MrSEC » Auburn

AU, Chizik Searching For A New Secondary Coach

John — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:41:28 +0000

Say goodbye to the last assistant coach with Tommy Tuberville ties at Auburn. The school announced yesterday that secondary coach Phillip Lolley would be moving into an administrative role with the program, creating the third coach search Gene Chizik has had to undertake since the end of the regular season.

“We appreciate Coach Lolley and the contribution he has made to the Auburn football program in his various roles over the years,” Chizik said in a press release. “We look forward to him continuing to help with the program’s success in his new capacity.”

Already being mentioned as a potential replacement is one Willie Martinez. Martinez served as secondary coach under new defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder at Georgia before succeeding him in that role in 2005. After being dismissed in Athens, he moved on to Oklahoma for two seasons before being replaced there by Bob Stoops’ brother Mike this offseason.

In addition to Lolley’s successor and VanGorder’s replacement of Ted Roof, Chizik has also hired Scot Loeffler to replace offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.

Don’t Write Off The Spread At Auburn Just Yet

John — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:25:28 +0000

Following the introductory press conference of Scot Loeffler yesterday, many pundits began writing the epitaph for Auburn’s spread offense. After all, the new offensive coordinator said that he wanted to “protect the defense” and that likely means chucking the no-huddle, hurry-up part of Gus Malzahn’s system. (Makes you wonder if Gene Chizik and Malzahn might not have seen eye-to-eye when the OC had to slow down his offense at the HC’s request last season.)

Auburn also welcomed aboard Jay Prosch, a transferring fullback from Illinois last week. There certainly wasn’t a traditional fullback in Malzahn’s spread, either.

Further muddying the water, Loefler and Chizik danced around specific questions about Auburn’s new offensive style. “I like it all,” Loeffler said. “What we’re going to do here is take our personnel, assess exactly where we are, and we’re going to build a system to get our playmakers the football.”

“Everybody’s going to talk about spread and pro,” Chizik said. “What they’re called, that’s overrated. It’s real simple on offense right now. Create the offense, and have the flexibility to get your best players the football.”

A slower pace. A fullback. Both coaches refusing to say the spread would be back. All have been taken as clear signs that the days of Malzahn’s influence are at an end.

But remember that one thing still lives on from the Malzahn era — a roster specifically recruited for the spread offense. If Auburn wants to go from spread to pro-style on a dime, the Tigers could be looking at some of the same issues faced by Florida’s new regime in 2011. Ask Will Muschamp how easy the Gators’ transition was.

We find it far more likely that Loeffler — a man with experience in both spread and pro-style systems will simply start the move from spread to pro-style. That may be a multi-year project depending on how quickly Auburn can begin to recruit to Loeffler and Chizik’s desired system.

So what do we think you’ll see on the Plains this fall? Listen to what receiver prospect JaQuay Williams said last week that Chizik told him:

“He said it’s going to be a little bit o the same. Four receivers. Three receivers. It’s be more a little pro-style. It’s going to be good.”

That sounds reasonable. The Tigers have recruited the skill positions hard. If Loeffler can coach up one of Auburn’s quarterbacks — Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier or newcomer Zeke Pike — it makes sense that AU would still try to spread teams out across the field. They also lost their best offensive weapon in running back Michael Dyer.

With Dyer off to Malzahn’s Arkansas State squad, Onterio McCalebb is the Tigers’ leading returning rusher. But McCalebb has most often been used on sweeps as AU’s speedy “Mr. Outside.” Could he become a traditional, workhorse, SEC back? Good question. See: Jeff Demps at Florida.

Florida-transfer Mike Blakely (close to Dyer’s 5’9, 210 frame) and Alabama-transfer Corey Grant are options as well, but current commitment Jovon Robinson might be the closest thing to a prototypical, pro-style back at 6’0, 215.

Suffice to say, Loeffler might not have the personnel to run a tried-and-true pro-style offense. For that reason we anticipate Auburn will continue to spread teams out (think NFL Saints and NFL Patriots rather than Malzahn’s or Oregon’s spread) and will continue to utilize the occasional sweep or end-around to take advantage of talents like McCalebb’s.

We do agree with most others that it sounds like the hurry-up is going bye-bye.

But to suggest a wholesale system change in Year One? That would be inviting the same kind of troubles that Muschamp and Charlie Weis experienced last season. To see those issues first-hand, Chizik would only need go dig out the game tape from Auburn’s 17-6 win over the Gators last season.

Auburn Hires Loeffler As New OC

John — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:24:57 +0000

Auburn has hired former Florida quarterbacks coach and current Temple offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler as the man to replace Gus Malzahn. He did great things with the Owls run game last year (they were seventh in the nation) and his pre-Temple resume features work with a number of top college quarterbacks: Tim Tebow, Chad Henne, Tom Brady, Brian Griese, Drew Henson and John Navarre.

Still, AU fans didn’t go into the coordinator search with Loeffler’s name on their tip of their lips. There are questions today as to what changes he will make to Malzhan’s hundred-mile-an-hour spread system.

“Scot is a rising star whao has worked with some very good quarterbacks, has achieved a tremendous amount of success,” Gene Chizik said via statement. “He is a tireless worker, is an outstanding recruiter and knows the rigors of competing in this conference.”

After a lengthy stint at Michigan — look at that quaterbacks list again — Loeffler joined Urban Meyer’s Florida staff for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. In 2009, he was Tebow’s position coach… when Superman rolled up a 164.17 passer rating.

Meyer’s offense was a spread offense, but it differed from Malzahn’s. Still, it’s likely Auburn will remain a run-first team and now they have an experienced quarterbacks coach to coax the maximum from Clint Moseley, Kiehl Frazier and newcomer Zeke Pike.

Auburn recruit JaQuay Williams said last week that Chizik had told him the Tigers would still be a spread team (three- and four-receiver sets) with a bit more pro-style added to the mix. Loeffler seems like a good fit to create that blend.

“Auburn is one of the special jobs and special places in college athletics with a tremendous amount of history and tradition,” Loeffler said of his new home. “I’m excited to get started and look forward to beginning recruiting, meeting the players and staff, and interacting with the Auburn family.”

QB Trotter Walks Away From AU Football Team

John — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:01:41 +0000

Barrett Trotter began the season as Auburn’s starting quarterback. By mid-October he’d been replaced by Clint Moseley and Kiehl Frazier. After sitting for five games, Trotter came off the bench to help lead the Tigers past Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Now he’s walking away from the see-saw and will forgo his senior year of football. Trotter graduated last August and is currently enrolled in graduate school on the Plains.

“My four years at Auburn has been a great experience and I’m thankful for the opportunities that I’ve had. I’m truly blessed to have been a part of winning seasons and championships during my time at Auburn.

I’m also very appreciative of Coach (Gene) Chizik and the coaching staff, as well as my teammates and the entire Auburn family.”

Trotter said the he will not transfer to another program. He can take part in Auburn’s pro day if he wants to pursue an NFL career, though it’s unlikely he’ll get a look in the pros. For his career, Trotter passed for 1,248 yard and 11 touchdowns.

Chizik and the person he hires as offensive coordinator will have Moseley, Frazier and highly-touted incoming freshman Zeke Pike to choose from when it comes to Auburn’s quarterback position in 2012.

AU Recruit Says Offense Will Be More “Pro Style”

John — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:12:57 +0000

Rumors have been swirling since Gus Malzahn announced he was leaving that Auburn might go from its current spread offense to a pro-style offense under its next coordinator. Gene Chizik hasn’t hired a new O-coordinator yet an he’s not been interested in telling fans or media what his plans entail.

But he is giving Tiger recruits a hint of what’s to come. According to wide receiver prospect Jaquay Williams:

“He said it’s going to be a little bit of the same. Four receivers. Three receivers. It’ll be more a little pro-style. It’s going to be good.”

According to Charles Goldberg of Al.com, Williams also said that he “got the feeling” that Auburn’s new coordinator will be announced “later in the week.”

Now, this is the word of a teenager so who knows if he correctly interpreted what Chizik was telling him. That said, at least it’s a clue for info-starved Auburn fans.

Those close to the Tiger program believe Chizik would like to create more of a pro-style offense. Problem is… he’s got a roster filled with players recruited to play in Malzahn’s hurry-up, spread system. It makes sense, then, that he might try to marry the two concepts in 2012.

