Sunday, March 27, 2005

Glory Days at Auburn Continue

Every time you turn around Auburn is winning a national championship or doing something else great. This time it's the men's swimming and diving team who won their third consecutive national title on Saturday as they defeated runner-up Stanford by 77 points. The men's team has won five national titles since 1997. Senior Matt Bricker, who was in the hospital a month ago, won the platform title for the first time in his career. Arizona placed third in the event, while California took fourth and Florida finished fifth. UAT managed to win 1 event, the 200 breaststroke, with foreigner - Vlad Polyakov, but as usual failed to do anything else of significance.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Former UAT QB Gets Life in Prison

Michael Landrum, the first black quarterback to ever play at UAT, was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole on Wednesday after being convicted of a double murder. Landrum, of Sweetwater, hired a man for $1,000 to kill his 3 year old daughter and her grandmother in August of 2003. The 3 year old's mother was in Iraq serving in the National Guard at the time.

Landrum serves another blow to the already tarnished image of UAT football which dates back to the drunken lusts of Coach Bryant and highschool children wanting to play in Tuscaloosa. Since those dark days, UAT has gone through 7 different football coaches, and has shown no real success that wasn't marked by corruption and cheating as evidenced by the continuous NCAA probation.

Sunday, March 20, 2005

Auburn A-Day Proves Defensive in Nature

Fans expecting to see loads of big plays and high scoring likely left Jordan-Hare Stadium scratching their heads following Saturday’s A-Day spring scrimmage. The 1st and 2nd team defenses dominated both offenses allowing only 3 field goals, and that was without all three starting linebackers and the first and second team defensive tackles, Jackson and Thompson. The offensive player of the game was Brandon Cox. Cox was 13 of 22 for 225 yards, 44 of those yards came on a streak pattern to Maurice Anderson to end the second quarter. Anderson was knocked out of bounds at the 1 as time expired. Cox, however, was harassed by Stanley McClover all day. McClover had 4 sacks, and was in Brandon's face on almost every play. At times it looked like the offensive tackles had given up on trying to block him. Calvin Booker looked sharp at times as he threw for 84 yards (4 of 12) and Blake Field was perfect on the day passing 2 for 2 for 8 yards.

On the ground, Kenny Irons had 83 hards on 18 carries (4.6 avg), Stewart had 42 yards on 13 carries (3.2 avg), and Smith rushed 8 times for 37 yards (4.6 avg). Tre Smith once again fumbled the ball off a big play that the defense recovered.

Across the state in Tuscaloosa, Coach Shula had planned to start Bruddy Krull, but Papa Krull was there to see that it didn't happen as Krull is still nursing an injured knee he got walking off the field last season. JP Wilson was the most valuable offensive player of the day. Wilson was 14 of 31 for 168 yards, 1 TD and 2 interceptions. Guillon was 13 of 26 for 157 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception. Which left many people wondering what differentiated the 2 quarterbacks. Shula commented, "I just like Parker better. Guillon is a little punk. He's always complaining that he's better than the other quarterbacks, and when we gave him a shot last year he really screwed it up."

UAT's offense put up big points (the final was 20-18) which proves that Shula plans to open up the offense this year. "We should win the national championship this year as long as Bruddy doesn't bust his ass coming off the field again. I think we have to look to the national championship every year. That, and talk alot about tradishun", said Shula.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

UAT, Once Again, Embarrasses State

The residents of the Great State of Alabama have, once again, been embarrassed by UAT's attempt to compete in sports. Head Baseball Coach, Jim Wells remarked, "I'm glad I'm not in this thing alone". Recently, the baseball team was dominated by Miami of Ohio. They have also lost 2 games to Hawaii and are winless against UAB on the season. We attempted to reach Coach Shula, who has done her share to embarrass the state in football, but she was unavailable for comment.

UAT was completely dominated today by the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers. A lot of people didn't realize there was such a school. "It's like getting beat by Troy State at Montgomery," said Larry Williams, a lifetime UAT fan who joined some friends to watch the game at Wings in Montgomery. For 40 minutes the Horizon League champions dominated play. "We expected this," forward Joah Tucker said. "It wasn't a big surprise for us."

The loss leaves one to wonder, when will it ever end. Will UAT ever return to the glory days in any sport. Even this website has suffered over the past 4 or 5 years with UAT. "They just don't have the swagger they used to have," said long-time Sidelines reader Phil Cupper. "I almost wish they could win a softball game or something so they'd come back."

Sunday, March 13, 2005

UAT Not as Good as 2nd Best Team in SEC-East

UAT choked on Saturday to the second best team in the East proving, once again, that they are no where near the top of the pack.

Despite the recent fan following and smack talking, UAT proved that they weren't that good of a basketball team on Saturday falling to Florida 68-62. LSU, who proved they were the best team in the West, fell in overtime by 1 to Kentucky. Basketball recently took over as UAT's second most popular sport, behind gymnastics, because the football team was placed on probabation for the second time in 6 years following decades of corruption.

In other news, Auburn lost a close game Friday night to LSU due to poor officiating.

Saturday, March 12, 2005

QBs Give Poor Performance in Scrimmage


TJ is carted off after injuring his knee.

It's hard to name the best quarterback on the field with this bunch. Brandon Cox who ran the first team looked below average, throwing at least 2 interceptions. Blake Field also threw an interception to Steve Gandy who returned it for a touchdown. Field threw his body at Gandy before he pounded into the endzone. Booker didn't throw an interception that I saw, and he appeared to run the offense a little better, but still wasn't better than average. Brandon Cox continues to make stupid mistakes throwing the ball. He reminded me a lot of Daniel Cobb today.

