Ever since LA-Monroe beat Nick Saban’s Alabama back in 2007, his first year in Tuscaloosa, it’s been the easy joke to make against the now retired, new Corso on College Gameday. But of course, when you make those jokes, they can always come back to bite you. Like when Alabama fans made fun of Auburn losing to Diego Pavia’s New Mexico State last year, and then their team lost to Diego Pavia’s Vanderbilt this year.
You have to be careful. So, anytime Auburn plays UL-Monroe, there’s always that fear that the ability to make the joke is going to go away.
Many do not remember that in 2012, the year Auburn went 3-9, UL-Monroe took Auburn to overtime. That was 12 years ago, but I still remember saying outloud “well, they’re gonna kill us for this one.”
But this was a time when other teams’ kickers weren’t good and Auburn’s was, so ULM’s kicker missed their overtime field goal and Cody Parkey made his.
Anyway, the point is that Auburn isn’t having a great season. UL-Monroe is coming to town with 5-wins and this would be the prime year for the jokes on Alabama to stop. Just be careful, okay?
Payton Thorne didn’t practice all last week because his shoulder was hurt during Vanderbilt. It seemed nobody knew that, but I definitely remember him getting up looking to be favoring at least one shoulder.
Auburn had a week off and despite being 3-6, Hugh seemed very upbeat. The recruiting wins keep happening. It’s like everything, but the scoreboard is fine. Truthfully, and we’ve talked about it all year, that’s been the case with the on-field performance as well.
Auburn outperforms nearly every team they’ve played this season, but the scoreboard appears to be broken.
This is one of those games where Auburn can look like they did against Alabama A&M and have us thinking we’re in for a special season. Or it can be one of those boring morning games where half the stadium shows up, the older players check out, and it’s way too close for the talent difference.
I choose to be positive and think it’s a blowout. Vegas says Auburn by 24 and many are taking that bet. So let’s go with that.
At least 3 quarterbacks will play. All running backs will play. A guy named Perry Thompson gets on the field and scores. All those touchdowns that have been missing over the last month or so finally get released.
It’ll be a nice, easy win. We’ll walk out of the stadium saying “ah well, at least we won that one.”
Auburn 42, UL-Monroe 10
