SB Nation User Blog: Mattco

A letter from an Auburn alumni.

Mattco — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:49:37 -0000

I will preface this by saying that I have heard stories about some really classless acts by UGA fans to Auburn fans at the game Saturday, with that said, I can only go by what I saw and experienced. Four of us drove up Saturday morning, this was my second trip to Athens and I had a good time the first time but any trash talking was probably due to student to student trash talking and I was more than likely dishing it out as much as taking it.

I want to thank the Georgia fans for the great time that we had this past weekend. This is sarcasm or any type of slap in the face, this is a true thank you. We walked around and talked with several groups of Georgia fans and everyone was great to us, granted we weren't belligerently drunk and making asses of ourselves so we were more than likely a breath of fresh air. During the game, even when you guys were down, the fans around us were great to us and were the same after the game. We went to Red Rooster for lunch before the game and talked with a few fans in there and had a good time talking with them.

All in all, we had a great time and want to come back. You guys have a great campus and a beautiful stadium, I honestly hope you guys appreciate the facilities you have.

Until next year, War Eagle and Go Dawgs, damn do I want to beat you guys next year.

I Went Home This Weekend

Mattco — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:36:01 -0000

I just wanted to send this out to people who are still at Auburn and those who graduated from there and haven't had the chance to go back in a few years. Yes, it has changed a lot in the past 9 years since I graduated and some parts are hardly recognizable, but it IS still the loveliest village on the Plains.

I went back up for homecoming with several of my friends this weekend and we all stayed with one of my friends who still goes to school here, my advise to him after one of the best days I have had in awhile, enjoy it while you are here. Enjoy all of the small things. Enjoy seeing the Toomer's rolled mess at night, it is a beautiful site to behold. Enjoy the people who surround you, 95% of them are great people. Enjoy Tiger Walk, it is a great experience. Enjoy being able to hang out at the baseball park before a game and watch some baseball on a beautiful game day.

I have always told my buddies that one of my favorite memories at Auburn was something so stupid and something that normally I would hate, going to afternoon baseball games and just hanging out for a couple hours. Saturday I lured them in and everyone had a blast. I normally hate baseball and generally despise everything about it, but at Auburn, I love it. We went in after Tiger Walk and just hung out for about an hour before the game and watched some old timers playing, I have no idea who they were or why they were playing, but it was fun just sitting around on a great Saturday afternoon and watching it.

The crowd at Jordan-hare was weak on Saturday, not many showed up and there were a ton of empty seats, but for anyone who wasn't there, you couldn't ask for a better afternoon for football, 65-70 and sunny. We had plenty to cheer about with the team clicking from the start and we got to see a lot of the backups play and see how they will react a little next year.

Then we all hit the bars, we went downtown and hung out with some old friends and made some new ones. I have to say, while only a few bars that were here when I went to school here still exist, some of the new ones are pretty damn fun in their own rights too.

War Eagle everybody, take it in and enjoy it, there are few places better to be.

A little late but a quick look at some of the Ole Miss roster.

Mattco — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:19:51 -0000

Watching the game Saturday was the first time in a month I was happy watching football. What a difference playing well makes. Honestly, losing to Arkansas and Kentucky didn't kill me, but I would have been much happier if we had at least shown up to play, and in the same line, pu LSU in there with playing poorly.

Back to the topic, I have really been following Auburn recruiting for the past 5 or 6 years and it was really weird looking at the Ole Miss roster to see so many recognizable names on the list. I will name a few, Enrique Davis, Rodney Scott and Raymond Cotton to start, they were all committed to the Tuberville regime at one point and now play for Nutt at Ole Miss.

The thing that got me is what happened to Davis? He was second string last year and now Scott is above him in the depth chart, did he get hurt or anything?

I couldn't sleep. so here are some Auburn wallpapers.

Mattco — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:34:17 -0000

Well boys, I made a few wallpapers last season and just couldn't sleep tonight so I brought my laptop to bed with me and got to work on a new one. I personally like it a little better and I made a full screen and a wide screen version. I hope you guys like it and if you have any ideas for some more, just drop a comment and I will see what I can do.

If you didn't grab one from last year here are the links to them too.

Big time commitment today.

Mattco — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:07:40 -0000

A day after Auburn showed off its new offense under the new regime and almost doubling Gene Chizik's winning percentage for the past two years, we get a big time commit. Welcome to the family LaDarius Owens.

Taken from Rivals.com:

"I committed to Auburn," said Owens. "It feels good. I'm coming home.

"I just love being down there. I'm comfortable. I feel like I'm at home. Auburn is the place for me. I just couldn't look the other way on that. I love it there. I feel like I can help Auburn, help turn around the program."

