Saturday, November 11, 2006

Georgia 37, Auburn 15
Jordan-Hare Stadium – Auburn, Ala.
TV: Lincoln-Financial Sports – Attendance: 87,451

Official Trip Song: "Eye of the Tiger" by Survivor

AUBURN, Ala. – On the rolling plains of Dixie, ‘neath the rain-filled skies, the beleaguered Georgia Bulldogs found a sleeping Auburn Tiger team and punched them in the eyes. There’s my one and only attempt at poetry for the blog, spinning around the words from the Auburn Alma Mater to aptly described just what happened in front of my very eyes in Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday. Matt Stafford looked very Reggie Ball-esque against Auburn’s defense and, on the aid of 11ty billion quarterback draws, directed the Dogs to a 30-7 halftime lead and a 37-15 victory on the Plains.



We arrived in Auburn Friday night and went straight to a college favorite hangout, Buffalo Connection, for dinner. To me, there is no other wing place better on earth and their medium buffalo sauce is one of the greatest in the country. Anything that involves their chicken tenders is recommended on the menu, and I consider this one of the last Auburn-only restaurants in town.

We were joined at BuffConn (that’s what we like to call it in the AUB, by the way) by Paul Crane, and we had a good time cracking jokes with him throughout the remainder of the evening before leaving the restaurant around 11 p.m. Robert Boully, you may remember him from the LSU blog, was driving from Jackson, Miss., to join us and beat us to the GuestHouse International Inn in Opelika, where we would set up shop for Friday night. After finally finding the hotel on the opposite side of the interstate that was originally explained to me, I checked us in and tried to figure out exactly what was going on with the billing system. After a few hours of phone calls to the front desk by my parents, it was resolved and they only charged us for the one night.

We awoke Saturday a.m. prior to daybreak thanks to Lincoln-Financial Sports’ telecast of one of college football’s oldest rivalries. After I checked out of the hotel and walked out to find that we had temporarily lost Andrew, we loaded up the car and headed to campus to make the legendary trek from our old apartment to the stadium as we did every Saturday in 2004 and last year for the Iron Bowl. We stopped by the Haley Center bookstore and picked up a couple of game day spirit buttons, not to mention losing Robert in the process while he looked for a shirt for Jennifer, who couldn’t make the trip with him.

We arrived at the tailgating spot near the Terrell Mall on “The Hill” (where all Auburn’s sorority dorms are located). We met Andrew’s uncle there, where he had chicken and burgers waiting for us as well as various other snacks. We sat down and visited for awhile, tossing around the pigskin and getting more hyped for the game. Robert jinxed us by making the statement, “Hey guys, when we are all sitting at this tailgate together, we’re undefeated.” This statement came from someone who grew up playing baseball, essentially ruining a no-hitter in the middle of the sixth inning by mentioning it to the pitcher. Needless to say, I place a small portion of the blame for what happened on the field Saturday to Robert’s asinine comment.

We headed towards the stadium after packing up the tailgating tent and supplies in the Brazzell’s van. As we walked through the shaded area surrounding the Bibb Graves Amphitheater, Andrew started his “red hats, silver britches” cheer every time we came across a Georgia fan. Soon, we had made our way to the Tiger Walk plaza on the student section side of the stadium where we stood around and cheered with the band for a little bit before going to our seats.

I stopped at the Media Will-Call window for a few minutes and talked to Kathy Harker, my former supervisor during my student days at Auburn. She is one of the coolest people I have ever met, and I miss working with her everyday. She had to put up with a lot from me over the years, but I think deep down she misses Joshua Jackson and me. After the rain started to sprinkle a little harder, I thought it was best to go ahead and get to the seats.

When I entered our section, I meandered through the sparse pre-game crowd and stopped by to say hello to Josh and Katie, who were sitting with Katie’s parents a couple of sections over from our seats. After talking to Katie and her mom for a little while, I returned to our seats with Andrew, Robert and Josh to get ready for the band’s intro video and pre-game march around the field. This was subdued a bit by the fact that Georgia’s band decided to play and drown out our band in the process, keeping me from enjoying one of my favorite parts of the pre-game. It was at this time that I really wanted to take it to Georgia early in the game.

