meh130

Yes, but would a portal QB be any better? Look at DJ Uiagalelei at FSU. There is a reason a QB is in the portal—because they have not lived up to expectations and are not going to start where they are. The exception is a smaller school QB who has exceeded expectations and wants to play a higher level. Then there is the Bo Nix situation where he got his feelings hurt.

I agree with this. We need to stick with Freeze. He is recruiting at high level. We have some real talent gaps on this team. We don't want to end up with a lost decade like Florida and Tennessee. That said, something is failing in the coaching. Players are not prepared for game day against quality competition. Execution is poor in many aspects of the game. I personally think this is a combination of less contact in practice and the inability to shift from a low-contact, low-speed practice mindset to a high-contact, high-speed game mindset.

And Gus. We have simply not had recruiting of high quality OL talent for a long time. We have not had good evaluation of OL talent either. We have had so many 4* recruits that played like 2*s. Until we get OL play like we had in 2017 after we moved people around after the Clemson game fiasco, we will struggle against quality teams.

Our offense is supposed to be RPO heavy, so the pass vs run split may in large be dictated by what the NM’s defense does.

I called that 4th down play when it happened. We had run the same play in an earlier game in a critical 3rd down situation. It was a "pick" play where the tight end crosses which screens the defensive back covering the wide receiver.

That is a really good point. What he was able to do was amazing. Nix to Sanders in the Iron Bowl. That moment was as big as Punt Bama Punt.

I would say Dye is #1, Shug is #2, Tubbs is #3. You have to include Chiz because he won the natty, so he is #4. I would put Gus at #5. Shug and Dye defined Auburn football. Going to Auburn in the mid to late 1980s was something else. We should have won the natty in 1983. We were very close in 1988, but lost to LSU in the Earthquake Game (I was there). Had we won that game, we would have faced Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for the natty.

Yep. Back then Bear Bryant would schedule a weak SEC school who was not on that year's conference schedule as a non-conference opponent. Every time the SEC office would tell Bear he could schedule them, but they did not count towards the SEC record. Then Bryant would demand the SEC office crown Bama as SEC champions or else he would take Bama independent. Realize back then there were a lot of independent schools. Then the SEC office would cave every damn time. This was an era of limited TV, and Bama was the SEC's cash cow for TV revenue.

Oklahoma had a horrible year in 2022, and a good year in 2023. 2023 was inconsistent in they beat a #3 Texas, but lost to lesser teams. They had a weak schedule. We do not know how Oklahoma will perform in the SEC.

I don't see us losing to both Mizzou and Kentucky on the road. Mizzou is rising, but Kentucky is probably falling right now.

I stopped predicting after in 2013 I predicted we would only have one loss and would make it to the BCS national championship game. My mistake was I predicted the one loss to be to Texas A&M, and that A&M would win the West but would be hit with NCAA sanctions allowing us to go the the SEC championship game. But I will give 2024 a range: 7-5 as the low (losses to Oklahoma, UGA, Mizzou, aTm, and Bama), 9-3 as the high (losses to UGA, aTm, and Bama). An 8-4 season would see us beating Oklahoma at home. I think Drinkwitz wants to beat us so bad that he will have Mizzou very ready for us. I know Kentucky on the road is hard, but I think we pull it off.

99% of our problems the last several years have been poor offensive line talent and play. It is why our red zone performance has been so poor the last several years. In the red zone, a defense can rush more against the pass because the field is not as deep, and it is easier to run man for man pass defenses in the red zone. I am hoping the OL will be better, giving QBs more time to make throws, less intentional throw-aways to avoid sacks, etc. Also, the WR room is much improved, so we should have a capable passing game. If that happens, we will not face a loaded box as much as we have in the past, which should improve our red zone performance. To put this into perspective, consider the Iron Bowl in 2021. Our pass rush with Derick Hall and Eku Leota almost won that game for us because for the first time in a decade Bama did not have a top offensive line. Same reason Michigan was able to blow up that last play in the CFP. I think the key to success on offense is to have a top offensive line. And on defense, you need two stand-outs on the defensive front four. That said, we did not see this happen in the A-Day game, but A--Day is such a sterile scrimmage now I do not know how useful it is.

We have two All-SEC kickers. Need to give Towns McGough a scholly soon. We need to redshirt him this year, and keep him around to back up and succeed McPherson.

I think the problem with the portal is you either get players who did not live up to their hype out of high school, or players that are just seeking more NIL money. Those seeking the former hope a coaching change will develop and expose the potential, those seeking the latter need to tame the ego. A coach needs to be able to leverage the portal in both directions. The portal means you can more easily discard of players who are not working out, but if you do, you need to replace them. That said, how many game changers have come out the portal? I think the portal will always be more a depth play.

This. Being a Power 5 CFB coach requires one to be a politician, as well as a coach. This is something Harsin did not understand at all.