Auburn Grades

This time last week, the future course of Alabama's football season was a fairly simple equation: win two games and play for its 15th National Championship. Today, things are simpler by half. A win over SEC East Champion, Georgia, earns the Tide a ticket to Miami to play the Fighting Irish for the Big Crystal Football.

The Tide's entire focus is on beating the Bulldogs and according to post-game comments by players last night, the "24 Hour Rule" is inoperative this week. No disrespect to Auburn-there will plenty of time for that later in this column-but, I am fairly certain that Alabama's offensive starters were already thinking about Georgia at the 9:08 mark in the third quarter, that is the point in the 2012 Iron Bowl that their work for the day was concluded as reserve quarterback Blake Sims and the second-team line took over the offensive duties.

Can there be a better exemplar of the current paradigm for the two football programs? Over the last five meetings, Alabama has beaten Auburn four times by a combined score of 153-35. The lone Auburn victory was by a single point in a game, indeed a season, that will forever bear an asterisk for the dubious circumstances surrounding the eligibility of Cam Newton. Twice during that five-game stretch, the Tigers were shut out. In three of those games, the Auburn offense failed to achieve so much as a field goal.

Yesterday, Alabama scored seven touchdowns-the same number that Auburn could manage for first downs. While the Tide reached the Auburn end zone four times through the air and three times on the ground, the Tigers got no closer to the Alabama goal line than the Alabama 41 yard line. In the first half, Alabama scored on each of its six offensive possessions. Auburn responded with three punts, an interception and a lost fumble.

The Auburn football program is only two seasons removed from a BCS Championship yet in the 2012 Iron Bowl, the Tigers were no more effective against Alabama than the Catamounts of Western Carolina. Last week, in order to take into account the quality of the opposition, I decided to evaluate the game on a pass/fail basis. My Son And Heir has urged me to treat this game the same way. But this is Auburn, and it doesn't matter to me whether the result is a squeaker or a curb-stomping, no downward adjustment will be applied.

Here's how I grade the game:

Offense: A+ Alabama earned 25 first downs, gained 483 yards of total offense [267 rushing] and converted 11 of 14 third downs. The Tide scored a touchdown on each of its first seven offensive possession and had seven drives in excess of 40 yards [75, 61, 88, 64, 61, 53, 51].

AJ completed 15 of 21 pass attempts for 216 yards and 4 TDs without an interception or a sack. With 45 TD passes in his career, AJ moves into second place behind only JP Wilson [47]. Amari Cooper caught 5 passes for 109 yards and two TDs. Kevin Norwood added two TDs and 65 yards on 5 receptions. Christion Jones caught 3 passes for 22 yards. Kenny Bell and Michael Williams-the Pride of Reform-each caught one pass.

Eddie Lacy picked up his running form where he left off last week against WCU gaining 131 yards on 18 carries. The stunning statistic, however, is that by intermission, Eddie had already gained 111 yards rushing. Kenyan Drake gained 67 yards on 10 carries but his performance was marred by a lost fumble at the Auburn 7 yard line with 1:31 to play in the third quarter. That turnover, and Coach Saban's decision to take a knee on fourth and goal at the end of the game, kept the 2012 Iron Bowl from being the most lopsided in history, TJ Yeldon carried that ball 8 times gaining 38 yards. Blake Sims added 25 yards on 6 runs and Ben Howell gained a net of 5 yards on 3 carries.

A special mention is due to the excellent work done by Cyrus K who absolutely neutralized Auburn's defensive line star, Cory Lemonier who entered the game with 12.5 sacks on the season and left Tuscaloosa without adding to that total.

Defense: A+ Auburn managed to convert a 3rd and 8 as well as a 3rd and 10 on its second offensive possession of the game. Those two plays were pretty much the only blemish in a stellar defensive performance.

