Finally!

I love finally getting to preseason practice after a long summer... I love getting the season going even against a La Tech... I think you get the point and what I am leading up to is I really love that first big SEC game that will show whether you are a contender or a pretender. For so many years that game was ALWAYS against UT and was usually the third game of the season. I loved doing it that way. You play a couple of lesser teams and get going forward and then it is time to find out what you are made of.

When the SEC went to divisions we lost this great rivalry with UT but gained an equally great rivalry with LSU. That game was put right in UT's place as usually the third game of the season and like the UT game it was usually that first tough SEC game that showed where you were. I hate that Auburn has let LSU force us into moving that game to later in the season where we will have a permanent back-loaded schedule. I simply HATE it.

Back to the UT game though. Well we may not play them every year anymore and this is the 5th game of the season but for this year this game is back to being the one that will show us where we are. It will be a true measuring stick. I am really looking forward to it. I know that UT is banged up and rebuilding but we are too. There are just so many similarities between the two programs right now and both programs really need this game for respect.

It will be interesting to see who is right starting this week. I have continued to say the jury is still out on this team. I feel like I am the only one as the rest of the Auburn (Blog) Nation has this team winning 8 games at the least. Some are even more delusional even speculating on a possible 11-0 start???!!!??? That ain't Koolaid, that is something a lot stronger.

Most Auburn fans have simply lost any shred of objectivity as they have caught "Gus-mania". All I read now is that UT is not that good, Arkansas is not that good, Ole Miss is not that good, LSU is not that good and Georgia is not that good. I do know that some or most of those teams do not appear to be as good as advertised but I can tell you that it is a mistake to try and neatly summarize a team and put them in a box and try to say as a fact how good they are. After watching SEC football for 30 years I know it doesn't work that way. I know from coaching youth sports in multiple team sports for 6 years it just doesn't work that way.

If you think we see the same UT team that played Ohio, you are wrong. If you think we are going to shutdown and beat Arkansas like Bama, you are wrong. If you think that Houston Nutt cannot get this Ole Miss team up for us and whip us, you are wrong (he did it multiple times with much worse Arkansas teams). If you think LSU is going to struggle against us at home like they did against Miss St, you are wrong.

The million dollar question is how good this Auburn team is against real SEC competition. People are losing their minds over our 4-0 start however I, a "negative" fan, predicted this when I thought Chizik and Todd stunk. Therefore I am not going crazy over this start. I continue to say I will be more convinced when we finally win a game that I didn't think we would win. Well here it is. I did not think we would beat UT before the season started. Do I now? Well I will wait for my picks post to answer that question but the point is I will believe a lot more in this team if they win Saturday night.