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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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!

...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.

AUBURN CAN HAZ OFENZ?

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.

Hwat

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



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

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.

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.

Tony Franklin speaks

It's been a week since I've posted on my blog, so I figured it would be time for an update.

Going to see The Hangover in about an hour and a half, and I can't wait. Should be an awesome movie in the mold of other movies like this one, this one and this one, all three of which are some of the funniest movies I've seen.

Anyways, the purpose of this post is to point you to this article about Auburn's former offensive "coordinator" Tony Franklin. It's a little long, but it's certainly worth the read if you've got a little time. It's an interesting view of the inside of the Auburn athletic department, and sadly, none of it is too surprising.

If you ask me, Auburn's a pretty successful athletic college. We're generally a top half SEC team, with division championships and conference titles sprinkled in throughout the years in football. However, the atmosphere the administration, board of trustees and athletic director have created is not one that is conducive to productive work. The board of trustees is far too involved in the goings on of the athletic department, and the hand-picked athletic director appears to be a boob who serves as a puppet for the board of trustees.

Unfortunately, you can't fire trustees, so we just have to wait until the ones currently on the board are gone, and hope that their replacements have more of a laissez-faire attitude with regards to the athletic department. And of course, we all hope Jay Jacobs is relieved of his duty very soon.

Top 5 sports moments of my lifetime

It's been awhile since I've given any sort of a real update, so I thought I'd post the other sports-related top 5 I mentioned awhile back. This time, I'm going through my top five favorite sports moments of all time, in any sport. I was born in 1984 and didn't really start following sports until the early '90s, so all the moments I'm listing have occurred in the time frame from about 1991. Here's the list.

5. Boise State vs. Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl, January 1, 2007:

When anyone asks me what's the best football game I've ever seen (only on TV, for this one), I tell them this WAC-Big 12 matchup without even thinking about it. Not only was this a great game, but it had a great storyline to it. The Davids from Idaho vs. the Goliaths from Oklahoma. An undefeated season on the line, as well as a chance to prove their program belongs. Boise State ran out to a huge lead, but Oklahoma kept chipping away and away until they finally tied it late in the fourth quarter. Boise State got the ball back with a chance to win with just over a minute left, but Jared Zabranski threw a crippling pick-six on the first play of the drive to give Oklahoma a 35-28 lead. It seemed like the clock was striking midnight on Boise State's Cinderella season, especially when they faced a 4th and 18 at midfield with seconds to play. That's when Boise State scored a touchdown on one of the wildest plays I've ever seen, a beautifully drawn-up hook and lateral that tied the game and sent it into overtime.

On the first play of overtime, Oklahoma's Adrian Peterson ran for a 25-yard touchdown to put Oklahoma up 42-35, and on Boise State's ensuing possession, they once again faced 4th down, this time a 4th and 2 from the 6. This time, Chris Petersen drew up a halfback pass that connected for a touchdown to make the score 42-41. Boise State opted to go for the two point conversion and the win. Cue the video (includes highlight of hook and lateral):



4. St. Louis Cardinals win NL Pennant, 2004:

2004 was a magical sports year for me. The Cardinals got hot in May and never looked back, and Auburn went undefeated, winning the SEC Championship and Sugar Bowl along the way. After St. Louis won 105 games and the NL Central, they moved on to the playoffs. Since Tony La Russa took over as Cardinals manager in 1996, only once had they made the playoffs and I felt good about their performance, in 2001. In 1996, St. Louis led Atlanta three games to one in the NLCS, only to choke the series away. In 2000, the Cardinals fell in 5 games to the Wild Card-winning Mets in the NLCS. In 2001, the Cardinals fought hard in a losing cause, in five games to eventual World Series champs Arizona. In 2002, they lost in 5 games to the Giants. The 2004 NLCS had a similar feel, after Houston had won games 3 through 5 to take a 3-2 series lead. In extra innings, Jim Edmonds blasted a walk-off two-run homerun to send the series to game 7, but the pitching matchup did not favor the Cardinals. Houston sent Roger Clemens to the hill to face off against Jeff Suppan. I was happy the Cardinals didn't roll over and die in game 6, but I didn't feel too confident about game 7. After the top of the third, Houston led 2-0, and that felt like 25-0 with Clemens pitching. However, in the bottom of the third, St. Louis scraped a run across to cut the lead to 2-1, where it stayed until the 6th. On consecutive pitches in that inning, Albert Pujols tied it on a double and Scott Rolen gave St. Louis a 2-run lead on a homerun! Cardinals fans could feel it. After putting up another run in the 8th, Jason Isringhausen worked a 1-2-3 ninth to give St. Louis its first pennant in 17 years. I probably annoyed my entire apartment complex to death with my screaming. Unfortunately, I can't find any youtube video of this series (other than a Jeff Kent walkoff homerun in game 5, grr) but I'll post some photos of Jim Edmonds doing his thing:





