national championship games by SEC teams.

"Ohio State would have finished fifth in our league and they're ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll," Tuberville said.

Outrageous! Scandalous! Intellectually dishonest! We move that all SEC programs should reject and denounce Mr. Tuberville's remarks, as there's no way there's only four SEC teams better than the Buckeyes.

Fifth in the SEC. You must be crazy, Tuberville.

Surprising to nobody, the BCS and big-time conferences have once again decided that they like their fat paydays better than they like the indentured servants on whose backs they're getting rich.

At a recent meeting, BCS officials shot down a "plus-one" proposal from SEC Commish Mike Slive. Apparently, the BCS folks "like where [they] are". They like it because the major conferences are making money hand-over-fist, and any move toward a play-off would mean a more even distribution of money.

The playoffs versus bowls argument has been done to death, and despite the overwhelming logic and reason behind moving to a playoff, religion is religion, and the fans of the bowl system continue to insist that the world is flat. When you dispense with all of the strawman arguments, though, what you're left with is a simple fact: the national champion is determined by journalists, coaches' assistants, and computers.

Of course, "ridin' dirty" has a looser definition in Alabama, where it can encompass having the audacity to put an Auburn license plate on the front of your cruiser while patrolling the Alabama campus, as seen here:



That picture comes from the blog Alabama Gameday, who also links to a thread on the TideSports fourm where a member says he emailed the Tuscaloosa chief of police and "addressed the issue of credibility (and the growing lack thereof), and asked that he check into it and have it removed if possible." The poster says the chief responded by having the tag removed from the unit.

Now, this all might seem kind of petty until you understand the growing unease of an Alabama fan base that has seen more players arrested (8) than wins (7) in the year since Nick Saban took over the program. Tuscaloosa seems to be one of the college towns where arresting a student-athlete is a trophy of sorts for the local po-po; a statement that anybody is fair game, but especially those who make headlines. That may or may not be a fair assessment, but it's a growing concern in places where high-profile students seem to get in more trouble than the average student.

Consider, however: if the Auburn-fan cop with the Tiger plate on his cruiser wasn't targeting Bama players before, he sure could be now that he's been singled out himself.

Note this is "disappointing," not "worst." We're not looking for the class with the absolute least potential to win D-I games but the schools that really should have done better than they did. So breathe easy, Buffalo. A further note: rankings here are all Rivals'; sometimes Scout disagrees vehemently but that's rare.

Without further adieu:

5. Texas. Perhaps a harsh assessment for Rivals' #14 class, but as the dominant power in the nation's most football-mad state Texas should never, ever have a class outside of the top ten, even when it's kind of small. Texas whiffed on the top three players in-state, all of whom ended up at hated Oklahoma. Striking out on national #1 RB Darrell Scott was the icing on a mildly crap sundae for the Longhorns.

It's not that Texas' class is bad, per se. It's actually pretty good. (You can tell by the #14 above. That's math.) But there's no school in the country with a better built-in advantage when it comes to high school talent, and there's no way Texas should strike out on four of the top five players instate.

Mack Brown will spring his revenge soon, no doubt: rumor is that the next next Vince Young, class of 2009 QB Russell Shepard, is soon to don burnt orange.

4. Michigan State. If there was ever going to be a year when Michigan State re-asserted itself as a threat to Michigan instate or to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and increasingly irritating Cincinnati around the Midwest, this would be it. Michigan suffered a humiliating series of losses and much of the state was operating under the foregone conclusion that Lloyd Carr would be retiring at year's end. When Michigan made a hire, Rich Rodriguez swept out all but one Carr assistant. Mark Dantonio's long association with Jim Tressel was supposed to give him the edge when it came to Ohio recruits.

The result? Detroit wide receiver Fred Smith and no other four-star players. Michigan State struck out on instaters Nick Perry (USC) and Mark Ingram (Alabama) late; Ingram's decision to flee is especially grating since his father was one of Michigan State's best wide receivers. Ohio linebacker Taylor Hill took an official visit to MSU and liked it so much he committed to Michigan on the way home. Hell, linebacker Yourhighness Morgan took a look at MSU and said "thanks, but I'm going to play for Florida."

Florida Atlantic.

MSU ranks 7th in the Big Ten, and this was both their new-coach-bump year and a year in which Michigan changed coaches. Michigan's little brother continues to bow down.

Not Paul Rhoads at right. I bet you know who that luxurious mustache belongs to.

Former Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads is Auburn's new DC, replacing enthusiastic Texas-bound Will Muschamp. This would seem an excellent hire by Auburn after Pitt's defense finished 5th in the nation and shut down West Virginia's spread 'n' shred in the epic upset that kept the Mountaineers out of the national title game.

But Pitt Blather has some kind of sobering numbers:

Year - Def. Ranking - Run Def. - Pass Def.

2007 -– 5th ---– 33d --– 3d
2006 - 87th --– 107th --- 29th
2005 - 31st --- 94th ---- 2nd
2004 -- 73d --– 48th ---- 100th
2003 - 79th --– 87th ---- 54th
2002 - 12th --– 24th ---- 18th
2001 - 7th --- 26th ---- 6th
2000 -- 29th -- 17th ---- 80th

Chas notes further that the defense's slide from good to real bad happened "minute the talent previously recruited started graduating" and follows it up with a wide array of links to previous stories about Rhoads' various failings as a coach -- no sour grapes upon departure these.

But... like, I dunno. That's four good years of seven at a program that's never had much in the way of support or talent until this recent inexplicable Wannalanche of high-profile recruits. As soon as Wannstedt's guys started seeing time with regularity, things bounced back up; Pitt Blather tends to blame Rhoads for the awful run defense when it could more properly be attributed to undersized and largely overlooked true freshman holding down key spots in the Pitt line in 2005 and 2006. At Auburn, Rhoads will not have the same issues.