Two bits of youtube awesome

First:



Second:

I was hoping for TEBOW SMASH, all I got was TEBOW CRY

Also, check this out:



**UPDATE: This bit of awesome is via Tomahawk Nation

Reasons for slight optimism in the Iron Bowl

I'll be honest, I hate the Iron Bowl. Yes, it's the greatest rivalry in college football, bar none. Yes, beating those inbreds from T-Town for six straight years was incredibly awesome (Never losing to your most hated rival in four years at Auburn? Priceless). Yes, Iron Bowl week brings out the best from the Auburn blogosphere. I realize all these things. I hate the Iron Bowl because so much rides on the damn game.

When Auburn loses, there is an enormous pit in my stomach that is the realization that we'll have to put up with 365 days of Bammer trash talk ("trash" is modifying talk, not Bammer. That would be redundant.) and hope we can end it the next season. When Auburn wins, I feel excitement, but I also feel relief. Jerry at WBE has already expressed this sentiment much better than I could ever hope to here, but I differ from him in one respect: I'm still not "psyched" (his term, not mine) about this year's game. Starting around Thanksgiving dinner through about Black Friday dinner, I will undoubtedly be a nervous wreck. Even knowing that I'm expecting Auburn to get trounced (not as bad as last year, mind you) I still feel sick at the thought of losing to UA-Tuscaloosa. I felt sick after last year, and that was the best Alabama team in 15 years playing the worst Auburn team in 10 years. I guess it just comes with the territory of spending 13 years in public schools in the state.

As far as the game is concerned, if you read the title of this, you may think I believe Auburn has a fighting chance in the game. I've put this on facebook and Track 'em, but this video from one of my favorite movies sums it up quite nicely:



SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S A CHANCE!

Anyways, there is a chance. There's always a chance. Ask Michigan about whether Appalachian State had a chance against them in '07. So what are some reasons to be slightly (1 in a million) optimistic heading into Friday?

1. This is Alabama's first real road test: The stadia that Bama has visited include Commonwealth Stadium (capacity 67,606), Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (capacity 60,580), and Davis Wade Stadium (capacity 55,082). I'm not counting their season-opening trip to the Georgia Dome to face Virginia Tech, as tickets were distributed evenly between the two teams. Trips to Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State don't strike fear into the hearts of opposing teams. However, a trip to Jordan-Hare Stadium (capacity 87,451) does intimidate most opponents. Not only is this the team's first real big road game, but more importantly this is also going to be the largest crowd of opposing fans Greg McElroy has ever played in front of. If Auburn wants to come out on top on Friday, the noise will have to affect his (and his teammates') play.

2. Auburn has performed better against power backs in 2009: There is no doubt Alabama will try to run Mark Ingram for a career day in this year's Iron Bowl. He's on the short list of Heisman favorites and has recently been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated:



Defensively, Auburn needs to key in on Ingram and hold him in check if we want to have any chance in this game. Fortunately, Auburn's two previous run-ins with "power backs" were being one of three teams this season to keep Mississippi State's Anthony Dixon under 100 yards and bottling up LSU's Charles Scott to 20 yards on 10 carries. UAT would most likely have more success running the football by featuring Trent Richardson more, but given the aforementioned Heisman talk, the Tiger defense can expect a steady diet of Ingram, Ingram, Ingram.

3. Auburn has nothing to lose, Alabama has everything to lose: So those were the only two tangible reasons for optimism for Auburn going into the game, and though I already said I don't share Jerry's view of the game, I felt like I needed to have a third reason for optimism. Auburn has wrapped up a bowl bid, and is most likely headed to the Outback, Chick-fil-A, or Music City. A win over Alabama may vault us to the Cotton, but is that really that much of an improvement? Traditionally, yes it is, but that gain is a small one compared to what the Tide would lose if they were to drop this game: namely, a shot at their 13th* national title. Given this, Alabama should come into this game a little tight, and Auburn should come into this game very loose. The fact that the game is in Auburn should help this as well.

Win, lose, or draw, War Eagle!

*Asterisk for no real reason. Consider it like Roger Maris' asterisk on breaking Babe's record or Barry Bonds' asterisk on breaking Hank's record.

SEC Power Poll and Picks

Sorry for the lack of content this week. Been a busy one. Here's the poll and picks:

SEC Power Poll

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Louisiana State
4. Mississippi
5. Arkansas
6. Georgia
7. Tennessee
8. Auburn
9. South Carolina
10. Mississippi State
11. Kentucky
12. Vanderbilt



Picks:

Mississippi State 23
Arkansas 40

Chattanooga 0
Alabama 35

Florida International 7
Florida 48

Louisiana State 19
Mississippi 17

Vanderbilt 6
Tennessee 24

Kentucky 20
Georgia 31

Sometimes I hate being right

Over at Dawg Sports, I offered this bit of "analysis" before the game, which I have repeated to many people (though usually not in written form):

It seems like recently every Georgia team has had some major flaw that gets corrected just in time for the Auburn game; in 2006 it was Stafford’s inexperience and in 2007 and 2008 it was a defense that loved to give up points. That trend being noted, I fully expect Auburn to lose the turnover battle by 3 on Saturday night. If we can keep from giving the ball away, I like our chances (even with a suspect defense). If Cox and Co. protect the ball and Martinez’ defense takes the ball away from our offense a few times, it may mean a presidential term’s worth of consecutive victories for the Red and Black.

Final turnover margin:

Auburn 2
Georgia 0

And once again Willie Martinez finds his magic just in time for the Auburn game (albeit a quarter late this time). If we played Georgia in September instead of mid-November, I'm positive we wouldn't be oh-for-our-last-four against the Bulldogs. Possible wins include: 2006, 2007 and 2009. Not saying we'd have won three of those four, maybe only one, but in '06 and '07 Georgia started slow and finished strong, and in '09 Auburn started strong and finished poorly. It's not out of the question to say that Auburn playing Georgia when, say, South Carolina always plays them would have an effect on the outcome of the games.

Bitterness aside, Auburn currently is on a very bad trend. Look at our current streaks against all other SEC teams (in alphabetical order):

Alabama: L1
Arkansas: L2
Florida: W2
Georgia: L4
Kentucky: L1
Louisiana State: L3
Mississippi: W1
Mississippi State: W2
South Carolina: W4
Tennessee: W5
Vanderbilt: L1

We currently own losing streaks against six of the other eleven SEC teams, and in two weeks (barring the upset of the year) will have losing streaks of at least two games to our three main rivals: Alabama, Georgia, and LSU. I'm getting tired of not beating our rivals.

Oh well, 7 wins this season is beyond my expectations. The future looks bright in Auburn. Hopefully Tyrik Rollison turns out to be the real deal. War Eagle, and beat Bama!

Weekend predictions

Well, I was going to write up a brief Auburn-Georgia history of all of the coaches of one team that played or coached at the other, but it appears several other websites have beat me to that punch. I also had an extended telephone conversation back home and began cleaning and doing laundry for my 348 visitors this weekend. Anyways, here's some predictions:

Tennessee 17
Mississippi 20

Kentucky 34
Vanderbilt 14

Florida 33
South Carolina 10

Auburn 27
Georgia 20

Louisiana Tech 13
Louisiana State 41

Alabama 26
Mississippi State 8

Troy 27
Arkansas 45

It's Auburn-Georgia week! Wednesday

1996 was Jim Donnan's first season in Athens, and the Bulldogs limped into the Auburn game with a 3-5 (2-4) record. He was still dealing with the mess that Ray Goff left behind, but would improve the program to at least decent status over the next few years. Auburn, meanwhile, was beginning to feel the slide in the Terry Bowden regime that came with lackluster recruiting, but they came into the game at 7-2 (4-2) and fighting for the team's first SEC Western Division title. The '96 game was similar to the '99 game in that it marked the up-and-coming coach with the worse team (record-wise) picking off the older coach whose program was on the downside. Unfortunately for Auburn fans, it was the Tigers on the short end of the stick.

This was a memorable game in the series for two main reasons. First, one of the most iconic pictures in college football history was taken at this game when Georgia's mascot, Uga V, lunged at Auburn wide receiver Robert Baker after he reeled in a touchdown pass. If you've never seen this picture, you've probably never watched Auburn or Georgia or college football period:



You know what would be even better? If we had a live tiger on the sidelines and it lunged at A.J. Green after a touchdown on Saturday! (I'd rather Green not score, but this would be some consolation) Baker's touchdown helped Auburn to a 28-7 halftime lead, and they seemingly had the game in hand. Of course, followers of this rivalry know that Georgia would come back in the second half to tie the game at 28 on the last play of regulation (marking the second consecutive trip the Bulldogs made to Auburn that ended tied after regulation), and thus the second thing that made this game so memorable occurred: Auburn and Georgia were involved in the SEC's first overtime game. Not only that, but at four overtimes it was the longest college football game in history until an Ole Miss-Arkansas tilt a few years later. This game also single-handedly caused the NCAA to change its overtime procedure to force teams to go for two after touchdowns starting in the third overtime. It truly was a historical game!

I still remember watching the game in a Knoxville hotel room (remember, this was during the time in my life when I went to many UT games and mostly rooted for the Vols) with two of my Auburn friends from school. When Dameyune Craig was stopped short on a 4th down in the 4th overtime, my friend Brian ran out of the room, screaming "Oh God, we're going to the weed eater bowl!" I'll never forget that moment, even if I didn't have a dog (pun intended) in the fight. Hopefully Saturday night's game turns out a little bit better for the Auburn faithful.

Not sure what I'll write about tomorrow, but check back and check it out! WAR EAGLE.

It's Auburn-Georgia week! Tuesday

In 1999, first-year Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville started his career on the Plains with a 3-0 record after victories over Appalachian State, Idaho, and Louisiana State. However, an injury to starter Ben Leard caused the Tigers to lose their next five games in a row before a homecoming victory over Central Florida left them at 4-5 (1-5) going into the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. Georgia's fourth-year head man, Jim Donnan, had his Bulldogs at 6-2 (4-2) with losses to UGA's main SEC East rivals, Florida and Tennessee (this would be a theme in his time in Athens). Even though Leard's injury hurt Auburn in the middle portion of its schedule, he would suit up for the game against the Dawgs.

I don't know all the details about this game, but I have to imagine that even though the home team hadn't won in the series since a 37-27 Georgia win in Athens in 1991, the Bulldogs would be the favorite in this game, and probably by a pretty decent margin. In many respects, the 1999 game was similar to the 2009 matchup. Georgia's program was beginning to feel the heat from its fans over its inability to beat Tennessee and Florida, and the general downward trend the program was on; Auburn, behind a first-year head coach, was trending upwards (even despite taking some in-season lumps) after the disastrous end to the previous regime. We can only hope Saturday night's game turns out as well as the 1999 version.

