Homeboy Recap: Arkansas and Tennessee

I'm still in shock over the outcome (i.e. final play) Saturday night. I thought we had the game, then thought we lost it, then we had it back again. It was a roller coaster, as is the usual Auburn style. Two big post-game should outs. First, to my homeboy Ricardo Louis. Some people thought that I was crazy for picking him. Now I like him even more. Second, to my dad who predicted after game 5 that we'd be 10-1 going into the Iron Bowl. The man knows his stuff. Here are his picks for Arkansas and Tennessee. Laurie and Ray are the big winners!

 

"Well Tiger fans as we get ready to neuter the bulldogs down on the plains this Saturday afternoon, it occurred to me that I haven’t sent out the MVHB selections for Malzahn’s march through Arkansas and Tennessee the last two weeks. (Actually Natalie reminded me)

Well, for the pig roast in Fayetteville the obvious choice for the MVHB has to be Tre Mason for his 168 yards rushing on 32 carries. Wow! Tre ran over, around and through the defense in one of the most impressive rushing displays by an Auburn running back in a long time.

As for the Tennessee game, it got so bad in the second half that Smoky the coon dog even left the game. We definitely dominated the game. Nick Marshall had an outstanding game, rushing for 214 yards on 14 carries, but he lost the MVHB award when he threw that pick 6 on the screen pass to Mason. So the MVHB award goes to Cory Grant who rushed for 48 yards on 4 carries and had the 90 yard kick-off return for the touchdown to open the second half.

All right Tiger fans, have a good day today and better day tomorrow and I’ll see you on Mell Street Saturday morning!

WDE!!!

Mike"

Celebrating Baby Nat: Part Two

Day Two of Nat's celebration began with brunch at Tavern. Luckily, Mom was able to drive up and join us for the meal. The food was so good. We started off with red velvet waffles and white trash hash that was incredible. The bloody mary's were top notch as well. I'd suggest the cucumber version.

After brunch, Laurie and I went back to the hotel for a small rest while the rest of the group checked out the Nashville Food Truck Competition. Eventually it started to rain so they ended up coming back as well. That afternoon, Laurie was nice enough to help me get things set up for the lingerie shower. We had champagne with St. Germain, sangria, cheese ball, coconut cake and a few other snacks. I ordered Nat's invitation from Designs by Nicolina and the paper goods (straws, confetti and banner) from Ruffled Paper. Both turned out great.

I was thrilled to get to pass down the veil that I wore at my lingerie shower/bachelorette party. Natalie got some really pretty things! Enough about that...

After the shower, we all hung out in the room watching the Auburn/Arkansas game. There were some frustrating moments in the game but we managed to pull it out.

So lively.

That night, we went to Sambuca for dinner and had our first celebrity sighting. Gary Allan sat at the table next to us at dinner. Of course I texted mom and dad and neither knew who he was. If you ever eat at Sambuca, I'd highly recommend the Brussels sprouts. Seriously the best I've ever had.

After dinner, we had a quick stop at the hotel for a shoe change and walked down to Broadway. We decided to brave the crowd at the Stage and I'm so glad that we did! The band was amazing. They played a great mix of country/pop/rap that kept you singing and dancing the entire time. We had a couple of run-ins with some individuals who had been "over served" but thankfully, none of those individuals belonged to our group. At the late, late (to me) hour of 1 a.m., we called it a night.

The next morning, we cleaned up our disaster of a hotel room and everyone hit the road to go their separate ways. Before I could get out of town, I had one very crucial stop to make: a trip to my beloved Trader Joe's. If you've never been there, you're really missing out. I'm always surprised at the number of people in south Alabama who have never heard of, much less been to, Trader Joe's.

All in all, we had a fantastic weekend. Nashville is such an interesting city and I'd love to make a return trip. Now we're just counting down 'til the wedding. 15 more days!

Happy Trails!

Celebrating Baby Nat!

Last Friday, I hit the road for Baby Nat's Nashville celebration. I've been preparing for the party for quite some time now and I was so excited for it to finally arrive.

I hit the road around 8:30 heading north. First stop, the Yellowhammer. Sarah and I used to stop here when we'd take trips to Auburn and I love that they have fountain Diet Mt. Dew. I managed to cut it pretty close gas-wise but I somehow made it!

Three miles 'til empty.

Next stop, Cullman to pick up the cake from Dad. We had a lovely gas station rendezvous. Third and final stop, Mom and Dad's house in Decatur to pick up all the goodies that Mom was providing for the party.

Somewhere around Huntsville I began to realize that I've forgotten what "fall" looks like. Down in south Alabama, the trees pretty much stay the same color all year. All the trees up north were so beautiful!

