Today we look at the career of former Auburn quarterback Dameyune Craig. In my lifetime, I’d have to say he’s the best quarterback I’ve ever seen wear the orange and blue.
I was too young to remember Pat Sullivan. And no, I’m not suggesting he comes close to the Heisman winner. But you’d be hard pressed to pick a better one that’s played on the Plains since.
During the 1997 season, he passed for 3,277 yards – still the most in Auburn history (by a mile). He was not only a gifted passer, but one of the best running quarterbacks in the country. Today it’s common place to see a quarterback run – in 1997 it was something new.
Craig was given serious Heisman consideration until a late season loss to Miss State. He came within a point of leading Auburn to an SEC Championship, falling to Peyton Manning and Tennessee 30-29 in the conference championship game.
Auburn receiver Karsten Bailey single handily blew the game for the Tigers by dropping a series of Craig passes that halted Auburn drives deep in Tennessee territory.
Auburn and Craig would finish the season with a win over Clemson in the Peach Bowl. A year later the wheels fell off the Auburn program and Terry Bowden was run out of town.
The 1984 Florida State game in Tallahassee is without question the best game that was never seen by most Auburn fans. It’s my all time favorite. Despite pairing two top twenty teams, no networks picked up the game – what a shame.
No, it didn’t have the importance of an Alabama or Georgia match-up, but for sheer excitement, it’s the best I’ve ever witnessed.
It was a seesaw battle that went back and fourth for four quarters. Auburn came into the game ranked 16th after starting the season number one in both polls. FSU was ranked ninth. The Tigers were a sizable underdog. Brent Fullwood scored the winning touchdown with seconds to go. Enjoy...
Most of us were taken by surprise last week, when it was revealed that former Auburn defensive star Quentin Groves had off-season heart surgery.
The March procedure was done to correct a condition called Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. In a nutshell, it’s a condition that causes rapid heart rates in people.
Groves’s doctors assure everyone, including the NFL that the condition is manageable and should have no effect on his playing ability.
First off, anytime they touch your ticker it’s serious. I reacted with shock when first hearing about it. I’m sure your reaction was similar.
I pray that Groves is getting the best medical attention available, which I’m quite certain he is. It appears that for now anyway, his stock remains high among NFL teams. There still seems to be plenty interested.
Groves has spent the past month visiting with teams all over the league in hopes of improving his standing. He is still expected to go somewhere in the first round.
He has made it known that he covets an opportunity to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Growing up, he says he idolized the Steeler defense.
Groves was making the autograph circuit a few weeks back and my kids visited him at Dick’s Sporting Goods. He’s all they’ve talked about since. My wife said he was the friendliest, most outgoing player she’s ever met.
He spent extra time with all the kids and they now follow his every move in the papers and on the internet. It’s good to hear things like that about Auburn players.
Let’s hope that he remains in good health and can put this scare behind him.
It's tough being a fan of the school with the third most popular college vanity tag in the state of Georgia. What makes it even tougher is that my school isn't even located in the state--it's a bit west of the Chattahoochee--in really west Georgia, you might say, aka east Alabama. The loveliest village on the Plains.
But all pleasantries aside, make no mistake about it. The big dog school in the state (pun intended) is feeling a little encroached on, and the hometown refs are throwing out the little yellow hanky. Encroachment: On the visitors. 5 yard penalty. Replay the down and re-register your car.)
As most of the Tiger fans in the great state of Jawja already know, the Atlanta Auburn club was instrumental in pushing through the AU vanity tag in the state over two years ago, the first out-of-state school do be able to do so. Georgia has a variety of special-purpose plates, including many from domestic colleges. But any organization in the state can apply for their own special tag.
All they have to do is get 500 deposits from people willing to pay $25 initially for the manufacture of the plate, $25 extra a year for the renewal, plus the ordinary license plate fees and taxes.
If that organization is a college, then they must get 1000 deposits. Auburn fans came through in a big way and got the 'Auburn Club' (the official name) plate established.
Yes, Tiger fans the state over purchased the tag en masse, especially in the metro Atlanta area, where over 17,500 alumni reside. After only one year after it's issue, the Auburn plate was threatening to overtake Georgia Tech as the second most popular college tag, exceeding over 8000 plates sold by this time last year, compared to Tech's roughly 10,000.
