Will Auburn really do what they did last year? Who else might?

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Four games they pulled out of their butts with back-to-back all-timer miracle finishes

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@MSU L
SC L
@OM L
A&M L
@UGA L
cupcake W
@Bama. L

Well if they can do it, why not us?

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Am I the only one who doesn't think Auburn repeats what they did last year?

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Yes...you and only you. First time it's been brought up even.

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Does anyone not remember:

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Well, considering some Alabama posters bring it up in every Auburn thread, I think we all remember.

However, onto your great thread...

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Four games they pulled out of their butts with back-to-back all-timer miracle finishes
Blowout loss to LSU
Very tight game against Wazzou?

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Yeah, I mean it's almost like last year was the first season under a completely new coaching staff with a team that won a total of three games the year before, right? Crazy!!! You'd think a team that didn't just fire their coach and win zero SEC games less than 12 months earlier would have blown the doors off of Wazzou, Texas AM, MSU, etc.

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Auburn seems to blow up once every four years or so but not maintain it over a long period.

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So you're, what, seven years old?

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SEC DCs will be preparing for their offense in the offseason with a year of tape.

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Never gets old. I guess the high school offense won't work in the SEC throw away line isn't applicable anymore, huh?

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They had a favorable schedule last year, drawing Tenn from the East and getting UGA and Bama at home. But, then it gets real interesting, with:

@MSU
SC
@OM
A&M
@UGA
cupcake
@Bama.

Every game but the cupcake (Samford) is highly losable. Pay particular attention to that game at MSU next year, which is the game after LSU.

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Amazing how the party line changes after the season ends, huh? Last years schedule was supposed to be tough for a 3-9 team with 7 SEC games in 9 weeks with trips to Baton Rouge, College Station, Fayetteville, & Knoxville.

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I see Auburn having a year similar to Texas A&M last year, 8-4 kind of thing.

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Good for you.

The thing I find amusing, would be if Auburn went 8-4 last year under first year HC after the train wreck that was 2012, I think most people would consider that a great rebuilding year and peg Auburn as being a better all-around team than 2013 with the amount of returning starters. You know, that whole "2nd year under the new HC is when you really see a difference" thing. Now the team is going to be worse because of all the high paid DCs finally having a year of Gus Malzahn's film and the loss of Dee Ford.

I hate it, but Auburn is the big man on campus this year....

ESPN can pimp MSU till the cow bells come home and I wont bite that hook.

UGA will have a much steeper hill to climb this year too.
Doable but it will take a momentous effort.

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But, it seems that Auburn is really being considered one of the elite teams of 2014, with the likes of teams like Alabama, Mich. St., Oregon, Stanford, FSU, etc. and that seems absurd to me.

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Why is that absurd? The team that lost the NC game with 13 seconds left, that returns most of it's two deep isn't going to be right back in it?

Was this a team that was coming off a winless SEC schedule the previous year and had an entirely new coaching staff and a QB that didn't arrive on campus until August? Yes. Did we win some close games last year? Yes. Were we lucky at the end against uga? Yes. Say what you will about the Iron Bowl, but we went toe to toe with bama for the entire game, and just out executed them on the last play.

The fact that they were able to play like they were, and improve from game to game, as the year went on just shows A. what kind of coaching staff we have to be able to get that kind of resolve and attitude reversal out of the team and B. that the team has more talent in place that the coaching staff can take advantage of than people give us credit for, I think.

Some of the key factors this year is that our OL, imo, will be better than it was last year, even without Robinson. We had 2 RFr starting on the OL last year, and Robinson was only in his second year of playing after a Redshirt year. Dismukes and Slade were the only real upper classmen and Slade is the weakest OL of the bunch. They were one of the best OL units in the country last year and they'll only be better this year and most likely Shon Coleman will fill in at LT to compliment that. Marshall having a full offseason to work will be huge for him. We're loaded at skill positions on offense, so as long as his passing improves by just a few % points, that should open up the run game even more. It's almost a given that our main RB will have 1000 yards, and if Marshall repeats with that, Malzahn will have his 13th 1000 yard rusher since he's been a college coach.

On defense, we'll have a deep DL, with 5 seniors. Lawson, Adams and Daniel are all coming into their second year. We should be able to comfortably rotate 8-10 guys on the DL every game and not really lose much with who's out there. We'll be pretty flexible too, as we're probably going to play a jumbo package with guys like Gabe Wright and Montravious Adams moving out to DE at times. LB is addition by subtraction with Jake Holland gone. The only reason he played was because he knew the defense better than anyone else and could make play calls on the field. Cassanova McKinzey is moving back inside, where he should have been playing, and Frost to the outside where he should have been playing. Justin Garrett and Therezie will be a very good rotation at Star. There are a few question marks in the secondary, but the addition of juco transfer Moncrief at safety will be a huge help in run stopping, and having Josh Holsey back from a knee injury will help at both corner and safety, because he can play both. We made so many big stops last year when we had to. We've got to work on giving up less points, but there were some pretty dynamic QB's we went up against last year that aren't around this year.

I see both sides of the ball improving this year. Whether that means we make the playoff, I don't know, but we should be right in the thick of the race all year. The attitude is different. The S&C is different(i.e. better). And I think frankly, the talent is different. We've pulling in guys like Carl Lawson, Montravious Adams, Dhaquille Williams, etc that we've really never gotten before. We've gotten our share of highly ranked guys in the past, but not as many as we've gotten in the past few years.

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Am I the only one who doesn't think Auburn repeats what they did last year?

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I believe so.

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Blowout loss to LSU

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That was before their offense got going VS W. Carolina. After that point there was a huge difference in that team.

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Speaking of MSU, I see Mississippi State being this year's Auburn.

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Let me know when they come anywhere close to as talented as Auburn.

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Yes, I know, tl;dr. But, it seems that Auburn is really being considered one of the elite teams of 2014, with the likes of teams like Alabama, Mich. St., Oregon, Stanford, FSU, etc. and that seems absurd to me.

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Why? Did you see an offense even close to as good as Auburn's?

I could see AU losing 2-3 this year simply because they have a tough schedule and they will be the hunted instead of the hunter this year. They will be circled on more than one SEC schedule. Plus they have to go to UGA and Bama without Cam.


They sure seemed lucky in some of the games in 2013 but that viewpoint was shaped by how utterly shitty they were the year before last. They were in every game they played last year, exception LSU. Chips just may not fall their way a couple of times this year. They'll still be hell on SEC d's.