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Here's a hodgepodge of what I saw last night:
I checked into the pressbox at 5pm. Jesus, what a crowd. The place was packed and everyone was watching Tennessee/Kentucky. I grabbed coffee, set up my computer. I was stationed next to Outback Bowl and Chick-fil-la Bowl reps--both who seemed extremely interested in Auburn. After brief chit-chat, I went down to the field.
GREAT PRE-GAME MOMENT:
I didn't see TigerWalk, but did witness the players coming onto the field immediately after. Man, they were loose. The student section was already full. The players were still wearing their sweats and were dancing, laughing--generally goofing off. The place erupted when Brandon and Quentin stepped out of the tunnel. They both looked on the verge of tears. Incredibly emotional for those dudes--both who have given so much for Auburn. Way cool.
HYSTERICAL PRE-GAME MOMENT:
Alabama's special teams came out on the field roughly an hour before kickoff.
Instead of practicing on the north end of the field, the Bammers chose to preform their pre-game kicking drills by facing the south end zone--thus kicking into the already-full student section. Keep in mind, that unlike most division I schools, we do NOT have nets behind our goalposts, therefore the kicked ball usually lands somewhere in the stands. Each time Leigh Tiffin kicked one into the student section, the kids refused to throw the ball back..instead tossing the footballs around the stands. Unfettered, Tiffin kept kicking more and more footballs into the frenzied group of kids until the Bammer special teams ran out of balls!! Swear to God, there were easily ten footballs being thrown around! All the extra Bama practice balls were either bagged up on the north end or being flung from one seating section to another! I was standing on the sidelines a few feet from the visiting David Irons who was doubled-over in hysterics. IT WAS AWESOME!!! Finally, the PA announcer sternly announced: "PLEASE RETURN ALL PRACTICE BALLS TO THE PLAYING FIELD". The kiddos did as instructed.
Then, Tiffin started backing up, kicking from 30, 35, 40, 45, 50yds away, and missed 6 out of the last ten. With each miss, the Auburn student body gave out a thunderous, "Awwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!".
No bottles were thrown, no cussing, just good-natured and creative-screwing-around-with-Bammer stuff. Just priceless!
