Author Archive for BomexLex

Coach Pat Dye

FANS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE  - PAT DYE

I know that in our conference we have a mixed bag of football fans. Here in Auburnwe think we have the best fans, but I am sure they feel that way in Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, Athens, Knoxville, Columbia and other homes for SEC teams. They all think they have got the best fans, which is good, and that’s the way it ought to be.

As a former head coach I know the importance of having good fan support and I know what a difference they can mean to a team.

In Auburn’s case this year the Tigers are predicted to not be a very good team because of losing so many good players from the national championship squad. This is one of those times when Auburn fans can play a tremendous role in picking up their football team and carrying it. I have seen it happen time and time again.

If Auburn, or any other college, wants to have the type of elite football program its fans desire it is important that all of the fans step up and support their team through the good times and the bad times.

In Auburn’s case the program is fortunate to have a large number of fans who are going to attend every game, win or lose, no matter how the season is going. They are vitally important to the program, but so are the fans who aren’t as faithful in their attendance.

Regardless of who the team is playing, it is important to have the stadium packed. Programs that have been among the best in the nation decade after decade have benefitted from that kind of support, which is a factor in success that should never been taken for granted.

When I was playing at Georgia the fans didn’t support the team like they needed to and it was something the players noticed. If we were playing a good team, you would see the stadium fill up, but if we weren’t the place would be half full.

This is definitely one of those seasons when a young Auburn team needs its fans. Auburn has a great coaching staff and those people have done a tremendous job the past two seasons putting fun, exciting football teams on the field. The Tigers may be that kind of team again this year. I think they will be, but nobody can predict that with certainty with so many young starters and the schedule this team is facing.

Auburn will take on one of the toughest schedules I have ever seen. In fact, I believe it is as tough a group of opponents as any Auburn team has faced since we played eight bowl teams in 1983 on the way to winning the SEC Championship. It may be an even more challenging than the 1983 schedule because so many of the tough games on the road this season.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I am appealing to Auburn people to support this team win, lose or draw. Don’t get down on them if they don’t look as pretty as you would like for them to look early in the season. Just keep coming back and keep coming back because you will get to see something beautiful take shape with this team over the next two or three years.

You can’t imagine what that kind of support means to those kids. It means a heck of a lot more to have support when you lose, or when you’re down, than it does when you are riding high. Everybody is loving on you then. It’s when you are down that you need somebody to pick you up, and that’s what the fans can do. Over the years I have seen many examples of that happening during a football game, and I have never seen a better example of that than our 1989 victory over Alabama in 1989. The fans were incredibly supportive for that game.

With the 2011 opener just a couple weeks away, Auburn fans need to get ready for a good season and a good time. Let’s just make Auburn the best place in the Southeast for our guests to come to watch football games. The way we conduct ourselves we have already a great reputation for hospitality and friendliness so let’s don’t do anything to tarnish that. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than anybody else, and I think our folks pretty much do that.

I know I am looking forward to watching Coach Chizik’s team get the season started. I think the Tigers have a lot of talented young players. It may happen this year, it may happen next year, it may be the following year, but this group of players they have got at Auburn right now will end up being a special group of kids.

War Eagle Pat Dye!

It is done! BOX IT UP!!!

Auburn snags the number one spot for the 2011 recruiting class.

Mike Blakely….WELCOME TO THE TIGERS, SON!

The next Ronnie Brown....mark my words with a highlighter

Even though we are still dying to see LaDarius Phillips hit the stage this fall, even though we have O.MAC dashing for the end zone, even though Mike Dyer is going to be tackled BUT not be down…. I for one, am excited to see Mike Blakely come on over to the true ORANGE AND BLUE not that little girl color blue.  Muschamp’s new scheme might not fit him, but look at what Gus and Luper can do.  Blakely, you have proudly bumped the Auburn Tigers, 2010 National Champions, into the 2011 National Recruiting Champions!  Welcome to the plains, my friend.  Go head and get your finger fitted, you will need to know when we bring back another crystal ball to the loveliest village during your tenure cause a big ass ring is coming your way! WAR DAMN!

fresh grass...

The grounds crew is in the process of bringing in completely fresh grass.  None of that used stuff in Arizona, especially  for the National Champs!  Here are some facts about the roll out field in Glendale…

• The natural grass playing surface is contained in a retractable, 12-million pound tray that will be 234 feet wide by 400 feet long, the first of its kind in North America.

• Natural grass is the preferred surface for professional football and is required for World Cup Soccer.

• Rollout natural grass playing fields are successfully used in European and Asian stadiums.

• Having the rollout field saves $50 million in costs since it is more economical to move the field than having the entire roof retract to allow the necessary sunshine to reach the grass (like Bank One Ballpark).

• The field will support approximately 94,000 square feet (over 2 acres) of natural grass.

• The tray will rest atop tracks and will roll out on steel wheel sets powered by small electric motors.

• The tray will take approximately 45 minutes to move.

• The grass field remains outside the stadium in the sun until game day getting the maximum amount of sunshine and nourishment, eliminating humidity problems inside the stadium and providing unrestricted access to the stadium floor for events and staging.

• The 152,000 square-foot concrete stadium floor  will have a utility grid embedded in the floor and can host various events like trade and consumer shows, conventions, concerts, motor sports, and rodeos.

Five things SEC fans should know about the Pac-10

The quarterback play is outstanding. Quarterback is the strength of West Coast football from high school through college. In the South, high school coaches are under much more pressure to win than in the West. That pressure, and the abundance of good high school running backs leads to a lot of run-oriented high school offenses. This year’s Oregon big-school champion, Aloha, actually played a lot like a Southern high school team, but pass-oriented teams like Lake Oswego and Sheldon of Eugene are much more common in the West. The abundance of quarterback talent is one reason Western Athletic Conference teams such as Boise State and Nevada have been successful. The quarterbacks left over after the Pac-10 teams make their choices still are exceptional. South Carolina won the SEC East and LSU won 10 games despite erratic quarterback play. No Pac-10 team in recent memory has been able to achieve that level of success without a strong quarterback.
What it means to the title game: Oregon will respect Cam Newton, but they won’t fear him.

The defenses are better than you think. Don’t be misled by the statistics that typically show Pac-10 teams giving up more points and yards than SEC and Big 10 teams. That largely reflects the strength of the offenses, led by future NFL quarterbacks. Six Pac-10 alums made this year’s Pro Bowl defensive roster. Only five former SEC players made the Pro Bowl on defense. Also, bucking conventional wisdom, seven SEC products were named to the Pro Bowl on offense vs. five from the Pac-10. The difference came on the offensive line, where the SEC held a 2-0 edge. And the Pac-10 defensive representatives aren’t just speed guys. Oregon’s Haloti Ngata was selected as a starter on the defensive line, as was Arizona State’s Terrell Suggs at linebacker. USC’s Clay Matthews is a reserve linebacker.
What it means: Auburn, a below-average SEC defense, will have just as much trouble slowing down Oregon as Pac-10 teams did.

The coaching is very good. The SEC has blue-chip coaches like Alabama’s Nick Saban and South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier, but the Pac-10 breeds more innovation. From Bill Walsh, who was a genius at Stanford before and after winning Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, to Pete Carroll at USC to Chip Kelly at Oregon, the Pac-10′s most successful coaches have been willing to take risks and innovate. No, SEC fans, LSU’s Les Miles isn’t innovative. He’s just crazy.
What it means: Oregon has the coaching edge in this game.

Pac-10 teams aren’t afraid of anyone. For a variety of reasons, ranging from geography to the desire to play at least seven home games a year to make more money, most SEC teams don’t venture outside the South very often. Pac-10 teams, in contrast, pile up the frequent-flier miles. There aren’t as many teams in the West and most Pac-10 teams don’t have big enough stadiums to offer opponents huge checks to play them without a return trip. In the past five years, Oregon has played road games against Purdue, Tennessee, Michigan and Boise State. Not all of those teams were highly ranked when the Ducks played them, but they all represented potential losses when the games were scheduled. Worth mentioning: No one in the SEC will play at Southern Mississippi or Central Florida, much less at a non-automatic-qualifier team as strong as Boise State.

What it means: Oregon is more comfortable on the road than Auburn, whose longest trip this season was 480 miles to Lexington, Ky.

Oregon has become the Pac-10 team others hate. In 20 years, the Ducks have gone from virtually invisible on the college football map to the team living in the big mansion at the top of the hill. Needless to say, that doesn’t sit so well with the old-money schools like USC and Washington, a rival whose football fortune went bankrupt about the time Oregon was cashing in its Nike bucks. The closest thing to Oregon in the SEC is South Carolina, which made its first trip to the SEC title game this season under superstar coach Steve Spurrier. But the Gamecocks don’t have nearly as many toys, nor have they had as much success, as the Ducks.
What it means: Don’t start an argument with an Oregon fan.

#SECISKING

Auburn University.  Alumni, students, fans.  This is it. 

Its old news Alabama has titles, whatever.  The news is that Auburn is preparing to seek vengance from 1993, and 2004.  Rules kept us out of both title games before, you dont like the rules–dont play the game.  Its like the Welfare Check debate, you hate this person gets to sit at home and get a check for doing nothing–Change the rules.  2004 Auburn sat out to the BCS welfare.  This year, Auburn is in!  We played by the rules and got where we knew we were headed.  Thanks to all the leadership of the Offensive line, Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, I can go on and on but you’ve heard the names all season!

This is rare.  This is a lifetime of waiting.  1957 was the last opportunity.  I was here in 1993, I saw 11-0. I was there in 2004, I saw 13-0.  I am here in 2010, I have seen 13-0, I’m ready for 14-0 with a CRYSTAL BALL!!  I am not saying Auburn is a shoe in at the title.   Honestly, I am going to tell you what we already know.  Oregon is a great time, it is the title game for a reason.  This is not the Capital One bowl, people.  My point is that we have all been to the Sugar Bowl, we might have gone to the Music City, or Outback or Peach bowl.  Those were whatever as well, you can miss those.  They didnt mean much.  Maybe a free chic-fil-a spicy chicken sandwich, plus an excuse to see all the friends.

This isnt about friends.  This is history.  This is Memories.  Take that extra 100 bucks out of savings and JUST DO IT!!  I understand you might not make a flight to glendale, the car, the hotel, the flight can all cost up to a grand easily!  We havn’t even spoke of a ticket to the game yet.  But what I highly recommend, IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND GLENDALE…. GO TO AUBURN AND WATCH THE GAME AT THE AUBURN ARENA!!

This expericne is amazing!  It is FREE! Concession stands will be open.  Just pack that flask, fill up with gas and GO!  You honestly feel like you are watching the game front and center.  At home, you get that lonely feeling, even if you are with 10-15 folks.  Auburn areana– thousands of people.  You absolutely cannot beat it.  Every play is front and center.  The big screens are lowered to eye level.  You have everyone cheering with you just as loud as you can ever imagine. 

Honestly, I did this for the SEC championship game.  UNBELIEVABLE! I honestly felt like I was at the game in person, I did not feel like I missed a single thing.  There was no void of missing the SEC championship game.  It just feels right!

So, whether you are debating Glendale still (hope not, tickets have skyrocketed) or watching the game at a buddies.  Im just saying a drive down to the plains on Jan. 10th to Auburn Areana for the game should be your next best option to Glendale Arizona!