Posted on 11/18/2004 7:58:22 PM PST by LowOiL
Please place your predictions, traditions, comments, jabs, and jokes on this thread for the 2004 Auburn/Alabama game...This is the thread...
All the minor sports events of the year are behind us now.
Things like the Daytona 500, The Final Four Tournament, The Kentucky Derby, The Olympics, The Tour De France and the World Series are merely the preliminaries to the true pinnacle of sports: The Iron Bowl.
The Auburn vs. Alabama game is why God created football.
Football is why all other sports were created, either as exercises for football, or as diversions to amuse everyone until the weather gets right for football.
I feel the same tension in my body that I felt on election day until President Bush was declared the winner. I'll feel this way until Auburn wins on Saturday. Should they lose....(I can go no further. I can't bear to think about Auburn losing to Alabama!) :o)
Prediction for the outcome of the greatest rivalry in sports? Auburn by 7. Say 17 - 10 Auburn.
Don't grab the phone and call your bookie. In 1989, Alabama was ranked #2 and Auburn was unranked, and upset the Tide.
But this year, the Tigers seem to be a special team - mebbe a team with a destiny. So I predict they will be throwing toilet paper at Toomers Corner in the "Loveliest Village on the Plain."
War Eagle!!
http://www.univrel.auburn.edu/webcams/hargiscam.html
Here is a live camera feed from Toomer's corner area.
Rip Tide.
I simply can't make myself believe that anyone could possibly think that the Alabama Crimson Tide can beat the Auburn Tigers.....not this year, anyway.
Auburn looks mighty tough this year.
LSU grad but not necessarily a fan.....just when they win. :-)
***Shudder***
But grandpa loved his tigers, He played for them when it was "Alabama PolyTech Institute" instead of "Auburn". I still have his ole beanie hat and jacket from those days (29 and 30). Ahhh the memories...
Auburn is a very special place. This was posted on U of Maryland sports site. Written by Scott Van Pelt of ESPN:
A different world - Non Terps & a lenghty rambling mess Reply
Here's an article written by a New York columnist after the Syracuse game in 2002.
Go to Auburn, be forever changed
October 03, 2002
BUD POLIQUIN
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
I have descended into college football's Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have done all of these things and I've been changed forever.
I knew, of course, that we were different up here. I understood that autumn Saturdays in our burg have never been given over to any kind of serious sporting fervor. I've accepted for a good, long while that a fair amount of our citizens regularly choose to pick apples or seal driveways rather than head to the Carrier Dome to watch the Syracuse University Orangemen at play.
But, Lord have mercy on our college football souls, I've come to realize we're not merely quirky in these parts. And we're not just overly particular. No, having attended a game in Auburn, Ala. - which is like going to Mass in Rome - I'm convinced that, by comparison, we're as dead as the flying wedge.
"Let me tell you something," said Paul Pasqualoni, the SU coach who can recognize bedlam when he is forced to shout above it. "Being in that stadium with all those people - the noise level, the atmosphere - was exciting. It was a lot of fun. To me, it was just spectacular being there."
He was speaking of Jordan-Hare Stadium, where four days earlier his SU club had lost to the Auburn Tigers 37-34 in an environment that was equal parts Woodstock, Mardi Gras, New Year's Eve and Madonna's last wedding. And the Crimson Tide boys, those rascals from the other side of the state, weren't even in town, to say nothing of the Bulldogs, Gators or Razorbacks.
Nah, it was just the Orangemen, a non-league bunch from somewhere up north ... with a losing record yet. But it didn't matter. This, because the cherished Tigers were on the other side, and that was enough for those Alabama locals to respond the way the French did when Patton's army showed up in Paris.
"I missed my wife's birthday so I could cheer on my beloved alma mater against Syracuse," Brent Miller wrote in an e-mail addressed to me following the three-overtime affair. "But you know what? I would have been there if our opponent had been the state of New York's worst high school team."
"Country, God and college football are usually our top three passions," e-mailed another Auburn guy, Steve Fleming. "But not always in that order."
"I grew up in Denver in a family with season tickets to the Broncos games," e-mailed yet another believer, Rick Pavek. "I call Auburn home now and, take my word for this, Broncomania is nothing like Tigermania."
The point is, with the Orangemen returning to the gray Dome that is so often lifeless to play Big East Conference foe Pittsburgh on Saturday, it's clear that somebody's not getting it. Either the Auburn faithful - and people like them in Knoxville and South Bend and Lincoln and Gainesville and Columbus and Austin and elsewhere - are far too crazed or we're way too cool.
