Week 12 in the SEC

Auburn of course has the weekend off before Beat ‘Bama goes into full force effect. Once UAT gets through with their televised scrimmage this weekend against UTC, it will officially be ON.

Around the league there are some good games and some not even worthy of radio. Joe Auburn’s household may very likely declare it a football free weekend, similar to a fast before a feast. Should the television and surround system get cranked up, here is the order of preference to Saturday’s lineup.

LSU vs. Ole Miss. I like this one because I think the Nutt is crazy like a fox enough to slip past a better, but bruised and battered LSU team. Both defenses do a good job of keeping points off the board, but Ole Miss has the offensive weapons to gas the LSU D late. I’m looking for a slug-fest, hard-fought game that is decided late. LSU 20, Ole Miss 24

UK vs. Georgia. Both teams have beaten Auburn and been blown out by Florida. Kentucky faces Tennessee next and UGA gets to try and corral GT. Lost somewhere in all that verbiage is the fact that these two are now playing for the 3 spot in the SEC East. That and the “better” bowl that goes with it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kentucky pulls the upset in this one. Georgia got their win of the year against Auburn, lost UGA the mascot this week and has some injuries to content with. Caught between the celebration after Auburn and the rivalry with the Yellow Jackets comes a Wildcat team that will sneak up on you. The more I think about this one, the more I think this is the weekend Blue is victorious in Athens. UK 30, UGA 21

Mississippi State vs. Arkansas. State has a daunting task of trying to win out to be bowl eligible. I’d say I have a better chance of taking over Oprah’s soon to be vacant chair and talk show spot. Arkansas is jockeying for, wait for it, the “better” bowl in the west. *yawn* Miss. State 17, Arkansas 38

Vandy vs. UT. Vandy’s best option here may be to dress in police uniforms and watch the Volunteers flee into the stands. Seriously, Vandy is back to being the doormat of the SEC after giving their fans a spark of hope last year. Vandy 10, UT 28

Florida International vs. Florida. We’re really, really reaching here for something to give this game and the ‘Bama game some relevance. Still reaching…..yup, got nothing. FIU 13, THE FLORIDA 35

UT Chattanooga vs. UAT. Wouldn’t you love for this game to be close because UAT is looking ahead to Auburn? Well, it won’t be, because they aren’t. They may be looking ahead to Florida when they face Auburn next Friday but that’s about as far as the telescope will shift. UTC 0, UAT 38

Around the Plains and assorted notes. Hamilton’s has reopened on Magnolia and Joe and Josephine will be commeting in a later post. TWER covers down on dang near everything; you can vote for Ben Tate in the Doak Walker award at ESPN; JC at Track ‘Em Tigers says don’t count us out just yet; and Wire Road and Shug are encouraging an All Auburn All Texts.

Where dreams go to die

It is Tuesday. The Tuesday after Auburn’s road loss in Sanford Stadium to the University of Georgia Bulldogs. Much of what is worth reading statistically is summed up in Jerry’s Assorted Observations over at TWER as well as this brief gem by unheralded numerologist, Jay Tate.

Demond Washington blew up the record books, was too gassed to finish the game and then won the conference player of the week award on special teams. Not to be outdone, and perhaps most painful for our readers, Ealey racked up his own career high and award at our expense.

The sting of losing to the Bulldogs tempted me to give major shout-outs to the Georgia fan base and family for such a wonderful, hospitable welcome. I was similarly tempted to blast our own fans for embarrassing Josephine and I most of the evening – especially after the game. But with it being Tuesday after all, the subject of Athens and their fanbase was more admirably described over at Track ‘Em Tigers with, “Not Your Daddy’s Trip to Sanford.” All I can say is Athens is far and away Joe Auburn’s favorite away game and rivalry. This marked somewhere around visit number six, and even with the loss(es), I’ll continue to make the trip and spend my orange and blue dollars on Broad Street and beyond. To our Georgia hosts and friends, we’re now Meyer’s Quad converts!

And now the sad part of this tale….

To loosely paraphrase Ben Tate, all of us would have bet all the theoritical money in our bank accounts Auburn would win this game. By almost all measures aside from the scoreboard, we should have won this game. In fact, for the first 1.25 quarters Saturday night, we did win this game. Georgia was flat footed on defense, predictable and unimaginative on offense and playing from deep in their end of the field for much of the first half. 14 points in 1 quarter, and 3 more on offense over the next 3. Gus, I know better days are ahead for all of us, but man would it kill you to stop trying to outsmart and outcute ourselves on 3rd and short or just after we cross mid-field?

