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weekend

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6
Oct 12

Arkansas at Auburn (who is not very good)

It was a beautiful day to be outside. And a lovely afternoon to watch two struggling teams see who could struggle the least and overcome the most. It was a beautiful day to be outside.

Arkansas’ Tyler Wilson drove his team down the field on their opening drive and set up a field goal try. The Hogs missed.

Nova flew. I have a huge panaroma of it I’ll show off later this week.

Tre Mason carried the ball six times for 32 yards. This was Auburn’s second-leading rusher.

Onterio McCalebb had seven carries for just 24 yards. He remains 11th on the all time school rushing list. He’s now fifth all time in kickoff yards and sixth all time in all purpose yards. This is a rough way to experience a senior season:

Kiehl Frazier rushed five times. In the college game sack yardage is subtracted from rushing totals. He was sacked four times, so he had -25 yards rushing on the day.

Aubie throws pigs in a blanket to kids. Razorbacks, Hogs, pigs in a blanket. Get it?

Kiehl Frazier was nine of 14 for 118 yards with one interception. It was, in some respects, perhaps his most manageable performance of the season. Still not convinced Scot Loeffler, the new offensive coordinator, is setting him up to succeed. They pulled the sophomore at halftime.

Angelo Blackson is a beast, but Tyler Wilson found Dennis Johnson. The running back caught four passes for 15 yards.

Aubie just wants to bang on his drum all day.

I just like this one because it shows how close blocked kicks can be. Zach Hooker was one of three for the day.

Trey Flowers (86) of Huntsville, Ala., had a great day. He had three-and-a-half sacks totaling 39 yards. Think he was inspired to play in his home state?

And now, a series of fan shots:

That is a bedazzled phone:

Old school hat. I bet he’s a graduate of API.

We’re all sad at halftime. Auburn is not playing well.

It is almost like the offense is handcuffed. I blame the offensive coordinator.

The fans are wondering what is going on out there?

But, hey! Look who’s on the field!

Clint Mosely, much as he did last year, was called into action to start the second half of a game where the offense was underperforming. It felt that he was a bit more in command of things, where the younger Frazier still looks a bit hesitant.

And the defense has been growing up recently. Jake Holland puts pressure on the quarterback:

But Tyler Wilson kept finding open receivers. Here’s Dennis Johnson again.

Aubie got his roll on, even as it became clear that the Tigers were going to lose:

Though it was hardly all roses for Clint Moseley he went 13 of 21 with two interceptions and was sacked four times for a loss of 41(!) yards he did produce the one score of the day, play-faking and then looking to the corner of the field:

And Moseley found Emory Blake, who made the catch, turned and dived inside the pylon. That score moved Blake into a tie for fifth all-time in receiving touchdowns. He finished the day tied for 10th all-time in receiving yards.

I don’t why this guy put this on. It was 85 degrees:

Say Tigers!

Auburn lost 24-7, falling to 1-4 on the year. So we’ll fall back on the old saying “War Eagle anyway.”

Still number one in the hearts of fans, though.

photo / weekend — Comments Off
30
Sep 12

Catching up

The Sunday installment that is long on pictures! And sometimes there is even context!

OK. The context is that these pictures are holding serve for Sunday. I pressed the shutter button recently and didn’t have anywhere to put these pictures, but I still wanted to share them. Better than writing about football, which I’ll do below anyway.

This guy ran up on the back porch one day recently. Not sure what he was looking for. Of course I couldn’t get the cat to pay attention. Maybe that’s a good thing, since she wouldn’t have had idea how to react to seeing this:

Last weekend I took this picture of my lovely wife. Behind her you can see the picture of a young man who is trying to wear her number:

Here is a pepper. We got it out of a basket of locally grown veggies lovingly assembled by hand. Now we need to find a recipe that calls for one red bell pepper. Did you know that Christopher Columbus is who we blame for the inaccurate name? Or that this thing is loaded with vitamin C? Or that the test can depend on growing conditions like soil and when it is picked and how it ripens? Wikipedia taught you that:

Breakfast! We love breakfast at the Barbecue House: The secret is the bacon, I think. Yes. The secret is always the bacon.

Cam Newton, when he scores touchdowns in the NFL, gives the ball to kids in the stands. Sometimes it is a Christmas miracle. Today, just another day of a kid wearing an Auburn hat and Carolina teal and getting something great to talk about in school tomorrow. And that’s the only excuse for this color scheme:

We blew a bulb in the kitchen. The Yankee, who’s never been a fan of the style of lights that were in the kitchen, bought some new ones. The box says “natural light.” When they get warm, they are supposed to radiate us with 1080 lumens, which is how lights measure horsepower.

I measure it this way: If I turn on the lights in our kitchen and the lights dim at the Eagles game in Philadelphia, these are plenty bright.

