AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2008 > January > 01
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Clemson, Auburn share more than orange
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
When last Auburn played in this state, the occasion yielded the now-famous Blackout in Athens. Fifty days later, another Auburn visit produced an Orangeout in the Dome. There hasn’t been so much of the garish color on display in Georgia since …
Well, since Jan. 2, 2004, when Clemson and Tennessee met in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and we were offered a study in shadings. (Turned out Clemson had the brighter, prettier orange, while the titular Big Orange was, by way of contrast, washed-out.) This edition produced no such revelation. Indeed, the orange of Auburn and Clemson looked pretty much the same.
Which is pretty much what you’d expect from programs of powerful parallels. Both are nicknamed Tigers. Both sport massive stadiums in the midst of modest burgs. Both sit roughly two hours from Atlanta along I-85. And here they were, meeting under an off-white roof in an arena where the seats and the turf are green, and their collision generated the strangest thing:
Tons of orange in the stands, but not much on the field.
Auburn wore blue jerseys and white pants. Clemson wore white jerseys and purple pants. All their respective backers, however, came clad in you-know-what. (Befitting the New Year’s Eve color scheme, the invocation was given by Jeff Francoeur, who was a Clemson football signee and who played his high school games — wouldn’t you know it? — in a stadium dubbed the Big Orange Jungle.)
Auburn and Clemson had something else in common. Each is coached by a man who flirted with Arkansas and who chose to remain in place. Tommy Bowden even got a four-year extension, which means that his record tenure on the ol’ Hot Seat is now slated to run through 2014. And, proving yet again that it’s a small world after all, the final night of 2007 brought together two coaches who’d rejected the Hogs’ calls, while the man who briefly guided the Falcons under this roof — Bobby somebody — fled for Fayetteville three weeks ago under cover of darkness.
Auburn entered having executed one coaching change: Al Borges resigned as offensive coordinator, presumably after a strong shove from Tommy Tuberville, and the Chick-fil-A Bowl marked the debut of new coordinator Tony Franklin, lately of Troy. In the first half, Auburn looked like a team running the spread offense for the first time, managing just 147 yards and three points. Matters improved thereafter, backup quarterback Kodi Burns becoming increasingly adept in the spread. Auburn scored the tying touchdown with 8 1/2 minutes left in regulation and the winning one on its first series of overtime.
Say this for Auburn, though: It can still chop block with the best (or, more precisely, the worst) of them. An unflagged chop block on LSU’s Glenn Dorsey left Les Miles raging — he called it “immoral” — and induced this declaration from Tuberville: “We will not tolerate it.” Barely seven minutes into the Chick-fil-A Bowl, tackle Ryan Pugh dove into the back of Clemson nose guard Dorell Scott’s knees while Scott was being blocked high by Tyronne Green. This time a flag was thrown, not that it was much consolation to Scott, who had to be helped from the field and who missed the rest of the half. And what was Intolerant Tommy’s immediate response? There was none. Pugh started the next series. The game itself served to illustrate why these teams weren’t playing on New Year’s Day or later. It was close but not especially enthralling. With victory there for the seizing, neither side could move much on the final five series of regulation. The SEC Tigers always seemed the slightly stronger side, and it took more than four quarters but they finally proved it.
“War Eagle and Happy New Year!” said Tuberville, addressing the happier half of the orange-clad patrons after the first overtime game in the 40-year history of the bowl formerly known as the Peach, and his constituency roared its approval. The other folks in orange, already headed for their cars or a downtown bar, were less cheerful. As 2007 became 2008, Clemson fans had to be thinking that 2014 seems awfully far off.
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: Mark Bradley
