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Jordan Ebert Named SEC Freshman of the Week

By AubTigerman Posted on: May 13th, 2013 in Baseball Comment »

The SEC office has announced that Jordan Ebert is the Freshman of the Week for his play in the Tigers’ 4-1 play last week.

Jordan is batting .302, with six doubles, a triple and three home runs. He has drivien in 18 runs and scored 27 for the season. The second baseman led the Tigers for the week with a .579 batting average. He was 11-for-19 with two doubles, a home run (.842 slugging percentage), four RBI and five runs scored.

He also walked three times for a .636 on base percentage. Defensively he had a perfect fielding percentage on 33 chances (15 putouts, 18 assists) and helped turn five of Auburn’s six defensive double plays. Jordan is the first Freshman of the Week for Auburn since Dillon Ortman won the award in April of 2011.

Posted in Baseball | Comment »

Friday from the Eagle’s Nest

By Derrick Roberts Posted on: May 10th, 2013 in Baseball, Featured Article, Football, News 19 Comments »

When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong – Bob Stoops is not a believer in the SEC’s elite status despite every logical indication that he’s wrong. In the article, he goes on to say that the SEC’s perceived quality is nothing more than “propaganda.” By default, Stoops does have a point. The media is a little trigger happy when it comes to building someone or something up (as well as tearing it down), but the SEC’s running number of consecutive national championships and bowl record from recent history prove that he’s wrong. He’s very wrong. Bottom line Bob, start winning championships and you’ll get noticed. Until then, stick to coaching and let the media make fools of themselves in the headlines. They are better at it than you are.

Dan Mullen is Embracing Higher Expectations – He says that 8 wins is his baseline and that he is in Starkville to win championships. Once again this offseason I have read that Mullen must be on the cusp of excellence and that he has this great machine built that is Mississippi State and its going to destroy everything in its path. I’m not buying it. His most celebrated SEC West win is over arguable the worst Auburn team of the modern era and overall he boasts no double-digit win seasons. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but the hype is confusing to me. Last season saw the Bulldogs inexplicably rise to #15 in the BCS (that’s 15th out of everyone in the nation) after having beaten 3 Sun Belt teams, 1 SWAC team, and the 3 worst teams in the SEC last year (Auburn, Kentucky, and Tennessee). The man could seemingly fall into a sewer and come out wearing a gold watch. He did lead the Bulldogs to one more SEC victory against Arkansas (who was led by John L. Smith). And when he isn’t embracing challenges and living on the edge, Dan Mullen is also signing ultrasounds. Seriously, what direction is your life going if a head football coach is signing photos of your ultrasound? This seems like a bit from MTV’s ‘16 and Pregnant’, but not out of place at all in the state of Mississippi.

Stop everything! Nick Saban is selling his home in the North Georgia mountains – It has been widely speculated that a lack of trees in which he could bake cookies is what led Saban to put the property up for sale.

NCAA puts a stop to hashtags on the field because for God’s sake, why is everyone having so much damned fun? I don’t even know anyone was looking into this. Is this why the Miami case got bundled? Were there too many resources dedicated to finding the most trivial rule proposal of all time that it prevented the NCAA from conducting proper investigations elsewhere? Probably not. Someone in the NCAA main office probably saw something on TV or in a magazine and decided that the youth of America was corrupting everyone amateur college athletics isn’t about having fun – it’s about old men getting paid for those amateur athletes doing their thing on primetime television without any “techno mumbo jumbo” on the field while they do. #NCAAislame #stepdownEmmert

Auburn Baseball and The Fat Lady Continue Love Affair – Auburn stormed back against Jacksonville St. earlier this week by scoring 12 runs in the eighth inning. Is Gus moonlighting as the hitting coach while he awaits the arrival of football season?

The College Football Playoff logo has been chosen and it is equally as flashy as its name suggests. I feel like we’re all getting pranked and none of this is real. I don’t understand why the title and imagery of the new college football postseason has to be so straightforward and cold. They’ve taken the most exciting thing in all of sports and made every fan skeptical of its value right off the bat. How do you screw that up? When you consider how much money will be made, you start to wonder if they put any effort to the branding of it all or if they simply used all of their scheduled meetings to arrange for their Scrooge McDuck pools full of money to be installed.

Posted in Baseball, Featured Article, Football, News | 19 Comments »

Red Wolf Redux!

