My son's club soccer team also finished 4th in the state in his age division in the Division II State Cup a few weeks ago as well. I was really proud of their team. Between soccer, end-of-school activities and this vacation I have definitely gotten side tracked on my blogging. I finally got to sit down this morning and catch back up on the various Auburn blogs. Here are a few takes on current events...
1. The Auburn baseball team. It has been great seeing the baseball team win the SEC West regular season title, get to the SEC tourney and now hosting a regional. Hopefully we can take Clemson tonight and move on. My only bit of advice for Auburn coach John Pawlowski is he should have pitched his best pitcher against Bama in the first round of the SEC tournament. He should know that if you can beat Bama in any kind of tournament Auburn fans feel like they still got something good out of it even if they did not win it (see the 1999 SEC basketball tournament).
2. The World Cup. Now that ESPN has unleashed it's full marketing strength for the World Cup, it will probably be the most watched one in American history. Since my son is really into soccer and is really fired up about it I will probably watch more of it than I ever have. It should be fun and may get some Olympics-type buzz but I don't see anything changing for soccer here in the USA...
3. The Big Cat Weekend and Auburn football recruiting. I just cannot get too fired up about recruiting this time of the year. I am glad we are apparently working hard at it since to play at a high level in the SEC you have to but it is a LONG time till Signing Day.
4. General Auburn football impressions. I have always said that most fans are much happier with their team if they have a good offense. That is certainly proving true as Auburn bloggers and fans appear to be completely in love with Gus Malzahn and his high octane offense. There is no doubt that this year's offense will be the best statistically in Auburn history. It will absolutely run it up several times and put up massive numbers. As long as that garners around nine wins and a bowl everyone seems happy.
I am also glad to see us have a very good offense but am not as smitten with Malzahn's defense-killing offense. I much prefer one along the lines of our 2004 team. People forget that offense and defense are part of one team and what one unit does effects the other. I watched our thin defense get put in so many bad spots last year and finish as the worst defense statistically in Auburn history. Our defense will have a little more depth this year but not much. I just do not think you can win a championship in the SEC that way. See Urban Meyer at Florida who did some things similar to Malzahn at Utah but won both his SEC and national championships on defense and changed his offensive philosophy to help his defense.
5. Celtics vs. Lakers. I love my Celts and will always remember the beat down we put on the Lakers to win the title in 2008. However with Bynum and Artest playing this year and the Celts not quite as good as 2008 I just do not see the Celts pulling it off this year. Man I hate the Lakers...
6. Upcoming here at STR. I actually had been working behind the scenes at STR on my biggest post to date during the month of April. I am working on a series looking at some of the Saturdays To Remember in Auburn football since David Housel wrote the original "Saturdays To Remember" book. I have finished the "Decade of the Eighties Part 1" and will post it soon. I had a lot of fun writing it and hope people have some fun reading it...
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