Auburn Football Collapses In Disappointing 21-14 Loss Against California | Auburn Live Football Show

all right welcome back into the Auburn live football show appreciate everybody for joining us as always it's Cole Pinkston Allen head I Justin Hokinson boy is it 2024 is it 2023 I thought we were in 2024 and I feel like I'm in September of 2023 recording the show um I feel like we're about to talk about I feel like we could go back and pull some shows last year and just replay those I thought we were in October of 2018 watching Jer and G and Tomo throw bombs down the field on us again man with that terrible Tennessee game that was that was maybe one of Gus's loss worst losses um all right let's get into all this real quick shout out to the sponsor of the show session cocktail downtown Auburn right there on Magnolia Avenue go check them out great place to get drinks um before and after the game happy hour um before and after dinner they're a great place awesome friends of the show um make a great oldfashioned I generally get a gold rush if you want to go and get what I get it's a gold rush it's a great drink um but go check them out I think we're gonna start um doing some live shows from there on Fridays by the way and when Cole's in town he can pop in but it'll be just kind of a um I'll be there and then when like if Cole's in town for recruiting or something um but it'll be like a Friday kind of four to five happy hour type show we'll just go live on YouTube Zach it's probably the first time Zach's hearing this um but uh you know when people want to be a sponsor of the show we got to do it you know what I'm saying Zach um so we'll we'll uh it' be quick but quick and easy but we we'll go live from session on Friday afternoons probably 4 to 5 and just talk about the game a little bit um and have a little Ambiance in the background and you know nothing crazy um answer questions if people pop on and want to toss a few questions in there and that kind of thing and just um you know just kind of last minute thought so um be on the lookout for that appreciate uh session being a partner of the show um Bo 2114 Cal that did not go as planned I think defensively is about what we thought I think 14 to 20 we thought um it's just all you know we we can talk about the defense because the first half was a joke I thought you know that was that was pretty bad they got it together and played well in the second half defensively and pretty much everything was in Reverse I mean you know I mean second half was a different story on defense and they played well we can talk about that a little bit but might as well just start with what everybody's talking about and that is an offensive performance that was um pitiful it's just pitiful and um you can't have every factor I wrote it in the in the 321 you can't have every variable better on offense from year to year like pick a variable and it's better this year it and and yet you go out and you basically put up the exact same performance you did last year against cow which is barely getting your second touchdown late in the game um and just you know 200 something yards of offense it was really really bad um so I mean Cole I'll let you start and and and y'all can go and then I can you know Pile in behind you um but you know just just maybe top of the head thoughts and then we can dive into some stuff as we go but just like you know are you panicking like a 10 are you like I cannot believe what I just saw or we are we is there a little overreaction where you at no I don't I don't panic after week two uh that's not it's not in my nature of being around football all my life that's not how that works um and you know not that this is this is not about recruiting but a lot of the recruits see it that way too they understand football they play football and they know how it is that's what most of them said look this is football that's what happens they got all the opportunity the world to get this turned around so uh first of all I want to give I want to give Cal some credit I mean yeah they've had G good game plans against Auburn two years in a row now I I thought you know talked about this back in the summer I thought CS did a good job in the portal and grabbed some guys that were necessary for them and fit them and obviously they they're not a bad football team by any means I don't know how good they're going to be this year but they got a good coach I think I I have a lot of confidence in saying that so I give them credit they played a good game their their quarterback was on fire so good for him um defensively like you said made adjustments in the second half and and really turned it around there I was impressed with that if you're looking for positives to me that was the adjustments made they took away they made cal completely one dimensional and they took the things away that they were doing well and said all right now beat us like this because we're not going to let you do that anymore that's encouraging now on offense uh let's see I'm Midway through the third quarter in play scripting and and you know every time I do that it's almost in my head not as bad as I thought when I was watching it because when you're watching it it just it's like it's just getting worse and worse and worse and you sort of forget like Auburn started that game hot had some good things going early Thor M pton Thorne made a couple of nice plays and then you know the levey break it's like it like it has before in the past and it looks exactly you're you're right it looks like everything we talked about in 2023 that to me is the biggest issue with all this for me that's where I I don't panic but I go all right that's bothersome that's really bothersome when you have the exact same problems you had a year ago that's scary why why and the Talent is better I I have no problem saying that I don't think anybody would argue that your offensive Talent has gotten worse than it did a year ago it's gotten better now it's young you got a lot of young guys you got a lot of new faces which is why I wrote in June or whatever that was that I thought this cow game didn't set up very well for Auburn because they're new I knew Auburn was going to try to force the passing game because of the recruiting I've watched Hugh fre recruit enough that I know he's gonna he's going to Pander to that a little bit it's in his nature so yeah he forced the passing game a little bit too much in my opinion I thought they didn't they didn't attempt to run the ball enough early on and when they did start attempting to run the ball it was too late too little too late so that's just the beginning there's so much we can say I don't want to roll forever here but that's where I'll stop for now uh on my front Justin I don't want to be hyperbolic I'm I'm not skip bis type guy so the screaming and ranting and raving and all that stuff that you know a lot of people get into when they do kind of these reaction shows that's not going to take place here and I'm with Cole I'm not panicking yet because Auburn has two data points two games so far two games does not make a season I think alurn will be judged as we get a little bit closer to the end of the season and its totality of how this this team performs from beginning to end and do they get better over the course of the season season that said as far as what we witnessed yesterday I thought defensively soft coverage they chewed us up a little bit it seemed like we had we had a two- High shell for a good part of the first half and wanted to make sure that we didn't give up any explosives the second half they made a major change were able to bring a little bit more pressure and so I really liked I wish we'd have started off a little bit more aggressive defensively but when you hold somebody to 14 points and realistically I think if the offense doesn't put the defense in a bad position multiple times in the second half they probably don't give up the seven points in the second half if we're being honest so overall while not the greatest performance from our quarterbacks because in man coverage specifically I feel like the awareness just isn't where it's supposed to be from our outside corners they don't play the ball exceptionally well now I thought we did better in the second half but I there needs to be some tightening up there for whatever reason it just we not able to locate the ball like we need to but on the offensive side of the ball Cole you nailed it I felt like we we forced the passing game there needed to be more designed run there was a lot of RPO Concept in the first in the first half specifically uh second half you got into a little bit more drop back game which was not tailor made for our offensive line spe particularly when they brought the blitz I didn't think pton handled pressure very well at all um and he's such a rhythm quarterback and when he gets off his spot and he gets out of rhythm and he starts to face a little bit of adversity for whatever reason he's not able to see the middle of the field and so you miss some open receivers there he tends to ignore it because he goes into what's comfortable for him and and he kind of became a shell of what he can be or what he is when he's in Rhythm and so I don't know you just didn't see the Nuance from the offense I didn't think the play calling made sense logic um I didn't feel like we were overly prepared on that side of the ball from