By Acid Reign Posted on: May 9th, 2013 in Football 8 Comments »

David Oku could have been running for the Tigers.

     War Eagle, everybody! It’s time now for another Auburn opponent preview. Week two brings Arkansas State to Auburn, a team coached last season by Gus Malzhan. There’s little doubt that the defending Sun Belt Champions will be itching to show their former coach a thing or two! However, new up and coming head coach Brian Harsin will have quite a few holes to fill, as the Red Wolves return just 12 starters from last season.

     Prior to traveling to Auburn, Arkansas State tunes up next fall with Arkansas Pine-Bluff at home. After playing at Auburn, it’s a short week for the wolves as they have a Thursday night home game against Troy. Then Arkanas State plays at Memphis, at Missouri, Idaho, Louisiana-Lafayette, at South Alabama, at Louisiana-Monroe, Texas State, Georgia State, and at Bowling Green.

     On offense, the Red Wolves return 7 starters, but they’ll be playing in their third new offense in three years. New coach Bryan Harsin was the offensive coordinator at Boise State from 2006-2010, as well as co-offensive coordinator with the Texas Longhorns since then. Harsin favors a multiple, pro-style offense with a thick playbook. Typically, he’s looking for matchup vulnerabilities, and will use an array of formations and unbalanced lines to get them. It’s a steep learning curve for the players, though, as we witnessed at Florida last season, struggling to perform for Boise camp guru Brent Pease.

     The Red Wolves were an offensive juggernaut last season, rolling up 466 yards per game, including 206 on the ground. It’s hard to see if any of that will translate to the new offense. 1000-yard rusher David Oku returns for his senior season, but record-setting quarterback Ryan Aplin graduated. Four offensive line starters do return, as well as top receivers J. D. McKissic and Carlos McCants. Our first look at Harsin’s influence on the offense was in last year’s GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile. Kent State held the Red Wolves to just 285 yards in that one, and 17 points. Their previous 7 games they had been averaging 41 points per game. This doesn’t bode well for the Red Wolf offense’s second game of the season against Ellis Johnson’s defense.

     Defensively, the Red Wolves return only five starters, and that’s on a unit that gave up 24.4 points per game. One main cog of the defense that does return is senior tackle Ryan Carrethers, who was in on 68 stops last season and was an all-Sun Belt performer. Junior linebacker Qushaun Lee returns after posting 100 tackles in 2012. Two corners with starting experience return as well. A familiar name coaches the Arkansas State defense, John Thompson, who’s had plenty of SEC experience.

     The 2012 Red Wolves were decent on special teams and pretty good covering kicks, but struggled punting the football. In 2013, they’ll have to break in a new punter, possibly redshirt freshman Max Coffin. He’s the only guy actually listed as a punter on the current roster. Senior kicker Brian Davis returns, after a 17 for 21 year kicking field goals. Sophomore kick-off specialist Luke Ferguson also is back. The Red Wolves worked on returns this spring, after a lackluster return game in 2012.

Unit Matchups, after the jump!

Posted in Football | 8 Comments »

Jacobs says It’s Time to Move in Different Direction, Fires Tina Deese

By AubTigerman Posted on: May 8th, 2013 in News, Other Sports 6 Comments »

Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs announced the firing tonight of Tina Deese, the Tigers’ Softball Coach. Deese started the Auburn program from scratch in 1995 and had a 17 year record of 562-458-1. She led the Tigers to their fifth consecutive appearance in the SEC Tournament and NCAA Regional in 2012.

Deese was the longest tenured head coach in the Southeastern Conference and the third-longest head coach of any sport at Auburn. Under Deese the Tigers topped 10,000 in total attendance each year since 2010 and set five of the top 10 attendance records, including the top three in the last three years.

However, her SEC record was 212-272. Apparently the lack of a winning SEC record was the problem. The Tigers had losing conference records in six of the last seven seasons including the last two back to back and Auburn failed to make the SEC Tournament this year after finishing 30 -23 and 7-17 in league play.

In making the announcement, Jacobs said, ““I deeply appreciate Tina’s many contributions to our program. She started it from the ground up, and I will always appreciate her role in establishing a foundation for Auburn softball. I made this decision because I felt it was time to move in another direction.”

