News Flash!

Chris
Senior "Getting Stuff from Other News Sources" Editor
AUBURN - It was announced today that both the 2009 and 2010 Iron Bowls will be played on the Friday after Thanksgiving. A spokesperson for each of the schools said the following: "What?!"

I'm not really a big fan of this, although it will supposedly get more attention being on the CBS Friday game than the CBS or ESPN Saturday game. I just prefer the atmosphere on a Saturday better than a Friday. And now my pregame festivities are all out of whack. I'm going to have to drive back to Auburn from my family Thanksgiving right after the meal if I want to get back to town and Iron Bowl party the right way. I may not even get a nap! And that makes me angry. But maybe that's just me.

Top 10 Reasons to Come to A-Day. #9: Mario Fannin

Name the most exciting offensive player on last year's team. If you said this guy (==>), you're probably right. Now name the most versatile player for this year's Gus Malzahn spread offense. If you said this guy again(==>), you are probably right again. Mario is one of our top two running backs, a great option to go in as a reciever, and played QB in high school, so he's a huge threat anywhere on the field. Gustave himself said Mario is a prime candidate for the "QB/RB" position in the WildTiger/Eagle/Whatever formation. Don't say you're not excited about seeing that, because that will be incredible.

So come on out to Jordan-Hare on Saturday to see a preview of "Super Mario" and hopefully, this year's games will end up better than this awesome highlight video from The Auburner did.

Top 10 Reasons to Come to A-Day. #10: Jordan-Hare Stadium

Ok, so it probably won't look like this next Saturday, but it'll still be good to be back!

Jordan-Hare wasn't too much fun this past year. Sure, there was the La. Monroe game, a workman-like shutout, the too close for comfort Southern Miss win, the excruciatingly painful to watch Tennessee game, and the obligatory homecoming victory against Bizarro Auburn (UT Martin). I'll even admit that the Georgia game was the most fun I've ever had watching Auburn lose. But the fact is, the ugliest win is better than the prettiest loss, and four wins at home just doesn't cut it.

Good news! It's a brand new season! With a brand new coaching staff! Hope is restored, and is there any place in the world that stirs up a more hopeful feeling in your soul than Jordan-Hare Stadium? Of course not. Jordan-Hare Stadium is filled with more hopeyness than a hundred Obama campaign stops. It's the place top teams come to die. It's there that eventual national champs Florida fell in 2006. Where defending champs LSU were overcome on one last heroic drive in '04. Where Damon Duval hooked it in amidst swirling winds against top ranked Florida in '01. Where Bama threw a screen pass in '97, and LSU just threw too many passes in '94. Where Nix found Sanders, and Bostic raced to the end zone to seal a perfect season in '93. And it's the place where in 1989, after decades of fighting for it, we finally earned the opportunity to play Bama in our own back yard instead of theirs. Oh yeah, we beat that previously undefeated team that day, too.

So yeah, I'd say "there's a hopeful feeling there" is the main point I'm trying to make.

Personally, I haven't been to Jordan-Hare in the spring for several years. It's always a fun day, and for a few hours it feels like fall again. Finally, we get to do things that only happen in the fall, like pay $4 for a hot dog, or a Coke. Or get 3rd degree sunburns.... on one side of your body.

So come on out next Saturday and experience Jordan-Hare for one last time; before that dreaded five month dead period, that dreaded scourge we here in football-land give the name "Summer".

Relevant Information On the Way

You remember that relevant information I promised but never came through on? Well, we here in Section 25 are prepared to remedy that. We're giving you a daily countdown of the Top 10 reasons to come to A-Day, starting tomorrow. It'll be insightful and intelligent. We hope. Be here or be...

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square.

AWOL

Sorry about the long hiatus, fellow Tigers. Our brains are still on Spring Break. I'll have some posts relevant to the NIT and spring practice up soon. In the meantime, here's a cat flushing a toilet.

I promise, relevant stuff soon!

Crunch Time

As I write this, USC is beating MSU about midway through the first. Our opponent is officially set, UF (no surprises there). I'm fixing to leave the loveliest village for a week or so, probably as soon as I post this. Hopefully the team isn't checked out like I am. Because all the last month doesn't count for much if we can't win at least a couple, probably three, this weekend. At this point, every minute we play is crucial in getting us to the tournament. And we HAVE to make the tournament. After all this excitement, I don't think I can handle having to settle for the NIT; the junior prom of postseason basketball tournaments. I mean really, who wants to go to the jr prom? About as many people as shoot for the NIT, that's who.

The good news: win or lose, whenever this distraction we call "basketball" is over, we have less than two weeks until spring practice starts! So be looking for some good stuff coming from us.

I really don't have much intelligent to say, but I promised an article by the end of the week, so here it is. (I may be a procrastinator, but at least I'm not as bad as my counterpart.) So I'll just leave you with the most intelligent thing I know to say...

WAR EAGLE! BEAT FLORIDA!!! (then Tennessee again, then LSU again)

Bubbles!

Sites with analyses/ mentions of Auburn on the bubble:

ESPN (with sweet front page picture of Rasheem Barrett)

Other ESPN article with fun prediction for Auburn

The Car Wash (REALLY in-depth)

CBS

Expect an article from me later on this week about our adventures in roundball.

Expect an article from Brent about the offseason blues.... sometime maybe never; he's as bad a procrastinator as Mark and Ryan.