Thanks to Gilman I now have my own website to post all the random crap i find instead of emailing out 100’s of Auburn emails. I will use this site to post all the videos i shoot and edit as well as other pictures and random crap I find amusing. Check back regularly for updates. If you register with the site you should get an email every time the site is updated. War damn eagle!
-Nate
Check the video section! WAR EAGLE!
Looking ahead to Saturday’s game against Mississippi State:
* Don’t be surprised if it’s uncomfortably close, at least for a while. Mississippi State doesn’t have a whole lot of offense, but its defense is pretty salty.
* Don’t assume you’ll see middle linebacker Tray Blackmon on the field. He might play, but there is a good chance he won’t. Blackmon must really be frustrated. He went through so much in the offseason and has been out since the first half of the opener against Kansas State.
* When you look at who hasn’t been available, the performance of Auburn’s defense has been pretty close to remarkable.
* It might be crazy to say it after just two games, but Wes Byrum looks like he could be one of Auburn’s all-time best.
* Ditto freshman right tackle Lee Ziemba. On one running play against South Florida, he personally took out three defenders.
* There’s no way to know how they’ll play, but worries about whether Auburn football players are focused on Mississippi State are baseless. Unlike the fans, players put losses behind them and move on. They don’t have any choice.
* It looked for a while like it might be a wet one Saturday morning, but the forecast now calls for clear skies and temperatures in the low 80s. Even in good weather, Auburn crowds for early games are usually smaller than usual and quieter than usual. That’s one area in which Auburn football is behind many of the other top programs in the nation. Considering the tremendous passion of Auburn fans, I’ve always had a little trouble understanding that. There’s a chance Auburn could play its entire home schedule and not have a sellout until the finale against Alabama.
* Auburn has and will play more talented quarterbacks this season than Mississippi State’s Michael Henig, but it won’t play one that is more motivated. Henig grew up in a very loyal Auburn family and very much wanted to play for Auburn. He got no scholarship offer and leaves little doubt that he is resentful of that.
* My gut feeling is senior Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox will be much more efficient Saturday than he has been in the past two games.
Auburn’s coaching staff is relying on the seniors to make sure this team bounces back from the South Florida loss and brings their A-game in the SEC opener against Mississippi State Saturday. While dreams of a national championship may have come to an end following the USF loss, Auburn has set its sights squarely on competing for the SEC West championship and a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game.
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| Groves has helped AU to a 21-3 SEC record the last three seasons. |
“We’ve done really well the last couple of years in the conference, and we expect nothing less than that,” said senior safety Eric Brock. “We just want to get everybody on the same page and make them understand this is a different type of situation. “We’ve got SEC games coming up, and this is pretty much our season right here.” Senior quarterback Brandon Cox says there’s a sense of urgency on the offense to improve this week after subpar performances in each of the Tigers first two games. That makes the Mississippi State game especially important. “We need to prove something,” said Cox. “Yeah, it’s a big game against Mississippi State. But we just need to go out there and play our game. We’ve hurt ourselves the last game. We just need to go out there and not turn the ball over, put together some drives, put some points on the board and not rely on our defense to win the game for us. “We have to give our defense some confidence that they can rely on us to win games, too.” One of the tasks for the seniors this week has been working with the younger players to put the USF loss behind them and focus on the upcoming game. “It’s one of the many challenges we’ve faced,” said senior defensive end Quentin Groves. “The young guys have seen the joys of winning, coming from behind to win the game. Now, they have to experience the lows of losing. “It’s a learning experience that we all have to go through. I’m glad we went through it early rather than late.” The MSU game is always a special one for Groves. His final choices coming out of Greenville (Miss.) High School were Auburn, MSU and Georgia. “I kind of looked at the records and I was like, I want to go to a program that was winning,” said Groves. “I just wanted to win a championship, because I never won one in high school. I never won one anywhere I played. I had the best chance to get one at Auburn.” Groves helped Auburn to an SEC Championship and undefeated season in 2004 and he’s not about to throw in the towel on the 2007 season after one non-conference loss. “That’s what we stress to the young guys,” said Groves. “Just keep pressing forward. The SEC is a whole other world.” Auburn has won 14 straight SEC openers. This year’s senior class has already won 34 games and needs just seven more to tie the record for a 4-year period. “We’re creatures of habit,” said Brock. “We’re used to winning. We’re not going get down on one loss.”
