The South’s Oldest Rivalry, a bitter, bitter affair some years. This turned out to be one of those years. On the line for Georgia, the possibility to turn around a bad season (their worst in more than a decade) by beating second-ranked Auburn. For Auburn, a win meant a trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship. The Tigers were looking to snap a four-game losing streak against the Bulldogs. And, of course, there’s all of that Cameron Newton controversy.
I’m generally staying out of that debate (aside for expressing my disbelief at the poor quality of reporting that emerged in the first two days of the story) mostly out of a fundamental human decency. I’m not covering the story and I don’t know anymore than anyone else. The thing will turn out however it turns out. Neither of your basic resolutions will do anyone much of any good, but the chips will fall where they may. I hope, hope, hope Auburn comes down on the right side of this because the alternative will be more than unpalatable. In the meantime, it is entertaining to watch people play a game.
So here are pictures, video and my Twitter impressions, such as they are, preserved forever. After-the-fact thoughts are in bold.
Nastinchka called my sweater retro. Just because I’ve been wearing it to #Auburn games for 15 years … I see her point.
@AUHD is showing an overhead shot of Tiger Walk. That might be of 1989 proportions out there. Did it seem bigger than normal to anyone else?
Oh it is ON. Curtis Luper wore a bow tie! Surrender now, Georgia. You can hide a lot of weapons in a bow tie.
Not kidding: @AUHD plays Nothin’ But A Good Time, Cam Newton appears on the screen. Students develop a UGA bloodlust.
Hope you brought your tickets, Tiger fans. Receiving reports that upper deck seats are going for $400.
Hunker down, it is a fine day at Jordan-Hare for housebreaking Bulldogs.
Cam Newton is the announced starter. (Not that there was much doubt, but I included it and this for posterity. It might not count at all in a few years — who knows? — but it counted on a beautiful fall Saturday. They announced him last in the lineup. It would have been cooler if they’d just mentioned it like any other game.)
Praying for the souls of the poor puppy dawgs.
This place will be Beyond Thunderdome in an hour.
We’re all going deaf tonite. Riotous may not describe Jordan-Hare.
Buzzed by Nova – he flew just a few feet over us – and by two fighters. Now: football!
Touchdown Auburn! Cam Newton, Mike Dyer, TZach, Newton and that’s an 80-yard drive in 2:24. 7-0.
Georgia quarterback Aaron Murray looks terrified. Not that you blame him. By far the biggest road game in his short career, but he settled in nicely.
Georgia converts a fourth and one for a score. 7-7.
So UGA has a running back of some talent, AJ Green, a flustered QB and … that’s about it right now.
That’s a statue of liberty. Good grief. And, sadly, a holding penalty. Thing of beauty, everywhere except the holding call. And, sure, this is Georgia and you can’t leave anything out, but you have to think “If this is what Gus is showing Alabama, what is he hiding?” And then you smile.
Flag, flag, interception, flag. Think it may be getting to the offense?
That stiff arm? Worth every penny. I only made the one joke. It looked more like a stiff arm than a head slap until I saw it on television. And I’m sure this was borne of frustration, if not the jawing and the extracurriculars that were already creeping into the game.
Freshman punter buries one inside the five. Four guys can’t down it. One of those days. Truly, this was the one place in the game where I fretted. If the ball isn’t going to bounce your way you need to find the signal as soon as possible, and this looked like a bad omen.
See number 8? He should be covered.
Murray to Green. 7-21. Down two scores? Not a bother. If Auburn had fallen back three scores I would have been squeamish.
Newton to Darvin Adams, inside the five. Easy enough.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! Onterrio McCalebb around left end for the score. 14-21. Simply because of this. You know Auburn will score. And have you ever seen a team, of any vintage at any level, that seems to chew up yardage so quickly? It isn’t just a function of falling forward for three yards, but these guys are eating down and distance like a lineman at the victory dinner.
Somewhere Eric Zeier is a little sad at Aaron Murray.