start to finish and it just kind of got away from us now again this was an example of Auburn playing very poorly and so if you're talking about last year there were moments where Auburn played well above its Talent seiling against Alabama against Georgia they played up to their level of competition so I don't think this one game is indicative of the outcome of what you can expect for the rest of the year but if you're looking for tea leaves or if you're reading tea leaves here it's certainly not good to have some of the same issues that plagued you this time last year because this was eerily Familiar of the Maryland Maryland Bowl game this looked like Cal last year um you know you just you want to see year-over-year progress and you didn't necessarily see that today and does that mean that you can't see it moving forward no but it just you know it it definitely takes the wind out of your Sal and now it's about what what is this team going to do moving forward can they get better next week against New Mexico and then show some confident play against Arkansas and get what I would consider a very big victory at this point I think your next two weeks are very crucial for the outcome of this season I really do yeah I mean the Arkansas game is going to be a I think a dog fight anyway and you see now they've got a little bit of ability um I mean they blew that game and they have an athletic quarterback so I mean that's that's certainly a game where you have to come in and play well I mean now you got I mean Auburn's lost four straight FBS games I mean going back to last year they lost in New Mexico state Alabama and Maryland and then now they lost to Cal so so I mean they've got wins over you know Arkansas and Vandy and Mississippi State congratulations I I'm not like I don't know about I don't know I don't love the word panic um I'm not panicking I'm not the coach I'm not pyton Thorne I don't have anything to panic about um but am I am I sounding the alarms yeah like I can't I can't watch this continue and then continue to come back here and go well you know Sly we'll see like it was it was all the same stuff we saw last year if it wasn't a bad throw it was a it was a mixup on the route if it wasn't that it was missing a Blitzer and letting a guy Run free if it wasn't that it was a ball ball going through a guy's hands and it turns into a turnover if it wasn't that it was looking out here and going why are three four guys running deep and nobody there's no checkdown why is there no screen pass why is there why is everybody just running deep and C's entire defense is just like their linebackers are just sitting around going I don't I don't anybody to cover you just ran everybody deep I'm just kind of hanging out in the middle of field like if it wasn't one thing it was just another and I feel like that's been the story for the last two years um or for the last last season now into this year and it's hard to watch what happened Saturday and be like well they'll get it fixed next week I mean there was so much that went wrong there's so many issues so I I I get and of course it took like five seconds for everybody to jump on the you know um you know bench Payton Thorn bandwagon look I'm not I'm not gonna it was less that's where you're at huh it was less than five seconds less than five seconds yeah listen and nobody I'm not I I really like pton Thorne as a human being I think pton Thorne is um capable of being a quarterback but I'm not gonna sit here and defend nobody's defending him that's not why I'm here I'm not gonna defend Payton Thorne so what but I'm just saying there's so much that goes on and there's so much that went wrong that I hate that we just jump to the most just the most obvious thing we can see there's definitely things he he needs to do better and messed up on there's definitely guys that let blitzers Run free there's definitely conceptual and Route running things that didn't make sense like all of that's going on um so it's like it's almost like where do you go what's the easiest to fix I mean if you tossed Hank Brown in there does that outcome change yesterday I mean from everything you saw offensively does Hank Brown fix it because I mean that's where you got to start when you it's kind reminds me of the Gus Malon thing when it's you want to fire somebody or just look take your own life if you want to quit your job you better have another job so if you want to bench pton cool it does Hank Brown fix yesterday if you think he did or if you think he does then okay if you're like no no if Hank Brown's in there this goes different this goes different this goes different Auburn wins if you think you can make that argument um that okay I'm not against that I just don't know I mean there's so there's so many issues I don't know if you just plug Hank Brown in all of a sudden Tyler Johnson doesn't just let somebody run free or Cam Coleman doesn't drop a ball that turns into a pick or like there's just a bunch of stuff there well and I think the easy answer to that is Justin is you don't have enough data on Hank Brown to know does he Elevate other people's play enough you have essentially what three series of real game film on Hank Brown to know what he is or he isn't in garbage time you you know yeah right so you you just don't have enough data to make that kind of a determination and so there has to be a little bit of Faith put into the coaching staff that they're playing the best player that said I don't think there's harm with getting Hank you're playing an inferior opponent in New Mexico they're going to be well coached Bronco mhal is their head coach he is a really good football coach um but there's no harm in my opinion of splitting snaps and getting Hank you know live reps against first team defense to kind of make a determination on does he really help you but do you I'm okay with that do you outright bench Payton no I I think I think you open it up I think you start the person that plays the be the best in practice this week uh and if that's Payton that's who you roll with and that's your team captain that's who you built this offensive system around that's a lot of change that's that's a lot after two weeks to go just go nope I'm out I'm done and I know where the fan base is I know I'm going to get criticized the comments are going to say basically tell me I've lost my freaking mind like I I understand I was going to ask y'all uh I was gonna say what my granddad says to me this applies for this podcast right how tough a boy are you son yeah you better have thick skin because you fixing to get somebody's gonna be on you don't matter what opinion you have right gonna be on you after this sure yeah but you know what we're not going to do we're not going to hop on here five minutes after the game and yell and scream uh for engagement about bench everybody that's what we're not going to do no I'm with you the [ __ ] out of me no that's why I said we're not going to do the you know the skip Bas thing we're not gonna do the Stephen a thing where you just get on here you get on here and you rant you Rave and you know you raise your voice and you get clicks and create content and all that other good stuff but um I do think that it's worthwhile experimenting to get Hanks some looks against a first team defense to see what you have do I but again I don't think you outright bench pton I've said that on other in other places um and to other people that I think it would be a little too quick to go that route but I'm okay with getting a look against Hank against legitimate first team reps to see what you have and does sometimes and this is what I will say for quarterback play that the quarterback can Elevate other positions contingent on how players respond to them but is Hank that guy I don't know I I don't see him in practice and sometimes guys are just Gamers right when they come in they step foot into the stadium and the lights are bright they know how to play and how to respond they just do and there's there's no real answer as to why they play better than the guy who just kills it in practice but Cole I'll turn it over to you man that happens a lot more than you think actually I mean it really does I think yeah well I want to go back to the point uh Justin there was a poster on the board I don't know who to give credit to I can't remember who it was and it's lost lost in the shuffle now because the Corner's been pretty active here lately um they said hey you know what if you put um what's his name quarterback for Cal Mendoza Fernando Mendoza what if you would put him in pton Thorn's place yesterday would he have been the same it's a great question um I don't know if I have a legitimate answer to it or a full answer to it but I think the answer is it's possible but not highly likely because I'm more on the side of this game plan has a lot of holes a lot of issues there um yeah and how do I know that right hear hear me out because you were able to put together a game plan with pton Thorne at quarterback don't forget that to go toe-to-toe with Georgia Alabama a year ago you were able to find a game plan that worked there yeah so it there's things you can do I mean it's not it's not just doomsday there's things you can do to to make it work there's things you can you can do to um take a game like Cal and blow it wide open and score 40 points on them there's a balance in there somewhere I think