Auburn jumped out to a 31-0 lead at halftime before cruising to a 38-21 victory between the hedges. Leard set the Auburn single-game passing yardage mark with 416, and Auburn picked up some much-needed momentum heading into the Iron Bowl. They would finish the season at 5-6, but finished the following regular season at 9-2 and in the SEC Championship Game before ultimately finishing 9-4 with a Citrus Bowl loss to Michigan. Georgia, on the other hand, would finish the season at 8-4 after a win over Mississippi, a loss to Georgia Tech, and an Outback Bowl win over Purdue. Donnan would be fired after posting another 8-4 season in 2000 with losses to rivals South Carolina, Florida, Auburn, and Georgia Tech.

Check back tomorrow (especially if you're a Georgia fan) as I chronicle the 1996 game! WAR EAGLE.

This is super cool

It's Auburn-Georgia week! Monday

The Auburn-Georgia rivalry is a special one for fans of both teams, for many reasons: the two schools have shared a number of coaches and athletic directors, Auburn gets many of its students and athletes from the state of Georgia, the teams have met every fall since 1898 with the exception of one year when the country was in a war, etc. The rivalry is a special one for me personally for a couple of reasons: a good portion of my family is from Georgia and as such are die-hard Bulldog fans, and I have attended both institutions. I got my bachelor's from Auburn in 2007 and will be getting my master's from Georgia in six months. I still root hard for Auburn in every single game (if you've ever read anything on this blog ever you should know that), but the intense hatred I used to hold for UGA has subsided to just a general dislike since I started here. In the past two years since I've lived in Athens, for example, LSU has passed Georgia on my "most hated" list.

The game is extra special for me this year, as it represents my alma mater coming to visit me, rather than the other way around, as it usually is. I get to spend some time with some old friends from Auburn, as well as see all of my current friends at Georgia. I am borrowing a friend's student ticket to the game, so my orange and blue-clad self will be in the belly of the beast, but I trust that the folks I attend the game with will help keep me out of too much trouble.

Anyways, what I'd like to do once per day this week is take a look at some great moments and memorable games from this rivalry. I'll spare you a sappy introduction the rest of the week and cut right to the chase. Today, I'm profiling the 2005 Auburn-Georgia clash in Athens, which is the last Auburn victory in the series.

***

I have already said that this game is my second-favorite Auburn game to attend (only behind 2006 Florida). It was a back-and-forth affair that wasn't decided until John Vaughn booted a 20-yard field goal with six seconds left. I may even say that this game was the most well-played game by both teams I've ever seen. There was a little bit of everything: offense, defense, special teams. All in all, it was a special night for an Auburn fan to be in Sanford Stadium. Here's the obligatory video:



If you're a betting man (or woman), it may be safe to bet that the 61 total points mark in the 2005 game will be eclipsed in the 2009 edition. Both teams have featured suspect defenses this season, and both have performed at least decently on offense.

I'll be back tomorrow with another moment (that has yet to be decided) from this series, and hopefully give a little more in-depth detail on it (more detail on the '05 game can be found at the post I linked to a few paragraphs up). Until then, WAR EAGLE.

SEC Power Poll

As far as the Auburn-Furman game is concerned, only the first half really matters as far as Auburn's performance goes. We had over 400 yards of offense and 42 points, and held the Paladins to 60 yards and three points. It doesn't matter that we gave up 28 points in the second half to them, because most of the people who played on defense in the second half wouldn't even start for my hometown Alabama A&M Bulldogs. That's about all the pixels I'm going to use talking about that game.

This week, I'm going to have daily posts with great moments from Auburn-Georgia to get everyone in the mood for the first leg of Amen Corner. I hope this feature will be a good one, but I make no promises. I'm excited and apprehensive about the game; on the surface, I think we should win, but at the same time, it seems like every single year Georgia has a major flaw that they fix just in time for the Auburn game. That said, I fully expect the Bulldogs to never turn the ball over against us. More on that game in the upcoming week, here's the power poll:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Tennessee (playing better than LSU right now)
4. Louisiana State
5. Arkansas
6. Auburn
7. Mississippi State
8. South Carolina
9. Georgia
10. Mississippi
11. Kentucky
12. Vanderbilt

Week 10 SEC Picks

Pretty easy week for picks this week, only two games that may go either way. Auburn gets its second string a ton of work and rests its starters for Amen Corner. LSU comes close, but a controversial call keeps Alabama undefeated. Arkansas puts the final nail in Spurrier's career at South Carolina (he'll step down after this season).

South Carolina 22
Arkansas 31

Tennessee Tech 14
Georgia 49

Eastern Kentucky 6
Kentucky 65

Furman 7
Auburn 45

Louisiana State 10
Alabama 13

Memphis 3
Tennessee 20

Vanderbilt 10
Florida 33

Northern Arizona 13
Mississippi 59

East Carolina's "Pirate-Out" is coolest "____-Out" ever

Check out East Carolina's midfield design for tonight's game against Va. Tech:



Pardon my French, but that is fucking awesome. Hat tip to EDSBS for posting the pregame view seen above. I don't think ECU is asking their students to dress in any particular color, just to show up like a pirate. That's awesome. If I could be anywhere in the world tonight, Greenville, North Carolina may be at or near the top of that list. This idea is, in a word...

SEC Power Poll

I had Auburn ranked last in last week's Power Poll, and they followed that up with a complete team victory over ranked Ole Miss. Obviously they'll jump up in this week's edition, but how high? How much do I dock Ole Miss for a less-than-stellar effort at Auburn? How much do I jump Tennessee for their convincing win over South Carolina? How much do I dock them for those uniforms? Well, check it out:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Louisiana State
4. Arkansas
5. Auburn
6. Tennessee
7. South Carolina
8. Mississippi State
9. Mississippi
10. Georgia
11. Kentucky
12. Vanderbilt

How on earth did we lose to Kentucky?

This is incredibly awesome

A possible explanation for Auburn's 3-game swoon

When Auburn went up 24-7 in the 3rd quarter against Ole Miss yesterday on Walt McFadden's insane pick six, I texted my friend that the game was much more fun than any of the previous three. He accused me of potentially jinxing it (about the time Ben Tate ran half the field for a touchdown and a 24-point lead), but I knew that might be the case. I wasn't afraid of a jinx because even if we had blown the game and lost, it was still more enjoyable than the previous three weekends. The offense returned to ludicrous speed, Todd threw some deep balls, and the defense showed up in a big way. That seemed like a game from the 5-0 Auburn, for sure.

However, I feel (along with some of my Auburn brethren, I'm sure) a little frustrated by the game. Had we played like that during our three week swoon, we could be 7-2 or 8-1 right now with our sights firmly on a New Year's Day Bowl and possibly in control of our destiny in the SEC West. So what changed from the first five games to those three to the Ole Miss game? I am pinpointing it on one thing: offensive tempo.

During our statement 26-22 victory in Knoxville, I noticed that the offense was running at a slower pace than we had seen in the first four weeks, but I attributed that to the fact we were playing on the road for the first time, in a loud stadium. We needed to get more signals from the sideline presnap in order to get into a positive play. However, we continued to employ this strategy more and more in the next three games and it bit us.

What we saw yesterday was a return to Malzahn's preferred ludicrous speed. We actually got a delay of game penalty called because we snapped the ball too soon. I have never seen that in my 20 years of watching football games. Gustav was running the offense the way he originally envisioned, and it worked. We scored more points, gained more yards, and wore down Ole Miss' defense. It certainly was a 5-0 Auburn-esque performance. So that leads to the question, "Why did we slow it down so much?" And I think the answer is simple: lack of depth on defense.

Auburn's depth issues (especially on defense) have been well-chronicled this season. When you run an offense that tries to score in as little time as possible, that wears on a defense, and a defense whose depth chart probably has the team waterboy as 2nd string in a few positions is a scary thing to have wear down. I imagine that Chizik and company looked at the defense and injury reports and decided as a team to tone down the offense. Seeing the on-field results for the previous three weeks, however, Chizik decided to go back to what worked, knowing he would be risking giving up tons of points and yards on defense, and it was a gamble that paid off. I would wager that we see the offensive tempo we saw from 5-0 Auburn the rest of the season because it worked out well against Ole Miss, and we are at a point in the season where every team has guys banged up and worn down players.

What more did the Ole Miss win do for Auburn's program? Well, for one, we're bowl eligible, and in the running for an upper-tier bowl. In ESPN.com's most recent Bowl Projections, both Mark Schlabach and Bruce Feldman pick Auburn to represent the SEC in the Outback Bowl against Wisconsin (Another bowl game against the Badgers? Be still, my beating heart!). If we end up at 7-5 or 8-4 with a New Year's Day bowl game, the 2009 season can be labeled nothing less than an unequivocal success for Gene Chizik and his coaching staff. The three-game losing streak left some sour taste in Auburn fans' mouths (self included), but Mean Gene and company have done a fine job with our Tigers this season. War Eagle!

SEC Power Poll and Picks

I'm late with my polls this week, and don't feel like putting together a top 25. Sue me. Here they are:

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Louisiana State
4. Mississippi
5. Arkansas
6. South Carolina
7. Tennessee
8. Georgia
9. Mississippi State
10. Kentucky
11. Vanderbilt
12. Auburn

Pickz

Mississippi 27
Auburn 13

Georgia 10
Florida 28

Eastern Michigan 7
Arkansas 55

Mississippi State 26
Kentucky 17

Georgia Tech 31
Vanderbilt 7

South Carolina 23
Tennessee 16

Tulane 15
Louisiana State 33

Hilarious

Well, that sucked

I posted a fanshot over at Track Em Tigers about how I felt about that debacle. I'm not surprised that LSU beat Auburn, nor am I surprised that they won by double digits. What was surprising to me was how easy we made it for them and how many of the mistakes from last week were not corrected. Another false start on 4th-and-1 (although, I think he may have been drawn off by the defender), more inability to move the ball through the air, and of course, absolutely futile special teams play. That's all I'll write on the subject for now. Auburn is going to be #12 in my SEC power poll whenever I get that up because I honestly believe Vanderbilt would beat us right now.