O’Neal was just getting started. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound senior linebacker from Columbus, Miss., added four tackles and a fumble recovery in the Bulldogs’ 38-17 road win. For his efforts, O’Neal was named the SEC Defensive Player of the Week. Mississippi State fourth-year coach Sylvester Croom, wasn’t surprised O’Neal was rewarded for his work. “Gabe has played well since spring practice,” Croom said. “We’re fortunate that he’s healthy. Gabe’s not the strongest guy in the world, but he plays very smart football. And something that goes unnoticed is he’s the personal protector on the punt team. He gets our guys lined up, recognizes all the coverage. He has taken a real leadership role in the kicking game.” O’Neal hasn’t had time to dwell on his personal achievements this week. He’s hoping the renewed confidence in Starkville these days can carry over to Saturday morning when Mississippi State (1-1 overall, 0-1 SEC) meets Auburn (1-1, 0-0) at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The 11:30 a.m. kickoff will be televised locally on WJTC. “It’s a big confidence boost,” O’Neal said. “We finally got a win under our belts. It didn’t depend on who it was. We just needed a win. It’s very big to build on.” The nine days following the Bulldogs’ blowout loss to LSU were “very bad,” O’Neal said. Then, hours after Mississippi State finished off Tulane, they saw a score that made them feel even better: LSU 48, Virginia Tech 7. Misery loves company, especially when it provides a significant boost in self-esteem. “It made us feel a lot better,” O’Neal said. “They beat a top-ranked team like that and we know we have played the best team and the best athletes around here. Coach Croom tells us that every year. He tells us, ‘You’re not going to play anyone more athletic than LSU.’ We had a lot of situations in that game, a lot of turnovers. The coaches tried to pat us on the back, but at the same time, we have to get better. We took that in. Usually after every game, there’s a chewing. After that game, he told us to stick together, keep fighting and things will turn. “It was very different around here. A lot of guys went straight to Mike (Henig). We believe in him. (MSU defensive end) Titus (Brown) got up after the game — this was big — and said, ‘We’re going to stick together, no matter what.’ There wasn’t a lot of pointing fingers.” That wasn’t the only score that caught Mississippi State’s attention Saturday night. South Florida’s 26-23 overtime win at Auburn got more than a few cell phones buzzing when the Bulldogs landed back home shortly after midnight. “Every week is a different story,” O’Neal said. “They may play bad one week, but then come back. The last three or four years, Auburn has handled us pretty well. We know they’re beatable now. Kansas State had them but let them slip away. Auburn always finds a way to come back. We just have to find a way to play hard and play four quarters of football and we can come away with a victory.” O’Neal said in the past, Auburn has “out-hit” Mississippi State, adding that “they intimidated us. “But now, we think we can play with anybody in the country. We just have to put our fears behind us and get our job accomplished.” Specifically, O’Neal said the Bulldogs see a vulnerable Brandon Cox running an inconsistent offense without its top rushing weapon. “As long as you keep the pressure on their quarterback, he seems like he’s getting a little rattled,” O’Neal said. “They have a lot of younger receivers running some wrong routes and the backfield is without Brad Lester since he’s suspended. They like to pound the ball, and I think we have to stop the run and get to the quarterback a little bit.”
Surely you remember Sony’s OLED TVs with an astounding 1,000,000:1 contrast? Good, then you’ll also recall that Sony promised the 3-fracking-mm thin, 11-incher this year; a schedule Samsung publicly doubted. While we wish it was 27- or even 30-inches, it’s still a very important step in the wide-spread, commercialization of the technology. So check it Sammy, Sony’s on the road touting a December, Japan delivery to anyone who will listen. So the question is: are you?