Robert Lester made 5 tackles [4 solo] and intercepted a pass that he returned for 31 yards. Landon Collins also made 4 [2 solo] as did Tana Patrick. Trey DePriest, Quinton Dial and Brandon Ivory each made 3 tackles. As a group, the Tide Stop-Troops made 7 tackles for lost yardage including 2 sacks. AU's QB's were hurried 4 times. Ha Ha Clinton-Dix also made an interception and Adrian Hubbard, Nico Johnson, and Reggie Ragland forced fumbles. Dee Milliner recovered one of the forced fumbles and broke up two passes.

Special Teams:

Punting: A+ Auburn's punter never gave the Tide a chance at a return. Since he was totally unused and forgotten until the 4th quarter, the trainers had to go looking for Cody Mandel who was playing XBox in the dressing room. He punted twice for an average of 48.5 yards and his second effort was downed on the AU 1 yard line.

Kickoffs: A+ Cade Foster averaged 43.2 net yards per kick, but this was deliberate. The coverage scheme the Tide has been working on all year was highly successful as the Tigers starting field position after kicks was their own: 24, 22, 15, 24, 26, 24, 20, and 19. Perhaps a new statistic should be created. Call it "Touchback Differential." For this game, that stat would be: -27.

Place Kicking: A+ Jeremy Shelley continues to be perfect in PATs.

Coaching: A+ Alabama was penalized only twice for 10 yards. The participation report lists 66 players who saw action. This could be an Iron Bowl record.

Even as I write this blog post, the firing of Gene Chizik is being announced at an AU press conference. He joins the growing list of head coaches at Alabama's two greatest rival programs to be fired after losing ignominiously to Alabama.

Paul Finebaum tweeted earlier today: "Gene Chizik will likely become a Final Jeopardy answer to the question: Who is the worst coach to ever win a BCS title?"

Andrew Brandt tweeted: "2 yrs ago Gene Chizik and Cam Newton were the toast of football. Newton has 2 wins this year, Chizik had 3 and is now dismissed."

AU's AD, Jay Jacobs, said: "This season demonstrated that we need a different direction to get where we want to go." I guess that's like saying: "We wanted to drive to the beach, and when we passed the exist for Huntsville on I-65 North, I said to Coach Dye, 'Do you think we ought to turn around? ' "

Alabama fans, upset about Auburn firing such a great coach, can take solace from the composition of the search committee: Mac Crawford, Bo Jackson and Pat Sullivan. Clearly, Crawford is the decision-maker with Sullivan and Jackson along for window dressing. According to reports, Chizik's buyout is $7.5MM. The total package including assistants is $11MM. Reports do not disclose how big a piece Trooper Taylor will receive of the buyout pie.

There was speculation yesterday among folks at the Waller Tailgate, that Auburn might have turned itself in to the NCAA in order to avoid having to pay buyouts to any of this crew. The timing of today's announcement would suggest, however, that the inmates who are running the API asylum are content to continue their time-honored tradition of paying people not to coach football.

I hope the Search Committee does not run into the NCAA investigators who evidently have been in Auburn long enough to register to vote in Lee County.

Here's what I want to know: Pat Dye never won a national championship and was forced out as head coach following a Pay-For-Play scandal but they named the football field in his honor. Chizik brought the Coaches Trophy to the Village. What will they put his name on?

For anyone wondering what the shelf-life is for winning a BCS Championship. the fate of Gene Chizik provides the answer. In his four years at the helm the Tigers were 15-17 in SEC play with only one winning SEC season.

Who could have seen this coming? Maybe anyone who took a look at his 5-19 record as head coach at Iowa State, which obviously does not include Jay Jacobs. One final tweet, again from Finebaum: "I know I'm late to the party, but how did Jay Jacobs ever become Auburn's AD?"

So much for the Barn-razing; we must all turn our attention to Georgia.

The Dawgs are playing excellent football. Aaron Murray is very efficient and their
defense has improved as the season has progressed. Las Vegas odds makers have the Tide favored by a touchdown.

Win one game and go to Miami.

Win one game and play for the national championship for the third time in four years.

Win one game and take the field against Notre Dame for a game that the sport desperately needs.

Win one game........

Then go win another!

The Commissioner