And now, for something completely different, here's one of the most beautiful songs I've heard in a long time, Phoenix's "Love Like a Sunset" (Parts 1 and 2 combined). Sorry that the audio is so staticky, but it's the only non-live version I could find on Youtube that had both parts combined. Particularly part 2 (which starts at about 5:30 of the video below) is gorgeous. I hope you enjoy as much as I do:

Week 8 SEC Predictions

Is Arkansas winning at Ole Miss an upset? If so, that's the only one I'm picking. If Vandy had any semblance of an offense, I'd pick them for the upset because this is the type of game Bobby Johnson has won at Vandy. Instead, I'll just say South Carolina wins sluggishly as they begin their yearly season-ending slide.

Arkansas 34
Mississippi 20

Tennessee 10
Alabama 27

Louisiana-Monroe 17
Kentucky 31

Vanderbilt 6
South Carolina 17

Auburn 20
Louisiana State 24

Florida 45
Mississippi State 17

The most thought-out and gayest proposal of all-time

(Not that there's anything wrong with that)



First of all, I can't imagine proposing to a girl after dating her for a single year. Second of all, how can she say no if he went to all this trouble? She's screwed if she really doesn't want to. Do they finish the number if she says no? Do they have an alternate song and dance? Inquiring minds!

Good historical news for Auburn

Auburn and LSU started playing every year in 1992, when Arkansas and South Carolina joined the SEC and forced the league into divisions; Auburn and LSU were both put in the Western division. Since that date, Auburn has had three new head coaches (not counting the interim Bill Oliver games), and all three head coaches started their Auburn careers in an odd-numbered year: Bowden (1993), Tuberville (1999) and Chizik (2009). Every odd-numbered year, Auburn plays LSU in Baton Rouge. You would think that this would be a sure loss for each coach, but you'd be surprised.

1993: Auburn 34 Louisiana State 10

Auburn travels to Baton Rouge and beats LSU in Tiger Stadium for the first time since FDR was president (1939). It was Auburn's third game of the season and helped propel the Tigers to an 11-0 season. While LSU wasn't nearly the power it is today, this still marked an important victory in Terry Bowden's first season at Auburn.

1999: Auburn 41 Louisiana State 7

The cigar game. Tommy Tuberville's first Auburn squad came into this game off of back-to-back seven point wins over noted walkovers Appalachian State and Idaho. LSU was also 2-0 with a close win over San Jose State and an emphatic 52-0 stomping of North Texas. Auburn's resounding victory started an eight-game losing streak for the Purple Tigers, which led to Gerry DiNardo's dismissal as head coach. The 1999 game also gave us this:



Now, I'm not trying to predict a 50-point win in Baton Rouge this weekend. I'm just pointing out that the last two first-year head coaches Auburn has had traveled to Baton Rouge in their first season, and both found great success. Here's hoping history repeats itself on Saturday night; it certainly would help repair some of the pain caused by losing to Kentucky!

Week 8 Top 25 and SEC Power Poll

Here they are. You'll notice the nosedive Auburn took out of my top 25 and out of the top half of the Power Poll. Losing to Kentucky will do that to you. After giving it some thought, though, I'm not quite as upset with the loss as I was immediately after Chris Todd's 4th-and-11 pass fell to the turf. This is a rebuilding season; we started 5-0 and everything was awesome, but we just need to get back in the mind frame that we're building for the future. Alabama lost to Louisiana-Monroe in Nick Saban's first season in Tuscaloosa. The next season they ascended to #1 in November. I'm not saying to expect Auburn to get so good so fast, but the difference between 2009's and 2010's teams should be huge. We just have to stick it out for the team this season.

Top 25

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Florida
4. Cincinnati
5. Boise State
6. Miami
7. Southern California
8. Texas Christian
9. Iowa
10. Oregon
11. West Virginia
12. Virginia Tech
13. Louisiana State
14. Georgia Tech
15. Houston
16. Penn State
17. Kansas
18. Brigham Young
19. Oklahoma State
20. Utah
21. Pittsburgh
22. South Carolina
23. Texas Tech
24. Arizona
25. Idaho



SEC Power Poll

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Louisiana State
4. South Carolina
5. Arkansas
6. Kentucky
7. Tennessee
8. Mississippi
9. Auburn
10. Georgia
11. Mississippi State
12. Vanderbilt

This is the only positive thing that came out of watching Auburn lose to Kentucky on ESPNU

Who knew that Steve Nash was this funny? And 50 Cent's part is awesome, too. "I smell like the vault man!"

Week 7 SEC Predictions

Here they are. Planning on writing up a recap of the Cardinals' sweep by Los Angeles and Tigers' destruction at the hands of Arkansas tomorrow. No promises, though. Here's some picks:

Georgia 24
Vanderbilt 13

Mississippi State 36
Middle Tennessee State 24

Arkansas 20
Florida 41

Alabama-Birmingham 19
Mississippi 35

Kentucky 27
Auburn 38

South Carolina 9
Alabama 27

Week 7 Top 25 and SEC Power Poll

Sorry for the lack of content lately. I've been busy drowning my sorrows over the Cardinals being swept out of the NLDS and Auburn getting beat down by Arkansas (more on that in an upcoming post). Here's my rankings:



Top 25

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. Boise State
6. Virginia Tech
7. Miami
8. Southern California
9. Texas Christian
10. Kansas
11. Iowa
12. Nebraska
13. Oregon
14. West Virginia
15. Louisiana State
16. Ohio State
17. Georgia Tech
18. Houston
19. Penn State
20. South Florida
21. Brigham Young
22. Auburn
23. South Carolina
24. Oklahoma State
25. Utah



SEC Power Poll

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Louisiana State
4. South Carolina
5. Arkansas
6. Auburn
7. Tennessee
8. Kentucky
9. Mississippi
10. Georgia
11. Mississippi State
12. Vanderbilt

Week 6 SEC Score Predictions

Currently watching the Cardinals in game 2 against the Dodgers. Gotta hold on to this one. Here's my weekend picks.

Auburn 37
Arkansas 34

Vanderbilt 24
Army 10

Georgia 23
Tennessee 10

Houston 41
Mississippi State 27

Kentucky 20
South Carolina 23

Alabama 28
Mississippi 17

Florida 21
Louisiana State 20

The MLB postseason post

It's that time of year again. Time for the leaves to turn from green to varying shades of yellow and red, time for college football to hit the halfway mark, and time for playoff baseball. Playoff baseball is so much more fun for me when the Cardinals are involved. However, this year I just don't see it happening for my beloved Redbirds. Despite having the best 1-2 pitching punch in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, and the best hitter on the planet in Albert Pujols, I'm just not convinced the supporting cast can help the club get past the Dodgers. I'd obviously love to be proven wrong, but here's my guess about the playoffs:

LDS

Dodgers in 4
Phillies in 4
Yankees in 3
Red Sox in 5

LCS

Phillies in 6
Yankees in 5

World Series

Yankees in 5



All that having been said, GO CARDINALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 5 Top 25 and SEC Power Rankings

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. Boise State
6. Virginia Tech
7. Miami
8. Louisiana State
9. Southern California
10. Kansas
11. Texas Christian
12. Oregon
13. Iowa
14. West Virginia
15. Georgia Tech
16. Ohio State
17. Auburn
18. Missouri
19. Houston
20. Nebraska
21. Brigham Young
22. Penn State
23. Wisconsin
24. South Florida
25. South Carolina



SEC Power rankings

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Louisiana State
4. Auburn
5. South Carolina
6. Georgia
7. Mississippi
8. Mississippi State
9. Kentucky
10. Arkansas
11. Tennessee
12. Vanderbilt

Week 5 SEC Score Predictions

Here they are. Nothing to say, really. Hopefully will have better stuff next week.

Alabama 37
Kentucky 6

Louisiana State 27
Georgia 24

Mississippi 33
Vanderbilt 17

South Carolina State 3
South Carolina 45

Texas A&M 27
Arkansas 31

Georgia Tech 25
Mississippi State 17

Auburn 31
Tennessee 22

Week 4 Top 25 and SEC Power Rankings

Not alot to say here. I've had a pretty busy week. Here's my stuff.

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Texas
4. Cincinnati
5. Boise State
6. Houston
7. Virginia Tech
8. Louisiana State
9. Miami
10. Kansas
11. Texas Christian
12. Southern California
13. Oregon
14. Oklahoma
15. Iowa
16. Georgia Tech
17. Ohio State
18. West Virginia
19. Missouri
20. Auburn
21. Oklahoma State
22. Nebraska
23. Penn State
24. South Florida
25. UCLA



SEC Power Poll

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Louisiana State
4. Auburn
5. South Carolina
6. Georgia
7. Mississippi State
8. Mississippi
9. Tennessee
10. Kentucky
11. Arkansas
12. Vanderbilt

...and 19

If you're an Auburn fan reading this blog, I'd like to indulge you today. If you're not, you can probably skip this post, because it's not going to be interesting to you. Take a moment and think back on the moment you found out Auburn had hired Gene Chizik to replace Tommy Tuberville as head coach. Think about where you were, and what your initial reaction was. I can still remember thinking it was all a hoax; a mean prank played by some Alabama fan media type. Once several of the major media outlets started reporting the news as fact, however, most of Auburn nation went into meltdown mode.



While you probably weren't quite as vocal or as angry as this fellow, you probably were extremely disappointed by this hire at the time. I know personally I thought that Auburn would be entering a sort of dark ages that would take years to recover from. I've heard about the Barfield days, but wasn't alive at that point. I thought Auburn would be an awful program fighting it out for the cellar of the SEC West year-in and year-out, and this was a quite depressing prospect.

Then, something funny happened. Chizik hired the man who coordinated the nation's number one offense for the past two years.



He hired Curtis Luper and Trooper Taylor, two of the nation's finest recruiters, away from Oklahoma State. He hired former Auburn player and Outland Award winner Tracy Rocker away from Ole Miss. Things started looking better for the program, but the one overlying phrase that kept being thrown about was "5-19."

Gene Chizik went 5-19 at Iowa State, therefore, he couldn't possibly be a good head coach. Football is the one major American sport where coaching matters the most. Look at what's going on in major league baseball right now. Jim Tracy, largely thought of as a poor manager because of his stints in Los Angeles and Pittsburgh, has turned the Rockies around from 18-28 when he was hired, to an 86-66 record as of the time of this writing; the club has a record of 68-38 with him at the helm this season. If you put me in charge of the most talented teams in the four major professional sports leagues in America, I'd imagine the baseball team would perform the best and the football team would perform the worst. Why? Because baseball is a team sport filled with individual performances, while football is a team sport that completely relies on the team. That's why hiring someone with a 5-19 record was viewed as such a blunder.

