Alabama


7
Jan 13

“Now yellow waxen lights Shall wait on honey love”

That’s Thomas Champion, by the way.

But what a day of beautiful light:

yard

That was in the afternoon, sitting in the backyard enjoying the shadows passing through the grass. That was after lunch and a very brief bike ride and some school work. It was before a trip to the big box store and the big warehouse store.

On the way home we saw this light:

drive

It isn’t cold, it isn’t hot, it isn’t really anything at all, just bright and golden and perfect. What a lovely day.

Then the football game happened. In three BCS games the last four years Alabama has outgained their opponents 1,176 to 670 yards. The Tide have outscored Texas/LSU/Notre Dame a combined 100-35. Tonight was a demolition, an anti-climax. A coronation, really, after the SEC championship game.

At halftime Notre Dame’s coach said the best plan was for Alabama to not come back out in the second half. He might have been understating it.

After the game the sideline reporter Tom Rinaldi said to Nick Saban: “Enjoy it if you can.”

All of that said so much.

So my Notre Dame shirt that I got last year during our trip to South Bend was as helpful as I thought it would be. Death, taxes, Saban; Alabama is a dynastic juggernaut.

Beautiful day, though.


22
Sep 12

LSU at Auburn

Second-ranked LSU visited Auburn. The good Tigers were three touchdown underdogs. We always win the pregame:

Nova

Auburn played LSU extremely tough. The defense moved faster and forced a few key turnovers. Our Tigers were leading at the half, despite a still-struggling offense:

Frazier

Some odd play calling and an offense that can’t move the ball means LSU wins, every time, despite an Auburn defense that refused to give in. LSU won 12-10, but it felt a lot like Auburn should be able to take the victory, so the gratification of not watching them get beaten up was replaced by the frustration of what should have been.

At least we got to enjoy the Golden Band from Tigerland.

LSU

Up next for Auburn is a bye week, and then Arkansas, who lost at home to Rutgers tonight. Elsewhere, Alabama defeated the mighty Florida Atlantic 40-7. UAB almost ruined Ohio State’s season. Looking at the stats, it is hard to see how the Buckeyes managed to win, but they held off UAB 29-15. Samford, meanwhile, came from behind on the road to beat Western Carolina 25-21, giving them a 4-0 start for the first time since 1995.


15
Sep 12

ULM at Auburn

Coates

Redshirt freshman Sammie Coates propels his 6-2 frame into the air for a catch that might help reshape the season.

It took 10 full quarters, two-and-a-half games into the season, but Auburn finally found a moment where they could take control of a game. Sophomore quarterback Kiehl Frazier was flushed from the pocket, spun out to his left and heaved a hope to the back of the end zone.

After losing the opener in Atlanta to Clemson, and losing badly in their conference opener to Mississippi State in Starkville, Auburn finally had some momentum.

This being the 2012 Tigers, and their opponent being a gamey Louisiana-Monroe, it wouldn’t end there. A turnover late and solid play in the second half found Auburn and ULM going to overtime at 28-28. But a bit of natural balance returned after that. Frazier started to look like a game manager, his coordinator finally seemed to realize what he has at quarterback and what he longs for. Frazier might have finally found a third receiver in Coates. Maybe and perhaps. Or maybe he is the third receiver; Frazier caught a touchdown pass early in the game a receiver throwback. The running game showed up.

Sure, there were some spotty calls coming from the booth, but the Tigers managed to find a way.

Coates

Auburn won 31-28 after one overtime. It did, as I said to my wife at the beginning of the game, come down to a special teams victory. Two ULM field goal attempts were blocked.

Sunburns should mean more than this.

And now on comes LSU.

Elsewhere, Alabama toiled in their task of heading to the sea, surrounding and drowning Arkansas 52-0. UAB could not facilitate my eighth-ranked curse. They fell 49-6 to number eight South Carolina, the first number eight to win this year. Samford remains a perfect 3-0 after upending Gardener-Webb 44-23.

Much more tomorrow.


12
Sep 12

Volume 98 begins

It was a late night. About 2:30 or 3 this morning, I think, when they finished their newspaper. Much faster than the first night last year. Not as fast as they’ll be later in the year, of course. And of course time doesn’t matter so much. Work on it until the sun rises if it means the quality is good.

And the first paper is pretty good. This is a young staff, with only one returning section editor from last year. They’re learning as they go, and we’ll make sure they learn a lot. But for a first edition, this is promising. You can see it online here.

We had our first critique meeting just after lunch today. Four members of the editorial staff were there, and we laughed and told jokes and asked questions about this or that in the paper. There are errors to correct, but there are many things to brag on. Later in the day they received compliments from two big titles in the university’s administration. That’s a nice pat on the back, too.

