Monthly Archive for September, 2007

We lost to USF. Whatever. We lost to Miss. State. Whatever. We know what we had leaving Jordan-Hare after K-state. This is not 04 again people. I don’t know about you guys; but, i don’t really care.

Why?

Because of Kodi Burns. aka the future. aka superman.

Watching that man play Saturday made me feel like how Cadillac did when he played. It seems like every play with cox under center I have butter flies in my stomach not wanting to watch. Butter flies no more. Loss or not, for the first time this year, I was truly, truly, excited to watch auburn play football. He made me realize why I love Auburn Football.

Somewhere along the line…somewhere after 04 season and now…I have and possibly we have become obsessed with only auburn winning. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; but, we have been spoiled. Thanks Auburn 04′, 05′ and 06′. But Kodi has made me a fan of the game again. I just cant wait to see the next play and see what he is going to do. The season is still not over yet. We have 9 more games to play!

We’re not going to win every game. We have a very young team. For me at least, (Kodi) seems to be the missing piece to this struggling offense. Burns’ athletic ability is necessary to take the pressure off the young O-line. Burns’ running ability slows down the rush, freezes the ends on reads and zone plays and therefore improves the inside running game (ends can’t crash down the line like they’ve been doing against Cox). The 28-yard TD run by Tate was a good example of this. I DID like Brandon coming back in down the stretch, but I didn’t like leaving him in 1st and goal from the 9 yard line. WTF? That would have been a great spot for Burns to spread the defense out of the gun, or run a few run/pass options off some play action out of the I formation. Instead we went one-dimensional again failed to score.

Still all is not lost folks. Auburn can still make it to Atlanta and you guys know it. Its college football…college football in the SEC! Screw the haters. We will bounce back from this like we always do. We just need to get 6 ya heard? The next four years will be the most exciting time to be an auburn tiger. Keep your heads up! We are auburn tigers and there isn’t anything that could make me not proud to be one. WAR DAMN EAGLE

-NATE

On paper, today’s game against Mississippi State shouldn’t be much of a challenge for the Auburn football team. After all, the Tigers have dominated the recent series between the two schools. MSU hasn’t scored against Auburn since 2004, and AU has won the last three meetings by a combined score of 105-14. In most years, today’s game would be a speed bump, an obstacle on the way to bigger, more exciting contests.

Not this year.

After last Saturday’s 26-23 overtime loss to South Florida, the Tigers know they can’t take anything for granted. Fortunately for Auburn, there’s no time to mope over the loss. Today’s game, an 11:30 a.m. contest to be broadcasted on Lincoln Financial (Channels 3 and 12 in Lee County), begins AU’s Southeastern Conference schedule. And the Tigers are eagerly focusing on the SEC race. The previous two games are history. And Auburn’s players and coaches are glad to be past them. Now, though, the biggest challenge begins. Today’s game is the first of eight SEC contests. Players and coaches alike insist that their No. 1 goal every year is to win the SEC. The first two games – against Kansas State and South Florida – had no impact on that goal. Auburn’s SEC road begins now. The Tigers hope the road ends at the SEC Championship Game, in Atlanta. It’s not as if SEC success is a new experience for Auburn. The Tigers are 21-3 in SEC play the last three seasons. Keeping that winning tradition alive is important. It’s especially important for Auburn’s seniors. “We’ve done really well the last couple of years in the conference, and we expect nothing less than that,” safety Eric Brock said. “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.” No one involved with AU’s football team thinks the Tigers have a chance to contend in the SEC unless they become more effective on offense. But head coach Tommy Tuberville thinks the team is near a turning point. It all starts, according to Tuberville, with continuing improvement. Despite the loss to South Florida, coaches say the Tigers improved considerably from a rocky season-opening win against Kansas State. Tuberville thinks the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. The offensive line, which struggled to protect quarterback Brandon Cox against KSU’s blitzing defense, gave the senior plenty of time to pass against South Florida. Cox didn’t have much success despite the extra time, but Tuberville was pleased with the rest of the offense, from the line to the receivers to tailbacks Mario Fannin and Ben Tate. “We’ve got a lot of potential,” Tuberville said. “As long as we keep making progress like we did from the first to the second game, we’re going be fine.” And the coach likes what he’s seen this week in practice. “The thing as a head coach you look at is, ‘Are they giving effort?’” Tuberville said. “This group has given as much effort in the first two games and practice as any team we’ve had.” Now, it’s time to start putting that effort toward a fresh start. AU may be 1-1, but the Tigers are 0-0 in the SEC. And for now, that’s all that matters. “Our goal is to go to Atlanta,” Cox said. “With the seniors, we’ve been through it before. We’ve experienced losses. We know we still have a chance.” And it all begins today.

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.

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.”