TALKIN' TIGERS: Despite downpour, passion at AU shows

By Michael A. Cummings

AUBURN — It’s a simple question. It only becomes profound when you get a few thousand people asking it with you.

You know the one:

“I-I-I-I wanna know-w-w, have you ever seen …”

… thousands upon thousands of people screaming out the words to “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”?

You did if you were at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday night.

Maybe you were involved, or maybe, if you’re of a certain generation, it started to remind you of something after a few minutes.

The muddy field. The farmland surrounding the stadium. The young people drenched in rainwater. Everybody disobeying The Man.

No, it wasn’t Woodstock. It was Rainstock 2009. And later, there was a football game involved.

But for about 10 minutes, while both teams waited in the locker rooms underneath the grandstands, it was the most memorable moment in an Auburn football season quickly filling up with just that sort of thing.

Let’s back up.

About 40 minutes before game time Saturday between Auburn and West Virginia, an Old Testament-style deluge prompted the public address announcer at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium to advise those in attendance to vacate the seating area.

Not a soul in the Auburn student section moved an inch.

Non one. Not even the frat boys, who high-fived and chest-bumped in their navy blazers and burnt orange ties with the best of them.

And then, for two and a half minutes and three chords, it was pure euphoria, to the tune of Creedance Clearwater Revival’s 1971 hit.

It didn’t matter that there was a big, bad, jet-black cloud and a severe weather advisory in the area. It didn’t matter that Auburn was about to face its toughest test of the season.

Heck, that probably pumped the Greeks up even more. And it’s hard to blame them.

After the disappointment of 2008, all those thousands of students — like every other Auburn fan out there — spent the past offseason looking for something to get excited about with their football team.

For months, that excitement simmered as new coach Gene Chizik’s excellent choices in hiring a staff.

Then, during the first two weeks of the season, it built into a steady rumble with big wins over Louisiana Tech and Mississippi State.

Finally, on Saturday night, it all burst out along with that big, bad, jet-black thunder cloud.

It was exhilarating, not just for them, but for everyone else in the stadium. And the symbolism attached to the moment probably shouldn’t be lost on anyone, win or lose against West Virginia.

No matter what happens the rest of the season, 2009 is already a success for Auburn’s football team in one respect:

Just like those storm clouds dumped about a million gallons of rainwater all over Pat Dye Field, so did those Auburn fans let out about a year’s worth of frustrations over their football team.

It was fast, it was intense, it was transformative and everybody came out clean on the other side.

In other words, it was almost like a spiritual experience. Almost like all those orange and blue ponchos were baptism robes — and Chizik was some country preacher spreading the good news of Auburn football.

The good folks from West Virginia must have wondered what kind of crazy, fanatical, severe-weather-ignoring lunatics they have down on the plains.

They found out. And soon enough, so will everyone else:

The passion is back on the plains.

And all it took was a little rain, a bit of CCR and a few thousand rain-soaked lunatics.

Michael Cummings can be reached by email at michaelc@cullmantimes.com or by phone at 734-2131, ext. 258.

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