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Auburn / football / video — Comments Off
21
Sep 13

Football football football

Auburn was on the road, which meant we sat on the sofa, pulled a second television in and watched every game possible. The two I’ll remember include this misty, rainy, somewhat miserable and thoroughly entertaining game where Marshall visited a fangless Virginia Tech squad:

The guy running Tech’s offense was at Auburn last year. It all feels very familiar, and we must all apologize to our Hokie friends.

Then there was the night game, where Auburn visited LSU, got out of sorts early, held on to avoid a blowout and ended up making it feel a bit respectable:

The good Tigers put up 432 yards, at least. When the tackling improves they might have something.

Auburn / football / photo / video / weekend — Comments Off
14
Sep 13

Mississippi State at Auburn

Auburn started the day at 2-0 and was set to welcome conference foe Mississippi State in their SEC opener. It was to be a dramatic game. Before we get to that, here are some of the fans, which is what you’re really here for:

Freshman Elijah Daniel almost gets home to shut down Dak Prescott who was pretty much having his way all over the field. He threw for 213 yards and ran for 134, including a long of 47. Also he registered two touchdowns. The guy was pretty good.

Robenson Therezie, 27, had three tackles and three assists.

But after all that, it got tense.

Auburn was down 17-20. Their defensive back turned QB lead Auburn out to start their last drive at their own 12 yard line with 1:50 on the clock. Marshall had already had a day. He turned a dropped snap into a 77-yard touchdown pass and later caught a deflected pass himself and turned that into a 37-yard reception.

Nick Marshall kept the ball on the first snap and then without a care in the world threw three straight passes to Marcus Davis to get out to the 47 yard line. Jaylon Denson caught a pass to move things down to State’s 37 and that got the crowd thinking about the possibility of a field goal.

The next four plays were two rushes by Marshall and two incomplete passes. No one was thinking about field goals when Tre Mason carried from the 14 to the 11. Auburn took a timeout with :15 on the clock.

And then Marshall called for the snap and looked to his right, where C.J. Uzomah worked a double move toward the corner. It all looked like this:

Those last few aren’t perfectly crisp. I was 75 yards away and in the upper deck. But the Tigers win 24-20 to start their season perfect before going on the road next week to LSU.

Here’s the video:

Auburn / football / photo / weekend — Comments Off
7
Sep 13

Arkansas State at Auburn

After the race, driving home, having lunch, cleaning up and then going to the tailgate we were already exhausted.

We tailgate with some lovely people, the kind of folks you’d like to be around, friendly, open and engaging, from all over, all walks of life and all in different industries. The ages range over probably 15 years, but everyone gets along famously and it looks like something out of central casting. If the script called for extravagantly good food in a small tent outside a big stadium.

And today I almost fell asleep in that tent watching a football game on the flat screen. Life is good to you like that, sometimes. We looked at each other and decided we had to say bye to our friends and go inside or they’d all pose for tacky Christmas cards while we had sleeping, unknowing expressions on slack, exhausted faces.

So inside the stadium we went. The eagle flew. The band marched. The speakers blared. Two teams came out and only one would emerge undefeated. Arkansas State, as you might have heard, lost their coach to Auburn last year, so there was an instant storyline. Plus the need for Auburn to see more from their brand new quarterback who had been on campus for about four weeks total and looked a bit nervous in his first game.

Also, people really wanted to see a big play. That was one of those things missing from last weekend’s win. There were some “So close!” moments, but this isn’t horseshoes.

So here’s the big play:

Nick Marshall flicks the ball with ease — because the guy might still be working on synching up with his receivers, but he can throw the ball to Georgia.

Fifty yards down field Sammie Coates runs right under the sailing ball and right away from this hapless defender. Twenty yards of sprinting led to six points.

Auburn controlled the game throughout. The Wolves amassed over 400 yards of offense, but couldn’t score a touchdown. As they say, there were positives and negatives, but the home team won. And here are there fans:

adventures / Auburn / football / friends / photo — Comments Off
31
Aug 13

Washington State at Auburn

The home opener. It was hot. Hotter, maybe, than it has been throughout the mildest summer anyone could remember. The thermometer said one thing and the humidity said another number, but no one believed either of them. It was hot.

I might have sweated more sitting in the shade while tailgating than I did while we were running this morning. It was a very, very warm day.

So on to the pictures. This is Kim, who puts on the best tailgate around:

And the best tailgater at the best tailgate:

Nova had the pregame flight. Looks like he’s going through the goalposts in the south end zone:

But you’re here for the fan shots. Here they are:

Auburn shirt? Check. Washington State cap? Check? This guy was confused:

This lady looks like someone I knew in school. Right down to the haircut. But not the hair color. Also, I know it isn’t her, but it was still startling.

The game itself? All you need to know in one picture. Wazzu’s quarterback wasn’t very good. Auburn’s freshman defensive lineman Montravius Adams is a beast. They couldn’t stop him, and once he got on the field you couldn’t help but watch him go. That’s what a five-star player looks like, apparently.

Auburn won 31-24, in a game that shouldn’t have been nearly that close.

football / Friday / music / Samford / video / YouTube Cover Theater — Comments Off
30
Aug 13

Football, YouTube Cover Theater

This is how Samford started their football season, on the opening kickoff from Georgia State in the Georgia Dome:

The Bulldogs would pull an impressive comeback in the second half tonight to open their season with a 31-21 win.

So there was a music contest …

Fred Stobaugh, whose wife Lorraine died in April, has no previous musical experience and wrote the song on a whim for a competition.

He submitted his handwritten lyrics by post and, although the contest was online-only, the organisers were so moved they put the words to music.

Oh Sweet Lorraine is number seven on US iTunes and has 1.9m YouTube views.

Billboard magazine said the song had sold 6,000 copies so far, placing it at number 49 in its rock digital songs sales chart.

The track is also in the iTunes charts for Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Luxembourg.

There’s a short film about it. If you read the above, at least watch the second half:

He’s not a songwriter, or a musician, or a singer. So when the studio brought him the song he was hearing it for the first time. You almost feel like you can see it all, almost 75 years, right there in his eyes.

Are there covers? Can we turn this unexpected hit and lovely story into another installment of YouTube Cover Theater? There are covers.

And that’s enough to get us off to the weekend. Hope yours is great!