When 34-0 isn’t good enough

By John McMullen  |   Friday, September 05, 2008  |  Comments( 2 )

Auburn Tigers
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"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a philosophical riddle designed to raise questions about observation and knowledge of reality.

The most immediate philosophical topic that the riddle introduces involves the existence of the tree (and its sound) outside of human perception.

To be blunt, I'm not smart enough to answer that. What I do know is that in football, when everyone sees a rout, a lot of people just don't perceive it as such.

As an example, look no further than ninth-ranked Auburn's 34-0 season-opening win over Louisiana-Monroe from last weekend.

Sure looks like a rout, right?

Not so fast, though, as the game was universally described as a disappointment for the Tigers and perhaps rightfully so. Anything short of perfection against a have-not like Louisiana-Monroe wasn't going to be acceptable to the Auburn faithful.

Even Tommy Tuberville was far from pleased.

"It’s always fun when everybody is disappointed in winning 34-0, but we're not the least bit disappointed in how we played in a couple of areas," the head coach said. "We'll win plenty of games if we keep improving and understanding what we're trying to do. I think the big thing in anything that you're trying to do is trying to get better and understand where you're going."

Sure, Tuberville was probably taking a shot at the people who spun a 34-0 game into a failure, but the coach himself only admitted he wasn't disappointed "in a couple of areas."

No one in his or her right mind could have been pleased with the performance of the passing game -- which rung up a total of 85 yards in the much-ballyhooed spread offense. Quarterbacks Kodi Burns, who was injured, and Chris Todd both looked lost against inferior competition and that's never a good sign.

"It all starts with the approach you take," Tuberville said. "We took a very different approach last week and we were going to alternate quarterbacks and do those things. Obviously you can't do that and get any kind of rhythm. In the future, we are going to find a quarterback and someone who is going to get the job done on a long leash."

However, the running game, defense and special teams all showed up and made solid contributions.

"Defensively, we're off to an excellent start," said Tuberville. "Anytime you've got a shutout, you've done a pretty good job. We're a little bit disappointed that we missed some tackles and we were lined up wrong, but our guys attacked the ball well."

The Tigers now move on to face a legitimate program in Southern Miss on Saturday. The Golden Eagles are also 1-0 after opening their season last Saturday with a rout of their own, a 51-21 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.

Southern Miss also had its game plan for Auburn tailor-made by the ineffectiveness of the Tiger passing game. You can bet Auburn will see a steady dose of eight- or even nine-man fronts until one of the quarterbacks proves he can make a play down the field.

Todd will get every opportunity to do exactly that against the Golden Eagles and this time, another blowout may actually mean something.

"This week, Chris Todd will start and we'll have the same game plan as last week," Tuberville said. "The thing that we want to do is coach better and get us in the right frame of mind in terms of what we want to do; try to be a little more balanced and if we can do that, then we'll be successful."
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About John McMullen

John is the managing editor of The Phanatic Magazine, the assistant managing editor of The Sports Network and the co-host of the highly rated 'Johns on Sports' radio show on WTBQ in New York. Every Saturday from 6:30-9 p.m. (et) you can hear John along with his co-host, John Gottlieb, talk to the...
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