CullmanTimes.com - Cullman, Alabama

Local Sports

Discussion

July 27, 2010

TALKIN TIGERS: It’s hard not to be excited about future at Auburn

By Mike Cummings The Cullman Times

Remember that one time, back in the last month of 2008, when that guy in the YouTube video heckled Gene Chizik as he arrived at the airport in Auburn?

Man, that dude was so last decade.

Just like 5-7 and 5-19.

All that stuff? About quarterback controversies and stagnant offenses, about firing coordinators and head coaches being forced out?

Man, that’s all old news.

To Auburn fans, none of that stuff requires any explanation. Those numbers and words used to be what defined the Auburn football program and its controversial choice in its new head coach.

No longer.

So get ready to say goodbye to all that, because all that belongs to the 2000s.

In the here and now, on the first day of the first year of a brand new decade, that once-controversial head coach and his rag-tag bunch of Tigers showed exactly why that dude on the YouTube video was wrong — and why there’s plenty to be excited about heading into the 2010s.

Playing in a New Year’s Day bowl game? Check.

Beating a team from the Big Ten? Check.

Getting a win despite not playing your best football? Ditto.

But then again, the result of Friday’s Outback Bowl — in which Auburn outlasted a scrappy Northwestern team 38-35 in overtime — was merely a formality.

Win or lose on Friday, the 2009 season was a success for Auburn.

Here’s why:

Over and over throughout the season, Chizik kept on talking about building a foundation “for what we want to do here at Auburn.” As vague and hazy as that sounded all year, some concrete is starting to appear in that metaphorical mixing trough.

In simple terms, Chizik’s logic went like this. Building, rebuilding or even just cobbling together a strong foundation equals success in 2009.

And in simple terms, Auburn was successful.

With 425 more yards Friday against Northwestern, Auburn finished with 5,613 on the season — the most in school history. That’s saying something for a place with names like Bo and Pat and Cadillac in its history book.

With the victory over the Wildcats, Chizik finished his first season on the job with an 8 in the win column. That’s more than any first-year Auburn coach not named Terry Bowden.

And with a roster largely unchanged from last season, this year’s team turned a 5-7 embarrassment into an 8-5 accomplishment. Instead of watching bowl season from the comfort of their couches, like last year, they went out and beat an eight-win Big Ten team.

All of it came in the opening hours of the new decade, where the future is starting to look brighter every day.

One of the brightest spots is the successful recruitment of five-star quarterback Cameron Newton, who led Blinn Community College (Texas) to the junior college national championship this past season.

Newton, a 6-foot-6, 247-pound specimen, backed up Tim Tebow at Florida in 2007 before transferring to Blinn due to off-the-field issues. If Newton does indeed sign, and if those issues have been resolved, Auburn could have its quarterback situation resolved by the team spring practice rolls around.

And don’t look now, but the recruiting Web site Rivals.com has Auburn listed at No. 3 in its rankings for the class of 2010 — behind Texas and Alabama, the teams playing for the BCS National Championship.

That ranking might change before National Signing Day next month, but here’s something that won’t:

Auburn, after a one-year trek into the wilderness, is on its way back. It might take a while to challenge Alabama, but the concrete has been poured and the foundation is starting to form.

And that guy from the YouTube video? He’s still back at the airport.

How very last decade of him.

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

Text Only
Local Sports