Keep in mind though that the Tech and Georgia plates have been available for years, as opposed to just 27 months for Auburn's.
They had even become a sort of status symbol among us Blue Tigers: Since the plates were issued in ascending numerical order, the lower your plate number, the earlier you had applied to get one.
When you see a fellow Georgia-resident Tiger driving around, you always check their number--to see if they outrank you.
And everybody was fine with it--nary a cross remark from Dawg and Jacket fans. I'd like to think it's because both schools have a healthy respect for Auburn, considering the considerable history between all three schools.
Auburn has played both schools 203 combined games--almost 20% of the football games that we've played EVER! Included in that history was the first football game ever played in the deep south, in Atlanta's Grant Park, and also the oldest rivalry in the deep south--our series with Georgia, which surpassed the other oldest rivalry in the south in 1988--our series with Tech, which ended the continuous games after the 1987 season.
Add to it the fact that virtually every single game in the series with both schools was played on Georgia soil prior to 1960, and you get a solid bond between the schools in the Athens to Atlanta to Auburn triangle.
But nothing good lasts forever. Emboldened by the success of Auburnites to get a tag, soon Clemson and Tennessee followed, getting themselves established in Georgia, too.
Innocuous enough, no heated rivalries with either the Orange Tigers or the Vowels. But then comes the Atlanta Gator club, with their plans to follow suit. Boom! Game over! No way the Dawgs are going to stand for this! Florida is one of their two biggest rivals, and the biggest one in the last 17 seasons.
Naturally, Georgia fans can't prevent Tech fans from having a state of Georgia tag, but by God, they can stop the infiltration of Gators. And since Georgia fans run the state, the power of government is in their hands.
I can't say that I really blame the Dawgs for feeling this way. Just imagine that Tuscaloosa was about 50 miles further west, in Mississippi, and that their alumni in the state of Alabama wanted to get their own tag.
Do you see now? Phrases like "no way in hell" come to mind instantly. Anyway, at first, there were humorous articles from Georgia fans who were legislators. One remarked that Gator plates weren't necessary because cars on blocks didn't require tags.
But abruptly, the jokes stopped, and with the new legislative session came a bill, HB 1165, that was going to end this license plate carpetbagging.
It proposes the discontinuation of these out of state vanity tags unless other states in the region offer reciprocal agreements for alumni and fans of state of Georgia universities. Talk about taking your ball and running home!
Obviously, a lot of fans of many schools are upset. We Auburn folk are the most established and would be affected the most, but we have to understand that although the scorn is directed at the Gators, we're stuck in the cross-fire none the less.
HB 1165 passed in the Georgia house in a landslide. But luckily, it's sitting dead in the senate at present, seemingly bogged down. It may end up dying this session, too.
Popular opposition has been strong, and there's even an online petition where Auburn fans can go and give their input:
Since the language in the bill is ambiguous about what constitutes a reciprocal agreement in bordering states, there is genuine concern about the legalities of it.
Using a narrow interpretation, seemingly only Tennessee currently has a provision for out of state vanity tags similar to Georgia's. There's even been discussion that perhaps a way to avoid most of the fallout while sticking it to the Gators all at the same time might be to implement the law but to grandfather in all existing tags.
While that would save our precious AU plates, I don't feel that would be fair to Florida and other fans wishing to get their own tags.
The Georgia legislature, which meets in Atlanta, the state capital, should realize that the eyes of the south are upon them. The alumni of virtually every major university in the southeast congregate in Atlanta in large numbers, and you better know that they're going to take notice of this petulant behavior.
And you better know that these people vote, too. Do the right thing, state of Georgia--my native state. Just say 'cha-ching' with the extra tax money and let them all have their tags. Be the adult here, set the example. Don't give in to childish whims. And most importantly, War Eagle!
WEA
#2253
I want to thank all of you who’ve posted comments and sent emails. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I’m honestly taken back by the response from you all.
In recent days, I’ve really discovered what an awesome Auburn community we’ve created here. Auburn people really are special.
We are going to regroup and add some additional writers to Track’em Tigers. All of them will be names you recognize – our most loyal readers. Our plan is to have four or five new writers who will contribute on a weekly basis.
