Auburn’s football program was supposed to be mind-blowing this year.
Before the season started, we hired a new defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp, and until this past Tuesday, Sept. 23, when it was announced Sean White would be the starting quarterback for this weekend’s game against Mississippi State, our starting quarterback, Jeremy Johnson, was projected to be a star.
However, with three games already behind us, many Auburn football fans seem pretty let down regarding the team’s success.
We won the first two games against Louisville and Jacksonville State, but neither were easy wins, even going in to overtime with Jacksonville State.
Unfortunately, with two more turnovers by Johnson and 45 points given up by our defense, Auburn wasn’t able to pull out another win in last weekend’s game against LSU, and many believe it will all go down from there.
While we aren’t exactly thrilled about this year’s season so far, we can’t help but to believe people are let down because there was so much hype surrounding our football program before the season ever began.
Multiple sports analysts from ESPN and AL.com talked us up.
In addition, Johnson was showered with praise. He was named to the Davey O’Brien and Maxwell Award preseason watch lists, given to the best quarterback in the nation and the best overall player in the nation, respectively, and even had 12 to 1 odds to win the Heisman Trophy, which was third best in the nation.
This hype was manufactured almost solely by outside sources, and we and the fans bought into it. The term GUSCHAMP 2015 was used, even by The Auburn Plainsman.
It led to high, possibly unrealistic, expectations, particularly for the first few games.
There’s definitely room for improvement, but after all, we are still 2-1 and ranked No. 25 in the coaches’ poll.
While there are obviously additional factors to keep in mind, it is important to remember Auburn’s 2013 football season, in which we lost to LSU as well, but still went on to play in the BCS National Championship Game.
Concerning the remainder of the season, we think it’s important to support our team and players, but without overhyping them. Not only can this go to players’ heads, but as we’ve said before, it leads to unrealistic expectations.
With the recent announcement of Sean White starting the game this weekend, we think this is especially important to keep in mind.
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