Point is that Shaquille O’Neal’s shoe, despite being the size of a Jet Ski, was apparently missing somewhere in the World Wide Leader’s offices. And the point is that Cam found it. He solved the mystery. Because he’s Cam.

He’ll probably even be able to find Shaq.

The Blessed Individual was in Bristol in full Panther gear Thursday to shoot a “This Is Sports Center” commercial.

If his record-setting swagga is any indication, this will likely be Sports Center for quite some time.

In December, ESPN The Magazine made Cam it’s NEXT issue It Boy.

Last week, he was named the AP’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.

h/t @FearlessandTrue; photos via.

Related: Katy Perry flirts with Cam Newton.

…

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* “My wife was the Auburn Tiger.”

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Suckathon.

It just doesn’t get any worse for Auburn than Tuesday night. The Tigers were out-muscled, outrun, and outplayed by their eternal enemy, the Crimson Tide, and all on their home floor.

The defeat was the most lopsided home loss Auburn has ever suffered at the hands of Alabama in the long history of the rivalry, and that 18-point margin stands as the worst the Tigers have been beaten by anyone in the newly minted Auburn Arena.

It was a frustrating game from the outset that sent the home crowd on an emotional roller coaster. There was the frenzied riot after a poorly officiated first half. There were the demoralized fans heading quietly for the exits in the final minutes.

Auburn played fast, loose, and uncharacteristically following last Saturday’s high-scoring game against Mississippi State. What was fluid ball movement in transition and smooth finishes at the rim in Starkville quickly turned into sloppy ball control and out-of-control drives to the basket against Alabama.

The Tigers started the game strong and played within themselves. But when calls from the officials and Auburn’s own free throw shooting began turned south, it was impossible for Auburn to make a run or keep any kind of pace. Alabama’s press bogged the Tigers down on the offensive end all night, and Auburn was seemingly never able to get the ball in transition, which was a huge catalyst in leading the Tigers to their biggest point total of the season in the game prior against Mississippi State.

Auburn’s bench was only able to muster 9 points in the losing effort, and everyone not named Frankie Sullivan combined for just 33 percent shooting from the free throw line. Rob Chubb and Kenny Gabriel both had four turnovers—each was sloppy with the ball down low—and Varez Ward finished with just three points after his career-high 24 last Saturday. Ward turned the ball over six times against Alabama on some out-of-control drives and pushes to the basket that could have one wondering if he’s still trying to feel out how much he has under him in his new legs.

At the end of the day, it was simply a frustrating loss to a bitter—the bitterest—rival, made all the more bitter for being the Tiger’s fourth straight loss to the Crimson Tide. And for Kenny Gabriel, the rest of Auburn’s seniors, and quite possibly December graduate Frankie Sullivan, it was their last chance at beating Alabama on their home floor and leaving their mark on the rivalry.

Going into the game we discussed at length the history of the teams and players on both sides— how their legacies can be shaped by performances on the big stage of Auburn-Alabama games alone. This time around, it was JaMychal Green and Frankie Sullivan who would undoubtedly lead their respective teams onto the floor, and would take ownership of the results in they way they lead their team.

Green’s legacy is solidified as the ultimate Tiger killer and enemy of all things orange and blue, after once again going off against Auburn on Tuesday with a total of 19 points, leading his team in scoring and relishing in the boos that rained down on his team and the officials at the end of the first half and throughout the night. In seven games against Auburn throughout his career, Green has averaged 12.5 points, had 15+ point performances in four of those games, put in a game-winning lay up, and led the Tide to four straight victories over Auburn as an upperclassman.

But no one is going to think much less of Frankie Sullivan either, whose legacy remains much the same as well after scoring a game-high 21 points against the Tide, just as would be expected of Auburn’s warrior shooting guard, who has always seemed to battle through tough times. His personal record against Alabama now sits at 3-2, after missing both of last year’s losses sitting out the season on a medical redshirt. Even in the loss, Frankie left his guts out on the floor… and upon those guts laid a new foundation at Auburn that will hopefully soon return the program to the next level.

But the Tigers and the Tide aren’t finished with each other, not by a long shot, as the rivalry and the season series shifts to Tuscaloosa for a February 29 meeting in Coleman Coliseum. After the proceedings in Auburn Arena on Tuesday night (and some trash talk that won’t be forgotten), the matchup is sure to be even more intense, the stakes for end-of-the-season bragging rights even higher.