Spent part of the afternoon unpacking a few new cameras for the department.

Panasonic HD

We have added a large handful of new high definition equipment this year. When they handed me this part of my job a few years ago it was a mess. As of today we are an all-HD shop.

A great plan from the faculty, great support from the university’s administration and attention to detail have made it happen. The digital video center is a part of the program we are proud of.

Hard working students, smart planning among the faculty and an administration that is taking part. No wonder Samford is a great place to work.

Pretty, too. This is one of our lovely buildings, as the afternoon is winding down:

Brooks

And this is west campus, from Talbird Circle, looking back toward Seibert Hall:

Talbird

This came up on Twitter. Someone we know from Alabama, and from Auburn, is back at Alabama for law school. But before she returned to Tuscaloosa she came to visit the Cumberland School of Law at Samford. She’s jealous, but, you know, they are all beautiful campuses.

Chick-fil-A now wants your name, for when your order is ready. The guy at the cash register asked. Threw me for a loop. Why does everyone need my name? This is probably a good idea at lunchtime. For now I hope I can hear them over the din of the … three people in here at dinner.

Also that manager is working. That guy. You know the one; he moonlights as security at concerts so he can get his authority on. One night I saw him almost work his way into a fistfight over what time he closed his store. He’s a bit aggressive with his employees, too. Just a bit intense for a chicken place.

Remember, during the week of Chick-fil-A Week of Free Publicity, that after the I Eat Mor Chickun campaign, there was to be a kiss-in after that. Some wondered if that would devolve into a nasty scene. If there were going to be fisticuffs it wouldn’t have surprised me to learn it involved him.

Here’s why you love Chick-fil-A, though: the guy who took my order gave me a coupon for a free sandwich for the delay. I’d waited an eternity, three minutes.

More rehab tonight. I’m sore, but that’s more muscle sore than injury sore. Seems I can easily overdo it, that’s progress. So, yes, let’s do that again.

And then I did an hour of intervals on a bike, clocking 19.5 miles and showing watts and METs I don’t understand. I’m just waiting for the muscle spasms to go away. A few days after that — I have to make sure they aren’t trying to trick me — then I’ll try to really ride again. It has been a while, but my shoulder says no rush. So far I’ve been inclined to agree, which seems odd. I try not to think about it.

Arms are too sore, you see.


30
Aug 12

Ow. Ow. Ow.

Being sore is a pretty lousy experience. I like to think that I have good control of my body. I can change my breathing, I can lower my heart rate. I can change the blood pressure readings on that machine at the grocery store. But I could not get the muscles in m back to unclench tonight.

It started in my left shoulder, my physical therapist tells me that has to do with muscles that wrap from the clavicle and through and around. It spread from my left shoulder into my right shoulder tonight. The Yankee said “You look like you’re about to cry.”

I told her I was trying not to move, because I had a sense that if I moved, at all, it would only get worse. Maybe, I’d thought, I can force these muscles to relax. That was the word selection in my head, and I found the contradiction delightful.

Instead I started coughing which was the opposite of not moving.

And so I’ve had upper back spasms for most of the evening and the night.

I’m ready to feel better, thanks.

More meetings today. I think I have already reached my quotient for the semester. And so I shifted to email. Well, let me just tell you, mister, I’m on the hook for a lot of email. And so I write a lot of them.

I’m due a new phone. The technology services staff passed them out over the summer and they installed mine … in a different office in a different building. I brought it to my office yesterday and discovered that someone will have to come and do something to the phone jacks to make this thing go. Gone are the days of simply plugging in a phone and hearing a dial tone. This one requires the Internet and some special pixie dust in the wall outlet.

Also it delivers voicemail directly to your email. That’s just strange.

I’m sure the innovations held therein are the biggest advancements since we abandoned party lines. This upgrade might be a step too far, too fast, though. I’m pretty sure my old office phone is at least 30 years old. Imagine giving Calbraith Perry Rodgers, the first man to fly across the country in 1911 (49 days! 70 stops!), a Messerschmitt Me 163A, which in 1941 set an unofficial speed record of 624 miles per hour. (That record was broken by Heini Dittmar, a German born just before Rodgers set on on his transcontinental feat.)

My new phone is exactly like that, only I can’t fly it.

Football season is upon us and I’m posting photographs we found last week while sifting through archives in Auburn University’s collection in honor of this most festive time of the year. This young lady is holding two tickets to the 1971 Iron Bowl. Not sure what she is standing behind and why, but this game featured third-ranked Alabama, fifth-ranked Auburn. These tickets were like cash.

tickets

Too bad Alabama won 31-7 and gave them a conference championship. I bet she was inconsolable after the game.