December 2, 1989 as former Coach Pat Dye put it,  “It’s going to be the most emotional day in Auburn history.” It was the first time Alabama played a football game in Jordon Hare Stadium and it was just that, emotional!

Once the series was resumed in 1948 after a 41 year break all the games were played in Legion Field in Birmingham. Both the AU and UA stadiums were not the cathedrals they are today it made sense at that time to use the much larger venue in Birmingham. The problem with that for AU was that it was a de-facto home game for Bama. They played 3 to 4 games a year there and it was only an hour from campus. Morris Savage, a former player and trustee said the field was “as neutral as the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.”

Bear Bryant was not willing to give up any competitive advantage he held and Bama dug in. Even after he retired, coach Ray Perkins said, “Alabama will never play in Auburn.” He even said he would support dropping the series before played on the Plains.

The pieces of the puzzle on how to get the game on campus started falling into place when Auburn hired Wyoming coach Pat Dye in 1981. He met with Bryant and the first words out of Bears mouth was, “I guess you’re going to want to move the game”, to which Dye said, We’re going to move the game.”  Bryant responded, “Well not as long as I’m coaching” Well, you ain’t going to coach forever, “ said Dye. Bear replied with, “Well, we’ve got a contract through ’88 to which Dye said, “We’ll play ’89 in Auburn. Little did either of them really know that he was dead on.

Alabama came into the game at 10-0 and aiming for a Natty after ruining the first game on the plains but things did not quite go as planned. Dye said, “We had a better football team than Alabama, they just didn’t know it.”

Over 20,000 Auburn fans lined Donahue Drive, fullback James Joseph was hyperventilating in the locker room afterwards, and now sideline reporter Quentin Riggins said, “That was the most electric, emotional Tiger Walk I’ve ever been a part of.” The AU faithful surrounded the Bama buses and rocked them so much, Curry had them pull inside the fence to off load the Bama players.

I will not go into the fine details of the game itself because everyone now knows Auburn won the game 30-20, and sent Bill Curry off to Kentucky. Stacy Danley ran for 130 yards and the AU defense held Bamas star running back Siran Stacey to only 53 yards rushing.

Then Athletic Director, David Housel put it all into perspective when he said, “Like the children of Israel entering the Promised Land, Auburn fans felt they had completed a journey they’d never imagined they would make, to Auburn to see the Alabama game. The children of Israel waited 40 years, Auburn fans had waited longer.”

Stop me if you have heard this one

An Alabama fan walks into the doctor’s office one day with a hat on.  He takes off his hat, and the doctor sees that there is a big frog sitting right on top of his head.  The doctor looks at the man and asks him why he has a frog sitting on his head.  It was the frog who replied “Actually doc, I was the one who wanted to see you. Can you remove this wart off my butt?”

Photo courtesy of farm9.staticflickr.com/8014/7497321358_99429108b4_z.jpg

The echo of a low and constant rumble comes to us from the far horizon. Is it difficult to determine if it is a summer thunderstorm or a ghostly cannonade. Dimly heard on the wind is the mournful mutter of a far off battlefield. Spectral voices call back to us from a century and a half ago, hollow and distant.

On a sunny July day.

Two former colleagues, now opposing generals, meet when one is captured. The man in blue greets the other in grey,

“Good morning, Archer! How are you? I am glad to see you!”

To which the man in grey replies,

“Well, I am not glad to see you by a damn sight!”

His misgivings are well founded. The Confederate officer will languish for many months in a POW camp, costing him his health and eventually his life soon after being exchanged late in the war. A day later the Union officer will be relieved of command to his enduring shame. His relief is despite starting the first day of the battle as a division commander and finishing it commanding a full corps in a desperate situation. His timely actions likely saved the Union Army from defeat, but his commander is unimpressed and annoyed by the timing of his retreat. The general’s fear at the time is that his legacy would be that of an incompetent and dilatory leader and no credit will be given for his valuable service.

His fears are unfounded as he is destined to be remembered for neither. Instead, he will enter American myth as the supposed inventor of the national pastime of baseball.

A day and a night follow.

A soft spoken Abbeville Alabama lawyer standing on the lower slopes of a steep rocky hill  witnesses his brother fall mortally wounded beside him. He hoarsely shouts the same word he has shouted five previous times in the last thirty minutes; “Charge!”  Unbelievably, the boys from South Alabama follow him once more up that bullet-swept slope, past their fallen comrades from the previous fruitless attempts. Men from the small towns of Loachapoka and Auburn, urged forward by their own officers, follow on his extreme left.

