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By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com
It’s good to back with you after a couple of days off. We decided in the spring to take the kids to Disney World during Vanderbilt weekend. It wasn’t my choice of times to go, but if you’re married, you know where I’m coming from. I had little say in the matter.
I did make the most of it. I watched the game with the Orlando Auburn Club at a local sports bar and had a great time. It’s good to be with Auburn people in the middle of Gator Country – especially when you own that country...
I came across an interesting stat over the weekend. After Auburn’s win over Vanderbilt Saturday, the Tigers now have a winning record against every SEC school except LSU (19-21-1) and Alabama (38-32-1).
If you had told me ten years ago that Auburn would now be within six games of Alabama, I would have thought you were smoking crack. Think about it, in less than a decade, it’s very possible that Auburn will have a winning record against every school in the conference. Unbelievable...
Did you notice the play of safety Eric Brock Saturday? He’s the hardest hitting defender I’ve seen in years. For you old timers, he reminds me a lot of David King back in the 1980’s. He’s just plain nasty...
I tried to get some inside scoop on center Jason Bosley on Monday. The team is being tight-lipped with his status. The official word is he’s got a sprained knee (as announced earlier) and most likely will not play on Saturday at Arkansas. That means freshman left tackle Ryan Pugh will get the start under Brandon Cox. Let’s hope Bosley’s ready to go against LSU...
Can someone explain to me how Southern Cal loses to a 38-point underdog at home and only falls six spots in the coach’s poll? A week ago, Stanford lost to Arizona State 41-3 at home. You can bet that if Auburn was in the same spot and had lost to a 38-point underdog, they’d be nothing but a memory in the polls...
It was good to see offensive lineman Tyronne Green named SEC Offensive Lineman Of The Week. With all the attention the three freshmen linemen have been receiving, it’s fitting that Green would win this week. The junior from Pensacola graded out at 92 percent...
Is there a bigger clown in all of college football than Kirk Herbstreit? Taking a cue from his network partner Lou Holtz, Herbstreit picked Vanderbilt as his upset special on Saturday. ESPN has a real credibility problem when it comes to college football...
Call me crazy, but after watching LSU play Florida Saturday night, I think Auburn has a real chance. The next two weeks are obviously critical. If the Tigers can avoid injuries this weekend in Fayetteville and then get some people well, they’ll be in the game.
Look for Quentin Groves, Merrill Johnson, Tray Blackmon, Aairon Savage and Jason Bosley to all be in the lineup in two weeks. The question is how deep into the roster will Auburn have to go this weekend to stop Arkansas?...
Is it just coincidence that Auburn started closing all its practices after Alabama hired Nick Saban? How worried are college coaches about Saban cheating and spying?
Did you notice during the Alabama-Florida State game how the Seminoles used a sheet to shield the offensive team and its coaches on the sidelines? There’s little doubt that coaches across the country believe Saban cheats like his mentor Bill Belichick...
We’ll finish today with a little baseball talk courtesy of Auburn Sports Information. For the third straight season, Baseball America has tabbed the Auburn baseball team's incoming signing class as one of the best in the nation. After landing the 10th-rated class in 2005, the organization tabbed last season's class as the 18th-best in the nation.
Then on Monday it announced that the Tigers had landed the fifth-best class in the country.
"The rankings are great to see, but what is even better for us is what we feel about these kids now that they have participated in fall practice for the past three weeks," Auburn Head Coach Tom Slater said. "What we have seen of these guys in practice is even more impressive than the ranking we received."
It has been slow go early on for Slater, but he’s building a team the right way. Look for it to pay dividends starting next season.
Spearheaded by recruiting coordinator Butch Thompson, Auburn brought in 13 freshmen this season. Most notable of the freshmen is infielder Hunter Morris Huntsville/Grissom),who was the highest-drafted player in this past June's Major League Baseball Draft to attend school.
However, he is far from the only prize in the class which also includes IF Brian Fletcher (Fayetteville, Ga./Starr's Mill), IF/C Wes Gilmer (Pinson/Pinson Valley), RHP/IF Justin Hargett (Hartselle/Hartselle), LHP Rus Harper (Birmingham/Oak Mountain), RHP/OF Bradley Hendrix (Birmingham/Oak Mountain), RHP Jon Luke Jacobs (Gainestown/Jackson), OF Justin Jones (Millbrook/Stanhope Elmore), LHP Cory Luckie (Prattville/Prattville), IF Chezz McCann (Deatsville/Edgewood), RHP Miles Morton (Birmingham/Spain Park), OF Trent Mummey (Pinson/Pinson Valley) and IF/OF/C Kevin Patterson (Birmingham/Oak Mountain).
Baseball America said of the class, "The strength of the class is the offensive firepower, which compares favorably with any class in the nation."