News of the day, 2/22
Hey everyone. We've got a few things poppin' today, so let's get to business.
I'll be covering the R.C. Hatch regional final game tonight. That game features Auburn signee Frankie Sullivan, whom I profiled in the blog a few days ago. I asked Jeff Lebo about Sullivan today. I'll get those comments posted a little later in the day.
Also, I ran my baseball season preview in this morning's print editions. Check that out if you get a chance. There are so many kids on that team from the tri-country area. That group includes several starters: catcher Ryan Jenkins (Stanhope Elmore), second baseman Joe Sanders (Stanhope Elmore), closer Evan Crawford (Prattville), starting pitchers Taylor Thompson (St. James) and Cory Luckie (Prattville).
I had a nice chat with former football coach Pat Dye today, who was in town for a Lions Club function. I know his segments on Paul Finebaum's show don't always put Dye in the most knowledgeable (lucid?) light, but he's totally normal when I talk football with him.I'm writing a column for tomorrow's paper about his thoughts on Auburn's recruiting haul. Here are a few other snippets you might find interesting. I'll be adding more as the day progresses.
**On Alabama's recruiting haul: "Alabama had the perfect recruiting scenario this season: New staff, new enthusiasm, fans are excited, low numbers. The kids can go in there and play as freshman and that's what they want to hear. There's a lot of tradition and money there."
**On the possibility of Auburn winning a seventh consecutive game against Alabama in November: "Based on what I know, Auburn should win again this year. They still have more numbers and more good football players at Auburn right now."
**On what he calls the `cycle of college coaching': ``It all goes in cycles and Tommy is at the end of his current cycle. They go about 10 years. The press gets tired of them, so people get tired of them. It's getting time for him to cycle down. Then it'll be time for him to cycle up again."
**I then asked him about how Joe Paterno and Bobby Bowden made it way past 10 years: ``They had their down cycles, too. There was a time just a few years ago when Penn State wasn't any good. Do you think Florida State is any good? Paterno and (Bowden) -- they're at the mercy of their coaching staff. They don't have any influence on their players."
**Then I asked about Paul Bryant, who obviously thrived through several cycles. Dye coached under Bryant from 1965-73: ``In 1969 and 1970, we were awful. We couldn't beat a good football team. He told us, the staff, that he wasn't going to put up with losing. He said he'd go to the NFL and we'd all be out of jobs. That put the staff back to work. Then the cycle kicked back up and we started winning again."
Alabama was 12-10-1 in 1969 and 1970 combined.
Alabama was 32-4 during the next three seasons.
Dye left for East Carolina in 1974.
I missed a little bit on my batting order prognostication. Auburn won its season opener against East Tennessee State by a score of 6-3. Here is the lineup:CF Trent Mummey
LF Brian Fletcher
RF Mike Bianucci
1B Hunter Morris
3B Joe Sanders (so much for the 2B talk)
DH Kevin Patterson
SS Matt Hall
C Ryan Jenkins
2B Justin Hargett
Questions? Comments? You can email me at: jgtate@gannett.com
posted by Jay G. Tate at
2:01 PM
28 Comments:
Jay, I played ball with Evan Crawford at Prattville. I did not know he had made the move to closer. Do you know if this was something he wanted or something the coaching staff wanted?
Evan was closing in the Cape last summer and really dug it. I think this is one of those win-win deals where Crawford wanted to be in the bullpen and Auburn needed someone in the bullpen.
Pat Dye's take on coaching cycles is full of wisdom. Too many of the ESPN-influenced younger fans with the "what have you done for me lately" attitude would kick the coach out during the "down" portion of the cycle.
Hopefully wisdom will continue to prevail at AU.
I was thinking the same thing.
Okay, but what cycle are we in now? Up or down?
I'm thinking down and moving up. But maybe three losses a year is up. Help me out here.
Dye was saying Tuberville is headed down from here (with the possibility of a rebound after the fall) ... but I tend to disagree.
Lord I hope so. I disagree as well. I am not seeing how we can go down and still be respectable. I think we have a lot of room to grow between here and the top. Which in my opinion seems to be where we are headed.
By the way, AU has offered three Texas juniors, with good reception, in the last week. Where in the world is that coming from? How and when did we get into Texas?
By the way, FYI ... Montgomery is not the place to be 36 and single. Geesh. Where are they?
Who is "they"?
Auburn is ahead of the curve on this new trend of getting kids committed early. I have a friend who is an assistant at a major non-SEC school and he said their goal is to get "most" of their 2009 class committed during the next two months.
"they" is women who are also single and thirty something.
I am available for blind dates, unless I have to be blind to date her.