NCAA Closes The Newton Loophole (And Bama Gets Some Bad Pub, Too)

John — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:43:18 +0000

Auburn fans, be glad that the NCAA was slow on the trigger.

Today, college sports’ governing body closed the so-called “Cam Newton loophole” by ruling that in the future any parent found to be soliciting the services of his son or daughter to an NCAA institution will be designated as an agent. And when an agent solicits money from a school, the player becomes ineligible.

But don’t go calling this the “Cam Newton rule.” CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd tweeted today that he had been told “the impetus for the Cecil Newton Rule, actually started with Alabama’s Andre Smith.”

You might remember that Smith — a star left tackle for the Crimson Tide in 2008 — was not allowed to play in the team’s Sugar Bowl loss to Utah in January 2009.

And that’s why we say Auburn fans should be glad the NCAA acted slowly. For if the NCAA had changed its rulebook after Smith’s issue came to light, Cam and Cecil and the 2010 Tigers would have been outta luck before ever making their run at the Heisman Trophy, the BCS Championship and history.

Barbee Finally Signs Contract At Auburn

John — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:23:01 +0000

It took a while — 22 months to be exact — but Auburn coach Tony Barbee has finally signed his contract on the Plains. The Opelika-Auburn News reports that the second-year coach actually inked the agreement back on December 7th. It is a seven-year pact dating back to Barbee’s start date of March, 2010.

The coach says he’s glad to have the issue put to bed:

“I’m glad it’s signed. The contract was a bigger deal for everybody else but Auburn and me. I was very comfortable with the letter of agreement we were working under. It’s part of negotiations. Things don’t always go as quickly as you want them to go. It’s just part of it.

Auburn had committed to me. I had committed to them.”

Barbee’s contract — worth $1.5 million per year — includes a chapter on compliance that is identical to the wording in Gene Chizik’s contract.

VanGorder Takes Auburn D-Coordinator Job

John — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:57:13 +0000

Scratch another SEC coordinator slot from the open jobs list. Atlanta Falcons defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder has been hired at Auburn. He has been with the Falcons since 2007. He has served as their defensive coordinator since 2008. Prior to Atlanta he spent a year as Georgia Southern’s head coach and a year as a Jacksonville Jaguars assistant.

SEC fans will remember VanGorder’s previous SEC stop when he served as the D-coordinator at Georgia from 2001 through 2004. The Dawgs went 42-10 in that stretch with an SEC title thrown in for good measure.

The Falcons announced the move via their official Twitter feed:

“Smith: Brian VanGorder has accepted the defensive coordinator job at Auburn University.”

The Smith in that tweet would be Atlanta head coach Mike Smith.

This hire won’t be met with cheers by fans in Georgia, many of whom had longed for VanGorder’s return from 2005 right up until Todd Grantham fielded a Top 5 defense this season.

On paper, it’s another “wow” hire for the Tigers’ Gene Chizik.

Good News For AU, Bad News For Us: Lutzenkirchen To Return

John — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:49:45 +0000

Gotta admit it. This writer was hoping Philip Lutzenkirchen would leave Auburn early for the NFL. Oh not for any rooting-interest reasons. I just hate having to type his name because I know sooner or later I’ll fumble and mistype it.

In all seriousness, in a bit of good news for a program in need of some positivity, Lutzenkirchen announced on Twitter last night that he will return to the Plains for his senior season:

“It’s official world. I’m staying for SR year. War eagle!”

Lutzenkirchen caught 24 passes for 238 yards last year in Gus Malzahn’s run-first system. While his overall catch totals aren’t eye-popping, seven of his 24 receptions went for touchdowns. That was the team-high for Auburn pass-catchers.

AU’s Dyer Not Gone To ASU Yet, But What’s Up ‘Tween Chizik And Malzahn?

John — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:18:20 +0000

So much for the report that Mike Dyer was enrolling at Arkansas State yesterday. It seems no one at the school has seen the Auburn tailback put pen to paper.

The athletic director at ASU said yesterday, “there’s nothing I can confirm or deny.” He added, “I have no knowledge of anything in that regard.”

Still acting as the Red Wolves’ coach through their GoDaddy.com Bowl appearance, David Gunn also dismissed the talk:

“A few days ago, maybe a week or so ago, some things had gotten out on Twitter. That was, I guess, quickly put to rest. Now this is the second time I’ve heard hat and the first time today.

With all this speculation, it’d be most appropriate for me not to make any comments. Michael Dyer’s a heck of a football player. He’s had an outstanding career at Auburn and I’m sure they would want that to continue.”

Matt Harris of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette tweeted a quote from a source close to Dyer who said, “I’m telling you, he has not filed paperwork to do anything. If that happens, trust me, I’m sitting beside him.”

So Dyer’s not at ASU at the moment, but it sure sounds like Arkansas State is his clear fallback choice should things end in divorce at Auburn.

Meanwhile, contacts on the Plains say that Dyer’s status has not changed and that he remains suspended indefinitely from the Tiger team.

Charles Goldberg of Al.com wrote last evening that “someone familiar with the situation” told him that Dyer “is considering asking for his release so he can transfer to another school.”

The website AuburnUndercover — sorry, the story’s behind a paywall — also reported yesterday that Dyer plans to transfer. They claim he is asking for a release from his scholarship, but such a release has not been granted yet.

All this begs the following question: What’s up with the relationship between Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn? At last week’s Chick-fil-A Bowl the two appeared hunky-dory. Is there a rift between the men behind the scenes?

From our view, there are two possibilities:

1. Chizik has had it up to the collar of his leather jacket with Dyer — despite his two 1,000-yard seasons — and he’s ready to jettison the kid from his program so long as Dyer and/or his family come to meet with the coach first. “If you fly right, we’ll keep you. Otherwise, hit the bricks.” If that’s the case, then Chizik probably wouldn’t mind Malzahn taking a shot at Dyer.

Or…

2. Chizik is ticked as hell that his offensive coordinator might have been luring his tailback to the coach’s own new program while said coach was still on the Auburn staff.

As is the case with everything else in this story, there seem to be no solid answers coming from inside the walls of Fortress Auburn. For every rumor, report or leak, there’s an equal and opposite rumor, report or leak.

At this point, it certainly appears as though Dyer is inching closer and closer to Arkansas State. What that means for Malzahn’s relationship with Chizik is still a very gray area.

Report: AU’s Dyer Filing Paperwork To Enroll At Arkansas State

John — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:20:38 +0000

You can throw another log on the Mike-Dyer’s-leaving-Auburn-fire this afternoon. According to the website NationalFootballAuthority.com, the suspended Tiger running back filed paperwork this afternoon to enroll at Arkansas State.

Two ASU players tweeted and Facebook’d “welcome” messages to Dyer a week ago, but Auburn coach Gene Chizik said at the time that there had been no change in Dyer’s status — he was still indefinitely suspended from the AU squad. Still, Dyer was noticeably absent from Auburn’s bowl media guide and from a postseason highlight reel that was shown in the Georgia Dome during the Chick-fil-A Bowl.

Dyer’s former offensive coordinator at Auburn — Gus Malzahn — has just taken the reins as Arkansas State’s head coach.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE — Matt Harris of The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has now tweeted a follow-up to the above report/rumor from NationalFootballAuthority.com: “Hearing from a source close to Dyer the #AState transfer paperwork rumor is bunk. Family wants to meet with Chizik at Auburn.”

And that’s why used the “rumors” icon in connection with this one. When it comes to Dyer, we want to hear an official word from Chizik or Malzahn before we believe he’s moving from one school to the other.

AU Student Dies After Crash Involving Football Player Cole

John — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:10:16 +0000

Some sad news was confirmed last night regarding Auburn senior safety Drew Cole and his girlfriend, fellow student Elizabeth “Libbie” Ainsworth.
The pair were returning from a hunting trip Sunday when Cole lost control of his car, leading to a single-car accident. Ainsworth was ejected from the vehicle and passed away yesterday in Columbus, Georgia.

Cole was treated and released from the hospital. According to police, the pair were trying to type an address into their GPS device when the wreck occurred.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Cole and the Ainsworth family. Tragic news.