I commend Ben for wearing the number 4 jersey. I think it absolutely was the right thing and a noble gesture. I also think it got in Ben’s head just a bit, and his desire to have a huge night for his friend caused him to stop having fun and overplay. What I saw was the Ben of yesteryear: missed holes, impatient for blockers on the outside and just trying to make too much happen instead of cutting upfield and taking what you can get. Ben, I was a fan when most bloggers wanted you to go back to a basketball state. Every member of my family had 44 jerseys three years ago. We even got crazy and had shirts made last year that read: Two thousand Tate: the year of Ben. So, please, please find your # 44 jersey between now and ‘Bama?

Our offensive line reminded me a lot of my short game in golf. You know, I’ll get my driver grooved, my irons sweet and I just won’t be able to putt to save my life. Saturday night, we had the passing game clicking, the kicking game showed up in week 11 in a big way, the defense was solid early and we couldn’t block down the line or late to save our lives. Even our receivers got in on the action, allowing UGA defenders to force our outside runs to slow down long enough for run support from all over the Georgia side of the field.

Defensively, well….31 points and the aforementioned Jay Tate article kind of sum it all up. We have what we have and it isn’t going to get better before next Friday. Early, the succession of three and outs was a welcome sight, and had our offense continued to click, it could have been just enough.

I’d apologize to our special teams right now for being your biggest critic all year, but listen, one game does not make a trend.

Realistically, our dreams of a bigger, better and brighter bowl died in Athens Saturday night. So too, did the hopes of a class of Auburn football players who are the first to lose four in a row to Georgia since before mine and Josephine’s collective ages. What else was buried between the hedges is yet to be seen. I’m dreaming of a Florida like upset of ‘Bama. I think you should too.

Dream on and War Eagle – BEAT BAMA!

Hedge trimmers and border wars

This is a great weekend for SEC football fans. Auburn is on the road at Jordan-Hare East and the rest of the league is playing border war rivals. Some of our personal favorites, outside of the originators of deep south football of course are: THE FLORIDA at South Carolina, UT at Ole Miss, UK at Vandy and UAT at Mississippi State.

In the interest of time and to not disappoint my 10 facebook fans, I’m going to roll this week up into a two-for-one. Why Joe? Because I am in Atlanta this week and off to Athens Friday afternoon. Considering Athens is one of my favorite road trip party towns, I don’t want to subject my readers to a late Friday/early Saturday slobber-fest booze-soaked attempt at bloggery.

UAT vs. Mississippi State. If you’re reading this blog, you want the Bulldogs to somehow reclaim their mojo from the near miss against LSU, take apart the doghouse and use the lumber to lay it to ‘Bama. If you’re reading this blog, you know Joe thinks the chances of ‘Bama losing to anyone outside of Atlanta in early December is closer to zero than nil. UAT 35, Miss. State 21

THE FLORIDA vs. South Carolina. Similar to above, THE FLORIDA isn’t going to stumble this late in the season and the Gamecocks have hit their normal late season laziness on offense.  Gators 38, USC 17

Tennessee at Ole Miss. I’ll be the one blogger who says the arrest of three UT players this week hurts them against Ole Miss. I actually changed my predication on this one to now favor the Nutt after reading the news this afternoon. Ole Miss is playing for a little bit of pride and a lot of redemption against a program which found itself on the rise of late, outside of last night’s arrests. UT 28, Ole Miss 31

UK vs Vandy. Kentucky has a chance to put Vandy and Auburn in the same category: only conference victories of the year. That makes me wince just looking at it. Back on track, Kentucky builds on the Eastern Kentucky win last week to beat up on Vanderbilt at home. UK 28, Vandy 17

Troy vs. Arkansas. Troy may actually keep this one close through the half. Arkansas may actually wake up and realize they need the win to become bowl eligible. With games against Miss. State and LSU remaining, Arkansas desperately needs this win. Playing at home, at night against a traditionally weaker, but dangerous foe will help seal the deal. Troy 31, Arkansas 42

La Tech vs. LSU. If this were a conference foe, LSU would be in trouble. Fresh off the loss to ‘Bama last week, the Bengal nation is worked up into a lather over blown calls, conspiracy theories and injured players. I doubt the focus has been what it should have been in Baton Rouge this week at practice as a result. It won’t matter as the Bulldogs of La Tech provide the soothing calm of an easy victory. La Tech 13, LSU 28

And now….

