Raise your hand if you thought we'd whup Auburn

Everyone but Coach Richt and Coach Grantham, put your hands down.

Well done, all around, Bulldogs.

Auburn hates America, and we got America's back

The source is lost to time and the Internet, but some years ago a Dawg fan described Auburn something like this:

"I'm pretty sure that, if a Kid Rock concert could take a shit, it'd be Auburn."

That is, I believe, roughly accurate. And yet, these people are not merely no-account losers, sleeping on their cousin's couch in a doublewide. They've been successful, largely due to to cheating.

But I digress.

We'd better bring everything on Saturday. We'd better come out focused, and throw every asset we have at this biggest game of the season. Because we're not a very good team, and Auburn isn't terrible.

Altogether, I am reminded of 1997. We beat Florida that year, albeit with a much better effort and without the special teams meltdown we saw 8 days ago in Jacksonville. We were headed in the right direction that year, then slammed into an orange-and-blue wall named Dameyune Craig.

Let's definitely not do that again.

Before the Auburn game in 1901, a sign hung in the Georgia locker room. It said, "Beat Auburn or quit the game."

The game ended in a 0-0 tie. So we did not beat Auburn, and we did not quit the game. The basic philosophy, though, is sound.

Beat Auburn, or this season hardly existed at all.

More black jerseys? No. That is a bad idea

OTA, I enjoy your blog, but any line of logic that includes "it would be similar to the way Notre Dame wears/wore the green jerseys" is a line of logic you should abandon.

Update from the comments:

I like the idea of only doing it against AU at night.

That is now official blog policy.

NC State's Wilson picks Wisconsin over Auburn

Bad news for Auburn will always be good news for me. From the Associated Press:

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Former North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson is headed to Wisconsin, potentially solving one of the biggest hurdles standing between the Badgers and a Big Ten title. ...

Wilson also considered Auburn before settling on Wisconsin.

Auburn with a Lake: I understand

All in all, I'd rather go to Eugene. But Coach Richt, Mr. McGarity, I get it. We're heading to Clemson. Not going in August / September would have been nice, though.












Clemson: We got a rock and a hill and it's 103 degrees in South Carolina.

Toomer's Corner: lamest tradition in college football

It's amazing to me that, not only do Auburn fans throw a bunch of toilet paper into trees to celebrate a National Championship, they're proud of this tradition.

How in the world do people like that find success?

Auburn University: "incredibly well read"

The Register Guard, a newspaper in Eugene, Ore., ran a piece this weekend to try to explain Auburn to area Oregonians. They interviewed a local author who went to Auburn and based quite a bit of the article on her.

“People are incredibly well read," she told the paper. "I don’t associate rednecks with Auburn in any way.”

Right.

Cam Newton, Auburn in SEC Championship game

I just don't understand what's going on here.













Image: ... disturbing.

Yes. True. Perfect. 1,000 times, I agree

Absolutely brilliant.

"It's called buying a Tiger, and you know it ain't right."

Auburn: Not my friend, and that hasn't changed

I realize some people are calling Auburn "classless" in the wake of Saturday's game. I'm not one of them. That's not a boomerang I throw, because it always comes back.

I'm saying Nick Fairley shouldn't be allowed to put his helmet into someone's back when they don't have the ball or use his facemask to cut someone. I don't understand why we can't all agree on that.

Still, this is funny:


"You are the epitome of a sore loser. I hope your children have nightmares about Nick Fairley until they are 18 years old."

Fair enough.

I also know some have seen this game as a turning point in our rivalry, transforming it from a relatively friendly affair to something more hostile.

I have no idea what those people are talking about. We have never been friends.

I've always seen Auburn as a lesser cousin. Not too much different in circumstance, but a little poorer, a little dumber and a little uglier.

And, yet, somehow, he still ends up sleeping with your wife. None of that has changed. It's just been re-affirmed.

Gene Chizik is either blind, or a liar

Auburn Head Coach Gene Chizik Sunday, per al.com:

"That's not what we do here,'' Chizik said. "Everything we're going to do is with great effort. Are we going to make a mistake with effort? Yes. But I can assure you we're not going to do that on purpose.

"That's not what's in the heart, and that's not the intent, of our players."

Bullshit. This video ain't great, but how can you look at it and see anything but Nick Fairley purposefully putting his helmet into Aaron Murray's spine?



It's a dirty hit. It's a dangerous hit. Nick Fairley's a dirty player. And, as a head coach and an organization, if you don't do something about it, you enable it.

Auburn clinches west

Would have loved to title this post "Aaron Murray is made of Iron."

I actually think he might be made of that stuff Robert Patrick's character was made of in Terminator 2.

But I went with a Rocky IV reference, even though I think Aaron's first half strategy was more along the lines of the second Clubber Lang fight in Rocky III. As an aside, A.J. Green is probably made of dark matter, but Cam Newton is made of gravity, and gravity always works.

Auburn was the better team and won the football game. If we're drafting Qbs from an all-time pool in the SEC, chances are I'm taking Cam Newton and you can have Peyton Manning.

Now, repeatedly Saturday Nick Fairley led with his helmet and speared Aaron Murray, often after the ball had been thrown. Aaron changed his jersey at one point, to get the blood off it.


And yet, of Murray and Fairley, I only saw one of those guys leave the field with an injury while the game was in doubt, and it wasn't Aaron Murray.












Images: AP via AJC and CBS via Youtube.


To Continue:


Except there's a second half.









Actual ad for staying asleep on this page.


We lost ... an Auburn game. And I feel better about a defense that gave up 49 points tonight than I have about the defense all season long.

