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Auburn / football / Monday / Samford — Comments Off
5
Sep 11

Labor Day? Lazy day

Slept in. Watched television. Also, I think I might have taken a brief nap.

In the afternoon and evening I put together two lectures for class. I did laundry. Took a few Catember pictures. We enjoyed the rain, read about the wind damage to the north and tried to be productive. I fought the urge to indulge in that nap.

Labor Day.

It was dreary and raining. There were no big outdoor events and they would have been canceled anyway. We had four tornado warnings — just another day in the south — in our county. Two of them nearby. It would seem we were bracketed on either side, but we heard of no damage and saw none in our brief foray out.

Watched a bit of the Miami at Maryland game. That is one ugly uniform. Sports producer Dennis Pillion said it best:

These Maryland uniforms are just as terrible as everyone says. It’s like a crash test dummy mated with a crusader.

They call it Maryland Pride, but they should call it a corporate billboard. As this is all a design to merely get people talking about Under Armour (Look! It worked! Your unis are as dreadful as Nike’s! Have a nice day.) this is a shameless aspect of college football, the most direct and obvious exploitation of college football players in an industry built on a series of even and uneven exchanges of services.

Now, Auburn is an Under Armour school. And the schools have seemed to flex some muscle in whether they are willing to have these random designs put upon them. Auburn, full of staid and conservative people when you get right down to such decisions, have resisted the urge to make major changes to the uniform insomuch as it is a brand. I would encourage them to retrench.

It is an interesting discussion, though. For whom are these designs made? High school kids? Football recruits? It probably works for them. Television’s talking heads? Uniform changes for the studio fashionistas are a hit-or-miss thing beyond the purely “They’re talking about us” The older alumni? That’s where any given program’s money comes from, and I doubt they like it insofar as tradition is a big component of what they appreciate.

And after seeing the fashionable offerings by the big two uniform makers this weekend I’m inclined to welcome a return to Russell (which has the Samford apparel account) or Adidas. Because Maryland Pride is a technicolor folly.

Dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger tonight. And now I have that much more to work off this week. Totally worth it, though.

He said, with the memory of an Oreo milkshake still fresh on his mind.

Auburn / football / history / photo / weekend — 1 Comment
4
Sep 11

A funny thing happened on the way to Harvey Updyke’s trial

Let’s be honest. This hasn’t been about the individual who allegedly poisoned the historic oaks at Toomer’s Corner since he discovered a talk radio host would put him on the air. This hasn’t been about the oaks themselves since the day he first appeared in court.

This is about Auburn’s people.

Auburn University has gone to great lengths and expense to save the oaks. The campus experts have consulted with some of their best peers in the country. The community grieved a bit, accepted the support and condolences of friends near and far and is moving on in a wait-and-see environment.

The university decided in mid-summer that they would allow for Toomer’s Corner to be rolled again this fall. The cleanup was the concern, they said, and the firm that does the cleaning would no longer use a pressure wash system, but would clean the trees by hand.

And so football is here. There’s new signage everywhere. Many things in town and on campus are unchanged, as they often are. Many things in town and on campus are new, as they often are. The Tigers won their home opener; fans rolled Toomer’s Corner.

But it all feels different now.

Opinions varied when the roll on announcement was made. Some were ready to continue the tradition. Others counseled restrain. More than a few groups volunteered to help with the cleaning. It was time, they said to themselves, to demonstrate a new kind of contribution to a place they appreciate. After the season’s first game, some of them followed through and helped with the cleanup. Volunteers came and went, working alongside the professional cleaning company for a brief time. It rained and the mushy paper turned even more fragile.

But the health of the trees and the soaked cellulose are the only things around Toomer’s Corner that are fragile. The spirit is strong.

What makes history?

I thought a lot about that while we helped clean up the celebration today. We decided, for our part, that we’d clean a little farther down College Street.

That tree above grows near Langdon Hall and, while it is a bit younger than the Toomer’s Oaks, it has a history of its own. Inside Langdon Hall they debated secession. Near this spot is where students of another generation heard President Roosevelt ask for a declaration of war over a loudspeaker after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. Near here is the lathe that commemorates Auburn’s role in the Civil War as a hospital and who’s young men served. Recovered from Selma and presented to Auburn in 1952, it has been the site of endless ghost tales these last 60 years. Near this spot many young couples have been engaged, another was recently married and, during my time in school, I asked a nice girl out on a date and she agreed. That’s a lot of history, too.

None of those things belong to a tree, but to the people of Auburn.

^{The greatest generation would help clean up after a Toomer’s Corner celebration.}

They’re calling it Unrolling Toomer’s. It is going to grow slowly, but there’s enthusiasm there. It requires garbage bags, a few yard tools, gloves and work, hard work.

As all good traditions, it has started informally, organically and by word of mouth. Unrolling Toomer’s is late Sunday mornings, or after church lets out, and you simply clean until you’ve had your share. Some picked a little, others cleaned up pounds of the stuff.

No one ran anyone off, and the cleaning company doesn’t mind the help. Unrolling Toomer’s started small, but there will be a few more volunteers on College Street next week. There will be more the time after that. One day there might be great crowds, hopefully including you, and perhaps big cheers. This should be as much of a celebration as rolling the corner.

After all, this is about the people. These particular good-natured people think it is great to be an Auburn Tiger.

Auburn / football / photo / weekend — Comments Off
3
Sep 11

After the game …

We bumped into Trooper Taylor, who is Auburn’s wide receiver coach, assistant-head coach and a top-notch recruiter. When you talk to him for more than two minutes and get a sense of his enthusiasm it isn’t hard to see why. We’re going to celebrate Thanksgiving with him this year, the joke goes. He just doesn’t know it yet.

He’s seen The Yankee cycling around town, and remembers where. He works with young men for a living, he’s clearly having a ball and it is hard not to see, and reflect, his enthusiasm when you’re around him.

And if you take a picture with him, he insists you wear his championship ring.

“Hold it up like bling,” Taylor said. He knows my personality so well.

I looked at him, he is a former college wide receiver himself, and wondered Can you outrun me?

Trooper Taylor gives off the impression of a man living the dream, who likes to share it with everyone around him.

Auburn / football / iPhone / photo / weekend — Comments Off
3
Sep 11

Football: Auburn hosts Utah State

Our friend Brian came down to crash last night. he was working today’s game for al.com. He sat up in the press box and then worked his way down to the field for the game’s big finish. It is a tough job he has there.

This is at Tiger Walk, where I saw a handful of people who’d jockeyed for the better part of an hour move aside so a little boy could get a right on the rope line to see his football heroes. And then they moved again so a young man in a wheelchair could have a nice view. Auburn people, in their environment, are so incredibly gracious it just makes you proud to be a part of the place.

These things would no doubt happen in other places, too. It isn’t a judgement, merely a statement. Anyway. Tiger Walk. The players walk down the two blocks from the athletic department and into the stadium, fans line up in the thousands to cheer them on. Here are two of them:

We set out to tailgate with friends, who tried to upgrade our tickets. We already have good seats for the season, so we gave them back. Somehow and for some reason they gave us some more, which upgraded our tickets to the scholarship level. So we’re in the Nelson Club. This is a tilt-shift shot from my phone looking into the south end zone:

Aubie, if you hadn’t heard, stole the crystal football during the off-season. You can see all of his exploits here. He was finally “caught” by the canine training unit on campus. During the pre-game they showed a video of his confrontation with the football coach. Aubie was ashamed and scared, two new components of his personality that you don’t normall see in the character. (The Aubie character is quite defined.) And then, a moment later, he ran the crystal football onto the field.

Now it is on permanent display in the Lovelace Museum. Just before Aubie “returned” the missing trophy, The Yankee and I had a run-in with the football ourselves. That wasn’t a typical part of your gameday experience.

The first touchdown of the year, Barrett Trotter found Emory Blake for a 56-yard touchdown. Blake finished with three catches for 95 yards.

Utah State’s new quarterback had a field day for the Aggies. Chuckie Keeton completed 21 passes for 213 yards. He’s throwing here to Michael Smith, who had 65 total yards,

Auburn’s defense is talented, but young. And young is overselling it. They’re brand new. Only four of these guys had serious playing time last year and just two started.

If you’ve ever wondered if it would be cool to be a freshman and return a kickoff 97 yards for a score in your first ever collegiate game, just ask Tre Mason about that feeling:

BCS MVP Mike Dyer had a “quiet” day, in part because Utah State took Auburn out of their game plan and dominated the Tigers’ line.

Dyer gained 58 yards and had two scores, including the game winner with 30 seconds ont he clock. We talked to him for a minute after the game.

But what will Auburn do without Cam Newton!?!?

Barrett Trotter went 17 of 23, including one poor throw and a lot of smart decisions to get rid of the ball when he had to. He picked up 261 yards passing and three touchdowns. He looked collected as he helped rally Auburn past upset-minded Utah State and created two scoring drives in the final three minutes to claim the win. Auburn is going to be fine at quarterback.

I suggested to The Yankee that part of why the team struggled was that she’d forgotten one of her rituals:

But the Tigers didn’t give up and they found a way to win against Utah State. The Aggies wanted that win, and probably should have won. They controlled, if not dictated, the happenings of 55 minutes of play, but couldn’t hang on in the final minutes.

Auburn won 42-38, and they weren’t very happy about how it came to pass. Utah State left feeling dejected — you could see it on their kids’ faces as they stood with their handful of traveling fans. They should be proud. They played inspired football and were a great deal of fun to watch. There were more than a few Auburn folks congratulating them after their game, too.

football / Samford — Comments Off
1
Sep 11

A day of questions and answers

I have a list of things to accomplish, most of them work related, and it is time that some of them were addressed. He said to himself, with determination.

This followed an early morning at the gym and 22 miles of pedaling. There was lecture prep this morning. Then came a quiet lunch. And then a meeting. And this meeting would have answers.

And those answers fostered more questions. That’s the way of it, I suppose.

So I dashed off emails with the new questions, that would bring about more answers that could be fed into the Answermatic 3200.

Then it was time for class. I gave a spelling quiz — the heart wants what the heart wants, I said on Twitter — and a lecture on one component of Associated Press style.

Late in the evening I received the latest answers via email. They will be prepared in the fanciest template table that Microsoft Word has to offer. Only the answers came with a question, and that must be answered first. Then, and only then, can the answers formulate the last question in this series of things. At that point we’ll be making progress. It has happened before.

Why, I’ve positioned myself in such a place that a fair amount of progress could soon be made on many fronts. And after next week those movements might make dividends.

Those will be fed into the Answermatic 3200, which will promptly throw a rod, rendering chaos and anarchy into any number of systems.

Tonight was the first night of the football season, just as today was the first day of Catember. That means autumn is just around the corner, or playing coy and will be here in December. It also means 30 days of cat pictures and four months of thinly controlled chaos and anarchy on the football field.

Allie is ready for the challenge. So is my television. How are you set up?