What will be the swing game this year?

[Win4AU 4,151]

Usually Miss State was that game but no more.  

Cal - people didn’t take this game serious last year and this year could be the same.  New OC, New WRs, turnover in the secondary.  Don’t take this lightly.

Arkansas - first SEC test.  Pittman will be coaching for his life.  Will the offense be rolling by game 4?

Oklahoma - huge game for both teams

Kentucky - last game in a brutal away game run.  Will Kentucky live up to hype or flame out once again?

I didn’t put TaMu since it’s the so late in the season but you could put them here too.

[ken woolley 61]

Oklahoma

[IronMan70 3,321]

Georgia

I expect us to be 5-0 going in to that game.

[AU120289 408]

11 hours ago, ken woolley said:

Oklahoma

I agree - the Oklahoma game. Hopefully, it will be OK, and we will be 5-0. 🤪

[TheNun 30]

I’ll go with arky we have had a tendency to play some of our worst games against them 

 

06 still leaves sour taste 

[JuscAUse! 1,630]

2 hours ago, TheNun said:

I’ll go with arky we have had a tendency to play some of our worst games against them 

 

06 still leaves sour taste 

That was a miserable experience. 

[TheNun 30]

22 minutes ago, JuscAUse! said:

That was a miserable experience. 

Georgia game that year was just as bad 

the era of Jefferson pilot broadcasting if you were kicking off on that channel you knew you were screwed, last time we played on there was 2008 against ole miss and of course we lost 

[GreenTiger 1,047]

Whether we are up or down at that point in the season AtM at home will have a lot riding on it. 

[aucanucktiger 1,858]

Arkansas. Then we dont win another one until Vandy. Freeze needs to shock Bama in Tusc to regain momentum and the "fans" he'll lose, because IMHO 2025 is his first good season, not this one.

[AUwent 3,817]

3 hours ago, aucanucktiger said:

Arkansas. Then we dont win another one until Vandy. Freeze needs to shock Bama in Tusc to regain momentum and the "fans" he'll lose, because IMHO 2025 is his first good season, not this one.

If we can’t beat Oklahoma, Kentucky of TAMU, we’re not beating UAT. For the last couple of weeks I’d rather focus more on TAMU, since by then they WILL have Texas on the brain. 

Edited July 13 by AUwent

[Auctoritas 2,894]

Not to get everyone's heartburn going early, but: Vandy.

I see us with a possibility of going 5-0 to begin, but then losing at UGA (likely), then losing a close revenge game at Mizzou (one of those weird late kicks - Columbia MO at night does some weird ish and they're still ticked off about that OT loss, and rightly so), and then sleepwalking to a loss at UK because everyone is looking at the Vandy/Bye/ULM series as a nice get-right and get-healthy break before A&M and Bama.

Then Vandy comes to to and is supposed to be cake walk, but we know that for some reason that has been a totally cursed matchup for us over the past years. Add to it that Jerry Kill - from New Mexico State - comes over to Vandy as "Chief Consultant to the Head Coach" and "Senior Offensive Advisor" plus there's a mess of other former Lobo coaches on staff now. Oh, also, remember that QB that just basically teabagged us in front of the whole country during the New Mexico St game? yeah, now he's their starting QB.

I'm pretty sure that Hugh Freeze has never beat Jerry Kill. I think that Vandy makes it 4 losses in a row, and the masses start calling for CHF's head.

(Of course, then I think that we beat the snot out of ULM and A&M, and maybe give Bama a scare or steal the win back from last year's IB, ending us a very underwhelming 7-5 or a very feel-good 8-4. It's funny, though, because 7 wins is kinda what everyone expects given the difficulty of the schedule before 2025 being the real coming out party. Goes to (hypothetically) show you, though: it's not whether you win, it's how you win.)

[AUwent 3,817]

4 hours ago, Auctoritas said:

Not to get everyone's heartburn going early, but: Vandy.