Clearly taken from inside my vehicle

I rolled into Nashville a little before 4 and got checked in to the rooms at the Doubletree. I quickly realized one problem, there were no refrigerators in the rooms. I had a melting cake, snacks, drinks and nowhere to store these items. Luckily, there was an ice machine on the floor and I'd come prepared with one cooler and one cooler bag. The food and drink were (mostly) saved.

Around 5:30, Natalie arrived. A little closer to 6, Laura and Suzanne joined the party. The four of us set off for dinner at Pub 5. Even though we had a little mix-up and I at half of Suzanne's sandwich, it was fantastic. The food was great, atmosphere was fun and our server was a fan of Laura, and vice-versa.

Sisters!

Dinner view.

After dinner, Laurie and Ashley arrived so we met them back at the hotel for a quick drink. Then, the group ventured out to Honky Tonk Central. This place was packed. Luckily, we were able to secure a table. A "friend" bought us a round of shots and then threw up in the hallway. I'd say that's typical for a bachelorette party. Everyone managed to make it back to the room safely at the end of the night, which is a success in my book.

Fireball

Best friends.

View from the balcony.

Second post on day 2 to come!

Of course, I'm late in posting this. A little prologue: Last week, my middle sister, Sarah, moved to San Diego. She took a job as a travel nurse and (I believe) will be working at a children's hospital out on the West Coast. She and Julie safely arrived after four days of travel and Julie is now safely back in Birmingham. Sarah has sent us far too few pictures of her new home.

Without further ado, the homeboys.

"Well Sarah and Julie are off and should be getting close to Memphis by now. Maybe they’ll stop and have some ribs for lunch…or maybe not.

Anyway, as for MVHB’s, I know I am a week behind and I need to get caught up, so here we go.

As for the Texas A&M game, it has taken me a week to get over the excitement of us going on the road and upsetting a top 10 team. WOW! The home boy for that game has to be Nick Marshall. He put on a show running the ball as well as throwing the ball, especially in critical situations. There truly were some great highlights from that one which would include Trey Mason, Marcus Davis, Dee Ford, Sammie Coates and many others. The whole team truly brought their A game last week. WOW!! It was GREAT!

On to last night. We knew Florida Atlantic would be heavily out manned going in and as we speculated, everyone that could hobble out on the field got to play, but please, do we have to continue to play Kyle Frazier at quarterback, give me a break, I never want to see him take another snap. Find somewhere else to use the guy. So much for that. It was hard to find a star, since no one really had to play above their ability to get the job done last night. There were solid performances by many on both sides of the ball, and the MVHB goes to Sammy Coates for his 2 touchdown catches.

Well let’s saddle up for next week as we travel to the far reaches of Arkansas to take on the hapless hogs. We need to be careful that this isn’t a trap game.

Everyone have a great week and keep Sarah and Julie your prayers as they take their one wagon train westward to the gold of Cal-i-for-ni-a.

Later,

Mike"

 

So Bess and Baby Nat are our homeboy challenge winners for weeks 7 and 8. Speaking of Baby Nat, last night I returned from her bachelorette party in Nashville, which I will recap later this week. So much fun but this traveler is tired!

 

Happy Wednesday to everyone!

 

Melissa

Long Overdue Homeboy Recap: Ole Miss and Western Carolina

So sorry for my long absence from the blog. Since my last post, I've celebrated an anniversary, made trips to New Orleans and Seagrove, spent quite a few hours preparing for trials that got continued and loaded up lots of stuff for Natalie's bachelorette party next weekend. A few pics at the end of the post.

Clearly, it's been an exciting few weeks in SEC football. Auburn has surprised everyone and managed to pull of a few big wins. Georgia lost to Vandy, South Carolina lost to Tennessee, Missouri beat Florida. As usual, the SEC is a mess. I, for one, could not be more proud of the Auburn Tigers. I can't lie, I think at the beginning of the year I told my father-in-law that I expected a 7 win season. They have far surpassed my expectations. Each week, my dad has been e-mailing us with the homeboy winner and each week, he has expressed an admirable level of confidence in the Tigers!

The Commissioner on Ole Miss:

"Well we now have 5 games of the 2013 season in the books and we have defeated a ranked team. Auburn turned in a solid performance in all phases on the game on Saturday night on it’s way to the upset of #24 Ole Mess. This team appears to be getting it’s legs under it. With somewhat of a tune-up game next week for homecoming, I really like our chances as we travel to College Station on October 19^th to take on Texas A&M. If we can keep Johnny Hancock somewhat under control I think we could come back to Auburn with a 6-1 record and very well positioned in the SEC’s Western Division.