A professor of rhetoric from a small rural northern college standing wearily on the hillside above the lawyer gives his own command in a fatigued shout, “Fix Bayonets!” His boys from Maine along with two of his brothers follow his command too. In the next fifteen minutes, he will earn his nation’s highest honor for valor.

A night and another day follow.

“Up men, and to your posts,…” says an immaculately dressed dandy who was the ‘goat’ of his West Point class. His perfumed ringlets drip with sweat in the summer heat as he raises his voice, “Remember today that you fight for old Virginia!”

“Steady, men,” says a mounted officer in blue as he rides slowly along a three foot wall. Shells burst and round shot ricochets off the top of the stonework, spraying the huddled ranks behind it with rock chips. Answering another officer who begs him to take cover he states calmly, “No. There are times when a Corps commander’s life does not count.”

Half a mile away, under white oak and hickory trees along a small intermittent stream bed, his lifelong friend steps out from under the shade and into the blazing July sunlight. He and 13,000 other men begin to cross a whirlwind of shot and shell that will result over half their numbers lying bleeding and dying on the wide fields between. He will also receive a mortal wound less than a hundred yards of the spot where the mounted officer encourages the Union men, in a place known forever afterwards as the ‘Bloody Angle’.

There are other places here too, given names by the soldiers who fought there on those three long days and remembered as such forevermore.  They are small, quiet places otherwise unremarkable on all the days before or since that fateful meeting: The Devil’s Den, the Peach Orchard, the Wheatfield, Little Round Top, Culp’s Hill, Seminary Ridge, Cemetery Ridge. Small shallow streams meander through this ground: the Plum Run, Pitzer’s Run, Rock Creek.  Those streams are crossed or paralleled by roads with names from more peaceful times: The Fairfield Road, the Emmitsburg Road, the Chambersburg Pike, the Baltimore Pike. They all meet at a tiny hamlet amid the quiet fields of rural Pennsylvania with a name forever engraved in the annals of American History.

Gettysburg 

Photo courtesy of Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 / compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge, Washington, D.C. : Lib of Congress, 1977. No. 0207

One hundred and fifty years ago next month, the largest and costliest battle in the entire Western Hemisphere was fought. More Americans fell at Gettysburg than would fall on any other American battlefield in our entire history. The wounded and dying totaled over 51,000; a full third of all the men who were gathered there in early July, 1863. More books have been written and more memoirs published that mention this battle than any other engagement in our nation’s history. 

On one side of the battle, the most famous military officer our nation has ever produced held command. On the other, the most infamous and flamboyant cavalry officer of his generation was 23 years old and sporting a general’s star. Representatives of some of the most famous American families were in uniform that day. A nephew of the celebrated commander of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812 (that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner) was a Confederate General.  The man who was acquitted for killing Francis Scott Key’s son (by virtue of the first known ‘temporary insanity’ plea in American justice) was a Union General.  The bones of the leg he lost in the battle are still on display in the National Museum of Health and Medicine. Until his death in 1904, he would regularly visit his leg on the anniversary of their separation, wearing one of the 63 Medals of Honor awarded during those three remarkable days.

However, even combined with the capture of Vicksburg, the battle did not signal the end of that war, or even the final outcome, as the war would last another twenty eight months. But it did ensure one outcome would never come to pass: that of a Confederate victory by force of arms. For the remainder of the war, the forces in grey and butternut would be on the strategic defensive, with only the slimmest hope for what would become known as “The Lost Cause.”

The battle is the subject of the most famous speech ever given by an American, memorized by many generations of schoolchildren, both here and abroad. It was spoken by a man who essentially educated himself after only a single year of formal education. He remains the only United States President to ever commemorate a battlefield while the war in which the battle was fought was still undecided.

When the president gave that speech five months after the last soldier who fought there was interred, there was little immediate applause. So little applause in fact, that he remarked privately that he had failed in his intent to re-inspire the Union cause. The ten sentences were too brief, following as they did the 13,000 word speech of the previous orator. But in this belief he was mistaken, for despite the audience’s poor reaction the day of the speech, printed in newspapers across the country those same words galvanized the nation and its people. In time they became the signature speech of that war in the minds and hearts of all the generations that followed.