I see us with a possibility of going 5-0 to begin, but then losing at UGA (likely), then losing a close revenge game at Mizzou (one of those weird late kicks - Columbia MO at night does some weird ish and they're still ticked off about that OT loss, and rightly so), and then sleepwalking to a loss at UK because everyone is looking at the Vandy/Bye/ULM series as a nice get-right and get-healthy break before A&M and Bama.

Then Vandy comes to to and is supposed to be cake walk, but we know that for some reason that has been a totally cursed matchup for us over the past years. Add to it that Jerry Kill - from New Mexico State - comes over to Vandy as "Chief Consultant to the Head Coach" and "Senior Offensive Advisor" plus there's a mess of other former Lobo coaches on staff now. Oh, also, remember that QB that just basically teabagged us in front of the whole country during the New Mexico St game? yeah, now he's their starting QB.

I'm pretty sure that Hugh Freeze has never beat Jerry Kill. I think that Vandy makes it 4 losses in a row, and the masses start calling for CHF's head.

(Of course, then I think that we beat the snot out of ULM and A&M, and maybe give Bama a scare or steal the win back from last year's IB, ending us a very underwhelming 7-5 or a very feel-good 8-4. It's funny, though, because 7 wins is kinda what everyone expects given the difficulty of the schedule before 2025 being the real coming out party. Goes to (hypothetically) show you, though: it's not whether you win, it's how you win.)

Yeah I could totally see us beating OK, then losing to KY and Vandy, then turning around and beating TAMU lol. Due to timing + DP I’m more confident about Cal and Arky than I am Vandy.

But for 25 to be the coming out party in spite of all the new starters (watch how Tenner does this year since they have a lot of new ones), then we’d better go get a portal QB (on the level of Ward or even McCall). I unf do not trust Walker and do not think Hank can get us much beyond where Thorne can. And even if we get Knight or Lacey, a true frosh QB needs a lot of veterans around him to have a shot at producing a breakout year.

Edited July 21 by AUwent

[AURex 2,214]

I also think Oklahoma will be the swing game. It is a home game for us against a newcomer to the SEC with a history of success. Venebles has been building a good team. This is a must-win for Auburn IMO.

 

[Win4AU 4,151]

On 7/20/2024 at 3:04 PM, Auctoritas said:

Not to get everyone's heartburn going early, but: Vandy.

I see us with a possibility of going 5-0 to begin, but then losing at UGA (likely), then losing a close revenge game at Mizzou (one of those weird late kicks - Columbia MO at night does some weird ish and they're still ticked off about that OT loss, and rightly so), and then sleepwalking to a loss at UK because everyone is looking at the Vandy/Bye/ULM series as a nice get-right and get-healthy break before A&M and Bama.

Then Vandy comes to to and is supposed to be cake walk, but we know that for some reason that has been a totally cursed matchup for us over the past years. Add to it that Jerry Kill - from New Mexico State - comes over to Vandy as "Chief Consultant to the Head Coach" and "Senior Offensive Advisor" plus there's a mess of other former Lobo coaches on staff now. Oh, also, remember that QB that just basically teabagged us in front of the whole country during the New Mexico St game? yeah, now he's their starting QB.

I'm pretty sure that Hugh Freeze has never beat Jerry Kill. I think that Vandy makes it 4 losses in a row, and the masses start calling for CHF's head.

(Of course, then I think that we beat the snot out of ULM and A&M, and maybe give Bama a scare or steal the win back from last year's IB, ending us a very underwhelming 7-5 or a very feel-good 8-4. It's funny, though, because 7 wins is kinda what everyone expects given the difficulty of the schedule before 2025 being the real coming out party. Goes to (hypothetically) show you, though: it's not whether you win, it's how you win.)

It would be very on brand to start calling for the head coach’s head in year 2.  I thought it would be year 3 when the team will have some growing pains with a young roster.  I don’t see Arkansas or Vandy being any more competitive than last year but the Jerry Kill influence can’t be underestimated.  I hope the defense takes last years NMSU game performance personally and puts a hurting on that QB.