I see a lot of fans who were like “This is the worst loss I’ve seen in six years” and “10 years” and this, and I was like, “Well, you know? I’ve been a fan a little bit longer than that.”
So, I remember 2003 USC, game one. I remember this like it was yesterday. Junior Rosegreen comes into the athletic department while I’m cutting film and highlights.
And my boss looks at him and says “You guys gonna win the game?” and he’s like, “Yeah, we’re gonna beat their a–,” right? And everybody felt good. The energy before the game was electric. It was amazing. Preseason #6. USC came in #17.
We didn’t score a point in that game. It looked as bad as it could possibly get, and that was game 1.
These kind of beat downs happen. That team still went on, pulled it together to win eight games. The Nall-Sminger offense disaster that was, it happens. And we almost fired that coach. People were done with Tuberville that season and he found a way to pull out some late season wins and get eight games. Or 2004 never happens.
Nobody after USC that year thought the rest of that season was possible.
Nobody.
And if you say you were one of those people, you’re practicing revisionist history. You’re only looking at the outcome. Because if you were there, you remember vividly what it was like before. People were even more down after we got goose egged at home than yesterday. The only difference was we didn’t have Facebook and Twitter and all these things for people to overreact on. But it was bad. I’ve never seen 90,000 people so quiet after a game than after we got goose egged at home versus USC.
Ceasear: And then we came back the following week…
And didn’t score another touchdown!
Ceasear: …against Georgia Tech…
Right. They literally ripped the goal post down and threw it over the side of the stadium after they beat us. This is a real story.
Game three, we played Vanderbilt. And Tuberville was a quiet guy at practice. And he came in and he said he, I mean, I’d never seen him so fired up at practice.
He was like, “I’m sick of this sh–! There’s two games that we hadn’t scored a damn touchdown. We’re gonna go up to Tennessee. We’re gonna whoop their a– and we’re gonna do it on national television!”
They won that game. I remember Jeris McIntyre bounced off a guy to score the first touchdown of the season. And they dug deep man, because that team had heart. It didn’t start the way that they planned, but they had heart and they dug deep, the coaches dug deep, and they found a way to get through that season and get eight wins and beat Bama.
Bryan Harsin. I know you don’t watch the show because you got things to do. But if there’s somebody close to you that watches it, my message to this staff is do that.
Dig deep, find the heart, get it out of this team. Nobody phones in their season after week three! Find it! Because I saw a staff that everybody counted out do it. And I believe these guys are good guys and they want to, but like, man, eat your ego and just admit we had a bad plan. Let’s rip this thing up.
I remember, ask Tuberville, he’ll tell you Nall-Sminger was a mistake! There was no, “we need to execute better” and all that stuff. It was a mistake. We needed to go a different direction.
Find a way to get the win. Because listen, this a– whooping only gets you down if you follow up with a dud the next week against Missouri. Because in college football, you’re only as good as the last good thing you did. And right now, the last good thing you did was Ole Miss last year! Figure it out! That was the last good thing you did. That was the last power five team you beat. Figure this sh– out, man! It’s time. I believe they can do it. I’m not ready to phone in the season, but Godd—– if it’s not crunch time.
Now, does this put more pressure on Bryan Harsin? You just gotta go win games. He needed to beat Missouri the same amount that he needed to beat (’em) before Penn State. A loss to Missouri was always gonna be unacceptable. Put your ego to the side and look at what you guys have done and rip this mofo up, man. Light a fire under your team, the same way Tuberville said “It’s been two games that we haven’t scored a damn touchdown, but I’ll be damned if we go out like some punks!”
Show me that and I can stay behind this coaching staff. Because if we never ride that out, we don’t get one of the most historic seasons in Auburn football history.
People will watch this later and @ me at Twitter and say “Oh, well, you’re trying to say Bryan Harsin is Tommy Tuberville.” Well, nobody thought Tommy Tuberville was Tommy Tuberville that year. NOBODY. And if you’re saying you did, you’re f—— liar! You’re lying! You’re lying. I heard it. They fired up the jets. People got fired over how they handled it.
Light a fire under their a–es man, and get after it. There’s talent on this team. These kids that have worked their a–es off all off season deserve better. They all deserve better. Figure it out, man. 5 million a year, figure it out. I’m still with him…
I’m still with him.