Auburn and it's fans riding high at 5-0
By: Kevin Strickland
The Auburn Tigers knocked off the Tennessee Volunteers 26-22 on Saturday night in Knoxville, surviving a 16-point Volunteer fourth quarter. While the Tigers answered a number of nagging questions in Rocky Top, others persist.
First the good news.
Auburn is 5-0. With a game against Furman still to come, the Tigers are all but assured a bowl game, which at the beginning of the season was considered a reasonable goal for 2009. Given the current state of the SEC, expectations for an upper tier bowl are now not unreasonable.
Tiger head coach Gene Chizik notched his first road win as a head coach in one of the most hostile environments in the league and in the process extended Auburn’s winning streak over its longtime rival.
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Still no love for the 4-0 Auburn Tigers
By: Kevin Strickland
The Auburn Tigers out-punched the Ball State Cardinals 54-30 Saturday night to move to 4-0 on the season. If history is any indicator, the hot start bodes well for Tiger fortunes.
Only 27 teams in Auburn history have started a season 4-0. Eight of those occurred after 1974.
Of the eight teams in the last 35 years that started 4-0, only two failed to win at least ten games. The 1994 Tigers reeled off nine before a closing with a tie and a loss. Auburn started 2000 with five consecutive wins before fading to 4-4 down the stretch.
Two of the eight finished the season without a loss.
Only one of the eight lost more than two games.
Three of the eight won the SEC West (one other would have but was on probation).
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It could get ugly...
By: Kevin Strickland
Due to the potential for excessive violence and simulated sacrificial slaughter, network censors mandated a 6 p.m. kickoff for Saturday’s showdown between Auburn and Ball State. Despite the late start, the game will likely carry a parental warning. Cover your eyes, kids. What the Tigers do to the Cardinals won’t be for the squeamish.
Predicting the outcome of an upcoming game normally takes a bit of research, particularly early in the season. For that reason, predictions normally come on Thursday, giving a few days to digest the events of the week that just transpired.
No such research is required this week.
The Auburn Tigers (3-0) will annihilate the Ball State Cardinals (0-3).
Little known fact: Joyce DeWitt, who played Janet on the 70s sitcom Three’s
Company is a Ball State alumnus. Even if she and TV co-star Suzanne Sommers (in their prime) were prancing the sidelines Cardinal cheerleader outfits it wouldn’t help Ball State avoid a Saturday thrashing.
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By: Kevin Strickland
The former champion lay battered and bruised on the canvas, belted to the ground by a faster opponent with a chip on his shoulder.
Months of conditioning and reconditioning, a complete change in attitude and approach led him precisely where he was the last time he’d battled this challenger — flat on his back.
In the stands, his family covered their eyes and screamed “Stop the fight!”
Not this time.
The former champion got to his feet and waded back in. More blows rained down.
The former champion took each shot, staggered but didn’t fall. Instead he taunted his opponent. “You ain’t so bad. You ain’t so bad. I ain’t even breathing hard.”
The champ took punch after punch, daring the opponent to knock him out.
When the challenger failed to bring him down, the ex champ went on the attack and felled his opponent with a barrage of shots to the head.
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