Scott Fillmer » college

Gene Chizik of Auburn is Volcanic on Google Trends

Scott Fillmer — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 22:05:15 +0000

So this is basically old news now, Gene Chizik is now the new Auburn Tigers head coach we have all been waiting on now for about 2 weeks. I almost felt obligated to post something about the new head coach living here in Auburn, after all, how often do we welcome a new head coach for the football program (that was a rhetorical question only). It didn’t even take a rumor from ESPN to start the endless grumblings and he even had people how up at the airport for his arrival, and not in the same way Nick Saban was greeted by Alabama fans (though he really does seem popular with the players and coaches). I was totally willing to give the guy a chance and let him actually land in Auburn before nailing him to a cross. He was the defensive coordinator for Auburn (and a popular one), was part of the undefeated team, won a national championship at Texas, then… Iowa.

How hot was and is this topic. Well according to Google, “volcanic“, and this was on a night that was competing with the Heisman Trophy of all things. Several times within the 12 hours before and after he hit the #1 search term on google (and I am not sure how much higher you can go on google as far as hot topics than volcano), and after a full 24 hours of the news he is still sitting at #7. To bad google hot topic trends doesn’t count in the BCS rankings. Of course, that really tells me that a whole bunch of people had never heard of Chizik and had no idea who Auburn had just named to be the next head coach.

I really hope he doesn’t read a lot of blogs and online media. I started looking around at the usual suspects and the overall negative tone was deafening. Really my only question is if Chizik is the person to lead Auburn football back to a National Championship (it has been over 50 years of course). Auburn football should be up in the top-tier of NCAA football teams right up there with Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, USC, Penn State, and of course Alabama. So why did we not go get the biggest name that money could buy?

Maybe money really doesn’t buy happiness, or 12 wins and a National Championship (just ask Alabama, they came real close). Auburn had to pay about $750,000 to buy Chizik out of Iowa State, and apparently Iowa State is basically thanking Auburn for taking him off their hands. Now really, I know he didn’t win a game in the big 12 but what kind of recruits can you get in Iowa State when you have to compete with Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and the big Nebraska? Still, he has landed in Auburn and he will be the next head coach. If Auburn wins football games next year everyone will sing Jay Jacobs praises, but the Auburn fan base expects wins, and not just five.

I am willing to trust the higher-ups at Auburn and give Chizik the chance Auburn is willing to take. He apparently visited our church when he was living here as the defensive coordinator, so maybe he will come join us for worship again. I know he will be welcomed the same as anyone else on Sunday mornings. We can all have an opinion but no one at Auburn wants to win football games more than the kids, the coaches, and the University itself. I have to think that somehow, they think this will be the way to do it come the fall of 2009. Hopefully he and his family can withstand the pressure until that first kickoff game in 2009, it is a long way off.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Auburn vs Georgia in Final Football Game Photos of 2008

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:31:49 +0000

The game was much better than I would guess many expected, but Auburn had a chance to win the game at the end with 15 seconds to go on the 14 yard line with 3 plays to punch it in and just couldn’t do it (see AP story). No help from the refs in this game and all there is left of the 2008 season is the Auburn vs Alabama game on November 29th.

Here are some of the photos from the game today. I am in the process of uploading the remainder to my gallery. You can check the Auburn vs Georgia 2008 gallery later today and it should be completed some time tonight. In the mean time, here are 4 photos from today’s game vs Georgia. The one shot below is Mario Fannin scoring the first touchdown of the game as he dives into the endzone. I just love this shot of Mario Fannin who is so focused on the end zone that you can just feel his momentum.

It seemed like a long season this year, and at this point the program can probably use a break. I hope to see Tommy Tubberville back next year but this was a tough season for any coach.

Posts Related to This Topic:

Lee Corso Picks Auburn on ESPN College GameDay

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:37:13 +0000

I am running from Gameday and back to Jordan-Hare for the game itself. Of course all plans can go away quickly, as I was going to post several shots here from ESPN Gameday in between the broadcast and the game. Once I got back to my office and started transferring the files one of my cards got corrupted, which happens to be all the final images where Corso put on the Auburn helmet (which apparently he was miffed about because Auburn would not allow him to have Aubie’s head). So, here are a few from this morning… plenty more to come once I recover the lost files.