First, Auburn will have to find a way to regroup and navigate the rest of its schedule. The Tigers take a road trip to Oxford before returning home to host No. 18 Mississippi State. Auburn is still trying to find a way to win on the road, and at home, after losses to Kentucky and Alabama, the Tigers are going to have to start winning big games against big opponents and ranked competition before the homecourt magic becomes a stigma that Auburn can win every game at home — except for the ones that really matter.

There’s still a lot left to this season—Gators and Bulldogs and a litany of challenges and opportunities. Auburn can’t look past anyone on the schedule and each of its remaining six games has an importance all its own, but one in particular will stand out as a central focus in the home stretch: the Feb. 29 rematch with the Tide. After what happened on Tuesday night — and again, it just doesn’t get any worse than what happened on Tuesday night — there’s really only one thing this team can do to move on as a group and dispel the dark cloud set to hang over them well into the summer and next season. Beat Bama. Sink the Tide. Let them know how it feels to take a beating in their own house from their most bitter rivalry.

And even better, let themselves know what it feels like to give it out.

Photo via Todd Van Emst.

…

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Just listen to that cocky SOB credit his rookie season wonders to the “Savior of my life” and his teammates and fans. (But try to block out Perry’s pronunciation of “offensive”—frankly, it’s offensive.)

Related: Katy Perry flirts with Cam Newton.

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* Muhammad Al on the Haley Center concourse
* “My wife was the Auburn Tiger.”

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The last time around.

The story of this season’s hardwood version of the Iron Bowl undoubtedly begins where it left off a year ago, in an erupting Coleman Coliseum with time expiring, the last time Auburn and Alabama faced off.

Then, it was the young, upstart, and short-handed 2010-2011 Tigers trying to pull off the upset in one of the two most important games of the year, and giving the SEC West division champions and SEC tournament No. 2 seed all they could handle in their own house. Auburn was playing under first-year coach in Tony Barbee, without veteran leader Frankie Sullivan, who was injured for the season, and with a starting lineup featuring a junior, a freshman, and three sophomores — one of those a walk-on.

Still, Auburn gave Bama all it could ask for and more for nearly 40 minutes — until a last-second tip in by JaMychal Green with 0:00.3 remaining in the game lifted the Tide to a 51-49 victory. The young Auburn team was already undermanned as it was before it saw big men Rob Chubb, Adrian Forbes, and Kenny Gabriel all foul out of the game down the stretch, until there was no one left to box out or contest Green, who sent Coleman Coliseum into a frenzy, and the Tigers on a long bus ride back home to the Plains with a stinging rivalry loss that they’ve had hanging over them ever since — until today.

But, truthfully, the story of today’s game and this year’s series between the Tigers and the Tide goes back much further than that.

It was four years ago that circles in the high school hoops community in Alabama were captivated by a two-man race for the 2008 title of Mr. Basketball, given to the most outstanding high school basketball player in the state, as voted on by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. The odds-on favorite was an eventual McDonald’s All-American, privileged to play at a private school in the middle of swirling media attention in the high school hoops hotbed of Montgomery — both the capitol of the state of Alabama and the capitol of high school basketball in Alabama. His name was JaMychal Green, and he led St. Jude to class 1A state championships his sophomore and senior seasons, and was recognized by the ASWA as the Class 1A Player of the Year for three consecutive years, in 2006, 2007, and after his senior year in 2008.

The dominating big man playing squarely in the center of attention in Montgomery would have won Mr. Basketball honors easily if it wasn’t for his surprising challenger — a small sharpshooting guard from a tiny 2A public school in Uniontown. He was Frankie Sullivan, and he had three ASWA Player of the Year titles to his own credit, in Class 2A. He led R.C. Hatch to three consecutive 2A state championships, winning his last title with a superhuman performance in the final game of his high school career, leading his team back from an 18-point third quarter deficit by scoring 22 points in the fourth quarter alone to finish with 51 points and a comeback victory in the state championship game his senior year.

That closing performance alone seemingly made it one of the most intriguing races in recent memory of the award, but in the end sports writers in the state elected the headline-grabbing big man from the private school in Montgomery, in what was then the closest Mr. Basketball vote in Alabama since 1992.

Green edged Sullivan for the award, but it was clear then who the best two high school players in state were, and their fates would be intertwined forever. JaMychal Green went on to sign with Alabama. Frankie Sullivan went to Auburn.

