re: Golding needs to go.

Here’s the problem most of us have with Golding: it’s not that he was dealt a shitty hand to work with. I get that. It was a big handicap, no doubt, having the middle of the defense gutted and playing a bunch of guys that weren’t ready. But therein lies a major part of the problem. They weren’t ready in September which is understandable but they weren’t ready in November either and were making the same damn mistakes with the same damn deer in the headlights look they had in September. Twelve games into the season, your true freshmen who were thrown into the fire too early should have grown up a little and become better players through experience and coaching. But the same ones were making the same mistakes on the same plays 12 games in. Now that points to one of two things: either the coaching ain’t good or the player ain’t good. If it’s the former, you suck at your job, please leave Tuscaloosa. If it’s the latter, someone misevaluated the player or players and that’s also a concern.

Some of you also like to point out how he made adjustments in the second half of the big games that stopped the bleeding mostly. That’s nice, but giving up 33 in the first half to LSU and 31 in the first half to Auburn won’t cut it no matter how much better the second half looked. That points to lack of preparation or poor game planning. Adjusting is admirable but not after the hole is too deep to climb out of. Most can even give him a pass on LSU since that was quite possibly the most prolific offense in modern college football history.

But the Auburn game was just pathetic. Could not get a stop and get off the field when it mattered. He let a mediocre QB in Nix and a mediocre RB in Boobie Whitlow pick us apart to the tune of a 7 yards per carry average for both and no sacks and no interceptions. Gus and his high school offense didn’t run roughshod over Alabama’s defense. They only had 354 yards of total offense. But they exposed the weaknesses in the decision making and play calling by making timely play after timely play in every crucial situation. Gus schooled Golding. They basically played keep away with the football.

The 2 pick 6’s by the offense were critical mistakes, nobody is saying they weren’t. But to say they decided the game is revisionist. With Alabama leading 45-40 in the 4th and a stop probably wins the game, Auburn went on an 11 play 77 yard drive that chewed up 5:36 and scored the winning TD. Because Bama couldn’t get off the field That’s just shameful.