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By Jay Coulter
jccoulter@gmail.com
I call this program weekend at Auburn. What’s that? It’s the one weekend out of the year where I buy an Auburn football program. I learned long ago that if you buy one program during the season, you’ve bought them all.
So this weekend is the one. I’ll need it to keep up with all the third and fourth stringers that will see action. Even for someone like me who tracks Auburn football closely, it becomes very difficult late in the fourth quarter to keep up with all the walk-ons.
So who the hell is Tennessee Tech? If you’re like me, you’d probably never heard of them until Watson Brown left UAB for the Cookville, Tennessee school earlier this year.
First off, don’t worry about some kind of Appalachian State miracle on Saturday. This team is plain bad – even by Division 1-AA standards. Auburn will score on them at will.
Here’s a little more information on the Golden Eagles...
Tennessee Tech plays in the Ohio Valley Conference and comes into Saturday’s contest with a 4-5 overall record and 2-5 in conference play...
The Golden Eagles have lost four straight, including last week’s game to Pat Sullivan’s Samford Bulldogs. This marks the third week in a row they have faced an Alabama school. Tech fell to Jacksonville State 38-10 on October 20th...
How’s this for a stat: The Eagles enter the game with the top rated defense in the Ohio Valley, but gave up 654 yards to Samford last week...
Coach Watson Brown is 0-4 lifetime versus Auburn. He lost all three games as Vanderbilt coach in the late 80’s and also lost to Auburn as coach of UAB in 1996...
When Tennessee Tech takes the field on Saturday it will be playing in front of the largest crowd in Ohio Valley Conference history. The previous record was held by Murray State, who played in front of 77,527 while visiting Wisconsin in 1988. The big question is can Auburn talk that many fans into showing up to Jordan-Hare Stadium?
As most know, this week’s homecoming game is not televised or available on pay-per-view. It will only be available on the Auburn Radio Network. If the network is not available in your area, then your second option is to pay the monthly fee at Auburn Tigers.com.
However, there is a third option. If you visit the Tennessee Tech website, you can listen to their broadcast for free. It won’t be Auburn’s crew, but you can’t beat the price.
And finally, here’s your weekend television football schedule. Many of you will be tempted to stay home and watch other games. Normally I would preach how important it is to show up and support the Tigers at Pat Dye Field.
I can’t defend this game. Truthfully, Auburn has no business scheduling a team like Tennessee Tech. If 70,000 show up, then Auburn fans have been loyal.
Here’s a look at the tube schedule (all times are Central)...
Purdue at Penn State – 11:00 a.m. – ESPN
Iowa at Northwestern – 11:00 a.m. – ESPN 2
North Carolina State at Miami – 11:00 a.m. – ESPN U.
Nebraska at Kansas – 11:30 a.m. – Fox Sports Network
Vanderbilt at Florida – 11:30 a.m. – Lincoln Financial Sports
Navy at Notre Dame – 1:30 p.m. – NBC
Michigan at Michigan State – 2:30 p.m. – ABC (Split Feed)
Cincinnati at South Florida – 2:30 p.m. - ABC (Split Feed)
Texas at Oklahoma State – 2:30 p.m. – ABC (Split Feed)
UCLA at Arizona – 2:30 p.m. – ABC (Split Feed)
LSU at Alabama – 4:00 p.m. – CBS
Arizona State at Oregon – 5:30 p.m. – ESPN
Missouri at Colorado – 5:30 p.m. – Fox Sports Network
Rutgers at Connecticut – 6:15 p.m. – ESPN U.
Florida State at Boston College – 7:00 p.m. – ABC