Listen, down there in eastern Alabama they pass out full-color, high-gloss, 22-by-17-inch, two-sided, fold-out pamphlets titled, "The 2002 Guide To Game Day At Auburn University." And on Page 2 of each can be found the announcement that nobody is allowed to begin tailgating until 4 p.m. icthe day before the game.nm
"You can't be anything but envious," said Jake Crouthamel, the Syracuse athletic director who was a wide-eyed witness to all of the SU-Auburn doings. "You can't be anything but envious when you have that kind of support. I mean, there were 84,000 people in the seats. And the RVs and house trailers were lined up five miles outside of town. When you talk about the epitome of what the college football experience is all about ... that's it. Auburn is the epitome. You couldn't possibly be unaware of the spectacle, even if you were trying to be unaware."
The orange-clad zealots, who are in their seats fully 30 minutes prior to kickoff, thunder through choreographed cheers. The band, which is saluted upon its arrival by the big house with a standing ovation, blares. The PA system, which continuously blasts the sounds of a growling tiger, pipes in songs by the Dixie Chicks and interviews with the Auburn coaches.
Before the game, there is the great Tiger Walk during which the Auburn players march along Donahue Street through thousands of people, some of whom weep, and into the stadium. After the game, there is the mass papering of famous Toomer's Corner downtown. And between all of that, a golden eagle circles the place before landing on the field to a deafening roar.
And us? Um, let's see. We can't fill 49,000 seats. We debate, ad nauseam, standing-vs.-sitting in the Dome. We give our tickets to takers at the door who had to be schooled in the art of courtliness. We regularly vacate the joint long before the final gun. We allow, in a good-idea-gone-bad, a bunch of vulgar louts planted in a thing called "The O-Zone" to chant expressions you'd never say in front of Mom at the dinner table.
In other words to compare our college football experience to that of Auburn (and a lot of other places) is to compare a skillet of beans to a plate of Chilean sea bass. And while that might sound harsh, it doesn't make the words any less true.
Believe me on this. Please. I have descended into college football's Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have attended a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. And I've been changed forever.
Bud Poliquin is a columnist for The Post-Standard
Round the bowl, down the bowl, Role, Tide, Role!
I'm old enough to remember the Sani-Flush and was in Auburn when the Kopper Kettle blew. If you have not been to Auburn lately, you'd be so surprised at all the changes in and around town.
That was profound.
I am happy to see somebody else who like College Football as much as I do.
From SouthernPigskin.com
Articles: B.J. Bennett
Previewing Rivalry Week
By B.J. Bennett
Posted: November 15, 2004
A look at the top four southern rivalries this weekend has to offer.
Rivalries divide states, they divide stadiums, and in the south, they divide families.
Ain't it lovely?
Auburn at Alabama
Recent history suggests than the Crimson Tide will have a hard time upending their in state rivals this Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Not only are the teams entering this weekend on two seemingly different tracks – Alabama has lost three of their last five, while Auburn is undefeated and hasn’t been played within two touchdowns since September 18th, but Alabama hasn’t had much success against the Tigers in Tuscaloosa. The Tide have managed just seven total points, one touchdown in 2002 and a zero points in 2000, in their last two home meetings. In fact, Alabama has never defeated Auburn on their home field as the Tigers hold a rather stunning 4-0 series edge in the mid-west part of the state. That said, this is the Iron Bowl, and making predictions can be risky at best. Despite the series record, playing 'Bama in a true road game will be a difficult task for the 3rd ranked Tigers, who come to town with a huge bullseye on their back. For the first time in years, the Tide come into this game playing for postseason slotting; such motivation will definitley make a difference. Quarterback Spencer Pennington has yet to find his groove, but the rushing combination of now-injured Ray Hudson, Kenneth Darby and Aaron Johns have, so much so that the Tide, not Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown and Auburn, lead the SEC in rushing with 215 yards per game. Both defenses are two of the nation's best - combined they have held 13 opponents to two touchdowns or less. This clash will have old-school feel, as physical, smash-mouth football will be the overriding theme and big plays will likely be few and far between.
Fun Stat – Alabama and Auburn rank 1-2 in the conference in rushing offense and 2-1 in the conference in total defense.
Who To Watch – Auburn: QB Jason Campbell, RB Carnell Williams, RB Ronnie Brown, CB Carlos Rogers, SS Junior Rosegreen; Alabama: RB Ken Darby, DL Jeremy Clark, LB Cornelius Wortham, LB Demeco Ryans, S Roman Harper.
Final Thought – With points likely coming at a premium for both squads, this game will come down to who makes and who doesn’t make costly turnovers.
no time for football, Half Life 2 is out!!!!
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