'Midst the frozen, corn-filled wastelands of Iowa, a man was charged with a series of Herculean tasks:
Bring new life to a team desperate to return to what it once was.
Find an offense capable of putting points on the board.
Step into a void left by a coach beloved by many.
Repair a fractured, confused Auburn family and give them hope for a renewed future.
This football season wasn't perfect, but Gene Chizik has done a great deal of what he needed to do.
Considering he came into a program with a 5-7 record, lacking depth and standout talent on both sides of the ball, he did exceedingly well.
We're heading to a decent bowl game, albeit one against a team we've played several times before.
We see a team once divided by quarterback questions and media speculations come together and work as a team.
We see a great recruitment class filled with top-notch players, adding much needed depth and talent to our battered-down benches.
We see Gus Malzahn, that crazy magnificent bastard, with his bag of tricks and sneaks. We're not entirely sure how all of it works, but we trust he knows what he's doing.
However, "Tate down the middle" is overdone. Perhaps you should try "The Annexation of Puerto Rico" instead ... just a thought.
We love Trooper Taylor. When little kids and old men walk by clutching Trooper Towels, we smile.
Taylor's better at pumping the fans up than the Mic Man, but that's actually not hard to do.
We had a great season, even if we didn't win every game.
We sang and danced in the rain at the West Virginia game.
We beat that jackass Lane Kiffin up in Fat Phil Fulmer country.
And, most importantly, we held the No. 2 team in the nation to a close game and our defense shut down a potential Heisman winner.
Not too shabby, boys.
It would have been nice to win, but a moral victory that's leaving Bammers suspiciously quiet is nice in its own way.
We feel Auburn is moving in the right direction.
After our initial hesitance and skepticism, we see the powers that be might have actually known what they were doing for once.
Welcome home, Coach Chizik.
Thank you for what you've been able to do thus far, and long and magnificent may your reign be.
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