First up, we had Tiger’s final flight around the stadium. It was rather fitting that her last pre-game flight would come against the same opponent in which we first flew her around the stadium to a raucous “WAR EAGLE! HEY!” in 2000. At halftime, we would retire Tiger and introduce Nova as War Eagle VIII, the equivalent of a new Uga or Mike the Tiger at LSU. I was very impressed by the band pre-game video intro, which was produced and edited by Alan Brazzell (Andrew’s cousin – you can access the video on his website at brazzam.com). Alan has a bright future ahead of him in whatever he should decide to do, as you can tell by this video. Next up, we got our first look at the Auburn Under Armour “Click Clack” preview, which was drowned out yet again by the UGA band.



LSU’s pre-game festivities are pretty cool, especially the Golden Band from Tigerland’s march across the field. Georgia’s band playing the UGA anthem while Vince Dooley speaks on the jumbotron was pretty special. Florida fans will like to tell you that nothing compares to the “This is the swamp” intro video, even though it has music from a movie about sharks and not alligators playing in the background. If you ask me, the best pre-game atmosphere in the entire conference is Auburn (especially Auburn for big games). I’ve been to Fayetteville, Knoxville, Athens and Gainesville. I’ve been to Tuscaloosa, Lexington, Nashville and Baton Rouge. Nothing is quite the same as Auburn. You can quote me on that.

The team walked arm-in-arm out of the tunnel and separated into the AU formed by the band with excitement, which had me ready for a good game. When Sen’Derrick Marks burst through Georgia’s offensive line for a three-yard loss on UGA’s first play from scrimmage, visions of the 2005 Iron Bowl danced in my head. After a completion on an out-route on second and 13 to set up third and four, we had a pre-snap flag thrown (which 95 percent of the time is a false start penalty). I was feeling fine until the official announced that it was offsides and would give Georgia an automatic first down. Two snaps later, Stafford heaved the ball down the field and the Dogs had a first down inside the red zone. The game was pretty much over at that point.



While Stafford could do no wrong, Brandon Cox could do no right. We had a pretty good running game going, but Cox had a hard time getting any velocity on his throws, which led to three first-half interceptions, including a pick-six from Tre Battle to put the Bulldogs ahead 24-0 in the second quarter. We scored to narrow the deficit to 24-7, but UGA answered with one last score prior to the intermission to lead 30-7.

The only thing that I can think to do at this point is blame Robert for his comment at the tailgate. He redeemed himself during the halftime show with the quote of the trip, but I was still a bit stunned. All the Auburn fans sitting around us had agreed that if we couldn’t come out and do anything our first drive, we were done for the day. It wasn’t our first drive of the half, but we did force a Stafford fumble inside the AU five-yard-line and responded with a 95-yard drive to cut the UGA lead in half at 30-15. Auburn couldn’t cash in on the momentum and would throw another interception on its ensuing drive to set up Georgia’s final march down the field, which culminated with a Stafford quarterback draw to set the final score of 37-15.



We stuck through the very end, despite getting soaked by the torrential downpour that came through the Auburn area in the third quarter. We even got a scoreboard shot to commemorate our trip, even though part of me didn’t really want to take the picture. And yet, despite getting out-coached, out-played and out-manned in our own house, I still had no regrets about being an Auburn Tiger. I guess you can go home.

We walked back to Andrew’s car and weaved through traffic on Highway 14 and University Ave./Shug Jordan Parkway to get to Alan’s trailer to watch South Carolina-Florida, Arkansas-Tennessee and LSU-Alabama. After the South Carolina-Florida game ended, we took Robert back to his car at the hotel and said our goodbyes before picking up pizza from Brick Oven to take back to the trailer for the Bama-LSU game.

Paul met up with us at Alan’s, and we watched TV with Andrew’s family until the final seconds drained off the clock in Baton Rouge. After we said our goodbyes to the Brazzells, we drove back to Paul’s house to hang out for a couple more minutes before deciding that it was best to return to Birmingham that night. By the time I plopped down on the air mattress in Andrew’s living room, I was ready to turn my attention to Beat Bama week.

My team assessments are as follows:

Georgia went 3-1 in the four games we saw them play this year. They were a completely different team every game. The first two, they responded pretty good when they had to with adversity and came out with two closer-than-they-appeared victories. In Jacksonville, they had Florida on the ropes if not for a careless facemask penalty on Quentin Moses. Against Auburn, they were the world beaters I predicted they would become should Stafford gain an ounce of confidence this season.

