🏈 Scarbinsky: Will Muschamp or Lane Kiffin - who ya got?

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Just when you think the Iron Bowl rivalry has reached the saturation point when it comes to drama, Auburn tries to combat Alabama's wildly successful hire of a former SEC head coach as offensive coordinator with a similarly headline-making choice on the defensive side of the ball.

Lane Kiffin, meet Will Muschamp.

Is this state big enough for the both of them?

It's a shame we have to wait 12 months to see Kiffin and Muschamp try to work their magic against each other from opposite sidelines. After the Kick Six and 55-44, the 2015 Iron Bowl was going to have a hard time keeping up, but the new storyline of dueling hot coordinators just injected a whole lot of juice into next year's game.

In the interim, they'll be competing from afar every day, and we'll be watching and listening to every move they make and every word they say.

Muschamp has to prove that he can do something Kiffin's already accomplished. Can he form the kind of odd couple/power couple with Gus Malzahn that Kiffin has with Nick Saban?

Like Kiffin and Saban, Muschamp and Malzahn have very different personalities, but all four men share the most important trait needed to succeed at their high-profile positions. They're all ball coaches at heart.

No one works harder at his craft than they do, and the results show up on the field.

Muschamp's name and reputation alone will improve Auburn's defensive recruiting, and his knowledge and work ethic will get the most out of the defensive talent on hand in spring practice and fall camp.

If he's as successful as Kiffin has been at getting the most out of the players on his side of the roster, Auburn will play better defense next season than it has in years.

Will it be good enough, combined with Malzahn's offense, to take back the SEC title and a spot in the national championship postseason from Alabama?

Stay tuned. The population of the most interesting men in the college football world living and working in the state of Alabama just increased by one. Which means the best rivalry in the sporting universe just got better.

Continue reading...

 

[TerryP]

If he's as successful as Kiffin has been at getting the most out of the players on his side of the roster, Auburn will play better defense next season than it has in years.

Absolutely no reason to believe this.

Is Muschamp a better DC than Ellis Johnson. Sure.

But let's be practical for a minute. The style Muschamp runs is the same as Saban's; a 3-4 over/under scheme. The personnel at Auburn have been recruited for a 4-3 scheme (recall, EJ was running a 4-2-5 but with a defensive line in a 4-3 type base.) There's going to be, at the very, very least, a one year gap before he gets his type of players in for his system.

It's usually as many as two or three years to get those players playing correctly within the system. Simply put, without a true NT on their roster, there's no reason to suspect they'll be any better next season. History simply doesn't support the notion.

 

[UAgrad93]

Exactly @TerryP! I've been telling my Barner friends that they need to pump their brakes! I also asked them if Muschamp had any eligibility left because their defense couldn't tackle for shit!! Some clamored that EJ couldn't recruit and didn't recognize talent and now Muschamp will correct that. I told them that while the DC has some say on his side of the ball when it comes to recruits, ultimately, it falls on the desk of the HC to give the green light to offer. I also told them that it would take 2-3 years for their defense to truly see improvements because they must recruit to the system and weed out those from the previous system.

 

[Bamabww]

Will he get better players recruiting for the barn than he did recruiting for the gators or the longhorns? We've seen drastic improvement with our offense since Kiffin arrived but since Muschamp left Coach Saban has he really done any good defensively anywhere? He had some success at Texas, enough to get him the "coach in waiting" title and we see where that got him.

He hasn't caused us any problems when we faced his defense except maybe 2007 but that was a whole different Bama team compared to now and going forward.

 

[TerryP]

He hasn't caused us any problems when we faced his defense except maybe 2007

That was a pretty stingy defense that season for AU. It seems like we didn't get 250 total in that game. However, Auburn didn't get but around 50-60 yards more than the Tide did that day—won it in the last four minutes when they recovered an onsides kick, as I recall.

Bottom line, it certainly wasn't a dominating defensive performance. Hell, what did we do the last part of that season? Dropped four in a row, didn't we? (UL Monroe the week before Auburn, LSU and Miss State that month as well.)

 

[UAgrad93]

That was a pretty stingy defense that season for AU. It seems like we didn't get 250 total in that game. However, Auburn didn't get but around 50-60 yards more than the Tide did that day—won it in the last four minutes when they recovered an onsides kick, as I recall.

Bottom line, it certainly wasn't a dominating defensive performance. Hell, what did we do the last part of that season? Dropped four in a row, didn't we? (UL Monroe the week before Auburn, LSU and Miss State that month as well.)

That 07 bunch also had a few kids that were reluctant to "buy in" to The Process. I believe our boys on defense heard the word and believed it but some on the other side didn't listen. Applewhite as the OC wasn't a huge bonus either.