He was wrong in another sense, too. The nation did note, and will long remember what he said there.

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863.

Photo courtesy of Flikie Wallpapers

After evaluating over a half dozen coaches to replace John Pawlowski, Auburn AD Jay Jacobs hit a home run tonight when he announced the hiring of Oklahoma’s Head Coach, Sunny Golloway.

Under pressure to deliver, Jacobs said he was looking for proven winners who could contend for championships. He got his man in hiring Galloway away from Oklahoma.

The Sooner skipper took over a down program in 2005 and rebuilt/restored Oklahoma to a nationally recognized program. This year OU won the Big 12 Championship and posted their fourth consecutive 40-win season. Although they swept through the Blacksburg Regional they lost out in the Super Regional to LSU.

In nine seasons in Norman, Golloway took the Sooners to 8 NCAA Regionals, 4 Super Regionals (hosting 3)  and one College World Series. His record at Oklahoma is 346-181-1 and his overall record is 638-316-1.

As an OU  assistant from 1992-95, he helped lead the Sooners to three trips to the College World Series in four years and win the 1994 National Championship. Before taking over at Oklahoma, he was the Head Coach at Oral Roberts University where his teams went to six Regionala amd won an average of more than 46 wins per season, for a .731 winning percentage

Having faced some of Hal Baird’s teams in the NCAA Tournament and College World Series, Golloway said he’s, “Always held the Auburn baseball program in very high regard. The history of the Auburn program was a huge factor in making this decision.” He continued, ” With our location, we are in a hotbed of talent. We will be able to hit the road recruiting right away, and we look forward to recruiting the best student-athletes to represent this outstanding university.

Some other amazing stats on the new Auburn Tiger Head Coach :

* He has coached  88 all-conference honorees at Oklahoma and Oral Roberts. In the last eight years, 55 Sooners have garnered All-Big 12 accolades.

* The number of players taken in the MLB Draft during Golloway’s 16 seasons as a head coach and as an assistant coach at OU – 82 including a program-best 11 players in 2011.

* His .671 winning percentage ranked  No. 15 in the nation among active coaches in Division I baseball.

The Auburn Athletic Director promised to hire championship contending coaches to fill the vacant baseball and softball positions. Many doubted whether he was up to the challenge. He delivered today in a big way with the hiring of Galloway to replace John Pawlowski and Clint Meyers to shepherd the softball program.

Yes Jacobs hit a home run with these hires; now we will see if Golloway can get the Tiger Baseball program back to the glory days of SEC legendary Coach Hal Baird’s teams of the nineties. He certainly has the resume and appears to be ready for the challenge.

Welcome to Auburn Coach Golloway and War Eagle!

Quote: “After nine seasons, four super regionals and a College World Series appearance, Oklahoma baseball coach Sunny Golloway has decided to leave Norman.

Sources are confirming that Golloway has accepted the vacant head coaching position at Auburn after flying out to Alabama on Friday for an interview.”

More at: http://www.newson6.com/story/22597699/breaking-ous-galloway-takes-auburn-job

Story to follow here at Track ‘Em Tigers

Auburn has hired Arizona State Head Coach Clint Meyers to become the Tigers’ second head coach in program history. Meyers is considered one of the top coaches in the country.

While at ASU he has taken his team to eight straight Super Regionals and seven appearances in the College World Series, winning two National Championships in 2008 and 2011.

The Sun Devils have averaged 53 wins per season, giving Meyers an overall record of 427-102 in eight seasons in Tempe.

Before coming to Arizona State, Meyers had a .678 winning percentage in 19 seasons at Central Arizona College’s baseball and softball teams. From 1996-2005, he was the head baseball coach where he took CAC to the Junior College World Series twice, winning the National Championship in 2002. As the head softball coach from 1987-1995, he won six national championships and was named National Coach of the Year six times.

Meyers who will be bringing his two sons along as assistant coaches says he is excited for the,” Opportunity to become part of what I feel is a total community family in the town of Auburn was one I absolutely could not pass up. Thank you for giving me and my family this … “Adventure.” We hope that you will enjoy the ride with us for years to come.”

Auburn AD, Jay Jacobs said, “When we began our search for a new softball coach, the goal was to find a proven winner who could help us compete for championships. We could not have found a coach who better fits that criteria than Clint Myers … Anytime you can hire a coach who has won two National Championships and been to the Women’s College World Series seven out of eight years, it’s obviously a huge win for your program.”

