October 7 Auburn at Mississippi State Bulldogs
Review: Miss State 17 AUBURN 10 I am unsure of how to start this one. There's so much I could say. First or all, hats off to a well-prepared MSU squad and coaching staff. They had a game plan to stop the Tigers and it worked to near perfection. The Bulldog defense was tenacious and had both the run and the pass well-covered. They have a large D-Line to stop the inside run and a fast secondary to stop the pass (especially the short pass) and the outside run. In 18 seasons of following Auburn football, that's the best defensive performance I've ever seen. I thought our game plan was poor to awful. Maybe it was reasonable to try to run for the first 20 minutes or so, but Mazzone even admitted he was stubborn und unprepared to switch to a passing attack. Even when we did pass (actually 2/3 of the plays were passes) we seemed to try those little short outs which got stuffed behind the line of scrimmage more often than not. When we did pass down field (mostly 10-15 yards) it fell short, sailed long or hit thr receivers inthe hands only to bounce out. The only decent offense occurred on the drive for the Field Goal. A couple of decent passes to Tim Carter over the middle seemed to reveal the only MSU defensive weakness (One that Florida had exploited just 7 days prior). But this passing attack was shelved not to be seen again. It was quite frustrating to be in the stands and be part of a massive cheer, late in the 3rd quarter, when Auburn got its first First Down of the entire game. The defense played pretty well for most of the game. I thought the were weak in defending the misdirection running game that MSU employed to gain several decent runs for first downs. We pretty much stopped the pass except for the short stuff with one exception in the drive for their last TD. IIN cold and windy Starkville, Duvall had another good day kicking and I hope he continues to play this well. There were two key injuries to Sears and Pucillo which were both ankles. They should be back either this week or the next. Overall a major disapointment in terms of offensive performance, an admirable job by the defense to keep things close.
Since I attended the game I have a few other things to comment on:
First of all, don't leave your Auburn flag on your car overnight at the hotel - some MSU vandal broke mine off between 10PM and 7AM Satrday morning. Secondly, be prepared for a much more intimidating stadium than expected and more obnoxious fans that expected. I believe that as Florida loses some of it's "edge", MSU may become the conference standard for lack of class. Certainly the majority of the fans were nice people and I'm not knocking the University as a whole, but there seems to be a real sense that under Jackie Sherrill, the players and some fans have been given the green light to talk trash and whooop it up in an "in your face" manner. (After thinking about it, I think I know why, whey you are supposed to win and be a good team - like Nebraska or Fla State, why brag? MSU had been a doormat for 50 years until recently and they really have not learned how to handle their fame, yet.) If you ever go to Starkville, be ready for some obnoxious Rap music to be piped over the loud speakers "Who Let the Dogs Out? Woof, Woof, Woof, Woof!" Expect the cowbells to ring unchecked as security guards walk within 5 feet of the ringers with their backs purposefully turned away ignoring the toothless warning as you enter the stadium that artificial noise makers are banned. Scott Field is tiny compared to Jordan Hare but it is a good place to watch a game. The stadium is in good condition and the field of view is excellen from seemingly everywhere. There is a 9000 seat expansion being built on the East side which will increase the capacity to 53,000.
I can give you some good restaurant reviews. Oby's is a fun place for good foot on the South side of town on Academy Drive. it is decorated with old neat stuff like signs, old post office boxes and motel mail boxes. They even have a lighted Mobil Oil pegasus hanging form the ceiling. They serve New Orleans style stuff with lots of good sandwiches and stuff. The Cotton District Grill is also a good place with sandwiches and salads. We also liked the BBQ at Little Dooey's.
How to get to Starkville from North Alabama and Points north: The easy way is to get on I-65 and go to Birmingham, then take I-20/59 to Tuscaloosa then US 82 into Starkville - this route is 235 miles and takes over 4 hours. We tried the following route which saves 50 miles and 20 minutes. It's scenic and mostly 2-laned but I recommend it: From Decatur, take ALA 24 West to Moulton; ALA 33 south to Double Springs; US 278 west to Natural Bridge; ALA 13 south then west on ALA 102 then south on US 43 to Vernon; take ALA 18 west briefly until ALA 96 west takes out to the left; at the MS state line ths becomes MS 50 which intersects interstate-type US 82 which takes you to just outside Starkville. Take regular US 82 west into Starkville and then MS 12 west to campus.
Preview: I cannot say with total confidence but it is likely that this matchup has never in history been larger. It is the first time it was ever the national game of the week (not just regional coverage). The game is a sell-out and tickets are only available at a high price thru scalpers. I am so glad that I pre-ordered my tickets in August when no-one thought this game would mean anything. Instead, an Auburn win puts them in the driver's seat to a trip to Atlanta. A loss does the same for Mississippi State. Sure, it's too early to eliminate anyone fomr the West really, but Auburn and MSU seem to have the most "stuff" in the West right now. Auburn must stop the Bulldog running game and that will be a challenge since their O-Line is excellent and our D-Line is good but still young but developing. Their passing game is decent if Madkin gets hot, but the real key is stopping their run. On the other hand, MSU is good at stopping the run and they will probably key on Rudi and try to keep him below 100 yards. I won't be surprised at all if they do. We need to be a little sharper in the passing game. Last week we did okay, but some of those low passes needed to be higher and some of those dropped passes should be causght if we expect to win. As for my prediction, I am really not confident of a win, at all, but I will go ahead and give us a 1 point edge.
