AUBURN | Problems. So many problems.
It’s clear after two games this Auburn team has too many holes to plug and not enough players to get the job done. They’ll be lucky to win six games.
Or perhaps not.
Auburn can’t throw the ball consistently or create big plays out of passing game, the defensive line doesn’t make enough plays in the backfield and the secondary can’t stay with the most average of receivers on the simplest of routes.
The Tigers managed just 378 total yards against a San Jose State defense that gave up 395 to FCS Portland State a week earlier.
The only possibly conclusion to reach from this irrefutable information is a disastrous 2022 season is upon us.
Probably or possibly. Heck, I don’t know.
The one thing I do know based on my 22 years of covering Auburn and many, many more watching and absolutely loving college football, is drawing too many conclusions from two non-conference games to open the season is a mistake.
Sure, I have many of the same concerns about this year’s team as I had in the summer. But concerns aren’t truths and I suspect much of what Auburn has done on both sides of the ball has been fairly basic over the first two weeks.
When it comes to this week’s matchup against No. 22 Penn State, I’m not sure how good the Nittany Lions are either. And even if they are a better team than Auburn right now, it doesn’t mean they’ll win Saturday afternoon in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
I can say for certain that Auburn fans are hungry for a big win and I suspect whatever doubts they may have will be put aside in five more days.
Big games in Jordan-Hare are special because Auburn fans turn out and turn up every single time. And this is certainly a big game.
I’m confident Auburn’s players are going to lay it on the line too and by early Saturday evening we will know a whole lot more about this team than we think we do now.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 24 years to the day a debut female solo album opened atop the charts on its way to being one of the best selling and acclaimed of all time. On Sept. 12, 1998, Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill made its debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It included several hit songs such as Doo Wop (That Thing), which spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 100, Ex-Factor and Everything Is Everything. The album mixes hip hop, neo soul, R&B and reggae and includes music and lyrics about her breakup with the Fugees, her pregnancy, love and God. It won five Grammy Awards including Album of the Year, the first hip hop album to achieve that honor. It’s ranked 10th on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and was selected by the Library of Congress to be included in the National Recording Registry in 2015.
Lauryn Noelle Hill was born in 1975 in Newark, N.J. to a computer consultant father who sang and teacher mother who played the piano. She formed her first group in high school that included Wyclef Jean, which became the Fugees in 1993. The group had several hits including Killing Me Softly and Ready or Not before breaking up in 1997 partly due to the tumultuous relationship between Hill and Jean. Hill spent much of the two years after releasing The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill touring but decided to withdraw from public life in 2000. Over the last 22 years, Hill has toured sporadically including with the Fugees, participated in an MTV Unplugged, collaborated with many other artists and released a number of singles, but has yet to have anymore big hits. She also has nine acting credits including King of the Hill and Sister Act 2. She has six children including five with Rohan Marley, the son of Bob Marley.
