Oh well... I want to blame Tony Franklin, Chris Todd, and Chris Todd's sideburns. But, it turns out LSU is a really, really good team with, yes, a really good coach. Chris Todd played his best game Saturday if you consider the competition and I liked Tony Franklin's play calling better when he called them from the press box. I would've rather seen Kodi Burns at quarterback, but I would've rather seen a lot of things, like Auburn winning Saturday. But, everyone played well and the mistakes were somewhat evenly distributed among the offense and, surprisingly, the defense. The biggest surprise of the game was the quarterback performance on both sides. The transfer from Hutchinson Community College and Area Vocational School (go blue dragons!) performed better at quarterback than the transfer from Harvard. Who would've predicted that quarterback matchup last year? Unfortunately, Auburn's defense may have knocked a few hundred thousand dollars worth of Harvard education out of Andrew Hatch's head.

Tubs and Franklin: secret Bammers? No... but "The New Yorker" is named sorta like "The Auburner" and topical humor is all the rage with the kids these days.

There is no way I can be objective when judging Todd's performance. I've spent the last year and a half waiting and wanting to see Kodi Burns play at quarterback. Last year, fans were upset at Kodi Burns' lack of playing time. It's hard to believe that Burns actually had more significant playing time last season after four games than he has now. Burns was used in redzone situations against Florida last through, and the true freshman came through. Why didn't Franklin use Burns against LSU when he needed a few first downs to run down the clock with four minutes to play? The most reasonable answer is because Tony Franklin hates me and would rather see Auburn fail and his job security threatened than to see me happy.

This may be my sad, inevitable future if Auburn's offense doesn't pick up.

I spent much of Sunday trying to talk myself into believing that the spread offense at Auburn could work. Change is a good thing - I've got to stop just dreaming that every season will end up like 2004. I had to get 2004 out of my mind. I turned on the TV at one point to see highlights of Ronnie Brown's FIVE touchdowns – a couple of which he ran while lined up as quarterback. Imagine that; a running quarterback combined with imaginative play calling running up the score against one of the NFL's best teams.

Before the season, Auburn coaches kept reporting how both quarterbacks were progressing at an equal pace and that both were equally as talented (I believe the term “wonderful problem” was used).

The general consensus was that Todd was more knowledgeable about the offense, and that Burns was the better athlete. Consider this, a track coach holds tryouts for one open spot on his team. Two runners run the exact same speed. One runner uses good technical form and the other uses poor form. The coach should choose the runner who had the poor form because he can be coached up. The coach can't do much for the runner who already has perfect form.

Todd seems to have had all the coaching he can handle. Burns is the guy who can be coached up to a superstar level – Burns also has a year more of eligibility than Todd. If everything else is equal, why not coach up Burns?

Auburn does have the talent at nearly every position to be successful. Gabe McKenzie's move to the defense was a good idea. He's been able to catch more passes as a defensive end than as a tight end – he even caught more passes than the tight end who had passes deliberately thrown at him.

Auburn's defense held up very well during the first half. Scoring half of Auburn's points was very helpful. Unfortunately, LSU's offense made Auburn's defense look like a bunch of talented 18-22 year old athletes during the second half. I think the defense even upheld the laws of physics during the second half – I hope that won't be a common trend.

The only paranormal event of the second half was Brad Lester. Does he have rapid healing abilities like Wolverine or that cheerleader from Heroes? We've seen Brad Lester's joints move a few dozen degrees beyond where they're supposed to move in two instances over the past two weeks – and he's made quick recoveries both times.

Saturday's game was a great football game, I hate that Auburn lost - but this looks to be another exciting year for the Auburn Tigers. It's going to be interesting to see how things unfold.

War Eagle!!

E-mail Mark at mark@theauburner.com
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