uh and back to the passing I think there was too much try try to be put in that I thought some of the routes were good A lot of the routes got open yeah could get there and that's been the story of Auburn football for a while if it's not that they can't get open it and it's the other way around but right now I don't see that problem I see a lot of open guys and you can't get it to them for whatever reason I thought Keandre Lambert Smith's body language a few times was very telling and this is a guy that's a veteran he's played a lot of football played in a good offensive system at Penn State where he was reliable a good receiver for Penn State and he was frustrated he knows you know that was Bush that was Bush League what what we just did yesterday so I go back and watch his body language he was frustrated I thought that was interesting and uh again it's a game plan thing I think pton Thorne I'm with you Allan I think that Hank Brown now I'm against the two quarterback system sure I don't want that I'll go ahead and put that out there I don't want to rotate those guys if you're going to go with Hank Brown give them a game give them the Mexico State I mean New Mexico and see what he does I don't know if that's the right call I'm just saying if you were going to that's what I would rather you do that that's what I was thinking which you know it's like if you toss them out there what do you learn in the series or two like what do you really learn I mean I you know it's like I don't know I mean maybe you get him a little of action maybe you can if there's a couple things that you can see from a drive or two that you think you can determine and and leave pton as the starter for New Mexico and try to get to Arkansas um it but it boy it it feels like we're at a Tipping Point I mean it does like um yeah if I had to my my number one criticism of Payton would and really go back to last year at times is the anticipation it's just the it's just the hesitation and it was hard sometimes because last year was a mess it's so I've often said that like it's just hard to get into what last year and super be hypercritical about anybody even Payton last year because there was just a lot of crap going on and I didn't want to be too harsh I didn't think on him because I didn't think it was a great scenario um but he showed against Cal just sometimes gotta get rid of the ball sometimes you gotta get rid of the ball and um but at the same time there's some times where he made some plays with his feet when things break down and you're like can Hank Brown do that I don't know maybe that's not the primary thing maybe number one we gotta go we gotta guy get a guy that gets rid of the football and Hank has been known to do that a little bit like when when he's gotten in the game Hank throws it good or bad he he does get rid of the ball I don't know where Hank is in terms of his understanding of the offense and can he run the whole thing and I I don't know all that I mean I think I do think that Peyton's got a grasp of what's going on like I don't think that's in debate he's played enough football Payton has got a grasp of I think what should happen it's just not always happening and that would be my number one thing there was some times where you got get got to get rid of the football and and trust your guys a little bit I thought he did some and I thought some other times he didn't um but you know that's a tough call right now and and I'm not the one getting paid whatever H re is getting paid to make the call and Hugh frees has got to take that fire you know he he had a chance to get a portal quarterback he didn't so here we are that's on him that's on him and I'm not dogging anybody I'm not dogging Payton I'm not dogging anybody but it's got to be fixed now like right now it has to be when I say Tipping Point it has to be fixed right now if it's not you will lose to Oklahoma you will lose to Georgia you will lose to Missouri you will lose at Kentucky like you're gonna lose these games if it's not fixed so either either figure out what's going on with the offense Payton pton is anticipation uh maybe some lazy route running at times like come out of the break and go like keep going we saw a couple there was a Aaron Murray had a great breakdown for people that watched there was I can't remember who it was but there's a couple routes where guys didn't come out of the break like they they throttled down like a step and that means everything like there's there are little things and nuances that do matter and they're not making an excuse for pton thorn when we point those out we go man if you Throttle Down One Step that freaking matters and then and then you're reaching for a ball instead of it being right there um ralo Fairweather not every ball is gonna be perfect man reval of Fairweather catch the football not every football is perfect sometimes it might be a little behind you like revaldo in the first half but it hits you it hits you in the hands catch the football right so there's just a lot of blame to go around so I don't know if you want to if you want to put it on Payton and say we need a guy that to get in there and sling it and put Hank in there that's cool but you still got to have guys catch the ball you still got to have offensive lineman not me not mix some missing blitzes you still got to have you know guys coming out of the breaks and and running you know running right routes and not having Mix-Ups there's still all this other stuff got to be fixed so you know that's that's just kind of where I'm at like you want to put Hank in cool but is all that other stuff going to get fixed in two weeks that's why I'm like sounding the alarm a little bit I just see a bunch of stuff I don't see just everything's working great if only a quarterback could throw the football I see a bunch of issues that's not it that's not completely it I think you know you made the point you got a lot of these all these tough decisions you know why they're tough right now is because the margin of error is still very very small for this football team because you don't get as long on a rebuild anymore fan bases and and boosters and the people that are in charge don't want to wait anymore they want it now so you you're caught in a place right now where you're in year two of a rebuild you don't have the full roster and you want yet you've had to patch some holes out of the portal you've had to do all that but nobody wants to hear that and Auburn fans are so jaded to bad football right now that they don't want to wait around and and and wait for a rebuild that that's just the truth whether we all agree with it or not all right the problem with that I have with the game plan is that they tried to pretend that margin of error is not there and it is little Cavalier you still have to you still have to play safe in some areas and they were not they're trying not to do that and you know what I really do commend them for that you got to push it sometimes you got to take risks but you also got to be smart and I thought the the the key word from freeze or the key phrase from freeze he said I just man I hoped we were further along B you gotta know you you gotta know you got to know are you or are you not you can't hope and then go try it and it doesn't work you don't have time for that nobody's affording that to you no this isn't Arkansas State and Jonesboro man like when you do these things at Auburn it's magnified right that didn't give you the warm and fuzzies H I hope we were further along no no after watching the game plan too that's exactly how they attacked it well I hope we can do this don't you know the Sid was just like handed looking to the side when that statement got made I mean listen it's better than you know it's it's better than being in I hate to call him out but Billy Napier situation and talking about a guy in his basement it's I mean look he comes out and he says look I got to fix it okay good we know that that's all you really can say no you're right you're right on that front um and I agree with both of you that there are more issues with this offensive operation than just pton Thorne right yeah definitely more issues um and I think most of it is the game plan and making sure that you accentuate the parts of your game plan that make sense for winning that particular game right this wasn't an Alabama A&M when you could just go out there and showcase the passing game because you were so much more supremely gifted than that team which by the way I think Alabama A&M could lose to Thompson there you go I have gone hyperbolic at this point but which is why we didn't take anything from last week and why it annoyed me that I'm watching I'm not taking any shots but watching Auburn football Twitter put out Graphics to talk about being the second highest graded team in college football right no listen why can we stop you played a high school team can I give you credit I was sitting beside you when you said that you're like hey I don't know about that yet we you played Alabama andm like chill out yeah I mean you you played a team that is not who you should be measuring yourself against right that's we all talked about cow was going to be the litmus test this was going to tell us hey this is where you are and this is probably what you're capable of coming out of this game we'll have a lot more information and I think we do have more information