It clearly is an outstanding hire. One that shows Jay Jacobs is serious about bringing in top coaches to compete for championships. Now if Jacobs can bring home the bacon for the baseball team it will definitely be “a huge win.”

Editors note:
Reports out of Auburn is that Oklahoma Coach Sunny Galloway was on campus today interviewing for the baseball opening and may be offered the job in the next 24 hours.

Part of the BCS’s appeal was that one could look at rankings and forecast a team’s final destination under an assumed scenario. Not anymore. With no solid framework for a selection process, the playoff committee has the potential to make completely arbitrary decisions. If there’s one thing college football needs less of, it is old men having secret meetings to make decisions of great importance that mostly benefit those who stand gain a profit from it.

That is not necessarily going to be the case, but there has not been any single bigger enemy to the college football postseason outside of the major bowl committees and there have been no postseason formats that didn’t feature them prominently. To a large extent, there is no way to avoid their presence (the major bowls and their influence).

So where does this send college football over the next decade or so? How well will the sport hold up with so many people depending on it?

Major television networks loom large in the future, and none are bigger than ESPN at the moment. They have an unquestionable stranglehold on the post-season. Give them credit; they know how to throw their weight around, but the sooner another network can rise to challenge them the better off college football will be. In announcing the deal that would give ESPN exclusive broadcast rights to the future playoff (through the 2025 season) BCS executive director Bill Hancock had this to say,

“Folks are going to love this playoff and the attention ESPN gives to it.”

ESPN’s “attention” is part good and part bad. In one way it is great to have a dedicated sports network that has all of the capabilities as ESPN does, but they have also slowly transitioned into a pseudo-propaganda machine at times. Their commitment to journalistic integrity has been moderate at best (to be fair so has a lot of the sports journalism industry) and they have steadily increased their focus on making college football coverage into theatre rather than allowing the intrigue of the game to flow naturally.

They certainly aren’t the only ones guilty of this, but I can’t help but think that other networks could simply be following suit in order to keep up. This is a trend that must subside in order for the overall health of the sport to remain intact. Juicy stories generate a lot of buzz in the way of viewers and web traffic, but at what cost? No one sitting in a production meeting will ever be able to top what the sport is going to provide on its own. There’s a reason it got so popular in the first place.

Another interesting perspective of the future of college football is that of the NCAA’s. With so much more money being funneled into the sport by different avenues year after year they have seen their duties of enforcement rise immensely (and they’ve responded as most would have suspected). The NCAA is arguably in the worst position. They stand to lose the most, but at the same time don’t stand to gain much at all. To many, they are a joke. Their methods are not always clearly defined or even followed by employees. Quite simply, they have been too comfortable for too long. They risk losing control of the sport if they choose to continue to doing business the way they have to this point.

When a school is being investigated, the NCAA needs to work in conjunction with that institution and media outlets to paint a very clear picture of what is fact and fiction. This isn’t so schools like Auburn University or Penn State can be spared a harsh reaction from the public; it is to protect the student-athletes themselves (their actions, alleged actions, etc.) that become the focus of media frenzies. Shouldn’t that be a high priority for the NCAA?

They must become more publically active, competent, and transparent in order to serve college athletics at a high level. If they cannot achieve those things they will, in my opinion, eventually be held accountable. There will always be an authoritative body in place to manage college athletics. It will probably always be the NCAA itself, but in its current state it has a lot of catching up to do in order to survive the standards that big-time college football by itself will demand going forward.

No matter what the future holds, college football will always be what it has been at its core. The pageantry and passion will always shine above and beyond any Hollywood production piece. It is important that as fans we are able to stay focused on those things so that no matter what changes come, the integrity of the game will never be lost.  

Can the Aggies be slowed down?

     War Eagle, everybody! It’s time now for another Auburn opponent preview. On October 19^th, Auburn takes to the road after Homecoming to take on Texas A&M at Kyle Field. The general consensus from the media this season is that the Aggies will have a hard time duplicating their successful 11 wins of a year ago. The defense is supposed to be weaker, A&M replaces most of their starting receivers, and everyone figures that Johnny Manziel is headed for something of a sophomore slump. Personally, I’m not buying much of any of those sentiments. This will be another very tough road trip for the Tigers.

