AU FOOTBALL: Despite struggles, players say this year’s team more ‘together’

The comparison draws an eerily similar conclusion, but senior Tommy Trott says the difference between Auburn’s 2008 nosedive and its midseason swoon of 2009 smacks you in the face the instant you walk into the Auburn Athletic Complex.

“It just felt like we were done,” Trott said of the 2008 season, which included an offensive coordinator swap at the halfway point and a 1-6 finish to a year that started with bloated expectations.

“Even as hard as we tried to get going again, it just wasn’t there.”

And this year?

“We’ve already done things against a Tennessee defense that’s just been shutting people down since we played them, a West Virginia team that hasn’t lost a ballgame since us,” Trott said. “We’ve played good football and we have more good football in us.”

Yes, the early wins, when Auburn outscored its opposition, 206-119, and nearly doubled its opponents’ offensive output, have certainly been more convincing than 2008’s close-your-eyes, pray-for-defense and let-the-clock-run-out victories to start the season.

The Tigers got by on talent against Louisiana Monroe and Southern Miss to start the 2008 season and followed with gutsy defensive efforts against Mississippi State and Tennessee to reach an — if possible — ugly 4-1.

Then, the bottom fell out and the Tigers forgot how to win.

Most of the games were competitive and weren’t decided until the late moments, but the Tigers came out losers in all but one of their final seven games — a 37-20 homecoming victory over UT-Martin that wasn’t put away until the fourth quarter.

“A team like Tennessee-Martin should never, never be that close,” said a perturbed Ben Tate after Auburn’s lone celebratory moment of the final two months of 2008.

There hasn’t been much for this year’s Tigers to celebrate since their Oct. 3 victory at Tennessee.

A 44-23 loss at Arkansas was blamed on a poor week of preparation. The 21-14 collapse of a loss to Kentucky was attributed to poor execution and an obviously worn-down defense in the fourth quarter. Last Saturday’s 31-10 more-lopsided-than-the-score-indicates defeat at LSU was an example of one team simply being much better and loaded with more talent than the other.

Still, even though the losses haven’t even been as competitive as last year’s, and the schedule sets up for another rough-and-tumble finish, Auburn players have brushed off the comparisons faster than an Onterio McCalebb touchdown run.

“This is not last year’s team,” defensive end Antonio Coleman said. “It’s a whole different team, a whole different scenario. We won’t let it go downhill. It’s not going to be like last year. We’re going to keep our heads up and go out there and fight week after week.”

Coach Gene Chizik often says he can’t speak of the past when posed questions about what exactly led to this team’s demise in 2008. He stuck with hypotheticals Tuesday when discussing how this year’s mini swoon won’t evolve into an instant replay of the Tigers’ finish to last season.

Basically, if certain things that might have been happening happened, they aren’t happening this year, Chizik said.

“If there was any finger-pointing or anything like that going on, well, I just don’t think that they want to go there,” Chizik said. “Do you want to be like the past, or do you want to be different from the past? … You can choose to be like it or you can choose to be different. When I’m saying that I am proud of the football team, there is absolutely zero of that going on and there won’t be.”

Chizik said he’s also gone to preventive measures to block out the “outside noise.”

Scan an Auburn message board today and, within 10 minutes, you’ll find numerous fans — identities hidden by usernames — who want Chris Todd benched and kicked off campus, Chizik fired and replaced by Buffalo’s Turner Gill and an entire overhaul of the new assistant coaching staff.

“I hope they weren’t listening to it when we were 5-0. I really do,” Chizik said. “Now we’ve dropped three. If they choose to listen to it, that’s something I can’t control, but I highly advise them to keep doing the things we need them to do and keep working to win.”

Trott, another ripe target among angry message-board posters, said it all comes with the territory when you sign a letter of intent to play at a place like Auburn.

“They’re passionate about their football here and they want to be the best of the best,” Trott said. “When you’re doing great, they love you and when you’re not doing so good, they’re quick to give their opinions. As a player, you should never be on forums, chat rooms, message boards, whatever they are.

“They either build you up too high or knock you down too low.”

| 737-2561