I believe this will make the site even better. It will also allow me to stay on and continue to manage the site, but lessen the workload. The benefit for you is more Auburn voices and opinions, which is really what a blog is all about.
Those joining the staff have some great ideas, and I’ll be reaching out to them in the coming days to finalize everything. In the meantime, please bear with us and keep checking back. Our hope is to be up and running by next week.
Auburn’s quarterback race has narrowed to two. In the race to succeed Brandon Cox, offensive coordinator Tony Franklin made on Tuesday what is really his first public comments about the new pecking order at quarterback.
"These last few practices, we are giving Chris (Todd) and Kodi (Burns) most of the reps," said Franklin.
"If somebody emerges clear-cut a lot better than the other one, you may have one guy. But I don't think that's going to happen. I've told them I don't think it is. I think they will go into the summer and will be competing against each other."
This move comes as really no surprise to anyone.
The big loser is Neil Caudle who got a fresh start to prove himself with a new coordinator. He’s looked good at times this spring, but continues to make too many mistakes and force too many balls that have resulted in interceptions.
Franklin is already talking about Caudle in a backup role.
"Neil will be a great backup for them," Franklin said. "He's a great team guy, a great Auburn guy that wants to be here. He'll do a great job as a backup. If one of them falters, he'll be ready to step in and take his place."
It will be interesting to see whether Caudle decides to continue at Auburn or look for a transfer elsewhere.
Freshman DeRon Furr continues to run fourth-string and will likely receive a redshirt this year unless coaches convince him to change positions. Furr is a gifted athlete who needs to be on the field somewhere.
He has his heart set on quarterback and its unlikely coaches will convince to jump positions this year.
With the battle now down to Burns and Todd, this Saturday’s A-Day game may be the deciding factor in who’s named quarterback. You can bet it will feel more like October than March for both players on Saturday.
A-Day is set to kickoff at 1:00 pm CT from Jordan-Hare Stadium. Admission is $5 for the general public and free for students.
Tommy Bowden finds himself in another embarassing situation.
By Jay Coulter jccoulter@gmail.com
It seems that Clemson coach Tommy Bowden has himself in a public relations nightmare. You may remember the story of Clemson tailback Ray Ray McElrathbey.
The reserve back gained notoriety last season after getting custody of his little brother in the wake of his mother’s drug problems and his father’s gambling issues.
Now it seems Bowden has cut McElrathbey from the team because Clemson has an abundance of running backs after signing several during this recruiting period.
"We're pretty good at running back right now," Bowden said recently. As many schools do, Clemson signed 25 players this year which pushed it above the NCAA mandated 85 scholarship limit. That means somebody has to go.
"He (McElrathbey) said something about how they weren't going to renew his scholarship," said Davis, who has been friends with McElrathbey since their high school days in Atlanta. "It really surprised me. But there's a lot of stuff you can't say. It's something I guess everybody has to learn to live with."
Below is a video from ESPN Gameday last year that tells the story of McElrathbey and his brother.
Today you are in for a good read. One of our loyal readers and frequent contributors, War Eagle Atlanta looks at the best tandems in college football. Is it Auburn/Alabama? Read on, the results are interesting...
WHICH STATES ARE HOME TO THE HISTORICALLY BEST FOOTBALL TANDEM IN THE NATION?
By War Eagle Atlanta
Yes, exactly which state has the best one-two punch of all in the college football world out there? Could it be the larger states, or maybe the states with the old guard of teams, or possibly a combination of the two?
This is the question that many have pondered, including myself, as I have asked the question in a post or two on many a blog. It sounds like a question that just reeks of opinion and no fact, but it's not.
It's entirely based on fact, and little did we know that the data needed was right under our fingertips the whole time.
Unfortunately, for states large and small, only the best two teams from a state are given consideration. The two school standard is the most common among state universities in the country. That obviously hurts large states like Florida, who could easily be represented by FSU, Miami, or Florida, or California, who could have USC, UCLA, and Cal.
Also not represented well are one-horse states, those that primarily have only one dominant program, states like Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, and Louisiana. I guess that’s the price for cornering the market on football glory in your backyard, wouldn’t you say?
