I Laughed Out Loud, like totally.

EDSB is full of truth on this post.

Bye Week

I'm taking advantage of Auburn's bye week and the Falcons plummet of doom to record new jams with my band, so posting may or may not happen much this week. so if you want F-Bombs and angry rants you might have to search for some message boards.

also i wanted to post a link to this online article for the Flagpole (here in Athens) written by Jeremy Henderson of the War Eagle Reader about the Rise or The Closet of the Hipster Football Fan. it's a pretty funny concept and pretty dead on and also there quotes from that guy who writes HEY JENNY SLATER and me as well as a few other. it's a good read if you happen to be an indie rock nerd who has ever been on tour with your band during football season and had nearly come to blows with a bandmate about turning the radio to the football game so that you could listen.

Auburn = IN, Georgia = Out

ESPN has a nice little blog post by Chris Low about the Tigers and Bulldogs and how each program is seemingly going in opposite directions. with our Tigers back on the rise with hope for the future and the Dawgs in a tailspin of sorrow that reminds us of our own SEASON OF DEATH.

a quote:

At Auburn, there’s hope, a sense that a new day is coming under first-year coach Gene Chizik. An eight-win season would be greeted with a bunch of approving nods. Even a seven-win season would be tolerable. It's still the honeymoon phase.
At Georgia, there’s despair. There’s anger. There’s real concern that this program is on a slippery slope to mediocrity in the SEC, a program that’s been the hallmark of consistency under Mark Richt. A seven-win season would go over about as well as a 10-year-old getting socks for Christmas.

3rd and 5th best runningbacks? more like 1st and 2nd

ESPN's SEC blogger Chris Low did some RB rankings in the league and Ben Tate comes in 3rd and Onterio McCalebb as 5th.

The Chiz gets some SI love

SI.com has an interesting article on Gene Chizik that wonders if he's got the goods to be a Pete Carrol kind of coach....or at least i think that's what the article was about, i got bored and quit reading half-way through...but feel free to finish it for me and let me know how it ends.

Hey Dude, Your List Sucks

the Bleacher Report (some stupid baseball blog written by jerkoffs from the North East) compiled their WORST FANS IN SPORTS list. i'll save you the trouble of clicking over and getting hit with all the spam. their top 10 are....

10. the Cubs for being whiners (agreed)
9. New York Rangers (it's Hockey, who cares)
8. Red Sox for turning into the Yankees(i agree with their inclusion but i'd put them at number 1)
7. The Cardinals for being too nice and not booing (what?)
6. New Jersey Nets for not existing (dude, think outside your tiny Northeastern box. no one knows or cares about the Nets.)
5. Eagles for being evil pricks (yes)
4. Cowboys for not winning a playoff game since Clinton (what does that have to do with their fans?)
3. The Yankees for being snobs (okay. i'm sure you can tell by now that the guy who wrote this is a Mets fan.)
2. Raiders for dressing up in crazy costumes and for their team sucking (i think that qualifies them as diehards...but okay dude, whatever)
1. The Phillies for being violent and crazy (also i would agree, but the Red Sox are still more annoying).

okay first off this list doesn't include a single college fanbase which is not a surprise because people from the city of New York are only aware of things that happen in the North East or things they learn on Sportscenter. noone in New York has ever watched a college football game so they would never know how awful/insane/and retarded things are in THE SEC, Big 10, or Big 12. i mean, what about Texas or Oklahoma? no Red Sox fan has ever ripped off the balls of a Yankees fan, that i am aware of. and where's the hate for the Florida Marlin's non-existant fanbase? they've won TWO FUCKING WORLD SERIES and draw about the same as a Double A baseball team. also any list that leaves off the Duke Blue Devils is completely invalid.

The CHIZ gettin' his Speak On

SEC MEDIA DAYS BLAH BLAH BLAH

Gene Chizik, Auburn Tigers Head Coach, at 2009 SEC Media Days

Amazing

Plainsman Parking Lot writes an open letter to all our girlfriends to apologize for our obsession with NCAA Football 2010.