Now, four years later, Green is a senior for the Crimson Tide and Sullivan is a redshirt junior. Each has become a veteran leader for his team, and just as the basketball community knew they would way back at the end of their high school careers, each will lead their team onto the court in the biggest basketball game of the year in the state, between Auburn and Alabama.

JaMychal Green has been a Tiger-killer for the Crimson Tide, averaging 11.5 points per game in 6 tries against Auburn in his career, and after scoring over 15 points in 3 of those games and has firmly established himself Auburn basketball’s Darth Vader. Things will be different this season, however, when his counterpart Frankie Sullivan takes the court for the Tigers. Auburn supportershope Sullivan can provide that same offensive firepower after having to sit and watch Green crush his team with that last-second score in Tuscaloosa last year, out with an ACL tear during his medical redshirt season.

But Sullivan and Green won’t be the only players on the court tonight. Two new heavyweights have been added to the fold, both getting to tonight in different ways and holding vastly different places in Alabama basketball lore.

In the last two years, the next big thing to come out of high school hoops in Alabama has been Trevor Lacey, only the second two-time winner in the history of the Mr. Basketball award, winning it in 2010 and 2011. Lacey spurned out-of-state programs like Kentucky to play for the Crimson Tide, and as a true freshman now at Alabama, and depending on where his basketball career takes him, knows he could only have a few chances to make an impact on the Auburn-Alabama rivalry.

And while Alabama went young in bringing in a big-time recruit like Lacey, Auburn went the other way in finding an upperclassman tansfer in Varez Ward. The high-profile transfer point guard could have contended for the title of Mr. Basketball himself during his time at Jefferson Davis — a program that’s one of the four 6A giants that make Montgomery such a hoops hotbed. Varez was overshadowed by (and formed one of the best back-courts you could find with) his teammate Courtney Fortson, who would win the ASWA honor in 2007. Fortson went on to play at Arkansas; Ward to Texas. As fate would have it, Fortson has moved on and made his professional debut with the Clippers earlier this season, while Ward was set back by a devastating knee injury with the Longhorns and has had to return home to the state of Alabama — Auburn, specifically.

But at the end of the day this kind of rivalry game it doesn’t matter where any member of either team comes from or how their legacies are compared in high school basketball circles throughout the state. Instead, on a big stage such as the one tonight, anyone can make an impact and make basketball history in the state of Alabama.

When it comes to the Auburn-Alabama rivalry, everyone in tune with basketball in the state will be watching, every newspaper throughout the state will run a story tomorrow with the hero’s name woven throughout it, and every hardcore hoops fan will remember the performance and bring it up in basketball circles throughout the state for years to come.

For Auburn, tonight is the most important game of the season, and for Alabama, it’s the second-most — and the opposite will be true on February 29 when the series shifts to Tuscaloosa. There’s a pair of games each season, and no matter who you are, you better not lose at home.

Auburn’s chance at Alabama at home is tonight.

Tonight, the Auburn-Alabama rivalry hits the hardcourt, where legacies from the past and the unseen potential of the future collide. The Tide and Tigers clash, stories are interwoven. For some, entire careers have been built up to the night where they lead their respective team onto the court against their most bitter rival. And regardless of whether the game is decided by a last second tip in or a missed free throw down the stretch, each player’s performance will be remembered — and it will have an effect on how each player is remembered.

Tonight, the rivalry hits Auburn Arena.

Photo via.

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(We also talked about Trim: Shear Pleasure For Men.)

For more marvelous Marconi misadventures in Auburn history, tune in to The Drive—ESPN 1065 FM in Auburn / Opelika or online at www.espnau.com—Thurs. at 5 p.m. (And for previous episodes, click here.)

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This is the Varez Ward we've all been waiting for.

The high-scoring of Auburn’s 91-88 loss to Mississippi State Saturday afternoon in Starkville was certainly a surprise, especially for Auburn supporters who are used to their Tigers dealing with their fair share of struggles on the offensive end, but also seeing them play a shutdown brand of basketball on defense.

Coming into the game, Auburn ranked dead last in the SEC in points-per-game, and had had a dreadful time scoring in games away from Auburn Arena, averaging 54.8 points in road games on the year. But Auburn had also done a decent enough job, as it has all year, in keeping scores low and finding ways to limit what the opposing team was capable of on offense.

