Novemeber 5, 2008

Well it it is finished.. that is about the only relief. No more of those nasty, demeaning attack advertisements. Whatever happened to promoting your resume, selling yourself, and politely stating your difference in views? Before I dive into a serious reflection, please allow me to do what I always do when in a corner or wishing to deflect, humor. My defense mechanism.

I have no doubt, zero, zip, zilch, nada as to where this all went wrong. A big portion of the blame goes right to the great state of Alabama. As you may or may not be aware, Auburn University, the favored university of the state, lies in Auburn, AL. Just 45 miles NW of the state's capitol city of Montgomery. The beautiful city of Auburn is 15 mins from the GA border and you can be in the Atlanta area in less than 2 hrs.

Auburn is known for its dominating football program. The University of Alabama is the other state school. In the past 6 years it has not been able to compete with the Auburn Tigers on the gridiron, loosing all 6 attempts. This has caused attempts to bend the rules (NCAA violations) a whole host of coaching changes, and more. Last year, they picked up Nick Saban at the mere price of $4million a year, the highest earning coach in all the NCAA.

That brings us to 2008. The Auburn Tigers decided to make a switch to the spread offense. They brought in (the wrong) coaching personnel, but really looked past the missing personnel needed on the field to run this style of offense. In spite of this, the Tigers were ranked well above the cross state rivals in the preseason polls.

This crucial mistake has brought the Tigers to their knees and has already led to the early departure of the offensive coordinator brought in to usher in this new package. On the other side of the state, Nick Saban was bringing sexy back... errr I mean a bear-like image (his cute straw hat to give them a modernized "bear") errr... I mean smash-mouth football. He has directed his senior quarterback and balanced it with a slicing running attack. That overcomes the under-performing defense, whom has also made great strides and come through in the clutch!

To pinpoint all this, and correlate to yesterdays events, we have to look at when this whole thing unraveled for Auburn. When Auburn showed up to play Mississippi State, both schools actually agreed to settle this football game on the baseball field.. "WHAT?" you ask. Yes the final score was 3-2, Auburn the victor... maybe we should say they were less able to lose than Miss State. Yes that really was a football score. Folks, there is a problem when you have a full SEC schedule yet to play.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the state, they started clicking. The old fans that couldn't find Tuscaloosa on the map started coming out of their double-wides. It seemed like there was a team worth rooting for again. As all these folks started to reunite an undercurrent started to form "Go Bama.." It was cautiously being uttered in coffee shops, barber shops, Wal-Marts all over the state. They busted into the top of the polls and "Go Bama," started being screamed throughout the state. People even started making artwork of Saban as a reflection/evolution of the "bear." It was turning into mania! ESPN was getting on board with "Go Bama!" In a journalistic tone they reported how "Bama" was racing to the top of the polls, only further muddying the water that this was no O"bama"... Unfortunately it started sweeping the nation as different accents and dialects started confusing this cheering with "Go Obama." You know how it is, if history is supposedly being made, you want to be a part of it!

Now the good folks at U of A (yes I concede, I may like them, just not their football) realized this confusion. They started printing "AL for President" shirts (even I would have written him in if I knew we had enough votes.) Again the AL for prez wasn't doing the trick, so they went on the defensive to try and fix the miscommunication that all this was about football NOT politics. In Alabama they were heard, AL results- McCain 1260082, Obama 807029.

While they did their work in AL, they could not rectify this in the rest of the country. As hard as they tried to explain football, U of A, "Go Bama" with a southern accent is not "Go Obama," crimson tide the expression, yes the mascot is an elephant, and even the famous "Roll Tide" with toilet paper affixed on a stick over a box of Tide detergent.... it was futile.

We are where we are now, and I can only hope for the best come 11/29/08.

Had Auburn just maintained their dominance, we may not be where we are... WAR EAGLE! Never to be confused with "Go Obama"