Blep

O'Brien wasn't the main issue. His offenses were actually pretty good. I think the offense in 2020 unfortunately set a bar that was way too high to consistently meet, and expectations for what the offense should be never came back down to Earth. The truth is we were spoiled by one of the best receiver classes in modern college football for several years. The last two years we haven't had those next-level guys, and it's shown in critical moments during big games. But the real victory this offseason is seeing Golding leave. O'Brien would put up points, but it didn't matter because Golding's defense was not up to the task of slowing down good offenses. It's a shame that Bryce Young had to play with that clown leading the defense. If the oftentimes reliable defense of the Nick Saban era had shown any life in big games this year Bryce would have had a real chance at a national championship.

Simpson by all accounts is a great passer who should be a fine replacement for Bryce Young. We've been blessed to have Tua / Bryce back-to-back, but I don't believe Simpson's performance will result in a steep drop-off from those two's production. Golding leaving is a massive positive for Alabama. His defenses were scorched in big games annually. I don't know if we're going to live up to that ranking, but I'd sooner put us there than towards the back of the top ten.

It's tough to count Utah out with Rising coming back. Who they are with him and without him is night and day. Whittingham is still the best coach in that conference as well. I'd say they deserve the benefit of the doubt for now, but the PAC-12 is probably the deepest it has been since the early 2010s when Oregon and Stanford were perennial national title contenders with UCLA and USC having good seasons in that period as well.

Maybe Marc should focus on reporting real football news instead of spending his time bragging about his show on Twitter. What a clown. I do have to say though, Beamer responding to this type of stuff isn't always the best look either.

For whatever reason, Saban bought into what coordinators like Golding were selling. Our defense has largely been the issue since Pruitt left after the 2017 season. Lupoi and Golding got smoked by Clemson in 2018. Golding has been getting smoked in big games ever since. Alabama's future success is largely dependent upon who they hire at the DC position. Golding couldn't get his guys to play hard and with an edge in big games. If that side of the ball can return to form and move away from the weak philosophy of banking on winning shootout games, then I think Bama has a good shot at making a lot of noise this year.

Harbaugh has a resume good enough to justify waiting for the right job to open up if he does dart back to the NFL, which I do think he ultimately wants to do. A lot of the teams that will have openings are not necessarily in a position to win immediately. I think he can afford to bide his time at Michigan now, especially since he has them rolling.

One of my favorite bowl wins this year. You could tell how much it meant to those guys. I'm really happy for State, and congratulations on a great season.

Kentucky will be fine for next year. With Leary transferring in and Coen coming back, the offense will certainly improve. The tough pill to swallow is Kentucky's inability to recruit their own quarterback though. If anything, this bowl game proved how integral Levis and Rodriguez were to the offense being able to overcome and mask their deficiencies.

I doubt Milroe wins the job next year. Like most dual-threat guys he's a good runner, but he doesn't present as a real passing threat. Simpson will be the favorite to win going into spring camp.

Really content with that win. It’s great to have another eleven win season. Sad that Bryce won’t get to have a national championship, but I am absolutely grateful that he played one last time today. Onto the off-season and getting excited for next year.

Leach wouldn't care about it. He'll be remembered far more than plenty of coaches who have made the HOF and plenty of coaches who will make the HOF in the future. He was a great coach who won at traditionally very mediocre, and in some cases, downright historically bad programs. Winningest coach in Texas Tech history, and a top three winningest coach at Washington State. Tough places to win for sure.

I am absolutely gutted. When I had first started watching Leach in my childhood, it felt like a coach finally understood my childlike philosophy of throw it every play. The college football world lost a special one. Hail State.

One of my favorite coaches of all time. I hope and pray he pulls through.

This is what it should be. I think this year is as good of a year as ever that displays the fact there aren't ever going to be four teams that could win it all in a given year. Nobody really deserved the fourth spot, and that usually seems to be the case. I think Georgia is the clear favorite to repeat this year. I don't think they're quite as dominant as they were last year, but I don't see Michigan / TCU / Ohio State being able to line up against them for four quarters. I think we probably see a Georgia v. TCU national championship, which will be pretty fun.

I disagree. He's been successful everywhere he's been. Chadwell will end up with a P5 job in a few years.