Ima git mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry fires up again Saturday evening on ESPN2 in Athens, Georgia. Auburn enters the game riding the high of a homecoming victory and Georgia makes a home-stand after dismantling Tennessee Tech. This chapter in the saga should be a high-scoring page turner. I don’t put it past Richt and Co., but I doubt Georgia tries another uniform test this weekend. What would be simply AUsome though is if Auburn comes out in a variation of their own uniform. Sort of a, “look we can do this too, and do it in your backyard!” statement. And, I give that as much of a chance of happening as I do the Wall Street Journal calling to offer me chief illustrator and sports writer for their new front page.

 

On defense, Auburn faces an established freshman running back, “Watch-me” Easley (with both eyes thank you), Joe Cox at QB and the lightning rod receiver threat, AJ Green. Sure, this is an offense which has disappointed and frustrated fans and team mates, but they are also capable of scoring big given time and space. Auburn doesn’t match well with Green unfortunately, but their success against LSU’s running game gives me hope of at least containing part of the UGA attack. The late season addition of a pass rush helps us against a glass-jawed Joe Cox.

 

I’d say Auburn has the slightest of advantages if they pressure Cox and contain Easley.

 

On offense, Auburn faces a Georgia defense which looked ridiculously bad against Tennessee, good against LSU (most of the game) and stingy against Arkansas. My guess is their linebackers, the strength of the D, will watch key on Ben Tate. Assuming Coach Malzahn adjusts for this and uses Tate to draw the linebackers, we could see some big runs around the end from receivers, Fannin and Smith. Downfield, Georgia is almost as spotty as Auburn, so Chris Todd will need to be looking for his new BFFs, Adams and T-Zach.

 

I like our offensive match-ups much better than I am letting on. However, given the magnitude of this rivalry game, I’m not going to go overboard with where and how often I think Auburn can attack the UGA D.

 

Special teams. What to say? How about a reference to a previous post. That’s right folks, move along, nothing to read here.

 

Overall, I feel good about Auburn going into Athens this year. It has been too long since we’ve left Georgia with a victory, especially given the records seem to favor the road team in this one. I do think it will be close, and I also believe the offenses light up the scoreboards. At the end of the evening, the Tigers limp into an off week with a previously unthunk 8th win of the season. War Eagle!

 

Auburn 37, Georgia 31

No more punt returns, please

Sadly, there just isn’t too much for this lowly blogger to add to Saturday’s homecoming victory. I watched again last night and found it equally difficult 24 hours later to focus on the second half. Seeing our offense score on 6 straight possessions was quite simply, beautiful. Subtract the opening Furman offensive drive and our defense played out their own version of beautiful.

I’ll once again make my plea that we stop fielding punts. Just bum rush 11 and let it go. Seriously. Could someone please comment on how this might be worse? The odds of every punt taking the opposing team roll towards our end zone are 50/50. Some of them will even bounce back, and as long as we don’t touch the ball, that’s positive yardage. POSITIVE yardage and NO turnover, at ~50% of the time. Hmmmmmmm.

We do have Amen’s Corner beginning with the trip over to Athens. ESPN2 has signed on for the 6 pm Auburn time game. This will be my third visit to Athens in the past five seasons. The 2005 visit was wonderful – obviously we won, and it was a great game at the end of a day of tailgating. The Soulja Boy contest was horrible as we all now know, the Black Out being the least of our worries that day.

This year, Mark Richt, Joe Cox and the Bulldog nation has their collective and individual backs against the wall. They have taken the past three contests and you can bet, they’ll want this one as much if not more. As Coach Chizik has pointed out, three of UGA’s four losses came to top 10 teams at the time. It will be the usually tough contest in my personal favorite of our rivalry games.

Oh yeah, I’m considering placing a bag over my head when and if we punt between the hedges Saturday night.

The "ain'ts" of punt returns, your 2009 Auburn Tigers

Welcoming the Paladins to the Palace that is Jordan-Hare

Well, we’ve been here once before this season. Think back to the Ball State game and how the predictions ran somewhere in the, “Auburn scores in the stratosphere” while Ball U barely gets going. Except the Cardinals didn’t really play along with that plan did they?

Furman enters Saturday’s homecoming beat-down game anywhere from a 28 to 40+ point underdog. The Paladins are a Southern Conference, FCS team sitting at 4 wins, 4 losses and facing Auburn for the first time since 1956. They have conference foes Georgia Southern and Wofford remaining, while Auburn looks ahead has Georgia in Athens and Serial Repeat Offenders Alabama at home after Turkey Day.

