Thursday Night Live

CHICAGO BEARS
6


SAN FRANCISCO 49ers
10

Final


Hey everyone. We're listening to Tiger Talk, coach Gene Chizik's weekly radio show, and watching Les Bears play Les 49ers on the NFL Network. No college game this week on the HABOTN, though you can watch South Florida and Rutgers on ESPN.

Please stand and sing.

TIGER TALK TIDBITS

• Jeff Lebo, the school's second-best basketball coach, is working the first segment tonight. I now understand it was taped. I feel cheated.
  
  
• On beating Furman: ``You want to be able to have your football team play a good half of football and you hope you can jump out there, get a lead and play the other guys on your football team. We moved the ball well."
  
  
• On the Georgia game: "We know how big of a rivalry this game against Georgia is. Our guys have had great practices all week. They're really in tune. Our guys will be up for it."
  
  
• On this 5-4 Georgia team: ``They haven't slipped up one bit in terms of talent."
  
  
• Aaron from Tuscaloosa loves the show, is excited about the team, is happy about Mike Dyer committing, wants to know how Auburn can execute against this defense: ``Georgia is very, very talented. We need to get off to a fast start in the game -- that's the first thing. Our special teams are going to be very critical when it comes to field-position battles. We can't get in a hole with special teams."
  
  
• Paul from Bammerham is glad Zaccheus Etheridge is OK, wants to send him a get-well card and they exchanged addresses. Thrilling: "It'll find its way to Zac, I promise."
  
  
• He's still going. He's praising Curtis Luper's service in the Army: No answer. They cut him off quicker than Lindsay Lohan at The Viper Room.
  
  
• Paul in Abbeville is appreciative of Coach Gene signing his poster, he can't get around much, he likes the team, wants to know when Auburn is playing Alabama: Great question. Thanks.
  
  
• Mike in Albertville, who can save the show with a question at this point, wants to know if Auburn has some special stuff to use in these next two games: ``If there was something I was going to do that was unexpected and I told you, then it would be expected."
  
  
• Amy in Gulf Shores, please let her be useful. She wants to know if Auburn can disguise the blitzes better: ``Great call, Amy. We'll do that. We'll bounce around back there and see if we can confuse some people. Sounds like she has some blitzes."
  
  
• Roy from Atmore wants to know if Auburn is going to run the option: ``Absolutely, every week."
  
  
• He's still going. He wants to know if Gene will recruit in Atmore someday soon: ``I don't know if I'll be a limousine, but we'll definitely be down there because we know about the talent down there."
  
  
• Tim from the Interwebs wants to know why Ben Tate isn't getting more hype, though he was named a Doak Walker Award semifinalist today: ``That says a mouthful right there. How much publicity is he getting out there? I don't know. The NFL scouts are interested."
  
  
• T.J. in Leeds had phone trouble the other night, but he's good now. He wants to talk with Chizik about Auburn being good against Furman and wants Auburn to beat Georgia: No question. No answer. Worst show ever.
  
  
• Shane from Dothan wants to know how to get Mario and E-Smith on the field together: ``Eric plays a lot. He plays a lot of different positions. Mario is our speed sweep guy (incorrect). Mario has come on during the past few weeks basically doing triple duty. Gus is good at not pin-pointing one guys as Your Guy."
  
  
• Jonathan in Opelika loves Chizik, wants to know why Auburn runs out of the shotgun on 4th-and-1: ``We're just not a team that is under center. We will do that some in a certain package we have. We're a shotgun team. That's what we practice all the time. We have some good stuff out of that package on 4th-and-short."
  
  
• John from somewhere wants to know about Andrew McCain: ``He has practiced this week. We've had to be smart on how much we have practiced him. We're expecting him to play Saturday."
  
  
• Mitch from Atmore has questions about the guy who holds kickoffs in windy conditions -- I have no idea why this matters -- and wants to know about the team's tempo: ``We love the tempo. We know the tempo is effective ... if you're getting first downs. We'll go as fast as we can, but we have to take everything into consideration."
  
  
• Eric from The Gump wants to know why Auburn's defense is better lately ... and why Mario Fannin doesn't get the ball more: ``Our pass rush has gotten better. There's two reasons. We've had the emergence of Antoine Carter. And then Antonio ... Coleman. He's basically been playing with one arm all year. You can see that his numbers have gone up. We're being a little more aggressive with the blitzes. (That's three reasons, Gene.)
  
  
• Gene loves Georgia WR A.J. Green. Totally enamored. ``We know we've got a challenge."
  
  
• On Demond Washington: ``I don't think people really realize how big (the transition from CB to S) is. He's back there, really, for the first time. The last game was just a scrimmage. It's a different world (at Georgia)."
  
  
• Alan from Bear Creek, no idea where that is, wants CGC to give his son Charlie a shout-out and wants to know what Auburn did to improve on punt return: ``We may go in with a little bit different punt returner. We haven't had anybody from our team step up -- and that's really disappointing. We'll have to go out and recruit and find somebody to do that."
  
  
• Donald in Bammerham wants to know about off weeks: ``Since we started practice, that's a lot of straight football. We haven't had a break yet. We're glad that, going into the Iron Bowl, that we have a week off. If you have a team depth-wise where you want it, maybe (a break-free season) is a good thing. We're happy we have it. Is it the best thing? I've got back and forth on that. I don't know."
  
  
• Jason from Auburn wants to know about how players prepare mentally for the Iron Bowl without seeing their family on Thanksgiving: ``Their families ... they can come here and they can spend some time with them. You can't practice all day long. On Thanksgiving Day, we'll be done at 11:30 in the morning. We won't make them do anything until 5 p.m."
  
  
• Programming note: Tiger Talk will be on MONDAY prior to the Iron Bowl.
  
  
• Georgia is good, Gene?: ``That's what you'd expect to play. They've had a lot of years to recruit a lot of great ones."
  
  
• That's a wrap.