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Well, here we are, just four days later and the ride has yet to come to a complete stop. Your 2013 Auburn Tigers stand at 11-1, hold the No. 3 spot in the BCS standings and are the sole owners of the SEC West Division. Throughout the season, I've talked about standing on the edge with the sun shining over us, and I've talked about looking down into the abyss and the monsters that lurk there. I've talked about chance and expectations, and quite often, just random crap. However, the one thing I've never talked about is Auburn being at the top. Never. Not once.
Now our Tigers stand ready to overtake the precipice and claim that the best conference college football has to offer, belongs to Auburn. That's right, the Auburn Tigers. It doesn't belong to Alabama or Georgia or LSU or Florida or anybody else! No! It belongs to Auburn! A-U-B-U-R-N! I don't care about anything else, in regards to college football, right now, other than that trip to Atlanta. I don't care about FSU or tOSU or their schedules or their opponents or their conferences or blah blah blah blah. None of it. Not one thing matters other than Auburn in Atlanta.
So focus.
Farewell Ride
I made my latest trip out to Alabama on Thanksgiving Day. The drive took a lot longer this time around due to some unfortunate incidents and finding out the hard way that almost everything in Louisiana was closed, which led to me eating gas station food. Gas station food made in Louisiana. I arrived at my destination, obviously, in the cold, cold dark and pretty much went straight to bed. On Friday, I did pretty much nothing, except wait patiently for Saturday. I was fine and not nervous or worried about the game.
Saturday, my family and I woke up early and made our way to Auburn. We parked our car, walked around trying to find a place not too crowded to get breakfast, which ended up being Five Guys. Yes, I had a hamburger for breakfast, and that is probably the most Alabama thing I've done in quite some time. Afterward, I took my family and introduced them to some of the fine folks at the @WarDrunjEagle tailgate. They then left, allowing me to hang out with some of the best Auburn fans I have ever met. No, I truly do mean that. Each and everyone of you that I spent talking to, laughing and cheering with; you are all the best. Once again, a thousand thanks and War Damns to @runyogasurf and murphtl for the amazing tailgate you guys put on and letting me hang out with you guys. I hope to see you all again some day.
I headed into the stadium with about half an hour till kickoff and took my seat next to my family. I said "hello" to all the people I have been sitting around all season, and then I waited.
Some four hours later, I had almost thrown my voice out. My feet ached from jumping up and down over and over and over. My eyes were huge and were on the verge of being overloaded with visual stimuli. The raucous exuberance was not just being felt by those of us in the stadium, but by everyone from the most die-hard Auburn Tiger fan to the most impartial of observers.
I couldn't have asked for a better farewell from this football team as the regular season ends -- none of us could. To beat the No. 1 team in the nation, in Jordan-Hare Stadium, where months prior no one gave our Tigers a shot? No, that's just too greedy and too selfish. But these fine, young gents in orange and blue delivered anyway, and I thank you for it, sirs. And you gave me something else.
When I began my new job just this past Monday, I wore my Auburn orange-and-blue striped polo I purchased on a tour of Auburn my senior year of high school. I've worn that shirt so many times that the thing has faded quite a bit, and every time I wear it, I have to explain to at least a couple of people what the logo on the shirt is. I tell them it's the logo for Auburn University, my alma mater. On Monday, for the first time in a long, long while, I did not once have to explain that logo. Everyone knew it right then and there and said, "Oh, hey, Auburn! Man, that was some game on Saturday! Did you go?" I got to smile, inform them that I was there and tell them about the game.
And from an Auburn fan who grew up in Texas, that has meant the world to me.
To Barn, or not to Barn
I've waited quite some time for this moment when I finally would get my chance to throw back all that BS those damnable Alabama fans have doused on us. I have been patient and earnest and kept my mouth shut, just in case, and now it is finally here. I can have my revenge and tell all those Gumps exactly how I feel and rub their faces in it.
And of course, I find myself torn. I really, really, really want to bash on Alabama, and at the same time just shrug my shoulders and say, "screw 'em, who cares?" Peggy and I joked about what we would want to post, but as she mentioned, she ended up not doing so -- well not completely, because I know deep down she's still laughing maniacally.
So, here I am. Do I go full out Barn, or do I reel it in and be a good fan?
I mean, sure, I could have easily just posted a video of the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series laughing for four minutes and let that be my entire post. Or I could have posted a parodied version of Eamon's song "F**k it (Don't Want You Back)" that I wrote some five years ago, but that would have been completely NSFW. If I had done either of those things I would have just ended up looking like this douche, and nobody wants that.
Well, that's it from me this week, so this is Oscar Whiskey signing off. Good luck next week in Atlanta, Tigers!