The dismissal of Deese could be an omen for Auburn’s Baseball Coach, John Pawlowski. With a similar performance thus far on the baseball diamond, Pawlowski’s seat just got a little warmer. Should his team fail to make or do well in the SEC Tournament, he may be the next former Auburn Coach looking for work.

Posted in News, Other Sports | 6 Comments »

Oklahoma Coach Says SEC Not America’s Dominant Football Conference

By AubTigerman Posted on: May 8th, 2013 in Football, News 8 Comments »

During the BCS era the Big 12 has won 2 BCS National
Championships. That’s twice as many championships as any other conference in America, except for one … the South Eastern Conference. Yet Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops said yesterday that the SEC is not the dominant conference in America.

I understand he was responding to a question in front of Sooner boosters about the gap between the SEC and the Big 12. But come on … Stoops (who everyone acknowledges is a good coach) says the perceived gap is just a lot of “propaganda.” He told The Tulsa World,” It depends on who you want to listen to.” He purports the SEC gets it’s rep because of one team.

Well I have to agree with the coach on one point.

Lets don’t listen to propaganda.

Lets examine the facts.

Since 1998 the SEC has won 10 National Championships which is 80 percent more than the Big 12 and 90 percent better than the Big 10, the PAC 12, the ACC, and the Big East. In addition if undefeated Auburn had not been left out of the 2004 game, the SEC might well have had 11 titles in that period.

But Stoops says okay, but the rest of the conference doesn’t measure up.

“So they’ve had the best team in college football. They haven’t had the whole conference. Because, again, half of ‘em haven’t done much at all.”

Well again Bob, the facts simply don’t support that position. The SEC just had twice as many players taken in the 2013 NFL Draft (63) as any other league. And since 2006, the SEC has won more bowl games (36) and been to more bowls (55) than any other conference.

Again, you have to agree with the coach on his main point … don’t listen to propaganda.

Look at the facts. And the facts here say the gap between the SEC and everybody else (including the Big 12) is large and ever widening.

Posted in Football, News | 8 Comments »

To Forgive, or Not to Forgive (that IS the question)

By mvhcpa Posted on: May 8th, 2013 in Football, Memories, Other Sports 14 Comments »

Six months of prison, about half of which has already been served, with a laughable probation after that. And when he gets out, he’ll be a hero to thousands, if not millions, for the rest of his pathetic life.

Upon first reflecting on this, I figured that if Hell didn’t exist already, God would have to create it for a situation like Harvey Updyke.

I went to A-Day, but I was not able to attend the “One Last Roll” that evening. My understanding from Track ‘Em Tigers founder Jay Coulter is that far from being a funeral, the Last Roll was a testament to the Auburn Spirit, and nothing but positive. Justin Lee at The War Eagle Reader even wrote “Thanks, Harvey” for the opportunity for all of us Auburn folks to unite in celebration of everything good about Auburn, without dwelling on the injury itself or even acknowledging the existence of the “other side” in whose hijacked name this heinous act was committed.

Although I know I would have enjoyed it and been caught up in all the enthusiasm and positivity, it was probably good that I did not go, considering how far from positive I still feel about this whole thing. (I wanted to bring an effigy of “Al from Dadeville” to hang on the trees, even though I know that would have been totally tacky and out of place.) I watched the “Roll Tide / War Eagle” DVD last weekend; seeing that son-of-a-bitch lie through his teeth about not poisoning the Toomers Oaks just re-affirmed my nothing-but-negative feelings about Updyke.

Posted in Football, Memories, Other Sports | 14 Comments »

Another Summer, Another Auburn Quarterback Race on The Plains

By AubTigerman Posted on: May 7th, 2013 in Featured Article, Football 13 Comments »

nick-marshall-throws-garden-cityjpg-98d43a4a92004265

One thing is for certain about new Auburn quarterback Nick Marshall – He won’t be wearing number “7.”

Spring Football is over on The Plains and just like the last six years the Tigers finished camp and head into summer with no clear leader at the quarterback position.

Gus Malzahn has said that Kiehl Frazier and Jonathan Wallace came out of spring practice without either one clearly separating themselves from the other. That fact leaves the door open for three promising recruits to make a run for the driver’s seat.

Since neither of the two veterans have taken hold of the position and made it their sole possession, speculation has grown that the starting quarterback is not yet on campus.

Of the three QB’s reporting this summer, multiple blog and media outlets suggest a majority of the fans expect the new starter to be Juco transfer, Nick Marshall.

