20 Years of Waiting Completed
Normally, I try and keep this thing unbiased. Those of you who know me personally or maybe know me from twitter or College Football Overnight know that I am an Auburn alum and root fiercely for my team.
So for this week’s review, I am going to dispense with the unbiased viewpoint. Why? Because I’ve been waiting 20 long years to win a game at Tiger Stadium.
WAR EAGLE Y’ALL
The last time Auburn had won at LSU was 1999. I reached the Plains of Auburn in August 2001. And while there have been incredible highs as a fan of Auburn, there was one thing my team had never done since I first got there: win at LSU.
I was with some friends driving to the UCLA-Arizona St. game in Southern California last Saturday night. For some reason the game was on the radio (finding an SEC game on regular radio in this town is worthy of an Olympic Gold Medal). On LSU’s first drive they took a penalty. 2nd and Goal from the 31 yard line. I laughed. My friends asked why. I told them to wait for the next play. LSU scored on a 31 yard touchdown pass. That is how this game goes in Baton Rouge. And if it doesn’t, it usually is more painful. Heck, I turned the game on via my phone at halftime in the Rose Bowl, basically to experience getting my heart ripped out in a new locale. There was no belief. The game was in Baton Rouge. Where better Auburn teams than this have been smoked repeatedly. A sampling of the pain:
2001: Game postponed by 9/11. ON the first Saturday Night in December, Auburn was non-competitive, handing the SEC West to LSU and Nick Saban, who upset Tennessee to break a long SEC Title drought.
2003: I was in Baton Rouge to watch my team fall behind 21–0 less than 8 minutes in. It was never competitive.
2005: I was in Baton Rouge again. I watch Kenny Irons run for over 200 yards. But I also watched John Vaughn miss five field goals including one at the end of regulation and another in overtime of a 20–17 loss.
2007: At least I wasn’t there to see LSU bungle the clock management (a recurring theme under Les Miles) but win anyway on a touchdown pass with one second left in the game.
2009: I remember nothing of this game other than a rebuilding Auburn team never really being in it.
2011: I remember nothing of the game other than a bordering on collapse (that came in 2012) Auburn never really being in it.
2013: The best Baton Rouge moment of the millennium until last Saturday. Though it started with a 21–0 deficit in the first quarter. Again (I think either 2009 or 2011 had joined 2003 in that club). The team actually showed some fight. By the end it outgained LSU and lost 35–21. And then went on to play for the National Title.
2015: An overrated Auburn team wound up on all of Leonard Fornette’s highlight reels in yet another Baton Rouge humiliation.
2017: An eventual division champion Auburn team coughs up a 20–0 second quarter lead and loses 27–23. Somehow the team responds and wins out to the SEC Championship Game. This is the one, more than any other on this list, Auburn should have won. It was the only road game where Auburn was a significantly better team than LSU (that happened a few times for Auburn at home) and that blown lead…shakes head.
2019: Played the best defensive game any team all season against Joe Burrow. Still not good enough but at least no reason to hang heads.
So imagine my shock at seeing Bo Nix do this, and not throw an interception.
And at seeing Kayshon Boutte have 99 yards receiving on a 91 yards drive to open the game and get only 28 more the rest of the game. The catharsis was enough that I left UCLA-Arizona St. a happy man even though the team I was rooting for in that game (UCLA) got slaughtered in the second half.
Each week I’ll put every game into one of six categories, explained and listed below. I might even talk about a few of the games.
Classics — These are why we watch the sport. Don’t expect one every week. Unless you just time traveled forward from 1990 or 2007. Then I can’t help you and I hope you have a way to go home.
Vanderbilt 30, UConn 28 — A game between two of the worst teams in the country ended up being played partially in a rain storm and being one of the fantastically entertaining games of the season. Complete with big plays, a late UConn comeback and a game winning field goal from Vanderbilt as time expired. Considering how bad these teams are, this was as good a game as could possibly be expected.
Good Solid Football — Close Games, 14 point wins in major games. The building blocks of a good weekend of games.
Stanford 31, Oregon 24 (OT) — This game was infuriating. Stanford was rewarded for the awful goal line fade calls and 1/3 of the country just tuned the playoff race out…again. Also, there’s this…
…that got called as defensive holding on Oregon to extend the game when the Oregon player’s helmet was nearly shoved off his head.
Western Michigan 24, Buffalo 17 — All of a sudden, there is a chance Western Michigan turns into a spare quality win for Michigan. The Broncos won at Pitt earlier and are clearly the best in the MAC right now. As for the game, Western Michigan turned a well played defensive struggle into a solid win with a 17–0 run in the 4th quarter before a Buffalo desperation touchdown.
Oklahoma 37, Kansas St. 31; Cincinnati 24, Notre Dame 13; Auburn 24, LSU 19; Temple 34, Memphis 31; Louisiana 20, South Alabama 18
Entertaining Bad Football — Games that can be written about forever. But not because they were good. You probably saw something you’ve never seen before.