Additional Gameday images can be found on the ESPN College Gameday Gallery. Hopefully tonight I will get some good shots of Toomer’s corner after an Auburn victory.

Posts Related to This Topic:

ESPN College GameDay Photos Live from Auburn University

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:56:02 +0000

ESPN today began broadcasting for ESPN Sports Center from the Auburn campus and did all the prep work for the live ESPN College Gameday broadcast from 9-11am CT on tomorrow (Saturday). Setup is pretty much the same as it was two years ago, along with a barricade around the entire Allison Physics Lab lawn. The barricade is large enough to fit 4 full 18-wheeler satellite trucks and trailers, a huge Home Depot Gameday Bus, the set, a mini football field, all the employees cars, and an uncounted number of tents of all kinds.

Photos of Gameday Setup and Sports Center Broadcast

Here are a few images of the day. I will be posting all Gameday images in the ESPN Gameday Gallery if you want to see additional images from the two days. The photo of the people watching The Home Depot bus is a little weird, I am not sure I could look at my face printed that large on an object, but there they are.

Auburn Students Told Sportsmanship is Important

Earlier in the week Dr. Green, the Dean of Students, sent an email to all Auburn students reminding them to show good sportsmanship. Since this has been made public by all the papers and ESPN themselves I thought I would make note of it myself of course. This was really much to do about nothing, and Dr. Green is certainly correct in his statement, but… is it not really quite ridiculous that it was even necessary to send an email like this in the first place (see below). But, those are the times we live in I guess. A few years ago you would never have heard anyone booing their own team in Auburn, but such was the case recently (and as of right now we are undefeated). Nothing seems to be private any more and this email surfaced on the Internet within hours of its release (several days ago at this point).

Dear Auburn Student,

I wanted to remind each of you about the importance of your support for our team and displaying character this weekend when L.S.U. fans and other guests arrive this weekend. First, please join me by agreeing to demonstrate your support for, and not criticism of, our football team. That means no booing! Remember, the team isn’t trying to lose the game the players work hard all spring and during fall camp to be ready to compete in the S.E.C. Let’s show our appreciation for their hard work by encouraging them with loads enthusiasm! Secondly, help me show the world what I get to experience everyday: that Auburn men and women are special, dedicated, loyal, fun loving, bleed orange and blue, are compassionate, and demonstrate good will to others, even our competitors.

ESPN Game Day will be in town this weekend and we need everyone to come out and show them how much we support our team. Let’s show Chris Fowler, Kirk Hebstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard true fan support and loyalty for Auburn!

The nation will be watching the next two weeks (ESPN, CBS next week), and lets remember to have a great time, enjoy the weekend’s activities, watch our language and behavior, and display class, taste, and character in everything we do. I have every confidence you will.

War Eagle!!

Dr. Johnny Green, ’85
Office of the Dean of Students
Suite 3248
Auburn University Student Center
Auburn Univ., AL 36849

With that email in mind, the turn out today for the ESPN taping of Sport Center was great. For a 5-7 minute take, students stood outside in the blazing sun for at least 3-4 hours to wait for that 5 minute spot with a ton of signs, and hats off to the maker of the “Priceless” sign, that one was probably the most creative out there this afternoon. There should be plenty of students out there this time, even if they do have the students a football field away from the gameday set.

I will make one more ESPN Gameday post tomorrow mid-afternoon before the LSU game starts before I head back to Jordan-Hare to actually watch the game (yes there actually is a football game being played as well).

Posts Related to This Topic:

ESPN College GameDay Broadcast Live from Auburn

Scott Fillmer — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:01:19 +0000

I was on campus tonight for Encounter (see Encounter Performs Live in the Auburn Student Activities Center for their previous performance) and I had to stop by the set for ESPN College Gameday. If you are a football fan and you can’t get excited about this game, something is wrong.Â ESPN is all setup and ready to go, the satellite trucks are all over campus, and the students in the sororities and fraternities are doing there part as well (see photos below).

If you look close at the ESPN set, you will see I am looking at the back side of it, with a steady stream of barricades all the way around it. Getting a shot of the FRONT of the set might not be as easy as I thought it was going to be. Hopefully there will be some access to the front, although there is a nice ravine in front of the set, which will make for some nice shots from underneath the booth. We will see tomorrow I guess.

