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.

Viva Huntsvegas

Well, my spring 2009 semester has come and gone. I'm not sure what to expect on the grades front, but grad school grades don't matter, right? I guess I'll find out in the next few days. The statistics final was kinda tough, but not as bad as it could have been. That having been said, I slept three hours last night, drove for five today, and it's now almost 2 in the morning (central time) and I'm wide awake. What's up with that?!

Anyway, as a reward for finishing up my semester, I'm spending the next several days in Huntsville, the town I grew up in (The town in which I grew up....er....the town, up in which I grew? Whatever. Insert "preposition" scene from Beavis and Butt-head Do America.). Our house is undergoing some major renovations so that it can get on the market soon, so my bathroom is out of order. If I want to take a shower, I have to go down two flights of stairs to the basement. That's not going to be a hassle through Wednesday, not at all! At least I can use the toilet. Not sure what kind of trouble I'll get into these few days, but Mother's Day is on Sunday, and I told Mom I'd take her out to a nice dinner and a movie afterward (since I make money now!).

Also, Tuesday is my 25th birthday (barf). It's amazing how from year to year I get less and less excited about my birthday. When I was around four or five years old living in Charleston, WV, I actually remember having like a 100-day countdown to my birthday. It was a big deal. When I was in my elementary school years, I used to itemize everything I wanted, from the newest video game to legos to even a typewriter (okay, so that was Christmas; sue me). Now, I'm just looking at what I need as far as birthday presents. I'm honestly hoping to get a new duffle bag, because the one I've been using for the past ten years is falling apart. Imagine my joy, when I open a present on Tuesday, look inside, and scream "Yes! Luggage!" Cooooooool.

I bought myself a little "birthday" present (hell, I guess it was just an "I need new t-shirts" present), too. I'll be stylin' and profilin' rocking this bad boy around. Check out this retro Montreal Expos tee!



I also have already gotten one of my actual presents from somebody in the mail, a new iPod shuffle from my younger brother. Yes, I'm the last person in America to get an iPod, but before I started working in the lab and trying to get some exercise, I really saw no use for having one. I have all of my music on my computer, and when I'm driving, I'll be listening to XM or CDs. I don't take public transportation or travel by air much, so really it would have been a waste. Now, I'm using it all the time. I've got my "Chill Out" mix for work or just -- go figure -- chilling out, my "Rock Out" mix for when I'm working out or in an angry mood, and all the rest of my music at my disposal. The only complaint I have about this gadget is that I can't select the next song that will play; since there isn't a screen display, I can only make the iPod choose a random song from the playlist. The thing is about the size of my pinky finger, and aside from the earphones hurting my ears, the sound quality is incredible. When I got home tonight, I showed Mom and had her listen to the various features. I said, "I hope nothing embarrassing comes on." She was bobbing her head to the music, then she made kind of a funny face. When she gave it back to me, I put in the earphones, and found out the random song she chose was this nice little ditty (Warning: The song is vulgar and inappropriate for anyone who's younger than 13, older than 30, anyone with little kids nearby, a boss nearby, etc. You've been warned.)

If you'd like to see a demo of how this little baby works, check it out below:



Lastly, I'd like to give a little preview of my next top 5 installment. I said in my first post that I'd opine about a number of things, and the first thing on the list was sports. All I've given as far as sports info goes are some pictures of the Hawks game (Aside: Before the Hawks/Cavs series started, I thought the Hawks would make it an interesting 6- or 7-game series. After having watched most of the first two games, I say they'll be lucky to make it back to Cleveland. This LeBron fella is pretty good, have you heard of him?); not that that wasn't great or anything, but maybe something with a little more substance would be nice. So the next top 5 will either be my top 5 favorite Auburn football games or my top 5 favorite sports moments. I haven't decided, but both of those top 5's will make an appearance in the near future.

Have a great weekend.

Best. Lab Meeting. EVER.

Every Tuesday at 3:30 our lab group meets to discuss how our research is coming along. It's usually an extremely boring meeting that drifts from tangent to tangent, leaving me ready to decapitate myself and feed my severed head to the nearest dog. Or drink heavily. Whichever is easier. However, today we did something different. Everyone in the lab brought a six pack of beer or other beverage, and several people brought snacks and desserts. We relaxed out on the CCRC patio, where the weather was perfect; upper 70s, and we were in the shade. A light breeze kept things from overheating. In order to keep cold, we stored our beer and assorted soft drinks in the cold room until the meeting, which, while hilarious, was also dangerous, in that any other researchers using the cold room could have easily come in and taken the liquid booty. And knowing most of the rest of the CCRC personnel, it would have taken maybe ten minutes.

Needless to say, while our range of topics in typical lab meetings are usually xylan structures in certain land plants, glycosyl transferase activity and genes, today we discussed cheap wine tasting, Mad Dog 20/20 (incidentally, I always thought Mad Dog was a malt liquor; I guess you learn something every day), the pros and cons of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger in their respective Joker roles, and encounters with the cops my P.I. had under the influence of whatever he was under the influence of when he was in undergrad.

Like the title said, this was the best lab meeting ever.

When Professors Attack!

Something interesting happened in Athens this weekend; it was something that actually made national news. Professor George Zinkhan, "an endowed marketing professor at [UGA's] Terry College of Business," murdered his wife and two other people involved in a local community theatre. Of course, this is a very tragic incident for the town I've called home for almost a year and half, and I hope and pray that justice is served to Zinkhan, and my heart goes out to the families of the victims. However, this whole story seems a little weird. First, is the story I heard from my friend's brother's friend's cousin's dog's cousin's owner's brother-in-law's hamster about how he came into class on Friday, told the class there was a change in plans and there would no longer be a final, asked all of them to submit their final papers early, and told them their final grades would be given later that day. Weird. **UPDATE: This rumor actually seems to have some legs. Link** Second, look at this guy:

Anybody with that facial hair style (not just the goatee, but the goatee with wings, as far as I can tell) should raise all kinds of red flags as someone just a little off his rocker. Finally, before the website blocked his profile, his Rate My Professors page was hysterical. An example of one of the ratings I read yesterday, if I can remember it at all (in other words, not an exact quote):

"Dr. Zinkhan is a pretty good teacher. His tests aren't too bad, and he's generally helpful outside of class. One time, he murdered three people. Other than that, I would recommend this class to all of my friends."

Comedic gold. Even still, you can see that some of the pre-yesterday ratings include quotes such as "he demonstrated himself to be cold hearted and just plain nasty when I needed help. Stay away from this man," "creep," and "he is a little quirky." Now, I've been called "creep" more times than I can remember, and a little quirkiness could do us all good, but to me this just sounds like a recipe for disaster.

One time when I visited the site yesterday, there were probably thirty ratings that had been added that day. I imagine that before the website blocked his page, they were trying to remove new ratings as fast as possible in order to maintain any sort of professionalism on the site, and new ratings were pouring in by the bucketload. They've probably never had to do anything like this to their site before, which is why it took so long.

Needless to say, this is something that is quite out of the ordinary in a quaint college town like Athens. The aftereffects are still being felt all over town. The university will operate under a normal schedule this week, even though Zinkhan hasn't been caught yet. Hopefully, this whole thing will be over soon, Zinkhan will be thrown in prison for the rest of his life, and things will return to normal. That's the best we can hope for.