Virginia 30, Miami 28 — A strange bounce touchdown and a no time left doink from 33 yards in the center of the field are certainly entertaining, if not good. Virginia had far less total offense than either of the last two weeks but won this time for reasons that mostly defy understanding.
Hawaii 27, Fresno St. 24 — A drunk late night special here. Jake Haener threw four interceptions, three of them inside the Hawaii 10 yard line. Thus explaining everything necessary about this game.
Arizona St. 42, UCLA 23 — Arizona St. repeatedly abused the third string walk on free safety in the second quarter. UCLA made good adjustments to protect him at halftime. That just meant Arizona St. ran it down their throats late.
Middle Tennessee 34, Marshall 28 — What are we doing Marshall? Losing to a clearly improved East Carolina team via wild comeback and by 1 point to Appalachian St.? Completely ok. Losing to Middle Tennessee? Yikes.
BYU 34, Utah St. 20; Michigan St. 48, Western Kentucky 31; NC State 34, Louisiana Tech 27; Wake Forest 37, Louisville 34; Texas 32, TCU 27; Florida St. 33, Syracuse 30; Texas Tech 23, West Virginia 20; Navy 34, UCF 30; Nevada 41, Boise St. 31; UTEP 28, Old Dominion 21
I Watched It So You Didn’t Have To — Nobody liked watching Michigan St. around 2015–2017. Not even their own fans. And they were good in those years. Lots of games in this section.
Kentucky 20, Florida 13 — Congrats to Kentucky for winning at home against Florida for the first time since 1986. That said this game was brutal to watch.
Mississippi St. 26, Texas A&M 22 — Feels like this season is about to spin out of control for a terrible A&M offense. Next up: Alabama in primetime to really send it into a tailspin. Just remember that someone has to finish 7th in the SEC West every year and whoever that is makes a lot of money to finish last unless it’s Sam Pittman from Arkansas.
Clemson 19, Boston College 13 — I think we can call the Clemson offense a five-alarm disaster now. Only Boston College playing with a backup quarterback saved them this week. Should have been another loss.
Ball St. 28, Army 16 — It wasn’t even really as close as the score would suggest. It seems Ball St. found the 2020 version of itself that won the MAC instead of the 2021 version that looked like bad old Ball St. before this game.
Washington St. 21, Cal 6 — This game saddens me. These teams have never been consistently good. But they used to be fun.
Now? We only have Cal blocking a punt and giving up a first down anyway to sate us in this game. And the teams are still bad.
UTSA 24, UNLV 17 — UNLV is clearly improving. This is a program that deserves a win.
Liberty 36, UAB 12 — UAB is still a winner as it opened its brand new stadium completing its resurrection from the dead.
Oregon St. 27, Washington 24 — Can Washington just be sent to the shadow realm, Yugioh style, never to be seen again?
Michigan 38, Wisconsin 17; Oklahoma St. 24, Baylor 14; Illinois 24, Charlotte 14; Minnesota 20, Purdue 13; Northern Illinois 27, Eastern Michigan 20; South Carolina 23, Troy 14; Miami (OH) 28, Central Michigan 17; Ohio 34, Akron 17; Kent St. 27, Bowling Green 20; SMU 41, South Florida 17; Rice 24, Southern Miss 19; San Jose St. 37, New Mexico St. 31
The Bakery — Did your team schedule a directional school, a school from a lower division or some team where the only point is to strike up the band 62 times in 3 hours? You’ll find your team here. Unless something went wrong. As we move into conference games, there will be relatively few games in this section as conference games are never cupcakes even though some probably should be classified as such.
Toledo 45, UMass 7 — I was serious about that far less games were about to appear in this section thing. This is the only one.
Snuff Films — Remember Alabama 50, USC 3 in 2016. How about LSU 52, Virginia Tech 7 in 2007. Or maybe most of the Ohio St.-Michigan games played in the last 15 years. You get the picture. These game always involve teams that shouldn’t be in The Bakery that week.
Iowa 51, Maryland 14 — To everyone saying Maryland was going to upset Iowa, you forgot was Maryland football is: 16–4 in its last 20 September games and not a single non-September month over .500 since 2010. The calendar read October 1, so cursed Maryland appeared. Complete with yet another player (Dontay Demus Jr.) having his knee explode (seriously go look up Maryland injuries in October games over the last decade).
Alabama 42, Ole Miss 21 — Lane Kiffin did it right. He went for it on 4th Down. Five times. When you are an underdog against Alabama you need to go for it on 4th and Short. That Ole Miss failed five times changes nothing about the quality of the decision. The only consequence is that this game was over by half time instead of midway through the 3rd quarter.
Georgia 37, Arkansas 0 — Sad days forever for any offense playing against Georgia. To paraphrase Bill Goldberg…AUBURN, YOU’RE NEXT!!!
Pittsburgh 52, Georgia Tech 21 — I know Pitt lost to Western Michigan. But I think Pitt might actually be very good. Kenny Pickett and the Pitt passing game is certainly good. Best they’ve had since Larry Fitzgerald was catching passes for them.