Furthermore, only Bowl Subdivision teams (Division I-A for my fellow Neolithic fans out there) are considered. Although we owe the Ivies a debt for bringing us into this pigskin world, they are no longer relevant in the modern world for major college football, so we’ve eliminated them from our calculations. (Yes, you CAN argue that they play ‘real’ football, and I’d probably agree with you, but we’ll have to take that up in another thread)
SO WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THE DATA THAT BACKS UP YOUR STATEMENTS?
Take your pick. College football fans, upon discovering the blanket coverage of their beloved sport on the internet,easily find a rich abundance of stats and information available to them in a variety of formats.
Perhaps the most concise and easy-to-follow site is cfbdatawarehouse.com. Many of us like to quote from the site, many more use it just for learning more about their favorite team or conference.
Glancing over the site, they tell you that the most popular stat accessed from their data, behind all-time coaching records, is something they call their "Rankings Index".
It is a comprehensive analysis of all teams in college football history, and ranks them from top to bottom either ‘all-time’, last ‘quarter century’, or by the ‘decade’. There it is, for all to see—their rankings of the teams, compiled from data from four separate categories.
These categories are: Winning percentage, Strength of Schedule percentage, National Championship points, and Big Four Bowl points (having played in the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta bowls) Points are tallied from all four categories and the rankings are derived from the totals.
Does CFBDWH own the patent on winning college football indexing? No, they don’t, but I really like their format. You could take data from a hundred different categories, but still not have the jest of it as they do in their four-item format.
Yes, you could probably convince Jeff Sagarin to do one of his own (he may have, I dunno. I didn’t really bother to check...) but for the sake of my argument, these are the stats that we’re using.
And yes, I admit, I don’t know all the inner workings of the formula that CFBDWH uses. Three of the four are simple enough: All-Time Winning percentage, expressed as the percentage times 1000 for the point total, National championship points, expressed as a total of 50 points per NC, and Big Four bowl points, expressed as 15 or 20 points per bowl game. The only mystery is the Strength of Schedule points.
I’ve sent them emails asking how they determine it, but I guess they don’t want to give it up. These things tend to be proprietary in nature. They probably don’t want any competition from anyone else—guys like me, perhaps.
Or maybe they’re just lazy in answering emails. Maybe I should have told them I was from Track ‘Em Tigers. Hmmm... Anyway, guess we’ll just have to accept their value for SOS as being legitimate.
Okay, so it’s simple enough, right? Just get the totals for all the teams, combine them by states and you have your answers, right? Uh...well, uh... No. Not quite.
Do you remember what they used to tell you when you were young, "Never question authority?" Well, I didn’t listen. I did question it, and I still do. I’ve got a problem with how they award their national championships on CFBDWH and I can’t use their data. Yeah, yeah. Anyone who knows me knows how Mythical National Championships are the burr under my saddle, and I just can’t leave well enough alone, especially when I have a point to make.
And I’ve made that point on Track'em Tigers before. Read the last comment on this thread. That is where I analyzed who was really embellishing all those lofty MNC claims and who was on the money. If you don’t want to read that thread, the Cliff’s Notes version of the NC claims that I respect is this:
Only current Division 1-A teams.
Only AP championships (1934, 1936-present) UP championships 1935, 1950-1957) UPI championships (1958-1995) USA Today/ESPN championships (1997-present) and BCS championships (1998-present) are counted. However, prior to 1950, when the AP and UP polls ran concurrently, I will accept a preponderance of the other selectors.
No back-dated championships (anything before 1934)
Suffice it to say that my standard of MNC is much stricter than CFBDWH’s. They tend to accept what a lot of teams, especially the big ones, claim on their resume—which is totally bogus for a lot of them. Nevertheless, as much as I love to dwell on this subject, we simply must move on. Now on with the countdown!
What CFBDWH submits to you as the top 25 all-time Div 1-A football programs is this, with points rounded to the nearest whole number and site accepted MNCs.
