We went down yesterday to visit our son. Watched the first half of the game from a friend's Tent City setup before walking around campus for a bit, since I knew how it was going to end. And it ended just as I knew it would.

My gripe never has been with the players, their effort or even Nix as a freshman QB learning about college. I don't give two figs if he started five years in high school for Former AUQB Daddy, the college game is entirely different. Player size and speed, much smaller windows of passing opportunity, much smaller windows of "do I leave it in RB's gut or pull it?" opportunities, definitely more pressure, more stress, all the sh*t raining down from social media, and all the Yay Team! Sunshine Pumpers who stupidly thinks anyone who cares enough to constructively criticize is being mean, not a "true fan" or other idiotic non-realistic bullchit.

My gripe is that after seven years and 10 games, Gus has the teremity to stand publicly and say the offense is "a work in progress." After 90 games his record against LSU, Alabama and Georgia is 9-24 and of those, the Riccardo Louis catch against UGA -- which was great skill-eyes and a big dose of luck -- and the Kick 6 win over Bama -- which IMO was a good coaching hunch by Gus that paid off - means he'd be 7-26 otherwise.

The rest are against sub-standard, mediocre teams Auburn SHOULD beat every time and twice on Sunday. The games you HAVE to win - against LSU, Bama, Georgia, and the oddballs like Florida, Tennessee, TAMU - he has not consistenly done it with players on offense he has developed to run his basic, high school offense that every defensive coordinator has figured out.

Newton - tremendous athlete
Nick Marshall - damned good athlete

Jeremy Johnson, Sean White, Jarrett Stidham, whoever else - maybe good kids, good athletes, and never could produce enough

Bo Nix - darn good athlete, smart, has put up some numbers that if you just hear the numbers -- 21 of 34 for 298 yards! -- sounds good, until you also hear that the offense was 3-and-out on 11 of its 14 possessions, kicked or missed a field goal, and scored just twice. Or not at all.

-- Offensive line this year? IMO too inconsistent, something seems off, and Gus doesn't seem to attract nasty mean asskicking offensive linemen
-- WRs and RBs - Speedy receivers, supposedly 5-6 RBs but Boobie's been out for some mysterious reason and no one else makes opposing teams think "Damn, we gotta stop the RB" like IMO they do with Bama and Najee, LSU with Helaire and Georgia with Swift.
-- Kicking game - Carlson misses a field goal? WTF? Auburn's gone from "A Kicking School!" to missing field goals
-- Defense - What more can it and Kevin Steele do? Can't say too much about them other than giving up a big play now and then, and IMO that's going to happen. No defense can be perfect 12 games out of the year. Even Alabama's best in the last 10 years gave up a few now and then.
-- Special teams - Meh. Nothing special, no threats

To me the buck stops with the head coach. I discount all the fanboy silliness of "He got paid, don't need motivation" and other idiotic talk. Coaches want to win and be successful. If he wanted just to get paid he could've taken the buyout last December. And I don't think it's "they don't have athletes" because there's a good group of players there, but not top-flight SEC players. They're 8-4 and 9-3 players with an 8-4 coach guiding them.

My issue is I don't believe Gus has adequately developed QBs, has stubbornly stuck with an offense that opposing coaches have figured out, and has his heels dug in against anyone suggesting things need to change. And when in this business you have that going on EVERY YEAR with 8-4 or 9-3 records and "it's a work in progress" excuses after 10 games and another shitty bowl game coming that no one cares about, that means it's time for a change.

IMO here's going to be the test:

Next Saturday Auburn hosts Samford after a huge game, a letdown and being the weekend before Thanksgiving. Will fans show up? Will students boo and then leave at halftime if the score is 17-7 or 14-10? Will they stay if it's 28-7 and have a fun second half being students with a blowout?

Even more critical - For the Alabama game two days after Thanksgiving, even with Mac Jones at QB1, will Auburn fans overwhelm the number of visiting Bama fans or will you be able to say, "Dammmmnnn, that's A LOT of Bama fans who got tickets from frustrated-pissed off-upset-mad Auburn people."

When your students and fans don't show up, or leave after halftime, you're running the risk of falling into the rabbit hole we've discussed before about bad coaches and things spiraling out of control if the Board doesn't fire him.

Who would they hire? Dunno. They'd have to go after Urban and Stoops, even if both said no. After that, no clue. But IMO it's close to that "spiraling out of control" hairy edge.



ALSO:

I was sickened to see-read-hear about Tua's hip injury. I don't care who it is or what team they play for, I hate to hear about guys being injured. I hope he makes a full, healthy and strong recovery, and whether he returns to football at Bama or NFL or moves on to pursue his career and life, I hope he's healthy, successful and happy.