AURex

Trying to decide if that's supposed to be a joke. Maybe your definition of "recently" is different from mine. But I agree, they are not a true "blue blood" in the class of UK, UNC, Duke and KU.

Kick me to the curb if you want, but IMO Nix probably runs a more sophisticated offense at Pinson than Malzahn's basic O. I'm hoping CCL can broaden the offensive repertoire, because Nix certainly has the skills to move the ball.

My bad. Apparently Hand will be back next season, and that will involve a new contract as his current contract is expiring. Doesn't change the fact that Auburn really needs to address the need to improve special teams play -- coverage on kickoffs and punts was scary scary, and the Auburn returns were certainly not scary to opponents.

I agree. The OL did not perform consistently, and sometimes porously. Hand is retiring. Not sure who will replace him. Malzahn just hired another defensive coach who (as yet) has no role, when our more important needs (IMO) are for a real special teams coach and an offensive line coach.

Life is hard when one does not live 24/7 on this site and one has the basic assumption that knowledgeable people mean what they say. How stupid of me. What a fool I am. No longer will I trust anything anyone says unless it is documented by Fox News, the CIA, FBI, Pope Francis, the Church of Scientology, Trump tweets, and Nick Saban. This is how you drive away fans -- by being azzzzzzhles. Geez!

You haven;t been following this thread.

Hmm ... I thought Zamir was a lock for UGA. Would love to have him, even after the ACL, but .... ?????

Always good to look at the numbers. Thanks Stat!

"Auburn has averaged only 23.4 PPG during their last eight games." Auburn is currently 74th nationally in PPG, of 130 teams. When you consider we've played GA Southern and Mercer, that's the definition of "mediocre" -- if not abysmal. Auburn will not beat MSU, LSU, UGA or UA with mediocre, and OM is a tossup. Must do better than that, even for 8-4.

I'm getting a message saying I need to "update you account to enable 3rd party hosting" in order for people to see the photos I've posted. WTF is this?

Most people don't know much about peacocks. For example, peacocks only have that spectacular tail plumage for a few months each year. They molt in the late summer/early fall and then start growing new plumage in the spring. They lose ALL their feathers over the course of the molt, replacing them with their winter coat. Percy just lost his last long tail feather a few days ago. Here he is without his long tail plumage. He is in the process of losing the shorter eye feathers now -- all the feathers up his back. (As an added bonus, you get to see Daffy in the koi pond in this photo. haha)

Percy is a lonely guy, with no female peacocks, so he hangs out some with the turkeys. He is particularly attracted to Snow White. She's not albino, she is a rare ghost turkey. In the second photo here, one of the Toms is not happy to see a peacock courting Snow White.

We also have a flock of wild turkeys who live in the woods behind our home. They roam my property and the neighborhood below us. These photos were taken out our sunroom window. At last count, there were 13 Toms and almost 50 hens. No, we don't eat them. They came with the property and are neighborhood "pets."

Just kidding. I'm gonna post a few pictures. These pictures are all taken at my home, which rests on a park-like hillside that backs up to the woods. These are not exactly "pets." They just hang around my house. The first is our resident peacock, named Percy. Here he stands at the edge of our koi pond. Second, Percy likes to perch on the railing of our front porch to survey his domain.

Unfortunately, I'm concerned that the AUFamily criteria for family friendly doesn't mesh with my family. So, no pictures from me. hahaha

We can say that Stidham certainly looked good on Saturday. However, let's remain aware that he was running a different sort of offense than Auburn has run in recent years. SW might have looked just as impressive in this new offense. Fact is, Auburn now has two really good QBs going into fall camp, and even more importantly IMO, Auburn now has an offensive playbook and play caller that can really pressure a defense from 1st down thru 4th down. Gotta feel pretty good about where we are at the moment.

Twin Peaks will also reappear beginning in May, again directed by Lynch and starring McLaughlin, so I'm expecting some really dark weird stuff.

Still liking Taboo. Gritty, dark, tense, with enough complexity to keep me coming back. Emerald City not so much. Terrible casting for this series. I really liked D'Onofrio in Daredevil and Law & Order (two other series I never cared for despite his good acting in them), but frankly, he totally sux as the wizard in Emerald City. And the girl who plays the Wicked Witch is just not sinister, evil or even remotely convincing in the role. Very poor casting, crappy dialog and scripting. I'm no longer watching that one. So, I am still not lured into watching much TV. I still read a lot and listen to music a lot during my off hours. The whole Emerald City thing did affect my reading choices. I went back and re-read McGuire's "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West." Still one of the most fun fiction books ever. Now reading its sequel "Son of a Witch" told from the perspective of the wicked witch Elphaba's son. A fun read, if not as compelling as the first. His "Confessions if an Ugly Stepsister" (from the Cinderella tale) and "Mirror Mirror" (from the Snow White tale) are also great reads. I had high hopes for Emerald City, hoping it would have the kind of creativity and imagination McGuire created for Oz, and characters who were complex and convincing. Too bad they didn't hire him or buy the rights to his books. McGuire is not "great literature." Just fun reading. I mix entertainment reading like that in with my more serious reading interests. Hard to pull me away from reading to watch TV.

The OA -- meh, boring Stranger Things - Meh, kids Emerald City - might turn out okay, but kinda chinzy so far. Taboo -- definitely worth watching. Best since Penny Dreadful.

Sigh. If I ever really want to read page after page after page after page after page of pointless arguing about pointless points, I know exactly where to come. The coaches obviously saw enough talent here to make the offer. Welcome to Auburn and WDE, Malik!

All but the last season is available on DVD, and that season will be released on DVD before the new season begins. If you don't want to buy it (it's a great series and a worthy investment), your public library will probably have the DVDs. You probably will not get through all of the seasons before the next season begins. Wifey and I subscribe to HBO just for the period Game of Thrones is being shown, then drop it. Well, except now, Westworld too, but that won't be back until 2018.

Although I personally don't see JS as a lock for starting next fall, I'm certainly more optimistic about the QB position with him in the mix. And I'm hoping JS can be active recruiting for us going into signing day.

I'm considering three possibilities. A Netflix series called Medici: Masters of Florence, which is set in 15th century Florence. Wifey watched a couple of episodes and she likes it. It stars Dustin Hoffman (remember him?) and Richard Madden (the guy who played Rob Stark on Game of Thrones). It is not intended as historically accurate. It is more of a political drama/mystery/thriller, because the head of the family actually died under mysterious circumstances, so the basic plot of the series revolves around trying to figure out if he was murdered, and if so by whom? Wifey says it is not as good as The Borgias, but better than 99% of the programming out there in TVland. I think maybe we'll look at a couple of episodes of The Americans to see if that works. And also The Fall, which has received a lot of positives from both critics and viewers.

I watched the first two episodes of Black Mirror. That was enough for me. Actually, the first episode was enough, but I thought it couldn't possibly be that bad. Well, it wasn't, but still not enough to keep me. I allocate very little time to television.