More Polls Released; Auburn Continues To Climb

This past week a number of publications and other media outlets released their preseason polls. It seems that the closer we get to kickoff, the higher Auburn is ranked. What does this all mean? As coach Tuberville says, "It doesn't amount to a hill of beans."

Texas coach Mack Brown doesn't mind being a preseason favorite. ``It's a whole lot easier to get to No. 1 from No. 2 than it is from No. 20." Auburn found that out the hard way two years ago when it started at number 17. You know the rest of the story.

The Associated Press released its preseason poll late last week where the Tigers came in at number four. That's two spots higher than the coaches poll released two weeks ago. Sporting News issued it's college football edition last week and have Auburn ranked third. Sports Illustrated, who for whatever reason is notorious for ranking us low over the years has us at number seven.

Speaking of polls, you may have noticed the new BlogPoll located in the sidebar. The voters of this poll consist of more than 60 college football bloggers from around the country. I'm participating this year. Rankings will be updated weekly. Auburn starts the year at number three.

Brian Cook, who organizes the poll and is publisher of MgoBlog, the popular Michigan blog, has Auburn ranked number one. I'll tell you how I voted later in the week.

The big question now is, can Auburn handle it? Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky wrote an excellent article in yesterday's paper that talks about how important it is for Auburn to answer the call this season.

"Three years ago, a season that started with great expectations ended with snakes on a plane, but that experience made the program stronger," says Scarbinsky. He's absolutely right. It's time for Auburn to take it to the next level. We have to show the nation that Auburn is here to stay.

In other words, it's our time to not only take control of this state, which Auburn has already done, but also take firm control of the conference and be in a position to compete for it all year-in and year-out. Coach Tuberville has us at the door.

Below is the link to the Scarbinsky column.

Kevin Scarbinsky...


Email us at footballsaturday@yahoo.com