However, everything Chizik has done at Auburn so far has worked. He brought in a top 20 recruiting class after giving the field several months' head start. He (and his staff) continue to impress recruits nationally. While Lane Kiffin grabbed all the headlines up in Knoxville for running his mouth and committing secondary violations, Chizik quietly went about his business and got work done.

Probably the thing that has most endeared Chizik to the Auburn faithful thus far is his desire to completely embrace the Auburn essence. He "believes in work, hard work," and he distills the notion in his team that they "can only count on what they earn." In many of his interviews, he has referred to his players as "Auburn men." He understands Auburn. He embraces Auburn. He loves Auburn.

And that is why Gene Chizik, despite all of the naysayers (self included) in the immediate aftermath of his hire, has turned out to be the right man at the right time for the job. He's made shrewd hires, he's put a major emphasis on recruiting not just locally, but also nationally, he's embraced the university and community, while getting them excited about their football team again after the boredom found at the end of the Tuberville era, and put in hours upon hours of hard work while letting his actions and his team speak for themselves. So here's to you coach, and here's to your team keeping the "and 19" at the end of your record there as long as possible. War Eagle.

Week 4 SEC Predictions

Here are my score predictions for this weekend's game. Two upsets on the board. Comments and critiques welcome as usual.

Mississippi 24
South Carolina 27

Louisiana State 33
Mississippi State 25

Arkansas 17
Alabama 31

Florida 40
Kentucky 14

Ball State 13
Auburn 52

Arizona State 27
Georgia 20

Ohio 7
Tennessee 28

Vanderbilt 26
Rice 17

Week 3 Top 25 and SEC Power Rankings

Before you read my top 25, allow me to explain a few things:

• That's right, I have a team that I didn't rank last week who lost by 11 points to a team that was ranked last week ahead of the team they lost to. I truly believe that the winner of the Auburn-West Virginia game wasn't the better team; just the team that got the most breaks and capitalized on mistakes. The only team in the country that can stop West Virginia is West Virginia (Okay, and maybe Florida, Alabama and Miami). Auburn doesn't move up because I'm still not convinced we're better than anybody in slots 1-21.
• I'm sold on Miami. Their offense looks legit, and they have enough talent on defense to get it done this season. I am expecting them to go undefeated and play for the national championship game (as long as they can get past Virginia Tech and Oklahoma the next two weekends, which I think they will).
• LSU finally starts playing like the team I expected them to be this season, and thus moves ahead of undead Ole Miss in the top 25 and the SEC Power Ranking. Arkansas drops significantly for letting Georgia's offense go 11-on-7 (this may not actually be true; I just assume it is since I didn't get to watch the game).
• Washington and Michigan still aren't ranked because all they have to hang their hats on are home upsets over overrated teams. I'll rank Washington before Michigan as it stands right now, and Notre Dame will have to win out for them to sniff my top 25.
• I'm not putting Georgia back into my top 25 until Kyle from Dawg Sports gets over his Auburn hatred and puts the Tigers into his top 25 (or when I feel that Auburn doesn't deserve to be in the top 25). What's that worth? Probably nothing, but it seems like something I should point out (and maybe it will somehow get my blog some more traffic!)
  

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Miami
4. California
5. Texas
6. Cincinnati
7. Penn State
8. Boise State
9. Houston
10. Louisiana State
11. Mississippi
12. Oklahoma
13. Southern California
14. Virginia Tech
15. Kansas
16. North Carolina
17. Texas Christian
18. Ohio State
19. Brigham Young
20. West Virginia
21. Missouri
22. Auburn
23. Oklahoma State
24. Georgia Tech
25. Nebraska



SEC Power Poll

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Louisiana State
4. Mississippi
5. Auburn
6. Georgia
7. South Carolina
8. Arkansas
9. Tennessee
10. Kentucky
11. Mississippi State
12. Vanderbilt



Major post on Gene Chizik coming later this week, get excited!!!

Week 3 SEC Predictions

The third weekend of the college football season sees some of the more intriguing SEC games of the season: Disappointing Georgia travels almost halfway across the country to face improved Arkansas; Lane Kiffin gets his payback for running his mouth at Florida all off-season; Auburn tries to get revenge on West Virginia for the 2008 Morgantown beatdown, while silencing critics of their early-season success. Personally, I'm very nervous about the West Virginia game. Before the season, I had this pegged as an almost sure loss, but now I'm leaning toward Auburn winning and I break into a cold sweat just thinking about the game. We really need to win this game. If you're going to be in Auburn on Saturday, get there early, stay late, and BE LOUD!

As for my weekend score predictions...

West Virginia 29
Auburn 34

Louisville 19
Kentucky 27

North Texas 13
Alabama 34

Tennessee 9
Florida 45

Louisiana-Lafayette 10
Louisiana State 31

Mississippi State 20
Vanderbilt 24

Florida Atlantic 7
South Carolina 38

Southeast Louisiana 10
Mississippi 52

Georgia 13
Arkansas 24

AUBURN CAN HAZ OFENZ?

My very first animated gif

So I spent the last hour or so trying to make an animated gif out of Jon Gruden saying "ridonkulous" on that Monday Night Football commercial with Adrian Peterson. I think I've got it. Check it.

Week 2 Top 25 and SEC Power Rankings

Once again, for my five readers' entertainment, my view of the country in ranking form, with SEC rankings as well.

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Southern California
4. Texas
5. California
6. Brigham Young
7. Miami
8. Penn State
9. Cincinnati
10. Boise State
11. Houston
12. Mississippi
13. Georgia Tech
14. Kansas
15. Louisiana State
16. Ohio State
17. Oklahoma
18. Virginia Tech
19. Nebraska
20. Arkansas
21. Utah
22. Auburn
23. Missouri
24. Oregon State
25. Texas Tech

Bullish on: Alabama, BYU, Miami, Cincinnati, Houston, Auburn
Bearish on: Notre Dame, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma State

SEC Power Rankings

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Louisiana State
5. Arkansas
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. Kentucky
9. South Carolina
10. Tennessee
11. Vanderbilt
12. Mississippi State

Week 2 SEC Predictions

On the weekend where we get the rematch of last year's pillow fight of the year (2008 AU-MSU), we may be treated to 2009's pillow fight of the year (UGA-SC). I'm not going to predict 5 total points in that game, but given their first week performances, I'm not taking the over, that's for sure. I wouldn't put any money on these picks; I'm already in last place in my Yahoo! Pick'Em league.

Mississippi State 20
Auburn 31

Troy 20
Florida 58

UCLA 17
Tennessee 26

South Carolina 6
Georgia 10

Vanderbilt 13
Louisiana State 28

Florida International 7
Alabama 45

Week 1 Top 25 and SEC Power Poll

One blogger's (likely horrible) opinion of how the nation and the SEC shake out. Comments and criticisms welcome as always.

Top 25

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma State
5. Southern California
6. Brigham Young
7. California
8. Miami
9. Penn State
10. Boise State
11. Mississippi
12. Louisiana State
13. Ohio State
14. Georgia Tech
15. Virginia Tech
16. Kansas
17. Oklahoma
18. Cincinnati
19. North Carolina
20. Nebraska
21. Missouri
22. Arkansas
23. Utah
24. Oregon State
25. Georgia



SEC Power Poll

1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Mississippi
4. Louisiana State
5. Arkansas
6. Georgia
7. Auburn
8. Tennessee
9. Kentucky
10. South Carolina
11. Vanderbilt
12. Mississippi State

My whirlwind, spontaneous, 24-hour trip to Auburn and back

The first weekend of college football is a bit like a child's Christmas to me. When you're six months away, you know you can't wait for it, but you don't think about it non-stop. However, once you get up to about 3-4 weeks before the first kickoff, time seems to slow down. Weeks feel like months. Days feel like weeks. The anticipation is almost unbearable. Once the time finally gets here, the feeling is unmistakable: relentless joy. As I get older and Christmas doesn't feel like it quite used to, college football season gets more and more enjoyable for me. All of that is to say that this past weekend was about as good as it gets for me, even in spite of the sloppy, boring games we kicked off the season with on Thursday night.

Anyways, my plan all along was to do nothing on Saturday but lay on my couch and watch football until my eyes exploded; any game from Navy-Ohio State to Alabama-Virginia Tech. The thought of traveling down to Auburn for the Tigers' opening game against Louisiana Tech had never really gained any steam in my head; that is, until I received a phone call at around 2 PM from one of my old frat brothers who was in Auburn. He said he had a ticket for me if I wanted it, and I could have a place to stay Saturday night. Although at first I tried to talk my way out of it, I started to think about the logistics of such a trip: Athens-to-Auburn is a 3 hour trip, I'd get into town two hours before kickoff; The game would be over at 9 PM or so, and I could meet up with some old buddies and hit the bar scene; I could wake up at a decent hour on Sunday and head back to Athens. So I packed up a backpack with a change of clothes, took a shower, and sped my way down I-85 to the Loveliest Village.

As expected, I got into town about ten minutes before 4 PM CDT, and immediately parked behind a long line of cars on Wire Road near Shug Jordan across the street from the Hardee's and started walking. I got my ticket in hand about 5:15, chugged a few beers, sipped on some champagne straight from the bottle, and headed to Jordan-Hare. Once I started seeing all the burnt orange and navy blue clogging up the intersection of Donahue and Roosevelt, I knew I had made the best decision of the day.

After fighting for 12 seats in the student section, we ended up pretty much 10-15 rows directly under the right edge of the jumbotron. There was still an hour or so before kickoff, but we passed the time by eating on some $4 (!) hot dogs and generally catching up. Once warm-ups were over, it was time for the eagle flight.



From our vantage point, it appeared as though Tiger (I think that was the one that flew) left the stadium, only to fly back in and go right through the field goals on the way to its target. That's usually the cue for the marching band to start its festivities, and the stadium was rocking. When the band started up "War Eagle" on its way away from our section, I'm not going to lie, I got a little choked up; this was my Christmas, the moment I look forward to the most every single year, regardless of whether Auburn is predicted to win the West or finish fifth in it.

We watched the game, which was thoroughly enjoyable (a more in-depth post is coming), and headed out. I met up with a couple of my other friends, and we pregamed a little bit before a late night of shot bussing at the War Eagle Supper Club, went to bed, woke up around 11, drove back to Athens, and arrived home around 3 PM.

