Sports

A Look into our Magic Crystal Ball

Well, I hate to say it, but Auburn football has officially received the kiss of death for the 2008-2009 season.

No, we haven’t lost all of our starters to injury or been put on probation.

Lee Corso has picked us to win the SEC.

With that in mind, let’s take a look into the grim future lurking on the horizon  this season.

Those with high expectations for this year may want to avert their eyes from this column.

We start the year off against Louisiana Monroe, a juggernaut from the Sun Belt conference.

Well, actually they have averaged just five wins a season over the last five years, but that didn’t stop them from embarrassing Alabama so badly that Nick Saban related the loss to Pearl Harbor.

And if a Forbes cover-coach can’t handle them, what chance do we have?

Fortunately we have a couple out-of-conference cupcakes before the train completely derails.

Tennessee-Martin is a D-IAA school who will be our homecoming game, and Southern Miss should be easy enough to handle.

A Look into our Magic Crystal Ball

“Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.” – W. Clement Stone

Today I will set aside my overtly pessimistic ways to lend some optimism to the 2008 Auburn Tigers.

Seriously, I may be the most pessimistic person you’ll ever meet. I could be in a room full of cash and complain it’s all in one dollar bills.

I’m that bad.

I don’t just think of the worst, I expect it.

I expected losses to Georgia, LSU and South Florida last year. I even thought Mississippi State would give Auburn a run for its money; they did a little more than that.

This year, Auburn will play all those teams again, but with an entirely different attitude.

Never in all my years following Auburn football would I have thought I’d see such a radical transformation in one off-season.

Think about it. New offense, new defense, new quarterback. Everything is stacked up for Auburn to fail, yet expectations for the team couldn’t be higher.

McKenzie

Junior Gabe McKenzie has moved from tight end to defensive end for the Tigers.

McKenzie  played in all 13 games last year starting behind Tommy Trott. He ranked sixth on the team in receiving yards with 117 yards.

Coaches approached the former high school tight end to join the defense, a move McKenzie said he is embracing.

“Coach (Paul) Rhoads asked ‘Can you do it?’ and I said yes sir,” he said. “If they need me on offense they can come get me. This is something I know I can do. We’ll see how it goes.”

Rhoads said he expects McKenzie to see some action when the season starts Saturday. He will join the defensive line rotation behind Antonio Coleman and Michael Goggans.

“I think I made the right decision,” McKenzie said. “I’ll play both sides if they let me.”

No. 19 Carolyn Cohen: attempts to steal the ball from Grambling State’s Kendra Fox in the season-opener Friday night. Cohen had two shots on goal for the game. JD Schein / PHOTO EDITOR

Auburn soccer started the season off well this past weekend, winning games against UAB and Grambling State.

The Tigers won their season-opener Friday night, dominating the Grambling State, 9-0. Eight different Tigers scored, reaching the team’s record set in 2000.

Head Coach Karen Hoppa was happy with the way the team came out strong in the first game of the year.

“We scored three goals in the first 10 minutes to put the game away,” she said.

Auburn’s second game of the season wasn’t as lopsided, or as easy.

UAB came to Auburn and kept the game close, losing a nail bitter 1-0. Gabi Rivera fed Kara Kasten on a breakaway to score the game’s only goal in the 56th minute.

“Gabi gave me a great ball, and I was able to hold off the defenders and get a quality shot off,” Kasten said of scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal.

NEXT GAME: Auburn at Missouri, Friday, 6:30 p.m.

Associated Press Top 25 Georgia (22) 0-0 1,528 Ohio State (21) 0-0 1,506 USC (12) 0-0 1,490 Oklahoma (4) 0-0 1,444 Florida (6) 0-0 1,415 Missouri 0-0 1,266 LSU 0-0 1,135 West Virginia 0-0 1,116 Clemson 0-0 1,105 Auburn 0-0 968 Texas 0-0 966 Texas Tech 0-0 786 Wisconsin 0-0 771 Kansas 0-0 707 Arizona State 0-0 631 Brigham Young 0-0 590 Virginia Tech 0-0 578 Tennessee 0-0 509 South Florida 0-0 496 Illinois 0-0 483 Oregon 0-0 366 Penn State 0-0 293 Wake Forest 0-0 227 Alabama 0-0 89 Pittsburgh 0-0 85 Others Receiving Votes: South Carolina 84, Fresno State 83, California 59, Utah 53, Cincinnati 44

