Don’t Never Fight a Fat Man
On Monday night, Ben watched the Auburn-Oregon game at Luther’s lakefront house. As the confetti poured out of the indoor sky, Luther gave him a look, at which Ben responded, “You remember what my Daddy told me when I was in grade school, Luther?”
Ben, who weighs a hair under 300, smiled and replied, “I sure do, buddy.
Auburn: A Not So Silver Lining?
On Sunday morning, Steven Sully was in Portland reading an online article posted by Ben Bartley, who wrote about what Auburn and Auburn football means to him as a recent graduate. The near-term possibilities for the Vols unfolded right on Steve’s iPad in the form of the stunning progress of the Auburn Tigers.
On that same Sunday morning, some 3,000 miles away in Knoxville, Teddy Karwacki read a much different take of the progress of Auburn’s football program over the past few years.
In nearby Chattanooga, Carlton Wilson was about to read the study that was the basis of Teddy’s reading. He was downtrodden about the seemingly never-ending trend.
Double Vision
There is no debate about who are the best two teams in the land. And, there is no debate about who is the best college football player in the land.
Auburn vs South Carolina in Atlanta for the SEC Championship game, and Oregon vs Oregon State in The Civil War clash in Corvallis.
Read what happened, as it happened, as the Ducks and Tigers took their final step in anticipation of facing each other for glory.
My Bammeroids Are Acting Up
The Auburn Tigers are attempting to pull what the San Francisco Giants just did by coming out of virtually nowhere (not exactly, but who’d ‘a’ thought?) to win the national championship. Here are the essentials based on a newspaper story from Thursday.
Auburn 26 Tennessee 22
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
Total |
|
|
6 |
7 |
3 |
10 |
26 |
|
0 |
6 |
0 |
16 |
22 |
Attendance (Neyland Stadium): 102,941
Recap / Box Score / Play-by-Play / Drive Chart
Stuck in a Rut?
When I wrote after last week’s game against Ohio that we’re watching a work in progress (the Tennessee football program that is – not this blog), I did so with the hope that progress was being made, slowly, step by step. While I think that Saturday’s performance against Auburn did contain some measure of progress in some aspects (e.g., the offense certainly had a bit more spark for longer stretches than that witnessed against UCLA), my prevailing mood is that we’re stuck in a rut.
A college football season is a pretty long affair. In the SEC, 14 games if you’re good enough. But it is also the nature of football – a once a week affair for 3 to 4 months – that visible progress is not always a given, even if a team is actually improving. That’s because other teams are progressing as well, and maybe progressing faster than you are. Or more simply, there just isn’t enough time, especially if you are relying on substandard quality in key positions. Read More…
Game Preview: Tennessee vs. Auburn
Tennessee vs Auburn | 3 Oct 2009 | Neyland Stadium
7:45 pm | ESPN
It’s October, and the future is now.
The daylight is noticeably shorter. The sun is a bit lower in the afternoon sky. Yes, it’s October. Football season proper. September is too hot. November is too depressing. But, October. Aye, this month was made for college football. And October 2009 is a real test for this rebuilding Vol football program. Auburn, Georgia, bye week, Alabama, South Carolina. This is SEC football. I love it. And, I dread it.
We’re 2-2. After this upcoming stretch of games, it is conceivable that we could be 2-6. But, the Auburn and Georgia games are winnable, frankly. We’re at home, and Auburn, like us, is rebuilding. Georgia is underwhelming. Alabama smells like invincibility is in the works. South Carolina is too far off to predict.