It was a whirlwind trip, and the game was as enjoyable as any since the Chick-fil-A Bowl win over Clemson on New Year's Eve, 2007. I don't know if I will make it back to Auburn for any home games this season, but I do know I'll be going to Knoxville for our game with the Volunteers, and of course I will be in Sanford Stadium for the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. No matter what this season holds, I'll always have a Labor Day weekend quick trip to my alma mater, in my favorite place to be on a Saturday night. War Eagle.

J.D. goes to bed out of boredom from 19-8 game, misses dude getting jacked in face

About midway through the fourth quarter of last night's Oregon-Boise State game suckfest, I decided I'd watched enough crappy football for the opening Thursday night in college football. Disappointed, I turned off the television and went to sleep, only to find out this morning that I missed LeGarrette Blount (the guy who was talking mad trash to BSU before the game) lose his mind and punch a BSU player, shove around one of his teammates, and need to be restrained from entering the stands. That doesn't mean I wasn't able to watch it on video:



Dude got jacked. Of course, the expected happened, and sports media everywhere rushed to condemn such a cowardly act. I'm not going to say that Blount should have punched Hout, or that he shouldn't be reprimanded; what I will say is that the media tries way too hard to feign disgust and disbelief that a player in such a violent and emotional sport would do such a thing. I feel the same way when ESPN/FOX/ABC/etc. personalities get on their high horse about excessive celebrations in the NFL or any other league. Let Joe Horn plant a cell phone near a goal post and pretend to call someone on it after a touchdown; don't be shocked when a football player reacts negatively to some trash talk after the complete decimation of his team.

To be honest, I giggle a little bit every time I see Hout's face directly after the punch, because...

They're comin' to my cittaaaaayyyy?

My handwriting in font form

So I was pointed to a link by Viva El Birdos user spants in which you can create a font from your own handwriting. It takes a little bit of work, but I thought it turned out pretty good. Here's what mine looks like.



For those of you familiar with my handwriting, what's the verdict?

2009 SEC predictions

OK, so I started doing this a few weeks ago with the hopes of producing scores and recaps of every SEC game this season. I got through Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn before I got lazy and let other things get in the way of finishing it. I know I wouldn't get nine of these done in the next four days (before the South Carolina vs. North Carolina State game on Thursday night), so here are all of the SEC games, with scores (no recaps). SEC standings and bowl predictions after the scores. Any criticism or praise is more than welcome in the comments section.

Alabama Crimson Tide (10-2, 7-1)

vs Virginia Tech L 13-24 (0-1, 0-0)
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL W 37-6  (1-1, 0-0)
NORTH TEXAS  W 41-3  (2-1, 0-0)
ARKANSAS  W 21-17 (3-1, 1-0)
at Kentucky  W 30-10 (4-1, 2-0)
at Mississippi  W 22-13 (5-1, 3-0)
SOUTH CAROLINA  W 26-8  (6-1, 4-0)
TENNESSEE  W 28-7  (7-1, 5-0)
LOUISIANA STATE  L 13-20 (7-2, 5-1)
at Mississippi State W 20-3  (8-2, 6-1)
CHATTANOOGA  W 45-0  (9-2, 6-1)
at Auburn  W 20-12 (10-2, 7-1)



Arkansas Razorbacks (9-3, 5-3)

MISSOURI STATE  W 45-7  (1-0, 0-0)
GEORGIA   W 20-16 (2-0, 1-0)
at Alabama  L 17-21 (2-1, 1-1)
vs Texas A&M  W 27-10 (3-1, 1-1)
AUBURN   W 33-20 (4-1, 2-1)
at Florida  L 23-48 (4-2, 2-2)
at Mississippi  W 26-18 (5-2, 3-2)
EASTERN MICHIGAN W 49-0  (6-2, 3-2)
at South Carolina W 27-14 (7-2, 4-2)
TROY   W 31-17 (8-2, 4-2)
MISSISSIPPI STATE W 34-9  (9-2, 5-2)
at Louisiana State L 22-26 (9-3, 5-3)



Auburn Tigers (6-6, 3-5)

LOUISIANA TECH  W 24-20 (1-0, 0-0)
MISSISSIPPI STATE W 20-10 (2-0, 1-0)
WEST VIRGINIA  L 13-31 (2-1, 1-0)
BALL STATE  W 28-10 (3-1, 1-0)
at Tennessee  L 24-27 (3-2, 1-1)
at Arkansas  L 20-33 (3-3, 1-2)
KENTUCKY  W 35-17 (4-3, 2-2)
at Louisiana State L 10-24 (4-4, 2-3)
MISSISSIPPI  W 17-15 (5-4, 3-3)
FURMAN   W 41-7  (6-4, 3-3)
at Georgia  L 20-24 (6-5, 3-4)
ALABAMA   L 12-20 (6-6, 3-5)



Florida Gators (12-0, 8-0)

CHARLESTON SOUTHERN W 59-10 (1-0, 0-0)
TROY   W 48-21 (2-0, 0-0)
TENNESSEE  W 55-6  (3-0, 1-0)
at Kentucky  W 37-12 (4-0, 2-0)
at Louisiana State W 27-18 (5-0, 3-0)
ARKANSAS  W 48-23 (6-0, 4-0)
at Mississippi State W 39-10 (7-0, 5-0)
vs Georgia  W 40-19 (8-0, 6-0)
VANDERBILT  W 44-7  (9-0, 7-0)
at South Carolina W 38-14 (10-0, 8-0)
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL W 51-3  (11-0, 8-0)
FLORIDA STATE  W 33-17 (12-0, 8-0)



Georgia Bulldogs (8-4, 5-3)

at Oklahoma State L 17-31 (0-1, 0-0)
SOUTH CAROLINA  W 20-13 (1-1, 1-0)
at Arkansas  L 16-20 (1-2, 1-1)
ARIZONA STATE  W 28-10 (2-2, 1-1)
LOUISIANA STATE  L 13-24 (2-3, 1-2)
at Tennessee  W 25-23 (3-3, 2-2)
at Vanderbilt  W 34-14 (4-3, 3-2)
vs Florida  L 19-40 (4-4, 3-3)
TENNESSEE TECH  W 38-3  (5-4, 3-3)
AUBURN   W 24-20 (6-4, 4-3)
KENTUCKY  W 30-16 (7-4, 5-3)
at Georgia Tech  W 22-13 (8-4, 5-3)



Kentucky Wildcats (6-6, 2-6)

vs Miami (OH)  W 28-13 (1-0, 0-0)
LOUISVILLE  W 23-9  (2-0, 0-0)
FLORIDA   L 12-37 (2-1, 0-1)
ALABAMA   L 10-30 (2-2, 0-2)
at South Carolina L 13-23 (2-3, 0-3)
at Auburn  L 17-35 (2-4, 0-4)
LOUISIANA-MONROE W 37-14 (3-4, 0-4)
MISSISSIPPI STATE W 29-21 (4-4, 1-4)
EASTERN KENTUCKY W 50-7  (5-4, 1-4)
at Vanderbilt  W 20-14 (6-4, 2-4)
at Georgia  L 16-30 (6-5, 2-5)
TENNESSEE  L 20-26 (6-6, 2-6)



Louisiana State Tigers (11-1, 7-1)

at Washington  W 38-6  (1-0, 0-0)
VANDERBILT  W 34-7  (2-0, 1-0)
LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE W 47-7  (3-0, 1-0)
at Mississippi State W 31-10 (4-0, 2-0)
at Georgia  W 24-13 (5-0, 3-0)
FLORIDA   L 18-27 (5-1, 3-1)
AUBURN   W 24-10 (6-1, 4-1)
TULANE   W 31-3  (7-1, 4-1)
at Alabama  W 20-13 (8-1, 5-1)
LOUISIANA TECH  W 35-10 (9-1, 5-1)
at Mississippi  W 17-10 (10-1, 6-1)
ARKANSAS  W 26-22 (11-1, 7-1)



Mississippi Rebels (8-4, 4-4)

at Memphis  W 36-10 (1-0, 0-0)
SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA W 40-7  (2-0, 0-0)
at South Carolina W 21-18 (3-0, 1-0)
at Vanderbilt  W 24-13 (4-0, 2-0)
ALABAMA   L 13-22 (4-1, 2-1)
ALABAMA-BIRMINGHAM W 41-7  (5-1, 2-1)
ARKANSAS  L 18-26 (5-2, 2-2)
at Auburn  L 15-17 (5-3, 2-3)
NORTHERN ARIZONA W 59-0  (6-3, 2-3)
TENNESSEE  W 28-13 (7-3, 3-3)
LOUISIANA STATE  L 10-17 (7-4, 3-4)
at Mississippi State W 25-10 (8-4, 4-4)



Mississippi State Bulldogs (3-9, 0-8)

JACKSON STATE  W 42-7  (1-0, 0-0)
at Auburn  L 10-20 (1-1, 0-1)
at Vanderbilt  L 20-21 (1-2, 0-2)
LOUISIANA STATE  L 10-31 (1-3, 0-3)
GEORGIA TECH  L 13-28 (1-4, 0-3)
HOUSTON   W 24-21 (2-4, 0-3)
at Middle Tennessee W 28-26 (3-4, 0-3)
FLORIDA   L 10-39 (3-5, 0-4)
at Kentucky  L 21-29 (3-6, 0-5)
ALABAMA   L 3-20 (3-7, 0-6)
at Arkansas  L 9-34  (3-8, 0-7)
MISSISSIPPI  L 10-25 (3-9, 0-8)



South Carolina Gamecocks (4-8, 2-6)

at North Carolina State L 20-31 (0-1, 0-0)
at Georgia  L 13-20 (0-2, 0-1)
FLORIDA ATLANTIC W 38-7  (1-2, 0-1)
MISSISSIPPI  L 18-21 (1-3, 0-2)
SOUTH CAROLINA STATE W 41-3  (2-3, 0-2)
KENTUCKY  W 23-13 (3-3, 1-2)
at Alabama  L 8-26  (3-4, 1-3)
VANDERBILT  W 24-14 (4-4, 2-3)
at Tennessee  L 20-23 (4-5, 2-4)
at Arkansas  L 14-27 (4-6, 2-5)
FLORIDA   L 14-38 (4-7, 2-6)
CLEMSON   L 17-24 (4-8, 2-6)



Tennessee Volunteers (8-4, 4-4)

WESTERN KENTUCKY W 37-7 (1-0, 0-0)
UCLA   W 27-21 (2-0, 0-0)
at Florida  L 6-55 (2-1, 0-1)
OHIO   W 35-13 (3-1, 0-1)
AUBURN   W 27-24 (4-1, 1-1)
GEORGIA   L 23-25 (4-2, 1-2)
at Alabama  L 7-28 (4-3, 1-3)
SOUTH CAROLINA  W 23-20 (5-3, 2-3)
MEMPHIS   W 30-18 (6-3, 2-3)
at Mississippi  L 13-28 (6-4, 2-4)
VANDERBILT  W 27-16 (7-4, 3-4)
at Kentucky  W 26-20 (8-4, 4-4)