Team Total Points MNCs
Notre Dame 2332 12
Alabama 2314 11
So. Cal 2242 10
Michigan 2157 7
Oklahoma 2046 7
Texas 1956 4
Ohio State 1950 5
Nebraska 1935 5
Tennessee 1813 4
LSU 1810 3
Georgia 1726 2
Georgia Tech 1712 4
Miami 1661 5
Penn St. 1659 2
Minnesota 1619 6
Pittsburgh 1602 6
Florida 1565 2
Auburn 1529 1
Illinois 1529 4
Texas A+M 1521 2
Washington 1491 1
Florida St. 1466 2
Arkansas 1458 1
Michigan St. 1435 3
UCLA 1433 1
Then here’s my revised list, showing actual number of MNCs, and the point revision after the deduction. Remember, every MNC is worth 50 points.
Team MNCs Real MNCs Revised points New Rank
ND 12 8 2132 1
Alabama 11 7 2064 3
USC 10 7 2092 2
Michigan 7 3 1957 5
Oklahoma 7 7 2046 4
Texas 4 4 1956 6
OSU 5 5 1950 7
Nebraska 5 5 1935 8
Tennessee 4 2 1713 11
LSU 3 3 1810 9
Georgia 2 2 1726 10
GA Tech 4 1 1562 16
Miami 5 5 1661 12
Penn St. 2 2 1659 13
Minnesota 6 6 1619 14
Pittsburgh 6 2 1402 23
Florida 2 2 1565 15
Auburn 1 1 1529 17
Illinois 4 0 1329 32
Texas A+M 2 1 1471 19
Washington 1 1 1491 18
FSU 2 2 1466 20
Arkansas 1 0 1408 22
Mich St. 3 2 1385 24
UCLA 1 1 1433 21
So there they are, with their revised rankings and point total. So all we do now is add up two teams from assorted states and we should have the winners. Keep in mind that one of the teams from certain states might not have been reflected in the original top 25 list, but I got them off the CFBDWH list. Those teams are reflected with an asterisk. Here are the top 10:
State Teams Points Comments
AL Auburn, Alabama 3593 Small state gets it done!
CA USC, UCLA 3525 Big state, no surprise
TX UT, ATM 3427 No surprise here, either
IN ND, Purdue* 3411 One hit wonder w/ ND
MI UM, MSU 3342 Fine FB tradition
GA UGA, GaTech 3288 Only two 1A schools there
FL Miami, Florida 3226 Will only get better
OK OU, OSU* 3105 Not bad considering the size
PA PSU, Pitt 3061 Solid rust-belt tradition
TN UT, Vandy* 2921 Oh, you forgot Vandy, huh?
So there it is: The top states in the union for all-time college football glory, in this man’s opinion. I’ve done my best to lay out the data and explain how I’ve interpreted it. Now it’s time to lay it on me.
I can remember not too many years ago having to drive 20 miles to find the Sunday Birmingham Post-Herald. The same for the Montgomery Advertiser. It was a fall football tradition following a big Auburn win. To get your Auburn football news you had to look for it.
I remember grabbing the papers and reading columns by Clyde Bolton and Alf Van Hoose. It was many times the only real Auburn coverage we’d get all week.
How times have changed.
Today, thanks to the internet there are numerous choices when it comes to Auburn football. There are the pay services of AUTigers.com and Auburn Sports.com, which are worth every penny. All the newspapers are online and of course, there’s YouTube where you can get instant highlights.
But as you’d expect, the places I like to visit the most are the blogs. In my opinion, this is where you gauge the true climate of Auburn fans. It’s a place for fans to write and for fans to respond.
There are no filters. I’ve read on more than one occasion where Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs has bad mouthed blogs. He knows it’s a place where the truth is told. It’s a daily editorial page and I’m sure he’d just assume it go away.
Thankfully that’s not happening with Auburn fans. When I started my first blog, Football Saturday in the South nearly four years ago, I was about the only one blogging about Auburn athletics.
Jerry Hinnen came shortly after with The Joe Cribbs Car Wash. His site still has the most creative name of all the blogs in the country.
Today there are several, relatively new top-notch blogs that you need to bookmark and visit every day.
My friend, Jeremy Henderson has launched an awesome site called The War Eagle Reader and he updates it daily. It’s an awesome read and it’s one of the first places I visit each morning.
Today, I discovered another new blog, The Corner of Wire Road and Shug. It’s very new and shows promise. It has a great look to it.