     The Aggies have a very navigable schedule this season. They’ve got Rice, then Sam Houston State at home, leading up to a visit by defending national champ Alabama. Plenty of time to scrimmage prior to the Tide, eh? SMU follows at home, then A&M hits the road to Arkansas and Ole Miss. There’s an open date between those last two. Then A&M is back home for four straight: Auburn, Vanderbilt, UTEP, and Mississippi State. Another off-date follows, then the Aggies end up on the road against LSU and Missouri. Frankly, I see only Alabama and LSU as big-time challenges on this schedule.

     This time last year, we figured A&M would be shaky at quarterback. Manziel was pretty much an afterthought after an arrest in the spring. For those who’ve frowned on his off-season this year, at least he hasn’t been arrested. Will Manziel’s football acumen suffer this season? Not if he plays like he did in the spring game this year, hitting 24 of 30 passes for 303 yards. And he wasn’t allowed to run around this spring, either.

     The Aggies lost a couple of linemen to the NFL draft, but they’ve got a solid, deep pool of beef up front to replace it with. They might not be quite as dominant up front as a year ago, but they’ll be solid. Numerous receivers in the playing rotation graduated, but what’s notable is that arguably the best one, Mike Evans, is back. Several 4-star types join him, and the Aggies signed four more that will be added to the mix this fall. Add in some talented veteran running backs, and I can’t see the Aggies missing a beat on offense.

     Another idea last year was that Texas A&M simply didn’t have the depth on defense to hold up. It proved not to be true, as A&M played their best ball down the stretch. I wrongly thought Auburn would be able to run on the Aggies last season, but as it turned out, we didn’t even have the patience to try. Of course, it’s kind of tough to call successive running plays when you’re down 21-0 in the first quarter. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Gus Malzhan’s running game will be less predictable and harder to defend.

     If you had to pick the weak point in the Aggie front seven, it would be at defensive tackle, where Spencer Nealy and Jonathan Mathis were stout all year. They are gone, but the Aggies signed 3 four-star tackles last season, and they’ll have to step up this year. Will they perform, or will they look a lot like the 2^nd year guys Auburn has thrown in the breach the past two seasons?

     On special teams, the Aggies hope to shore up both kicking games. Tyler Bertolet was was hit or miss as a freshman last season, and steady punter Ryan Epperson must be replaced. A&M was pretty good on both coverage units, and has a lot of talent on the roster to send that way again. Finding a reliable punt returner to replace Dustin Harris will be important.

Unit matchups, after the jump!

Auburn defensive line vs. Texas A&M offensive line: Auburn will likely go with a tackle rotation of Gabe Wright, Angelo Blackson and Jeffery Whitaker. Dee Ford, Kenneth Carter and Nosa Eguae will be the primary ends. The Tigers have depth beyond those six guys, but none except Ford have distinguished themselves, either. I don’t think any offensive line mauled Auburn up front as badly as Texas A&M did last season. Fortunately, a couple of those guys graduated. Don’t expect that to make a huge difference, though. The Aggies have moved veteran, talented guards out to the edge, and brought up more talent to replace those guards. This year’s edition of the Aggie line, from left to right is senior Jake Matthews, junior Jarvis Harrison, sophomore Mike Matthews at center, senior Shep Klinke, and junior Cedric Oghbuehi. Auburn’s guys will have to show me that they are up to this sort of challenge. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Auburn linebackers vs. Texas A&M backs: Auburn’s starting linebackers coming out of spring drills are sophomores Kris Frost and Cassanova McKinzy. Neither has a huge amount of game experience, and it’s a concern going into the season. The Aggies have a wealth of talent here. Senior Ben Malena was a weapon last season, and incoming transfer backups Trey Williams and Brandon Williams were both 5 stars coming out of high school. Throw in sophomore Tra Carson, and this is a fast and dangerous bunch. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Auburn corners vs. Texas A&M receivers: Auburn is surprisingly deep at corner, and will need good play from starters Chris Davis and Jonathan Mincy to have a prayer in this game. Sophomore Mike Evans is a big 6′-5” target that caught 5 balls for 80 yards on Auburn last year. New starters at this time will probably come from a pool of senior Derel Walker, sophomore Edward Pope, and senior Nate Askew. Toss in a talented freshman here and there, and you’ve got a really tough matchup. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Auburn safeties vs. Texas A&M secondary receivers and quarterback: I’m lumping “star” Justin Garrett in with the safeties, because I’ve done that in earlier previews, and Texas A&M will likely attempt more passes than runs this season. This may be another game where one will see both stars on the field, Garrett and Robensen Therezie. Both have the speed to stay with wide receivers, and Therezie does have a cornerback background. Junior free safety Jermaine Whitehead has really come on this spring, so the real question is who will play strong safety. Right now, converted corner Joshua Holsey is atop the Auburn depth chart there, but senior Demetruce McNeal will return this fall and likely make a serious run. Most of these guys played against Johnny Manziel last season, and didn’t look very good. Hopefully, there will be more film to study on how to read the Heisman winner’s tendencies, this year. Secondary receivers of note for the Aggies include sophomore Sabian Holmes, junior Malcomb Kennedy, and senior tight end Nehemiah Hicks. Advantage: Texas A&M.

