Next year's schedule sets up nicely.

According to Colin Cowherd, the barn beats us again next year.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/12/colin_cowherd_has_message_for.html

"Nick is not great off the rails or against unpredictable coaches," Cowherd said. "He has more trouble with quirky than substantial. He'll go toe to toe with substantial. So I think Malzahn is built to give Nick trouble."

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derek4tide said:

According to Colin Cowherd, the barn beats us again next year.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/12/colin_cowherd_has_message_for.html

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12. Auburn- This will be Saban's payback game. We should have beaten them by 2 TDs easily. Saban will make adjustments and I can guarantee you we won't see a 3 man front like Miizzou used against them.

Maybe he is right, but with CNS's history on revenge games, I'll take our odds.

i agree. the option teams, and especially ones with talented qbs, rbs, are dangerous and hurt our 3, 4, 4 defensive alignment. what to me was the biggest problem was not as much our def line, but, lack of support from the secondary other than collins. we just currently have physical corners to support the run. all season this has been tested. losing sunseri, was a bigger loss than expected by us, the fans. we are use to our def backs coming up and helping plug the gaps. no such thing against auburn. i also think a 5 man line would be effective than any three man line. string the option out to the end zone. i remember, very well the day when my redskins coached by george allen was playing the green bay packers for the nfl title. scott hunter was the qb, and he was knowned for not being a typical nfl passing qb, they had a great rushing attack and decent short passes. that day the skins put up a 5 man rush, and it destroyed the packers, and the redskins won easily.

Anyone know how many starters Auburn and LSU return next year?

Florida's defense is going to be great, as usual. By week 4, you will need to have your o-line playing together or this could be a very tough game.

B1GTide said:

Anyone know how many starters Auburn and LSU return next year?

Florida's defense is going to be great, as usual. By week 4, you will need to have your o-line playing together or this could be a very tough game.

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Not sure about LSU, but read yesterday that Auburn could well have all 11 starters back on offense.

But I defer to others who have a closer pulse on what's going on over there...

B1GTide said:

Anyone know how many starters Auburn and LSU return next year?

Florida's defense is going to be great, as usual. By week 4, you will need to have your o-line playing together or this could be a very tough game.

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Yeah, but with their offensive exodus, we'll only need a safety to win.

The key to beating an Auburn/A&M type team is offense, not defense. Until rules are changed, that kind of offense will always have an advantage over the defense. So, you've got to have a good offense that is aggressive.

Against A&M last year and Auburn this year, how many points did we leave on the field? A&M and Auburn's defenses have always had major weaknesses and we failed to capitalize both times. Both times, our offense was capable of doing enough to win the game and instead they botched scoring opportunities and put the defense back on the field having lost momentum.

While I agree CNS will have to tweak his approach on defense against these teams, I believe it will be far more critical that he adjust his approach on offense.

tftplisa said:

I was thinking about the possible growing pains transitioning to Del Rio or whomever wins the job and looked ahead to see how early we'd be tested.
This definitely gives us time to have competition or play Sims/QB to be named later and get our feet under us.
1. West Virginia- can win easily with not much threat of a pass
2. Florida Atlantic-see above
3. Southern Miss- pathetic after Ellis Johnson ruined them
4. Florida- I doubt they recover too quickly but Auburn showed miracles can happen
5. Ole Miss- I think this is our first test away from home but by now hopefully we have found a QB and he has some confidence.
6. Arkansas- shouldn't be much of a problem
7. aTm- No Manziel or Evans....I like our chances
8. Tennessee- no threat yet.
9. LSU- at Baton Rouge. This is our toughest game to date. No Mettenberger will help.
10. Miss State- can be tough after LSU.
11. Western Carolina- no comment
12. Auburn- This will be Saban's payback game. We should have beaten them by 2 TDs easily. Saban will make adjustments and I can guarantee you we won't see a 3 man front like Miizzou used against them.
It'll be another great year. I hope we leave New Orleans and the Sugar Bowl with good momentum.

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I don't know about number 4, It isn't like they don't have talent. This year their team was on IR list the whole season.

1. West Virginia-Close early with a new QB, but we pull away after the half. (1-0)

2. Florida Atlantic-Simple here. (2-0)

3. Southern Miss-This is not the USM of past. (3-0)

4. Florida-Just a bad team with a mass exodus. Could be close though with our new QB still finding a groove in his first SEC game. (4-0)

5. Ole Miss-This could be our first problem. The defense will have to keep us in it, another shut out and we have no issues. My Crimson glasses tell me this should be a win, but reality says a toss up until we actually see how each team plays.

6. Arkansas-Beliema (sp?) is still a few years away. This at least gives us win #5. (5-0, 2-0) *without OM game

7. aTm-I agree no Evans and JF means easy win even with their fast offense. The kid behind JF is NOT a gamer like him. (6-0, 3-0)

8. Tennessee-They could be tough early on as the new recruits could make some noise, but no way they hang yet. Still a few years away like Arkansas. (7-0, 4-0)

9. LSU-At Baton Rouge, a QB situation that could be tricky and that spells trouble. Luckily though they are breaking in a new QB as well. I still call it a toss up just to be on the safe side.