That's interesting on the recruiting front. But how often does that lead to some of the same siutation we had this year? You know, a guy has been committed since birth and then changes his mind.
Although there are a lot of pretty Russian women with a poor command of the english language on Match.com.
For example:
The young, high, beautiful girl in searches of prince. I love a solitude with the lovely man, candlelight dinners, walking under moon. I am romantic girl. I love romantic evenings with the lovely man. I want to love and to be lovely. As every girl I want to find prince. Prince on the white horse. I want that all was as in a fairy tale.
So she's high? Is that considered shrewd marketing these days?
Dear Russia Girl,
I the lovely horse on the high white prince. I not the fairy but much have desire great tale as that all in.
Love Phred
Yeah I don't think coaching cycles are a ten year thing. It seems more like a four or five year thing to me. I think the next two years will be Auburn's chance to win the SEC. Why does Dye continue to go on Finebaum? All Finebaum does is call him a drunk throughout the week.
And phred two places not to look for a girl: 1. Auburn Football Blog 2. Match.com (the russian girl is probably a hooker)
"LOST" comment: Mr. Echo dies? How can a show survive without a Nigerian Drug Lord turned priest with a scripture stick stained with blood? They might have jumped the shark on that one.
Ron ... thanks for the tip. I'll try to keep that in mind.
Ron, I think you have been hanging out with Russian hookers too much.
What does "jumped the shark" mean?
Talking about Finebaum. He's like cystal meth. You want to quit him but you just can't. I HATE listening to him ... but I can't make myself stop. Maybe it's the same way for Coach Dye.
"Jump the shark" is phrase used to describe when a show starts going down hill. Supposedly there was an episode of Happy Days where fonzi "jumped a shark" and the show sucked ever since. Jumptheshark.com for more details where "LOST" is apparently the leading vote getter as the show that has never jumped the shark.
And russian hookers are a hobby of mine along with base jumping and knife fights.
Honest and open Dye is so much more interesting.
For example -- Perfect, and honest, comment: Paterno and Bowden are at the mercy of their assistants and "don't have any control over their players."
I assume he's trying to say Coach Tubbs is bound for an upswing in the next 2 years? Or is he just trying to account for the fact that no one's high on AU right now?
--
Montgomery is not the place to be MALE and single, whether its 26 or 36
--
As for "Jumping the Shark," it's a euphemism for the point at which something originally cool started to lose it's coolness.
In TV, its the episode where the show starts to lose steam.
(And it comes from the Happy Days episode where the Fonz literally jumps a shark on water skis)
--
As for Ron Mexico's "Lost" journey: Trust me, the shark hasn't been jumped. You're in a lull. The last episode of Season 3 + all 4 so far in Season 4 may very well be the best stretch of the show ever.
You haven't even been properly introduced to the best -- and most interesting/powerful -- character in the series: Ben Linus.
I see. Thanks for the info.
I think that AU football is on the upswing and shaking off the Jetgate recruiting classes.
Phred.......I think you should jump the Russian girl
It would be a real long jump I'm thinking. It says she lives in Montgomery, but somehow I don't think so. Unless it is Montgomery, Serbia.
I think you can all see my point though. It's a real dilema.
I feel like Eddie's character in Coming to America ... "yeah, there's good girls at the library, and uh, at church, yeah there's good girls there, you need to come to the meetin' with us."
I did the eharmony thing and found out that I match up quite well with fat, ugly women who have 9 children.
Mercy! Uncle! My eyes! My eyes! I think I have been blinded!
It's really pitiful.
It's a good thing I have no real desire to date.
So anyway, Jay G., you never really answered my question. Are we going to have a good baseball team or are we going to be a disappointment like last year?
It's EKO, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje asked to leave the show. He didn't like being on location in Hawaii for such long stretches. The initial plan was to have Eko on the island for a long time.
Henry Gale/Ben Linus ... probably my favorite character. Him or Locke. Sawyer is right there and I like the smarmy Ghostbuster dude, too.
As for the baseball team ... can't tell if they're going to be good. If the pitching is solid as expected and Morris/Patterson/Fletcher have good seasons, I think this is an NCAA Tournament team. There are a lot of useful pieces lying around. Surely they'll come together in some meaningful way before long.
How did they get water skis on the shark?
A girl who wants to ride your white horse on the beach is not the kind to take home to mother.
You should check with Pat about the cycles of dating. Maybe this is a down year.
Motorcycle. Fonz was to jump the shark in a tank in front of Arnolds on his motorcycle.
The storyline was that it was Wisconsin. The Great Lakes are available for water skiing about as often or as long as there are freezing temperatures in Key West. Not to mention, sharks are salt-water fish.
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