Coach P Wants You to Tailgate on the Terrace!
Gus Malzahn has taken the Tiger Prowl recruiting tool to Arkansas State and renamed it the A-State Ambush. The secondary NCAA violations can't be too far away.
Auburn basketball hosted two recruits over the A-Day weekend, but it appears that both have signed with other schools. Back to the drawing board for Tony Barbee.
Offensive coordinator Scot Loeffler tried to explain his philosophy and shed some light on what Auburn's 2012 offense might look like in a recent Q and A.
In case you missed it, the Auburn Villager reports that residents of the Loveliest Village enjoy higher satisfaction than the national average. No surprise there.
In a ranking of the SEC's offensive guards, Auburn's John Sullen checks in at No. 11.
Gene Chizik answered a few questions at this morning's SEC coaches' teleconference and said that he believes Auburn is closer to having an offensive identity. He also likes the strides that quarterback Kiehl Frazier has made. Related: If Frazier is healthy and isn't the starter against Clemson, we'll be stunned.
Chizik believes the Clemson game will be a great test for this Auburn team. Frankly, if the offense can't put up some solid numbers against a defense that gave up 70 in its last game, we should consider it a major failure.
Chizik's decision to introduce NFL verbiage into his team's offensive and defensive schemes was a smart one.
The Auburn staff is making a hard push for 4-star tight end and Alabama commit O.J. Howard, which is just despicable, right Nick Saban?
For any Auburn fans hoping the Tigers will break out orange jerseys at some point in time, we hope this photo changes your mind.
Mississippi State will be wearing white alternate uniforms for its game against Texas A&M on Nov. 8. State is an Adidas school now, and because it was a Nike school at the time that it wore the uniform inspiring the alternates, the Bulldogs won't be able to use the helmet logo from that uniform. Apparently, Nike claims ownership of that logo. This is a prime example of why a school shouldn't get too cozy with any uniform supplier.
No. 128 in Barrett Salee's countdown of the SEC's best players going into 2012 is none other than Auburn offensive lineman Chad Slade.
Pat Summitt, one of the true legends in all of coaching, stepped down as head of the Tennessee women's basketball program on Wednesday to focus her attention on fighting Alzheimer's Disease. We felt that some words needed to be written on Summitt's great career, but as a bunch of Auburn fans, we didn't know where to start. Thankfully, Volunteer partisan Ryan McBee was kind enough to offer his take on Summitt in this guest column. 
There has more content generated in the last 48 hours about Pat Summitt than is usually generated over an entire women’s basketball season. I love that Pat is garnering this attention and that she is feeling that love and respect that she deserves, but it seems a little bittersweet when I think about the seasons and tournaments that these well meaning folks missed. I’m going to miss Pat, and I’m going to miss her for more than the wins and losses. I’m going to miss her for the things that she has meant to my family and me.
You see, I grew up in a house where women's basketball mattered. It mattered as much as the football team and more than men’s basketball team. When you're an eight-year-old kid watching the guys win 12 games a year, it isn't hard to fall in love with a team that actually competes for championships. Add to that a progressive and strong woman for a mother and you can see where I fell in love with girls playing basketball.
I was there when Pat coached a ten loss team through three rematches and won a national championship. I was there when she took a team 39-0 and to a third straight championship. I was there for a countless number of her 1,098 wins. If you think I’m an anomaly, you need only look at any crowd of orange in East Tennessee. You will always find a pocket of baby blue, the accent of the dynasty that Pat built. In a conference where 16,000 is a good crowd for a men’s basketball game, the women drew it regularly. UT doesn't hang banners celebrating trips to the NCAA tournament; it hangs the ones that celebrate championships.
All those wins and all those rings made so many fun memories, but the thing I’m most proud of is how Pat Summitt won. In sports, we talk about “winning the right way,” and the Lady Vols basketball team lived it. Every last one of her four-year players graduated. They did it because of her unrelenting standards. Lady Vols sit in the first two rows of their classes. Pat knows everything that goes on with her players -- whether they wanted her to or not. She understood that becoming champions had more to do with turning girls into women than using a zone defense -- the truth is she abhorred the zone most of her 38 seasons.
In Pat, we have our great white knight. The closest she ever came to controversy was not playing UConn because of a personal feud. She not only inspired women all over the world, but many of UT’s male athletes wanted to meet her on their recruiting visits. Pat was the calming force on campus when the football and basketball programs were in chaos. We could always count her her to do the right thing.
