“If you think there is such a thing as an unimportant game, just try losing one.” … Gene Stallings, former Alabama and Texas A&M football coach.
“All losses are not created equal.” … Can’t find who said it, but somebody should have.
Just ask former Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr … Wolverines lost to upstart Appalachian State in the Big House in 2007.
Just ask former Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt … Volunteers lost to 25-point underdog Georgia State in 2019 in Knoxville.
Just ask Florida State head coach Mike Norvell … Seminoles lost to 26.5-point underdog Jacksonville State in 2021 in Tallahassee. Two seasons later, his FSU team is undefeated, a candidate in the CFP national championship picture.
Just ask Georgia head coach Kirby Smart … Bulldogs lost to Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech in his first season in Athens, lost five games. Now, it has won two consecutive national championships, could win its third straight, has won its last 28 games.
Just ask former LSU head coach Nick Saban … Tigers lost at home to UAB in 2000, his first season in Baton Rouge. Three years later, the Tigers won the national championship.
Just ask Alabama head coach Nick Saban … Crimson Tide lost at home to 25-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe in 2007, his first season in Tuscaloosa. That Warhawk team lost six games. Two years later, the Crimson Tide won the national championship.
Just ask Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze!
What happened in Lee County on Saturday is not that difficult to explain. In a sense it could have been expected … except, of course, for the margin of the loss and how easy it appeared to be for New Mexico State to outplay and outcoach Auburn in every way the game could be evaluated.
My first Auburn football game to attend was in the 1950s. The last Auburn football game that I didn’t attend/cover in-person was early in the 1981 season. That’s well over 500 consecutive and heading toward 700 overall.
Trying since Saturday to remember any game, any time, against any opponent which exhibited a greater magnitude of Auburn ineptness than happened against the Aggies has been an unsuccessful exercise. I don’t think there has been one. That’s a pretty broad statement, but if any Auburn fan or any SEC historian can think of one, please let me know.
Before justifiably criticizing Auburn and giving a dose of reality, New Mexico State should be given some credit, which not many observers, especially in the Southeastern part of the country, have been willing to do.
The Aggie program was started in 1893, one season after Auburn started its program and defeated Georgia. Some will consider this the best Aggie team ever, for sure the greatest Aggie season in the last six decades. Only once in the program’s 130-year history has there been double-digits in wins (1960).
Not since 1965 (58 years ago) had New Mexico State won eight games. The win over Auburn gave it the ninth win for the first time since 1923 and will be considered among the greatest wins in Aggies history, even if it was against a middle-of-the-road Auburn team with a first-year head coach and many new coaches.
The Aggies haven’t won a conference title in 45 years (1978), but will play undefeated Liberty in the C-USA Championship Game. Quite an accomplishment for a team that has lost over 60 percent of games in program history.
So, the team that beat Auburn isn’t a pitiful little team undeserving of its $1 million-plus revenue from the game. It isn’t Abilene Christian, Georgia State, ULM, FIU or Chattanooga – teams that other conference teams trounced this past weekend. Coming off the emotional high from the Auburn game, the Aggies may not beat Jacksonville State on Saturday, but they almost certainly would have handily defeated the other teams listed in the previous sentence.
So, give the devil his due as they say. This is not a bad, inferior New Mexico State team. The Aggies were the better team in Jordan-Hare and deserved the win. They would have beaten a good many SEC teams that day. Let their fans enjoy something that has almost never happened and wish them well.
With all that said, there’s no way to sugar coat what Auburn did on Saturday. It was an embarrassing total beatdown. The score accurately reflected what happened on the field.
How do you figure it? The Tigers had won three consecutive SEC games, including a 38-point demolition of Arkansas (the Razorbacks only lost by three points in Tuscaloosa, and a week earlier had won in Gainesville). The Tigers were already bowl eligible and had opened as only an eight-point underdog to Alabama on Thanksgiving weekend. Informed fans realized that the Aggies would post a challenge, but … a 21-point win!
Did Auburn players, coaches and fans take this game seriously enough – or seriously at all? There didn’t seem to be much energy, much concentration, much emotion, much concern.
Maybe it was because of the beautiful day. Weather was warm; sky was cloudless. Judging by the short-sleeves and pastel shorts and a lot of coed outfits, it had the feel of a September game day at Florida. Didn’t seem like a day that could end in gridiron disaster.
For sure, the team played poorly … everywhere.
The offensive line couldn’t block for the running game. Jarquez Hunter, who had around 450 rushing yards in the past three games, gained 27 yards. It couldn’t block for the passing game – Payton Thorne threw for under 150 yards; only two receptions were for over 20 yards; Thorne was sacked four times; Thorne was too often forced to scramble, having 17 carries, averaging just 2.2 yards per time.
The defense was shockingly porous. The Aggies had 23 first downs, 414 yards total offense, were successful on 8-of-14 third-down and fourth-down conversion attempts, and kept the ball for almost 39 minutes compared to 21 for Auburn.
The coaching staff was overwhelmed, never having an answer for the Aggies game plan, and being outsmarted by trick plays and unexpected decisions from across the field.
The players were undisciplined, called for nine penalties, including several for illegal motion, along with several that brought back long gains and plays deep into New Mexico State territory. And, there were questionable potentially game-changing calls, all going against the Tigers – an obvious Aggie fumble recovered by Auburn that would have ended a scoring opportunity, a catch was ruled an Aggie touchdown when ball control and the boundary both could have been in question.
Freshman placekicker Alex McPherson was perfect again on field goal and extra point attempts, still with no misses this season. That fact pretty much wraps up any positive things that could be said about the home team.
Regardless of all these things, the Auburns of college football shouldn’t lose to the New Mexico States of college football.
So what happens the rest of this season?
Alabama probably defeats Auburn comfortably, keeping alive its “gotta-have-luck” chances for a CFP berth, while the Tigers wait another week to find out their bowl invitation location.
Already this week, I’ve seen two messages from fans predicting the outcome of the upcoming game in Jordan-Hare.
“Auburn’s going to catch Bama off guard, them looking ahead to playing Georgia, and win in a close one,” one said.
I guess that’s possible. It is true that the Tigers won three of the last five played against Alabama in Auburn. Since coach Saban came to Tuscaloosa 16 years ago, Auburn has won five times; no Tide opponent has won more times. Still, that seems unlikely.
“Ugly! A slaughter. Something like 55-6,” said the other one.
Also unlikely, but probably more likely than that first prediction. Of the 63 Auburn-Alabama games that I’ve attended/covered in-person, the Tide has won by four touchdowns or more 12 times. So, that actually could happen, but probably won’t.
What about that game last Saturday in Jordan-Hare?
Could it have been the ‘Louisiana-Monroe’ game at the start of Hugh Freeze’s Auburn career? Not saying that his Tiger teams are going to start competing for and winning championship games soon. But Auburn is underway with outstanding 2024 and 2025 recruiting classes and despite understandable fan disappointment, there’s no indication that one loss has started the collapse support for the Freeze Era in Auburn.
You have to figure that lessons were learned against the Aggies and that another game won’t be approached and implemented by Auburn in that same way. If there is a repeat of last Saturday anytime soon, Coach Freeze shouldn’t expect another tolerant response from Auburn folks. There won’t be … and there shouldn’t be.
After last Saturday, Alabama has to be the solid choice this Saturday from any realistic observer, including me. Probably by a large margin; probably not 55-6.
But, could Auburn win? Have stranger things happened?
Sure they could and sure they have.
Just check out the list of games at the start of this column. And, remember what Gene Stallings and that other guy had to say.