Auburn Will Still Be Runningback U...i think

Smart Football has an interesting post about Gus Malzahn/Auburn's running game...or what it should be like. this should help ease the minds of some of the fans who think this whole crazy spread thing isn't gonna work this time either. honestly when i was watching the Spring game the running game looked like it might be pretty fucking awesome (even if it was against 2nd and 3rd string defenders).

The Art Of Not Just Hacking At Everything Like An Idiot

i just read this excellent article on ESPN.com about plate discipline that compares and contrasts Chipper Jones and Jeff Francoeur of the Atlanta Braves and why one of them is awesome (Chipper) and the other is a waste of talent (Jeff) that is maybe/finally/but probably is not turning it around as a hitter.

A-Day Highlights

a poorly soundtracked game overview.


Ben Tate's long touchdown run


Onterio McCalleb's 70 yarder


Neil Caudle TD drive


and TrackEmTigers has a collection of inteviews collected from other Auburn blogs here.

So What Do You Think Of The Pac 10?

over at Track Em Tigers a Cal football blogger posted a series of questions to the Auburn faithful to get an outside perspective of what we think about The Pac 10. i thought it was a pretty cool idea, getting people who have no rivalry or rooting interest against your school (Cal) and asking them for their own objective answers. so i decided I'd post his questions over here as well in case anybody else who doesn't read trackemtigers.com wanted to throw out their own answers.

I come to Tiger Territory because I am curious. Spending much of my time at www.californiagoldenblogs.com I feel I have become overwhelmed with certain left coast viewpoints. I thought I’d move east for some outside opinions. I am not here to talk trash, and I’m hoping for responses with more depth than S-E-C … S-E-C… Rah-rah-rah! After reviewing some of the SEC websites, I chose Auburn because you seem like a good bunch and are fairly level-headed. The following are some general questions I have about Pac-10 football, if you have an opinion or response, I’d love to hear it. Again, I’m not here to plug the Pac-10, or get into an internet fight, but rather to obtain an outside opinion. I just want to gage the general sentiment of the public over yonder, and don’t need thorough arguments supported by a series of statistics. If you are curious, my loyalties are with Cal. Also, if have questions you want to ask a left coaster feel free to ask. Oddly enough, I just read your new front page material and you already covered some of my questions.



East Coast Bias – I’d guess about a quarter of the regulars at Cal’s site fully believe in East Coast bias, particularly when it comes to recruiting rankings. The basic premise claims simple demographics (78% of the country’s population living in the eastern and central time zones) and geography (west coast time delay) leads to greater coverage and publicity for schools in the eastern and central time zones. The greater publicity and coverage leads to better preseason rankings, which contributes to a season long trend of higher than earned rankings, as the teams are more likely to face other ranks teams benefitting from the same east coast bias. Basically, extra coverage leads to higher ranking which leads to higher rankings throughout the conference, at the end of the season it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy. Do you believe there is some truth to the idea of East Coast bias, or do we just complain a lot?

Scheduling – I believe one of the strengths of the Pac-10 is their aggression in scheduling. I acknowledge that a school’s strength of schedule is a bit based on luck. The OOC games are generally set up a few years in advance, and team strength varies from year to year. For example, Cal played Michigan St. in 2002 and 2008, in 2002 Michigan St. was ranked #15, in 2008 they finished in the top 25, every year in between Mich. St. was a nobody and finished in the lower half of the Big-10, the fact they were a quality opponent the years we played them was luck. Generally, with exception to Notre Dame USCum only plays BCS conference teams. Cal has played Tennessee twice, Maryland, and Michigan St. with Colorado and Ohio St. on the schedule in the coming years. Oregon, Oregon St. UCLA, all have marquee OOC games this season, even Washington which stupidly scheduled LSU ensuring at least one Pac-10 embarrassment, schedules tough opponents. What does the SEC think of Pac-10 scheduling? Do we schedule big games because we have something to prove? Do you not really care what we do, unless it involves the SEC? Is it admirable, and more teams should play tougher games?

Perception of Pac-10 Teams - Without doing research, which Pac-10 schools would you rate as the 5 best over the past 5 years? Yes, I fully realize U$C has been the best.

