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Mike Szvetitz

Sports Editor
mszvetitz@oanow.com

Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News

Seat 80 ... homecoming

Posted 11/07 at 12:38 PM (0) Comments

It’s a beautiful Auburn Chamber of Commerce day here at Seat 80 in the David E. Housel Press Box.

Not a cloud in the sky. Perfect.

It’s Auburn’s homecoming today against FCS school Furman.

Who’s going to win? Umm, I’m taking Auburn, 55-10. That’s right.

I’m assuming you’ve got Auburn, too. But the real question is, who’s going to score their first career touchdown today? My bet is DeAngelo Benton. He and Jay Wisner both find the end zone. That’s right. Believe it.

Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News

Auburn needed this one ...

Posted 10/31 at 05:33 PM (0) Comments

... I know you agree.

Antonio Coleman does.

Auburn 33. Ole Miss 20.
What a game. What a third quarter. That was fun. If you didn’t see it, I highly recommend watching the replay. Good times.

Anyway, here’s SOME of my column that will run fully in tomorrow’s Opelika-Auburn News.

Enjoy.

Oh, and have a safe and happy Halloween.

Gene Chizik needed this win more than anybody.
Well, maybe not.
Chris Todd needed it.
So did Gus Malzahn. And the offense.
Oh, and Ted Roof. And the defense.
The entire team, really. Pretty badly, actually.
As did the entire fan base.
OK, so everyone wearing orange, blue and Halloween costume Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium had to have this win.
Another loss might have been a back-breaker.
Another loss might have caused the real boos to come down harder than the rain that fell before and during the game.
(Would it be Auburn Football 2009 without the wet stuff? Seriously? Somewhere, Noah’s boat is coming along nicely.)
Another loss might have been it for this team.
For all the talk about it not being last year, four losses in a row could have very well caused a ripple in time and sent the Tigers back to 2008.
Another loss would have been bad. Really bad, actually.
But that wasn’t going to happen. At least not Saturday.
Auburn 33. Ole Miss 20.
Auburn six wins.
Auburn bowl eligible.
Auburn back on track. Offense. Defense. Special t … well, let’s not go that far.
“I can’t give our football team enough credit, starting with our seniors and just the way they responded in a tough stretch,” Chizik said. “As we all know, that was the question that everybody wanted to know was ‘How is your football team going to respond in a tough time?’
“I think today was a great example of the way they were going to respond.”
It’s true. Everyone wanted to know it.
And now we have our answer.

(Photo credit: Cliff Williams | Opelika-Auburn News)

Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News

Seat 80 ... (A lot of) Raindrops keep falling on my head

Posted 10/31 at 09:00 AM (0) Comments

Auburn Football 2009. Rain. Catch The Fever. And the Sniffles.

Another Auburn home football game, another rain storm. Fun stuff.

But we’re safe and warm and dry (or at least drying off) here at Seat 80 in the David E. Housel Press Box.

So much for the Navy Nightmare campaign Auburn’s throwing for this Halloween game.

I expect to see a lot of orange ponchos today. But, hey, at least orange is an Auburn color. Right?

So who’s going to win between the Tigers and Ole Miss Rebels.

I think I might be the only one with a press credential to this game to pick the home team, but, what the heck. I need the wins in my pick ‘ems. So I’m going for the upset.

AUBURN WINS!

12-9. Wes Byrum kicks four field goals for the Tigers.

How ‘bout that?

Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News

5-0? Poof, and it’s gone

Posted 10/24 at 11:03 PM (0) Comments

Auburn got beat up and down the field here at Tiger Stadium, by a better-than-it-has-been LSU team.

Auburn couldn’t get anything going on offense. And that’s starting to become a theme over the last three games, which have all been losses.

Here’s a bit of my column for tomorrow’s Opelika-Auburn News. The full column will be posted in a couple hours.

Now, we’re back on the road, headed home.

Enjoy ...

BATON ROUGE, La. – WARNING: What your about to read isn’t for the faint of heart, women who are pregnant and/or anyone who is a fan of offense. Read at your own risk:
Punt.
Punt.
Fumble.
Interception.
Punt.
Punt.
Fumble.
Halftime.
Ouch.
Thrown in there are 42 yards of offense – just 16 yards of it was passing. Also in the first half of play, Auburn committed seven penalties for 64 yards. And there was still 30 minutes to go.
Reasons to be optimistic about the second half?
No. Not at all.
Field goal.
Punt.
Punt.
Punt.
Oh, by the way … touchdown.
Ballgame.
Have mercy.
LSU didn’t.
And neither will anyone else who saw Auburn lose its third straight game.
Where to start? Who knows. What we do know is where it’s going to end if Auburn can’t right the ship.
The more we move away from it, the closer 2008 seems – at least offensively. Shudder all you like, the numbers don’t lie.
Auburn totaled 193 yards of offense – 112 rushing, 81 passing. Auburn totaled just 10 points. Well, the starters scored just 3. Auburn needed its backups to make the game more respectable.
It was the least amount of points a Gus Malzahn offense has scored in college football.
A quick look at the arts and crafts table and we just noticed the crayon box is empty.
And LSU had a lot to say about that, as the Bayou Bengals took out every color stick in Malzahn’s bag of tricks and broke them into teeny, tiny pieces, dropping them at the offensive coordinator’s feet, along with Chris Todd.
Auburn’s offense, right now, isn’t good.
Was it ever? Were the first five games an aberration? A mirage concocted by smoke and reverses to make us think something imaginary really existed?
Where’s David Copperfield when you need him.
Hocus pocus. Allakhazam.
Wait, we made Darvin Adams disappear.