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SERENITY NOW. You can sense it in yourself and in your Ag pals, can’t you? Your excitement is there, but it’s tempered. You’ve been burned in too many recent Octobers after everything was going just so well with your one, true love - Aggie football. But this team has something, right? Yes, the Ags still play in the SEC West, but the 2016 installment is Bama and six teams with either glaring flaws or at least questions that need answerin’.
Brian Hamilton with Sports Illustrated did a great piece on what’s going down on the inside of the program. You can be damn sure Sumlin and Co. know what’s at stake. To wit, here’s GBH favorite Ricky Seals-Jones:
"We’re on the hot seat every day. That’s how I see it. From coaches to players. You have a bad practice or a bad game, you’re on the hot seat. It’s not like any different. I don’t know, it’s funny how people say ‘He’s on the hot seat.’ Shit, we’re all on the hot seat every day."
There’s focus and leadership on this squad that was sorely absent the last two seasons - particularly on offense. This is a mandatory component if you desire to be better than 5th best in the SEC West.
GATED TAIL. The Auburn installment of The TAILGATE dropped yesterday. Most of it was big fun save for the puns in the ‘mments. Made me embarrassed to be human.
WELL HERE’S A NUGGET FOR YOUR PIPES.
The last time Auburn was favored in an SEC home game was vs A&M when Tigers lost as 23.5 pt favorite. Since then, Auburn is 2-9 vs SEC opps.
— Chris Fallica (@chrisfallica) September 15, 2016
I forgot the Ags were 23.5 point dogs last time we went to Jordan Hare. These are crucial, crucial times for both programs and coaches.
YOUR THANKSGIVING JUST GOT MORE MISSISSIPPI-EY AND NFL-EY. A&M and LSU will no longer play on Thanksgivings. This was a College Station-only thing as the Tigers and Ags would play on Saturdays in Baton Rouge of that weekend. There’s pretty sound reasoning for the shift - student turnout lags (doesn’t help when the team is sputtering), hard to staff Kyle Field logistically, and some sick weirdos like spending time with family on holidays. NO THANK YOU.
Thanksgiving night will now go to Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State and some mediocre NFL stuff. Weird - natural, in-state rivals with more than enough hate to slather over your Thanksgiving feast. Novel concept.
Have a helluva Thursday. It’s SEC footbaw time.