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound Owens, nephew of former Tiger James Owens, picked Auburn over offers from Alabama, Florida State, Tennessee, Clemson, LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, among several others.

"I'm just so glad to get it over with," said Owens. "I've been really blessed. I really appreciate all of the schools that recruited me. I'm really thankful for them, their interest and their offers, but I feel like Auburn is the best place for me."

I am proud that he is a great player that is committed to Auburn and I am even more proud that his speech was great. Seems like a good kid and will be a great Tiger for us.

How About an Entire Top 25 Shakedown?

Mattco — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:12:38 -0000

I would love for college football to stop with the preseason Top 25 crap already. Just in the SEC so far, what do we have going on?

- Ole Miss is struggling against a Memphis team that is reasonable but should be in the game.

- Alabama struggled against a team with no offense, and I do understand that a good defense can make an offense look bad, but I think they really were just bad.

- Mississippi State, what can I say other than they are much improved on both sides of the ball. This was against a non-team but I think next week will really show how good Auburn and Miss State are.

- Auburn put up 550 yards of offense and weren't even fully clicking yet against a reasonable team.

- Florida was the only team that really came out and played like expected, they dominated both sides of the ball, but again, they were playing no one and were favored by 50 or something.

- Tennessee, call me crazy but this might be a hell of a team by the end of the year. Auburn and Miss State might not be the only newly coached teams buying into new systems and showing a lot of improvement. I think if Auburn can beat Tennessee this year, we will finish at least second in the West.

- LSU struggled against Washington who hasn't won a game since 2007 I think and had almost no offense. LSU might be interesting to watch this year.

- South Carolina won by 4 in the most boring game since a 3-2 Miss State and Auburn game last year.

My point to most of this is that so far, the teams that were supposed to be top 10 teams aren't impressing while the teams picked to finish last in their divisions are showing signs of life. If the AP isn't willing to completely shake up the Top 25 after the first few weeks as teams settle in, then they shouldn't put it out until week 3 or 4. Look at the big picture for a second, Oklahoma lost to BYU and I am not sure it was just because Bradford went down. Oregon looked terrible, and I mean terrible against Boise State and they were ranked number 16 or something.

Preseason polls are entirely too important to how you finish the season now and it shouldn't be. If Auburn and Tennessee are both 4-0 when we meet, do you think either will be ranked or do you think that both might be? It is ridiculous how much rides on the preseason polls and the unwillingness of the AP to correct them after the first week.

All in all, come next week BYU will be around number 10, maybe 9 and Oklahoma will be 0-1 and rocking a number 10 ranking. I can't see Oregon staying in the top 25 but they will stick another Pac 10 team up there to be able to say that USC plays good teams.

Big Cat Weekend

Mattco — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:19:55 -0000

I just read about this on Rivals and this is very impressive. Chizik and company have certainly targeted the best players out there and are going to do everything they can to impress them and get them to come to the plains next February. Here is a sniplet from Rivals:

Five-star recruit Marcus Lattimore, ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 2 running back in the country, visited Auburn in March.

He'll be back on the Plains this weekend and won't be the only top recruit.

Approximately 25 other prospects, most ranked the best in the nation at their position, plan to be there with him. Auburn is calling the event "The Big Cat Weekend".

The group is set to include the No. 1 and No. 2 running backs, the No. 2 wide receiver, the No. 2 outside linebacker, No. 4 offensive tackle and the No. 6 guard. And that's just for starters.

Honestly, how can you not be impressed with this. Every recruit that has been to Auburn under Chizik and every recruit that has talked to the new coaches have loved the Plains. This should really shed light on the way that the Tuberville group phoned it in for recruits the past few years.

Let's talk football people.

Mattco — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:48:53 -0000

Over on al.com they posted a short video stint of some interviews that included Chizik, Taylor and Todd and had some short quotes for Trotter and Burns about the quarterback race being wide open.

So I got the fever, and the only prescription is talking some football.

Let's start it up with who you guys are rooting for the starting quarterback spot, who you think will actually get it and how do you think it will play out.

I will kick it off with my opinion:

Firstly, I am rooting for Trotter. I personally don't think that Burns has the smarts to lead an SEC team past an 8 win season and I think that Trotter has enough talent and athletic ability to lead us past that barrier. Of course, this is all on paper and in theory, in actuality he might not be good and might never be good, but I root for him to get a chance to prove himself and that is all he can hope for.

I think that,in reality, it will be a split playing time between Trotter and Burns with Burns getting the majority of the starts.

And lastly, I think that Mosely and Rollison both get in but both get redshirted. I think that Todd will just never be back to health and not see the field and I think they will see Caudle and wasted time and effort trying to teach a senior the system to have him leave that year. I think they will name Burns the starter for A-Day and shortly after, they will name him the starter for the fall. I don't think that Chizik and Malzahn will be dumb enough to drag out the quarterback battle out past the start of summer and they will have a starter named by then.