Everything seemed backwards on Saturday, when Auburn’s usual grind-it-out pace and pressure defense gave way to up-tempo play and quick ball movement, leading to a high scoring affair in Starkville. It was a surprising sight for Auburn fans to say the least, to see their Tigers allow the Bulldogs to shoot 60.4% from the field (and 63.2% from behind the 3-point line), but it was just as surprising to see Auburn getting to the rim on offense, finishing plays in breakaway transition, finding different ways to score the ball, and finishing the game with a season-high 88 points.

It was a surprise, but a pleasant surprise, and it was the type of game that Auburn supporters would like to see more of from the Tigers offensively, especially on the road. What Auburn proved on Saturday is that even when they’re unable to control the tempo of a game to a slower pace (or when the game plan is to run with their opponent, which it quite possibly could have been against Mississippi State), they still have the capability of scoring in bunches and keeping up with their opposition, even on the road in a hostile environment.

It was an impressive game in a lot of ways, and it was especially interesting that Auburn was able to score the way it did on the road, where it has struggled so mightily all season. (Do I really need to remind you of the 35-point game total at Vanderbilt?)

But at the end of the day it was a loss, a loss not without its frustrations. Auburn’s play on defense was discouraging, even if it’s possible the Tigers just ran into bizarre atmospheric conditions in Starkville that allowed seemingly all of the Bulldogs’ outside shots to fall. The Tigers had issues with the 2-3 zone that they ran for most of the game, and that zone wasn’t much help on the inside when Auburn needed it, and it didn’t give them the advantage off of the boards that you usually get when putting more bodies around the rim (although that simply could be because so many of Mississippi State’s shots went in.)

With the defense caving almost automatically to the inside presence of Renardo Sidney and Arnett Moultrie, there was almost no perimeter defense for Auburn to speak of, and the Bulldogs made them pay for it.

But despite those and more of its usual issues and customary scoring droughts in the second half, Auburn was able to fight and claw their way back to within striking distance every time Mississippi State made a second-half run to pull away, and the Tigers were able to bring the game down to the last few minutes, which is just about as much as any Auburn supporter could ask for playing against a team that’s playing as well as Mississippi State is, on the road in The Hump. And if nothing else, Auburn fans at least have to be encouraged that the Tigers played by far the best basketball they’ve played on the road all season. It was one of the best games it has played, bar none, on the offensive side.

One of the driving forces behind Auburn’s recent scoring success is point guard Varez Ward’s coming into his own in his last three games. After a week off from practice to heal a quad injury suffered in the Arkansas game (and, incidentally, rest a bum knee and a groin injury that have been nagging him all season) the well-rested Ward returned to score 12 points against Tennessee, 17 points against Georgia, and a career-high 24 points against Mississippi State.

He brings several weapons to the position but withrested legs, Ward has had an extra hop in his cuts, and an extra step in his drive, and he’s providing an added dimension to the offensive attack that the Tigers were missing.. In these last three games, Auburn fans have finally started to see flashes of potential of the Varez Ward they’ve been waiting for — a true point guard that provides a scoring threat all his own, and can bail the offense out of possessions with his dribble-drive by either finishing at the rim or drawing a foul and getting to the rim after the offense has bogged down or broken off of a play.

Healthy Varez Ward is definitely something fans want to see more of in the future; so is the effort seen in how opportunistic the Tigers played with the basketball in their possession on Saturday. Auburn has finally been able to duplicate some of the things they’ve been able to accomplish at home in Auburn Arena on the road. But their next challenge will be to put together a full game, on both the offensive and defensive ends, and find ways to piece together a more complete game, no matter where they play.

If Auburn can do that, they’ll start ending more and more of these games with victories. And that’s definitely something they’re going to want to do in their next game.

It’s the biggest game of the year tonight in Auburn Arena.

Tonight, the Crimson Tide is coming to town.

Related: Chuck Person’s 1980s Rifleman poster.

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Photo via.

After his campaign speech at the University of Alabama in 1984, Ronald Regan stopped off for a Big Mac at a McDonald's on McFarland Blvd. Reagan would have turned 101 today.

Whatever your politics, George Bush’s “Waaaarrr Eagle” in 2003 was undeniably badass, and heralded Georgia’s swift, unconditional, surrender to Auburn and it’s F-16′s in 2004.

I’d like to think he was taking a nod from the Great Communicator, who would have turned 101 today, and who during a 1984 campaign speech at the University of Alabama insulted the Evil Empire right to it’s face.