The biggest difference in Auburn 2004, Auburn 2005 and Auburn 2006 is leadership. The Tigers have only one true leader, Tommy Tuberville, and he doesn't take a single snap. A large percentage of the Auburn fan base wants to know why this team has been so erratic despite being 9-2 at this point in the season, well there's your answer. It's not new schemes from Will Muschamp. It's not Al Borges forgetting how to coach. Auburn's fan base has become predominantly spoiled since the beginning of 2004. The coaching staff that has won 32 of its last 37 games and 22 of 25 SEC contests hasn't forgotten how to coach this year. It could be one of the best coaching years of Tuberville's career, not just in win totals, if Auburn can beat Bama next weekend in Tuscaloosa. With 10 or 11 wins, including victories over LSU, Florida and Alabama in the same season, you can't really complain with that no matter who you are.

On the other hand, a loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa could erase every good feeling this program has had since the Music City Bowl in 2003, which led to the return of all three top-10 draft picks for their senior season. As soon as some people begin to realize that there aren't any Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown or Carlos Rogers type players at the skill positions; or there aren't any Junior Rosegreen, Travis Williams or Jason Campbell type players from a leadership standpoint - Auburn fans will realize just how great of a job Tommy has done with this team in 2006. No matter what, the last time I checked Auburn did beat LSU and did beat Florida.

A few odds, ends and notes from the trip:

Favorite quote: “I’m betting that this halftime show was going to be a lot more dramatic at night.” – Robert Boully earns his second “Quote of the Weekend” for the season with this nugget during the Auburn band’s halftime salute to the U.S. Armed Forces. This was made in reference towards Lincoln-Financial’s 6 a.m. kickoff for the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Best Mullet of Auburn Award: While we were walking to the stadium on Saturday morning prior to the crack of dawn, we were trailing a guy who had one of the best mullets of the trip as well as his orange hard hat I’m assuming he acquired at the Auburn-Florida GameDay show. We attempted to get pictures, but they all came out blurry. To top off the ensemble, he was wearing a Wal-Mart special generic jersey.

Things we learned: Lincoln-Financial kickoffs are completely different at Vandy and Auburn. Robert also knows how to jinx a good thing.

Mitch Sighting: There were a couple of 9-year-old Georgia fans sitting directly in front of Andrew. They kept hitting Andrew with their “I’m Georgia” spirit towel, which was angering him to no end. During the Redcoat Band’s consistent play during the pre-game march of Auburn’s band, Andrew kept inserting the fact that UGA lost to Vandy and Kentucky prior to coming into Auburn. The 9-year-olds then felt their need to defend Georgia, which I somewhat respect. However, the braces made me lose any and all respect for those kids.

Their mouthing off to us elicited this response from the guy sitting ahead of us (edited for content): “Look, kid. (He puts his arm around the shoulder of the ring-leader) He (pointing at Andrew) will kick your (expletive), and when he does, I’m just going to stand back and watch it happen because you deserve it. Now, shut the (expletive) up and watch the (expletive) game.” You gotta love when a dirty dog gets put back in his place.

It’s the most important week of the year and the biggest game on both team’s schedules as we invade Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl. War Eagle and we look forward to tailgating with the fine folks from CoachHal.com and WarDamnTailgate.com in T-Town.

A31 – South Carolina 15, Miss. State 0
S2 – Southern Cal 50, Arkansas 14
S9 – Georgia 18, South Carolina 0
S16 – Kentucky 31, Ole Miss 14
S23 – Georgia 14, Colorado 13
S30 – Florida 28, Alabama 13
O7 – West Virginia 42, Miss. State 14
O14 – LSU 49, Kentucky 0
O21 – Tennessee 16, Alabama 13
O28 – Florida 21, Georgia 14
N4 – Florida 25, Vanderbilt 19
N11 – Georgia 37, Auburn 15
N18 – Auburn @ Alabama
N24 – LSU @ Arkansas (Little Rock)
N25 – Miss. State @ Ole Miss
D2 – SEC Championship Game (Atlanta) – Florida vs. TBD