Elated is not a strong enough word for my feelings about this football Saturday. There really are no adequate words. Let me just say first that WE BEAT TEXAS A&M. Now that that's out of the way...
I may have mentioned before that my house is truly divided during football season, as I have season tickets at Auburn and Ben has season tickets at UT. Actually, Ben has one season ticket at UT. His friend Alex has the ticket for the seat next to him. They usually go to the games together, but this weekend Alex had to work. Ben asked me to go to the game with him in Alex's absence, and I figured I should because Ben is so good about coming to Auburn with me on his off weekends and supporting my team. So I trekked down to Alumni Hall and bought myself a UT-orange shirt to wear (along with a new shirt for Ben and some baby stuff for my niece - seriously, it's impossible to get in and out of that store with only one thing). Of course, I had the dilemma of what else to wear, as it was also an Auburn gameday (albeit an away game, which is why I was in Knoxville instead of Auburn). I'm very superstitious about my game weekend attire. Always my gameday Pandora bracelet and Judith Bright rings, and always Auburn clothes (or at least Auburn colors) on Friday and Saturday. Also Auburn clothes on Sunday when I'm coming back from Auburn. So of course I wore navy shorts to the UT game, and I also found a hat (at Alumni Hall) that was navy and had the "3 stars" Tennessee flag emblem in Auburn orange.
My next dilemma (actually, the first dilemma, on which I had been pondering for several days) was what to do in the event the Auburn game (with a 3:30 start) began before we were able to get out of the Tennessee game (with a 12:00 start) and get back to a TV. Luckily, I was able to find it on the radio through an FM app on my phone. So while the Vols were driving down the field to get in field goal range so Palardy could kick for the winning points, I was frantically going through the list of Auburn/IMG sports radio stations trying to find one that worked. Surprisingly, the station with the clearest reception was out of Dothan, AL (what's up, 102.5 The Q?).
Ben and I had a good time at the UT game, even though it was COLD (I never imagined a noon game would be so cold - the sun didn't come out until well into the fourth quarter). Shorts and polos were definitely not a good wardrobe choice.
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| In spite of the drama and animosity between the Pride of the Southland Band and the athletic department this week, the Band dutifully lined up so the players could run through the T. |
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| There were a couple hundred former players in attendance, and they ran through the T after the current team. Pretty cool. |
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| Take a good look at this now, because it's something you won't see often. |
The Vols got an amazing win over South Carolina, but poor Ben didn't get to stay and savor the moment for too long because we had to book it back to Farragut so I could watch the Auburn game with the Smoky Mountain Auburn Club. There were six minutes before my kickoff when the UT game ended, so I was listening to the game on my phone the whole time we were walking to our car and driving home. We missed most of the first quarter but got to the watch party in time for most of the good stuff.
Really, what an amazing game that was. You may remember from last year that our game against TAMU went really badly for us. This year, however, revenge was sweet. This team is on fire and just has so much drive and determination. At the end of the game when TAMU was driving down the field (inside our 20, no less!), I KNEW our defense would step up and stop them when the game was on the line. I was still stressed, of course, but I expected good things, and good things happened indeed. I was unable to sit down for the last several minutes of the game, and I'm pretty sure most of the people at the watch party thought I was insane. I literally had not met any of them before - I'm pretty new to the Smoky Mountain Auburn Club - and if you know me well you know I can get a little, ahem, crazy when the game is close. One lady actually told me at one point that I had a wild look in my eye like I was wishing death on people. I may have to work on that. :-) But I am thankful that our fearless leader, Dan, stood and paced around with me at the end of the game. It's good to know I'm not the only wild bird in the bunch.
Winning that game felt surreal. I just thought the whole day might have been a dream due to the much-unexpected wins for both UT and Auburn. But it was real, and it was awesome. Remember a couple of weeks ago after the Ole Miss game when I said that I had divided the season up into 4 virtually-guaranteed wins, 4 likely losses, and 4 toss-ups? Well, this game was one of the "likely losses." Thankfully, "likely" doesn't mean "definite." 6-1 and we're already bowl-eligible. It's great to be an Auburn Tiger.
Weagles this week go to Tre Mason, who had 27 runs for 178 yards; Dee Ford, who sacked Johnny Manziel TWICE during A&M's last desperate drive; Nick Marshall, who passed for 236 yards, ran for 100 more, and earned SEC offensive player of the week honors; our two Ryans (Smith and White) who each had an interception; and Sammie Coates, who had 5 catches for 104 yards and put this choke-slam on a TAMU defender in the first quarter (sadly, we missed seeing this on TV when we were driving from the UT game):
AUsome. I love this team, and I love this win. I love that I had several friends who know my obsession well enough to know how big a deal this was and who reached out to congratulate me (not that I did anything except, you know, will the team to victory through my pacing, screaming, increased heart rate, and mental telepathy). Can't wait to be back in Auburn next weekend for a COLD evening game against Florida Atlantic. It's football weather, folks!
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