For those sick and tired of living vicariously through James Bond, Aston Martin is giving buyers of the €240,000 ($330,864) DBS coupe the chance to add on a svelte wristwatch that will actually lock, unlock and start their new vehicle. The limited edition Jaeger LeCoultre AMVOX2 chronograph not only boasts “over 200 parts to its casing and an equal number in the watch movement itself,” but it will include a miniaturized form of the “DBS transponder electronics” within the base. Owners of the timepiece will be able to leave the key at home in a vault and crank their new ride up with the touch of a watch, but the convenience will cost you a stiff €25,000 ($34,465) on top of the car’s purchase price. [Warning: read link requires subscription]
Rest assured, there’s no shortage of glamorous nightclubs, but a new spot is set to excite Londoners that have a thing for exaggerated lighting and all things interactive. Dubbed the “first interactive bar in the world,” each wall will be lined in blank canvas so that projections can be beamed out and altered on a whim to really get you trippin’. Additionally, there will be “hundreds of LEDs” to treat your retinas to, and the bar itself will even be touch sensitive, allowing you to alert the bartender of your drink needs by simply laying your hand down. Sounds like a bloody good time for you blokes (and dames) in the area, but for the rest of us, we’ll have to settle with a few more stills after the jump. [Warning: PDF read link]
…TO DROP SOON…CHECK BACK…
AUBURN, Ala. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said he didn’t anticipate playing freshman quarterback Kodi Burns this week. Speculation had fueled message boards this week, particularly after Auburn wide receiver Robert Dunn said they had been using Burns in some Tim Tebow-type packages. Last year, Florida effectively brought in Tebow to share time with senior Chris Leak during certain situations to add a running dimension to the position. It helped Florida win a national title. Auburn fans have been calling for a change at quarterback after a poor outing from fifth-year senior Brandon Cox. Tuberville said Cox is still the starter. He has said that Burns would not play this year unless he moved up to No. 2 on the depth chart. Tuberville said that hasn’t happened.”Blake (Field) is our No. 2,” Tuberville said.
Field actually fanned the flames of speculation on Tuesday when he declined to comment on how many second-team snaps he had been getting this week. Auburn entered the fall with five quarterbacks on scholarship, but injury and attrition reduced that number to three for a while. Steven Ensminger transferred to Louisiana Tech last year. Redshirt freshman Neil Caudle, who separated his shoulder in Auburn’s first fall scrimmage, has been throwing more, Tuberville said. He’s been working with the scout team as well.
“We’re trying to get his arm stronger, so he’s throwing more,” Tuberville said.
Auburn practiced for about two hours on Wednesday. The Tigers will practice again this morning at 9:50.
Where is Lester?
It’s not quite as intriguing a game as “Where’s Waldo,” unless you’re an Auburn fan, but trying to figure out if Auburn running back Brad Lester is still practicing could keep one busy for a while. Lester was nowhere to be seen during the early stages of Tuesday and Wednesday’s practices. He was seen leaving before the end of practice both days. However, Tuberville said he’s been practicing. “He was out here,” he said Wednesday. “He left early.” When asked specifically if he had a class, Tuberville said, “Must have. He’s got a world history test this week and a physical geology test.” Lester is still suspended until the resolution of unspecified academic issues. He has sat out Auburn’s first two games.
No change
Tuberville said there has been no change in the status of Auburn’s injured players. :inebacker Tray Blackmon and safety Aairon Savage, who have ankle injuries, both practiced, but are only probable for the game on Saturday. “They’re still not 100 percent,” Tuberville said. “We’ll just have to wait and see before the game if they’re going to play. They know the game plan.” Last week, the two were held at the last minute. Cornerback Jonathan Wilhite (hamstring) is also probable. Linebacker Merrill Johnson (shoulder) and punter Ryan Shoemaker (elbow) are both doubtful for the game. “Wilhite could play, but we’re just holding him out right now trying to get him 100 percent,” Tuberville said. “He should play.”
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