Did we miss something? Auburn's offense looked pretty good Saturday.
I swore off Birmingham radio talk show host Paul Finebaum many years ago. For one, I'm convinced he doesn't know the difference between a defensive back and a fullback. Have you ever heard him talk X's and O's before? Me either.
Secondly, he serves at the whim of the Alabama Nation. He's like MSNBC with Republicans. Every now and then they'll say something negative about Democrats, but at the end of the day we know where their allegiance lies. Finebaum is the same with Alabama Football.
Where am I going with this? Well, I was listening to The Tim Brando Show on XM Radio yesterday and low and behold Finebaum was the guest. When Brando asked about Auburn it was like throwing a lap dance on Mike Price. Finebaum pounced.
He said that Auburn's offense was in big trouble and that Tiger fans had already turned on offensive coordinator Tony Franklin. He noted that Franklin just signed his contract and fans are already screaming. Where does this guy come up with this stuff? I haven't heard that. Have you?
Finebaum went on to say that Auburn is learning what everyone else suspected, that this offense will not work in the SEC. Also, he's already made up his mind after only one start that Chris Todd is not ever going to be a big time quarterback. Maybe he should have gone into coaching.
It's one thing to sit at your little radio station in Birmingham and spit out nonsense everyday to the bubbas around the state; it's another thing to do it nationally. What Finebaum said couldn't be more inaccurate.
Will the Auburn offense work? Will Todd grow into a great quarterback? We don't know the answer to these things yet. But I haven't heard one Tiger fan say that Franklin is in trouble. It's too early to say Franklin's offense won't work in the SEC. Even the most vocal critic would have to admit that Saturday's performance against Southern Miss was much improved over the season opener.
Listening to Finebaum reminds me of the Iraqi spokesman during the Gulf War. I believe he was nicknamed Baghdad Bob. Remember how he would speak to reporters and say that the Iraqi's had pushed the Americans out of Baghdad and then seconds later the cameras would show U.S. troop patrolling the streets of the city?
That's how I think of Paul Finebaum. He comes up with the most off the wall crap and thousands of idiots across the state buy into it. Why people tune in, I'll never know.
Editor's note: Many of you commented and emailed me yesterday concerning the article on CBS Sports passing up the Auburn-LSU contest. Some of you seem to think that ESPN had first pick on that particular game. You may well be right. I still find it hard to believe that CBS would allow that game to be cherry picked by ESPN. But again, I don't know the details of the current contract. I'm going to call around and see if that is the case. It certainly makes more sense than the network passing on two top ten teams. Thanks for the comments.