This year’s A-Day game seemed to be a little more exciting than past ones. Perhaps it was the excitement a new head coach brings. Or maybe, it was just a desire to put last year behind us. Either way, the weather was gorgeous and the place was jumpin’.
The day began with a very well-attended Open House put on by the Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine. Note - If you’re gonna be a cow college, be the best (and friendliest) cow college you can be. We explored the large and small animal centers, watched an intestinal surgery on some poor dog, witnessed a fierce sheep dog herding demonstration, saw some birds from the Raptor Center, and leisurely cheered on a parade of various equine and canine breeds (a true dog-and-pony show).
Afterwards, we hustled over to Jordan-Hare for the spring football game. In the past, Auburn used typical scoring for it’s spring game. However this year, new coach Gene Chizik adopted the scoring system most teams are switching to for their spring games. The system awards points for big plays on both offense and defense. This produces a higher scoring contests that features potentially critical plays.
Early on, it appeared that Auburn’s defense would win the day. Soon after taking our seats, the defense produced back-to-back sacks on QB Neil Caudle. One series later, Auburn’s offense got rolling as QB Kodi Burns hit Mario Fannin for a 41-yard pass. The offense pretty much took over after that, winning the contest 57-31. We’ll see how that translates into on-field performance. But it’s pretty hard to believe that Auburn can get any worse than the previous 2 seasons.
After the game, about a thousand of the 45,000+ fans stayed for the on-field autograph session with team coaches and players. To say it was a mad house would be too kind. Initially, there were guidelines about where coaches and players would be; with tables and chairs setup. But the place soon became a good-natured mob of fans roaming the field, surrounding any player in sight. The only area of order was the tent containing head coach Chizik. It helped that he had security making sure a somewhat orderly line was formed. I was able to scope out offensive lineman Lee Ziemba and pull him over for a quick photo. Lee was the one person I REALLY wanted a photo with since our season tickets are a few rows behind his mom.
All-in-all, it was a great day. The weather was perfect, the game-day activities were just as fun as always, and the game-play gave all Auburn fans reason hope for the future. And in the end, that’s what spring football is all about.