just not the information that we necessarily wanted right I I think hey I mean people are looking for positives I know they are they want answers they got none what you got I come out knowing that the the front seven for Auburn is kind of tough I mean on on D yeah yeah that's a good thing I saw some really when they maybe [ __ ] I don't know what I know at this point no I feel good I feel good about saying that I really do I mean they they made plays all day long that the the the dam broke at the end I mean of course it did they were on the field all day right you know I mean they only have so many guys they rotate it was going to happen eventually your offense has to pick up the slack at some point and they didn't it got worse as the game went on but the front seven for Auburn that includes the linebackers are playing well yeah yeah that's good that was a shining moment and that was one of my biggest question marks that interiority line and I thought I thought Travis Rees like there was some there was some good stuff there it gave me a little bit of Hope yeah and keldrick is what you thought he was gonna be when you recruited and he bowled out yeah how about blockton there there's another great sign for for moving forward I mean that guy played well yeah and let me say this that was not roughing the pass on malite I felt I felt bad for him unbelievable call now garbage call it's like they didn't even see it it's like they just looked and maybe saw the quarterback falling and and through the flag you couldn't have watched it actually happen cuz it literally didn't happen no I I'm with you now they made up for that by let's be honest here that was not pass interference in the end zone either oh the mix up yeah yeah watch the replay that was yeah that was uh yeah I'm probably with you on that it probably looked like it because the ball was thrown in the wrong spot and maybe looked like you held him and I went and picked yeah yeah right but and again it's I I'm not going to get off on just bashing refs man because that is a tough tough job to make those kind of calls in real time bad I have I have a policy I personally have a policy against talking about penalties after they have already happened it's done right whether we agree with it or not that was the call and that's what it was and that's how it affected the game now I do I have a soft spot in my heart for guys that are playing as hard as they can and then get a call like that roughing yeah man that's nothing fish hitting was bad but none of that was why alurn lost like the targeting was the guy lowered his head what are we doing that was targeting I don't know what's happening but none of it was alurn lost it's just a bad afficiated game no agreed and and poorly officiated on both sides right like enough so that it made it equal now I want to go back to pton Thorne one last thing before we move forward because I think we obviously need to get off this but I think the thing that's most discouraging about pton because again it is the whole offensive operation that's the issue it's not just him by himself but at this point it is the lack of awareness that he plays with at times that is probably the most frustrating right yeah you think about the throw to cam down the sideline what was it a fourth down and he decides to go in to go deep 40 yards down the sideline yeah it was fourth and two the fourth and two you talking about fourth and two yeah yeah I didn't love that call well and I don't I'll be honest when I rewatched the replay I don't think cam was the was I think he was the second read right I think the first read was kls coming wide open yeah Robert Lewis Robert Lewis right behind him on the slant but that speaks to the point of Payton being a little bit rattled and when he gets rattled he doesn't see the middle of the field very well and so he threw to his comfort spot which was to the outside the other one that you can point to that's very tangible for everybody cam obviously gets injured I don't understand how you don't know that he's injured when May and maybe you're caught up in the play but how is in today's game right where you have the headset somebody's not on there saying hey Cam's hurt do not throw the ball to him he's a decoy in this take him out of your reads and you throw it there anyway yep and I think they knew because if you listen to hrees after the game he didn't say here's what hre said he said ham was hurt but the clock was moving and we needed to keep going the way he described that was cam was banged up but we needed to move and we didn't have time to get you out and get somebody in and okay if you're in well then where do we do we mix up the play call the way he described it was things are moving we had to go well which is which means they maybe knew his shoulder was banged and they were just rolling the issue was not communicating that and saying hey you can't go to cam right now he can't go because he yeah he was a he was a wounded duck he couldn't fight off the DB he couldn't even fight for the ball no well in my understanding of the situation is when I looked at it again I think they like the match up of personnel they had on the field they didn't want to sub they wanted to go Tempo yeah and so they wanted to keep that same matchup but like you said either that wasn't communicated to pton or pton just decided to disregard what he was told and decided to throw it to Ken pton said after the game he he did not know he goes I didn't know he was injured he goes I guess I yeah I didn't I threw it to him mean that was his he he didn't know he just took the back shoulder oneon-one oh man that's just that's tough for me to to swallow on that one that somebody didn't communicate that to him man like I just I don't understand how that happens I tell yall as I've sat here and tried to just figure it out and gone and researched and done everything I can I remember oh no I haven't no yeah I have I've I've done a lot on that um I still don't really have like a full answer I mean I can give you an experience I've had that that came to mind and so when I I was helping coaching offense I coached running backs um like I said still getting my feet wet and coaching I was not like a big coach on the staff or anything but I remember we had a quarterback who struggled with reading just reads and and short throws and rpos and we ran rpos this quarterback by the way now plays safety for the Cincinnati Bengals um yeah he does not play quarterback in the league he made it as a safety he was really really good at Nebraska you may now know who it is anyway um he didn't do well with the reads it really wasn't a quarterback we just had an athlete at quarterback right so the play calling to start the year and everything we'd gone through beforehand was hey you you know you got this read out here think we had a play called think this was our sign for it think you have a play where you read this guy when we realized he in the first couple games that he couldn't do it we changed the way that that was called all right you don't think about it anymore I'm going to tell you what to do before the play we think you run it right and I almost wonder if a little bit of that's going on because it's College okay you're a quarterback you're supposed to be able to do all the reads and everything you need to do sure but some people just don't do it well and I don't know if that's true for pton Thorne or not it's a question I have though it's something I'm questioning um is is it that they've told him look when you make your pre-nap read that's got to be it don't try to do anything extra it's not good for us so when it comes to a play like you were talking about the fourth and two the the the slot fade that didn't make a lot of sense because the safety was playing about eight yards off that's not a good read but is it the read they told him I don't know that's what that's what I question I think at the end of the day though even though all that may be true and a lot of people don't want to hear all that I got it it's not working with pton thorn in at quarterback yeah that's that's yeah that's the bottom line and it's at least it's at least on everybody's mind why can't you try something else right yeah for sure I mean it's game two it's almost a little too early for that everybody's still upset about the way it looked that has a lot to do with it sometimes it looks a lot worse than it is um but you know you're in your two now so you've seen a lot and he had to share time with Robbie Ashford a year ago that's not fair I I I don't think the two quarterback system's fair for anybody I don't believe that that's against my policy um so I don't think that was fair for him or Robbie Ashford for the for for that for that matter uh now he's got it by himself he's still struggling the question it begs the question why not try something else well and to your point at what point do you decide that pton Thorn is just pton Thorne right it I I said the same thing about dju last week when I was basically criticizing Florida State at what point do you just acknowledge they are who they are and either a you design a game plan around them that accentuates what they do or two you move on to a quarterback that can fit more into your system as far as what you're trying to accomplish but the two things they're mutually exclusive from one another because I think we have enough