Here's another thing - I have seen people post since the Iron Bowl from tons of people here (and everywhere else) saying that we got beat by an AU team with 3/4 star talent. A lot of people have made comments like "AU is only got 2 or 3 players that would be on our roster", which is totally wrong as well. AU has several linemen on both sides of the ball that would absolutely play here and a good argument could be made for Mason, and possibly Coates as well. Prosch would be a monster at HB here as well. Here is Auburn's starting lineup and frequently contributing players and star ratings everybody loves to talk about.
OFFENSE:
QB Nick Marshall - 4* JUCO
RB Tre Mason - 4*
RB Cameron Artis Payne - 4* JUCO
RB Corey Grant - 4*
FB/HB Jay Prosch - 2*
WR Sammie Coates - 3*
WR Ricardo Louis - 4*
WR Quan Bray - 4*
WR Trovon Reed - 5*
TE CJ Uzomah - 4*
LT Greg Robinson - 4*
LG Alex Kozan - 4*
C Reese Dismukes - 4*
RG Chad Slade - 3*
RT Patrick Miller - 4*
DEFENSE
DE Dee Ford - 4*
DT Nosa Equae - 4*
DT Gabe Wright - 4*
DE/DT Montravious Adams 5*
DE/OLB Carl Lawson - 5*
LB Kris Frost - 5*
LB Jake Holland - 4*
LB Cassanova McKinsey - 4*
S Robinson Therezie - 4*
S Jermaine Whitehead - 4*
CB Jonathan Mincy - 3*
CB Chris Davis - 3*
CB Ryan Smith - 3*
That breaks down as:
(1) 1*
(5) 3*
(18) 4*
(4) 5*
If you take the 28 players listed above that see significant playing and add their star ratings all together and divide by 28 you would have 3.84 star average. This is good enough to be a top 5 class every single year.
AU's last 4 recruiting classes according to Rivals and Scout are listed below.
2010 - #4 Rivals/#6 Scout
2011 - #7 Rivals/#2 Scout
2012 - #10 Rivals/#8 Scout
2013 - #8 Rivals/#14 Scout
To think AU isn't talented is flat wrong. In fact, AU only has two less 5 star players in their starting lineup than we do (TJ, CyKo, HaHa, OJ Howard, Collins, and A'Shawn).
With that said, we are more talented than AU, but its not nearly the difference people think it is. If I had time, I'd break down our starting lineup for comparison. (I may do that tomorrow evening if I have time).
Malzahn's offense is designed to make inferior players competitive with more talented teams, but the reality is that AU is one of the top 3 or 4 talented teams in the SEC behind us, UGA, and possibly/barely behind LSU. Florida would normally be up there, but at this time, AU has more talent on their starting lineup than Florida does right now. AU doesn't have the depth we do at all, but they remained pretty healthy this year. We were very banged up going to this game, and still should have won by more than 2 TD's in a hostile environment.
This is something I wish people would keep in mind before discounting them as rag tag team that is just lucky. They are a talented, well-coached team.