10. Miss State-It's well known we play horrible after LSU. If Dak Prescott is healthy throughout the year I actually think this could be a sneaky team. I still think our depth might be too much though. (8-0, 5-0)

11. Western Carolina-Should I even type here? (9-0)

12. Auburn-To me as much as I hate to say it will be a tough game yet again. They probably return a good bit, but I'm almost certain Tre Mason goes pro while he is hot. If not, he is crazy. I call another toss up.

So I have us at 9 wins at WORST, maybe even 8. But there is NO WAY we go 0-3 in the toss up games. At worst I see us going 2-1 in the toss up games, so to be on the safe side we are at least 10-2 to 11-1 again. Not bad considering we are breaking in a new QB and probably new linemen as well.

derek4tide said:

According to Colin Cowherd, the barn beats us again next year.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/12/colin_cowherd_has_message_for.html

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Cowherd is a blowhard. He fails to mention that if not for missed field goals, one missed assignment and a dropped Cooper TD, Auburn would not have even been close to Alabama in the Iron Bowl. But they win on a play that has only occurred 4 times in the history of college football and suddenly Alabama is destined to lose frequently to Auburn in the coming years.

Give me a break.

Rush said:

Not sure about LSU, but read yesterday that Auburn could well have all 11 starters back on offense.

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Yep. Tre Mason and Greg Robinson are the only two offensive starts being mentioned as possible early departures.

LSU loses Mett obviously. Jeremy Hill is most likely gone to the NFL. OD3 and Landry are gone, too.

If Auburn wins a championship, look for more to leave early. Face it, not a whole lot of guys are there because it was their first choice to begin with, if they play well in a championship game, and win a championship, it would be a good time to get out of town. Auburn took a big fall last time after their championship, and there's no way to insure that it doesn't happen again.

As far as their offense, it's not magic. They rely on missed tackles, and the defenders being out of position. I don't see how their offense, which relies on misdirection and the like, can be as effective next year. Even Texas A&M, which had a fairly sound offensive attack, and a lot of reasons to need to do more this year (no defense), averaged less points than last year. I think Auburn will be good next year, they're returning too many players not to, but I do expect teams to do a better job of figuring them out.

The Barn's offense is getting away with uncalled penalties. Specifically, on the play that tied the game, the left side of the offensive line was 5 yards down field when the ball was thrown. That should be the key for our DB's to release coverage and come up in run support. The play was not flagged. There is no defense that can stop this "triple option" if the refs don't flag for and illegal man down field.

I suspect this will be pointed out before the NC game and I expect the boogs to get their hats handed to them.

As far as next year, the only way the barn game is close is if we are deficient at the QB position. With as much talent as we have recruited at QB, surely someone will develop between now and then.

Auburn will not sneak up on anyone next year. They will START the year with pressure. They had a free ride until they beat aTm because nobody considered them a threat. The pressure playing us completely different. It is nearly impossible to go wire-to-wire at number one, and while they may not start at one, they'll be in the top ten.

If I'm not mistaken, only 1999 FSU has started the year at one and gone unbeaten since 1950. Look at how poorly K-State and Oregon played last year once they were 1 and 2. I told folks aTm would lose four games this year and folks laughed because one look at the schedule showed only two real tests.

They lost four. Auburn will lose at least 3 games next year based on the pressure. As far as Colin, he don't believe that. He was competing with Slimebaum to stir the crap.

bamachile said:

Yeah, but with their offensive exodus, we'll only need a safety to win.

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Not so fast, my friend...After watching them play a couple times this season, they may actually improve by losing all their offensive players.

Go Bama said:

The Barn's offense is getting away with uncalled penalties. Specifically, on the play that tied the game, the left side of the offensive line was 5 yards down field when the ball was thrown. That should be the key for our DB's to release coverage and come up in run support. The play was not flagged. There is no defense that can stop this "triple option" if the refs don't flag for and illegal man down field.

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Don't know if this was mentioned in the IP postmortem, but CNS brought this up in his post game remarks. He said plays like that are almost impossible to defend against, and it is something that needs to be addressed.

Gus isn't a genius, unless by genius you mean someone that takes advantage of refs being out of position, and not able to keep pace with the speed of the game.

I think that is why a lot of teams run HUNH, the refs are so concerned with getting the ball spotted, the chains moved, etc. that they miss a ton of calls because of it. You can almost count on two hands how many are missed in a barn and/or oregon game alone.

And on Cowherd, he just got done playing Phyllis from Mulga on ESPN. That is the ONLY reason he went on Finebum, to try and take a shot at Bama and get folks riled up so he can make us Southerners look bad.