information on Payton at this point that what you tried to do yesterday is not a game plan that suits what he is able to do and be successful here at Auburn period right and it's it's by the way real quick it's what Philip Montgomery was doing earlier in the year last year that he was criticized for so bad his his plays were scheming open you can go to the Texas A&M game and see several plays that were open it could have worked but it didn't fit what they had and he didn't seem to understand why they couldn't execute it you got a little bit of that going on right now yeah you're you're going to have to decide who your personnel is and you're going to have to build a game plan around that period H because you can't what you can't do is I do think that seven and five is kind of that if you're if you're worried about mortgaging the future at all if you're worried about losing Equity I think that's kind of a gold standard line for you that you can't necessarily go beneath I mean look you could get to six and six and if it's the right six and six maybe but that's a tough sale man I mean even for somebody even for somebody who's an optimist over here in my seat like that's a tough sell to me I think seven and five has always been the line that you had to get to eight and five with a bowl win and I've been on record of saying that for a while now yeah have over 500 it's got to be right it's got to be right you have to show some progress otherwise you set yourself up for negative recruiting you set yourself up for other issues with your fan base with your donor base with everybody else there needs to be that momentum going forward showing that we're accomplishing and getting better year-over-year there has to be some some tangible proof of that right yeah I mean yeah 75 was the bare minimum I put it I I put it I put eight and four on them and and and for me that's what this team needed to be right um and I don't think you're wrong for for having that opinion Justin yeah I go ahead no I mean no no you're right I was just saying I I think in my mind I always thought the best talent on this roster was the young Talent yeah and that these kids were going to make some mistakes and so yeah I probably when I said seven and five I was building in some margin for for ER to have a game like this I just didn't think it would be against Cal and I think a lot of people didn't think it would be against Cal and that's probably where a lot of people are upset today when you think about being concerned you talk about ringing the alarm Bells if this game comes against Oklahoma do we have the same reaction probably not because I think a lot of us thought that that was possible against Oklahoma yeah but for this to come against cal It's who the opponent is and this happening is what's more alarming than this actually happening right oh yeah you're a double digit favorite you got team I had to put that disclaimer out there earlier this year because I I I feared for this day right well everybody that's on the you know Hugh freeze gives you one of these a year bandwagon it it hit early this year we got a long way to go um I mean listen we cow might be really good we're we're gonna find out what cow's made of moving forward come on now I mean dur in the ACC like I whatever maybe C has a good season they're not bad they're clearly not bad I think probably six and six seven and five type football team in ACC they were picked ninth 12 14th in the league like they could surprise people but it doesn't excuse no no no they're not World beers we saw on Saturday don't get me wrong I think y'all make a point the point y'all make about Payton is that's a tough one to argue like bottom line it's not working I mean like just in general that that's and I'm not even trying to argue it I'm just kind of like trying to be fair I don't I feel like that's a fair statement um and yeah but but but I'm just saying like if you're gonna make a change you got to do it you got one more week and then you're in you're into the SEC you're into SEC play so you're gonna if you don't do it now Nothing's Gonna Change next week if you don't do it now you're going to win pton will look fine next week nothing changes right so so then then what you you then then really it's just like well I'm gonna I'm gonna go a little bit longer I'm gonna see if Payton like I'm gon see if this looks like this again against Arkansas and then if it does then here's the problem you do that you do that then you mess around in that game and you could lose that one for two okay yeah not only could you lose that let's just say you mess around and it doesn't look great let's say somehow you win it but but you're like okay but man the offense did not look better like we're okay now it's ser ious you got Oklahoma so we're going to do TR out Hank against Oklahoma and an All-American safety and an All-American linebacker and you gonna try to out Hank against Oklahoma say all right do it against Oklahoma and then next week you're gonna go to Georgia and like I mean that's what I'm saying if you're gonna make the change like Hughes got some really hard decisions you gotta you got to roll it now to me otherwise you're risking it trickles in uh oh you lose Oklahoma what then you make the change mid-season and and now you're like praying you go to a bowl I mean now now now it's just I don't know I don't know like you don't I just feel like it's kind of a Tipping Point right now to make that to make that call or not and I don't know there's a bunch of stuff going into that if you're Hugh right we don't know it might say a lot if he doesn't about what Hank's sort of overall grasp of the concepts are If he if Hank's not out there that could say Hank's not there yet it does it say anything about Hugh is he is he is he potentially being stubborn because he because he stuck with Payton and he put his neck out he said I'm a Believer and all this stuff does he have does he feel like I can't I will get crucified if I change right now or do you got to swallow your pride and we know the we know the right answer if he thinks that sure um oh man that's that you know Justin the more I contemplate that that is such a hard answer right as to what you do there because it is interesting probably the next time you can really make a change is coming out of the bye I would think yeah um unless it's a situation where say you I mean Payton's just performing so poorly that you pull it him mid game and then maybe you know obviously it's the simil sit similar situation that you did with what Jeremy Johnson and Shawn White and you made that move I think Sean got some late snaps against LSU and then they decided to start in the next week against Mississippi State so maybe yeah right and lost that game right shouldn't have but lost that game against Mississippi state had it won um and you struggled to six and six that year made it to the Birmingham bowl with a one-legged Shawn White so I don't know how you approach it I don't know if you're H you know we talk about all these issues on offense do you just do you just put them on the board and go okay here's the four biggest problems what's the easiest to fit what's the easiest and most impactful because it's not just the easiest the easiest could be well we can fix that but that's not going to change much what is the easiest and the most impactful fix we can make in the shortest period of a time I is that P Brown is it is it is it something completely different yeah I think you have to make a determination about what you do best on offense I think you have to and and I'm going to let Cole get in here but you have to decide what your identity is going to be right now because if you're best suited to run the football and to be a run play action team then you better do that against New Mexico state and start to prepare an offensive game plan that that provides nuance and can set you up for Success against other teams you're going to compete against because I will be honest Arkansas can come in here and beat us they looked I mean Oklahoma state is not a top 20 team in my opinion but they went into still water and they played very competitively Bobby patrino is a good offensive mind I think Travis Williams would be fired up for that game you get Oklahoma beyond that who hasn't looked great they struggled with Houston last night theyve also didn't look fantastic to me against Temple so that's a winnable game um Kentucky got absolutely rolled by South Carolina who I think everybody thought was G to struggle and then Lenor sers has fantastic game for them so much so that Robbie Ashford even got some playing time um did he yeah had to sneak that one in tried not to smile when he said it that's what I'm laughing at I know Rob yeah was waiting to sneak that one in um people out there some people out there happy about that I'm sure yeah I'm sure there are I'm sure there are uh thought there probably had a good day yesterday but my whole point is that is is there a winnable games on this schedule left and this is a and I wrote that today I was like here's my really weak prediction guys as bad as Auburn looked Oklahoma didn't look great Kentucky got spanked and you know I mean A&M whatever I'm like they could still beat Oklahoma like they could still beat Kentucky they could still come home and who knows what they look like in November like they could still get to eight they could you know