Democracy in Action. If you haven’t heard already, Auburn’s letting Auburn’s fans choose the soundtrack for this year’s team intro video. The nominees aren’t quite as bad as you might expect–not one but two AC/DC choices, and the notable absences of both that “Here comes the Boom!” song and the Black-Eyed Peas–but still, they’re all very much out of the single genre of music we might call “testosterone.”
Which is as it should be. I’ve racked my brain for two days to try and come up with a suitable original write-in candidate, and this is as close as I’ve gotten:
Yeah, it doesn’t quite work for the setting. (Neither does “Foreplay,” though one day someone’s going to set a highlight video to the world’s baddest-ass keyboard riff and it’s so going to work.) So I’m throwing my support behind Travis Williams’ “Tiger Walk,” which I’ve actually grown kind of fond of over the weekly visits to auburnwareagle.com. I’ll take loud, aggressive, and uniquely, charmingly Auburn over loud, aggressive, and utterly generic every time. If it’s not your thing, Section 25 has a nominee worth considering.
The other side of the diamond. With all the excitement surrounding the baseball team there hasn’t been much mention in this space of the Auburn softball team, but now’s a good time after they sealed their SEC Tournament bid with authority this weekend. After entering the weekend clinging to a half-game lead for the eighth (and final) tourney spot, the Tigers swept Arkansas to leapfrog the Hogs for the seventh seed. They’ll take on No. 6 Florida Thursday at 1:30 on ESPNU.
What’s interesting is that the ladies seem to be taking their cues from the diamond men; they won 2-1 Sunday after getting two first-inning home runs (the latter from Elizabeth Eisterhold, above) and then hanging on the rest of the way. Kyndall White and Anna Thompson earned SEC POTW awards; Thompson will probably get the call in the circle against the Gators.
And before we move from the ball-and-bat set, here’s PPL’s reaction to the Miss. St. sweep and a Jay Coulter post on the 16-14 epic. Auburn is now 18th in the country.
Krootin’. Auburn Eagle is reporting that Kiehl Frazier, likely Auburn’s No. 1 quarterback target with the commitments of Jeff Driskel and Christian LeMay, is scheduled to visit unofficially this weekend. That’s nice. Frazier’s also expected to arrive for Big Cat II at the end of the month. That might be even nicer. Two visits for an out-of-state recruit in the space of three weeks would be both a pretty strong indicator of interest and give Auburn’s coaches a chance to really make an impression. Which they’re very, very good at doing, you may have noticed.
Nothing else of substance today, but it’s been a while since I posted a running back’s highlight video, so enjoy Mike Blakely’s:
Barbee redux. Andy Bitter got his Q&A turn with Tony Barbee, and most of it’s pretty similar to what we’ve heard from him before–he’s not watching last year’s film, the Auburn family is ready to win at hoops again, taking the UTEP job was totally different, etc.–but there’s a few new nuggets in there, like that he believes that “in this business the two hardest things are scheduling and recruiting.” Recruiting, OK, but scheduling?
“I don’t think people understand how difficult it’s become to get into the NCAA tournament. There was, and again you talk about 10 years ago, before the reliance on numbers, the RPI, the computer systems, and all those things, it was a 20-win plateau that if you got to 10 years ago, you’re in the NCAA tournament. That’s no longer the case. It’s really a science of understanding RPI, strength of schedules and all those things , there’s a formula to it, and if you don’t understand it, you can schedule yourself out of the NCAA tournament or a job. So you’ve got to understand the ins and outs of scheduling, and it’s hard. But you’ve got to understand it.”
Interesting I also enjoyed this little piece of brutal honesty:
“There’s a history, a tradition to this program that speaks for itself. Is it extensive? No. But there’s been periods of success that people are looking for again.”
That’s probably the best way to describe Auburn’s men’s hoops history: “not extensive.”
Golf. The Auburn women couldn’t build on their first-place finish after Round 1, but they did enough to finish in a third-place tie at last weekend’s Regional and advance to next week’s NCAA championships. Still sitting at No. 4 in the rankings, I’d imagine Auburn’s still a dark horse for the national crown despite a bit of a slump these last two weeks.