Now we can see everything in the kitchen. So we’ll invest in more 409 …

Auburn / football / weekend — Comments Off
23
Sep 12

Catching up

The all pictures Sunday feature, this time in a pleasing all football format.

When the second-ranked team in the country comes to town, and the home team has started their season 1-2, the tickets are easy to come by. And they are hard to sell. There were a lot of after-market opportunities on Saturday:

The ever popular crowd shots:

This guy can wear this as a team shirt, or as a bowling jersey. Nice to know LSU has the same priorities. Actually, when the LSU fans we were talking with asked everyone in our section to beat Bama, and all of the Auburn people asked for the same favor. That’s as good a way to say goodbye as any, I guess.

Aubie fills in on the drumline from time to time.

Nova in flight during the pregame ceremonies:

The game itself was energetic affair. LSU is not as good as their ranking would seem, it seems. Auburn is, perhaps, not as bad their start would suggest.

Michael Ford gained 42 yards on eight carries and added the only touchdown of the game for LSU:

You’d run far away, if you were Ford, and big Angelo Blackson was bearing down on you. He’s 6-foot-4, 308 pounds and can move. He’s just a sophomore:

Zach Mettenberger flips a ball out to Spencer Ware. Ware ran for 90 yards on 16 carries and caught two passes for 44 yards. That guy was almost the only productive part of the entire sputtering LSU offense. Mettenberger went 15 of 27 for 169 yards, not the road game debut he’d hoped for.

Kiehl Frazier was 13 of 22 for only 97 yards and two interceptions. Not the home game he was hoping for:

It doesn’t look like it here, but Gabe Wright, 90, just delivered a forearm to the LSU running back. And the running back bounced backward two yards. Can’t wait to see Wright play more, he’s a beast:

More crowd shots:

A member of the Tiger Paws:

Russell Shepard only had two carries for seven yards, but they came on the decisive drive as LSU moved down into field goal position.

Onterio McCalebb had a slow night, but despite that he moved into seventh place all time at Auburn in career yards. He also became the first Auburn player ever to earn 2,000 yards rushing, 1,000 yards on kick returns and 500 yards receiving. Not bad for a guy generously listed at 5 foot 11 and 173 pounds:

Tre Mason led Auburn in rushing, with 54 yards on nine carries:

Barkevious Mingo and Eric Reid combine on the tackle to bring down Mason after a gain of eight yards near midfield:

Kiehl Frazier surveys the field as he tries to move Auburn across midfield and into field goal range to try to win the game. He was unfortunately unsuccessful.

The Golden Band from Tigerland are always great performers:

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22
Sep 12

LSU at Auburn

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

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:

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.

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.

Auburn / football / photo / Samford / weekend — Comments Off
16
Sep 12

Catching up

More pictures from this past week which, sadly, haven’t appeared here yet.

First, two more of the caterpillar we found Friday:

I managed to get four shots of him before he realized he was camera shy and threw himself into the grass below. (He was OK.)

James Owens was the second African-American athlete at Auburn and the first football player. The university has this year created the James Owens Courage Award and presented the first such honor to its namesake. Before the ULM game yesterday he met with many of his old teammates on the sideline.

They remembered the obstacles he overcame, and the way he’s always loved to laugh. (The comments on that story are great.) His nephew, by the way, plays for Auburn today.

“Someone with my blood went through that and was strong enough to stand and come out on top” Ladarius Owens said in an interview this week. Pretty inspiring idea.

And now, a few shots of the crowd:

Nova made the pre-game flight to midfield:

The roving sideline TV lift comes right by our seats:

Everybody cheer:

Kiehl Frazier hands off to Onterio McCalebb:

Spirit on the sideline:

Quan Bray handled the punt returns:

Frazier was 10-for-18 for 130 yards with one TD pass, one TD catch and an interception.

Aubie has his own eagle these days.

Halftime featured the marching band and the high school honor band. So, with a packed field, less marching, more standing in place and playing. The flag corps did twirl, however:

Tre Mason, the almost forgotten tailback, gained 90 yards on 22 carries.

Kiehl Frazier rocks and fires. See how wide his feet are here? He’s already got a big arm, but the footwork hurts him here. He overthrew his receiver because of that big stride. If only I had less depth of field in this shot …

Cheer! All of you cheer!

Onterio McCalebb, who had 128 yards and a score on 11 carries, demands you cheer:

Why isn’t she cheering?

Aubie’s eight ball says the ULM quarterback is about to get drilled:

Dee Ford, making Aubie look like a prophet.

Kolton Browning was 28-of-46, for 237 yards and three TDs, two of which came in the game’s closing moments. He also ran 14 times for 58 yards, but the Warhawks couldn’t steal another win.

Elsewhere, at Samford, Reid Chapel on a beautiful late summer afternoon:

Hodges Chapel, as evening falls onto the Samford campus:

I wonder where he’s riding. Home, I’d hope. And I hope it makes it there soon: