So many things good happened yesterday that Auburn fans will be buzzing about this week... Auburn goes video game against Western Carolina on Homecoming; Georgia goes down hard to Missouri; South Carolina runs Arkansas out of their own stadium and finally Ole Miss almost upsets vaunted Texas A&M. The same Ole Miss Auburn crushed last weekend. Everything looks possible. Auburn could upset Texas A&M next week. Auburn definitely could beat Arkansas and Tennessee on the road after that. Auburn might now even be favored against Georgia at home. Finally maybe just maybe if Auburn is that good then they have a chance in the Iron Bowl. It all seems to be coming together.
I will not rain on the parade... too much. I will just say that it is always dangerous taking too much out of comparing games against common opponents. Arkansas under various coaches has risen up from seemingly nowhere to play great games against Auburn. Texas A&M would have probably won last night fairly comfortably without a couple of critical turnovers. Georgia has won six out of the last seven games against us, most of them being blow outs. They can never be underestimated. Finally, Bama is still the #1 team in the land (albeit against the easiest schedule ever with not one game against the top four teams in the SEC East).
The bottom line though is that there is a LOT more hope out there than we started the season with and that is a good thing. Gus Malzahn's "New Day" has dawned with a lot of hard work and a little luck and it is great to enjoy Auburn football again. My father-in-law was kind enough to order the game yesterday on PPV and invite me over. My interest ratcheted up a whole when I heard Jeremy Johnson would be starting at quarterback.
Some friends and I kind of debated all week on whether Auburn should pull the redshirt off Johnson or not. However in the end the answer was obvious. There was no way Malzahn was going to let there be a chance of having to play against Georgia or Bama with Jonathan Wallace. That would only drag a piece of last year into this year and bring everyone down. Auburn will not beat anybody any good with Jonathan Wallace and Nick Marshall as proven last week can easily get hurt. Nobody wants to watch Jonathan Wallace play outside his family and friends. Add to that the fact that Jeremy Johnson is good enough to play and might soon be our best quarterback and it was a no-brainer.
This was probably the best time to bring him in as well as this is basically the first easy game Auburn has had. Arkansas State was a solid team and Nick Marshall desperately needed the reps at that point in the season. Johnson appeared ready and turned in one of the better opening performances by a quarterback in Auburn history going 17 for 21 for 200 yards and four touchdowns. He did throw a couple of bad passes including an ugly interception but for the most part looked great. Now let me say that I have watched Auburn play a lot of patsies over the last 35 years but I have not seen many worse than Western Carolina. I think Hoover High School might have given Auburn a better game.
The only negative on the game was the defense letting these bums even get in field goal range. Fortunately the offense more than made up for it setting school and SEC records while still playing every single person on the bench. Let me put it this way, Chandler Shakespeare had the most rushing attempts on the day. Auburn piled up over 700 yards on offense with 500 of it on the ground including over 100 each for both Tre Mason and Cameron Artis-Payne. Ricardo Louis was the big receiver of the day with Sammie Coates held out.
A beautiful Homecoming down on the plains where they also honored the 1963 Auburn football team. That team went 9-1 led by Auburn greats Jimmy Sidle and Tucker Fredrickson. Sidle rushed for over 1000 yards that season and Auburn beat Bama with Bear Bryant and Joe Namath and played Nebraska in the Orange Bowl. Their only loss came to Mississippi State when Auburn turned the ball over going for a win instead of a tie late in the game. Interestingly enough and detailed in the book by David Housel this blog is named after, Auburn beat Bama in 1963 behind backup Mailon Kent after Sidle got hurt early in the game.
Hopefully Auburn now has their backup ready or more ready. I think Nick Marshall will be back for Texas A&M and hopefully so will the players that were held out of this game for injuries and rule violations (Patrick Miller and Brandon Fulse). The countdown is on for what has now become one of the most highly anticipated games of the season. It is a lot bigger for me, that is for sure. I would still bet on the Aggies but Auburn has a chance to win this game and that is a lot more than I thought they had at the start of the season. Let the optimism flow baby... War Eagle.
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