like I'm I'm not saying everything's great I'm not trying to be gloss over what happened but like you know no it's it's attainable I guess still it it is 100% attainable uh there's no reason why Auburn can't there's no reason why Auburn can't get to seven and five in my opinion like it is on the table there are teams that are comparable to you in this conference that have not played fantastic football I will tell you one that has looked better than I ever thought and that's Vanderbilt now give it the competition that they've been playing against but oh you know that game um that game is a little bit more difficult than I think anybody would have ever imagined at this point remember how Auburn fans under tuberville used to like just dread Arkansas that's what the that's so Auburn fans looking forward to the Vanderbilt game this year that is what Auburn fans in like 2006 felt about playing like Arkansas it was like oh dear lord I don't even want I don't even want any part when is that game is it 11:00 a.m. oh boy yeah like that game Auburn's got all kinds of problems and you're still looking ahead to vanderville like I don't want to do it I don't want to play it no i' I'd rather play anybody else in the conference I'm gonna be completely honest with you on that one then watching Jerry kill with his pack of Maro lights over there on the sideline but go ahead go ahead Cole I I wanted to touch on this um y' one of y'all made a point a minute ago it was it was kind of a minute ago but I'm I'm still stuck on it here so yeah um the it has to do with the margin of era and I'm I'm kind of losing my train of thought a little bit but I'm looking at drive seven that I've already done all right that was Auburn's I think we talked about this Justin they they had gone since like 542 in the first quarter without a first down up until this point and this was at 1154 in the third yeah yeah all right they got it going a little bit on this drive and I want I want to tell a little bit about those plays that they ran to actually do that I think that's important inside Zone and they they ran this Zone play where they don't where they don't read anybody they just block the read man and say just hand it off all right handled that well guess who didn't have to make a bunch of reads on that play pton Thorne yeah um keep going through here a couple things they get back in 12 Personnel by the way every time that they got in 12 Personnel I got positive plays for Auburn on here first down runs sixy runs a pass play that went for 14 out of 12 Personnel that's it guys that's what they got that's what we said a while back I know you got all these new weapons you you you're just chomping at the bit to try them out but this team's still built for 12 Personnel run of the football they just are you can't change that just because you got a couple of new players that can play that's still what the team was built for okay and okay I know what I was going to say when I wrote in final thoughts that I've never seen such undisciplined football I wasn't talking just about Auburn I was talking about the whole college football landscape there's dominance doesn't really exists that much anymore too much transition there's too much and another big problem is not tackling they don't tackle anymore at practice they have almost taken that out you can't just really tackle your guys one because you're word they're going to get injured they get hurt every time they get hit and two they don't do that anymore it's they have rules for it now where you can't tackle on certain days you can't wear full pads on only one day a week but I wanted to make the point I think Auburn does this well I think Auburn tackles well I think Auburn does things in the trenches well on offense and defense there's something there now you might lose some recruits over it you might lose one of these freeze four to the portal or something because they're not getting used you better win that's all I can tell you okay and you need to find something that works at this point and and I see that as working you can go to the play script right now and those were the positive plays for Auburn yeah it's there it's written it's written for for you go check it out I think the phrase that U my dad would use most often it's never sacrifice substance over style right and so you have to make sure that what you do your base Concepts mesh your personnel and that is the justtin to answer your question about the decision on Hank who does Auburn want to be on offense because if it's going to be an offense where they're going to want to feature wide receiver play I think you have to probably give him give him his due right you give him a shot you give him an opportunity to see what he does can he Elevate the play of those around him if you're going to build a game plan about probably what fits your personnel best and you're just going to feature pton Thorn it needs to be a run play action offense that you're right that mixes Personnel coal but you feature a lot of things because of the the versatility of revaldo Fairweather you can get creative in 12 Personnel um you can do some 11 you're going to have to give mixed looks you can't get too stagnant but I think that you have to build around the core of what works for you as an offense and only Hugh frees Derek Nicks Ken Austin and those people on the offensive staff can make that determination that's not something you I or anyone else can determine for them but and I would not force a square peg into a round hole Yeah because exactly at this point it is what am I willing to sacrifice the most all right you're going to give up something one way or another with every choice you make it's just the position position you're in as the Auburn head football coach in year two of a rebuild that wasn't clean all right you don't compare this to what dbor just took over at Alabama that's different their coach was not fired okay their coach went out on a very good note with a very good roster okay totally different I've seen that comparison thrown around so I wanted to put that out there this is not the same thing you had a coach fired you had a roster that was below 50 that had to be rebuilt from the ground up immediately you're still in the middle of that now recruiting has been fantastic but are you willing to take a little hit on that in order to win some football games because if you start going 12 personnel and running the ball some of these guys that want to see the ball thrown a lot may not be entirely happy so you have to make a decision at some point what's more important to you getting the best recruits or winning and I think your best chance at winning is 12 personnel and running the football whether it's good for your recruiting or not and then when they did that in the third quarter then when they tried to throw they allowed three sacks and two drives yeah like they literally just could not enjoy any success they started to run the ball okay running the ball moving the ball a little bit now let's call a pass play and then all of a sudden you couldn't even block it got so bad that it was like we can't even you can't even properly block for it and you had three sacks in the first two drives that killed both of them so the drive you're referring to is the one that I was talking about um Justin so here's what you got first and 10 inside Zone second and four it's an ISO play first and 10 it's a draw that's a run play second and seven you got GH counter without many reads that I could tell he hands it off okay then you go inside Zone on third that's what one two three four five run plays in a row all right now you got first and 10 you're starting to feel pretty good about yourself on this drive we're finally getting it going slot fade that's the overthrow to Robert Lewis let's see gota be coming at no no no no no no this is the sack where Luke Dill kind of whiffs on the guy and come straight at pton Thorne yeah he doesn't chip him at all not a great day for the tight ends by the way deal blocks Fraser Miss blocks ralo the ball not a great day for the tight ends right but you see the you see the trend there so yeah run run run run run and then we're going to we're feel better about it we're going to try to open it up a little bit and you know the Dam breaks and um you don't blame them because you know I mean they they had a good play call because that that safety was creeping down every time Auburn was running the ball they know they had to get somebody else in the box or they're about to get run on 100 times so they thought well he's creeping down let's let's try that slot blade because that's where the ball should be thrown and it was going to be there but you can't get it off and that's where you're stuck right now and you're just trying to find a way past that but I think the answer might be if if you're trying to like you said force a square peg into a round hole your best bet is to do it in the Run game right now not the pass game I I wish I wish Payton would just let it fly a little bit and it's one of the things I talked about before the season is and well I mean there some issues last year you know I wondered going into the year is is he is there any reluctance with him given what happened last year you know like does he feel like his leash is long enough to be just super aggressive and um I think it probably is I I don't think that's why maybe