Georgia Southern 59, Arkansas St. 33 — I don’t know what happened to the Arkansas St. defense. But what I do know is that each week seems to be a new low. It was one thing to give up 50+ to Memphis in a shootout loss. Another to make Washington’s offense look good in a 52–0 defeat and still another to give up 59 to Georgia Southern the week after Georgia Southern fired its coach.
Houston 45, Tulsa 10; Penn St. 24, Indiana 0; Ohio St. 52, Rutgers 13; Coastal Carolina 59, Louisiana-Monroe 6; Tennessee 62, Missouri 24; North Carolina 38, Duke 7; Appalachian St. 45, Georgia St. 16; USC 37, Colorado 14; Florida Atlantic 58, Florida International 21; East Carolina 52, Tulane 29; Air Force 38, New Mexico 10; Iowa St. 59, Kansas 7; Nebraska 56, Northwestern 7
Rankings — These are my personal rankings. Normally I’ll have something to say about a lot of these teams.
1 Georgia (5–0) — The murder squad heads to Auburn next…that is the defense by the way.
2 Alabama (5–0) — There is just a feeling that this offense might have as much trouble with the Georgia defense as everyone else.
3 Penn St. (5–0) — First team in over 30 years to start 0–5 one year and then 5–0 the next. In fact they haven’t lost since the 0–5 start last season, getting back to 4–5 by the end.
4 Iowa (5–0) — Another team that hasn’t lost for a very long time. The last was during an 0–2 start a year ago. Since then 12 straight wins.
5 Cincinnati (4–0) — Really should have beaten Notre Dame by more. With the two big non-conference games out of the way, the hope is this team relaxes and plays better from here out despite the pressure.
6 Michigan (5–0) — What a difference a year makes. Got blown out at home by a middling at best Wisconsin team last season. Beat up a middling at best Wisconsin team at Camp Randall this season.
7 Oklahoma (5–0) — Eventually is going to crash off the highwire like Oregon did if these close calls continue.
8 Oregon (4–1) — Speaking of, Oregon isn’t really this good. That is clear now. But a win over Ohio St. on the road is a win over Ohio St. on the road.
9 Ohio St. (4–1) — Starting to look like what we expected. Sadly for the chaos lovers, this team seems like it might make a playoff run from here.
10 Kentucky (5–0) — All of a sudden, 11–1 is on the table. Now that won’t get them a seat at the playoff table, but I don’t think the fanbase will care if they end the season in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl.
11 BYU (5–0) — As crazy as it sounds, this is a bigger threat from outside the Power 5 conferences than Cincinnati is to make the playoff. An undefeated record with wins over Arizona, Utah, Arizona St., Boise St., Baylor, Virginia, Washington St. and USC has a decent chance of being the 4th best resume this season. If nothing else the you haven’t played enough Power 5 teams argument won’t be there.
12 Ole Miss (3–1) — No reason to drop Ole Miss for a loss that was a competitive as nearly any team behind them would have been on the road.
13 Arizona St. (4–1) — A big jump, but looking at their stats, it is now clear they were as good as BYU and shot themselves in the foot. And they are better than everyone else on the schedule. Not that there is any meaning in that in the Pac-12.
14 Arkansas (4–1) — Bad matchup at a bad time going to Georgia. Need to regroup quickly though with Ole Miss this week.
15 Michigan St. (5–0) — Has this team really accomplished anything? Northwestern is terrible. So is Miami. And Nebraska might be the luckiest win of the season for any team so far considering the offense returned to 2018 state in the second half.
16 Coastal Carolina (5–0) — Just going to continue committing murder for quite some time until Appalachian St. shows up on the schedule.
17 Auburn (4–1) — Keeping it within 3 touchdowns with 2 offensive touchdowns (as many as Georgia has given up all season) would almost be a win this weekend.
18 Notre Dame (4–1) — Quarterback issues and controversy for a team that won for four weeks with smoke and mirrors. This week’s trip to Blacksburg isn’t a gimme.
19 Pittsburgh (4–1) — Kenny Pickett is incredible this season. And he might take advantage of a terrible ACC to win the league, if his defense lets him that is.
20 Florida (3–2) — SEC East hopes down the toilet, Florida has lost 5 of 6 to Power 5 opposition all of a sudden.
21 Texas (4–1) — Sometimes you win because you have the best player on the field. More often than not, running back Bijan Robinson is that guy.
22 Oklahoma St. (5–0) — I still can’t wrap my head around this program winning with defense and a quarterback so inconsistent he makes Bo Nix at Auburn look like the most stable man in the sport.
23 San Diego St. (4–0) — Just quietly grinding out wins at the home away from home while the next stadium is constructed.
24 Wake Forest (5–0) — Close games with Louisville are not the hallmark of a great team.
25 Oregon St. (4–1) — The most improved team in the Pac-12 by far, it is a good sign when what you do well is shut down and you still win.