Thoughts on Season...short

One of my biggest pet peeves in college football (and Auburn in particular) is a coach's reluctance to play his young players because they aren't "ready" or don't "know" the offense/defense well enough. Under Tubs, we have rarely played any true freshmen (Caddy being the glaring exception and he was the number 2 or 3 ranked signee in the country that year). This has definitely come back to haunt us in recent years. In 2005 Kenny Irons led the SEC in rushing with over 1300 yards. And he did that only playing in 10 games. He sat out the Georgia Tech game to start the season because Tuberville and Borges said he didn't know the blitz pick ups well enough to face Tech's blitz happy defense (to make things even more maddening Kenny wasn't some green true freshman just out of high school...he played two seasons of SEC ball at South Carolina!!). So instead we played Tre Smith almost exclusively and had zero running game and, as I recall, Brandon spent a lot of time on his butt and threw four picks. So much for the experienced player theory. Now fast forward to this season. It's been obvious to the people who cover Auburn and who've attended practices the last two years that Mario Fannin is an absolute stud and the best RB on Auburn's roster. Now, every Auburn fan who watched Saturday night's game has seen the proof bust through the line and speed past defenders...Fannin is leaps and bounds better than Ben Tate. But who got all the carries in the season opener? Ben Tate. And what was the rationale? Mario didn't know the blocking schemes well enough. What happened to Brandon against K-St? He got sacked six times, knocked on his arse several more, and generally looked like a scared middle school Matt on a date with an actual girl (that was pretty scared if you didn't know me back then). And then they pull Fannin in the USF game just because he fumbled twice. Now their excuse is they were afraid if he fumbled again it would have an adverse affect on his psyche for the rest of the season. They were protecting him???? Are you kidding me? How many stud FB recruits out there lack in self confidence. I guaran-damn-tee you he was itching to get back in there and make a play. And really, when your season is potentially on the brink in the second game and it's the fourth quarter and your offense has been absolutely stagnant since the second quarter and you need someone, ANYONE to step up and make a big play wouldn't you want the single most TALENTED player on your offensive roster in the game??? Wouldn't you??!?!!! I sure as hell would (did). Now, let's divert our attention for a few minutes to a few other programs that have a little bit of national respect. First, let's take off our Pac-10 hating hats and look at USC. They are without a doubt the most successful football program in the country in the last five years and they deserve most of the accolades they've received. Pete Carroll has that team absolutel stocked with blue chip players year after year. And you know what his philosophy on freshmen getting playing time is??? It's this: the best players will get on the field. If you're good enough to play, you will play, regardless of your class or how many starts you've made. There's no way that Tuberville, Gran, or Borges could look any of us in the eye and tell us that Ben Tate had been practicing better than Mario Fannin in the lead up to the K-State game. No way. Now let's take a sneak peak at Florida. We all kind of made fun of the whole Tebow thing last year. There was so much talk and hype about them installing several new plays in the playbook just form him, but everyone knew that when he was in the game he was just going to take that direct snap and run the ball into the line. Well, you know what? It worked. He had over 300 rushing yards and something like 10 touchdowns. Had they used him properly in the AU game in the second quarter they would have beat us and gone undefeated. As it stands, I believe they won the national title and now he is looking like a All-American (granted their competition hasn't exactly been all that tough) in his second season. Over at Virginia Tech they came into the season with a solid defense, a fragile upperclassman at QB, and a stud true freshman waiting in the wings (any of this sound familiar?). In the second quarter of the second game they pulled their version of Brandon Cox and put in the stud freshman. Now, I realize that Auburn was actually leading at halftime of the USF game and that Virginia Tech was basically scrimmaging as LSU had already wrapped up the game by the end of the first quarter. Still, Va Tech's coaching staff made the decision that this kid gave their offense the best chance to score points and win. This week they named the freshman the starter. Now, I'm not saying Brandon needs to be dumped completely. He has certainly performed wonderfully in big games for us throughout his two and a half seasons. Hell, he's 20-6 as a starter. But you can't tell me that he's a confident leader of this offense right now. All I ask is that Auburn insert a few plays into the scheme to get Kodi Burns on the field this week and see what he can do. Maybe he comes in for two or three "Tebow draws" this week and then gets a series or two in the next game against New Mexico State. Maybe he turns out to be unprepared and really needs a redshirt year. But maybe he turns out to be poised beyond his years and inspires the rest of the offense to raise the level of their games. Maybe they start playing up to their capability and stop putting the defense in crappy situations and maybe we can win a few games against solid competition. Okay, this has started to unravel a bit and I need to work on an assignment for my education class. Here's my overarching point...Keep Fannin in the game and put a few plays in for Burns. If Chris Slaughter is the best WR on the team, get him out there and involved. Okay, happy Wednesday.