Auburn Preview

BattleBells.com

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Oct 22, 2012
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You have the season opener and the home opener, but really all that matters is the SEC opener.

The Dawgs travel to Auburn and face the Tigers in their sixth consecutive conference debut, with MSU taking last year's, 28-10.

But this season is a little different. At least for Auburn. Gus Malzahn is back and in charge. Malzahn, the offensive guru that helped lead the Tigers to their national championship, has employed the rushing attack (14th in the nation) effectively so far (2-0). In fact, 5 of their 7 TD's have been on the run. They like to spread it out and spread the wealth among three junior RB's. And even junior QB Nick Marshall gets plenty of carries.

Side note: Expect QB Marshall to win the Eli Manning Award for dumbest looks to the sideline, always with glazed eyes and mouth agape.

On the MSU side, the offense is more of a mystery. Seniors Tyler Russell and LaDarius Perkins will return from resting during the Alcorn State victory that saw State explode on offense. Although that was expected, two impressive performances by QB Dak Prescott and RB Ashton Shumpert have to make Mullen question how to divide up the opportunities.

But MSU should find comfort in its defense. Although still early, they're 27th in the nation for points allowed, 4th in SEC.

Another opener, another pivotal game.

At Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium. 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

It's gonna be a battle.
 
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was21

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May 29, 2007
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What's not a mystery is that TR is a fifth year senior and still makes poor passing decisions.
 

was21

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Understand what you mean, but mystery or no mystery, it's simply a fact.
 

BattleBells.com

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Oct 22, 2012
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Mullen needs to figure out how to structure the rest of the team around TR's strengths. He may make poor passing decisions, but he does have experience. The problem we see long term is the length of time any new QB gets to play over his entire college career. You have to play chess, not checkers. Either get rid of TR now and get Dak ready for next year (or the year after), or restructure around TR's strengths. It rarely ever works to split time. The team needs a leader on way or another. Splitting time only takes away from this.
 

was21

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May 29, 2007
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It's been reported that TR is a leader...ok....trying to make a laundry list of his strengths. I must have writers' cramps....can't get started. I mean, I like him and all...seems like a good guy.
 

BattleBells.com

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Oct 22, 2012
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Yeah.. imagine having to tell a guy who has lived for this season his whole life (not really seeing NFL anytime soon), that he's being replaced by a hotshot fresh out of high school. Wouldn't be fun, but it needs to be done sometimes to build a program.
 

was21

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May 29, 2007
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Don't know if any of the others would be better. Like most other critics, the offense just seems not to have a natural flow.
We all remember how painful it was to watch a Crooms offense, and guess this one is better than that one, but still don't know what he's actually trying to do with it.
 

NCDawg.sixpack

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Aug 23, 2012
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I would like to think we can win with Tyler, but with the poor performance of our OL, I'm not sure that we can. IMO, we need to utilize the read-option attack like we did against Ole Miss in '09, when Relf ran all over them. Think we have a similar QB in Prescott, who can run it, and is a better passer than Relf.