And then there’s The Auburner, which is less of a blog and more of a general interest Auburn web site. The guys who write for it are hilarious. It’s true comedy.
And as you know, the newspaper guys have gotten into the act. The best is without question Phillip Marshall of The Huntsville Times. He should quit his job and start a pay site. He’d get rich.
If you haven’t already, make sure and check out these sites. You get a lot of different perspectives from many different view points. And most of all, it means never having to say that football season is over.
Judging from the message boards and internet sites around the state today, it’s apparent the anger toward Auburn athletic director Jay Jacobs isn’t toning down.
I received a number of emails expressing anger toward Jacobs over the handling of the Will Muschamp departure to Texas.
More than 5,000 miles away the same scenario is being played out in Honolulu. Hawaii fans are angry over the way the school’s athletic director, Herman Frazier handled the contract negotiations with head coach June Jones.
You probably read that Jones accepted the coaching job at SMU on Monday. Things have gotten so bad for Frazier that he’s expected to step down at any moment.
Here’s a quote from a state representative on the island commenting about the contract negotiations with Jones...
"Was the ball dropped? Definitely. Is director Frazier to blame? I believe so," said state Rep. K. Mark Takai, who led a legislative briefing in May regarding concerns with the athletics program.
"I don't think that the athletics program can function now with Frazier at the helm. Changes are going to have to be made."
Luckily for Hawaii, the president of the university stepped to the plate and handled the situation. President David McClain issued this statement...
"I also want to apologize to our fans and all of Hawaii for matters getting to this stage in the first place," he said. "Exceptional performance deserves exceptional recognition and your university was slow to step up. That won't happen again."
Does this sound familiar?
Change the name of the schools and plug in Muschamp for Jones and you could be talking about the same place.
Again the question begs, if you are the athletic director at Auburn why engage in a heated argument with one of your most valued employees?
Muschamp didn’t leave Auburn because it was a better job. Nor did he leave for more money (he’s making the same amount at Texas).
Forget about talk of taking the Texas job because it set him up for a better position down the road.
He left for the same reason most everyone leaves a job. He didn’t feel appreciated where he was employed.
He didn’t feel like he had the support he needed. And don’t think for a minute it wasn’t lost on him how they treated Tommy Tuberville in his contract negotiations a few weeks earlier.
Now contrast this with the reception he received in Austin. Muschamp was not only met by head coach Mack Brown, but also was greeted by the school’s president. Both asked him to join their team.
What would you have done? I know where I’d be cashing my check.
As painful as this experience has been, it may end up working to Auburn’s advantage. Hopefully it has gotten the attention of Auburn President Jay Gogue.
It has been an active two days for Auburn recruiting. After receiving a verbal commitment from JUCO quarterback Chris Todd on Sunday, the Tigers followed up Monday with another big prospect in McAdory High School safety Marcus Jemison (6-2, 190).
Rivals.com rates Jemison as the number 48 ranked athlete in the country. Here’s something interesting: he picked Auburn over Clemson. Let’s hope the streak of success carries to the end of the month.
He credited recruiter Terry Price and the proximity to Auburn as reasons for choosing Auburn. The Tigers brought the house in sealing the deal. Last week Jemison got an in-home visit from Price, Tommy Tuberville and Will Muschamp. It worked.
He led McAdory to a 10-0 record this fall.
After spending the first few days of bowl practice on Tony Franklin’s new offense, Auburn shifted its attention to Clemson on Monday. Tommy Tuberville says he’s pleased with the way things are going.
"It was a good day for us," Tuberville said. "The weather cooperated. We've had four days of physical practice. We have done that on purpose, trying to be as physical as we can, so we can get to the bowl game and not have to do as much."
"Mentally, we are getting a lot better in terms of knowing what to do for Clemson," Tuberville noted. "This is really only the second day that we have worked on them. One more day, and we'll pretty much have everything we are going to do on both sides of the ball."
The Tigers will practice today at 10 a.m. before taking a few days off for Christmas. The team will meet again in Atlanta on Christmas night.
Auburn and Clemson meet in the 40th Chick-fil-A Bowl Monday, Dec. 31, in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. It will be the 46th meeting between the teams and the second time they have met in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
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