War Eagle people.

My pre-preseason rankings. Sort of...

Mattco — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 17:43:37 -0000

I am bored so I decided to look around for a bit and do a pre-preseason rankings that partially includes the potential players from the 2009 recruiting classes and the returning players for next year.

1. Florida. How can you bet against this team for next year? They return most of their defense that should be pretty nasty, and they added some depth with a few from the class this year. On offense they still have Tebow and he drives them to win. They might be able to run the table next year and go undefeated for the season.

2. USC. I rank them here because I think they will start and end the season here. They lose Sanchez at the helm but Mustain will play well. They play in a weak conference overall, they will lose a game and finish the regular season at 3rd, win the bowl, and bitch because they were left out of the championship, it is just what they do.

3. Texas. I know this is starting to look an awful lot like the final rankings but can you argue it now either? Colt McCoy returning with a ton of weapons and a defense that will play well enough. The Red River might be a game to play for the championship game again this year.

4. LSU. Yep, I am going back on me saying that Alabama will win the West. LSU looks strong and they had a very good class of kids that can help them. I think Jefferson will be the clear cut quarterback and will have some hiccups along the road, but they can lean on a run that will win some games. Solid team on both sides of the ball and might be the only team that will rival Florida for being top to bottom best team.

5. Oklahoma. Just good and they return a on of weapons. They will keep on scoring 45 to 50 a game and lose to the first team to hold them to 20.

6. Alabama. I can’t believe that I just said that. I initially thought they would be about 10 or so due to having no quarterback with experience and replacing the majority of an offensive line, but holy crap has almost every team lost a ton of players. Alabama’s defense is going to win them games and if they can make it through the first 4 or 5 games unscathed, they might can make a run at it. I just don’t see them having the talent in place fast enough to play against LSU next year though. They will have a tough time in their opener against Virginia Tech, but Tech lost a lot of players too. I think that their first loss will potentially be in week 6 at Ole Miss.

7-25. It’s a toss up.
-Georgia could be good but they are replacing their two biggest offensive threat.
-Ohio State was terrible without Beanie Wells last year so will next year be any different. -Can Ole Miss play that good again?
-FSU looks solid but they lost a lot of seniors this year and could go either way.
-Penn State loses almost their team and Oregon loses that many too.
-Texas Tech might lost about 35 or 40 players, seriously, look at their roster from last year, they have a ton of seniors.
-Boise State has a horrible schedule and probably will not get any respect until the end of the season.
Utah is in the boat with Boise State.

Man, next year is going to be interesting. Outside of the top 4 or 5 teams, there are no favorites for next season. The classes from last year will play a huge role in next season with as many seniors as most of the top teams had last year. Unfortunately, that brings us to Auburn.

My outlook for Auburn: Our schedule is rough, but doable. We will find out week 3 if we are any good or not when West Virginia shows up to town. I think that if we can fenagle our way through the season with injuries to a minimum, we can do a 9-3 season, but I don’t see us being able to win at LSU or beat Alabama next year. I certainly think that we can be competitive against Alabama for sure, but right now they are just more talented than us and they have a better line on both sides of the ball, that in the end will lose us that game. Looking at the schedule, I would say that if our line plays solid and we find a quarterback to play solid, not great, we could be 7-0 going to LSU. At Tennessee and at Arkansas will will be good games but we can win them.

No matter what, if our offense shows some improvement next year I will enjoy the season much more than I did this year. Losing is never fun, but we took it to a new level in the way we were losing last year. But we have promise, they just have to get it together.

Can someone enlighten me?

Mattco — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 18:11:09 -0000

I see that Jonathon Evans and Terrence Coleman are heading to Tennessee this weekend and Coleman is quoted as saying "My aunt wanted me to go to Tennessee and see what I like about it. But like I said, I like Auburn. Things might change, but right now I like Auburn." I don't understand this mentality.

Auburn isn't the only school, by far, with players that are "committed" that have this attitude. Why commit to a school if you aren't committed to it and are still looking around? I understand that circumstances change, it is bound to happen and this could instigate a change, but if you are continuing to look while nothing has change, then why commit to begin with?

At this point, I am so sick of Coleman's crap and attittude that I kind of hope he doesn't make to the plains. He has committed and decommitted, then he recommitted and now he is looking around again and saying that we are tied with Arkansas but he is still committed to Auburn. None of this makes since to me. Look around until you decide on a school and stick with it. How hard is this? Don't commit to a school unless you are sure.

Last year showed me something that Auburn is in desperate need of, heart. We don't need to pick up players that don't want to play for Auburn, we need players that want to be there.