When Auburn has the ball they’ll be across the line from a defense that sits between the nations of miserable and pathetic. In their four losses they’ve averaged giving up a hair over 40 points per contest. The only FBS opponent they’ve met was Missouri who torched the Paladins for 52. A similar result last week against Appalachian State only yielded one common denominator for Tiger fans to study: massive passing yards.

The Paladin defense has been respectable if not effective against the run, but once again those figures are against what one might call ”lesser opponents.” The only team worth studying for similarities is Missouri. The Mizzou offense reeled off 6 straight touchdowns to enter halftime solidly in command at 42-0. The first TD was even a trick play, cross field lateral, receiver to receiver strike. Um yeah, Auburn has some of those as well. Of note in the Missouri game was Furman controlling the clock with an eleven minute edge in time of possession.

So Auburn should pile up  the passing yards early, rest the starters in the second half and run the ball late? We’ll see. Joe’s personal preference would be to see Ben Tate get his yardage average padded early and for Caudle to play the second half alongside Kodi Burns. How much that takes place depends on how smoothly Furman plays their part in this drama.

Auburn’s defense will face a Furman offense which likes to throw the ball and has done decent protecting their QB. Again in the Missouri game, the Paladins piled up over 300 yards in the air and rushed for under 100. It should be noted however, the bulk of the Furman offensive display came in the second half against the 2nd and 3rd string Mizzou defenders.

The player to watch for is Senior QB, Jordan Sorrells. He’s a 6′ 2″, 209 pounder from Greenville, SC who completes over 60% of his passes and has only been sacked 6 times this year. No, he isn’t the best QB Auburn has faced this year, but he is more than capable of keeping Furman in this game if Auburn’s defense is still asleep late in the game.

In keeping with a tradition that is uniquely Joe Auburn, we aren’t going to comment on the special teams play. Period. Well, okay, please, please Auburn don’t give up a punt or kick-off TD return?!

By the time the homecoming queen has been crowned and the students have filed out, Auburn should have this game well at hand, if not completely in control. Provided Auburn’s offense shows up early and often I see no reason why we shouldn’t score over 40 points while only giving up 20. Auburn’s starters get some rest, the second string gets plenty of reps (we have no 3rd string), the Paladins collect their blood money and all of us get to focus on Amen’s Corner.

Furman 23, Auburn 51

Weak 10 ramblings

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The SEC lays claim to three national spotlights as THE FLORIDA, the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa and LSU all sit in almost every version of the Top 10. The rest of the conference enters the month of November battling for degrees of bowl-worthiness.

However, those battles aren’t particularly compelling viewing this weekend considering the slate of non-conference opponents (I do include Auburn’s PPV scrimmage against the Furman Paladins in that dismissal). Check out some of the other reviews across the Auburn blog empire: Acid adds in the homecoming twist to the weekend action and updates the net yard per pass chart over at Track ‘em Tigers; Auburn regains their swagger at WRAS; flags are gonna be flying and “why didn’t I think of that?” in TWER’s weekly update; and Fields of Donahue has apparel envy.

The games of the week in order of expected importance IMHO are: LSU at UAT and South Carolina at Arkansas. Outside of those two? Well, you’re watching games because you have an emotional attachment.

LSU vs. UAT. This one will either be a scrap to the death or UAT blows out the Bayou Bengals. UAT’s struggles on offense have been magnified somewhat disproportionately when you consider how much press Mark Ingram is getting in the Heisman hunt. True, Greg McElroy has cooled considerably since his first four games, but Alabama has the support on the outside, backfield and up-front to more than play cover-up. LSU’s front four has been underwhelming this year and may not stop Ingram and pressure McElroy enough to matter. One of two things takes place here, LSU has found themselves after blowing out Auburn and Tulane and gives the $aban bowl new meaning – in which case, they could very well pull off the upset, OR UAT’s weekend off was just what the doctor ordered to get McElroy back on track and the Alabama offense adds triple digits to the Bryant-Denny scoreboard. I’m going with the latter……

LSU 13, Alabama 31
South Carolina vs. Arkansas. USC sorely disappointed me (and the Palmetto state) last weekend in Knoxville. Then again, USC has shown the remarkable trend of folding like a cheap tablecloth in November over the past what, 10 years? Arkansas is in must-win territory at home while USC is already bowl eligible and probably stung mightily after getting embarrassed on Rocky Top. The key for Spurrier’s squad is going to be making Mallett move. They don’t have to sack him every down, but they do need to prevent him from settling into a comfortable pocket and blasting the ball downfield like a howitzer at D-Day. USC’s run defense is good enough to make the Razorbacks one-dimensional, but they aren’t good enough to stop the onslaught of downfield passing. I look for this one to be a great game, with plenty of back-and-forth momentum swings. In the end, the Razorbacks prevail.

