Rick's Take: It's Finally Here

 

It's that time of year again! The college football season is upon us. No more Saturdays without the pageantry that is the game of college football. And while many will be excited to see any team play I am only excited about one. My Auburn Tigers. 

     Saturday can not get here soon enough. The tailgate has been planned. The food and drinks purchased. And on Saturday we will sit around and watch a few games, maybe venture out to other tailgates, and wait for the only game that matters. Auburn vs Washington St. 

   

Game One

     Going into the game Auburn has been installed as a 14.5 point favorite. A rather large line seeing as how we are coming off a 3-9 season but as new head coach Gus Malzhan has said it's a brand new day at Auburn. I fully expect to see a drastically different team than the one that took the field last season. The offense should be drastically improved from the train wreck we saw last year. The defense should show some improvement over the quasi-defense displayed over the course of the 2012 season. If the defense can hold opponents to an average of 21 points or less this team could be the surprise team of the season. 

So Many Questions

     Going into the game against Washington St there is a plethora of questions that are on the minds of Tiger fans everywhere. Will Nick Marshall live up to the hype? Will the O-Line be able to give him time to throw and create lanes for a quality stable of running backs? Can the receivers step up and make the plays? Will the defensive tackles get a push and stop the run. Do we have any SEC caliber linebackers? What about the safety position? I figure the only positions which are going to be solid from the start are place kicking and punting. The rest? Well we will just have to show up and see. 

6:00 Saturday August 31

     87,000+ will file in to Jordan-Hare Stadium to witness the kickoff of the season. We will scream, cheer, groan, laugh, and love our Tigers. We will be fans whether we win or lose and at the end of the game we will file out of the stadium and head to wherever it is we are going. The team will exit the stadium and and begin preparations for game 2. And all will be right with the world. After all it's college football season again.

 

War Eagle!

 

by: Rick Palmedo