Logistics

(In my best Dennis Miller voice from his very few days with Monday Night Football) 

Thanks WEA, and now with the report from the cheap seats (as if any lower level seat is cheap anymore). 

The theme here is that although Auburn fans did not pack out Jordan-Hare, there was a whole bunch of folks present that were not expected to be there.  For starters they were only planning to seat people in the West Stands.  Really?  Are you kidding?  I have been to A-Day Games before and sat anywhere I wanted, except the upper deck.  Who would want to sit up there unless they had to anyways?  With 45,000 fans showing up that plan was blown quickly.  Recruits and their families were in taped off sections near the 50, which makes since, but when about a quarter of that area is empty… open it up.  It is a spring game, not the Iron Bowl. 

Much like the rest of the TET crew, there were some massive errors made on Saturday regarding logistics by me.  With the aforementioned traffic issue out of Atlanta, the WarDamnZach Crew was thrown way off schedule.  Planning to be at Locos at 11:00, turned into 11:40, and then having to meet another Auburn friend pre game at Mama Goldberg’s was just a nightmare.  In hindsight I should have stayed with you guys and gotten tipsy.  You know why they wanted folks to park at the Hay Fields?  Because Magnolia was closed for, you guessed it, construction shortly after the Lambda Chi House (between the McDonalds and the Dominos Pizza for you non-Greeks) all the way to Mama G’s.  So Glenn was a parking lot.  I thought I was on I-285 heading toward the Perimeter at 800am… what a joke.  I needed a pitcher of beer just to calm down a bit.  Especially when I realized that the group outside Mama G’s was the line to get in.  (more on that in a moment)

Again, much like the TET crew, the city of Auburn had some logistical errors on Saturday.  Other than the normal barricade patrol near Jordan-Hare there was no traffic control around the city.  Trying to get through the light at "The Goal Post" was complete madness.  Hell, I had the Touareg on the sidewalk heading down Glenn, was I proud of the moment?  No, but it got me there quicker.  Parking was interesting as well… I just popped a curb and treated it like a Game Day, but I was quite nervous about it.  This day was not the smooth, laid back, fun filled day I was hoping for.

Back to Mama G’s.  Have you ever been there on Game Day?  It is like a well oiled machine.  Well, not quite well oiled, but at least they have a system.  They have Mama’s Love and Turkey Delight’s pre-made and ready to steam.  Not so on an A-Day Saturday.  That made for a long wait.  The only thing they had ready to go was the nachos chips already measured out in the paper "tub."  Also there was not a beer only line.  So what does that mean?  Waiting 30 minutes to get a refill on the pitcher.  And to top it off, all the kegs were floating except the Budweiser and Mama’s Brew (insert your least favorite beer name here).  Wow, talk about bad planning, all of this within one hour before kickoff.

Walking to the game and getting a ticket from Will Call was a breeze, even at 1:00.  You know why?  EVERYONE ELSE WAS IN THE STADUIM ALREADY.  Like I mentioned, I have been to A-Day before, and it was nothing like this.  As WEA said yesterday, it was a madhouse.  If you went up the center ramp, it was wall to wall folks. No matter which way you turned North or South, you were not finding a seat until you hit the endzone.  But we managed to sit down right at kickoff.  Oh and you can forget using your cell phone.  My iPhone was on lockdown, just like a game day.  I could not even get to my Voice Mail; I don’t have that much trouble when it is a real game.  Even AT&T was having issues.  I could text though… quite odd. 

Again, much like the TET crew, the Auburn Coaching Staff had some logistical errors on Saturday (see a pattern here).   Let’s start with the opening kickoff.  If you really want to call it kickoff… it only flew to the 15 yard line and when McCalebb caught it he had a bit of a lane to run, but when he reached the 25 the officials blew it dead.  What a joke.  This brings me to my next point.  Why not play number one offense against number one defense?  Even with a depleted secondary, let us see what either Kodi or Neil can do against a real defense.  I think the defensive starters played together for three plays total.  Even in a vanilla defense that Mayfield or Blue Bell would be proud of, the fans should at least get to see something out of the D. 

Don’t take this as a complaint, it is just telling you the facts.  I did get to see something that resembled football.  It was not football that is for sure, just look at the scoring, but it was something.  Now I have to wait months just to talk about practice.  Good thing ESPN was not there, then I would have fought all that traffic, the crowds at Mama G’s and the crowds looking for a seat, just to say, "No big deal, I can watch it on TiVo at home."  And when I get there to watch it… all I get is the end of the Bulls and Celtics game instead. 

War Damn A-Day