USC 24, Arkansas 27

Tennessee Tech at Georgia. TTU’s only real chance against a struggling UGA team is if they pull a uniform gimmick trick in Athens and make Georgia think they are facing either the Vols or Gators.

Tennessee Tech 17, Georgia 35

Eastern Kentucky vs. Kentucky. No one outside of the banjo basketball bluegrass state will care about this one.

EKU 21, UK 31

Vanderbilt at Florida. This one is mildly entertaining only because, (1) it is a conference game, (2) Spikes has now administered his own punishment, (3) Tim Tebow is more photogenic than Paris AND Nicky Hilton combined, and (4) people will want to see what Urban Meyer complains about this week.

Vandy 14, THE FLORIDA 42

Memphis vs. Tennessee. This won’t be another 1996 game no matter how much I will it. Oh well, I’m glad we aren’t playing UT late in the season now that Crompton and Kiffin are on the same page.

Memphis 9, UT 42

Northern Arizona vs. Ole Miss. The Lumberjacks of Flagstaff?! Okay, so Ole Miss does get the creative mascot nod for this scheduling bonanza. Let’s hope the Rebels don’t overlook a team that has been surprisingly good at staying with the big boys of the college football world.

NAU Lumberjacks 17, Ole Miss 27

Furman and Auburn – I wouldn’t put Auburn in the name and not give them their own posting, so stay tuned.

So what exactly is a FUR-man?

This Saturday marks the 83rd time the Auburn Tigers have taken the field for homecoming. Auburn’s first football opponent was Clemson, who graciously lost 13-0 on Drake Field – now the scene of a very rare on-campus parking lot for the student union. As hard as it is to imagine the City of Auburn and especially the campus without Jordan-Hare rising from the center, Auburn has played homecoming games in places like the Gump and Columbus, Georgia because we lacked facilities.

That is about the extent of Joe’s Auburn homecoming factoids. Your best source for Auburn homecoming notes are at the Auburn Tigers site. For those of you in-state (Alabama or South Carolina )on Saturday, your options to watch the game are of course, live or on pay-per-view.

Joe Auburn comes to the Plains by way of the Palmetto State and has some very real roots in the upstate area where Furman locates. Our neighbor was even a fullback for the Paladins, but I don’t remember if he faced off against the Tigers in the 1946, 1955 or 1956 games. Furman was further away from our home than the University of South Carolina and about the same distance as Clemson, but you would have never known it in the revolutionary war village of Ninety-Six. Furman was THE school on our street.

Furman began in 1826, making it the oldest, largest and most selective private institution in South Carolina. They moved the campus from Edgefield to Greenville in 1850 and again underwent change in the mid 1930’s when the nearby women’s college merged. The same year as the last football meeting with the Auburn Tigers, 1956, the University moved to the present-day, 750 acre campus just north of Greenville. The campus is anchored by a 30 acre lake and Bell Tower at the center and most folks in the surrounding area refer to Furman as, “The Country Club of the South.”

All students are required to live on campus, but as a senior you may win the lottery for a shot at living off campus. Seriously. There are over 3000 students on campus, and most of them will pursue post-graduate degrees. In fact, more Furman students will go on to earn their Ph.D.’s than from any other private liberal arts college in the South.

On the football field, the Paladins have a rich history of their own. The only national championship in school history came by way of the football team in 1988. They boast the most Southern Conference championships of any team in the league with 12 and along with Colgate, Lehigh and Richmond remain the only private universities that have appeared in the I-AA Football Championship game.

You would expect a liberal arts college to have a theatre and Furman certainly represents in this area. There is also an 18 hole golf course, but beyond those choices you’ll find yourself shifting your car into drive for the trip into nearby Greenville and beyond.

Fortunately, Joe Auburn was reared by Auburn alums and fans and our escape to the Plains was complete before my hometown could completely convert me. Aside from a whiff of nostalgia, Joe plans to represent the Auburn Family without a pang of regret this Saturday at homecoming.

War Eagle!

Auburn vs. Georgia – night between the hedges

Auburn’s game time with the shape uniform-changing Georgia Bulldogs has been set at 7 pm EST or 6 pm Auburn time. The game will be televised on either ESPN or the Deuce (ESPN2). Joe and Josephine will be there Friday and Saturday night. You?