3. Duke vs. Kentucky, Elite Eight 1992:

If you don't instantly know what I'm talking about, you either have lived in a cave for 20 years or were born in the 1990s. Even though I was 7 (almost 8) years old, I still have such a vivid memory of this shot. I was in a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama with my family for Spring Break. My Mom was pulling for Kentucky, while my Dad was pulling for Duke. I was pulling for Kentucky, probably for SEC reasons, and my 4-year-old little brother was "pulling for" Kentucky, probably because I was. Overtime. Duke down by one. Grant Hill inbounding the ball. 2.1 seconds left....



I love how after Laettner hits the shot, Jim Nantz just yells "YES!" and shuts up, letting the moment speak for itself.

2. Auburn football 2004:

I can't really pick a particular moment from this season; the whole year was awesome (except for the BCS picking show...grr). I've already mentioned two games from this season in my Top 5 Auburn games attended post, so if you want to read more about the season, check out that post. Anyways, this Auburn team was the most dominant team I've ever followed, and possibly the best I've ever seen. It's a shame we didn't get to see how they would have fared against USC or Oklahoma. For the record, I think we would have beaten OU by double digits. I'm not sure we would have beaten USC, but we would have played them much better than Choklahoma (see what I did there?). The way Auburn's "hard-fighting soldiers" came out and spanked every team it faced after LSU was amazing. The fact that this happened less than a year after AU administrators tried to oust Tommy Tuberville made the season that much more of a storybook season. We need a montage:



1. St. Louis wins 2006 World Series:

The early-to-mid 2000s Cardinals teams were incredible. They made the playoffs every year except one from 2000 to 2006, winning the division five times in seven years. However, despite all their regular season success, they had always met postseason failure. As mentioned earlier, the 2000-2002 teams all met early exits. The 2004 team won the pennant, but was swept in the World Series by Boston. The 2005 team was nearly as good as the 2004 team (maybe better), but lost the NLCS to Houston in 6 games. Once the team started to fall apart in large stretches in 2006, it looked like the Cardinals had missed their chance to win a title in the prime of Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds, and Scott Rolen. The Cardinals almost blew a 7 game lead with 12 games to play. By the time they limped into the playoffs, they had gone 83-78, and only one ESPN analyst predicted they would even win the NLDS, much less go all the way. But St. Louis beat San Diego in 4 games to win the NLDS, then defeated the heavily-favored New York Mets in an epic 7 game series to go to the World Series. Once there, nobody gave St. Louis a chance. Bob Nightengale of USA Today picked Detroit in Three. Rookie Anthony Reyes, who had gotten shelled in Game 4 of the NLCS, took the bump in Game 1 against Justin Verlander. Even Cardinals fans were wondering how many games it would take Detroit to beat St. Louis.

Then something funny happened.

Reyes pitched a beautiful 8-inning game in game 1 to give St. Louis a 1-0 series lead. Detroit won game 2 behind Kenny Rogers' -- ahem -- dirty hand to tie the series up. Chris Carpenter pitched one of the best games I've ever seen in game 3 to give St. Louis a 2-1 lead. The Cardinals came from behind to win game 4 behind the bat of David Eckstein and take a 3-1 lead. Jeff Weaver dominated Detroit for eight innings and Adam Wainwright closed out the 9th to give St. Louis a World Series championship in five games. I erupted with joy and yelling. Best sports moment of my life.