he's I think he's just got a little bit for whatever reason a little little bit of apprehension sometimes letting the ball I don't think it's because he thinks that freeze is always breathing down his neck and boy if I make one mistake I don't I don't think that's it he just has got and there's times where he does it right that's that's what's so frustrating there are times where pton does it and you were like perfect that ball he that RPO he threw to Keandre on a on the slant in was maybe first half but you know it was boom hits Keandre like great ball great catch great read like there's times I mean the the fade that he hit cam the first drive he dropped that in a bucket there's times where he does you're like money and then there's times where the just the just you know it's like phenomenal decision why are you holding the ball yeah H H how does how do both of those things happen in the same in the same game it it's it's just there's times where he gets rid of the ball to Robert Lewis and Robert Lewis went up and made that catch on about a 10 or 12 yard comeback Robert Lewis need to be involved a little more he looks pretty good um and then there's times where he doesn't there's times where it's like a comeback and he doesn't get rid of the ball and that's that's where I just can't answer that I don't know if that can be fixed I don't know what's causing pton to be a little apprehensive I I don't know if you're just like well give Hank a shot to sling it around it will take all the negatives that come with it you got recruiting you got to think about you can't tank you can't toss Hank in there and go five and seven man like no no nil you can toss all the money you want you will lose you will lose some momentum they recruiting to do that and so yeah a lot of a lot of tough decisions I think like in the next two weeks I would probably give Hank some first some reps at practice I'd probably give Hank some first team reps at practice I'd probably give Hank some reps in the New Mexico game a couple Drive give them give them four drive four or five drives and then lengthen this process and then go treat it like all this week the game and then even into the next week and then make your call before Arkansas like that's that's kind of how I would approach it if you want to stick with pton fine um but I would I would make the next two weeks you know open and let Payton you know rise or see if you see enough from Hank or you that's to me that's the probably the minimum you gota that you got to do yourself that favor no a coaching staff so you can come out and go man I I gave him a shot like you know and then you could come out and go listen I gave Hank first reps you I got him out there he just you know Payton still gives us the best chance to win and maybe you can still say that I don't know well and I'll give you two examples of what you're talking about here Justin um if you're looking for probably an exact comp of a very similar situation coming off of a two-year rebuild look at Mario uh down at Miami where they had a struggling quarterback in Tyler van djk for two straight years and basically the book was out on him and they had to make the tough decision early on in that season that kind of part ways with him and I think emry Williams who was a freshman uh that Auburn looked at for a little bit out of the the panhandle of Florida was the person that they turned to and he got them going there for a little bit and they ended up getting to seven and five after a five and seven season the year before and so that's probably stylistically of what you're looking at that's probably how you're going to have to go about it um if you're going to make that kind of a change but as far as creating transparency which is what you're talking about as far as quarterback play is concerned Alabama did it last year right where they been bened coming out of that Texas game week two benched their starter played their backup it was the most horrendous quarterback game I have ever seen it was awful man I mean well but that's what we saw yesterday but you know I mean it was just it was terrible dude and they ended up going back to milroe the next week H and it created transparency within the fan base of realizing that milro was their best opportunity to win and they put a game plan around him moving forward that made sense so those are two examples people making decisions after week two of hey this works for us this doesn't work for us and figuring out what the strength of their team was going to be so you're going to have to make the hard decision either make the change or don't make the change and then sill out to whatever you're going to do I love that coaching call that was made too I mean I really do it was it was smart to get you know let let milrose sit out and then see what the other guy does and it's kind of like the longest yard right the other guy thinks he can do it put him in there hey coach I can you know why why don't you let me be a quarterback and he tries it and he's terrible he's like that's why you know yeah Bruce you shouldn't have had that popcorn huh yeah yeah now sit down and shut up uh no I mean really and then they go back to milro and you're right the fan base knows at that point well that was obviously the best choice and now we understand that and and the problem is um the margin of error is a lot smaller at Auburn right now significantly right Nick sain has far more leash than Hugh frees at this tenure I you're talking about a guy who's won six national championships and Has stockpiled Talent on his team so if he wants to play with his food a little bit against South Florida he has the wiggle room to do so Hugh fre goes out there and they don't perform up to expectation against New Mexico well things are a little bit different the stakes are different right y so and it shouldn't necessarily be like Hugh should have all kinds of freedom in year two of a rebuild I agree but this it's just not how it works right um especially in today's AG of social media where every thing is you know it just it microwave mic microwave analysis right every everybody's got a take everybody's got an opinion everything circulates and so it just creates some drama um around a situation and and look I'm not going to lie and pretend like I liked what I saw last weekend and I'm not going to like it if if you see the same effort against New Mexico so I understand people complaining I'm not telling people that they shouldn't have a voice I'm just saying the process has been sped up to a degree and Hugh needs to understand that and own it yeah yeah good luck with that I think I haven't seen any indication so far that he wants to own a four-year rebuild or you know or own the fact that hey you need things need to be quicker I think if anything he's tried to he's tried his best to um to slow down expectations and to temper expectations and to downplay his roster and um you know some of that's fair and um and some of it maybe is not and I said before part of what he's up against is what happened before him you know you're up against you're up against the the apathy that set in at the end of Gus malan and then the absolute um you know just dismay of what we watched under Brian harson and so like you're just you you've got a fan base that's just fed up they're tired of excuses and so it's just maybe some of it's not fair but it is what it is but the quarterback things different I mean you know you you made the decision you there were there were portal options they were there we all know they were there there were there were guys you went after and didn't get there was guys you did not go after that you could have gotten that played well on Saturday okay I saw that KY McCord note I remember you putting that up play Jordan McLoud played pretty well like there are guys out there that they were good players and you chose you chose to for whatever reason to not do it and to stick with what you got so like that's one where you can't come back and go our roster just not there yet when it comes if you start flipping quarterbacks that's all on you had options you had options you made the choice here we are that's a good point um and so you know I get maybe some other you went and got some receivers whatever but if like the issues if you feel like if Hugh freeze feels like the issue is quarterback you you you had you had opportunities to go different routes and to change things up and you didn't so you got to own that you don't get to say give me give me four years when when teams are turning programs round in two between recruiting class and portal you can flip your roster twice I mean you flip you you can freaking flip your roster every you know year and a half at this point so sure and I I'm not looking forward to Monday though I'm not looking forward to I'm curious what hu frees is gonna say but I boy I can I can already picture it in my head I think it's going to be a lot of like I think it's be pretty somber like you know we just that was ugly football and I don't I it I think he's going be pretty transparent but it's it's not going to be pretty I think it's no it's going to be tough to watch um it it always is after games like this right because it you can tell that it weighs on the coaching staff it weighs on the fan base it it weighs on everybody involved the players I'm sure going to be feeling this somewhat um you would hope