Dyer’s Status At Auburn Still In Question

John — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:03:14 +0000

There’s a vacuum when it comes to true news on the status of Auburn tailback Mike Dyer. Last week, a pair of Arkansas State players welcomed him to Jonesboro via social media. Then Gene Chizik announced that Dyer’s status on the Plains was unchanged suggesting that he was still not currently part of the team — due to indefinite suspension — but was not dismissed from the team, either.

There have been plenty of rumors since, but no hard facts.

Kevin Scarbinsky of The Birmingham News believes Auburn’s decision to nix Dyer from its bowl media guide and some end o’ the year highlight videos give you a good clue that he may be done with the Tigers.

Chris Bahn of ArkansasSports360.com states that there’s been no new information out of the Arkansas State camp.

For now — after talking to several people around the Auburn program — it sounds to us at MrSEC.com like more people expect Dyer to be elsewhere in 2012. And that likely means with Gus Malzahn in Jonesboro.

But even those close to the situation are being tight-lipped. So until Chizik announces a change, we really can’t do much more than speculate. Even if everyone seems to be drawing the same conclusions.

Rumor: Dyer Done At Auburn, Heading To Arkansas State. Chizik Says No

John — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:40:08 +0000

Michael Dyer has been a bellcow for the Auburn program since suiting up as the Tigers’ top tailback last year. Unfortunately, there have also been off-field issues and an indefinite suspension to go along with all his rushing yards and that BCS Championship Game MVP award.

Now, rumors are swirling that Dyer is finished on the Plains and will be transferring to Arkansas State… where it just so happens Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn will be taking over as head coach.

At least two Arkansas State players have already welcomed/congratulated Dyer on his move to Jonesboro via Facebook and Twitter (though that page no longer exists).

But Gene Chizik said today that the rumors that first kicked up yesterday are just that — rumors.

“Michael Dyer’s status has not changed. If it does, I’ll let you know. I’m not aware of any of that.”

Pressed for more information, Chizik simply said: “I’m not going to go into details of my discussions with Mike Dyer. I’ve told you guys his status, and that status hasn’t changed.”

So is Chizik simply avoiding the question until after the bowl game? Stay tuned.

Chizik, Malzahn Making Final Plans For Bowl Game

John — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:16:18 +0000

Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia will feature Gus Malzahn’s departure from Auburn and Gene Chizik’s return to his defensive coordinator roots. Both men are already making plans.

According to tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen, his offensive coordinator has big things in store for the Cavaliers. “He’s going to throw the book at them,” he said of Malzahn’s gameplan. Malzahn will take over as Arkansas State’s head coach after the bowl.

Chizik, meanwhile, is filling in for departed D-coordinator Ted Roof. And he always coached from the pressbox as a coordinator in the past. Any chance he coaches from on high Saturday? Uh, no.

“Really and truly, my plan is to be on the sideline,” Chizik said. “I’d give it 90-10.”

“That’s going to be the challenge for me, obviously. Even when I was a defensive coordinator before all those years I never called a game before from on the field. Obviously, I’m going to have to be involved in the total aspect of the game — third downs, fourth downs, ‘are we going to go for it?’ I feel like we’ve got a pretty good plan in place, but when everything starts flying fast out there, sometimes it gets pretty hairy out there. But that’s going to be my plan right now.”

LSU Fullback Copeland Says Auburn “Didn’t Want To Hit At All”

John — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:35:04 +0000

LSU fullback JC Copeland has fired a shot toward the Auburn football program that you can bet has fans of the Plainsmen riled up today. The 280-pound bruiser remembers his Tigers 45-10 win over AU’s Tigers for the hits he didn’t have to dole out:

“The most memorable game I’ve had this year, I’ve got to say, was Auburn, because after the first couple of hits, everybody (on AU’s defense) was just backing up. They didn’t want to hit at all. … Before I got to them, they just fell down and just laid on the ground.

I actually said, ‘C’mon man, you’re better than that. C’mon, hit me. That was like the only game I went home and had no nicks and bruises at all.”

Yikes.

Makes you wonder if Georgia’s Mark Richt was referring to Auburn’s D when he said pre-SEC title game: “I’ve seen people just start jumping out of the way of this guy, literally.”

One thing you can be sure of is this… you can bet that Gene Chizik will post Copeland’s comments all over Auburn’s football complex in the week running up to next year’s LSU game.

AU’s Bell Working To Rehab Truly Messed Up Knee

John — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:08:51 +0000

Auburn’s T’Sharvan Bell has a long, hard road back to the playing field. The defensive back injured his left knee in the Tigers’ lopsided loss to Georgia back in November and he arrived for AU’s media session yesterday on crutches. He explained the injury and the rehab:

“I tore my ACL, my MCL, my posterior medial oblique. I think I did a good job with it… of just tearing everything. …

(Rehab is) going good. The first week or so, I’d say it was probably the easiest. Ever since then, it’s been getting harder, but it’s not anything I can’t handle.”

At least the kid sounds like he’s got a good attitude about the rehab process. There is no timetable for his recovery.

Bell will be a senior next season.

Chizik Goes Up-Tempo With His Defense

John — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 15:33:39 +0000

Auburn safety Demetruce McNeal can tell a big difference in practice since head coach Gene Chizik — a former D-coordinator his own self — has taken over for Ted Roof’s old unit during bowl practice:

“It has been so much up-tempo with him. You can see the big difference between him and Coach Roof. Roof was kind of calm and tried to set things down. Coach Chizik comes in the meeting room and everybody just stops. I can tell a big difference now from the linebackers from when Roof was here.”

Chizik is running the defense as AU prepares for Virginia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. He’s also searching for two new coordinators… one of whom apparently won’t be Florida State’s Mark Stoops.

A Case For Malzahn’s Departure

John — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:32:05 +0000

Following the news that Gus Malzahn would leave Auburn for the head coaching job at Arkansas State, it took mere nanoseconds for the internet/talk radio world to start suggesting big troubles on The Plains.

In my car for much of Wednesday, I can tell you that the national talk radio shows had a common theme yesterday and it went a little something like this: “With Malzahn and Ted Roof both leaving for lesser schools, you have to wonder if something bad is going on behind the scenes at Auburn.”

Apparently, most of those folks haven’t spoken to anyone at Auburn. I have. And the Roof and Malzahn departures should not be lumped together in any way, shape or form. Roof saw the writing on the wall after three consecutive years of unimpressive defensive numbers and jumped at a chance to work with an old colleague, doing the same job at UCF. His move saved his own neck.

Malzahn — it appears — is simply trying to further his career. As we suggested yesterday, he might see that his offense needs a top-flight quarterback to really work in the SEC. (Urban Meyer learned the same thing at Florida.) So maybe he felt it was better to leave now than wait another year and possibly see his stock drop further.

Perhaps he simply wanted to get back to familiar surroundings. We never know what role family issues play into these types of moves.

And speaking of family issues, Malzahn’s wife’s viral video moment might have played some role in preventing him from landing a bigger gig this year, but to be fair, his wife could have shot a bird at Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler following last year’s BCS title game and it would have had zero impact on her husband’s job search. Malzahn was hot last January. Now, he’s not. His wife’s video only became an issue because Malzahn’s stock had already dropped.

In the end, perhaps Malzahn simply made what he believes to be the best move to land himself a better head coaching job down the road.

Think about it.

Malzahn was mentioned as a potential candidate at Ole Miss. Instead of getting a serious look from UM, he saw Arkansas State’s Hugh Freeze land that job after just two years in Jonesboro… and only one as the school’s head coach. Granted, Freeze had been on the Rebel staff under Ed Orgeron and had made some Oxford contacts, but it’s not hard to imagine Malzahn reaching the conclusion that it’s easier to land a head coaching job when you already have a head coaching job.

If Malzahn had stayed at Auburn, he would be in control of the offense and at the mercy of his team’s defense. Gene Chizik would make the big picture decisions.

At Arkansas State, Malzahn will run the show. In effect, he’ll control his own destiny. Entirely. In an area he knows.

Push through the smoke stirred up by messageboards and talk show hosts yesterday and Malzahn’s decision — especially considering the fact that he erred by turning down Vanderbilt last year — actually seems to make some sense.