From the Oct. 18, 1984 edition of The Plainsman:

Reagan’s address dealt with the work his administration has done to lower inflation and what he wants to do if reelected. The president also talked about some of his past encounters with the late Paul “Bear” Bryant. Reagan talked about Bama’s win last week over Penn State, and then compared his economic policies to a “rolling tide.”

Reagan also said that one team from each state is usually known for its football and right now he said, “That team is those Auburn Tigers.” The president was booed for making such a comment.” [click to enlarge].

Related: Bo homes one for the Gipper / ‘The Burger That Made Auburn Famous.‘

Originally posted Sept. 27, 2010.

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12-for-12 from the free throw line? I don't even know who you are any more, Varez.

From the start of the new year to the beginning of conference play in January, Auburn basketball supporters have had the joy and agony of watching two completely different teams take the court — the Auburn Tigers At Home, and the Auburn Tigers On The Road.

In that span, Auburn is 4-1 in Auburn Arena, with their only home loss coming in a hard-fought contest with now the No. 1-ranked Kentucky Wildcats. Tony Barbee and his club have found ways to win all season at home, where the Tigers are 12-1 on the year, and 14-1 when you count two exhibition games.

But just as unexplainable as the magic Auburn seems to find in their own building is how inexplicably lost they appear when they’re not in it. The Tigers are winless, 0-5, since the beginning of Jan. when playing on the road, with some of their worst performances of the season, such as drubbings at Florida State and at Vanderbilt. On the season, Auburn is just 1-8 when playing away from Auburn Arena, that lone win coming against tournament-hosting Hawaii in the Diamond Head Classic over Christmas.

That same trend continued this past week when a sound victory over South Carolina at home couldn’t quite propel the Tigers to a win against Arkansas in Fayetteville. And after falling in the waning moments to the Razorbacks, Auburn let the sting of the loss carry over to their next outing against Tennessee in Knoxville, where the Tigers never mustered the second-half run they needed, and fell convincingly.

But a different Auburn team took the floor this past Wednesday at home against Georgia, a team playing with confidence and effort, a team playing together—cohesively. It’s a sight that has been pleasantly familiar to the home fans at Auburn Arena.

Auburn started the game fighting through one of its familiar scoring droughts, going without a field goal for the first nine minutes of the contest. The Tigers once again looked vulnerable and without more than just one or two dependable, reliable scoring threats. When Frankie Sullivan’s outside shot was off to start the game, Auburn didn’t have much else to lean on until his 3′s finally started to fall with 10:15 to play in the first half.

Auburn found a lot of its offense throughout the night on the dribble-drive of point guard Varez Ward. It’s an element of Ward’s game that has been limited all season due to a groin injury; he’s also still trying to bring his knee back to 100 percent. After Ward injurerd his quad at the beginning of the game against Arkansas, Barbee gave him the rest of the week off from practice. The well-rested Ward responded with a 12-point game against Tennessee and 17 points against Georgia.

(A quick sidebar: If you’re Tony Barbee, you have to start wondering about situations like this and battling fatigue here late in the season, and possibly giving out some similar extra days of rest, especially when you’re dealing with guys like Ward and Sullivan and their repaired knees. These things are always hit-or-miss, and it’s never possible to tell whether that extra spring is going to be in anyone’s step on any given night, but if the days of rest helped Varez as much he said they did in his post-game comments, it has to be something for Barbee to consider.)

But where Ward did most of his damage, oh so surprisingly, is from the free-throw line, where he was 12-for-12 on the night. Ward went into the game shooting 60.9 percent from the foul line, and has struggled there his entire career, so his clutch shooting from the stripe was definitely a pleasant surprise. His effort from the line, coupled with that of Kenny Gabriel, who went 8-for-9 from the charity stripe (and finished with 16 points and 8 boards), helped the Tigers finish 25-for-31 from the line and on the winning end of the game, despite shooting just 33.3 percent from the field.

It was another impressive win at Auburn Arena, where the Tigers have somehow captured some sort of home court magic. That’s not to say that the team turns into a roster of Supermen when it takes the floor at home, but simply that when Auburn is at home, the team plays the way it is supposed to play. All the pieces of the machine seem to function properly. When Auburn is at home, more of Sullivan’s long shots tend to fall, Gabriel has a little more bounce in his leaps, Rob Chubb is a little more decisive in the low post, and Chris Denson’s cuts to the basket are just a little quicker.