Nick Fairley has a bad arm or shoulder, but he’s battling.
Tigers force a punt. Big stop for the defense.
When the defense has everything else, there’s always Emory Blake. It isn’t quite catchy enough for a t-shirt, but close.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! 21-21 after @wesbyrum‘s PAT. Glory glory.
Hey Georgia? Where is your Herschel Walker? Our Bo Jackson is right here.
That’s Mr. Means if your nasty.
The Redcoat band has a lady who twirls four (FOUR!) flaming batons. Apparently the band plays music, too!
She threw flaming batons high into the night sky, doing splits as she caught them. How did you pay for college?
Sweet halftime vignette from @AUHD.
And now we kick around some mangy red and black puppies.
@wesbyrum gives Auburn the perfect onside kick. Tigers recover, but Josh Bynes is hurt.
Not Bynes, but Chris Davis. He walks off under his own power.
Terrell Zachery on the reverse for 30 yards.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! Onterrio McCalebb finds the end zone, @wesbyrum makes the lead 28-21.
Nosa Eguae is not a dawg person.
UGA marches down to score. 28-28. That guy is good. And only a freshman? Oh goodie.
@AUHD I still say you need a Fyffe “Touchdown Auburn!” button to go with Ric Smith’s call. One guy can sit by the Fyffe button. When McCalebb or whomever scores, he presses the button. A good, blaring Fyffe bite plays as the crowd roars. We’ve already built an atmosphere that makes the screen and the audio the other 12th man, so why not add a bit of nostalgia? If they can’t staff it I’ll volunteer to be the guy that presses that button. Help me out here, Internet.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! McCalebb with his third score of the night. 35-28.
Mike Dyer breaks Bo Jackson’s freshman rushing record.
They flash Mike Dyer’s record on the screen and Bo floats over, hugs him and raises his arm in victory. It probably wouldn’t have mattered much what else happened, because this was the coolest moment of the night. In one of those odd bits of timing that only sport can seem to inspire, Jackson happened to be on the sideline celebrating the 25th anniversary of his Heisman when one of his individual records fell and he had that great moment with Dyer. I’d say he’ll probably re-live that moment for ever, but I think we all will.
Man it is loud in here.
It just so happens that AJ Green is good.
BIG stand for the defense, holding UGA to a field goal. 35-31. And now the band strikes up their crazed rebel call. Love that fanfare. They need their own smoke effect for when they do this. And perhaps a trebuchet to launch something into the visitor’s section.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! Newton to Lutzenkirchen makes it a two score game. 42-31.
Nick Fairley for dawg catcher!
OH: Why are we so CLASSY!?!?!
The band and students sing Lean On Me, the unofficial theme for the 2010 Tigers.
TOUCHDOWN AUBURN! Newton over top. 49-31.
Dee Ford has your exclamation point.
Georgia has clearly gotten under the skin of the Auburn defenders. Tigers need to focus on the game. OK, look. Nick Fairley’s spear into Aaron Murray’s back earlier in the game was reprehensible and helped gift UGa a field goal. As for the rest of his reputation, the guy is playing within the framework of the existing rules. Don’t like it? Get the rules changed. If he doesn’t abide by your new rules, I’ll call that reprehensible too. Clearly, the scuffle at the end of the game was a regrettable moment for all sides. Players taking swings at opponents is first patently stupid (your target is wearing pads) and they should be punished accordingly. Georgia: going after Fairley (which is pretty clear in the replay) and storming the field en masse doesn’t make you innocent of anything.
Similarly, the booing of the Georgia player hobbling off and then falling to the ground on command from the sideline was pretty bad. Could he have hopped off? Sure, it did seem like it. What he did, though, is also within the framework of the rules. Cynical, perhaps, but get over it. Besides ….
Final 49-31. The Tigers are 11 and oh! Western division champs!
Hey Bama! Hey Bama! …
Watching the seniors bask in their moment as their fellow students take up the S-E-C chant. They deserve it.
Proud for those seniors. They’ve been a strong and special bunch throughout and they deserve their moment.
