A&M Preview-Hullabaloo Caneck,Caneck

I have to admit, I have always been a fan of the the Texas Aggies, so when I heard they were coming to the SEC, I was excited.

A&M is a great place, if you have never been there. It is a lot like Auburn, just bigger with less trees. They also have a group of guys called the Corps. They walk around campus in their uniforms and kind of look like Niedermeyer fro Animal House.



Texas Governor and former presidential primary punch line Rick Perry is former Corps. The other students on campus call them the "Corps Turds"**

A&M has a rich history a great traditions, none better than going to visit prostitutes after beating Texas.



Check out thos dance moves! Johnny Manziel is going to be really hard to tackle if he can pirouette like those guys. For the record, I would question any man that can dance like that actually wanting to visit a whorehouse, but I digress.

There are three things Auburn needs to do to win this game.

1. Contain Manziel- He's a dual threat, so he will be tough to defend. The Aggies will also give the ball away, so creating a turnover or two will be critical.

2. Run the ball...at them-Auburn has really never tried the power running route and stayed with it. I've said this till I'm blue in the face. I don't really see it happening. I have no faith in Scott Loeffler. I've said that till I'm blue in the face as well.

3. I can't remember the third thing.

Auburn 13
Aggies 27

**I thank my Texan college buddies Paul and Derek for educating me on Aggie rituals.

Vanderbilt Review (AU 13 Vandy 17)

I hope you've long ago stopped swinging by this site looking for a silver lining. It doesn't take a James Spann forecast to identify the colossal dark clouds hovering over Auburn athletics, the torrential downpour of discouragement, dejection, despondency we've endured, and the immense need for gale force like winds to usher in transformation.

The product on the football field Saturday in Nashville sunk to a new low, replacing the team I played on in 1998 as the worst Auburn team in memory. For many, that realization had long ago occurred. For me, I saw too much talent in 2012 to reduced these guys to 1998 level. I expected the light to come on at some point this season. Amazingly, they blew right past us Saturday. Not only is the light not on...there's no electricity.

Like Zack said below, we've written the same review every week. What's left to say? What positives can come from dropping to 1-6, extending the longest losing streak in conference play to seven. And the way we've lost them...blown out by UGA, destroyed by Alabama, don't show up against State, tremendous battle versus top 5 LSU, embarrassed by Arkansas, blown out by Ole Miss, perennial cellar dweller Vandy outcompetes. How can this be acceptable? How can this even happen? It's everything Auburn football should never be...passionless, aloof, hopeless, appalling. As I walked out of Vanderbilt Stadium Saturday, even a Vandy fans said the following..."Chizik is toast, no? You can't lose to us and keep your job at Auburn can you?" His theory will be tested and we shall see.

I feel sick for the players. They play for coaches that make an insane amount of money given the task to put these guys in the best possible position to be successful. With this task they have failed miserably this season. Too many times we can't not only get our best players the football, we can't get them on the football field. It's one thing to recruit great players to Auburn. It's quite another to keep them there and to make them better than they were when they arrived. I believe one hand would be sufficient to count the number of players that have consistently elevated their game and grown as football players since their arrival. In fact one hand may leave plenty of room. That's a major problem.

This team has zero confidence and minimal true playmakers. We're quarterback challenged and woefully underwhelming at defensive line. Non-opportunistic defensively and penalty-laden at the worst possible times. Void of leaders and an offensive pulse with playcalling painful to watch. We can't stop the rush, we can't stretch the football field vertically. We can't score touchdowns in the red zone and we can't stop teams from scoring when we finally do. We look helpless, clueless, defeated as a staff.

And I commend the Auburn supporters for making the trip to Nashville. There were more Auburn fans than Vandy, and for a group struggling as mightily as our team, that speaks volumes about the passion of this fan base. Someday soon however, this program must give us something to be passionate about, other than the need for wholesale change. With the trajectory of this program regrettably, that would likely unite us all.

Dr. Z's Vandy Reax: Whipped by Nerds

The speech I would have given after the game.

Saturday we saw a team with much less talent come out and take it to an Auburn team with 4 and 5 star players. That speaks volumes.

We are looking at the worst Auburn football team in modern history folks, including the Barfield era.

Gene Chizik, only one and one half years after guiding Auburn to a national title, has guided this proud program off a cliff. What I saw on Saturday was a team with no confidence, no will to fight, no rudder.

We saw silly mistakes in the special teams again destroy field position.

We saw a defense that lapsed and the beginning of both halves, giving up touchdowns that made the difference in the game.

We saw an offense so misdirected that it made us laugh, to keep from crying.

It gets harder every week to write about this disaster. I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Over and over, it's the same damn day.

Great column from a guy you might know

Rob wrote a really good column yesterday for the Auburn rivals site yesterday. It's worth the read, and it gives us a nice history lesson about how it affects how players and how they react in the years to come.

Check it out here.

Dr. Z's Vandy Forecast: Revenge on the Nerds

So can we look at this as a revenge game?

If we think back to 2008, the Vanderbilt game solidified all the worries that we Auburn fans had about the Franklin experiment. Auburn lost to a middling Vandy team 14-13, scoring no points in the second half, dooming the rest of the season. Franklin was out the door a few days later. Tubs followed along with the rest of the staff in a couple months.

So let's hope against hope that we can get the ship righted against Vanderbilt, the nerds of the SEC.

If your're headed up to the game, enjoy the great city of Nashville, though its reputation is being muddied by the god awful ABC television show my wife made me watch the other night. It stars the wife from Friday Night Lights (movie and TV show) and one of the stand-up comics from Who's line is it anyway. It pretty much sucked. I'm talking Auburn vs Arkansas 2012 sucked, so hopefully my wife will forget it's on next week.