In other Monday greatness, two Auburn players earned conference player of the week honors after defeating Ole Miss. Walt McFadden picked up top defensive player and Antonio Coleman nabbed defensive lineman honors.

Ole Monday morning musings

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Saturday’s win is safely in the books (no tricks this Halloween), Etheridge is expected to make a full recovery (even if his football career is still in doubt), and Sunday brought another day of rest in the form of film study and meetings.

The win put the whole village into a festive mood and talk of a bowl game transitioned from, “will we,” to “which one.” If you’re looking for in-depth bowl game predictions specific to the conference and Auburn, look no further than Jerry’s post at TWER. My own take on the bowl picture is we’re still likely to see the inside of Shreveport or Memphis, but Nashville or Birmingham are still real possibilities. Coach Chizik told us at the initial Tiger Talk of the season that we were going bowling – and although Furman hasn’t surrendered yet, it does look like Coach Chizik knew what he was talking about.

The Ole Miss recap: Coaching, players and various and assorted notes

It is tough sometimes as a blogger to offer anything new to a win or loss come Monday. The wins seemingly are full of feel-goodisms and the losses full of criticisms. We’ve had our share of wins complete with, “wow, I hope we get that fixed asap,” but all three of our losses threatened to turn the Auburn family upon itself.

Although several of us out there began doubting Coach Chizik and Roof, Joe will maintain his stance that Coach Boulware is the weak-link on this staff. True, the play calling of Coach Malzahn has seemed predictable and yes, the inability to come up with an effective play for 3rd or 4th and short is puzzling at best, embarrassing at worst. However, let’s not forget this is an Auburn squad playing as if they’ve been on the most severe scholarship restriction probation for the past 3 years. No comment on Tuberville’s recruiting or acting here.

There have even been some to point to the success of former Auburn defensive coordinator at Iowa State and say, “maybe he was our guy?!” Please keep in mind, Coach Rhoads is a fine individual and no doubt a great coach – but he’s playing with a team chock full of players OUR current coach recruited and developed. If you believe that old coaching mantra that it takes three years in a system to see the real results, you have to be even further encouraged by the news out of Iowa and what that means for Auburn in 2011 and beyond.

The team Saturday looked so unlike the previous three weeks you’re almost tempted to throw those out and start over. Our defense IMHO, played their best game of the year. The forced three and outs late in the game are not what we’ve seen consistently this year and the stop after Todd’s ridiculous retreat stands out as THE true measure. Yes, giving up the big play was again there, but seriously, Dexter McCluster is the type of player who is going to break that one off eventually.

Losing Etheridge is a blow, no question. In the giveth-and-taketh-away world however, the improved play at D-End to close out the year couldn’t have come at a better time for a defensive backfield now closely resembling a one-armed man in a paper hanging contest.

On offense, Ben Tate really is the rock star I thought he could be. I saw him play in high school in Maryland and I predicted then in a hallucinogenic concoction of vanilla vodka, stale beer and white russians he would be one of the best all time at Auburn. Congrats Ben!

Chris Todd probably won’t be missed next year. I’ve been one of his few defenders since early last year, but even my patience is worn thin. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how he can place a ball into a receiver’s hands like the bomb to Zachery one play, and then run backwards for a mile and fumble like he did in the 4th quarter Saturday. Confounded and praying Saturday’s Todd stays with us until mid January!

It is homecoming week on the Plains. It is a great time to catch up with old friends, make a few new ones, and hopefully, pleadingly, get some rest for our starters before the trip to Athens. Joe and Josephine will be spending the weekend in ‘Dawg country. I’d love for this trip to more closely resemble the one in 2005 than 2007.

War Eagle and remember to keep the Etheridge family in your prayers.

Etheridge out for the year

Photo courtesy of Zac's facebook page - the Auburn Family thoughts and prayers are with you!

Saturday’s win became a little less celebratory after the news SS Zac Etheridge is now out for the year. Etheridge lay motionless on top of Ole Miss back, Rodney Scott before being carted off the field. Just before the tunnel, Zac gave the cameras and fans a thumbs up.

Andy and Jay each cover what they heard from Coach Chizik in today’s press conference. We are all keenly aware at this point of Coach Chizik’s not discussing injuries, but it certainly would be nice in this instance to know Zac’s football career and life as he physically knew it, aren’t over.

War Eagle Zac and here’s to a speedy and safe recovery.