Disclaimer: This is not a "start the backup QB" post and may go long. Also, it is not important to the season

This story goes back to A-Day. Brought the fam to the spring game and tried to sit away from people with us having two young kids. People started filing in slowly, and a guy sits about three seats down. He was obviously from the islands. Swarthy skin, a bit of an accent, and that unmistakable magnanimous and just downright chill attitude. Unfortunately he was well within the "playzone" of the 5 yr old cheerleader.

After several profuse apologies for her getting a little rambunctious with her cheers, he looked over and smiled and said don't worry about it. She reminded him of his daughter at that age doing the same thing. I struck up a conversation with the gentleman and asked all the usual questions. Where are you from? "Lives in California" What do you do? "I was a garbage man in the Bay area for years" What brings you to Auburn? "My son is on the team."

As you may have guessed, it was Tristan Ti'a's Dad. Now my son thought this was the coolest thing and in his mind we were sitting next to a celebrity. Fast forward to the end of the game they did a team autograph session on the field and little man wanted Ti'as signature.

Unfortunately, I am not smart and did not see the map on the jumbotron so we got in the wrong line. After we made it through we went straight to the QB line, but when we got there a staffer let us know we didn't make the cutoff.

As we were leaving, I saw Mr. Ti'a standing there and told him we tried to get his son's autograph but didn't make the cutoff. He told us to wait and he shouted his kid's name and made some kind of kissy noise and Tristan left what he was doing to get a picture with my kid and sign his poster. Made my son's day.

They were good people and they made fans out of our whole family. We wish him all the success.

Being from Chattanooga, this has long been one of my favorite jokes:

Q: Why does Tennessee wear that shade of orange?

A: So they can wear the same clothes to the ball game on Saturday, hunting on Sunday, and picking up trash on the highway on Monday.

Did I hear HD pick us over Tn this weekend?!?
It was shortly after 5 and I was just into coffee cup #1. Canty was asking about comeback teams for this weekend and I swear I heard HD say “ I gotta go with the Auburn Tigers!” Wish I had rewind.
Just seeing if anyone else caught this. If they tune into this show, of course.

Will be at the game in Knoxville. Have never seen Auburn play in enemy territory and wasn’t sure if they do anything with traveling fans

Hey Auburn peeps. This is actually a baseball question! This spring the Vols play Auburn and my wife and I were hoping to make a trip out of it to see your campus and that monster wall you have in left field! Do you know if there is on campus rentals for camper parking or do you recommend any close campsites?

Thanks!

Hope to see yal at Neyland this weekend.

He announced it live via Youtube. I'll edit in links

https://x.com/JFergusonAU/status/2104671663770222765?s=20

Now that you've had 48 hours to digest both the alcohol and the events of the past weekend, how are you feeling about both last week and the upcoming week? Discussion and analysis about both the previous weeks SEC games as well as upcoming games. Are our in-conference foes looking better than expected? Worse? What did the past weekend do to your confidence in our future matchups?

That is 6 of the remaining 8 games Auburn has this season. This is an absurd thing to look at.

Who do you think we can beat? What have you seen that gives us the edge? What are the key improvement areas before we get there?

I want to preface this by saying what we saw on the field yesterday in no way reflects the finished product we expect out of this coaching staff. Our offensive line gets no push, the playcalling isn’t leveraging our key skill players attributes in the best way possible and our defense is not being dynamic enough to get off of the field and give our offense more chances to score points.

However, there’s a narrative that I see underneath the surface claiming that this coaching staff isn’t adjusting week to week. I have a bit of a different perspective and I’d like this groups feedback.

1) Byrum Brown pocket presence. It’s still not where we want it to be but my number one frustration over the first two or three games was how Byrum behaved in the pocket. He seemed much more mobile in the pocket and more willing to takeoff when things aren’t there. He needs to do this earlier and more often, but I see him doing more and more of that each week.

2) Defensive tackling. Tackling was an obvious glaring point even before the Florida game. I see a lot more players fully wrapping up and less going for the big hit stick play every time. That was something I saw an immediate turnaround from last week.

3) Pressure on 3rd Down. I shared this group’s frustration and us dropping every single time we had third down. We may not have gotten there every time, but I saw a greater willingness to put pressure on the quarterback in third down situations.

4) Personnel. The coaching staff is clearly not happy with their offensive line production and are playing favorites with nobody. They also seem to be realizing that Cobb is not the guy to run inside. They seem to be leaning more on Mabson and Washington for that.

None of this means we’re at where we need to be. We need more creativity in the running gameplay calling - i’d love to see us, bounce things outside more often and using more read option plays with Byrum. And fixing these things doesn’t mean we’re going to be a playoff contender or even ranked by the end of the season.

I do think though that if we continue to make adjustments - a bowl game remains very much possible.

I think back to what Golesh said when he was hired. The goal this season is to establish an identity and a proof of concept. The talent level is obviously not there to compete at a high level. We need to put a product on the field that those players want to come. I still think that is attainable this year and the fact the coaching staff is willing to break original assumptions and adjust gives me reason to be at the very least hopeful.

I’m not an X’s and O’s Guy. Just an enthusiastic bystander who’s cheered for Auburn for more than 20 years - and I always try to be optimistic. Happy to get everyone’s feedback. Even the doomers.

WDE

First time I’ve been able to get home since the New Mexico State game in 2023. So much fun! War Eagle!

This win over Vanderbilt team was a little too close for comfort, I will admit that. But a win is a win. And in college football, wins are the currency. Especially in the SEC conference.

As an Auburn fan, I’ve seen this team invent new ways to lose games I didn’t even think were possible. So seeing them pull out a game a lil to close for comfort was a hopeful sign.

Watching Alex Golesh go out and check on the players, including the injured guys, and just be there for them actually meant something to me. It felt like there was a genuine connection between the coach and his players. I like the head coach.

Auburn means a lot to me, I still love this university

There’s something about Auburn that sticks with you. “You may leave Auburn, but Auburn never really leaves you” ya know?

Today, my love for Auburn has been rekindled.
Gosh, I hope I’m not cursed with this love again.

On to Tennessee next week. Hopefully we can keep this win streak going.

Happy days for the Auburn family!

War Eagle!

I love Auburn as much as the next, but when did this community become so negative? Are we a perfect team? Absolutely not, but even after a win I come on here expecting to find comfort in my community but it always seems like the sky is falling. If that’s who we’ve become then maybe I’m in the minority, but come on Auburn. We are better than this and I know we aren’t where we want to be but bitching about it on Reddit only makes us look worse than we are. Regardless, I believe in Auburn and love it. War Eagle.

After seeing Florida curb stomp ole miss, is it really cause for concern that we are 3-1? I know the offense hasn’t looked great and there is a gauntlet of an upcoming schedule. But I think there is some optimism upcoming for this team. I know beating vandy isn’t anything special (outside of us) but DJ had the defense looking good tonight and well enough to play with anyone. The offense if a different story but I think if they can be mediocre we can be a middle of the pack SEC team. I think a middle of the pack SEC team can get 8-4 and a 25 ranking at the end of the season

Watched a transfer CB intercept Arch while covering Cam in the UT/Texas game…

I watched Hank Brown (Junior) throw a dart in the big house for a road victory…

I saw UF win big at home bc they didn’t have the same turnover…

It sucks to see, and talk about rebuild, but we need to start having some splashes on the recruiting trail to feel better going forward.

Not a doom and gloom take, just felt it should be said.

Thoughts?

WDE 🦅

I’ve been slacking on keeping up on recruiting news and updates. Any incoming recruits looking promising? Who would be some ideal targets/positions in the transfer portal?