weekend « Kenny Smith | A remarkable thing happens …

weekend

Auburn at Texas A&M

I said, on Thursday night while watching Central Florida upset Louisville, that football is in some ways even more fun when you are watching the emotions of a game in which you aren’t invested.

Sometimes. Because when you are wrapped up in it, this stuff can be anxious.

Four years ago, when Arkansas visited Auburn, was the last time I watched an emotionally wrought football game. I didn’t feel like that in the BCS championship game or in the 2010 Iron Bowl comeback or the SEC Championship game that year. But the back and forth, punch-counterpunch of the Arkansas game that season felt a lot like tonight’s game. Anything was possible, nothing was too absurd, no one was stoppable. The heart races even in a seated position.

Tonight was like that. We got to watch a bunch of young men we don’t know stick with something and stick together. We saw them play against perhaps the best player in the game, just months removed from some of the worst athletic experiences they’ve every encountered.

We watched them claw and fight. We witnessed them realize their goals were before them. We saw them pull off something pretty spectacular. We watched young men with tears of happiness in their eyes and joy in their heart.

Fans gathered just before midnight to welcome the team home:

This is a special place with some special people and they all felt like it tonight.

How can you not be emotional about football?

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13
Oct 13

Catching up

The post where photos, and the occasional video, finally find a home. And we call this Sunday, and Catching up. On with it then.

The bride and groom had a string quartet just off to the side. We offered them cash to insert a new song into their playlist. This didn’t cost as much as you’d think:

This was one of those weddings where the guys in tuxes looked underdressed:

We had a great time at the reception:

At the after-party:

Since I forgot the media card for my DSLR I shot everything this weekend on my phone. Most of them were bad. But, anyway, meet our new friend, Dru.

The OK Cafe, in Atlanta. Haven’t eaten here in several years. It is named after a restaurant in To Kill a Mockingbird.

There is nothing wrong with anything on this plate:

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12
Oct 13

The Hallmarks

His eyes were red. His gaze was sure. His voice never trembled. Next to him was a beautiful woman we liked right away for all of her many personal traits. She looked up. He said, “I most certainly will.”

Today I stood near my friend, a gentleman whom I admire greatly, at a big moment in both of their lives.

Also, he fired a Civil War cannon at his wedding.

(Since I was in the wedding party I obviously didn’t take these pictures. The father of the bride took the first one. The Yankee took the second one, with the saber arch.)

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6
Oct 13

Catching up

The weekly post of extra pictures that let’s us call it a day with little work. This week they are all people at the football game, so on with the show!

Apparently your game of cornhole markedly improves if you hold something in your non-throwing hand:

In the stadium as the evening turned to night. These are just people in the surrounding areas:

You’ve never seen someone work so hard to vainly catch the eye of a friend. Meanwhile, the game is going on behind you, buddy:

These are the Auburn band’s majorettes. I like to think she was in deep concentration, visualizing the upcoming routine:

A future middle linebacker:

This was at one of those moments in the game where things should have been in hand, but it was starting to feel a bit treacherous again:

I managed to get the most narrow depth of field possible here. Not bad for a rushed shot:

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5
Oct 13

Ole Miss at Auburn

It was an evening kickoff, which meant an afternoon spent sitting in the tailgating tent, sorta-watching other games.

People coming and going in the tent make for good conversation, but seldom do they let you dissect the intricacies of a cover-two defense. Not that I’d prefer to do that over the former.

The thing you’d prefer to do is watch the game on CBS, but apparently they and Dish are having another spat, and that means we couldn’t get the Georgia at Tennessee game today. It only went to overtime, so thanks CBS and Dish.

Not that we would have seen the end. We would have been inside the stadium watching the Tigers play, which is precisely what we did.

Nova flew this evening:

So did these planes:

I do not know why people wave their shakers at planes, but they do.

Anyway, it was military appreciation night, so all of those themes were added to your usual Saturday night pageantry. And Nick Marshall might have earned his own appreciation night.

The quarterback ran for 140 yards and two scores and threw for 93 yards in a gameplan designed to show off his feet.

Tre Mason showed his off, too:

He gained 77 yards on the ground, 62 receiving yards and the game’s first touchdown.

The game almost got out of hand when Robenson Therezie managed an impressive interception and returned it 78 yards for the score. The best part are the crestfallen looks on the faces of the visiting Rebels fans in the background. I love the background atmosphere shots, the accidental documentary snapshot:

Auburn couldn’t put Ole Miss away, though, and the Rebels would fight back. All the while, Marshall just kept running.

Ole Miss churned up yards, and they eventually turned a three score deficit into a five-point affair. And despite allowing 464 yards, it felt like a game for the Auburn defense. At the end, when it counted, the defensive line came up huge. The Tigers beat Ole Miss 30-22, the first ranked opponent they’ve defeated since 2011, to go 4-1 on the season.

Here are the video highlights, edited to make the game look terribly lopsided. I assure you it was not: