re: Golding needs to go.

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I really do believe our defense will be significantly better when dudes playing are. Seriously.

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welp, theres only one way to find out. let the countdown continue

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.

Alright - I think the Golding back and forth has reached max capacity.

All in favor of anchoring both the Golding threads?

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November either and were making the same damn mistakes with the same damn deer in the headlights look they had in September.


I do not agree with this assessment. I do not think they looked like "deer in headlights" at all in November. I think our Dline was getting manhandled.

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I don't know so much about the whole "deer in the headlights" thing, but as I mentioned earlier, the substitution penalty that wiped out an interception on LSU's second drive was the second time this season an INT had been wiped out by a substitution penalty. There's no excuse for that happening in November, and IMO is all on Golding. That INT would have given us good field position to go down and possibly tie the game.

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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.

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I think that you are overlooking a big factor here.

Our schedule was so weak before the LSU game that our young players hadn't even really been seriously tested until that point. Mistakes were made later in the season because our toughest competition was later in the season. When you play bad to mediocre teams for the first 8 games, and then play one of the greatest offense ever, then your weaknesses are going to be exposed much more.

The AU offense was about on par with most of the rest of the season, but they certainly didn't dominate our defense. They had about 2 good drives against our defense. The others were really short drives on great field position that ended in long field goals.

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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.

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33 points to LSU, with most of those points being put on a silver platter by our offense.
and our defense did not give up 31 points to AU in the first half.

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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.

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Gus has done that to Kirby, and Pruitt before. Why do they get a pass, and Golding doesn't?

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They basically played keep away with the football.

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what?

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. That’s nice, but giving up 33 in the first half to LSU

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Defense only gave up 23 of those points really. LSU had 3 drives that were pretty big in the 1st half, the rest were basically gifts from the offense.

3 pts off the punter fumbling the snap. And then 7 points off the QB throwing an interception with 15 seconds left in the half rather than just getting out of the half. Made worse by Dickerson getting a personal foul on the return.

23 pts in a half isn't really good. However, it's better than any playoff team did and they weren't struggling with injuries and inexperience.

I was surprised when an Auburn offensive lineman stated before last years game, that they believed they could do what ever they wanted against the Tide. He was right. That was one of the strangest games I have ever seen, both our offense against their defense and vice versa. The best Bama defenses under Saban were when Pruitt was on staff in some capacity including DC.