In The Greater Scheme Of Things...

[Guest Tigrinum Major]

I hate coming to the forums on days like today, actaully on gamedays period. Game threads are great to share emotion and the excitement and disappointments of specific plays and are also quite fun to read after the fact. But when we lose (and sometimes, when we win), I don't enjoy reading everything on here, which is not the case on regular days, even when discussions (and points of view that I disagree with) get animated. Gameday posts are fueled by raw emotion and frayed nerves, not rational thought and discussion.

I watched the game today with shock and dismay. I hate it when we lose, especially when we are just taken behind the woodshed and given a good old fashioned smash mouth football whipping, much like happened today. I hate it even more when we look listless, unprepared and shell shocked when another team dares hit us in the mouth. Those things were what I saw today.

GalensGhost asked if this game had repercussions outside of just one game. Sure, it does. We will end up ranked lower in the final polls, probably well outside the Top Ten, where we will probably begin next season. Will that affect our final ranking next year? Time will tell.

Another thread asks if it will affect recruiting. We may never know. That is such an imperfect science/art, it is difficult to say what affects the thought process of an 18 year old.

Overall, for the program, this is hopefully a blip on the radar screen. We had a hell of a year and I enjoyed every minute of it, save today. Even the losses to GT and at LSU were rollercoaster rides that I thought would end with an Auburn victory. Today was a different story.

In the BIGGER scheme of things, I will file this one away, take my lumps from my Bama friends, both in cyber space and in flesh and blood, and go back to work tomorrow none the worse for wear. It was a Game, an escape from reality as I lived vicariously through college kids for a few hours each Saturday. I relish the victories, but I refuse to let the defeats bring me down.

I will not criticize a player, but I will say that the team looked lifeless today. I will not call for a coach's resignation, but I will say that they did not do a good job preparing our team for this game today. I will support my team as they go through spring practices and summer workouts.

I look forward to seeing many of these players return next year. I wish all the seniors and any juniors who depart well in their lives, in football and beyond. They are an outstanding group of young men that will hopefully find success in football and in life. I look froward to new faces, like Tray Blackmon, Tommy Trott, Montez Billings, and others.

Today's loss hurts. But the sting will fade. The fact that I am an Auburn man through and through will not. It is truly great to be an Auburn Tiger, not only in the good times, but the bad also. That is where we are tested, tried and hopefully come out the other side better for it.

War Eagle.

Fear The Thumb.

[GoAU 1,600]

Great post. You are right that it isn't always best to come on these forums right away after a loss. I am guilty of that because I expected so much more today, But I am thankful for how far CTT ad the players have gotten us in the past 4 years and will continue to be optimistic about the future.

[GalensGhost 0]

I'm disappointed, but not really mad or angry. I can already look at it objectively and although I'm not happy with what I saw it isn't the end of the world. I'm a little nauseated considering the likely event that we'll end the season ranked behind the clearly inferior Tide, but.... that's the only real frustration I feel.

Good teams have bad days. Auburn's really only had two bad days in two years. Nothing wrong with that.

[WarTim 3,457]

Just remind the rednecks at the smaller "school" in the western part of the state....

28-18 and 4 in a row. It shuts 'em up every time.

p.s. Also, FEAR the THUMB ! ! !