This will be only one of a handful of trips to Auburn this fall, as I’ve discovered with marrying a UGA gal that my fall weekends are split between Auburn, Athens and occasional trips to malls and family outings. While this might sadden most of you, I have to note that many of my family’s functions occur while tailgating.
After last weekend’s huge build-up to mostly blowout games, I’m guessing that this will be the weekend of entertaining TV. I’m actually a little sad I’ll be missing some of these games, because it’s really not a bad TV weekend. While we’ll be watching UGa-Arkansas at Momma G’s, I’ll miss out on UNC-Ga Tech, OU-Air Force, Wisconsin-Ariz St, FSU-BYU, Florida-Tenn, Washington-Nebraska, LSU-Miss St, ND-Mich St, Texas-Texas Tech, and Iowa-Arizona. While some ESPN pundits have been spouting that there's not a good line-up, all of those games should be entertaining and many will come down to the wire. I really like Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, so this will be big to see just how good they are. I'm also beginning to think that the Big Ten might be the strongest conference this year.
Auburn’s going to have a really tough time with Clemson this week, and I was somewhat shocked at how high the spread is (Auburn -7). In playing two patsies, Clemson hasn’t shown anything, and as a Blue-Tiger fan, I’m very happy that C.J. Spiller is gone (now if only QB Kyle Parker would have left for the Rockies already). The talk is already building that Michael Dyer is going to get the majority of the carries, and while he doesn’t yet know the entire offense, he’s proven to be our best option at RB. Fannin and McCalebb aren’t going to be every-down backs, but Fannin does know the offense better and McCalebb brings the change of pace speed that Dyer lacks. Either way it will be enjoyable to watch, and I’m excited that it’s in prime-time and Gameday’s on campus.
This weekend is being dubbed True Blue, where the university is requesting fans to wear blue, instead of the regular orange. This has a few people on-line wondering whether Auburn may come out in blue pants and, maybe even, a blue helmet. Gene Chizik has been adamant that Auburn will only wear their regular white helmet, blue shirt, white pant combo, but then, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he came out and said it.Most Auburn fans actually seem against wearing non-traditional uniforms. I think this is a mixture of going against the flow (since everyone now seems to be wearing different unis) and fear of losses (as Auburn lost and tied their orange jersey games of the late 70s and early 80s). I guess I’ve come full circle to this whole thing. When I was a kid, I would have loved it; then I hated the idea when I was in college. Now, I honestly don’t care. I understand that it has some place in recruiting (though any kid that picks a school because of jersey options probably doesn’t need to be going to college), but whatever – wear or don’t wear ‘em. I think most people (and UGa fans especially) realize that jerseys don’t have an effect, and there’s a problem with the coaching staff if they can’t motivate a team for a big game without changing up the uniforms. But this is an old rivalry game, you’re asking your fans to wear blue to distinguish them from Clemson fans (though this is bad because they’ll show up better on TV), and it’d be a one-time thing. Whatever, break ‘em out. It might be cool.
For fellow tailgaters, ESPNU’s Crunch Time is a much needed recording option. The hour-long program shows the important plays of the most exciting games of the weekend. Unfortunately it only shows what happens on the ABC/ESPN-family of networks, so big CBS and NBC games are out. This week, after watching Temple edge CMU, they showed the big moments of James Madison’s win over Va Tech, which I never would have watched without it. It airs Monday at 5 p.m. EST, and I highly recommend recording it.
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