Auburn doesn’t beat teams. Athletic directors who put Auburn on the schedule beat their own teams.

USM’s athletic director, Richard Giannini, sentenced his team to a public beating the day he agreed that his team would play Auburn on September 6, 2008. Giannini is at fault here. Why does Richard Giannini hate his football team so much? How can he look the mothers of those young and talented players in the eye and say, “I scheduled your son, a gifted student athlete, to line up against Tray Blackmon.”

We haven’t heard any clever “wonderful problem” quips form Tony Franklin since the season started and we probably won’t hear anymore. There’s no such thing as a wonderful problem. When you’re forced to choose between cake and pie, you’re given a problem. The choices are delicious and wonderful, but this is not a reason on why you shouldn’t make a choice (that’s probably the deepest reasoning you’ll ever read on this site).

Shortly after Saturday’s win, Tommy Tuberville crowned Chris Todd starting quarterback. Todd proved himself to be consistent and able to make good decisions. Kodi Burns will still be a huge part of the offense – mostly because Burns has proven himself to be a clutch quarterback;

Despite only completing one pass during the Clemson game last year, it was a beautiful and perfectly thrown 22 yard touchdown pass on a critical third down.

He scored the winning touchdown in overtime on a third down, seven yard rush, against Clemson.

Against Southern Miss, he scored a touchdown on a 4th down run.

Chris Todd has proven he can manage an offense. But can he win a close game?

Here’s what we know; Burns can throw the deep ones and he can run – clutch stuff. Todd can be an effective and consistent quarterback. His floater pass thrown mid sack was definitely clutch, so clutch that the referees reviewed the play even though it was an unreviewable play – just because they wanted to watch the play again and marvel in the play’s ingenuity and hilarity. Between Todd and Burns, the ingredients for greatness are there. Play calling is crucial.

Recall the injury that caused Burns to lose the starting job this last week. He didn’t sustain a traditional injury; a defensive back didn’t blindside him against Louisiana Monroe, his arm wasn’t crushed while jumping forward in a quarterback sneak. No, Kodi Burns sustained his leg injury because he accidently kicked a cornerback in the face, a cornerback Burns just bulldozed over, after running for 20+ yards. That’s hardcore. That’s the kind of quarterback who can win championships. It’s a shame that Burns is being punished for being awesome – but that’s how life works sometimes.

It was surprising to hear Burns actually bled real blood after being injured. When Auburn’s defensive players or running backs are cut, they bleed a bubbly green acidic substance or motor oil.

It looks like the running game won’t suffer as many predicted and that Franklin is capable of getting all running backs chances to carry the ball.

I’m excited to see Tristan Davis back at running back. His ‘touchdowns per carry’ ratio still stands at 1:4 after three years. Unfortunately, his injury per carry ratio is about the same. I hope to see that drop to zero very soon.

I’m not very worried about the two early fumbles in the red zone. Fumbles tend to be statistical anomalies and I can’t imagine them being signs for future problems. I’m just happy they happened in a game which wasn’t decided by a touchdown or less.

At Auburn, defense sells tickets, but offense wins championships. Does Auburn have the offense required to win championships? Or will Auburn fans have to settle with deriving joy from watching our defense bring sorrow and embarrassment to the mothers of opposing offenses? Time will tell. SEC play starts next week.

WAR EAGLE!

E-mail Mark at mark@theauburner.com
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