Punting: Auburn returns senior punter Steven Clark, who hit the ball well again this spring. Clark tends toward towering balls that can’t be returned. Clark had 70 punts for a 39.8 yard average, but only 5 were returned, for a total of 4 yards. Junior Drew Kaser appears to have won the punting job for Texas A&M. He’s had two career punts a couple of years ago, but they went for a 45.5 yard average. Junior LeKendrick Williams takes over the punt returner role for the Aggies this season. Auburn counters with veteran Quan Bray. Both teams covered very well. On experience, it’s advantage: Auburn.

Kickoffs: Auburn didn’t score enough to generate many kickoffs in 2012, but when they did, Cody Parkey nailed 33 of 48 of them for touchbacks. Like Parkey, sophomore Tyler Bartolet has a big-time leg for the Aggies. He parked 65 of 103 kickoffs for touchbacks last season. When Parkey wasn’t putting the kickoff in the stands, Auburn gave up only 16.6 yards per return. Texas A&M gave up 18.6. Auburn averaged 22.4 yards per kick return last season. Texas A&M averaged only 19.9 last season. Slight advantage: Auburn.

Place kicking: Auburn’s Cody Parkey was 11 of 14 on field goal attempts, and perfect on his extra points last season. Tyler Bartolet hit only 13 of 22 field goals, and and had 7 extra points not make it. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn offensive line vs. Texas A&M defensive line: Auburn’s starting A-Day unit of sophomore Greg Robinson, redshirt freshman Alex Kozan, junior Reese Dismukes, junior Chad Slade, and sophomore Patrick Miller looked dominant. In addition, the 2^nd line did well against the starting D-line. I suspect that A&M will have a line by committee situation this season with some less-experienced guys in the breech. However, they’ve got a couple of dangerous options at end. Right now, your depth chart there shows senior Kirby Ennis and sophomore Alonzo Williams at tackles, and sophomore Julian Obioha and junior Brandon Alexander at ends. This will be a solid lineup, but Auburn’s guys have more experience. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn backs vs. Texas A&M linebackers: Auburn finished spring with a trio of dangerous running backs, and more are on the way this fall in the incoming class. Junior Tre Mason is a 1000 yard incumbent, JUCO transfer Cameron Artis-Payne wowed the A-Day crowd with his power and agility, and junior Corey Grant is a threat on the outside. In addition, the Tigers will have bruising senior H-back Jay Prosch paving the way. The Aggies return senior Will linebacker Steven Jenkins, and have moved veteran junior Donnie Baggs up to the Mike spot. During the spring, sophomore Michael Richardson held the top spot on the strong side. Outside of Jenkins and Baggs, there’s negligible experience here. Advantage: Auburn.

Auburn receivers vs. Texas A&M corners: Auburn’s starters on the outside post-spring are juniors Jaylon Denson and Trovon Reed, neither of who have done much previously on the field. Backups Sammie Coates and Ricardo Lewis should add an explosive dimension when they sub in. The Aggies return both starting corners, sophomore De’Vante Harris, and junior Deshazo Everett. Harris had 4 passes defended, and Everett had 12, which led the team. The way A&M’s secondary got carved up in the spring game, I’m hesitant to call this one. Advantage: Even.

Auburn secondary receivers and quarterback vs. Texas A&M safeties: Auburn has some matchup nightmares as secondary receivers, starting with C. J. Uzomah and Quan Bray. Few safeties can keep up with either in a foot race. If a team puts extra corners in to shut that down, Auburn will run over them. Put in beefier safeties, and those guys will be wide open. The real question is who’ll pull the trigger for the Auburn offense. The QB competition is said to be neck and neck between junior Khiel Frazier and sophomore Jonathan Wallace. Neither distinguished himself on A-Day. The race will become five-headed for a while when the newcomers arrive this fall. Pencilled in to start this season are junior Floyd Raven and junior Howard Matthews. Matthews did have 5 starts last season, with 6 pass breakups. Raven had one pick and one pass breakup. Auburn has the edge with receivers, but the quarterback questions negate that. Advantage: Even.

