Rednilla

Yeah, this is why I'm so leery of that bit about how close all those games were with Cam, and how we wouldn't have won hardly anything without him. Coaches gameplan for the team they have and the team they're facing. We wouldn't have done things the same way without a bulldozer with a rocket attached playing QB, but that doesn't mean the things we did wouldn't have been effective. Almost certainly not AS effective, but as you pointed out, the other teams would have played a different game, too. It's the Butterfly Effect from Chaos Theory: you change one thing, and you change the entire evolution of everything related to that thing.

Well, it was his third year, at least. It just seems like he should have had a redshirt in either 08 or 09. But it's not unheard of for a guy to graduate and move on with life rather than riding the bench (which I doubt he would have done the whole year in 2012, had he been on the team) for his senior season. But, you're probably right that he saw action enough to void a redshirt his first two years. I remembered Bama having 2 SEC losses going into the Iron Bowl, because I remember knowing we'd already won the West, but I just don't see us going through that SEC slate without losing until the Iron Bowl with Barrett at the helm. Arkansas dropped 43 on our defense; would we have been able to keep up? Mississippi State nearly beat us in game 2 at Davis-Wade. There were plenty of places we possibly would have slipped up without SuperCam to push us over the top. This cannot be expressed robustly enough. That line was the definition of a cohesive unit. Except Mosely, they'd all played together for the last 3 years.

That's right, I forgot Trotter was on that team. And he was a sophomore, wasn't he? I don't know that we were ever going to win 11 regular season with Trotter, though. And I don't know that we beat Bama in T-town, which would have kept us from going to Atlanta. But I don't think it's all that unreasonable to think we could have ridden that line to a double digit win season, which is above average for Auburn (whether we like it or not).

Well, to be fair, Florida still had Urban Meyer at that point, too, so they were a recruiting juggernaut, but I would still rate the recruiting landscape more perilous in the SEC now than it was then.

I was thinking 9 with a bowl win. I keep thinking that if we hadn't been able to sign Cam, the coaches would have done whatever they had to in order to keep Tyrik Rollison on the roster, and how he could have been a spark plug, too. And, again, that offensive line was just REALLY good, and it was going to make whoever was at QB and RB look pretty danged good. Plus, by game 4, we were getting everybody's best shot, because we weren't sneaking up on anybody. We probably don't face quite as stiff of competition down the stretch if we're not undefeated with clearly the best player in the country on the team. Meh, looking back on the season now, you're probably right, because that was a rough schedule. I just keep coming back to this one virtually incontrovertible fact of football: the game is won and lost on the line of scrimmage. And we were pretty stout on both lines. That's generally winning football.

I don't know that I would call it an average team, necessarily. That offensive line was pretty damned good. I still maintain that the experience coming back on the line was a, if not the, primary reason for Cam coming to Auburn. Dyer was outstanding that year. The receivers weren't spectacular, but they were solid. I think we would have pushed for 10 wins with an average QB.

Kessler and Caldwell have both been outstanding, you're right. I kinda get the feeling that Dylan picked up a couple of things defensively from Walker, because he seems to be protecting the rim better. Can't wait to get Flanigan in the rotation so he can start getting into rhythm. It's exciting to think about adding his firepower to the lineup.

He never was. But I sure am enjoying the time he's spending here!

No doubt. You get the feeling that we're only just scratching the surface of how good Jabari can be, which is exciting, but if he doesn't continue to show up when he's going against SEC competition, then he's not going to continue to get talk of being the #1 overall pick.

I would love to see that, personally.

I would think that if there were any chance Flan were going to play tomorrow, we would have heard about it by now... sure would be nice to see the team start getting to full strength, especially as well as they're already doing.

At least as far as reputation goes, yeah, Michigan is not far from being on par with the Ivy League schools.

Might be catching wind of picking up a receiver through the portal today.

At least with Auburn, we don't have many weak points scholastically for a predominately technical college. I was reaching when I put AU in the same category as Michigan, at least reputation wise, but I don't know that I would call any of the colleges at Auburn University less than strong. We don't have a law school or a medical school, so we can't compete in those areas, but it's not because the programs aren't good, it's because they don't exist.

Yeah, you're right. But I still doubt academics really were the selling point.

Hey, I'll give you props: you've done a good job keeping things going on this end, from what I've been able to figure out today.

My thought exactly!

Yes, I can guarantee you that was 100% sarcasm.

I think Kelly has the potential to be, but I haven't watched any film on Brown to have a clue with him.

His NFL pedigree should speak pretty well for him, at the very least, but word has it we're going to hire an ace recruiter as the OLine coach and have the TE coach be the Xs and Os guys for the line.

Well, he's not wrong... but I don't know how much I believe that would be a reason, because neither Auburn nor Oregon is exactly a slouch in academics.

Well gosh, why don't you get on the phone with Coach Harsin right now and tell him! I'm sure he hasn't thought of any of this...

That's how it's drawn up at least, I hope...

Yeah, well, I'm not old enough to remember him at FSU, just the NFL, but I had a friend growing up who was a Cowboys fan, and he had this poster of him making an interception with the headline "Neon Deion" on the bottom. That was imprinted on my psyche very early on, so... LOL

Honestly, I'm not even worried about the Perry deal...and if we somehow pull Clemons, oh good god almighty...