So, you're one of those 'your are what your record says you are' kind of fans. I'm not going to argue that Alabama should be in the playoff, because quite frankly, I don't believe they showed up in their biggest games of the season. However, I don't believe it's difficult to make the case that Alabama would give Georgia a much tougher game than Ohio State will when they back their way into the fourth spot. Who did Ohio State play? The entire B1G was down this year, especially the almost always consistent BIG East. Their best win is Penn State, who beat a whopping zero top 25 teams the entire year and lost to the only two ranked teams they played. Alabama played a much more difficult schedule, but they lost their two biggest games of the season. Neither team deserves to be in, but I think it's really just splitting hairs when debating which team choked less. All of that being said, I believe without a doubt that Alabama gives Georgia a tougher game than Ohio State would, but that's not a reality that's going to come to fruition, for better or for worse.

I kind of wish Auburn had hired Cadillac and surrounded him with a good supporting cast. There are plenty of examples that say you don't need great X's and O's coach at the top to be a really successful program. That aside, it's silly to cast judgement on Freeze for any recruiting developments right now. He's Auburn's guy now for better or for worse, and people should give him a chance to prove himself for a few years before sounding the alarms.

JTF - if Caleb Williams goes down is USC the same team? You already know that answer. They probably wouldn't be able to beat Utah without him. If Michigan loses their all-star running backs are they the same team? The goal is to put the four BEST teams in by the end of the season. If we lost Bryce Young we aren't even a top ten team. That matters. When determining which teams are the best in the moment important injuries matter whether it's fair or not.

Hoping we don’t backend our way into the playoff. It’ll feel cheap considering we choked away both of our marquee games. I don’t want another season of Golding and, to a lesser extent, BoB. Let’s get a good bowl game and head into the off-season in a position to fix some of the issues that have plagued the team the last two years.

That’s such a stupid argument. Tennessee is not the same team without Hooker behind center. Pretending as if that doesn’t matter is hilariously stupid.

He should find a program here in the SEC. He was a good quarterback, but it's tough to beat out someone like Ewers. Hope he finds a good program!

This really isn't a home-run hire. Freeze is a good offensive mind, but he is just an above-average head coach. He never won the SEC West when it was much less loaded despite being able to top us twice in that same period. His job at Liberty has been pretty good, but it's been a bit of a mixed bag there outside of the 2020 season. Add his questionable decisions from the past, and his potential to screw up in the future in similar ways, and you understandably have people feeling rather milquetoast about this hire. I think he probably wins some games and recruits better than Harsin, which isn't saying much, but I can't see him being a long-term answer for Auburn. The West is so loaded right now, it's going to be tough sledding if he can't quickly find some footing.

Kind of underwhelmed by the hire. Freeze did beat us twice, but he never took advantage of teams like LSU, Arkansas, and A&M all being relatively down. He's not a bad hire though. It'll depend largely on how he recruits. Very intriguing to have him back in the SEC West.

We do not deserve to be there! Can we not just be happy with a probable NY6 bowl game and enjoy the season we had? If we had a solid resume then maybe it would make sense, but our best wins are against Mississippi State and Texas. That doesn't inspire confidence with the committee.

Tennessee would not and should not be considered a top four team without Hooker behind center. That doesn't mean we should be considered a top four team either, but deciding between a Hooker-less Tennessee v. a healthy Alabama is a no brainer in the eyes of the committee.

It's true, but you have to be an impressive two loss team, which we are not. Our resume just isn't there this year to justify a playoff spot. Penn State in 2016 had the resume, but they were left out for a team that they beat! Auburn would have been in, but they had two wins against the CFP #1 team that season. LSU would have had wins against both us and Georgia if they had won out. Our best wins are Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Texas. We don't deserve it this year.

Auburn knows a lot about handing out tons of money to 8-4 coaches.

Happy with 10-2. Obviously, this team didn't live up to preseason expectations, but that doesn't mean this was a bad season by any means. Another double digit win season in the books. Happy to be here for such an incredible run of dominance.

Fair enough!

No way we deserve a playoff spot. We lost the two most significant games of the season. They were close losses, but they were losses nonetheless. I agree that Ohio State does not deserve to be in the conversation though. They lost their only important game this season.