The men have earned a No. 7 seed at the loaded-sounding College Station regional, set for May 20-22. It returns Auburn to the postseason after a one-year absence, so that’s good.
Etc. Jake Holland talks to Rivals … A Hog blogger says Arkansas fits in just fine with the rest of the SEC, and I’m inclined to agree with him; the Nutt-vs.-Springdale soap opera alone qualifies them for permanent inclusion … Your daughter’s not cool enough all of a sudden (via):
Photo by Leffie Dailey.
I voted for “Shoot to Thrill”, but only because I don’t think anybody else uses it. The crimson turds use “Thunderstruck”, so that’s out. As much as I liked “Family Reunion”, it’s time for something else.
AC/DC = me wanting to kill something. I’ll go with that.
What, no link to THIS: http://theauburner.com/jumbotrons.html?!?
I didn’t write it in, but here’s an idea (you may recognize it from the Kick-Ass trailer):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7usrrfh0HLs
I think I voted for Eye of the Tiger. Either that or Welcome to the Jungle. I hate almost all the rest of the choices, and the ones I don’t hate would suck for a pregame video.
Walt, don’t tell anyone, but I actually put together the post last night while watching the Hawks get the stuffing beaten out of them one last time. That’ll be included next Plainslinks, no doubt.
J.D, that’s not bad at all. The Hives are one of those bands where I like every song I’ve heard of theirs, but don’t LOVE any of them to the point where I’d purchase an album.
I think Coheed – Welcome Home would be awesome…or is Ohio still using that one?
There’s some folks trying to start a grass-roots sort of write in campaign for Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria, Jeff. Here’s the still-forming facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=120154291338920
Sorry, the link didn’t work. Try this one: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120154291338920
“Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden.
Awesome galloping tempo fits in well with RB U.
while i love Iron Maiden, that song doesn’t seem like it’d fit at all. Maybe for FSU or something, heh.
Tiger Walk. Period.
Come on Eileen !
You’re welcome.
Chris, maybe the Girl Talk mash-up with ,uh, some rapper whose name I’ve forgotten? That would work.
“Eye of the Tiger” by about 10 miles. There is no other song on that list that we can get a stadium full of O&B shakers shaking in unison to like that one. WDE!
beer,
I don’t think the actual words are as important as the pace and sheer energy level of the music. and yes, Iron Maiden F-ing rocks.
Maybe some Metallica.
Motorbreath just came across my pandora. Would be PERFECT.
But I do realize that semi-obscure speed metal is not going to win any online polls in 2010.
… Have you people HEARD Tiger Walk?
“–but still, they’re all very much out of the single genre of music we might call “testosterone”
We are talking about Auburn here. This is expected. We play “Living on a Prayer” all the time at fooball games. No one should like that song unless they are a 12 year old white girl in 1987. Yet those idiots still play it, and the other idiots sing it.
In terms of every day listening, Bonjovi blows as a general rule.
But when it comes to the whole stadium singing Living on a Prayer at AU games, it kicks major ass.
Yeah, I’m with Alex re: LoaP. Not something I’d want on my iPod or CD collection. But it’s definitely something worth screaming along to in a huge crowd of people. My only problem with it is that you’ll find plenty of other crowds screaming along with it out there; it’s not very original by this point.
Just because alot of people are singing it, that does not mean it still does not suck. Plus that song is not conducive to a football environment. You want to be physically and mentally superior to the other team. That song does not conjure any of those ideas. This is just my opinion, but that song has to go.
I couldn’t resist writing in ‘Holy Diver’ by Dio. If for no other reason than for these lines:
Ride the tiger
You can see his stripes but you know he’s clean
Oh don’t you see what I mean
…and later on in the song…
Jump on the tiger
You can feel his heart but you know he’s mean
Some light can never be seen
And Wok – LOAP is not a pump up song. It’s more of a fun diversion at a break in the action. Don’t they play it in the break after 3Q?
“Rusty Cage” Soundgarden. Old now and not likely known by youngens, it is however about both breaking out of rusty cages and running, also it rocks.
LOAP is an embarrassment.
We’re screwed:
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/2010/5/13/1470913/i-think-you-know-what-to-do-here#comments