More Rumors: Malzahn Connected To Arkansas State Job

John — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:54:57 +0000

When the Ole Miss head coaching job came open, one of the first names mentioned as a potential candidate was that of Gus Malzahn. But the Rebels tabbed former Arkansas State head coach Hugh Freeze instead. Now Malzahn is being mentioned in connection to the job Freeze left.

Auburn’s offensive coordinator obviously has Arkansas ties. He’s also been tied to openings at Vanderbilt, Maryland, North Carolina, Kansas, Southern Miss and Ole Miss in the last two seasons. So it’s no surprise he’s getting some pub when it comes to the Red Wolves’ current search.

But would Malzahn — after being considered (reportedly) by so many larger schools — seriously entertain thoughts of taking over at Arkansas State? We doubt it.

But never say never.

AU Suspends RB Dyer For Bowl, Perhaps Beyond

John — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:47:53 +0000

Thousand-yard rusher Mike Dyer will miss Auburn’s Chick-fil-A Bowl against Virginia. That much is definite. Multiple sources have confirmed that news to The Birmingham News.

When he’ll return to the team? That’s the indefinite part.

Gene Chizik has slapped an indefinite suspension on his offense’s biggest star due to the dreaded (and vague) violation of team rules. The All-SEC back rushed for 1,242 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2011. This after a 1,093-yard season in 2010. He is one of just five Tiger backs to post consecutive 1000-yard seasons and the first to do it in his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Auburn’s second-leading rusher on the season was Onterio McCalebb with 532 yards. McCalebb serves as the lightning to Dyer’s thunder, however. So expect true freshman Tre Mason to get Dyer’s share of the work in the bowl game.

For the season, Dyer accounted for 59% of Auburn’s rushing output and 31% of the team’s total offense.

Oversimplified conclusion: This is an awfully big suspension for the Tigers.

Auburn’s Malzahn Still Tied To Kansas Search

John — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 18:46:50 +0000

Despite telling friends that he would likely be back at Auburn next season, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn remains a contender or the head coaching job at Kansas. How serious a candidate he is depends on who’s talking.

A couple of coaching rumor sites report that Malzahn is the frontrunner as KU races to wrap up its search. But other reports claim Malzahn is just one of many interviewees — along with Northern Illinois’ head coach Dave Doeren and Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst. Just this morning, some online reports had Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis getting some backing at Kansas. Ditto ex-South Florida head coach Jim Leavitt.

Even earlier this week Phillip Fulmer and Houston Nutt were rumored to be candidates and/or interested in the job in Lawrence.

In other words, the Kansas reports are all over the board. But this much we do know – a year ago Malzahn turned down advances from Vanderbilt and Maryland. Is a traditional cellar-dweller in the Big 12 more of a draw than traditional cellar-dwellers in the SEC and ACC?

Perhaps, if you consider the fact that Malzahn’s resume isn’t as sparkly as it was a year ago when he led Auburn’s offense to the top of most statistical categories and earned himself the biggest salary for an assistant in college football.

Maybe this time around the gettin’ is good.

Malzahn’s Wife Goes Viral

John — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:45:32 +0000

To those who’ve emailed us the link 50 times today, yes, we’ve seen the video of Gus Malzahn’s wife Kristi giving a bizarro interview. Everyone’s seen it. And if you somehow haven’t, here it is:

Do we believe that interview has anything to do with Malzahn’s name reportedly cooling at North Carolina? At Ole Miss? No, we do not.

We believe his non-Cam-Newton-led offense has something to do with his star fading a bit, but not this. If a guy can win, no one cares what he or his wife says. And here’s guessing Ms. Malzahn won’t be doing many more of these interviews in the future anyway.

Malzahn: A Genius Or Just Another Guy?

John — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:15:11 +0000

In a very short period of time, Gus Malzahn has built a reputation for being one of the nation’s top offensive gurus. His rapid-fire attack helped fast-track him from the high school ranks all the way to the SEC as a coordinator. And last year he became a top head coaching candidate as his Auburn offense rolled to a BCS title.

But just how unstoppable is his offense in reality?

Below are Auburn’s offensive rankings in four main categories in 2009, 2010 and 2011. We look only at the Tigers’ results against SEC foes (SEC rank in parentheses):

Season	Rushing Offense	Passing Offense	Total Offense	Scoring Offense
2009	203.6 ypg (2)	173.5 ypg (9)	377.1 ypg (4)	25.0 (5)
2010	289.8 ypg (1)	188.4 ypg (8)	478.3 ypg (2)	40.2 (1)
2011	188.4 ypg (2)	135.7 ypg (12)	324.1 ypg (6)	20.9 (7)

Think Cam Newton made a difference for Malzahn? Across the board, Auburn was better last year than in either of the offensive coordinators’ other two seasons on The Plains.

The Tigers rushed for 86 more yards per game. They passed for 15 more yards per game . They rolled up 101 more yards per game overall. And they scored 15 points per game more with Newton than without. Two touchdowns a game can make a heckuva difference in a squad’s final record.

Not all of that is Malzahn’s fault, of course. Urban Meyer looked better with Tim Tebow, too. Special players make special coaches.

And that is our overall point. Without a special quarterback, Malzahn appears to know how to run the football well, but his teams score at a middle-of-the-pack pace in the SEC.

As a head coach away from the SEC and its brutal defenses — say at North Carolina in the so-so ACC — Malzahn may set the world on fire. But inside his current conference, it appears Auburn’s OC needs a very special, dual threat quarterback to make his offense truly hum.

Malzahn’s a good offensive coordinator, but genius? We’ll need to see some more big numbers before we go that far.

Dyer Chewing Up The Yards For Auburn

John — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 16:43:07 +0000

Auburn hasn’t had a great year on the field this fall, but star tailback Mike Dyer has. And his performance leaves him in line to break some pretty nice records in the weeks and years ahead:

* Dyer is just the fifth Auburn running back to post back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons.

* With 135 yards tomorrow against Samford, he will move onto the school’s Top 10 list of all-time rushers.

* Dyer has already recorded five 100-yard rushing games in 2011.

* At his current pace, he could challenge Auburn legend Bo Jackson’s career rushing mark of 4,303 yards.

* By rushing for 1,000 yards this season, Dyer became just the third SEC running back behind Herschel Walker and Darren McFadden to rush for 1,000 as both a freshman and a sophomore.

Chizik Says Youth To Blame For Auburn’s Woes

John — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:33:19 +0000

Before the season, we took a bit of a beating from Auburn fans for suggesting that the Tigers would have their fair share of troubles this year with so many young, inexperienced players having to fill the roles of departed veterans.

We haven’t been hearing much from Tiger fans the past few weeks.

That’s probably because in its last five games, Auburn has been hammered by Arkansas, LSU and Georgia by a combined score of 128-31. Gene Chizik says he knows what the problem is — young, inexperienced players:

“Last year when things didn’t seemingly look like they were going very well, you had a lot of guys who had been through a lot of peaks and valleys during their careers. You have experience with guys who have been in the valley — and they know how to get back up to the peak. We need more leadership.”

With Samford and Alabama left to play, it’s likely the Tigers will finish 7-5 on the season and unranked. So much for all the preseason talk of being disrespected by the media. (And by this site.)

Starting a majority of freshmen and sophomores is a recipe for disaster in the SEC. Regardless of the logo on the helmet or the titles won in prior seasons.

AU loses CB Bell For The Season

John — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:42:53 +0000

Fresh off a 45-7 beatdown at Georgia — that could have actually been worse had Mark Richt not taken his foot off the gas — the Auburn Tigers are now facing a new problem in their secondary. Junior cornerback T’Sharvan Bell is out for the season after suffering a major knee injury on Saturday.

Defensive coordinator Ted Roof says Bell will be sorely missed by a unit that’s already had its share of struggles.

“(Bell) means a lot to our defense, not just the way he plays, but the things he provides us off the field. I really have a lot of respect for him, and how much he’s grown. I’m really proud of him and love him and it’s just ad that that happened.

Who will replace Bell in Auburn’s secondary is anyone’s guess. According to The Opelika-Auburn News, at least four players’ names — Ryan White, Jonathon Mincy, Jermaine Whitehead and Robenson Therezie — have been kicked around as possible fill-ins.

The Plainsmen already rank dead last in the SEC in pass defense, allowing 216 yards per game through the air.

AU’s Malzahn Doesn’t Have Much To Say About UM Job

John — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:32:07 +0000

The good news regarding Ole Miss’ decision to announce Houston Nutt’s dismissal in early November: The Rebels have plenty of time to find a quality replacement.

The bad news: A lot of candidates will now have to spend the next month ducking questions about the Ole Miss job.

Start with Gus Malzahn. The Auburn offensive coordinator was asked about the Ole Miss gig this week. His response:

“I’ve got my hands full trying to score points against Georgia. That’s my only focus.”

Short and sweet. With the exception of guys like Mike Leach and Rich Rodriguez who are out of work, Rebel fans should expect to hear a lot of guys make comments just like Malzahn’s in the weeks ahead.

Chizik: UM’s The Best 2-5 Team In The Country

John — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:05:06 +0000

Earlier this week we poked a little fun at MSU’s Dan Mullen for saying that Kentucky — if not for a few turnovers — would be a hot team right now. When it comes to puffing up an opponent, that was a pretty good line because UK wouldn’t be considered “hot” right now if they were playing in the Arctic Circle.

But we’ve got a new King of Puff in the SEC and his name is Gene Chizik. Chizik’s Auburn Tigers take on Ole Miss this Saturday and the coach called the Rebels “a very, very good football team.”

In fact, he actually said that Ole Miss is “the best 2-5 team in the country.”

How can these guys keep a straight face saying things like that?

“They’re probably a play here or a play there from winning five or six games. I think the record is not an indicator of how good they are.”

In reality, UM did finish just one play away from beating BYU in its opener. But they lost by 14 to Georgia, 23 to Vanderbilt and 45 to Alabama. One or two plays probably wouldn’t have gotten the job done.

And while last week’s loss to Arkansas was close — 29-24 — the Hogs rolled off 29 consecutive points to zoom from behind.

Best 2-5 team in the country? That should satisfy angry Rebel fans.

Report Confirmed: LSU Suspends Ware, Mathieu And Simon For AU Game

John — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:35:57 +0000

The Associated Press is following up on a report by LSU’s student newspaper with claims that the Tigers will be without three suspended players for their game with Auburn this weekend.

“A person familiar with the decision” told the AP that Tyrann Mathieu, Spencer Ware and defensive back Therold Simon have been suspended. And LSU spokesperson said that the three players are involved in an internal matter that Les Miles “will handle accordingly.”

As we noted about an hour ago, LSU has been able to weave its way around and through numerous obstacles already this season. Now they’ll have to deal with the loss of three key players who’ve combined to record 512 yards rushing, four forced fumbles, three recovered fumbles, three interceptions, 71 tackles and 8 total touchdowns.

As for Auburn, the Tigers seem to be the kings of good timing in 2011. They faced a struggling Stephen Garcia in Columbia right before Steve Spurrier pulled the plug on him. Last week they battled a Florida team trying to use two true freshman backup quarterbacks. And now they’ll face the top-ranked team in the country without — arguably — their best players on offense and defense.

Gene Chizik must be livin’ right.

If LSU survives this weekend’s contest, all eyes will be on Miles to see if he reinstates this trio prior to the Tigers’ “game of the year” matchup with Alabama.

The AP did not go into details regarding the suspensions, but The Daily Reveille claimed Ware and Mathieu were suspended due to failed drug tests.

Moseley Named AU Starting QB

John — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 20:56:44 +0000

With a road trip to #1 LSU coming up on Saturday, Auburn has a new starting quarterback. Clint Moseley has gotten the nod after giving the Tigers a lift off the bench when he replaced Barrett Trotter against Florida this past weekend.

“We’ve been struggling offensively the last couple of weeks,” Gene Chizik said today. “I don’t feel like that’s a secret. We need a spark there. I feel like in the second half of the Florida game, Clint came in and gave us somewhat of a spark when we needed it. I think he’s earned the right for the opportunity to start.”

Chizik didn’t enjoy breaking the bad news to Trotter. “This is the part of the business I don’t like. You have to tell one guy one thing and another guy the other.”

In Auburn’s 17-6 win over Florida, Moseley was 4 of 7 for 90 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.

LSU To Wear Pro Combat Uniforms Against AU

John — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:38:56 +0000

We all know that Nike has a tendency to go a little overboard when it comes to the company’s Pro Combat football uniforms. Okay. A lot overboard.

Thankfully, LSU won’t be going full Power Ranger as Georgia did earlier this year.

When the Tigers take on Auburn Saturday, they’ll be outfitted in an all-white number that actually looks pretty snazzy. There’s a white helmet, white jersey and white pants in the combo. All mesh with the Tigers’ current designs and logos.

The only downside? Tiger stripes inside the purple numerals on the jersey.

But hey, when some teams are sporting looks befitting a comic book villain, small tiger stripes aren’t so bad.

A Final Wrap On Auburn’s Newton Affair

John — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 14:48:10 +0000

So that’s it. It’s done. Complete. Finished. Over.

The NCAA’s 13-month investigation into the Auburn football program and specifically its recruitment of Cam Newton has been closed — this time officially, Gene Chizik — with no finding of wrongdoing:

“The NCAA enforcement staff is committed to a fair and thorough investigative process. As such, any allegations of major rules violations must meet a burden of proof, which is a higher standard than rampant public speculation online and in the media. The allegations must be based on credible and persuasive information and includes a good-faith belief that the Committee on Infractions could make a finding.

As with any case, should the enforcement staff become aware of additional credible information, it will review the information to determine whether further investigation is warranted.”

That last line will send anti-Auburners back to the messageboards to hurl more accusations, but the fact of the matter is that’s just boilerplate NCAA legalese.

There was no hard proof that anyone at AU paid anything to Newton or his father, Cecil. Some will no doubt say that their favorite program was penalized despite a lack of hard evidence, that the burden of proof was never met. But the NCAA also said in its statement that there was not even “credible and persuasive information” suggesting Auburn was guilty of paying the Newtons. This after 13-months and dozens of interviews.

No proof. No credible, persuasive information.

Danny Sheridan’s bag man? Just talk radio hooey until the man gives up a name, something he can do without the threat of a lawsuit (despite his claims).

Scott Moore’s tapes? Oh, how many times have we been told, “You just wait, they’re coming!” Well, unless he finds a place to play them, they can be filed under H for hokum.

Those FBI wiretaps that would tie everything together in a nice, neat package? Messageboard hogwash.

Our thoughts on this subject — from beginning to end — can be summed up in a couple of posts:

1. On November 19th, 2010 we posted a column titled: “Isn’t It Possible That Auburn Never Paid The Newtons A Thing?” In it we took on the role of Henry Fonda from “12 Angry Men.” It would be a position we tried to keep throughout the entire Auburn/Newton saga. In our view, all the talk, accusations and appearances shouldn’t mean a thing unless someone could provide some evidence, some tangible proof of wrongdoing.

2. On February 25, 2011 we posted a column called: “It’s Time For Bond And Moore To Put Up Or Shut Up On The Newton Saga.” Like so many others who’d claimed to have information in the case, Moore — an Alabama fan and then-radio host — went from talkshow to talkshow across the South saying he’d heard and had access to evidence in the Newton case. Former Mississippi State player John Bond allegedly had audio tapes proving that Newton the Younger knew that Newton the Elder was shopping him to State. But Moore and Bond never produced the tapes. Sheridan would do basically the same thing with his bagman claims earlier this fall.

In the end, it looks like there was a lot of smoke around the Auburn program and the Newtons, but no fire. At least no major fire.

Even the comments of the “HBO Four” failed to yield fruit… mainly because three of the four would talk only to HBO and not to the NCAA, which discredits them more than a little.

That said, do we at MrSEC.com believe there were hundred-dollar handshakes going on at AU? Yes. But we’re also 100% sure you could go on any SEC campus and find athletes getting some form of under the table payment from someone. That happens everywhere and there’s no way to clean it all up.

We also believe the SEC and the NCAA should have suspended Newton as soon as his father admitted to asking for cash from MSU. That violated a rule on the books and both parties had to find a loophole — that they later admitted needed to be closed — to allow Newton to play in the SEC Championship Game and the BCS Championship Game.

Going forward, that rule should state that once a player or family member asks for cash — period — that player is dunzo.

But once that hurdle was cleared, the “Auburn cheated thing” was just a sideshow. Carnival barkers barked, people willingly climbed aboard a rickety ride, but there was nothing to be gained from buying a ticket on the Newton Violations Tilt-A-Whirl.

Despite that fact, we’re still quite happy that Newton decided to take his game to the NFL a year early. Had he stayed for his senior season, the Auburn football team and the SEC would have been dealing with more negative press every single time he stepped onto a field this fall.

In summary: Newton’s father broke an obvious rule and the player should have been punished for that… as would have been the case had his father accepted any money. But Newton continued to play. He was arguably the greatest player in SEC history during his one season as a starting quarterback. He and Auburn have now been cleared of illegal activity. Thank God and Greyhound he’s gone.

Other headlines on Newton today:

1. The player himself wasn’t surprised by the NCAA’s ruling.

2. There will likely always be rumors and questions about Newton’s recruitment.

3. This writer says the ruling shows the NCAA’s vulnerabilities.

4. Gene Chizik is happy for his school to finally be in the clear.

5. This writer says Auburn is vindicated.

6. This wasn’t going to go away until the NCAA publicly stated the investigation was closed.

7. MSU’s Bond says he doesn’t know or care what went on at Auburn.

8. This piece — which we linked you to yesterday — is the closest we’ve ever come to simply saying “Ditto” to another writer’s work.

Barbee Ready For Year 2 On The Plains

John — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 20:53:47 +0000

With basketball practice about to tip off across the SEC, second-year Auburn coach Tony Barbee says he may have more talent on this year’s team, but his expectations never change:

“Nobody’s going to put higher expectations on the team than me. I don’t see a game on our schedule we can’t win. That’s the kind of coach I am. That being said, the goals are going to be the same as they were last year. When you play one of my teams, you’re going to expect a fight for 40 minutes.”

Barbee says every returning players is “markedly better” than last season, when the Tigers went 11-20 overall, 4-12 in the SEC.

Chizik Says Trotter Will Be AU’s Starter Versus UF

John — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:25:28 +0000

Barrett Trotter will once again be given the starting nod when Auburn hosts Florida on Saturday. The quarterback has started every game for the Tigers this year, but his passing numbers have dropped in recent weeks.

“I expect him to play well,” said Gene Chizik today. “And I expect everybody else around him to play well with him. We looked hard at everything. It’s hard for any quarterback to be as productive as you want him to be if everybody else isn’t productive as well.”

Chizik put plenty of the blame on Trotter’s pass-catchers before saying, “I don’t want to turn this into a wide receiver bashing party.”

Kiehl Frazier will continue to run Auburn’s Wildcat package and Clint Moseley will continue in his third-team role.

Ex-AU Coach Dye Not Impressed With Auburn, Carolina

John — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:27:48 +0000

Former Auburn coach Pat Dye — a member of the Scripps Legend Poll — wasn’t impressed by South Carolina’s 54-3 beatdown of Kentucky:

“I still don’t like South Carolina. Hell no, it was against Kentucky. They could score 60 or 70 points against Kentucky. Let them throw for 300 yards against Alabama or LSU, then I’ll be impressed with South Carolina.”

The 71-year-old ex-coach also made it clear to The Knoxville News Sentinel that he’s not too impressed by this year’s Auburn squad. In his view, they’re not in the upper half of the SEC. “You got LSU and Alabama at the top, then under that you got Arkansas, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.”

Trotter Still AU’s Starting QB, But That Position’s Under Review

John — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:34:29 +0000

Arkansas did things the right way on Saturday. If you’re going to beat Auburn, you’d better blow ‘em the heck out. The Razorbacks did.

And while the Hogs’ offense did their part in the 38-14 win, the Auburn offense struggled, failing to create the shootout most of us expected to see. The performance dropped Auburn into eighth place in the SEC in total offense, eighth in scoring offense and ninth in passing offense.

For the year, the Tigers are averaging 27.8 points per game… two touchdowns off last year’s 41.2 points per game average. Their 374.7 yards per game average is down from 499.2 last season.

In Gus Malzahn’s first season on The Plains, his offense started hot and then struggled through the meat of AU’s SEC schedule. Auburn finished just 3-5 in league play in 2009. Last season, Malzahn was hailed as a genius as his offense — behind best-SEC-player-I-ever-saw Cam Newton — turned football into pinball.

Barrett Trotter is no Cam Newton. Against Arkansas he completed just 6 of 19 passes for 81 yards and an interception. For the season he’s 79 of 141 (56%) for 976 yards, nine touchdowns and six interceptions. Clint Moseley is just 2 of 2 passing. True freshman Kiehl Frazier is just 2 of 5 for 18 yards and two picks. (Yep, he’s completed as many passes to opponents’ players as he has to his own teammates.)

Frazier has been the Wildcat option so far, but he sounds like he’s ready to take on a larger role. “If Coach Malzahn wanted me to, I could run more of the base offense, but he wants me in the Wildcat.”

Yesterday, Gene Chizik hinted that changes might be coming at the quarterback spot: “Today, Barrett Trotter is our starting quarterback. Obviously, we’ll spend all day today, we’ll spend all day tomorrow evaluating all of our positions on our team just like we do every Sunday and every Monday. And we’ll go from there. But today, Barrett Trotter is our starting quarterback.”

Yes, but for how long? And who’s ready to step in and take the reins of Malzahn’s offense?

Nutt Says Chizik Stole A Recruit From Him; The World Weeps

John — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:50:30 +0000

Later this month when Ole Miss and Auburn are preparing for their annual football game, it’s likely that Houston Nutt’s recent comments before a quarterback club in Birmingham will come up:

“Gene Chizik came in and stole my man Jermaine Whitehead. I asked Gene, ‘Now Gene, you didn’t even have a home visit.’ It must be nice to hold up that crystal ball. Hold up a crystal ball and get one of my best players.”

Whitehead was a four-star defensive back prospect who had committed to Mississippi State and then to Ole Miss before Auburn finally grabbed him in a late surprise.

“He took my hand and said, ‘Coach Nutt, I’m coming to play or you. I took his word!”

Oh, boo-hoo.

How is this not the very definition of recruiting? And remember, until Dan Mullen put the press on him in recent years, Nutt had always been a coach who preferred not to get too many early commitments. He instead preferred to be the guy raiding another guy’s nest… rather than sitting at home trying to protect his own eggs.

Coaches known as strong closers get their recruits from someone else. That’s how closing works. In this case, Nutt was the raidee and not the raider so suddenly that kind of poaching is bad.

Sorry, but we’re not buying this one because at one time or another every coach “steals” a recruit from some other poor shnook.

Nutt’s point in bringing all this up was to decry the league’s new soft 25-man signing cap. “What if something happens like Gene Chizik comes in and takes Jermaine Whitehead?” Nutt asked.

Well, it means a coach had better have some fallback options at the ready.

AU Wants To “Shut Up” The Naysayers

John — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:42:01 +0000

Going into Saturday’s game with South Carolina, Auburn defensive end LaDarius Owens had grown tired of negative talk about the Tiger defense and he set out to do something about it:

“I feed off that a lot. Basically when someone says to me I can’t do something, it just motivates me more. I think that’s any man. That’s the kind of approach you take. You can’t help but hear some of the hoopla and all that. I mean, you ignore it and don’t believe it because you know what you’re capable of and working toward. But at the same time you work hard to prove them wrong and shut them up.”

Owens voiced that in the correct fashion, too. Too many times an underdog will win a game and its players will claim that the negative pregame chatter somehow brought about the victory. If that were the case, the team would have likely been inspired to win prior games and would not have been an underdog in said game to begin with.

Owens instead said the negative talk about Auburn’s D made him want to shut people up. That’s not a denial of his unit’s many issues. The Tigers were giving up yards and points to everyone before Saturday’s game. Instead of saying everyone was wrong, he a stated — at least in this quote — his desire to improve.

And by showing vast improvements, he and his teammates did shut a lot of us up.

Kudos.

Will Frazier’s Role At Auburn Grow?

John — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:28:45 +0000

In 2009, Gus Malzahn’s Auburn offense averaged 33.3 points per game and 431.7 yards per game.