Vanderbilt Commodores (4-8, 1-7)

WESTERN CAROLINA W 38-10 (1-0, 0-0)
at Louisiana State L 7-34 (1-1, 0-1)
MISSISSIPPI STATE W 21-20 (2-1, 1-1)
at Rice   W 28-23 (3-1, 1-1)
MISSISSIPPI  L 13-24 (3-2, 1-2)
at Army   W 32-10 (4-2, 1-2)
GEORGIA   L 14-34 (4-3, 1-3)
at South Carolina L 14-24 (4-4, 1-4)
GEORGIA TECH  L 10-31 (4-5, 1-4)
at Florida  L 7-44 (4-6, 1-5)
KENTUCKY  L 14-20 (4-7, 1-6)
at Tennessee  L 16-27 (4-8, 1-7)



Eastern Division
Florida   8-0
Georgia   5-3
Tennesssee  4-4
South Carolina  2-6
Kentucky  2-6
Vanderbilt  1-7

Western Division

Louisiana State  7-1
Alabama   7-1
Arkansas  5-3
Mississippi  4-4
Auburn   3-5
Mississippi State 0-8



Bowl Games:
Florida  BCS National Championship
Alabama  Sugar Bowl
LSU  Capitol One Bowl
Arkansas Cotton Bowl
Georgia  Outback Bowl
Mississippi Chick-fil-A Bowl
Tennessee Liberty Bowl
Auburn  Music City Bowl
Kentucky Independence Bowl

**EDIT: Hmm, format fail. Oh well, should be readable enough.**

Go Memphis!

(HT: EDSBS)

Top 25 Songs of the Aughts

Before I begin, I want to make sure everyone knows this idea is shamelessly stolen from friend of the Neighborhood jrs at A Lifetime of Defeats. Here's a link to his top 100 songs of this decade. In that post he links to Pitchfork's top 500 songs of the decade. Since I'm not nearly the musical connoisseur jrs is, my list is only 25% the length of his, and since neither of us are being paid for our musical opinions, our lists are 5% and 20% the length of theirs. So, without further ado...

25. "Gold Digger" - Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx
24. "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
23. "Doesn't Remind Me" - Audioslave
22. "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" - Dropkick Murphy's
21. "B.O.B." - Outkast
20. "New Slang" - The Shins
19. "Stan" - Eminem ft. Dido
18. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
17. "Jesus Walks" - Kanye West
16. "Punkrocker" - Teddybears STHLM ft. Iggy Pop
15. "One More Time" - Daft Punk
14. "Rehab" - Amy Winehouse
13. "Don't Panic" - Coldplay
12. "Don't Stop the Music" - Rihanna
11. "Flashing Lights" - Kanye West ft. Dwele
10. "Mr. Brightside" - The Killers
9. "King Without a Crown" - Matisyahu
8. "Digital Love" - Daft Punk
7. "LoveStoned/I Think She Knows (Interlude)" - Justin Timberlake
6. "The Real Slim Shady" - Eminem
5. "Hurt" - Johnny Cash
4. "Stronger" - Kanye West
3. "Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz ft. De La Soul
2. "Knights of Cydonia" - Muse
1. "Hey Ya!" - Outkast

Yes, I think four of the best songs of the past decade were by Kanye West. Sue me.

Making lists...Love/Hate

When I moved into my apartment here in Athens and ordered my cable, I decided to get the sports package. At the time it came with a few Fox (FSN) sports channels and ESPNU. Since then, it's expanded to include CBS College (CBSC) Network and MLB Network, two networks that I have found to be awesome. Recently, CBSC has been feeding the hunger for football that is so prevalent when there are less than two weeks until the first game by showing replays of classic SEC games that were originally televised on CBS. Several of the FSN channels have shown various random games from many years ago, and even ESPNU has recently gotten in on the act. Needless to say, I've been taking advantage of the programming and watching as much college football as my schedule will allow. A few games I've seen in the past week or so include 2002 Mississippi-Florida, 2005 Tennessee-Florida, and most recently (an hour or so ago) 2008 Auburn-LSU. I only got in on the 2008 Tiger Bowl at the start of the 2nd half, so I got to watch the worst part. I forgot that ESPN showed several crowd shots of the LSU section in Jordan-Hare, and I had also forgotten how obnoxious LSU fans are. So basically, this entire paragraph has been a prelude to me making a list of my least favorite college football teams. It's been awhile since I've posted a new Top 5, so here goes...Mr. Dizzle's official top 5 least favorite college football teams:

5. Louisiana State: Many Auburn fans (self included) would contend that LSU has overtaken Georgia for #2 on Auburn's rivals list. The Tiger Bowl has been one of the closest yearly rivalries in college football over the past decade, and the winner of the game has represented the SEC West in the SEC Championship Game six out of the last nine years. The fact that LSU has stolen two gut-wrenching victories from my Tigers in the past two seasons makes the hatred even greater. Add in the fact that LSU fans are generally the worst and totally smell like corn dogs, and you have what makes LSU my fifth most hated team.

4. Florida State: If you had asked me to rank my least favorite teams about eight years ago, FSU would have ranked even higher. I always hated FSU because they played in a patsy league, won 10 or 11 games, made it to a high-profile bowl, then choked it away. The fact that the Seminoles have faded away has lessened my hatred for them a little bit, but I still root against them in almost any circumstance.

3. Ohio State: Consider them the FSU of the late-aughts. After winning* the BCS National Title in 2002 over Miami (asterisk for bogus pass interference call in OT), Ohio State has basically owned the Big 10 and choked in bowl games. They have played in and lost three straight BCS games (including two ass-whoopings by SEC teams). They have no problem beating up on the weak sauce that is the Big 10, but cannot compete with the better teams from other major conferences. Even after they've been destroyed in big games year after year, it seems like they're a top 5 team preseason every year. The love ESPN has for the Bucks makes them simply unbearable.

2. Oklahoma: Consider them Ohio State South. They won an ugly BCS National Championship game against Florida State in 2000 and have generally been the class of the Big 12 since. However, like their Buckeye counterparts, they continually choke in the big game. They aren't known as Choklahoma for nothing! The Sooners have played in five BCS games in the last six years and lost all five! And yet, like clockwork, they are a preseason top 5 team year after year after year. What separates the Sooners from the Buckeyes in my heart, though, is the OU team from 2004. To set the scene (Auburn fans may want to just go ahead and skip down to #1) Oklahoma was one of four undefeated teams at the end of the 2004 season, along with USC, Auburn and Utah. The year before had seen the greatest BCS controversy to that point: USC was ranked #1 in the polls but were left out of the BCS national championship game by the computers, which opted for LSU and OU instead. LSU beat the Sooners soundly (if not by a great margin) and USC stomped Michigan to leave the country with a split national championship. After getting jobbed in 2003, USC was a lock to make the title game; the real debate came down to OU vs. Auburn. OU was ranked #2 to start the season, and Auburn was ranked #15. Despite beating four top 10 teams in the season, Auburn could not push past the Sooners in the polls or computers. Oklahoma did not face nearly as difficult of a schedule as the Tigers. They promptly were humiliated by the Trojans in the Orange Bowl while Auburn had to "settle" for a Sugar Bowl victory over Virginia Tech. Oklahoma continues to get rated highly preseason despite getting stomped in bowl games year after year by their real competition. This enormous paragraph should describe just how much I hate this team. They would be a runaway #1 if it weren't for...

1. Alabama: Who else would it be? As someone who graduated from Auburn and lived in Alabama from age 5 to 23, there is no other team to hate. I would root for the Chicago Cubs over Alabama (and trust me, that's saying something). I'm not going to spend a bunch of sentences explaining this, as it should be pretty obvious. How about some pictures?





Now, for a very special bonus list, here's how I rank the SEC teams from most loved to most hated. I decided to do this since only two SEC teams made the above list, and you may be curious how Georgia didn't make the list. (Going there for graduate school may have softened me on the Dawgs)

1. Auburn
2. Tennessee (grew up rooting for them, still have a soft spot...despite Lane Kiffin)
3. Vanderbilt
4. Kentucky
5. South Carolina
6. Mississippi State
7. Arkansas
8. Mississippi
9. Florida
10. Georgia
11. Louisiana State
12. Alabama

I don't think I'm going to get through the last nine SEC teams as far as game-by-game breakdowns go, so I'll probably just consolidate it into a giant post with every SEC game predicted by score. Have a nice week!

SEC College Rankings

The U.S. News and World Report 2010 college rankings have come out. Auburn came in tied for 88th in the country overall, and tied for 39th in national public universities. How did we fare against our conference brethren? Check the results, with overall rank and score in parentheses:

1. Vanderbilt University (17, 80)
2. University of Florida (47, 57)
3. University of Georgia (58, 51)
4. Auburn University (88, 42)
5. University of Alabama (96, 41)
6. University of Tennessee (106, 39)
7. University of South Carolina (110, 38)
8. Louisiana State University (128, 33)
8. University of Arkansas (128, 33)
8. University of Kentucky (128, 33)

Ole Miss and Miss State not ranked

#4 in the conference is pretty good, and anytime we can rate ahead of Alabama in anything, that's definitely good. How did the athletics-first SEC fare against the academics-first ACC? Here's their rankings:

1. Duke University (10, 90)
2. University of Virginia (24, 73)
3. University of North Carolina (28, 70)
3. Wake Forest University (28, 70)
5. Boston College (34, 63)
6. Georgia Tech (35, 62)
7. University of Miami (50, 55)
8. University of Maryland (53, 53)
9. Clemson University (61, 50)
10. Virginia Tech (71, 46)
11. N.C. State University (88, 42)
12. Florida State University (102, 40)

In other words, the worst ACC school would place sixth in the SEC in academics. Auburn would be tied for 11th with NCSU. Florida, the SEC's 2nd highest-rated school would be 7th in the ACC. The only thing I can say about these results is....

NERDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hwat

Why is Ben Tate on the front page of ESPN.com?