Folks, it's not 2006

I hate to rain on our little parade of hope, and I'll happily eat my words Saturday if needed. But anyone looking for a repeat of the 2006 upset on the plains is begging to be disappointed.

This year's Auburn team does not have Brandon Cox at quarterback. This game does not kickoff at 11:30 central, an hour or so before Auburn's players actually wake up.

We don't have Charles Johnson, Ray Gant, Jeff Owens and Quentin Moses along the line of scrimmage. I think we're making upgrades, but I'm not convinced we've even got a Tra Battle at safety, so three interceptions in the first half ... unlikely.

Yeah, I think Auburn, outside of Cam Newton, is over-rated. Yeah, I think Cam Newton's father probably tried to trade his son's services for money. No, I don't think Auburn's defense can stop A.J. Green.

But quarterback play is so important in college football. And I haven't seen anything from our defense that makes me think we can stop a competent offensive attack, much less hold back the obvious Heisman front runner.

So I think this game ends up like a lot of Auburn games this year. High scoring for both sides. And then Auburn gets a stop or two in the fourth quarter, and suddenly you look around and Cam Newton's whipped you 62-40.

"Yeah, I think if Cam plays, the way our defense tackles, they're going to beat us like we're the ones who stole something."

- Gary Battles

Update: All that said, let it be known that "we're going to get crushed," is far from a unanimous opinion on the l.i. editorial board.

Dan: You see this latest comment from Auburn, about whether Cam Newton's going to play tomorrow? They say no comment. He can't be sleeping well at night. I think we're gong to get them tomorrow.

Me: Uh, yeah. I just put a post up, basically saying that anybody who says that is an idiot. And I wouldn't read to much into a no comment. Still, I know we've got this history of screwing each other, of ruining one another's great seasons, and it'd be nice to keep that going.

Dan: It would be nice to tie up the series.

Anonymity does not engender truth

There isn't a single sentence in this story that contains new news and doesn't also contain the phrase "according to the source" or "the source said."

I'm not saying it's not true. I'm saying there are good reasons, as a reporter or news organization, not to print accusations based solely on the word of one anonymous person.

And Thayer Evans, who wrote the story, is not without bias:

So listen closely, Heisman voters: Do not vote for Newton.

Update: So.Much(anonymously sourced but hard to doubt).Smoke.

Cam Newton may not be glad he left Florida, but I am

"If it was up to me, I would still want to be at Florida," Newton said earlier this week.
- Mark Schlabach, ESPN

Me: I'm scared of him at Auburn too, though.

Joe: Florida's off this week, right? Plotting, practicing, getting faster.

Cam Newton and the window

Far be it from me to point you to something you're likely to see anyway, but this, from EDSBS, is absolutely hilarious:

A LIST OF THINGS CAM NEWTON THROWS OUT THE WINDOW

Since it seems Cameron Newton did indicate people could throw the Heisman out the window, you have to wonder if he is in fact the master of irony, as well as linebackers.

Hat tip, Words Tumbl Down.

52-53-8

Lots of stuff.

"Enjoy tonight, and let's hope everything is OK with young Rambo."

- Mark Jones, or possibly Bob Davie. It was late and I was watching the replay

Better than Auburn, four years in a row

Game: Awesome. Joe Cox: Best chance to win. Sanford Stadium: As expected. Auburn: Yep, sucks.

I don't know that I'd ever actually witnessed a "quick kick" until this game.

At one point a girl behind me yelled to some guy 9 rows ahead of her. I counted. He heard her and acknowledged it. This was in the student section. It should never be that quiet there.

When was the last time we had true night game, a game that started after sundown?

Branden Smith: He ran across the formation tonight and it was a blur. Can't touch the ball too much, hangs out with A.J. Green.

AJ GREEN UPDATE.

I heart Waushaun Ealey. and Caleb King.
Hale:

PROBLEM SOLVES ITSELF
After being flagged for 11 penalties last week and three in the first quarter against Auburn, the tide suddenly turned and Georgia was whistled for just one more infraction the rest of the game.

-- Brandon Boykin set a team record for kick returns in the first half. He had three returns in the game for 52 yards, giving him 30 returns this season. Gene Washington (1974) and Asher Allen (2007) held the old mark of 28.

-- Georgia is now 16-0 under Mark Richt in games when they do not have a turnover.

On that kickoff Auburn returned for a touchdown, Logan Gray was the last-chance safety, until he got blocked into the earth.** Logan Gray should never, ever be our last line of defense.

While I'm at it, while Branden Smith touching the football is a very good thing, Branden Smith lined up at tailback in the I formation when we're backed up near our goal line is not.

** Apologies. The Senator found some YouTube of that kickoff return and Logan Gray was not blocked into the earth. He was simply blocked, and then he fell down on his own. Criticism withdrawn. Play him at every position as often as possible.

Gross like Auburn.

I like this story about how Burger King franchises are suing Burger King for making them sell hamburgers for $1. From The Associated Press:

While costs vary by location, the $1 double cheeseburger typically costs franchisees at least $1.10, said Dan Fitzpatrick, a Burger King franchisee from South Bend, Ind. who is a spokesman for the association. That includes about 55 cents for the cost of the meat, bun, cheese and toppings. The remainder typically covers expenses such as rent, royalties and worker wages.

That's going to make it hard to eat at Burger King.

Blackouts compared

These videos are from roughly the same place as the team took the field.

2007 vs. Auburn:


2008 vs. Alabama:


I don't think I'm trying to prove anything that isn't obvious.