Tigers Touted

[DKW 86 7,425]

http://www.al.com/sports/huntsvilletimes/i...ll=1&thispage=1

Lets just hope that the players dont get a swell head from all this crap.

PRESEASON DONT MEAN NOTHIN'

Tigers touted

Auburn a preseason favorite, but Bama has a lot of doubters

Sunday, June 18, 2006

By PAUL GATTIS Bama 

Times Sports Staff pgattis@htimes.com

Can you feel it? Sense it? Practically touch it?

It's not yet football season. It's better than that.

It's oh-boy-it's-almost-football-season season, the time of year when college football preview magazines spring up like mushrooms after a spring rain.

In this summer of anticipation, your eyes scan the magazine rack and find pictures of Auburn's Kenny Irons and Alabama's Kenneth Darby right next to Jennifer Aniston or Angelina Jolie on the covers of the glossy pagers.

Which can only mean that - Hallelujah! - football season is an unimpeded summer away. Or, maybe for the more, uh, enthusiastic fans out there, a daily countdown to the Sept. 2 kickoffs has already begun.

(And for those who have already received their Father's Day tie and are ready to move on, it's 77 days).

To tell you what's going to happen in 77 days and the season to follow, there is no shortage of magazines with largely the same information.

Except Phil Steele's College Football 2006, whose editor will either be a genius by December or (insert politically incorrect insult here). Ol' Phil ranked Arkansas 13th nationally and predicted the Hogs will play in the Cotton Bowl.

Now, all of you doubt that's going to happen and you didn't even need Athlon's, Lindy's or The Sporting News magazines to tell you that. After all, none of them even ranked Arkansas.

But thanks to Phil's overflowing optimism about the Razorbacks, they snuck into our composite Top 25 poll in a tie for No. 24 with Nebraska.

Phil even rated Arkansas as the nation's most improved team, which perhaps should go unstated since the Hogs are rebounding from a 4-7 record to No. 13 in the country. Then again, his Most Improved list also has Kent State at No. 3, New Mexico State at No. 4 and Kentucky (?!) at No. 10.

Woooo Pig Sooie? No, more like Whoa Phil Are You Serious?

At least Hog fans have a magazine they'll want to rush out and purchase to feed their football frenzy. That's more than Alabama fans have.

Yes, the mags this summer are essentially screaming one message at Crimson Tide fans: Hope you enjoyed last season!

Of the four magazines used for this story, only The Sporting News bothered to put Alabama in its preseason Top 25. The Tide rolled in at - drumroll, please - No. 25.

That means that in our composite Top 25 poll taken from the four magazines, Alabama was absolutely, positively dead last. Whereas top-ranked Notre Dame accumulated a total of 93 points, the Tide accumulated one point.

And if you're an Alabama fan, it gets worse. In fact, you might want to close your eyes when you read the next paragraph.

Auburn is the consensus pick to win the SEC West and, in our composite poll, is No. 5 nationally. The Tigers added up 82 points. That's 82-1.

Which means that if Alabama should fear the thumb as Auburn goes after its fifth straight win in the Iron Bowl, maybe the Tide should start worrying about the other hand, too.

And somewhere in the world, there is something called Dave Campbell's Texas Football and his Top 25 has Auburn at the top. Dave also has Alabama No. 22, proving he has a heart for the entire Heart of Dixie.

But no matter how much you may love or loathe what the mags say, they are a sort of reassuring rite of summer that our state's passion is about to wrap its arms around us again.

They all have the giant color pictures, the glitzy graphics and a little information (though some of it is inevitably outdated).

And each forms a tenet by which both Alabama and Auburn can pledge allegiance.

Football games aren't won on paper, an Alabama fan can say.

And an Auburn fan - remembering the plaudits of the 2003 preseason - can warily concur and say that neither are national championships.

[KunzelTiger 0]

Arkansas will be good this year...no doubt in my mind...2 great running backs all they need is Mustain to step up and they're looking at a decent year.They have a very experienced Defence with 5 Seniors and 5 Juniors starting. Add that to an Oline featuring 3 Seniors and a Junior...you have the look of a team that can surprise a lot of people.

As for Auburn...We stink and we won't win a game

(Team, please read that and not the previous post plz)