Auburn plays the way it plans to play when it’s at home, and that’s with suffocating defense, and with an offense that looks to take advantage of every opportunity given when it has the basketball, regardless of how much time is left in the game or on the shot clock.

It’s when Auburn goes on the road this season when nearly all of those things seem to fall apart, and, as you might imagine, it’s time for Auburn to go on the road once again as they travel to Starkville to take on No. 19 Mississippi State this afternoon at 3 p.m.

Auburn was able to steal one from the favored Bulldogs at home last season, and contain main threats Renardo Sidney and Dee Bost, but things will be a lot different this time around in Starkville, and with Mississippi State’s addition of former Tony Barbee player and UTEP transfer Arnett Moultrie, who is averaging 16.8 points per game for the Bulldogs.

It will be a tough challenge for Auburn, and one of the toughest road tests the Tigers have faced this season. And going into the game, one of Auburn’s first priorities has to be to not do what it did in some of its other tough road tests, like Florida State and Vanderbilt — and that’s absolutely fold right at tip-off.

But Mississippi State is anything but invincible, and Auburn has the potential to play up with them and bring the game down to the last few minutes. It’s just going to depend on which Auburn team is going to show up; the one that plays tight and tough and utilizes its strength, or the team that Auburn fans are accustomed to seeing when the Tigers take to the road, that plays without its rhythm, and without its identity.

And, regardless of a win or a loss, after Saturday afternoon and its match up with Mississippi State, this Auburn team will be able to return home and focus on the next game on the schedule, in Auburn Arena on Tuesday night: Alabama.

Photo via Todd Van Emst.

…

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Starvin' for Darvin'...

Sporting News editor (and occasional TWER contributor) Ken Bradley’s question about Lee Ziemba and Darvin Adams (somehow) didn’t make it into his recent story about the Blessed Individual’s new endorsement deal with Gatorade. But by God it’s going to make it into this one.

Q: Did it help having two of your Auburn teammates, Lee Ziemba and Darvin Adams, on the roster as a rookie?

CAM NEWTON: Absolutely. Being comfortable with teammates you’re already familiar with plays a big role in your comfort level around the facilities. Having Lee there, having Darvin there—those guys did so much for me being able to carry on the way I carry on, rather than trying to come in and see who’s who … everybody knows you’re in the NFL where the age ranges from 31 to 35 to 26 to 22. Here I am the young buck coming in, trying to mix and mingle and talk to so many different people. But at the same time I have college teammates that I played with and most importantly, those guys have made big strides. In this league, it’s very hard to even make the team, but I think Darvin and Lee both have made big strides, stabilizing their point and looking forward to being on the active roster next year.

Follow Ken on Twitter: @KenBradleySN.

Photo via Mr. Ziemba’s Twitter account.

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“[It was] kind of the environment and plus they [Clemson] had no Chick-fil-A on campus,” McKinzy said. “You had to go like, probably like 15 minutes off campus to go to like a real restaurant.”

That’s real music to Jerry Johnston’s ears.

“Yes, we just saw this probably two hours ago,” says Johnston, Corporate Public Relations Senior Manager for Chick-fil-A. “We’ve already shared it with the Chick-fil-A family.”

Johnston hinted that the Atlanta-based fast food chain might “follow up” with McKinzy, “but I’m just speaking hypothetically.”

“Obviously we’re honored,” Johnston says. “It’s not everyday you hear something like that. We work hard trying to create raving fans and it certainly sounds like he is one. It certainly makes you feel good from that standpoint. Hopefully he’ll have Chick-fil-A’s close-by during his college tenure.”

Oh, he will.

Sure, Clemson, you may actually have a Chick-fil-A, and sure, it may (as the company just tweeted) have been one of the first Chick-fil-A’s to ever open on a college campus. But still, when it comes to “real restaurants,” the ‘Nova knows his market penetration.

Auburn has four Chick-fil-A’s within five miles of its campus.

Clemson? Four in 12 miles.

Like Lewis Grizzard said, Clemson is Auburn with a lake without the Chick-fil-A’s.

UPDATE: Mark Paden reminds us, Auburn opens its 2012 football season against Clemson… in the Chick-fil-A Kick-Off Classic. Classic.

Updated graphic via you know who.

Related: An open letter to the Auburn University 2012 recruiting class / Gene Chizik, Chick-fil-A Bag Man.

…

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