Much has happened!

Since I last touched base, there are many, many things that have happened. First and most importantly, we had our third baby. Weston Thomas came on 8/18. It was a bit of a surprise, well, at least in terms of what time he came. Erika actually went into labor early that morning and thought it was just her coming down with something. It was labor pains! He weighed 8'12" and was 20.5" long. He is healthy and the older kids like him so everything is kosher. Life is good and I'm enjoying every minute.

Now, on to football. The 2010 football season has started and as of last night, my beloved Auburn Tigers are 2-0 and 1-0 in the SEC. The first game was against Arkansas St. and the good guys won 52-26. I know, 26 is alot of points to give up to a cupcake but they have a new coordinator and a pretty good receiver. I knew our defense would be really suspect this year, so I'm not too shocked by giving up alot of yards and points. The O however, looked really good. Cam Newton is a beast and will cause D coordinators to have sleepless nights trying to scheme against him. This set it up for this past Thursday's showdown with Mississippi St. The good guys prevailed again 17-14 but I feel a lot less encouraged after this game than I did last game. We played so so SO much better on defense (to the tune of saving the game for us) but our offense was not very good. And when I say not very good, I mean downright pull-your-hair-out frustrating. We did good in the first half except for another mismanagement of time right before half. What is the deal with Malzahn and his offense in these situations? Run a freakin play and go go go! Then in the second half, the O turned into the "o". We crossed over the State 40 yard line 4 times. "4" TIMES!!!! and didn't score!!!! That is so reminiscent of last year and, God forbid, the year before that that I can't stand it. We had two penalties that absolutely killed us on these drives but that is no excuse for not capitalizing when we had the chance. We really should have won by a score of 31-7 if not for muffing that punt and not scoring inside the 20 twice! Then everyone would be talking about how we dominated instead of eeking out a win. O well, that is how it goes. Just a caveat to this, Miss St. has had this game circled on their calendar all summer. This was to be their turning point game and statement game for the year. We were very fortunate to win but we dominated statistically. We outgained them by 102 yards and they scored one of their touchdowns by starting on Auburn's 20 (after the muffed punt). Sure they had some drops but they also benefited from a terrible pass interference call on Neiko Thorpe when it was 3rd and 15 that kept a drive alive and then on a no-call against Kodi Burns. Kodi got hit from behind before the ball got there and it was soooooo obvious. But did we get a flag? Heck no! Again, o well. Regardless of what the bammers say, Miss St. was extremely fired up for this game and played really really inspired. Also, many many "smart" people had predicted AU taking their first loss last night. Does the offense need some work being consistent and pass more? yes. Does the defense need to play like that all year and not have lapses in the secondary in critical situations? yes. But I know that at the end of the day AU is undefeated and we won a road game in the SEC and got our players major experience in playing on the road with a hostile (if not illegal cow bell ringing) environment. Till next time, WAR EAGLE!!