Auburn Can’t Ignore These 5 Hard Truths | Auburn Football Podcast

Mike G (0:00)

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Ike Jones (0:50)

Just getting into really the toughest portion of the schedule right now.

Not a lot to really be excited about in terms of what you've seen in the product on the field, even though you've got three wins, you feel like you barely eeked out, well not feel like you barely eeked out the first one versus Baylor.

You probably should have beat Vanderbilt by more than what you did, and you essentially gave away two games versus Florida and Tennessee. Those were very winnable games. Had Auburn come with their A game, they could realistically, I mean, it's not even book. I'm just talking about if you're playing your best football, which we haven't seen this team play, or hopefully we haven't seen them play because this is their best and good Lord. But if you're playing your best football, you could realistically be 5-0 right now, but you're not. The reality is you lost two games that you probably could have won. So what we want to ask about today, Mike, is we're going to give five things that just they got to be addressed. They have to be addressed in order for Auburn to have a prayer in this next three-game gauntlet that you're going to have.

Mike G (2:04)

Yeah, we're calling them hard truths. Some hard truths about the program. And the bye week is somewhat, especially when it comes to midseason or around midseason, somewhat of a reckoning week where you take a long, hard look at what you've done up to this point. We've gotten five games of information. And I got to tell you, a lot of it centers around disappointment about where this offense is at with an offensive head coach, Ike.

I think that's my biggest disappointment is you got offensive head coach and you got a lot of offensive struggles, it feels like. And you got some very familiar offensive struggles, but you got some new ones too, which I think takes us to hard truth number one.

Ike Jones (2:53)

Yeah. The biggest issue that we've identified here with hard truth number one.

Mike G (3:02)

Run game just isn't very good.

Ike Jones (3:05)

This is shocking. Yeah, I just, I don't, I don't know another word for how disappointed I am in this run game other than complete and utter disappointment because during the off season, that's all we heard about was how much Auburn was going to run the football. And this is what they were committed to wanting to do with this bevy of running backs that you, right? You've got Jeremiah Cobb, who during the off season, we were, I won't speak for anybody else. I was very high on the fact that he could be a top five guy in this conference.

You've got Bryson Washington, who came over, was the leading rusher last year on a Baylor team that ran the ball fairly well. You've got Omar Mabson, who is a bruiser of a back and just kind of able to like do everything that you need him to do in the blocking and running and catching. He can do it all tremendous spirit about him. You had Tay Meadows, who came over from Troy, was their leading rusher last season. You've got all of this and a guy who ran 4,000 yards from the quarterback position last year coming in as the QB. And you just knew this run game's gonna be.

Mike G (4:31)

It's gonna pop.

Ike Jones (4:32)

Relentless. They're just going to go out there and they're gonna hit people in the mouth and we're gonna be the most physical team on the field all that. And it just has not been the case. Like, it is pedestrian is the only word that I can use for it. It's just, it hasn't been good. I don't know how to make that sound better.

It is what it is. It just has not been good. They're still looking for answers.

Mike G (4:58)

Less than five yards per carry. And like the eighth best run game, but you're only a few yards from like bottom five. I mean, pedestrian is one thing. What makes it even worse is you're the third worst passing offense in the conference, right? Like, so when you pair it with the fact, it's not like, hey, we're mediocre run team, but we're a great pass team. Because in the past, the run was the one thing that we could look forward to. It was like, hey man, no matter how much they struggle in pass protection, they're able to block up those running assignments and find ways to get backs at least close to 1,000 yards. Remember, Jeremiah Cobb came up just short of 1,000 yards last season. I did not foresee a scenario where he went backwards in that category, but he is primed and poised to move backwards in terms of yardage count. But it's not just that the yards are less, it's that it's ineffective. Your run game is ineffective. Auburn cannot affect the pace, the flow of the game with the run. It was promised to us, Ike, run the piss out of the football. That was the line.