Kudos again to @AUHD for the season highlights in the post-game. Great feature.
Rolling Toomer’s.
And finally:
…
Kenny graduated from Auburn at the turn of the century. He worked in newsrooms across the region and then earned a master’s degree at UAB. He met and married a Yankee, who declared her Auburn allegiance at her first home game. She’s now on the faculty at Auburn. He’s finishing his PhD at Alabama and teaches at Samford University. See him online at www.kennysmith.org and @kennysmith.
I’m for the “Fyffe Button!”
I’m also for the trebuchet also. What should we launch? Water Balloons? No, that is so 80’s.
Count my vote a YES on the Fyffe button.
WAR EAGLE!
Awesome.
Great stuff. I am all for the Fyffe button – why haven’t we done that??
As for the trebuchet? Watermelons are good ammo.
The thuga player was being booed because he was running off just fine until his coaches told him to go down. I watched the whole thing and I, and everyone else who was booing him, thought it was a cheap way to get a free timeout. I personally don’t think it was “pretty bad” to be booing a bush league play like that, but then again, I could be wrong.
Dan,
i think everyone knows it for what it was. Not the first time it’s happened this year either.
I’m in for the Fyffe button. I was actually hoping they’d pull out his call from the Iron Bowl circa 1993 to end that montage on AUHD: “Eleven and oh, eleven and oh, ELEVEN AND OH!”.
UGA fans like to point to the booing of an “injured” player. They are also completely ignoring other times where we clapped injured players off the field. Selective memory.
English Bulldogs on a trebuchet = smile
Fyffe button would be awesome. The one and only voice of the Auburn Tigers.
I was in the band for two years and that fanfare was by far my favorite stand tune. It’s called Jazz Opener and I can’t tell you how awesome it would be if the students did something along with it.
Kenny, you don’t seem to be as football-smart as the Auburn fans here and in the stadium that saw that injured players actions for what it was… BUSH LEAGUE. How do we know it was BUSH LEAGUE? Well, the coach giving him the ol’ boxing “take a dive and stay down” signal was a pretty damned good indication.
thUGa had many other players hurt in that game, some I’m sure who could have got off under their own power but didn’t to give the defense a breather. The difference between those and the one in question? THE COACH CALLING THE SHOT.
If an opposing coach is going to abuse the rules for his team’s own good in a totally BUSH LEAGUE way at J-H, I’d really, really appreciate it if they didn’t flaunt it right in front of the student section.
The booing was WELL deserved.
Tiger7,
You missed my point, but thanks for trying. I’m not the most football-smart person in the room, that’s fine and I’m proud for it. Coaches, those seven figure folks, know a lot more about it than you or I. I have no doubt the guy could have made it to the sideline either, but that’s not the point. The coaches made the right move there in laying the player down. It is perfectly within the constructs of the game; notice the referees didn’t throw a penalty at Mark Richt for it. That’s part of the game that fans must accept.
That particular tactic has gone on in the game probably since they established a strict clock system. It is as much a part of the game as tackling someone with Nick Fairley-like ferocity (as it is still legal at the collegiate level to suplex someone onto their nose). It is as much a part of the game as the horse-collar recently was. Once upon a time a horse-collar was a perfectly acceptable tackle. Now if a linebacker does it we think he’s an animal. It’s all about the construct of the rules of the game.
You can’t have it both ways, really. Either you accept the game and let it be be played by the modern rules — i.e. a player flopping to conserve time and give defenders a relief or let your quarterback get crushed every fifth play — or you have to change the rules.
It is not unlike driving: to do it you must abide by the rules, when you are caught breaking those rules you’ll be penalized.
Now if the state troopers only marked off 15 yards …
Kenny,
Just because it’s “in the rules” doesn’t make it any less bush league. In fact, bush league is just about all you get from ThUGa when they know that they can’t beat you straight up (Ray Goff, anyone). That ThUGa on Saturday night deserved to get at least a Golden Globe for his acting out there.