I made the 4 hour drive from Knoxville, TN to Auburn for the game, I was seated 6 rows up from the field on about the goal line. I sat next to two former Tulane players Debo Monroe and Eric Hicks, as well as 3 of Fritz's former Georgia Southern players who gave a unique perspective...Here are my observations:
- The defense played well enough to win the game.
- Defensively we were not over matched physically, in fact we kicked some arse until we got tired in the 4th qtr.
- The team is VERY well conditioned, it was soooooo hot out there, my sweat was sweating. We had I believe one player cramp up and Amare Jones needed an IV but that was it. Amare is a warrior!
- Our O-line was a bit over matched, and #5 for Auburn is a frickin' man-child. That kid looked every bit the 1st round draft pick.
- Our receivers struggled to get speration from their DB's...and we are trying to force it to Jalen McClesky.
- Our WR's, TE's and RB's let us down in the pass game, gotta make that catch Tyrick James, it is a different ballgame if he comes down with that. Bradwell also dropped a perfect throw on a swing pass which would have been a big gain.
- A lot of our rush offense is carried over from Georgia Southern including the calls in the run game.
- Refs bent us over with no Vaseline, not an excuse just stating facts.
- Very optimistic about the rest of the season though, we had a chance to win if we played our best, alas we didn't...
- I am hoping this game is like the Syracuse game in '97 was for us, there were a lot of frustrated players after the game. No one was happy with the performance, staying in the game wasn't the goal, winning was.