USA Today Top 25 Georgia (22) 0-0 1,438 USC (14) 0-0 1,430 Ohio State (14) 0-0 1,392 Oklahoma (3) 0-0 1,329 Florida (5) 0-0 1,293 LSU (3) 0-0 1,163 Missouri 0-0 1,143 West Virginia 0-0 1,008 Clemson 0-0 999 Texas 0-0 979 Auburn 0-0 888 Wisconsin 0-0 747 Kansas 0-0 714 Texas Tech 0-0 644 Virginia Tech 0-0 568 Arizona State 0-0 560 Brigham Young 0-0 547 Tennessee 0-0 506 Illinois 0-0 422 Oregon 0-0 399 South Florida 0-0 350 Penn State 0-0 313 Wake Forest 0-0 203 Michigan 0-0 112 Fresno State 0-0 91 Others Receiving Votes: Alabama 83, South Carolina 64, Utah 60, Rutgers 53, Florida State 53

Louisiana Monroe’s special teams unit: blocks a field goal attempt by Alabama’s Lee Tiffin. The Warhawks went on to defeat the Crimson Tide 21-14 in one of the biggest upsets in college football last season. Contributed by ULM AthleticsThe Auburn Tigers will open their 2008-2009 football season against an opponent that should be all too familiar to people from Alabama, particularly Alabama fans.

Louisiana Monroe, who finished last season with a 6-6 record in the Sun Belt Conference, shocked the college football world when they upset the Crimson Tide 21-14 in Tuscaloosa.

With the element of surprise no longer a factor, Coach Charlie Weatherbie’s Warhawks will travel to Auburn to face the No. 11 ranked Tigers in a 6 p.m. showdown to start the season.

“Louisiana Monroe is extremely well-coached,” said Auburn offensive coordinator Tony Franklin after Sunday’s practice.

Before coming to Auburn, Franklin coached at Troy, which is in the Sun Belt Conference with ULM.

“They play hard, run hard and are very strong,” Franklin said. “They believe they will come in here and win. They have a tremendous amount of pride.”

Auburn fans have heard one word surrounding this year’s team: speed. Tony Franklin promises a high-octane offense built on speed, but lost in the shuffle of all the talk is a defense built on speed.

Tommy Tuberville has long favored undersized athletes with speed in order to cause havoc for the opposing offense.

The star of the linebacking corps, known by some as the “ball of hate,” Tray Blackmon is favorably measured as 6 feet tall in the Auburn Media Guide.

The team’s leader in sacks, Antonio Coleman, is more of an oversized linebacker than defensive end.

Taking over as coordinator for Will Muschamp, Paul Rhoads inherits a squad short on experience with Chris Evans projected as the team’s only starting senior.

Despite key losses, the defense is expected by many to repeat last years success where they ranked sixth in total defense.

Secondary

The secondary will be the big question mark for the defense, losing three of four starters to graduation. Jerraud Powers and Walter McFadden will step into the role as starting corners vacated by Pat Lee and Jonathan Wilhite.

Junior transfer Chris Todd: will battle sophomore Kodi Burns for the starting quarterback role.Kodi Burns: saw playing time as a freshman in 2007 playing behind former quarterback Brandon Cox. ARCHIVED

Auburn’s 2008 offense features a new coordinator, new quarterbacks and most importantly, a new system.

“Everything’s coming together,” said head coach Tommy Tuberville on Sunday after a two and a half hour, full-contact practice. “We’re in pretty good shape.”

New offensive coordinator Tony Franklin’s spread offense has the potential to be explosive this season and has had fans talking since the Tigers put up 420 yards of total offense on Clemson, Dec. 31.

Franklin said the adjustment to his spread has not been as difficult as most fans think.

• Auburn had 31 athletes competing in Beijing representing 15 different nations including the United States, Australia, the Bahamas, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Venezuela andseveral others.
• If Auburn were considered its own nation, it would have  ranked 13th in the overall medal count,  ahead of countries such as Spain, Canada and Brazil.
• Auburn’s track and field program, coached by Ralph Spry, has produced five medals. Kerron Stewart, who claimed silver in the women’s 100 meters and bronze in the 200.
• Zimbabwe's Kristi Coventry accounted for four of the Tigers’ 13 medals with a gold in the 200-meter backstroke and silvers in the 100 backstroke, 200 and 400 IM.

BRISTOL, CONN. - The SEC and ESPN have come to a landmark 15-year broadcasting deal beginning in 2009.
ESPN and its many entities will televise all SEC sporting events not picked up by CBS in a seperate contract. ESPN will broadcast all of the SEC championship games except for football.

AUBURN, ALA. - Last week Auburn picked up their 23rd verbal commitment of the 2009 recruiting class when Atlanta linebacker Jonathan Atchison made his pledge to the Tigers.
Atchison picked Auburn over offers from Alabama, West Virginia, Ole Miss and other D-I programs.

TUSCALOOSA, ALA. - Alabama quarterback Nick Fanuzzi has decided to transfer schools.
Fanuzzi was listed fifth on the depth chart released by head coach Nick Saban.

BATON ROUGE, LA. - The LSU Tigers released a depth chart for the 2008-2009 season, but are still undecided at who will be the starting quarterback.
LSU head coach Les Miles said he remains confident in all three quarterbacks.