Again, this was a very solid performance by Auburn this week and several players deserved consideration for MVHB. Offensively, Trey Mason and Nick Marshall turned in the most notable performances. Defensively, our d-linemen really showed out, constantly keeping Black Bear Bo off balance. Dee Ford, Gabe Wright and Carl Lawson all had highlight reel performances and in recognition of his 6 tackles, which included 2 qb sacks and 3 ½ tackles for loss this week’s MVHB award goes to Carl Lawson. If you haven’t heard his post-game interview, it’s very impressive. He is quite articulate. My guess is that this young man is not your typical brain dead athlete and is someone Auburn will be very proud to have as both an athlete and a student.

I’m going to step out and predict that this team will continue to get better every week for the rest of the season and will enter the 2013 Iron Bowl with a 10-1 record and a chance to win the Western Division title."

Congrats on Andy on the Ole Miss homeboy victory! And congrats to myself on my victory in my bet with Robert, who has to make the bed every morning for a month since his team lost.

 

And on Western Carolina:

 

"Well after a week of pondering the MVHB from the Western Carolina game, it finally came down to a coin flip to decide who it would be. In a 62-3 rout where everybody, including all three drum majors, got in the game, it’s hard to narrow it down to one person. If anyone had chosen Jeremy Johnson it definitely would have been Jeremy. But unlike the earlier game where the MVHB was not a HB, I won’t make that mistake again.

So, the winner of the coin toss for MVHB against Western Carolina, which isn’t even a state, is Ricardo Louis. Ricardo finally showed what he has the potential to be as a receiver not only catching the deep ball but also taking the ball in space and making something happen.

Everybody get ready for a war this afternoon against Manziel; if our pass rush can put pressure on Johnny football and not let him scramble for major gains, I think we come back to Auburn at 6-1."

Yup, that's right...my homeboy WON! Even if it was sort of by default, I'll take it!

Life highlights from the last few weeks:

Pretty Anniversary Flowers

Cocktails in New Orleans

Drinks at the Pearl in Rosemary

Dinner at George's in Alys Beach

 

Auburn v. LSU: MVHB and My thoughts.

Also known as, the week where no one wins. In all fairness, Dad did choose two most valuable players for the game, it's just that no one had picked those two individuals.

"Well week 4 is now in the books and although it didn’t turn out the way we would have liked, the 2013 Auburn Tigers fought to the end and played much better in the second half. Had we not had 2 quick turnovers in the first quarter the outcome might have been more to our liking. Picking a MVHB was a little difficult this week, but after giving it a lot of thought, this weeks award goes to Cassanova McKinzy who lead our second half defensive efforts and finished the night with a total of a team leading 8 tackles. Since I’m not sure if anyone picked McKinzy as their HB, the backup MVHB would be Sammie Coates who lead our receiving with a total of 139 yards."

In other news, Laurie got to select a new homeboy this week. Her original HB, Jaylon Denson, will be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury. In his absence, Laurie has chosen Corey Grant as her replacement HB. Solid choice.

As for my thoughts on the game...we started out strong...in the first minute of the game. Then, things seemed to fall apart. When LSU took the lead by three touchdowns, I was worried that it could get out of control. Fortunately, this year's team looked nothing like last year's, who probably would have just sat on the bench drinking gatorade and eating orange slices, wishing they were somewhere else. The team didn't give up. They fought all the way to the end. A couple less turnovers and a recovered onside kick and we would have been in it. I know, it's always easy to play the "if only" game, but it's my blog and my opinion.

Thankful for an off week this week. Robert's headed to Tuscaloosa with friends to watch the Crimson Tide take on Ole Miss. If you get a chance, say a quick prayer they all return to Mobile in one piece. Hotty Toddy!

Week 3: Homeboy Challenge

No official email from the Commissioner this week. We actually found out the homeboy at the tailgate right after the game. I present to you this week's homeboy, Nick Marshall.

In the winning drive against State, Marshall completed 6 of 8 passes for 66 yards and ran three times for another 19 yards. It should be added that the drive began on the Auburn 11 with 1:56 left on the clock. Marshall finished the game with 339 passing yards.

My honorable mentions: Quan Bray and C.J. Uzomah

Other game notes: Clearly, we weren't ready for Dak Prescott. Earlier in the week, Dan Mullen said that he expected Tyler Russell to be ready to go. Russell even warmed up with the team in pre-game. Then Prescott started. After the game, Mullen said that Russell hadn't ever been cleared to play. Good strategy on their part and poor planning on ours. We should have been ready for whichever qb started the game.

Freshman Marcus Davis looked really good. He had six catches in Saturday's game, four of which came on the winning drive. Bray and Coates better watch out.

Congrats to Bess on her homeboy victory! If you followed along last year, you know that she always manages to pick a winner.

Looking forward to tomorrow's game against LSU. Fingers crossed for a miraculous victory! War Damn.