I'll read the article and maybe get back to you

Oh Raiders

Growing up, I considered myself a Raiders fan. No reason really, I just didn't have a natural team to root for. The Titans were still in Houston and the Falcons were a giant bag of suck. I kind of just picked the Raiders, and for awhile it was fun. The Raiders were mostly a good team from 1991 (the first year I actively followed sports) to 2002 (when they went to the Super Bowl). Since then, the Raiders franchise has been the laughingstock of the league. They've made bonehead move after bonehead move, and Al Davis clearly has no idea how to run an NFL team in this day and age. I've heard he's said he'll retire as soon as the Raiders win another Super Bowl, but somehow I think he'll die first. Anyways, the most recent example of the Raiders' embarrassment involves Head Coach Tom Cable punching an assistant in the jaw. Stay classy, Raiders.

GO FALCONS!

Chris Todd named Auburn's 2009 starting QB

As reported by Jay G. Tate, Gene Chizik told the team that Chris Todd will be Auburn's starting quarterback for the season-opening Louisiana Tech game. Some money quotes:

"Kodi felt like he could help this team somewhere on offense. We can use him in the Wildcat. We can put him over there at wide receiver. He's very athletic and we're going to give him every opportunity to help this team." - Gene Chizik

Burns stood up at a players-only meeting and asked the team to rally behind Todd. "He said he had my back. It took a lot for him to go up there and say that," Todd said.

Glad to hear Kodi's taking this well (at least on the outside). I hope the team heeds his advice and rallies behind Todd. We won't do squat this season if the players aren't all fully behind Todd.

You stay classy Cubs fans

**EDIT: The youtube link has been removed. There are still some videos up online, but I'm not going to keep posting them after MLB removes the old ones. Here's a page with several animated gifs about the incident.**

**EDIT #2: You stay classy, Mexico**.

2009 SEC Season Precictions: Arkansas Razorbacks

For the next installment of this series, I'm going to the so-called Natural State. 2009 will be the second installment of Petrino ball at Arky. How will it work out?

Arkansas Razorbacks (9-3, 5-3)

The 2008 version of the Arkansas Razorbacks were an intriguing team. They started off the season by almost losing to Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe, then were bludgeoned by three top ten teams. The Hogs looked like an awful team for the most part. Then, a funny thing happened; they went to Jordan-Hare and knocked off preseason SEC West favorite Auburn and started turning their season around. They finished 5-7 (2-6), but were probably the most improved team in the league in 2008. I fully expect that momentum to carry over into 2009, especially with transfer QB Ryan Mallett taking the reins of Bobby (spit) Petrino's offense.

Sure wins: Missouri State, vs. Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan, Troy, Mississippi State
Sure losses: @Florida
Toss-ups: Georgia, @Alabama, Auburn, @Mississippi, South Carolina, @Louisiana State

Game-by-game:

Arkansas 45 Missouri State 7: Arkansas shouldn't have as much trouble with its FCS opener in 2009 as it did in 2008. The Hogs roll over the first MSU and start 1-0 (0-0).

Arkansas 20 Georgia 16: Georgia could be a very good team in 2009. They could also be very mediocre. I've already said that I thought Arkansas will be a very good team in 2009, and because this game is in Fayetteville, I'll give the nod to the Hogs. They move to 2-0 (1-0).

Alabama 21 Arkansas 17: See my previous entry on Alabama's season to see a description of this game. Arkansas drops to 2-1 (1-1).

Arkansas 27 Texas A&M 10: This game will be played in Jerry Jones' behemoth of a new stadium in Arlington, in a sort of throwback to the old SWC days. Mike Sherman has the Aggie program in disarray. A&M shouldn't give Arkansas any trouble, even in their home state. The Hogs roll to 3-1 (1-1).

Arkansas 33 Auburn 20: See my previous entry on Auburn's season to see a description of this game. The Razorbacks improve to 4-1 (2-1).

Florida 48 Arkansas 23: The Gators are the most consensus SEC/national champion in a long time. Tebow and company should have no problem getting back to the SEC championship game and the BCS national championship game. Arkansas won't pose much of a threat, and Arkansas won't be able to stop Urban Meyer's offense. The Hogs drop to 4-2 (2-2).

Arkansas 26 Mississippi 18: The overrated Rebels will drop this game to Houston Nutt's old employer in Oxford. Arkansas turns in a dominant performance and wins a game that's not as close as the score indicates, rising to 5-2 (3-2).

Arkansas 49 Eastern Michigan 0: The Eagles are a FBS team, but they aren't a good FBS team. Arkansas rolls over another weak opponent, becoming bowl eligible at 6-2 (3-2).

Arkansas 27 South Carolina 14: The Gamecocks travel a long ways to Fayetteville (Google maps says 914 miles) and come away empty handed. Arkansas should have no trouble with Spurrier's 'Cocks. The Razorbacks solidify themselves as 2009's Ole Miss by improving to 7-2 (4-2).

Arkansas 31 Troy 17: The Trojans are a decent team, even for a Sun Belt team. In recent seasons they have upset Missouri and Oklahoma State at home, and come close to beating LSU in Death Valley. Arkansas better not take Troy lightly, and won't. They earn a solid 14-point victory, moving to 8-2 (4-2).

Arkansas 34 Mississippi State 9: This game will be another in a long season of growing pains for Dan Mullen at State. Arkansas should have no trouble with the Bulldogs in Fayetteville, and will get their ninth win of the season in impressive fashion. Arkansas improves to 9-2 (5-2).

Louisiana State 26 Arkansas 22: This game will determine whether Alabama or LSU represents the SEC West in the SEC championship game. The Hogs stunned the Purple Tigers in Fayetteville last year thanks to some late Casey Dick heroics, but expect the Bengals' defense to be much improved with John Chavis as defensive coordinator. Arkansas won't give in without a fight, but LSU will come away with a hard-fought win. Arkansas finishes at 9-3 (5-3).

Arkansas will be 2009's version of 2008 Ole Miss. A Cotton Bowl berth should be an accomplishable (is that a word?) goal for this team, and an SEC West Title isn't outside of the realm of possibility either.

Plan your first Saturday in September

Inside USC with Scott Wolf, as linked by EDSBS has given the full run-down of all games that will be on TV on opening day for college football, 2009. What will yours truly be doing that day? My tentative football watching schedule:

10:00-12:00 College Gameday
12:00-12:21 Navy @ Ohio State
12:21-15:21 Western Kentucky @ Tennessee
15:21-15:30 Restroom break
15:30-18:30 Georgia @ Oklahoma State
18:30-19:00 Middle Tennessee State @ Clemson (or maybe dinner break)
19:00-22:00 Louisiana Tech @ AUBURN!!
22:00-23:00 Alabama vs. Virginia Tech
23:00-01:30 Louisiana State @ Washington

Four weeks from today is the first Thursday night game. Can you feel it?!

2009 SEC Predictions: Alabama Crimson Tide

For the second installation in my season predictions for the SEC, I'm traveling up U.S. 280 and down I-59/20 to Tuscaloosa, to preview the defending SEC West champions. The Tide had a magical season in 2008, reaching the #1 ranking before bowing out to Florida and Utah in the SEC Championship Game and Sugar Bowl, respectively. 2009 would figure to be a reloading year for the Tide, but Saban has them in "We don't rebuild, we reload" mode in only his third year. So what does 2009 hold for the Elephants? Let's see...

Alabama Crimson Tide 10-2 (7-1)

The Tide loses a three-year starter at the most important position in quarterback John Parker Wilson. He may have completely sucked for the first two years he was a starter in Tuscaloosa, but he was rock solid for the Tide last season. Behind a veteran line he led Alabama to its first SEC Championship game in nine years. But he (and stalwart LT Andre Smith) are gone, and Alabama will be replacing two key members of its offense. They figure to take a step back as a new quarterback learns the system and SEC defenses adjust to Jim McElwain's offensive system. Let's get on to the schedule:

Sure wins: Florida International, North Texas, @Kentucky, @Mississippi State, Chattanooga
Sure losses: none
Toss-ups: Virginia Tech, Arkansas, @Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Louisiana State, @Auburn

Game-by-game:

Virginia Tech 24 Alabama 13: For the second consecutive season Alabama will travel to Atlanta to face an ACC foe in a neutral site game in Tha Dome. I don't think Alabama will fare quite as well as they did in their 2008 opener against Clemson. Virginia Tech will be a very good team in 2009 and will be ready for the Tide. Alabama will keep it close for three quarters, but the game will end similarly to Alabama's last trip to Atlanta. They start the season at 0-1 (0-0).

Alabama 37 Florida International 6: Not much to say about this game. Alabama overpowers FIU in a laugher. Maybe a brawl will break out and a dude on crutches will fight some Tide players. The Tide bounces back to 1-1 (0-0).

Alabama 41 North Texas 3: Seriously, can you think of a lamer first two home games than FIU and North Texas? This is worse than Auburn's first two of Louisiana-Monroe and Southern Miss from a year ago. Alabama wins another laugher, this time over the Mean Green, going away, improving 'Bama to 2-1 (0-0).

Alabama 21 Arkansas 17: Last season, Alabama pick-sixed Arkansas to death in Fayetteville, rolling to a huge road SEC win. However, they certainly will not be playing the same Razorback team in 2009. Bobby Petrino figures to have his Hogs ready to contend for the SEC West title. The Hogs play Alabama close in Tuscaloosa, before finally falling by four, as Alabama wins its first SEC contest, improving to 3-1 (1-0).

Alabama 30 Kentucky 10: This is a litle bit of a trap game for Alabama, between a home tilt against the Razorbacks and a road trip to the Grove. Fortunately for them, Kentucky will experience some growing pains in 2009 after successfuly 2007 and 2008 campaigns. Alabama should roll over the Wildcats in Lexington. The Tide moves to 4-1 (2-0).

Alabama 22 Mississippi 13: Ole Miss may be the trendy pick to win the SEC West in 2009, but I'm not buying it. I see Alabama rolling into Oxford and coming out with a solid, if unspectacular, victory over Houston Nutt's Rebels. This victory will thrust the Tide into the forefront of SEC West championship talks at 5-1 (3-0).

Alabama 26 South Carolina 8: This is the closest game of Alabama's "toss-ups" I came to putting in the "sure wins" category. **EDIT: Please forgive the horrid grammar of the previous sentence. I hope it makes sense to you.** People may think that the Gamecocks have underachieved under Steve Spurrier, but it has actually been (the other) USC's best four-year run. That tells you more about the Gamecock program than Steve Spurrier. Anyway, Alabama should come out with a reasonably easy victory in Tuscaloosa against the Cocks (tee hee). With the win, Alabama moves to 6-1 (4-0).

