SZVETITZ COLUMN: Real season begins now

And the rains came. Again.

Auburn spent the first quarter sleeping through it.

Rain makes everyone tired. Right?

Yawn.

You figure the Tigers would be wide-awake for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff.

Well, the defense was. The offense was still sleepwalking, while the special teams … well, the special teams stayed on the bus. Back in LaGrange, Ga.

“Sloppy,” head coach Gene Chizik said of the opening quarter, which ended in a 7-7 tie with a team from the MAC.

But then came the second quarter and 255 yards of total offense and 26 points. The offense woke up. Way up.

Gus Malzahn and his Wide World of Fun Offense finished with a cool 560 yards, scoring every way possible in the Tigers’ 54-30 win over Ball State.

A nice little tune-up for Tennessee next week — Auburn’s first road game.

Oh, and what a big one that will be.

In case you didn’t know, Auburn’s young. The Baby Tigers have youth everywhere. And now they get to go on the road to Rocky Top. What an initiation.

But they won’t go up there untested. Or rusty.

Out of eight Auburn scoring drives, five of them took less than 2 minutes, including three that took less than a minute. As you read this, the Tigers just scored again. It’s just that fast.

Auburn has definitely benefited by playing its first four games at home — greased up the offense, learned how to hunker down on defense, not panic when things go wrong and, well, win.

Now, how will all of that translate on the road in front of 100,000-plus fans wearing a different shade of orange?

Are the Tigers ready?

“Whether I feel like it or not, we’re going. I mean, that’s where we’re going,” Chizik said. “I’ll be there a week from tonight.”

And so will the rest of his team.

But they might not make it out if they open up against the Vols the same way they did against the Cardinals on Saturday night.

“I think we’ve got to get a lot of things cleaned up,” Chizik said. “It is a very young team. It’s a very thin team. And that’s a good football team we’re going to play.”

Tennessee had a warm-up game of its own Saturday night against Ohio — also of the MAC.

Well, that one wasn’t so easy for the Vols, as they won, 34-23.

Advantage Auburn?

Who knows.

One thing’s for sure, though, these Tigers will have to grow up in a hurry as they embark on a murderous October.

Five weeks, five SEC opponents. At Tennessee. At Arkansas. Home against Kentucky. At LSU. Home against Ole Miss.

Ouch.

And the knocks start in Knoxville.

“That’s going to be the beginning of a tough month,” Chizik said. “And we’re going to have to play lights-out to beat them. We’ll have to play heads and tails above where we were tonight if we have a chance to beat Tennessee next week.”

And the Tigers will have to continue to get better every week after that with a young team that has no choice but to grow up or get moved out.

“We’re going to let (the young guys) know it’s no joke out there, especially going to a team like Tennessee — the biggest stadium we’ll play in all season,” junior linebacker Craig Stevens said. “We’ve got to be prepared for that.”

From the start.

Ready or not.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com or 737-2513.