In 2010, the Tiger offense piled up 41.2 points and 499.2 yards per game with Cam Newton at the controls.

This season, AU is back down to 34.3 points and 373.7 yards per contest.

The takeaway? Newton was a pretty hefty part of Auburn’s offense last season. Shocking, right?

Gene Chizik has called for better execution from his current offensive players. Sounds simple enough. But some fans have a different take. On Saturday, some in the Tiger student section began chanting the name “Frazier,” as in third-string, true freshman quarterback Kiehl Frazier.

Starting signal-caller Barrett Trotter hasn’t been bad in AU’s first four games. He’s completing 61% of his passes and he has an 8-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He is not, however, a threat with his feet in the way that Newton was. Auburn has gone from having the SEC’s leading rusher at quarterback to a guy who’s run 20 times for a total of 33 yards.

Unlike Trotter, Frazier is a dual-threat type quarterback. Tiger fans know it. We know it. In fact, we predicted prior to the season that Frazier would take the reins of Auburn’s offense in October because Malzahn would need his two-way skills entering SEC play.

But that hasn’t happened yet. In fact, Frazier has mainly seen time in Auburn’s Wildcat formation. For the season he has rushed four times for 33 yards and tossed one incomplete pass. That’s it.

Chizik once said that Frazier’s role would grow by Week Five. It’s now Week Five and some Tiger-backers are calling for him by name. Will Malzahn now begin to work him into the offense more?

For his part, Frazier isn’t campaigning for playing time. “Whatever Coach Malzahn thinks,” the freshman told Al.com. “He’s going to go in with the guy he has the most trust in, and that’s been Barrett so far. Barrett’s been doing a good job.”

Just not good enough to keep Frazier from becoming a topic of conversation on The Plains.

AU’s Malzahn Ready To Give Dyer More Carries

John — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 19:15:55 +0000

Most of the talk following the end of Auburn’s 17-game win streak has surrounded Ted Roof’s porous defense. But offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn feels he needs to make some changes, too. Namely, he needs to get Mike Dyer even more carries:

“You look at your strengths and you look at what you’re good at, and (Dyer is) playing very good football now. We’re looking at a lot of different things, but that is one of them. He’s one of our strengths. And we definitely need to build upon our strengths.”

Dyer has carried the ball 48 times this season for a total of 358 yards and six touchdowns. That’s an average of 7.5 yards per attempt. He’s also been consistent against BCS competition the last two weeks:

Opponent	Attempts	Yards	Average	Long	TDs
Miss. State	18	150	8.3	52	2
Clemson	16	151	9.4	52	2

Dyer’s 119 yard-per-game average is second only to Marcus Lattimore on the SEC rushing chart and he leads the SEC with four rushes of 30 yards or more.

No wonder Malzahn wants to get him the ball more.

AU’s Jacobs Discusses NCAA Investigation Into “Institutional Control”

John — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:49:31 +0000

The NCAA is continuing to look into Auburn’s athletic department. The goal is to determine if the school has “institutional control.” And Auburn AD Jay Jacobs says that’s perfectly normal.

Speaking yesterday in Hoover, Alabama, Jacobs said that his school has not received a notice of inquiry from sports’ governing body, the first step in an official investigation. He told The Birmingham News that the Cam Newton situation opened the door for the NCAA to start snooping around, but that he’s heard nothing new with regards to Newton in “the last month of so.”

(Everyone jumps to conclusion that that means he DID hear something new on Newton three or four months ago.)

Jacobs believes the NCAA is just doing standard due-diligence work at this point:

“The Cam one is the one that started this entire thing. But the way the process works is once they begin to look at one thing, they look at everything around your program, whether it’s a coach in another sport having too many text messages and you filed a secondary report. The look at all of that.

They’re making sure we have institutional control, and there’s been nothing to indicate to me or to them otherwise. So when you say how many facets, it’s basically everything that may come up in a normal operation of a year — this year, last year or two years from now. They take a look just to make sure they’re not missing anything…

The thing I’ve learned about the NCAA is, I have a lot more respect for them today than I did a year ago. They’re very thorough. They’re professional people. With all these things going on at other institutions, they just want to make sure they get it right. That’s what we want to do. There’s no question that doesn’t justify being asked.”

Those three short statements help explain why we at MrSEC.com always say that any visit from the NCAA is a bad visit. Once investigators arrive on campus, they can look under any and every rock they wish.

In Jacobs’ case, he’d better hope the right stones aren’t overturned. And that goes for any AD who has NCAA sleuths snooping around his campus.

UT’s Hart Says Mega-Expansion Coming; AU’s Gogue Says Tigers Willing To Move East

John — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:39:56 +0000

Expansion continues to be top of mind across the SEC and the country today. Jon Solomon of The Birmingham News caught up with a couple of SEC power-brokers to discuss what the future might hold nationally… and locally.

New Tennessee AD Dave Hart believes it’s time for fans to strap in, because realignment is on the way:

“If it’s A&M or if the Pac-12 moves, somebody is going to push the start button. I can’t predict the timing of it. But it’s potentially coming quicker than people would have imagined a couple yeas ago.

Everybody’s posturing right now, as you can well imagine. They better be. They’ve got to have ducks in a row. They’ve got to play out the contingencies.”

One contingency is that the SEC will expand to the West for the two teams — with Missouri possibly joining Texas A&M — which might force Auburn into the SEC East (where it almost landed when the league initially expanded 19 years ago).

AU president Jay Gogue says his school would be willing to do what’s in he best interest of the conference:

“If that’s what it took, if you ever went to 14 and need to make it work, that wouldn’t be something I would be upset about. I don’t see any real difference. We already play Georgia, a longtime rival.”

Historically speaking, Auburn has played Florida, Georgia and Tennessee more often than it has played Ole Miss, LSU and Arkansas.

But Gogue also said that he does not expect the SEC to make “any real push to get to 14.” That’s a different stance than several other league presidents and ADs.

“We could easily say, ‘Texas A&M, we want you to meet all the schools in the Southeast, so this year you’ll play in the West, next year you play in the East.’ If a 14th came around and everybody was all excited, that would be fine.”

Hayes Takes A Small Shot at Sheridan And Auburn In One Sentence

John — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:13:11 +0000

In his weekly college football recap, Matt Hayes of The Sporting News might’ve penned the line of the day.

As you may or may not know, no one has come down harder on Danny Sheridan for his unproven claims — though he’d take a lie detector test! — of an Auburn bagman than Hayes.

Well, in light of the Tigers’ woeful defensive performance against Utah State on Saturday, Hayes has written this:

“If there really is a bagman, maybe he can come up (with) some dough to find 11 guys who can play defense at Auburn.”

You gotta admit, that’s kind of funny.

Report: Texas Lawmakers About To Get Involved In SEC Expansion

John — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 04:00:14 +0000

According to Orangebloods.com — the Rivals site covering the University of Texas — lawmakers in the Long Star State are on the verge of involving themselves in Expansionpalooza 2011. If they do, that could potentially be bad news for the SEC.

Until late last week, Texas politicians had given Texas A&M a free-pass to exit and head east to the Southeastern Conference. But now legislators are worried that Texas and Texas Tech could bolt from the Big 12 and race west to the Pac-12. Some/many/most politicos in Texas don’t want to see that happen. So…

According to Orangebloods:

“Sources said the reason lawmakers are hot is that they received assurances from the Big 12, including (UT president Bill) Powers, that the Big 12 would survive without Texas A&M.

And because of those assurances, lawmakers did not take an aggressive stand against Texas A&M withdrawing from the Big 12. But that may be changing.

Sources said members of the Legislature are or will be reaching out to Texas A&M president R. Bowen Loftin to tell him the Aggies may no longer have the blessing of lawmakers to leave the Big 12, especially if it looks like the Big 12 will collapse.”

In addition the site claims that Big 12 sources have said there is “an increasing likelihood of litigation” against the SEC.

Good luck to the Big 12 on that front.

The Big Ten began the expansion craze last summer. The Pac-10 then began flirting with Texas and others in an effort to swipe four- to six-teams from the Big 12, which would have extinguished the conference in one push. The Pac-1o was conducting an all-out raid last summer. By comparison, the SEC simply answered a phone call this July.