Playing his junior college ball at Garden City Community College in Kansas, Marshall was heavily recruited by Nebraska, Baylor, Kansas State, and Texas. Some say Baylor was looking at Marshall to be the next RG III. He had plenty of offers but he made his decision to wear the Orange and Blue.

He picked the Tigers because he liked Gus Malzahn’s offense and because he was familiar with Coach Malzahn who recruited him to Arkansas State and Dameyune Craig who recruited him for Florida State.

If you want your QB to have confidence, Marshall has tons. After inking his letter of intent, he said he knew there were two guys that played last year but he was coming to try to win the starting roll and (like Cam Newton) help Auburn win championships.

Marshall also has a story similar to Newton. After leaving Georgia for breaking team rules, he chose to go to a junior college to get both his personal and football life back on track. It was a move that (for his career) seems to have been a blessing in disguise. A cornerback at Georgia, he returned to being a quarterback in junior college.

He worked hard to improve his reputation, his academic standing, and his game. By all accounts he has been a model student athlete.

Nick was a two sport athlete in high school, who played in the state final four in basketball and led his Wilcox County, Ga. football team to a state championship. Mark Ledford, his high school coach said he was the best athlete he had ever been around. When he was being recruited he drew comparison’s from recruiters to former Florida State star Charlie Ward.

During his one year at Garden City, Nick scored 37 touchdowns (19 passing and 18 running) accounting for more than 4,000 yards in 11 games.

On signing day, Coach Malzahn said, “He’s a great athlete … one of those impact players. We feel like he could come in here and give us a chance right off the bat.”

His Juco coach Jeff Tatum says Nick is exactly “the kind of quarterback you need to sign when you’re trying to turn a program around.”

Little wonder the Auburn fan base are looking with anticipation to him joining the program. Yet as impressive as he appears to be … he will be competing with four other highly touted signal callers.

It’s a list which includes veteran Kiehl Frazier who was Mr. Arkansas Football coming out of high school, Jonathan Wallace who took the starting reigns from Frazier last year and had the highest pass efficiency rating for a freshman in the history of the program, then there is Jeremy Johnson who is the present Mr. Alabama Football, and of course 4-star recruit Jason Smith, the MVP of the Alabama/ Mississippi High School All-Star game.

Rhett Lashlee spoke to the media last week and laid out what he and Malzahn will be looking for in picking their number one guy:

” We want a winner, a guy who’s athletic, got great accuracy … he’s got to be able to throw the deep ball well, get the ball out quick … Our offense from a quarterback’s standpoint is built on making good decisions, protecting the football, throwing on time and where you’re supposed to. It’s more about getting the guy who can execute what we do the way we like to do it the best (and) The best guy’s going to play, if he’s a freshman, if he’s a senior, it doesn’t matter.”

Is Nick Marshall that guy? He thinks he is, but so do four other talented players. So the stage is set for another summer and another quarterback race on The Plains.

Who will it be?

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Posted in Featured Article, Football | 13 Comments »

Is Auburn’s Dramatic Win Over No.18 Ole Miss Enough to Turn Things Around for Pawlowski?

By AubTigerman Posted on: May 6th, 2013 in Baseball 7 Comments »

Before Saturday’s 8-5 win over No.18 Ole Miss, the Auburn Baseball Team had not scored more than three runs in a game since April 16. And before yesterday Auburn had not won a Sunday game in the SEC.

For most of this spring, watching Auburn Baseball has been less than a thing of beauty. In fact for much of the last three years Auburn Baseball hasn’t been much fun to watch.

Not since the Tigers led the nation in hitting in 2010, won the SEC West, and hosted an NCAA Regional has there been much to cheer about. Auburn has not been to an NCAA since they won the Division.

This season has been particularly long and frustrating both for the team and the fans. Cries for John Pawlowski‘s job have become louder and more frequent.

But this weekend was different. The Tigers, feeling the pressure after giving up a series win to 13th place Missouri last weekend; came out Saturday like a different ball team, pounding out 12 hits to beat Ole Miss 8-5. It was the most hits since the Tigers belted 14 against Samford on April 16th.

Then on Sunday, the Tigers gave the most exciting performance since Creede Simpson’s three run homer with two strikes, two outs in the ninth inning against Clemson in the 2010 Regional.

If you like drama, the Tigers obliged.

Posted in Baseball | 7 Comments »

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