Tommy Jackson hurt his left knee on one of the first plays from scrimmage. He walked to the sidelines with help before being carted off the field. Josh Thompson also hurt his knee a couple of series later, but it didn't appear to be very serious. This gave Nathan Farrow a chance to play, and he looked good. People may want to keep an eye on this walk-on.

Marquies Gunn picked the wrong day to rest his hands on his hips as Coach Terry Price lit a fire under his ass. The whole field got quiet during the butt-chewing.

Jason Campbell was also at practice. When I asked him about Tuberville's comments this week on ESPN, he agreed that the three Auburn had in the backfield last year made the best backfield in college football in the last 50 years.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Tiger Football Notes

The Tigers practiced in shorts and helmets today due to numerous injuries and the flu. James Swinton and Lee Guess missed practice due to the flu. Brandon Cox also reported not feeling well, but still practiced. Some of the young guys are getting playing time at linebacker due to injuries with Travis Williams, Antarrious Williams and Kevin Sears. Antarrious is still hobbled with his December wrist injury, but has been practicing lightly with a cast. Travis Williams has a high ankle sprain and Kevin Sears broke his thumb in Saturday's scrimmage. Kevis Burnam had a good day at middle linebacker and Karibi played weakside.

On the offensive line, Leon Hart was moved to guard after a miserable day snapping the ball on Saturday. He will practice the rest of the Spring behind Ben Grubbs and get some work behind Marcus McNeil at tackle.

Other news, Jarrod Britt missed his fourth practice due to a shoulder injury and Tony Bell and Anthony Mix haven't practiced this Spring due to academic issues.

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Montgomery Black Caucus Demands Black Kicker

After crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on Sunday, the Montgomery Black Caucus met to brainstorm new ways to screw Auburn University. After a very productive meeting it was decided that the Black Caucus will ask all African-American seniors to sit out this season and bypass any chance at the NFL unless Auburn immediately replaces Junior, white kicker, John Vaughn with a black kicker. Auburn officials were outraged when they heard the demand. "I don't ever remember seeing an African-American kicker on the recruiting trail", said Recruiting Coordinator, Greg Knox. Senior, fullback, Jake Slaughter planned to sit out his senior year, but was reminded that he wasn't black and it wouldn't count.

The Caucus plans to continue the fight until all southern schools are scared to hire any black employees.

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Auburn Gymnastics Picks Up 3 Wins


Julie Dwyer on the balance beam

This one's for all you UAT fans because we, at OTWS, know you like your gymnastics.

The No. 20 Auburn gymnastics team added three wins to their overall record today beating West Virginia, Kent State and No. 23 Michigan State. Dwyer shined in the all-around, socring a 39.175 to place in a tie for second in a field of eight. Also competing in the all-around for AU was Courney Pucket, Aimee Goheen and Kayce Stein. Puckett finished in fifth with a 38.950, a season-high, and Goheen scored a career-best 38.900 to come in sixth. Stein earned a 38.750 to place eighth.

Source: auburntigers.com

Auburn Baseball Notes

A Clemson grandslam off the top of the scoreboard in the 7th put this game away as Clemson downed Auburn 14-3. Auburn took 2 out of 3 in the series and will host VMI next weekend before traveling to Troy on Tuesday. SEC play begins the following weekend (March 18th). The Tigers will open conference play at home against Tennessee. For those of you coming up to A-Day on the 19th, the UT/AU baseball game will be played at 4:00.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

OTWS Predicts Auburn to Win SEC Tournament

Auburn smashed Arkansas today at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Quinnel Brown was 8 for 8 shooting with 21 points. In fact, the only thing he missed today was a free throw. The win broke Auburn's 5 game losing streak and brings their SEC record to 4-12. Auburn will face Vandy in the late game on Thursday. Auburn faced Vandy once this year and lost a close 24 point battle at home. Vandy won't be so lucky on Thursday as this game will be played in Atlanta. If all goes well, Auburn will face LSU on Friday and then most likely Kentucky on Saturday. The championship game is slotted for 12:00pm on Sunday.

Turnip Proclaims Blake Field Best QB

Blake Field was 3 for 10 today with no interceptions and a 5 yard touchdown pass to Charles Mullen. With that performance Turnip named him the best quarterback on the field today. Meanwhile, Brandon Cox was 8-22 for 97 yards and 2 touchdowns. The biggest disappointment of the day was the play of the centers, and overall pass protection. The defense basically destroyed the offensive line gaining 10 sacks. On the ground, Tre Smith was disappointing, Stewart ran for 98 on 11 carries and looked tough to pull down, and Irons had a big 61 yard run that he failed to score on because he tripped.

Defensive Coordinator, David Gibbs remarked that the Tigers have a lot of work to do. "We have to clean it up," he noted. "Everybody made mistakes out there, but there is no reason to panic. We have plenty of time to get it corrected."

Auburn scrimmages again next Saturday at 10am.

Lebo Looks for First Win Against Arkansas

Jeff Lebo is 0-1 against the Razorbacks who come to town today to face the Auburn Tigers at 1:00pm. It's Senior Day on the Plains and the basketball team will honor: Quinnel Brown, Troy Gaines, Nathan Watson and Ian Young before the game. The Tigers are 3-12 in conference play and can be seen on Jefferson Pilot.

Auburn Beats Clemson in 9th

The Tigers rallied in the 9th to beat Clemson last night at Plainsmen Park. Going into the bottom half of the 9th the score was 5-3, three singles later the lead was cut to 5-4. A third balk of the game by Clemson and a walk loaded the bases. Four pitches later the game was tied as relief pitcher, Stephen Clyne walked Russell Dixon. Philip Stringer batted in the winning run with 2 strikes and 2 outs in the inning, and Auburn won an exciting game to open the 3 game series with #24 Clemson. The battle of the Tigers begins again at 4pm on Saturday.