they'll be able to put this behind them and realistically this comes at a pretty good time because you do get a team that you have more Talent than a new Meo so if you are hung over slightly which could be the case I would hope it's not but it could be the case um you're not setting yourself up for necessarily a situation where you're at fear of being upset again um or you would think that now you're gonna have to get it out of your system by the time you play Arkansas because again I mean I watched a team that was motivated that liked each other they were playing hard for each other it was complimentary football they ran the football down Oklahoma State's throat you know what um what year is Sam Pitman in over there year four or five he was hired in 2020 I think a lot of Arkansas fans thought that was too much oh he's for sure on the hot seat this year I mean there's no question I mean yeah margin of error over there is much worse than what it is at Auburn right now um and it was put up or shut up and so far that's a good start for them I'm just saying you know sometimes the the rebuild takes longer than you want it to that goes for you freeze too I think Hugh frees shares similar frustrations to what the fans share uh for some things that's why I think he's maybe pushing to get that passing game going a little faster than they were ready and he said just what his words reflected in my opinion well I mean look at look at Missouri and Eli drink Woods right it was what three straight years of six and six and then they finally had a breakthrough last year yeah so and four years used to be like when Justin first started four years was an acceptable rebuild time right like you were you had three years as a grace period and then coming into year four that's when you kind of started de feel it a little bit right it that timetable is long gone at this point like you're coming out of year one you're going into year two and you damn sure better be getting better the second year right especially when you're when you're when you're taking money left and right and you got people people involved that are not just that they want not they not just that they expect it well that's I mean that's kind of the thing like you're you're involving a lot of people now and that's great that's awesome but whole lot more people have uh invested expectations that uh that you better meet and that's part of it it's like it's like if you're starting a business you can do it on your own but if you go bring in an investor you better believe they're going to want to return sure and that's going to happen a lot quicker than you want it to happen yeah absolutely man absolutely it's why private equity and college football make zero cents H because they all they want to see is a return on investment dude they don't give a damn how he gets to it either but you're right Justin that's why most of these coaches like people that I talk to think that you know what happened last week with the house case and the potential settlement not being there for rev share like that was a huge blow to some of these guys who thought okay okay we're going to finally have some stability and ability to generate our own money internally we're not going to be solely dependent upon booster uh involvement and fundraising for nil because that is the fear right the fear is is that people are going to get tired of writing checks and then what are you going to do because if you don't have nil in your pocket at this point woe be unto you my man because it is a it it is difficult to recruit when you don't have nil support it's and so we'll see that yeah I mean it think about how much of a Centric theme that is for a lot of recruitments I'm not saying it's the only selling part we talk about this on the recruiting show all the time there are other facets to recruitments but nil and what I'm going to make is a huge piece of any recruitment now yeah period how would it not be you know no I mean I it's completely understandable yeah it is well I think we've beaten this one to death um I you know we defense is fine like secondary got some stuff figured out that was good to see um but it's just yeah it's hard to not talk about I me the offense it's just not hard for that to be the primary thing that that comes out of that defense showed a little life and we'll see if they can continue to grow but um we'll see some hard decisions I think for the staff for Hugh FES for Kent Austin specifically on uh what is the issue and what the quickest way to fix it um and yeah I think that's that's where we're at I I could see a world where Payton's your guy if if if other things change and maybe you tweak something else with the offense or I could see a world where you give Hank Brown a shot but I think I think yall made a good point about it depends on what you want the offense to be and then maybe you know maybe go from there that might be certainly maybe that's the ground ground of where you start is like okay but I think they can throw the ball we talked receivers being open I just think I think stuff's there I just you know um I don't know maybe it's it's not refined a refined machine yet but I think there's some stuff there um we'll see what they do it'll be an interesting week interesting to hear H freeze on Monday talk about what he saw on film and and uh I just feel like it's gonna be a broken record um but we'll be here to cover it we'll be here to cover it um any parting shots uh who you think gets the most hate comments out of the three of us after this I think I think it's gonna be Zach I did gu DM me last night during the game he dm' me and just dropping F he's mad he dropping there was a whole thread on the board and you owe us our money back nice are we to that yeah Florida State Style no I think we've been I think we've been pretty fair we're not out here calling for calling for heads but I mean no but you have to be accountable for what the product you put on the field yesterday too at the end of the day um there needs to be in my opinion as far as a Parting Shot is concerned if I'm going to hear anything from Hugh freeze it's basically stating that what took place was unacceptable that does not meet our standard and we're going to continue to work better all continue to coach better continue to play better um and try to make this as best the product you possibly can but you got to accept accountability of the fact that that performance did not meet the standard of what you're trying to accomplish as the head football coach at alurn um and then the second parting shot would be Justin you were spoton when you said the anticipatory part of the game of playing quarterback that and accuracy are the two biggest parts of being an effective quarterback if pyton cannot play with better anticipation than he does when he gets right on when he's on Rhythm when he's on script he is an effective quarterback when he faces some adversity and he gets rattled a little bit it just for whatever reason the anticipation goes out the window and you just don't see it and that is not a recipe for Success moving forward I don't care who your quarterback is for sure I have nothing to add to that that's perfect that's fair that's fair we'll see how Monday goes I think my question to Hugh will be what surprised you about what you saw on Saturday like that's a great question what what was like was there something that you were like just really shocked by that performance I mean year two it looked like year one it looked like literally a year ago what was the most surprising part of of the breakdowns um I'd be curious to hear because Philip Montgomery is not here to be you know he can't take blame for that right and I'm not saying H saying that I'm I'm just saying he's you fired your OC after one year but I would want to know what surprised you because that would tell me what his expectations were going in and it would maybe tell me where he thought a group was and maybe I they're not where I thought they were and uh you know it would kind of Point me towards maybe what he thinks is the biggest issue is like what were you the most what were you most surprised about about how it broke down maybe he says past Pro maybe he says who knows what um but yeah I think I think there's some a lot of frustration and we'll see how they can bounce back a lot of young guys a lot of young players got to have some good leadership um Payton's among those yeah and so it'll be uh interesting week of practice probably a little hangover next week fans will be a little hung over I mean I don't I think it'll be a very meh atmosphere probably but they'll get through it because they're better than New Mexico and um you know you kind of got a week or so to get your head right but oh be an interesting Monday all right everybody we'll come back later in the week we'll do the modcast before New Mexico plenty of recruiting and football coverage at Auburn live.com so make sure and join us a lot of recruiting shows during the week um as we await dece KN Duce Knight's decision um he I did joke with somebody earlier I'm like it's dece night going okay so the two teams I'm thinking about lost to Northern Illinois and Cal today yeah can I just restart this maybe um he's probably more confused than ever um we'll see what happens all right guys appreciate it auburn.com go subscribe if you're not there we'll talk to you guys next time