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Put aside the last lost decade, in which the Auburn football program plunged from competing for SEC and national championships to winning exactly as many games in those 10 years as Ole Miss and Mississippi State. That's 73 if you're scoring at home, tied for sixth in the conference.
Never mind the most recent three-year mudslide, which saw the Tigers slog through three straight losing seasons for the first time in almost 50 years. They share that dubious distinction of recent recurring wretchedness with only two other SEC programs: Florida and Vanderbilt.
Auburn's been down so long by its own standards that almost anything that happens this season, even if the highlight is the absence of coaching malpractice, on or off the field, will look like up to them that consider themselves family.
But there are tangible reasons for optimism, plural, on the Plains. There are the bonus-baby wideouts. There is a wiser but not quite wizened quarterback with bona fide SEC scar tissue. Don't discount a schedule that starts with five straight winnable home games, optimized to build early confidence in a roster that's earned precious little of it.
Those subjects have been discussed to death, but as talkin' season gives way to scoreboard season with a nice tune-up against Alabama A&M, take heed. History suggests the Loveliest Village, which allegedly is home to the happiest college students in America, will be smiling more often on Saturdays.
Alabama has a new coach, and this fun fact has legs a lot longer than Nick Saban's dynasty. None of the last nine Crimson Tide coaches had a better record than Auburn during his debut season in Tuscaloosa. Not one. ...
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