When did Auburn football start looking like the set of Rush Hour?
We knew the coaching staff would be totally revamped after the departure of Tommy Tuberville and the Good Ole Boy network, but when did Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker come to The Plains to coach 'em up?
Whereas practice in the Tommy Tuberville era was akin to Cool Hand Luke - quiet, sincere and methodical - the 2009 staff looks more like a Judd Apatow film - smart, witty and high-energy.
With the exception of the field general himself, Gene Chizik, the rest of the coaching staff appears more Robin Williams and less Marlon Brando.
Both styles can get the job done, but this group of high-energy jokesters seem to relate to a younger team playing looser than any in more than a decade.
Assistant head coach and wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor embodies the seismic shift of attitude on the gridiron.
Taylor, hat always turned backward, is a show in himself. Watching Taylor work between the sidelines, it's easy to see how he gets the most out of his players.
In one 20 minute interval you can see Taylor pretend to drop kick Tommy Trott like Bruce Lee, fake perform CPR on the turf after pulling his best Ed Reed, faking a jaw-jarring blow on the slot receiver, then reeling off more jokes than Richard Pryor on the Sunset Strip.
Practice doesn't seem to be practice for Taylor. For him, it's a chance to connect with the players and get the most out of them, all the while having more fun than Madonna looking for babies in Asia.
After a decade under the somber, understated, Tuberville era, this brand of coaching is, if nothing else, going to make Saturdays in Jordan-Hare more fun to watch.
There is a definite rejuvenation occurring around the new staff. Last year, where there was about as much excitement as watching Bruce Willis comb his hair, this year players are having fun again.
While practices seem to be loose and exciting, discipline isn't lacking.
Bunched between Taylor's Bruce Lee and CPR bits is what you would expect from a serious minded football coach. After a wide receiver didn't immediately hand the ball to the referee at a Sunday practice, Taylor called the receiver out and made him turn out 10 push-ups, reminding the team to respect the men in stripes.
For every one joke thrown out by the likes of Taylor, there are two words of coaching advice.
Drop a ball and a coach may say your hands are harder than freezer burned Haggen Daz, but after the quick joke he'll pull you aside and tell you to cradle the ball in your hands, looking the ball all the way into the palms.
This is the new Auburn. Last year everything was plain old vanilla and now it's Neapolitan Dynamite.
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