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AUBURN BASKETBALL
Prayers go out for Anthony Mason and his family. Anthony is the father of Antoine, Auburn's senior guard (and first year transfer from Niagra). Yesterday afternoon it was reported that Anthony Mason suffered congestive heart failure and a heart attack and had gone through four surgeries. As of right now, he is still fighting for his life. He has been courtside at almost every Auburn basketball game this season watching his son play for Auburn.
The Auburn basketball teams next take the court against Georgia in Athens at 1pm on Saturday (the men), and Sunday at home against Arkansas (the ladies).
AUBURN SPORTS
There's a lot going on in Auburn this weekend. This is your reminder that Everett Duke puts together a collection of everything happening each week so you can be sure you don't miss your Tigers playing!
Baseball opens the season this weekend, and Sunny Golloway is predicting good things for the Tigers. Kevin Ives (@AUPPL) put together a very thorough preview of the baseball season for us which you should definitely check out.
This weekend is going to be cold. Very cold. So, the Softball team has updated the schedule to make things a bit more comfortable for everyone involved! The Tigers are 6-0 and looking to keep that rolling this weekend.
AUBURN FOOTBALL
Gus Malzahn says that incoming running back/Safety/All-everything Kerryon Johnson reminds him of Darren McFadden. YES, PLEASE. Arkansas's offense was an absolute terror with McFadden and Felix Jones in the backfield, together. Now imagine running an offense with similar toys (Johnson, Thomas, Robinson) and full control to go as fast as he wants. This could be very fun.
Yesterday I mentioned that I thought Auburn's biggest needs in terms of replacing players lost was still to find a suitable replacement for Jay Prosch. Brandon Fulse did a good job in the role, but he wasn't quite as versatile and as brutal a blocker as Prosch was. In the comments I stated I felt early enrollee Chandler Cox is the best bet to fill that role. Lo and behold, AL.com writes an article shortly afterwards on that very subject.
The NCAA Rules Committee is meeting again, and guess what's not on the table this year? The 10 second rule. It's not on the rule because no one had proof it was a safety concern. Nick Saban - one of the rules' proponents - implementing some hurry-up aspects to his offense probably didn't help. What IS on the table it a proposal to move the "illegal man downfield" penalty parameters from 3 yards to 1 yard. So a lineman not engaged in blocking cannot be more than a yard past the line of scrimmage.
According to Auburn, the athletics budget is on the rise and will be higher than ever this fiscal year. That's not just football. Remember the softball team just had a large video board put in, as well. But, yeah, mostly it's football, I'm sure.