Prediction: AUBURN 31 Mississippi State 30
TV: CBS 2:30 PM CDT
October 14 Auburn at Florida Gators
Review: Florida 38 AUBURN 7 There's not a lot to say about this one. Auburn was completely outplayed and overmatched for this one. Ironically, our ofense seemed to have a lot more success against the Gators than they did against MSU, but penalties and turnovers contributed to the Tigers undoing. Playign a perfect game we lose by only a couple of TDs instead of by 31 - maybe. Out defense was certainly not up to the challenge of covering the Florida arsenal of receivers and they were able to defend ours pretty well. Of course several of the Aubutn passes were off target and again I saw to many dropped balls. There has been a lot of talk abouit the fake punt on the first possession at the 20 yd line that failed. This is another genius if it works/idiot if it fails situations. Tuberville knew that straight up, The Tigers were in for a problem against the Gators and had this worked, in theory the Gator crowd is taken out of the game and the road team has more success. In my opinion it probably had very little impact on the final outcome. Rudi did run for over 100 and Leard passed for over 200 but neither matters in this kind of game. If you look at statistics (which lie) and on paper (where teams never really win) the teams were pretty even. The main difference is that Florida has found a QB that can get the ball deep and our secondary could no cover them.
Preview: This week, I hope I am proved wrong on my analysis. I feel like that the Gators are catching us at the most adventageous moment of the season. We are coming off our first loss of the season where the team played one of the poorest games in recent history. At the same times, one week removed from a defeat in Starkville themselves, the Gators rebounded nicely against LSU and may have solved some of the problems they had earlier in the season. Rex Grossman has replaced Jesse Palmer at QB...for now. Their defense played well against LSU, much better that all season. They are poised to win the rest of their SEC slate if they keep together. I think Auburn will reverse their fortunes after this one, but I see another road loss in the Tiger's plans. How can Auburn win? They certainly can if a few things go their way. First of all, Rudi has to prove that the MSU defense was great and that against the Gators, he can return to form. Secondly, I'd like to see Leard given the red light to toss the ball down the field, not any more of that horizontal junk that we saw in Starkville. I think our kicking game is better that their's so we should win the field position game. We need to score early and take the arm clapping Gator fans out the fray. Avoiding turnovers and forcing some out of them is a must.
Prediction: Florida 28 AUBURN 17
TV: CBS 2:30 PM CDT
October 21 - Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Auburn
Review: AUBURN 38 Louisiana Tech 28 This is a game I was unable to hear on the radio live since I was out of town and radio range. I was surprised at the close score until I heard that the defense was very vanilla and bend-not-break. Rudi had a great game and I commend his play along with his blockers and the play calling. I am still waiting for the passing game to look sharp, but winning is the best remedy for that. Our secondary is still a bot suspect and I hope no other team is able to explit it like FLorida and La Tech did.
Preview: You could almost ready my preview of the Northern Illinois game and use that for this one too. What is interesting about this year's La Tech is that they are pretty toothless compared to years past. Teams we could beat badly have beaten this team. We ought to be able to name our score and work out some frustration from the last two losses. A win here also gets us bowl eligible and ironically I'd have to say the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana (a hop west of LT's Ruston) is a likely destiny of these Tigers. I look for the Tigers to play a lot of players but also get the starters back some confidence. They will be home again and will stay there until the big Bama game in 4 weeks.
Prediction: Auburn 42 Louisiana Tech 10
TV: PPV 1:00 PM CT
October 28 - Arkansas Razorbacks at Auburn
Review: AU 21 - 19 This one was a lot closer than I expected. Both teams got off to a slow start as they seemed to be testing each others defenses and specifically their reaction to audibles and offensive alignment. I though that overall, the Tigers played well, but not great. They did not have the killer instinct that will be needed in the next two games. The defense seemed to be asleep after the first TD with Talley's 80 yard scamper right up the middle. After the second TD the defense let them come back and score again very quickly as well with a 35 yard pass to the 3 yd line being the key play in the drive. On a good point, I was very impressed that the Tigers were able to string together 3 drives of more than 80 yards. The defense when it was needed, provided the stops that kept the Razorbacks below 21 points. They showed a lot of heart in making 2 interceptions in the 4th quarter, granter it was Arkanasa' backup QB. I thought Leard had a good game most of the way but he did try to pass into tight coverage a few too many times and he had 2 INTS and almost a couple more. Rudi had another great game but was almost the goat at the end with his untimely fumble. Crayton bailed him out with a coffin-sealing interception. Overall, a good win - one that was needed going into the break and heading toward amen corner.
Preview: I forgot to do a preview for this one...sorry
Prediction: Auburn 31 Arkansas 17
TV: PPV 1:00 PM CT