TigerTime Burrito

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but I do feel sorry for some of the smaller 5A schools who will now have to play in area/regions with schools twice their size.

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This and the additional travel (and the cost of the travel) many schools are now looking at, public and private. I haven't looked at all classes, but there are some rough 5A regions where (as your mention), schools are having to compete against much larger schools. At the extreme, the difference can be double the size. These smaller schools are going to take scheduled beatings against teams they really should not be playing.

Having a PG would help this team tremendously. But they could help themselves by running some damn offense. They rarely do anything on or off ball to get the defense moving, making them extremely easy to guard. I'm honestly not sure what their offense is other than to isolate Hall on someone, or maybe something simple off a screen.

This is obviously not last year's team. Last year's team ran offense. Weave action out top to get desired switches. Basic shite like feeding the post to find a shooter. Where are the classic Pearl pin down screens and flex cuts? We are depending too much on the pure athleticism of the players this year, which fails when shots aren't falling. It's both lazy and bad coaching. Teams like Duke with the best athletes in the country run offense.

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Deuce to Ole Miss probably

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I hope so at this point. I am not in favor of paying Deuce over 1Mil to be a backup, then just having him leave at the end of the season. Because, let's face it, that's exactly what's going to happen. All of his actions have showed he is just chasing the biggest number. Auburn would be getting played if they were the team offering it. We were in a position to choose Brown or Duece and the correct decision was made. No it's time to LET DUECE WALK! Unless he is willing to stick around for $500K or something like that, then maybe.

In this current environment, I am also not in favor of even recruiting higher-tier highschool QBs, with corresponding high NIL prices. It's wasted money that should go to more pressing needs.

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Freeze had a top ten roster. They had no heart. No pride. No motivation to perform. No discipline. No accountability.

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I continue to be baffled by the Freeze era of Auburn Football. His offense sucked in every possible way - play calling, scheme, game day execution, you name it.... He did not instill a winning culture when he knew there was no existing leadership returning. He failed miserably on QB evaluation and development. He does have some history at doing SOME things, so why was he so inept here with all the tools to succeed? Even the haters have to admit, this was a crazy result.

But to OP's point.. This offense can work and possibly thrive with 'system' pieces at all the skill positions. So maybe we can be successful with lower rated players there.

This team will never be good on defense. It has actually improved some over the season, but high level offense/oriented teams are going to make us look silly. Overton gives effort but routinely gets beat physically. Hall is seemingly out of position half the time. Note whenever there is a free run at the basket or swing pass to an open shooter, its usually Hall trying to recover to that spot.

After the NC State game, Pearl talked about the high ball pressure and our guard's inability to handle it. His take was that we actually want that pressure as we should be able to break it with a simple pass, playing 4 on 3 at the basket. Well, we struggled with it again against Arizona. Tonight's strategy was for Pet to dribble around it. We don't have the ball handlers this year to deal with ball pressure and the result is that we are not running ANY offense. The shot selection is terrible, taking mostly jacked up 3s and low % 2s. Even Murphy doesn't get many high % 2s as he doesn't take the ball to rim strong. Does he know how to dunk?

This team will win some SEC games with streaky shooting and hopefully some home court help, but I think it will be a struggle to get to .500 in the league and questionable to make the tournament without some heavy coaching and improvement at many levels.

A couple of random thoughts from watching the game live...

- I was expecting more from Murphy. They only ran a couple of plays for him, but he does not look comfortable with the ball. When he had other opportunities (flow of the game, or put backs, etc...), he did not go up strong except for the dunk at the end of the game. He's an adequate defender and rebounder and we badly need him on the floor because ->

- I'm not sure how much Jovic can contribute. He's a below average rebounder, extremely weak with the ball, and makes bad decisions (boneheaded turnovers, bad fouls, lane violation, etc..). It forced Hall into action playing the 5 on Defense late in the game (who looked lost a couple of times), resulting in some easy points for Houston

- Defense plays with intensity but just flat out blows many possessions. Houston had 5+/- undefended wide open 3 Point shots, and 5+ break away lay-ups/dunks either down the middle or from the baseline with no back side rotation. There were several times when the back side defender was guarding both the driving ball handler and a shooter sitting in the corner (impossible). We were not expecting this team to be great on D, but hopefully it can come around. Too many free uncontested points given up tonight.

Also many, many positives.. But would like to see Murphy be more assertive. I'm not holding my breath for any production out of Jovic, but maybe he can develop this year, as we badly need some minutes from him.

It may be nitpicking, but it always seemed strange that Riley left Oklahoma just prior to coming into the SEC. Like he didn't want the heat. Now he finds himself unexpectedly in the Big-10, and with a 7-2 record with somehow no big wins and a coming off of a 7-6 and 8-5 seasons. I don't know what to think.

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Jackson was pristine for 29 minutes against Georgia. He has the can-do.

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I would describe Arnold's history more of one not doing it, and his resume grows every week.

Every game counts, but there is 1 game on the schedule every year where you are throwing everything you have into it. Extra game planning, some special or different plays saved up for this game, etc. Bye week to prepare, huge recruiting weekend, coming back off the road, and night game at JH to boot (bonus). UGA was this year's game and that helped Arnold looked more competent than usual in the first half. Then UGA made some adjustments at half time (took the perimeter stuff away, etc...), and it all reverted to what we have seen all year. If he can't snap the ball and throw to 1 pre-determined spot, something bad is going to happen. Freeze isn't helping, but Arnold just doesn't have the capacity to help himself. He certainly isn't winning any SEC games for Auburn (would have been 0-5).

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Couple that with Jackson not being about to see the field and you’re seeing the discombobulation on the field.

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This is one of many problems, but a significant one. On every pass play, I pray Arnold throws to his first option quickly, even if it's just heaving it up to a receiver without making any reads. These at least have a chance of an on-time completion. Otherwise, he basically just holds the ball until the protection breaks down, or he may run out of a still clean'ish pocket because he gets antsy. But for whatever reason, Arnold either cannot see the field or get's paralyzed and cannot cut the ball loose. I personally think he's toast and we should use these 2 weeks the get the next man up ready to play. I do not think we can win with Arnold.

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The in stadium experience needs to be more than a hot aluminum bench and piped in music.

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Old man rant engage: The stadium sound experience is a reason I go to less games. The incessant artificial sound is too loud, fills in every empty moment, plays over the band! It's just too much. I miss the days when the stadium would gradually build to a roar without being told to 'get loud', the booming voice of the stadium announcer giving down and distance, just a chance to enjoy the scenery and ambiance of the stadium while hearing the sounds of the game.

I went to a high school playoff game in Tuscaloosa in the early 2000s? and they were playing sound and music between every play, and it was a terrible experience. They were evidently just further down this road than Auburn at that time.

Rebounding!

I was really encouraged by Broome's rebounding in both Atlanta games. I hope he's ready to go on Saturday. Cardwell was outstanding. Chaney was good for the most part, but he also had some plays where he didn't tag his guy and gave up a few rebounds that should have been his. UF is relentless and it will take everybody doing everything right to secure those defensive rebounds.