Ah, spring football. Two things that I love but never seemed to mix very well when I was a student at Auburn. I hated working spring practices and even worse, the A-Day game.
One of my favorite memories, though, was the 2004 A-Day game when pretty much every full-time staffer had schedule conflicts, so the work crew ended up being pretty much Meredith and a bunch of students. Sometime in the first quarter, I got a call on the radio that I would need to stick with Tuberville since Meredith was going home early. Josh and Kim would handle things in the press box, then Josh and I would be in charge of the locker room post-game.
I remember that 31 players were requested for interviews that day. Josh, Matt Jernigan and I got 30 of those 31 in the interview room. I kept knocking guys’ names off the list, but there was one that was missing. That guy was A.T. Williams, someone who never turned down an interview. Matt had missed him in the locker room and refused to go track him down outside. Josh got him back in the room, and we got nothing but praise handed down to us from the writers in the room.
It was a good day.
This Saturday, I get to go back to A-Day with a different perspective and look forward to getting to Auburn and just hanging out with some friends and (hopefully) get a picture with Tracy Rocker, Trooper and Luper. We’ll see, though.
So, this is a fun tailgate plan to write. The guest list isn’t all that long, but it should be filled with great folks. Possible attendees are Trey Eiland and his daughter, Bryan Bowen and his crew and a few other assorted folks from my dad’s group. Brad and Amber Gregg will be there with us every step of the way. I fully expect Andy Shores and Michelle to hang out with us also.
The plan right now is for Super Rita and me to go down to Auburn on Thursday night. It will be a late arrival, so Friday may be a little slow to get started. We have a few new additions to the camper to show off, so that should be a lot of fun. All Auburn, All Orange, All Facebook, All Kirk will get into town Friday night.
It’s going to be low-key and casual. Hopefully, the weather sticks around for awhile too. It’s been absolutely wonderful here the past six days.
If you are coming, let me know by sending an e-mail (rushicw@gmail.com). I’ll have assignments later this week. Right now, the plan is to fry up some wings and thighs in our new propane cooker for post-game. Pre-game will be light with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. Those of you not being able to join us in Auburn, you can catch the action on ESPNU with Mike Belotti handling his first ESPN assignment.
It’s time to Do What We Do at our tailgate and get 2010 started right. I’m glad its back, folks. Have a good one.
Til next time, War Eagle.
Chris