     This is probably Auburn’s toughest road trip of the year. Yes, Auburn might be able to run the ball and hit a few trick plays on a suspect defense. But I’ve got no clue how this Auburn team will be able to stop the A&M offense, especially after watching last year’s debacle in person. Add in the fact that it’s in Kyle Field, where the home crowd will keep the noise down for the Aggie attack. Finally, a second-year Manziel needs fewer instructions, and fewer “check with me” plays. I figure pace will be a factor, too.

Prediction: Auburn runs the ball better this year against the A&M, but remains winless all-time against the Aggies. Texas A&M wins, 44-21.

          Could the next Auburn Baseball coach return the Tigers to the glory days of Hal Baird?

There hasn’t been much news lately on the search for a new Auburn baseball coach. But with the NCAA Tournament over and the College World Series wrapping up in the next 2 weeks, most of the prospective coaches should now be available for interviews.

There has been more than a half dozen names floating around the rumor mill since the dismissal of John Pawlowski. Amongst the fan base there are those that would like to see a big name Division I head man be considered while others are hoping to see fan favorite and Samford Coach, Casey Dunn get the nod.

Count me among those who would be glad to see the former Tiger All-American return as head coach. After taking over a program that had been through 8 losing seasons, his accomplishment’s have been nothing short of phenomenal. The first Samford coach in 40 years to post consecutive winning seasons, has led his team in winning two conference championships, and took the Bulldogs to an NCAA Tournament berth in 2012.

That same year Baseball America named him as their No.2 on their list of top college baseball coaches under 40. Rumors are that the University of Georgia has interest in him as well.

One things for certain, Casey Dunn will be coaching somewhere at a major program in the next few years, he is just too good a coach for that not to happen.

Even though legendary SEC and former Auburn coach Hal Baird has said he thinks there could be no better fit for Auburn, look for Jay Jacobs to pass on Casey, opting instead to make a splash with a big name Division I head coach or at least with a proven assistant from a big school.

Without question, the most prominent big splash would be Vandy skipper Tim Corbin.  However, it’s highly unlikely Corbin would leave the good situation he enjoys in Nashville.

Other names in the rumor mill have included South Alabama’s Mark Calvi, Troy’s Bobby Pierce, Miss State’s pitching coach Butch Thompson, Florida State’s hitting coach Mike Martin, Jr. North Carolina’s pitching coach Scott Forbes and most recently Oklahoma Head Coach Sunny Galloway and the head man at N.C. State, Elliott Avent.

Some think the offer will be made to the highly successful Avent since Jacobs tried to hire him before he eventually turned to Pawlowski back in 2008. What could be the difference between today and 2008 is that Auburn appears to be willing to open the checkbook to get a big time guy. And that’s exactly what’s needed – make a proven winner an offer he can’t refuse.

In the event, that Jacobs isn’t able to land the big fish, there’s still one name that has been out there from the beginning and he’s one of the most highly respected assistants in the country.

Jacobs would absolutely score a home run if he could persuade ….

Arkansas Associate Head Coach Todd Butler to take the reigns of the Tiger program. As a hitting coach, he has a reputation for attracting top talent as well as developing big time hitters.

In seven seasons in Fayetteville, Butler has helped the Razorbacks make it to 2 College World Series appearances, 7 NCAA Regionals, 3 NCAA Super Regionals, and 2 SEC Western Division titles. In addition, as lead recruiter, Butler has put together 5 – top 10 recruiting classes and had 46 players taken in the MLB Draft.

Those familiar with Butler, may think he would not accept an offer since he turned down an invitation last year to join the Texas staff. However this offer would be different.

Texas offered a raise for what was essentially a lateral move. After 20 years in the business, the Auburn job would give him a chance to be a head coach in the SEC. And the Tiger program has the facilities, the fan support, and a good roster foundation to work with.

There’s little doubt in my mind that if Jay Jacobs would make him an offer he couldn’t refuse, Tiger Baseball could return to the glory days of Hal Baird.