The Bodda Getta

at 60 i think if he can get 5 more years he will be happy to retire from AU.

My point exactly. Blaming poor defense on the offense is just an excuse. Granted a slow ball control offense can help a weak defense's stats but winning comes down to stopping the other team more than they stop you.

I agree. Blaming a poor defense on the offense is not a good answer, BUT the more chances the opposing team has on offense the more likely the stats will be inflated somewhat. You should not expect 3 and outs every time the defense takes the field. That is obviously the goal but hardly reasonable in my opinion. I would expect our team wants 80-100 plays on offense and the other team 50-60 plays. That should equal wins most of the time.

Never went to sleep during AU wins of 3-0 & 7-6. But I never enjoyed an offense more than the Sullivan era and the 2009 & 2010 wins over the Updykes as well as most all the 2010 offensive games. The Updykes can't admit it, but their 2009 NC team was in deep trouble against AU being down 14-0 1st Qtr. If AU had handled that Updyke flare pass to the right at the end of the game like Texas A&M did this year, their NCs would only be 49!

Other big name players that went under the radar on recruiting websites: Colt McCoy (3-star), Sam Bradford (3-star), Justin Blackmon (3-star, 91st ranked WR). I realized a while ago that rankings don't mean much when I see teams like TCU and Boise State killing it with a bunch of 2-star recruits.

Only thing about the recruiting rankings is how does Saban have the number 1 ranked class and win almost every game

I did not say recruiting ranking don't matter, but you'd better be evaluating and not recruiting based simply on stars. Alabama has done a great job of evaluating, recruiting and developing players. Auburn has done a good job of recruiting and not done a very good job of either evaluating or developing players or both. The point is that recruiting rankings don't matter if they don't translate into wins.