Coffee and Magnolia: September 11th

One week away from another Auburn game day, ladies and gents!

Leading off today will be Joel Erickson discussing the good fortune Auburn's having for a second straight year with fresh signees. He looks past the obvious (Duke) and talks a little about a lot of guys all over the field.

One hyped freshman he mentions (Roc Thomas) is sitting behind highly productive upperclassmen for now. Charles Goldberg writes at the team site about the running game's early season success and the two starting running backs behind it, 1A & 1B, Cameron Artis-Payne and Corey Grant.

Alex Byington focuses on CAP in this piece about the senior back, including some fun numbers that won't get old like Auburn's 660 rushing yards and CAP leading the SEC with 298 of them.

The man handing them the ball, Nick Marshall, has been taking a few hits from fans in regards to his throwing so far this year, and Gus Malzahn said yesterday he was surprised by the early season criticism. Phillip Marshall provides the story.

Malzahn also answered a question about the Seattle Seahawks running the pop pass option play that tied the Iron Bowl, calling it "neat." Surely this will only fuel some out in the college football commentariat to say he's detained for the NFL.

Ryan Black wrote a long-ish feature on sophomore Montravius Adams and his teammates and coaches' laudations that followed his big game against San Jose State.

Here's Pat Dye at ITAT dropping some wisdom about college football nationwide, SEC-specific and Auburn-centric, and picking all the conference games this weekend. He mentions that he thinks the team that will win the playoff will be the team that best figures out how to stop the offensive athletic mismatches that a lot of the top teams like Florida State, Oregon, Auburn and Alabama play to. Fortunately for every team not from Lee County, Gene Chizik told everyone that watches the SEC Network how to stop his old OC's scheme.

Although the Tiger offense had a few frustrating third down duds two weeks ago, they've still moved the sticks 19 times on the down out of 28 tries this season. The AL.com Auburn team discusses the strengths that help drive the offense's success.

For some Auburn NFL news, here's three quick stories. Ryan Black looks at what the Auburn alums in the League did this weekend, with him calling Eagles rookie kicker Cody Parkey the best of the bunch.

Cleveland Browns starter Ben Tate sprained a knee Sunday and now there's a lot more touches on the table for former Georgia and Alabama State back Isaiah Crowell. Tate should miss between two and four weeks. Why'd I draft him?

Cam is focusing on the Detroit Lions and making sure he stays protected from Donkey Kong Suh and his fellow Auburn teammate Nick Fairley, not on the past or his health.

The women's golf team won the first tournament of the season, the "Mo" Morial in Bryan, Texas. The only team under par (-4), they beat their closest competition, Florida State (+9) and the Aggie hosts (+17), handily. The team's 860 for the tourney is the third-lowest in school history.

If there happens to be any current students who are extremely talented basketball players reading, the Tigers are hosting walk-on tryouts next Tuesday at 6:30 am.