Posts Related to This Topic:

ESPN College GameDay Comes to Auburn for LSU

Scott Fillmer — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:11:16 +0000

ESPN College GameDay is coming back to Auburn for the Auburn vs LSU game on Saturday, September 20, 2008. This will be the first time that ESPN’s traveling show will be in Auburn since the Auburn vs Florida game in 2006 when the Auburn Tigers beat the Florida Gators 27-17. Auburn vs LSU is always a great, nail biting game, and this year, Auburn will welcome ESPN commentators Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard as they setup shop, presumably just outside Jordan-Hare stadium, where they will broadcast live from 9-11am local CT.

Some Auburn ESPN College Game Day Facts

From Auburn pre-game report. ESPN’s College GameDay Built by Home Depot featuring Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard will be in Auburn this weekend for the Auburn-LSU game. It will mark the fifth visit to Auburn by the GameDay crew, which last visited for the 2006 Auburn-Florida game. Auburn also hosted GameDay for the 1995 Iron Bowl, a 1997 game against Florida and a 2004 game against Georgia. GameDay was scheduled to be at the Auburn-LSU game on Sept. 18, 2004, but the threat of Hurricane Ivan forced the show to be relocated.

It will be the ninth time that Auburn has played in GameDay’s on-site game. The Tigers are 5-3 in GameDay contests, including a 3-1 mark at home.

Listed are Auburn’s all-time appearances on GameDay.

Date Result Game (Site)
Sept. 16, 2006 W, 27-17 vs. Florida (Auburn)
Dec. 4, 2004 W, 38-28 vs. Tennessee (Atlanta)
Nov. 13, 2004 W, 24-6 vs. Georgia (Auburn)
Oct. 2, 2004 W, 34-10 at Tennessee (Knoxville)
Oct. 18, 1997 L, 10-24 vs. Florida (Auburn)
Nov. 23, 1996 L, 23-24 vs. Alabama (B’ham)
Nov. 18, 1995 W, 31-27 vs. Alabama (Auburn)
Nov. 19, 1994 L, 14-21 vs. Alabama (B’ham)

College GameDay 2006, Auburn vs Florida

Back in 2006 we were living in Colorado and I flew into Atlanta from Denver for the football game against Florida. Although Les Corso has not always seen Auburn orange and blue in the past, that weekend I did get to sit down with Corso for a short while and discuss the finer points of Auburn football. It is always exciting to have ESPN GameDay in Auburn and that year was no exception. 2006 was one of those crazy seasons where everyone was mumbling about the BCS ranking system and, especially here in Auburn, people were wondering how we were all going to get our fair shake at the BCS title. We ended up loosing two games, Georgia and Arkansas but did beat LSU (photos below) and went on to the Cotton Bowl that year.

At that time, I had already spoken with many people throughout the years who had run into Les Corso (and some of the Game Day crew) and their stories varied wildly. Of course I ran into Corso not at the game, but early Sunday morning in the Atlanta airport on my way through security, and shared a train ride to the gate with him. I doubt I will share the same ride this year since I now live in Auburn, but I never believed all those nasty rumors about you anyway Lee (haha), and I enjoyed our 10-15 minute conversation together.

My only regret was not bringing my camera equipment to Auburn with me for GameDay. Well not this year. This year I will be right in the thick of it with my camera equipment to bring the first blog photos of ESPN College GameDay on September 20th from here in Auburn. So if you are interested, come back here between the end of GameDay and the start of the LSU game on Saturday (some time between 12noon and 4pm CT) for some photos of the broadcast.

Auburn vs LSU is always dramatic fun, and having ESPN GameDay back in Auburn will only add to the excitement. The photos shown above were taken from the last Auburn vs LSU home game in 2006 when Auburn won 7-3, not much unlike last week vs Mississippi State. The last shot, towering over the line, was #77 King Dunlap during pre-game warm up (yes my one and only [so far] field appearance on the sidelines).

I am looking forward to the ESPN crew coming down to the plains and I hope everyone makes Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard all feel welcome here in Auburn, even if Corso does pull out a big yellow and purple tiger head at the end. If he does, I will post the photo right here for all to see.

See you back here on Saturday, go Tigers (Auburn that is).