Anyway, as for the game, Auburn needs to forget the first 6 games. It's a 6 game season now. Go 5-1, we get to go bowling. Is that possible? Not very. But for the moment, let's be optimistic. After last week's scathing preview and review by horrible doomsday Auburn bloggers like me, let's pump some sunshine.

I believe this week we run the ball consistently. I believe the defense plays with a chip on its shoulder after getting gashed in the run game last week. I believe Coach Chizik threatened to beat Scott Loeffler with a folding chair if he runs a speed sweep into the boundary again.

I said last week, if things continue in this awful direction that Gene Chizik needs to be shown the door. I'm not saying that I want that to happen.

Auburn exorcises some demons this week.

Auburn 24
NERDS! 20

Vanderbilt Preview

What is there to say at this point? We control the market on putrid offensive statistics. Name an offensive category...we're in the bottom ten in the nation. Combine that with the single worst turnover ratio I've ever seen, at any level, any time in my life. It's a precise mathematical formula yielding no surprises, rather exactly what we'd expect: Terrible Offense + Turnover Kings = 1-5...and 8 point dogs to Vanderbilt.

We've seen a lack of leadership, play-making ability, urgency, fight, adjustments, attacking. We've seen guys we thought would loom large play minuscule roles, guys we thought would live up to their billing fail to arrive, players we expected to take over the reigns look timid and confused, guys make tremendously athletic plays only to be unseen/little used the rest of the game. Schemes we thought would suit our players executed poorly, mental errors mount continually placing our football team in untenable positions. Players question effort, coaches question themselves, starters benched, true freshmen elevate to starting positions, fans split on the direction of the program, former coaches call our manhood into question. It's been a disaster by nearly every measure.

Even so, I still can't fathom consecutive trips to Nashville resulting in losses. Every player on Auburn's squad could have gone to Vanderbilt. Very few on Vanderbilt's squad could say the same about Auburn. I have seen this Auburn team operate in a foolish, self-inflicted, poorly executed manner, but I haven't seen them quit. I can't say this staff has lost this team. But, with a loss to Vanderbilt...I'd have to rethink my position.

Vanderbilt will be hungry and they are a capable football team. In fact, there's not a game on their schedule that's not winnable for them...perhaps they'll be favored in the rest. Regardless, there's no reason Auburn should be losing football games to Vanderbilt...period. No matter how down a year we're having. No matter if we play true freshmen at every position. Auburn should always be better than Vanderbilt. And it's time for Auburn to grow up and start acting like Auburn. I'm ready to see a defense play with scary intensity, with a nasty demeanor. Forget about making mistakes and just go run to the football and bring hell with you when you arrive. That's the gameplan. Just beat the guy in front of you. Offensively, it's about time we see a QB that looks the part, a guy competent and willing to sacrifice his body for the team. A guy his team can count on. A guy that will lead. You don't even have to complete many passes. I don't care. Just throw the football away and don't throw it to the opposite colored jersey. You take care of the football and we have a chance to win football games. I'm ready to see a coaching staff ride the hot hand. If a WR makes a big play, reward him with another opportunity...don't substitute for him. If a we're running it down their throats, don't start running it sideways. If it's fourth one...show the offense your confident, you believe in them...make calls that are obvious to your team you came to win...not to keep things close for 3 quarters.

We're all pissed, frustrated, and embarrassed by the first half of this season. I assure you no one is more upset than the guys wearing the jerseys. The devotion it takes to just don the jersey is beyond explanation...most of you wouldn't want or allow your children to be pushed to those extremes. Kids come to school at Auburn because of they way Auburn makes them feel...supported, loved, united, passionate, devoted, important. Not a single guy ever thought it possible to struggle as much as this team has during their Auburn careers. Make them remember and forever appreciate your level of support in the lean years. Reward their effort with unwavering support regardless of the outcome. You can scold them, yell at them through your TV, abhor them, pray for their early graduation...but on Saturdays...you love them...you appreciate them...you root for them, even when they make doing so nearly impossible. I remember those days well, in fact I treasure those days.

I hope we win Saturday...I hope we compete four quarters and play mistake free football. For the players, I hope they get to taste the satisfaction of winning on the road. For the fan base, I hope we remember what makes Auburn so special.

AU-23
Vandy-17

Dr. Z's Ole Miss Review- A Sinking Ship

Not much to say as far as I am concerned about what we saw Saturday. Except to say I think Gene Chizik is a dead man walking.

I've seen my share of not so good Auburn teams. There were the early nineties at the end of Pat Dye's tenure, the 98 squad we've mentioned, Tuberville's 2008 debacle, but none, and I mean none match this 2012 catastrophe. How a team with so much talent can be so rudderless is beyond me.

Our only choice now is to clean house. Jay Jacobs must be the first to go. He brought in Chizik, and his other hires as an A.D. have been just as bad. We haven't even sniffed mediocrity in basketball, and the baseball program continues to underachieve.

Jacobs is the brains behind this mess. His head needs to roll first.

As much respect as I have for Pat Dye, he needs to be excommunicated from the program as well. I have no clue whom he thinks he is helping by going on radio shows trumpeting the bonafides of Gene Chizik. Talk about fiddling as Rome burns. Dye should have no comment from this point further and forever more. Does he not know that his reputation is tarnished every time he opens his mouth in regard to the current state of Auburn football? Coach Dye, do us all a favor and stop it. Let us remember you for what you did for our program in the 80's, not what you say about our program present day.

I will continue to support this team. I will continue to love and respect my Alma mater, but I see no way forward with Gene Chizik and the current coaching staff at Auburn University.