Alabama 28 Tennessee 7: Since Nick Saban took over in Tuscaloosa, Alabama has owned the two games against the Volunteers. Of course, UT has a new coach in Lane Kiffin, and the previous two victories were against Phil Fulmer, but the Vols should experience growing pains in 2009 and the game will be played in Tuscaloosa. Look for Alabama to roll over Tennessee once again in 2009. This will be the Tide's seventh consecutive victory after the season-opening loss to the Hokies, pushing their record to 7-1 (5-0).

Louisiana State 20 Alabama 13: In my opinion this game will determine the SEC West champion. That it's being played in Baton Rouge and the fact that the Purple Tigers will have a (slightly) more experienced quarterback make me think that they will come away victorious. Either way, Nick Saban's return to the Bayou will be a hard-fought, close affair, and I see Alabama dropping to 7-2 (5-1).

Alabama 20 Mississippi State 3: After an emotionally draining loss in Louisiana, Alabama returns home to face the Bulldogs from Starkville. Though Alabama should cruise to victory, I forsee this being closer than it could be because Alabama will be deflated after a close loss. Alabama sleepwalks through a 17-point victory, improving to 8-2 (6-1).

Alabama 45 Chattanooga 0: Nothing to say. Alabama beats the Mocs handily in preparation for the Iron Bowl. They now sit at 9-2 (6-1).

Alabama 20 Auburn 12: See my previous entry on Auburn's season to see a description of this game. Alabama finishes the season at 10-2 (7-1).

Honestly, I wanted to give the Tide a worse record than that. It may be the Auburn fan in me showing, but I couldn't find any other losses on the schedule. Yeah, they may lose to Ole Miss, or Tennessee, or even Auburn, but I just don't see it. Saban has Alabama in position to be an SEC contender for years to come, whether Auburn (or any other SEC team) fans like it or not.

Braves LOLcano

The Braves have essentially traded

Elvis Andrus
Jared Saltalamacchia
Casey Kotchman
Neftali Perez
Matt Harrison
Beau Jones
Mark Teixeira

for

Stephen Marek

Great youtube

I saw this video thanks to a post on facebook from Auburn's bet 6-fingered basketball player, Frank Tolbert. Enjoy.

2009 SEC Season Predictions: Auburn Tigers

Today I'm going to introduce a new feature I'll have here for the next few weeks: Season predictions. I'm going through every SEC team and giving a game-by-game score prediction along with a brief preview for each team and brief recap of how I think the game will go down. The first team I'm doing is none other than my beloved Auburn Tigers; start with what you know. After that I'll be going alphabetically through the rest of the SEC. So, without further ado, here's my preview of Auburn's 2009 season...

Auburn Tigers (6-6, 3-5):

When I think about Auburn's first season with new head coach Gene Chizik, I have an incredibly hard time getting a feel for how it's going to go. Of course, this shouldn't tell you anything, because last year I had Auburn going 12-2, losing to Georgia in November and Florida in the SEC championship game, and winning the Sugar Bowl. We all know how wrong that turned out to be. But honestly, I could see Auburn winning anywhere from 1 to 12 of its games this year. Let me rephrase that; the only team on the schedule I couldn't fathom Auburn losing to is Furman, and there isn't a team I think we couldn't beat. To narrow it down a little bit, the real likelihood of win total is somewhere in the four to eight range. The SEC is just too brutal for a team with little depth, a brand new coaching staff (including a new-ish offensive philosophy) and no real quarterback to go undefeated.

After watching Auburn's spring game, I feel confident saying we have no real quarterback; Kodi just doesn't have the ability to throw the ball consistently, and Neil Caudle just doesn't have the athleticism to run Malzahn's spread. I hope Caudle sees most of the snaps this season, given his performance in the A-Day game; he throws the ball a little better, and he's not completely devoid of running ability (like, say, Chris Todd or Brandon Cox). He also seemed to control and move the offense better.

On defense, Auburn should be an upper-tier SEC team once again. While the Tuberville regime left Chizik and Co. virtually nothing in terms of offensive talent, the defensive cupboard is pretty full. We don't have a ton of depth, but Ted Roof (as well as head coach Gene Chizik) should be able to continue Auburn's recent history of excellent defense.

As far as the new coaching staff is concerned, it's just too much of a mystery to be able to have any idea about what will happen this season. Chizik was the hot name on the coaching scene after being defensive coordinator for Auburn's 2004 13-0 squad and Texas' 2005 13-0 national champion squad, but his tenure at Iowa State did nothing but diminish his perceived value. Of course, it was Iowa State, where even Bear Bryant would only win eight games a year; how much can we really judge Chizik on his 5-19 record there? That's the million dollar question. The way I see it, Chizik assembled an incredible group of assistant coaches; if he doesn't micromanage and just lets them do their job, we could be a very solid team (if not this year, in the near future). If not, we could be looking at dark times in Auburn's football history. Only time will tell.

Sure wins: Furman
Sure losses: None
Toss-ups: Louisiana Tech, Mississippi State, West Virginia, Ball State, @Tennessee, @Arkansas, Kentucky, @LSU, Mississippi, @Georgia, Alabama

Game-by-game:

Auburn 24 Louisiana Tech 20: Auburn faces a very tough opponent in Chizik's first game. Derek Dooley (son of long-time UGA coach/AD Vince Dooley) has La. Tech playing some pretty decent football. They beat Mississippi State to start last year, and they'll be thirsty for more SEC blood this season. I see Auburn coming out and running the ball pretty well, playing solid defense, and holding on in the end. The kicking game will be vital. Auburn opens 1-0 (0-0).

Auburn 20 Mississippi State 10: A rematch of the game of the 2008 season (the 3-2 battle in Starkville), this game will hopefully be a little more entertaining than last year's version. State is also breaking in a new coach, and they don't have the luxury(?) of installing the spread to a similar offense that they ran the season before (it's hard to type that without laughing). Dan Mullen will experience some growing pains in his first season as a head coach in Starkville. Auburn plays solid D, does nothing spectacular on offense, and gets by with a 10-point win, pushing them to 2-0 (1-0).

West Virginia 31 Auburn 13: This will be the first loss of the Gene Chizik era, as a loaded West Virginia team comes to Jordan-Hare and runs away from the Tigers in the second half (despite being coached by Bill Stewart). Fans will start to question the new version of the spread, and the defense will struggle with West Virginia's speed. Auburn is now 2-1 (1-0).

Auburn 28 Ball State 10: I came close to putting Ball State in the "sure wins" category above because I think they'll fall off a cliff after last year's magical season, but just couldn't do it. We should beat Ball State since they lost their all-everything QB (name escapes me and I'm too lazy to look it up) and head coach. Their performance under their new coach in the bowl game (against Gus Malzahn-coached Tulsa) was pathetic. I expect them to regress badly in 2009. This should be a comfortable victory for Auburn, pushing the Tigers to 3-1 (1-0).

Tennessee 27 Auburn 24: This is one of the games that I'm predicting Auburn to lose that I think we could win very easily. UT is in a very similar situation to Auburn, with a new coaching staff coming in. I'm absolutely not sold on Lane Kiffin, and as someone who follows the Raiders (I stop short of calling myself a fan until Al Davis retires or dies, whichever happens first), I know his limitations as a coach. I'm also not sold on Monte Kiffin as a college defensive coordinator; his players won't have as much time to study film and learn the defense as his pro players did. That being said, Chizik will drop his first big SEC road game, and Auburn drops to 3-2 (1-1).

Arkansas 33 Auburn 20: I'm expecting big things out of the Hogs this season. They improved by bunches between the first game last season and the last, and now have a stud quarterback in Ryan Mallett at the reins. Bobby Petrino is a hell of a coach, despite being a greasy guy. Auburn will make too many mistakes in Fayetteville to come out with a win, and drops to 3-3 (1-2). Auburn fans begin to grow restless.

Auburn 35 Kentucky 17: Auburn rebounds from two tough road losses with a solid thrashing of Kentucky. The offense has its best game of the season (after steadily improving in the first six games). Auburn fans relax a little bit as the Tigers improve to 4-3 (2-2). Kentucky fans still can't wait for John Calipari to coach their basketball team to greatness.

LSU 24 Auburn 10: This may be the game I was closest to putting in the "sure loss" category, but the series has been just too bizarre to do that. (Spoiler alert!) LSU is my pick to win the SEC West this season, so this will be no cakewalk for the real Tigers. Auburn keeps it close for a half, maybe three quarters, and plays inspired defense, but in the end LSU has too much talent for Auburn to snatch a victory. Auburn falls to 4-4 (2-3). A bowl game is in serious jeopardy at this point.

Auburn 17 Mississippi 15: Ole Miss was undoubtedly one of the surprise teams in the nation last season, and one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the SEC. However, if there's one thing Houston Nutt knows, it's how to fail to meet lofty expectations. Jevan Snead is certainly a fantastic quarterback, but the Rebels aren't sneaking up on anyone this season. Auburn's defense plays its best game of the season, creating multiple turnovers, and the offense does just enough to pull a home win out. Auburn improves to 5-4 (3-3).

Auburn 41 Furman 7: Nothing really to say about this game, we're playing a 1-AA FCS team, should be a cakewalk. Auburn becomes bowl eligible with the win at 6-4 (3-3).

Georgia 24 Auburn 20: This may be the hardest game for me to predict; Auburn will have a new coaching staff and Georgia will have a new quarterback. I could see either team surprising everyone and winning a bunch of games, and I could also see either team falling on its face and missing a bowl. I gave UGA the advantage because the game is played in Athens (the "road team always wins" theme is dead). Auburn drops to 6-5 (3-4) and Georgia fans hold up four fingers to remind us how many times in a row they've beaten us.

Alabama 20 Auburn 12: Alabama won't be as good as they were last season, but they'll still be a solid team. Auburn is playing catch-up with the Tide right now in terms of talent and recruiting, but we'll be there one day (hopefully soon). Auburn may be the home team, but Alabama is just too good to not come out victorious in this Friday afternoon (spit) affair. Auburn fails to win either leg of Amen Corner for the second straight season, and finishes the regular season at 6-6 (3-5).

I was torn between giving Auburn a 5-7 record or 6-6 record, and I eventually came around and gave the Ole Miss game to Auburn. I could also see Auburn easily beating Tennesee and Georgia (which, if all three happened, would get the Tigers to 8 wins). We also have a shot against West Virginia, Arkansas and Alabama. LSU is the longest shot in the schedule. No matter what the final record looks like this season, I am not judging how successful a campaign it was based on wins and losses, but on how much the team improves over the course of the year. I'm looking to 2010 and 2011 for when Auburn should be ready to compete for the SEC.