Furman is the opponent on the schedule and will show up to Jordan-Hare Saturday, but Georgia is the team Auburn has prepared for all week. Much like Ball State was a tune-up for Tennessee, Furman is the prep course for the Bulldogs. Georgia scheduled similarly having Tennessee Tech roll into town as a confidence builder prior to playing the oldest rivalry in the South.
I don't know a thing about Furman other than the few people I know who have attended adore the place and the Paladins play in the same conference as Samford (I didn't even know Paladins were the mascot, I had to look it up). I'm not sure how the Furman coaching staff approaches a game like this? You would think their AD would schedule a game like this at the beginning or end of the year (get paid, heal up, and get ready for Elon or next year). To schedule an SEC power in the middle of the season with 2 crucial conference games remaining as you sit right in the middle of your conference standings at 3-3, as a coach, I'd be quite pissed. Nonetheless, Furman has to come into this game with many of the same goals as Auburn...no injuries, play as many bodies as possible, work on deficiencies to gain some confidence and gameday repetitions, and limit the mental mistakes.
The most interesting part of this game should be listening to Rod Bramblett and Stan White repeatedly say the name of Furman's tailback...Tersoo Uhaa! Beyond that, it should be a day to rest guys with nagging injuries, work on offensive tempo, improve on defensive fundamentals (i.e. tackling and timing a blitz), and emptying the bench for the guys who perform tirelessly week after week on the scout teams. I believe this team is mature enough to show up and compete against a vastly out-manned team (i.e. not pull a FSU against Jax State) running the record to 7 wins with Georgia looming large on the horizon.
AU-51
Furman-9
Tackling, yes. Let's work on tackling. I approve. And I like your prediction. It'd be fun to see the Tigers post half-a-hundred.
ReplyDeleteLet us see Benton and Blake catch some balls. Let us see Eric Smith, DonTae Aycock and Neil Caudle make plays. Lutz and McKenzie catch balls. Let them have some fun!
ReplyDeleterob,
ReplyDeletejust reading an article on Dyer talking about Spirit flying reminded me of something i've always wondered about.
2000 was the first year we flew the eagles i think and the first couple of times they started them off on the goalpost. in the LSU game, if i remember right, Tiger flew up the tunnel. Were you guys still in the locker room? Any clue it was even happening? I've always just pictured the mass chaos off all those players in the tunnel when that bird came flying in there.