Malzahn must fix it or leave Auburn … and other post-Irma thoughts on the SEC
By Corey Long
Published:
After being cooped up in a condo without power in St. Petersburg, Fla., after Hurricane Irma I am proud to say “thank you mom and dad” for getting power on Tuesday morning and letting me crash Tuesday night.
While hiding out from Irma, I was actually able to enjoy most of the college football slate Saturday, especially the lackluster performance Auburn put together against Clemson in a 14-6 loss. Once again the Tigers defense (both teams) were up to the task and it was a physical battle. And once again Auburn’s offense threw up a dud and showed little, if any aggression, when the opportunity presented itself.
When Auburn signed Jarrett Stidham out of junior college, he was supposed to be the difference-maker and give the Tigers the downfield passing threat they needed to support their power running game. Stidham showed at Baylor he can wing it, but right now he’s a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. He’s not mobile enough to be the playmaker type of quarterback that head coach Gus Malzahn has had previous success with.
But as frustrating as the 11 sacks the Tigers allowed were, the failures to be aggressive and unforced errors should be inexcusable. On Auburn’s first drive it marched down the field to a 1st-and-goal at the 4 … and then took the ball out of Stidham’s hands.
Kam Pettway took the first two carries for gains of 2 and 1, respectively, to set up a 3rd-and-goal. With Clemson totally selling out on a third power run, Auburn had a golden opportunity to keep the ball in Stidham’s hands on a play action or a rollout or something other than watching Chandler Cox get stuffed at the 1. The Tigers were setting up to go for the fourth down but a false start moved them 5 yards back and they settled for a field goal.
At the end of the first quarter Auburn had a shot to go for the throat after recovering a fumble at the Clemson 11. Auburn needed a touchdown. It needed to end the quarter with a 10-point lead and put doubt in Clemson’s mind.
Instead of going for the end zone on first down, Auburn stuck with the run and netted six yards on two carries before Stidham, now facing 3rd-and-4 from the Clemson 5, was put in a passing situation and subsequently sacked. Auburn settled for another field goal.
Even though the Tigers were up 6-0, Malzahn might as well have been waving the white flag. One could have predicted what came next. Auburn had two first downs on its final three possessions of the half.
On 3rd-and-8, Stidham completed a pass for 4, on 3rd-and-10, Stidham completed a pass for 5.
https://twitter.com/WIL71/status/906689009182638080
Auburn didn’t gain more than 17 yards on a possession in the second half. Stidham took a beating and even though the 14-6 final score signified a close game, it never looked like Auburn was going to threaten to score.
Now Malzahn is back on the hot seat to stay.
One handicapper expects he’ll get fired and one of ESPN’s draft experts, Todd McShay, thinks Stidham and Malzahn aren’t made for each other.
Where does Gus go from here? Last year I could have said Malzahn was on the firing squad, but Pettway bailed him out and Rhett Lashlee was the fall guy. Even though Chip Lindsey tried to sacrifice himself for Saturday’s poor effort, it’s all going to fall on the head guy now.
There are three things I know about the Auburn fan base: They don’t have patience, they don’t like excuses and they hate losing to Alabama.
Malzahn has gotten far in college football behind great players.
Whether it was him carpet bagging with the Springdale High migration to Arkansas or riding a once-in-a-generation talent like Cam Newton to a title while offensive coordinator at Auburn, Malzahn has always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.
But Newton isn’t walking out the tunnel at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Neither is Nick Marshall and Pettway probably can’t carry the load like he did last season.
Malzahn is going to have to figure it out himself or figure out where his next place of employment will be.
What I’m watching in Week 3
Nick Fitzgerald against LSU: Clearly the NFL is fixated on three quarterbacks – USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen — but beyond those three, there are a lot of intriguing quarterback prospects who can put themselves in position to be drafted early in 2018.
Fitzgerald is still an unfinished product, especially as a passer, but he has great size at 6-5, 230 pounds and NFL scouts are going to watch closely how the redshirt junior handles a top-level defense like LSU.
If Fitzgerald can make plays, win or lose, it’s likely his name will be mentioned more as a potential early-entry into the 2018 draft and a possible early-round selection. The success Dak Prescott with the Dallas Cowboys doesn’t hurt either.
Vanderbilt against Kansas State: Derek Mason is seeing the fruits of his labor start to work at Vanderbilt as the Commodores are looking more and more like “Stanford South” after blowout wins against Middle Tennessee State and Alabama A&M. Running back Ralph Webb continues to be one of the most productive and toughest players pound-for-pound in the SEC. Quarterback Kyle Shurmur is completing over 80 percent of his passes. The schedule gets considerably tougher with the Wildcats this weekend, followed by Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Kentucky at South Carolina: Winner gets to be the official dark horse in the SEC East. Kentucky tends to start slow; this year hasn’t been any different as the Wildcats struggled against FCS program Eastern Kentucky. The Gamecocks already got their conference opener out of the way when they shut down a Missouri team that scored 72 points the week before. If South Carolina wins Saturday, the Gamecocks have a great shot at being 6-0 going into a road game against Tennessee on Oct. 14.
Jim McElwain vs. Butch Jones: Two coaches at programs that have made it clear they are on borrowed time unless things change. If Florida starts the season 0-2, is McElwain officially on the hot seat with Florida AD Scott Stricklin?
Remember, Stricklin didn’t hire him and has no ties to him.
If Tennessee wins will Jones get off the hot for a few weeks? I doubt it. The Big Orange Army likes beating Florida but they want national respect.
Corey Long is a freelance writer for SaturdayDownSouth.com. Follow Corey on Twitter @CoreyLong.