When the smoke cleared in 2010, Nebraska had left for the Big Ten and Colorado had departed for the Pac-12 (as it’s now called).

Unless the judge overseeing such a silly case attended Baylor, the Big 12 would have a hard time convincing any sane person that it was actually the third school out the door that destabilized the league. Especially when Oklahoma president David Boren has been making comments like this to the press:

“The Big 12 is not the same Big 12. I was extremely disappointed when Nebraska departed. Disappointed when Colorado departed.”

Missouri football coach Gary Pinkel also stated last week:

“Obviously we have some issues in our league… When Nebraska leaves one year, Colorado leaves and then also now Texas A&M. So it’s three real good football teams (that) are leaving.”

Do a Google search and you’ll find countless other Big 12 figures who’ve been publicly stating the obvious — that Nebraska and Colorado exited and hurt the league a full year before A&M started looking for an escape hatch.

But while a tortious interference case would likely be hard to prove, that doesn’t mean such a lawsuit still couldn’t gum up the works for Mike Slive and the Aggies. The mere threat of a lawsuit could cause SEC presidents to slow down out of fear that the person hearing such a case really would be a Baylor grad… angry that his Bears are in danger of being left for dead in this round of realignment. (Nevermind the fact that the Bears left TCU, SMU, Houston and Rice for dead when Baylor jumped to the Big 12 without remorse in the mid-90s.)

Back in 2003, several Big East schools filed suit against the ACC for a raid that netted the Southern league Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech. In 2005, the ACC settled that suit for a grand total of $5 million. Pocket change.

But television contracts have jumped to another level since 2005 and the Big 12 — whoever’s left of the Big 12 — would likely ask for a cool billion of SEC cash. Well, even if there were just a 1% chance of losing that kind of cash, the SEC would need to do some serious risk/reward analyses. Perhaps the league would decide to stand pat and not offer A&M a landing spot. If that were to happen, would the Big 12 then be forced to re-admit a suddenly homeless Texas A&M? Now that would be a happy, long-lasting marriage, to be sure.

Bottom line? This thing isn’t over, folks. In some ways, it may just be getting started.

Oh, boy. Great. ’Cause who wants to talk about football?

UPDATE — Pete Thamel of The New York Times reports that Judith Zaffirini — the chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Committee in Texas — claims the state senate has no intention of getting involved in conference expansion and realignment.

NCAA Nixes Blakely Appeal At Auburn

John — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:43:03 +0000

Tailback Mike Blakely let it be known in July that he would not be able to play for Auburn this season. Gene Chizik, however, said the door wasnt’ completely closed on Blakely.

The 5-9 running back initially signed with Florida in February, had a change of heart, got a full release from Will Muschamp in May, and then transferred to The Plains. He never practiced with the Gators.

But as it turns out, Blakely was right all along. The NCAA has denied Auburn’s appeal and the running back will have to sit out a transfer year… even though he was only on Florida’s roster for a few months.

“He’s going to have a great year this year helping us win,” Gene Chizik said. Chizik was referring to Blakely’s planned role on the Tigers’ scout team.

Auburn Using “Us Against The World” Mentality

John — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:54:29 +0000

Ranked lower than any defending national champion in the last 20 years, Auburn’s football players — no doubt fueled by receivers coach Trooper Taylor — are taking an “us against the world” view of the 2011 campaign.

Now, to be honest, we’d have a much harder time finding one school in the country that doesn’t self-motivate by placing a chip — real or imagined — on its collective shoulder. But in this case, AU’s at least got some numbers to back up their ‘tude.

Defensive end Corey Lemonier might as well have been speaking for the whole Tiger team when he said:

“Everybody’s dogging us. Everybody’s like putting us down. I don’t feel any pressure. We’ve just got to go out there and just show them that we mean business.”

Technically, most teams that lose as much as the Tigers lost this past offseason aren’t likely to be ranked in the national polls at all. So the “everybody’s dogging us” thing isn’t exactly true.

But as has been the case with sports teams for decades, it doesn’t matter what is and isn’t true. All that matters is what the players believe. And on The Plains, the Tigers believe they’re being disrespected.

NCAA Prez Emmert Won’t Close Door On Newton/Auburn Probe

John — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:31:44 +0000

At the SEC spring meetings, Gene Chizik was told by NCAA top cop Julie Roe-Lach that the investigation into Cam Newton’s recruitment was still alive.

Today, NCAA president Mark Emmert refused to close the door on the investigation when given a chance by nationally-syndicated radio host Dan Patrick:

“We don’t talk about investigations, but when they’re closed, they’re closed. They will continue to look at anything they have available in any of these situations until they’ve reached a conclusion that there’s nothing more to discover in any of these cases.”

When Patrick suggested that he could then assume the investigation was still open because he hadn’t heard anyone say it was closed, Emmert said: “You can make your assumptions. That’s fine.”

No One’s Showing A Lack Of Respect For Auburn

John — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:49:07 +0000

Boy, there’s one storyline that’s already getting old when it comes to the 2011 SEC season. As ESPN put it today: “Historic lack of respect for Auburn in polls.”

Ugh.

Chris Low does a great job and he’s certainly not alone in suggesting AU is getting cold-shouldered by pollsters — you can bet Gene Chizik and his aides are making that point to their players, too — but unfortunately that argument just isn’t true.

Sure, Auburn’s #23 ranking in the AP poll marks the first time in 20 years that a defending national champion hasn’t started the following season in the Top 10. The horror.

But let’s look at the facts:

1. You’d be hard-pressed to find another national titlist in that span whose success was so much attributable to one great player. We’re not saying Cam Newton was the whole Auburn team, but how many of those close games would the Tigers have won last year without him? For the record, seven of AU’s 14 wins were by determined by eight points or less.

2. Newton isn’t around this year and the top two guys on the quarterback depth chart aren’t dual-threat guys like Newton (who actually led the SEC in rushing last season). That’s really going to change the way Gus Malzahn calls plays.

3. The Tigers also lost Nick Fairley, their most disruptive, dominant player on the defensive side of the ball.

4. And Auburn lost 16 starters total from last year’s squad. Those 16 slots will be filled — in most cases — by players who have little experience or by true freshmen who have none.

5. Finally, AU’s schedule this season is much tougher than it was a year ago with road trips planned for Clemson, South Carolina, Arkansas, LSU and Georgia. Toss in Mississippi State, Florida and Alabama for good measure at home.

Put Newton or Fairley of half of those lost starters back on Auburn’s squad and they would likely be smack dab in the Top 10. Flip-flop this year’s schedule for last year’s and the Tigers would likely be getting more love from the voters, too.

But as it stands, there haven’t been many national champions in the last 20 years that have been so unproven going into the following season.

And let’s not forget that Texas’ precipitous fall from grace last season (from the BCS championship game to 5-7) is still fresh on pollsters’ minds as well. They now know that the logo on the helmet doesn’t always offset the departure of a gaggle of stars.

We at MrSEC.com expect Auburn coaches, players and fans to talk about how the Plainsmen are being disrespected. By year’s end, they may be proven right.

But in August, looking at that schedule and all the uncertainty in that Tigers’ line-up, AU’s preseason ranking isn’t a story of disrespect. It’s the story of playing the odds. And no one should have to apologize for simply playing the odds.

Auburn Names Trotter Starter At QB

John — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:57:31 +0000

Gene Chizik and Gus Malzahn have made their decision — Barrett Trotter will be the man to replace Cam Newton as Auburn’s starting quarterback. The junior beat out sophomore Clint Moseley and true freshman Kiehl Frazier.

Chizik released the following statement this afternoon:

“Barrett has worked extremely hard to earn the starting quarterback job at Auburn University. I’m very proud of him for the leadership and hard work he has shown not only during camp, but also during his three years at Auburn. Barrett has a great opportunity to represent and lead this football team moving forward. Barrett understands the huge responsibility that comes with being the starting quarterback at Auburn and we are confident in his ability to lead this team.”

Chizik also had praise for Moseley and Frazier.

The Tigers open the season against Utah State. Games versus Mississippi State, at Clemson, and against Florida Atlantic follow before an October stretch features South Carolina, Arkansas, Florida and LSU in consecutive weeks.

It is our belief that if Frazier picks up the offense, his dual-threat ability will lead to his insertion into the Tiger lineup sometime in October.