Auburn — both a team and a town renewed

The great oaks at Toomer’s Corner have been felled, nothing there now but signs warning the next would-be arboreal terrorist that the area is under 24-hour watch.

Yet there is no killing off the celebration of a place that is remembering how to win football games again.

No oaks — the two ailing trees were cut down this spring, having lingered long after a fool claiming allegiance to rival Alabama poisoned them. For more than 80 years they grew at the campus crossroads, a gathering spot after Auburn football victories for fans who draped the bent limbs in toilet paper.

No problem — Tuesday, three days after a 32-point pasting of Tennessee, scraps of toilet paper still fluttered in a chilled north breeze from some nearby magnolias. Make no mistake. After a gleeful turnaround season like this, something’s going to get rolled.

Just one year after Auburn couldn’t beat anyone in the SEC, it approached Saturday’s game with Georgia with a 5-1 conference mark (9-1 overall) and all kinds of grand aspirations at stake.

New oaks may be soon replanted at the Corner — and given years to reach full majesty. Thankfully for the Auburn populace, a football program can be remade seemingly overnight.

Who could have imagined that a single season after they were overwhelmed 38-0 by Georgia, the Tigers would be in the position of a field-goal favorite this time through? It is Auburn, not Georgia, that comes to mid-November with the clearer path to the SEC Championship game.

“We knew that we were going to have a successful season, maybe not as successful as this,” said Auburn tight end C.J. Uzomah, by way of Suwanee. “Coming into this game we knew there were going to be a lot of implications, but I guess the tables have somewhat turned.”

Oh, happy days again are sweeping The Loveliest Village on the Plains.

At the J&M Bookstore across South College Street from campus, the drastic difference from one season to the next translates into dollars. “It was dead this time a year ago. We couldn’t give anything away,” said Pat Giddens, the manager.

And the funk extended into the all-important holiday buying season. “It was a very sad Christmas,” bookstore clerk Elizabeth Johnston added.

Now, the merchandise is moving once more. The Auburn visor, in the model of the one worn by the architect of the revival, first-season coach Gus Malzahn, is a particularly popular item. Yes, the half-a-hat is fashionable again. And if they only could get more of the semi-sweaters — Malzahn is partial to the vest style — those would go like next generation iPhone.

At the University Barber Shop, where for more than 40 years the snip-snip-snipping of scissors at work has syncopated the talk of Tigers football, it is a fine new era.

“Like night and day,” barber Wayne Casaday said, “everyone seems in a better mood. After the train wreck we went through last year, anything would be better.”

No program in this young decade has experienced the same kind of wild extremes of fortune as Auburn. The Tigers have gone from unbeaten national champion in 2010 to utterly hopeless in 2012 and back to prominence again this season, No. 7 in the BCS standings. Whiplash is a very real hazard for the current-day Auburn follower.

Between the two options, winning would seem to be the much preferred one.

Defensive tackle Gabe Wright spoke this week of once more “taking pride in the name on the front of the jersey,” and of being considerably more comfortable these days wearing his Auburn-themed gear back home in Columbus.

“The teachers are a little happier, the bus drivers are a little happier,” Wright said. “Not much bad comes from winning. It’s a new day here.”

What kind of alchemy is this, turning last season’s burlap into silk? It is much the same cast of players now who couldn’t beat anyone of significance just 12 months ago. Of the 22 listed as probable starters for Saturday’s Georgia game, 18 had at least one start in 2012.

One big change on the field is something of an Auburn trademark. The Tigers have a way of taking the quarterback exiled from some SEC rival and putting him to use as an instrument of revival, both personal and program-wide. In 2010, it was Cam Newton (by way of Florida). Now, it is Nick Marshall (originally a Bulldogs defensive back).

At the executive level came the biggest shake-up, when Auburn dismissed Gene Chizik less than two years after winning the BCS title and replaced him with his former offensive coordinator, Malzahn.

Malzahn is the offense savant who believes in running both the up-tempo attack and the hurry-up news conference. There was little room in his eight-minute pre-Georgia press gathering Tuesday for getting into the subtleties of the Tigers’ dramatic reversal.

“It’s all about our players coming together, putting the past behind them, becoming close, developing relationships with each other and developing a relationship with the coaches,” he said.

The breadth of Malzahn’s marvelous makeover can be appreciated by skimming the fine print of his contract. When certain bonuses were written into his deal, they could have seemed almost laughably out of reach considering the mess he inherited. Ten wins: $75,000, with an additional $25,000 for every win thereafter. The SEC Championship game: $125,000; $150,000 for winning it. A BCS bowl game: $100,000. The BCS Championship game: $150,000. Winning it: $500,000.

Yet, here it is mid-November and some of those seem quite likely, while none are out of reach.

His utterances have been exactly what you would expect from any new coach coming in after a disastrous season. All the tried-and-true bromides about letting go of the past, getting better one day at time, staying in the moment, believing in themselves. This was Auburn after all; the skill level could not have been as atrocious as it appeared in 2012. Thus it was the core of Malzahn’s mission to also work on the heads of these players, to rebuild confidence.

Sometimes the cliches take hold.

“The coaches came in and implemented a plan designed to make us better and to make us buy into what they were saying. Once we did as a team, that gave us an abundance of confidence,” Uzomah said.

“I think the team morale has increased tremendously. We have confidence in ourselves and our coaches.”

A similar attitude has swept through the streets of Auburn.

Back at the University Barber Shop, the philosophers in residence have completely rewritten their expectations for this season.

“At the start of the year I would have been happy with six wins and a bowl game,” Casaday said. “Now I want to win ’em all from here on out (most important of them all being the traditional date with Alabama), and go all the way.”