Steve Spurrier: 'Auburn used to be a tough place to play'
Steve Spurrier took a slight shot at The Plains after Auburn suffered a third loss in their last four games at home this past weekend.
Spurrier was looking at outcomes across the country on ‘Another Dooley Noted Podcast’ this week, including the 21-14 defeat for the Tigers to California. With that, he said that Jordan-Hare must not be as difficult of a place to play as it used to be, especially with this outcome after entering as nearly two-score favorites.
“Cal beat Auburn,” said Spurrier. “13-point favorites at home? Auburn used to be a tough place to play.”
That’s even though this was the Golden Bears returning the favor after Auburn came out west to get a 14-10 win in Berkeley.
“Auburn won at Cal last year. That was one of their big wins for Auburn,” Spurrier noted.
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This comes after Auburn lost their final two at home last season as part of a 3-4 home record. One was similar to this one as far as an upset with New Mexico State leaving there with a 31-10 victory. The other was the 27-24 loss to Alabama in The Iron Bowl because of The Gravedigger with less than a minute to go.
That leads into this loss to Cal. The worst part about was the missed opportunities for Auburn. After a tied first quarter, the score stayed within a touchdown margin for just a few minutes in the fourth quarter. However, the Tigers only got behind and could then never get back in front due to five turnovers on offense with four of those being interceptions.
Jordan-Hare Stadium is known as one of the best venues in all of college football. It’s even acknowledged as a place where odd things happen in favor of its home team on any given Saturday.
Still, while posting an all-time win percentage there of .771, it might not be as formidable as usual right now with Auburn having now lost several there as of late.
Finebaum claims it is ‘virtually impossible’ for Auburn to have a great season after Cal loss
Auburn took their fourth bad loss of their past five total outings this weekend against California. That now is already capping what this season can be for them according to Paul Finebaum
Finebaum discussed the 21-14 loss to Cal by the Tigers during ‘McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday.
“Well, there’s a difference between an outlier and a trend and this is a trend,” said Finebaum. “This is not an aberration, this is not a one-off. This is where this program is right now under Hugh Freeze.”
Now, that trend has put their year in a place that Auburn may not be able to recover from.
“It’s not over after two games but this was – I mean I don’t know anyone who, when you start doing the math on Auburn’s season, is going how can Auburn have a big year? You’re going to have to turn a couple of games. Nobody had this as a game that you had to turn. That’s what makes this so frustrating two weeks in,” said Finebaum. “Everybody was looking down the schedule and going how does Auburn get to a really good season? I think it’s virtually impossible to have a great season now because this was one that Auburn threw away, much like last year.”
“Well, I mean, let’s look at what seems to be impossible games to win. That would be Alabama, Georgia, and Missouri. Stop me if you see Auburn beating those three. So, here we are. We’re probably sitting on an 8-4 record, which I thought would have been a good season. That, to me, looked doable with the schedule,” Finebaum continued. “Now every other game, whether it’s Arkansas or Oklahoma? Games like that suddenly – A&M. Those games are in play. I bring that up because, if those games are in play? They go the wrong way and you don’t make an upset? We’re back to 7-5 or maybe worse. That’s not progress in the second year. I mean you fired a guy who was doing this.”