Even if, on one of his touchdown runs, he absolutely decided to latch on to Jermaine Whitehead's face mask with his own hands and yank him into the endzone with him for the final ten yards of the run... all that on a 4th and 1 from midfield
((HT: ESPN))
It was one of many penalties not called on the day by the officiating crew- on both sides- but the bottom line was that Auburn still cannot stop anyone with great regularity defensively.
Here's the wrap from our friends at WISC-TV in Madison
But, Will Muschamp has already rubbed off on the guys who played in a 13th game this season. There were some signs that the fundamentals of tackling on defense- especially by the linebacking corps- have returned. There was some wrapping up of running backs on tackles at the ankles. The tackling-optional approach of the pursuit of the past was less than before.
The pass rush still is non-existent, save a handful of plays late in the game when Badgers QB Joel Stave had to sit in the pocket and look to his left for a prospective receiver when the whole building knew he wasn't doing anything else. And the speed that Wisconsin used on jet sweeps showed another weakness of the Tigers- getting off blocks, chasing running backs to the edge, and getting there first for a tackle as opposed to the idea of being a step behind and giving up 12 yards a look.
Which happened consistently New Year's Day- and all 2014 season long, really...
Wisconsin, under returning interim coach Barry Alvarez, was one dimensional under Gordon and Corey Clement. They ran the ball behind an offensive line that averages, tackle to tackle, 325.8 pounds. But, when the other team can't stop you- as Auburn found on several occasions on their own this year when they were winning games- there is no reason to deviate from the plays that give you a win. And if you get out of town healthy and in a hurry, why do anything different...???
54 carries for 400 net yards on the day for Wisconsin... 521 yards total
"We knew it was coming and it still worked," Auburn cornerback Trovon Reed told Al.com's Brandon Marcello. "I will say that is a selfish act on our end for not paying attention to detail, but if we could take it back, we'd fix it."
And they need to...
Defensively, if the 7 recruits listed as either signed from the JUCO ranks or "hard commits" all lock in, the spring should be interesting:
Darrell Williams (LB) from Hoover, Jordan Colbert (S) from Griffin (GA), Richard McBryde (LB) from Charles Henderson (Troy, AL), and LB's Elijah Sullivan (Tucker, GA) and Montavious Atkinson (Langston Hughes- Fairburn, GA) have been high school-dominant. So, it will be interesting to see how their talents translate to the next level.
And we all know that Will Muschamp will work on conditioning, tackling, and pass rush starting...
Right...
Now...
Year Three will be an important one to see how the new attitudes will translate in a Nintendo-scoring world...