On Wednesday, she did the right thing. Pat did what she believed was best for her son Tyler, and she gave up the only thing she has known since she was 22 years old. She gave her whistle to Holly Warlick, and she won’t be coaching basketball anymore. But she will still be turning girls into women, and for that, the Volunteer nation will be forever grateful.
On the eighth day of Auburn spring practice, Greg Robinson and Clint Moseley returned to action. It also sounds like Cody Parkey and Jawara White are dealing with injuries.
If any of you gamers want to see Cam Newton on the cover of Madden 13, we have good news. Newton advanced to the Elite Eight in EA Sports' Madden cover bracket, where he will face Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Voting for this matchup lasts until April 11 and can be done here.
Despite recovering from the last miserable days of the Tuberville Era and leading Auburn to its first national title in 53 years in Year 2, Gene Chizik ranks just 23rd on this list of coaches you'd want to build a program with. Two of the coaches ranked ahead of Chizik: Mark Richt and Steve Spurrier. We're sure any success Auburn has this year will be credited to Scot Loeffler.
If there's any way to make a plus-one playoff worse than the BCS, the folks in charge of the Rose Bowl have found it. We're big fans of tradition when it comes to college football, but these Rose Bowl bros need to get a grip on reality and understand that, these days, the Big 10 and Pac-12 champs don't get to play in Pasadena every year.
Williams-Flournoy had assistant coaching stops at Georgetown, Georgia, and Southwest Missouri State before landing the head job with the Hoyas in 2004. In her tenure, Georgetown has gone to three consecutive NCAA tournaments, reaching as far as the second round. During her time at Georgia, Williams-Flournoy was the recruiting coordinator under legend Andy Landers. Her old recruiting ties will no doubt be useful as she moves back to the Southeastern Conference.
Williams-Flournoy will inherit an Auburn team that had struggled during the last couple of seasons under fan favorite Nell Fortner. She also inherits what will be an experienced team. The Tigers will lose three seniors from this year's class, leaving nine returning players.
Williams-Flournoy is the first female African-American head coach in school history. She and her husband, Eric, have two children, Maya and Eric Jr.
Auburn's new offensive and defensive coordinators and their systems are being heartily endorsed by players and assistant coaches. In the case of DC Brian VanGorder, this isn't all that surprising, but it is interesting to see players mentioning the need of a fresh start after Gus Malzahn's offensive schemes.
Auburn fans have high hopes for redshirt freshman linebacker Kris Frost, but it sounds like he's still playing catchup after last year's shoulder injury.
CaM contributor Ross Collings gives us five football players that could break out in 2012. If you know Ross, you probably aren't surprised that DeAngelo Benton made this list.
The search for a women's basketball coach may be coming to its conclusion. No done-deal names have been leaked, but N.C. State head coach Kellie Harper and Miami head coach Katie Meier seem to be a couple of names to keep an eye on.
REMINDER: Kenny Gabriel will be competing in tonight's State Farm Dunk Contest in New Orleans. The event will air on ESPN at 8 p.m.
If things go according to plan, the team should show improvement from Year 1, with players having fully grasped a new system and adapted to a new coaching style. But unless the school we're talking about is steeped in tradition and just in need of a new man running the show -- see John Calipari at Kentucky -- Year 2 for a head coach can be a bit frustrating. The noticeable improvement might be there, but it's still a transitional time, especially for a head coach, like Tony Barbee at Auburn, that is trying to build a program from the ground up.
Year 2 will likely feature some losses that feel undeserved and a record that leaves something -- or a lot of things -- to be desired. In that case, one shouldn't simply look at the team's wins and losses. There is a need to look deeper to fine out just how successful the season was and if the team is headed down the right path into the future.
For Auburn this year, the final record certainly left plenty to be desired. The Tigers finished 15-16 overall and 5-11 in SEC play. That marked the third consecutive year that Auburn finished with a record below .500, double-digit losses in conference play and no postseason. There haven't been too many periods of basketball success on the Plains, but that's a rough stretch, even for Auburn's standards. Does Barbee have the Tigers on the right track? Will Auburn be competing with the SEC's elite in the near future? Will Auburn fans soon be looking to March as a month to celebrate basketball, as opposed to the time to shift into baseball and football spring practice modes? Only time will tell, but we can get an idea by looking closely at Auburn in 2011-12 and comparing the Tigers to Barbee's first season in 2010-11.