Honorable Mention:
Mark McGwire hits his 62nd HR
Josh Hamilton goes off on the 2008 HR derby
George Mason makes the Final Four
Raiders go to Super Bowl in 2002 season

Gene Chizik is no good at golf

Check out this video from al.com:

Gene Chizik, Bo Jackson putt around

Even though the results are there, his putting stroke is just horrible. Once upon a time, I was pretty good at golf, so I know when someone has no idea what he's doing when I see it. Chizik's putting stroke isn't as bad as Chuck Barkley's full swing, but it's not any good. He has too much movement in his body and wrists; he doesn't have the pendulum stroke like Tiger Woods.

Anyways, the best thing to take from this, as Goldberg notes in the blog post I'm taking this stuff from, is that Bo Jackson is taking a more prominent role with Auburn than he had. He spoke at graduation last week, and he's appearing with Chizik, having fun. This can only be a good thing for our rebuilding program.

I kinda wish they had shown Bo's stroke, though.

Top 5 Auburn games attended

As promised in my last post, I am going to give the top five Auburn games I've seen live. Before I get to the list, I must offer this bit of biographical information:

I was born in the quaint town of Johnson City, Tennessee to a mother whose entire family was from Memphis and a father who spent much of his childhood and younger adult life in the hills of East Tennessee. As such, I was raised a Tennessee fan; that is, until I started at Auburn in August, 2003. While UT still holds a special place in my heart, I mention this to explain the fact that the five games on this list occurred in this decade.

Now, without further ado, J.D.'s top 5 Auburn football games!

5. Auburn 34, Tennessee 10 - October 2, 2004, Knoxville, TN

The 2004 Auburn Tigers were a great team; perhaps the greatest I've ever watched, and without a doubt the greatest I've ever followed. However, Auburn fans didn't realize that something special was happening that season until this crisp October night on the banks of the Tennesseee River. In four games up to this point, Auburn had handily beaten three also-rans and edged defending national champion LSU by one point -- while only scoring ten -- at home. The trip to Tennessee was the first big road test for the veteran Tigers squad, with new offensive coordinator Al Borges. The Vols, on the other hand, were 3-0 behind waxings of two also-rans and a last-second, 50-yard field goal to beat Ron Zook's last Florida team in Knoxville. UT featured two true freshman QBs in Erik Ainge (the thrower) and Brent Schaeffer (the runner). Most analysts predicted that the home crowd would be too much for Auburn to handle, but Ronnie Brown and Carnell Williams had the last laugh:



Auburn would run out to a 31-3 halftime lead, and leave Knoxville with an emphatic 34-10 victory. This would be the point in the season where Auburn went from "Hey, they're pretty good" to "Damn, this team is nasty."

4. Auburn 10, LSU 9 - September 18, 2004, Auburn, AL

As mentioned in the AU/UT recap above, Auburn edged LSU by one point behind some last-minute heroics by Jason Campbell, Courtney Taylor and Junior Rosegreen. Earlier in the week, the game was in danger of being postponed due to Hurricane Ivan; Auburn let class out for Wednesday through Friday of the week, and Ivan hit hard on Thursday. However, by game time on Saturday, the weather was warm, muggy, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. LSU came in on the heels of winning the program's first national title since 1958 in 2003, but with two green QBs: Marcus Randall and JaMarcus Russell. The purple Tigers were 2-0 with a close, should-have-been-a-loss win over Oregon State (OSU's kicker missed like 30 field goals and 15 extra points) and a laugher over Arkansas State. Auburn was also 2-0, and had yet to be challenged. LSU came out and took an early 9-3 lead (thanks to a missed (or was it blocked?) extra point following their lone touchdown); from there, it would be a battle of the punts (and an unsuccessful 4th and goal attempt from Tommy Tuberville). On Auburn's final drive, Jason Campbell completed 4th-and-long and 3rd-and-long passes to Courtney Taylor to tie the game, then John Vaughn gave Auburn the lead on his second extra point try (LSU was penalized on Vaughn's first try, which was a miss). Junior Rosegreen intercepted a late Russell pass, and the celebration was on. Enjoy this, which may be my favorite Auburn game montage on youtube:



3. Auburn 28, Alabama 18 - November 19, 2005, Auburn, AL

Alabama started 2005 9-0, and were supposedly "back." Auburn started the year off with a loss to Georgia Tech, and was seemingly out of the SEC West race with an overtime loss to LSU in mid-October. However, by the time this game was starting, Alabama had lost a heartbreaking overtime game to LSU in Tuscaloosa, and Auburn had quietly gotten on a post-LSU roll (including a certain game that may appear next in this list...what could it be??). On a cool, overcast day, Auburn started the game by forcing a 3-and-out (including two sacks), outscored Alabama 21-0 in the first quarter, and the outcome was never in doubt after that. Brodie Croyle was sacked eleven times in the game. Here's the highlight package:



2. Auburn 31, Georgia 30 - November 12, 2005, Athens, GA

Georgia was a win away from a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game. Auburn needed some help and to win out to make the trip. Georgia was the heavy favorite, though Auburn had put together a quiet run of nice wins. In a game that was back and forth the entire time, Auburn came out with a miracle victory thanks to a 4th-and-15 completion from Brandon Cox to Devin Aromashodu and a last-second chip shot field goal from John Vaughn. Coming down the stretch, it was apparent that the last team to have the ball would win the game; this was true, excepting for the few seconds Georgia had the ball after the Vaughn field goal. Poor clock management by Mark Richt could have cost the Bulldogs the game, however; Georgia scored a touchdown to take a 29-28 lead, and while deliberating going for two (what's to deliberate?!), Georgia took a delay of game penalty, then another, before finally opting for the PAT from the 13 yard line. **EDIT: I was mistaken. The PAT/2-point conversion mistake occurred when the score was 21-20. Going for 2 would have made it a 28-21 game, but the extra point only made it 27-21.** The only thing to remember from this game, though, is "Are you kidding me?!"



1. Auburn 27, Florida 17 - October 14, 2006, Auburn, AL

This was hands down the most fun football game I've ever attended. When Auburn blocked Florida's punt early in the third quarter and Tre Smith recovered it and flipped into the end zone, Jordan-Hare was louder than I've ever heard any football stadium, and it was literally rocking. After Florida dominated the first half en route to a 17-8 lead, Auburn took the opening drive of the second half and kicked a field goal to cut the lead to 17-11. **EDIT: Auburn kicked the field goal right before halftime, not right after. It was 17-11 at halftime, and I believe Florida actually got the ball first in the second half.** After a Gator 3-and-out, the magical punt block occurred, putting Auburn ahead 18-17. Florida would not score another point in this game, as Auburn used four John Vaughn field goals, a safety, a special teams touchdown and a game-ending defensive touchdown to fell the Gators. This would be Florida's only blemish on their 2006 national championship team. Charles Barkley's 21-17 prediction would have been exactly right were it not for the last defensive touchdown; I'm sure he could have paid off some of his gambling debt with that kind of prediction. Enough talking, here's the awesome video:



You can always tell how big of a touchdown it is by how crappy the Auburn band sounds playing "War Eagle" afterward. Listen to how out-of-tune the band is after Smith's touchdown.

Honorable Mention:

AU 23 Clemson 20 - 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl
AU 24 Georgia 6 - 2004
AU 28 Alabama 23 - 2003

The last one is my first Iron Bowl experience. The very first play of my very first Iron Bowl:



I can't imagine a better way to get your feet wet in the biggest college football rivalry.

Special thanks to Auburn youtube-maker extraordinaire autiger96 for putting together several of those videos, and to the makers of the other videos.