I have read a lot on this board since joining more than a year ago, right around the recruiting period. Like many, it has now become a place I check many times a day for the latest news on a team that is far more than just my favorite – it can only be described as part of my life.
And last year was probably the hardest to get through. Again, like many of you, I plan my fall around Auburn football. I no longer live in Auburn but try to go to a few home games a year. And I take my son because I want my son to grow up loving it as much as I do. But last year, I stopped watching the games at the end of our season. For the first time I can remember, I watched only a small portion of the Iron Bowl and turned it off disgusted and depressed. It was amazing to see how far we had fallen since that night in Glendale as National Champions.
It has been a strange time. And the events surrounding some recruits the past few days have produced strange events as well. I saw a post about how when Saban really wants a recruit that we also want, he can always beat Auburn. It seems Charles Barkley was right about Auburn when it comes to Alabama – we tend to have an inferiority complex (while Alabama has a superiority complex).
Yes, Alabama will get a lot of good recruits and finish, almost certainly, with the so-called best class. But if all goes like we hope it does, our class will be pretty darn good – and that’s pretty darn amazing if you think about what 3-9 and a coaching change tends to do to your recruiting.
There is no reason why we can’t take this class, plus who we have right now wearing the uniform of Auburn University and set some big goals. There is no reason to have a mindset that we can’t go out and beat Alabama, beat Georgia, beat LSU and Florida, win the SEC and win a national championship.
So what if Alabama got this recruit or that one. Did Texas A&M cower in Tuscaloosa last year because Alabama had won two of the last three national championships? No, they won with a redshirt freshman playing QB who would go on to win the Heisman in no small part because of the way he played that November day.
It won’t be easy. No one thinks it will be. But, then again, things that mean something rarely are easy.
Coach Dye was right when he was asked in his job interview how long it would take to beat Alabama and replied “60 minutes.”
Let’s get back to that way of thinking. Let’s have faith in the coaches who are doing a great job rebuilding what we all love. Let’s welcome those new recruits who will spend the next several years listening to our cheers.
And let’s remember, if they all work hard and we show them our support, we are just 60 minutes away from beating anybody in the nation.
Being Auburn Again