Jahvid Best – I was recently youtubing while my girlfriend was packing for the airport, and someone made a video where they rank the Top 15 fastest players in college football. Jahvid Best was not on the list http://vimeo.com/2744979 I declared some serious shenanigans, I fully believe Best is the fastest player in college football, and I would think anyone that has seen him in space would acknowledge his speed as well. I also think that Best has the greatest chance to unseat the big 3 of Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford for the Heisman this year, however, I am a Cal homer with a tainted perception. My question, have you heard of Jahvid Best? Do you think if by some fluke Tebow, McCoy, and Bradford all went down with injury early, that he’d be the frontrunner for the Heisman? Doesn’t Best deserve to be on the list of fastest players in college football?

The Mountain West – Much was made of the Mountain West’s 5-2 record against the Pac-10, and deservedly so. Last year the Mountain West had some very good teams (Utah, TCU, BYU), the Pac-10 also had a down year, particularly the bottom half of the conference. The Pac-10 consistently plays the Mountain West because of simple geography, we are very much isolated on the West Coast. Unlike the SEC which has some overlap with the ACC, and Big-10 & 12 schools a modest distance away, our closest BCS conference team is Colorado, which is a two hour flight from the nearest Pac-10 school. My question is, what do you think of the Mountain West? I believe that the football conference hierarchy breaks down as follows Group 1: SEC, ACC, Pac-10, Big-12, Big-10 Group 2: Mountain West, Big East Group 3: Everyone else. Are they a flash in the pan? Are they a legitimate threat to overtake the Big East’s BCS bowl bid? Do the top teams in the league hide the fact that the league lacks depth?

Anyway, that’s all, as I said many times before, I’m just searching for a little outside perspective. Please, indulge me in your viewpoint.

My answers to each question were:

East Coast Bias: i think when it comes to pre-season rankings you can really call it traditional powerhouse bias…this is why teams like Michigan, Notre Dame, and Ohio State historically find themselves ranked for higher in the polls. but yeah the East Coast bias totally exists because that’s where all the news and media centers are.

Perception of Pac-10 Teams: i think most SEC fans think the pac 10 teams are soft other than USC, but if you look at which league turns out the most quality NFL players you’d have to say that the Pac 10 is right behind the SEC. if i was being objective then i’d say top to bottom that the Pac 10 is the 2nd best conference in college football…mostly because the Big 12 is too top heavy with Texas and Oklahoma and then after that there is a huge dropoff. with the Pac 10 you’ve got 1 top heavy team and then about 7 other schools with quality football programs. if i was to just blinding rank the Pac 10’s best teams over the past 5 years without really looking at records they would be:
1. USC
2. Oregon
3. Cal
4. Oregon State
5. Arizona State

Javid Best: i’ve only seen him play twice, he seems pretty f’ing fast…still when you are thinking about the FASTEST players in college football, the SEC is loaded with guys who run track and all you ever hear about anymore is SEC speed…so who knows where Best really ranks. i’d take him over most of the backs currently in our league.

Scheduling: the Pac-10 overall does a far better job of scheduling out of conference games than the SEC. where most SEC teams will load up on Conference USA and Sun Belt cupcakes, the Pac 10 seems much more willing to take on another team that might actually beat one of their schools, partly because geographically your cupcakes are a little bit tougher and partly because the SEC doesn’t have to travel, so they don’t. also the fact that everyone in the PAC 10 plays one another is pretty cool.

The Mountain West i think the Mountain West’s record against the Pac 10 is more proof that they should be included in the BCS than it says anything about the weakness of the Pac 10. as much as the SEC loves to talk about being the best, we actually have a losing record against the Big East over the last 4 or 5 years.

Some Auburn video

i am lazy today, so i lifted this video from The Goldmine.

after watching this i have decided that Ben Tate is the only Auburn player who should be interviewed. in the video he challenges you to a race for saying he is slow and ranks Auburn's fastest players. i hope that kid makes it to the NFL.

Auburn's Eltoro Freeman, Ben Tate talk spring football

and for some non-sports video...it's the teaser trailer of WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE. let's see, beloved children's story from the 80s + Spike Jonze + The Arcade Fire = Nerds everywhere getting boners.

Nice

via noted Auburn haters EDSBS. simply amazing.

sad news

The guy who brought us One Shining Moment is gone. Awful Announcing: R.I.P. CBS' Doug Towey