AUBURN | Welcome to moving week. That’s what Bruce Pearl calls a week, which included a win over Kentucky Saturday, a trip to Arkansas Tuesday night and a home matchup with LSU Saturday morning.
Here’s how Auburn’s sixth-year head coach termed it Monday.
"So I don't think I have many golf guys in my locker room, but I told them that this week is the moving week," Pearl said. "We're either going to put ourselves in position to compete for the conference championship or not this week. Because these next opponents, obviously we just got done playing a 27 NET Kentucky. Arkansas's 34, LSU is next and they're leading our league. And then Alabama comes in. So it is absolutely moving week."
Kentucky and Auburn are now 6-2 in the SEC and tied for second place behind LSU, which is off to an 8-0 start. Mississippi State, winners of five straight conference games, Florida and South Carolina are right behind at 5-3, setting up what should be an exciting SEC championship race.
This week will go a long way in deciding Auburn’s chances of a second regular season championship in the last three years. Arkansas has an 11-2 home record and LSU already has road wins at Tennessee, Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Texas in the last month.
LSU plays at Vanderbilt Wednesday, losers of 26 consecutive conference games, but the backend of their schedule is much tougher starting with a trip to Auburn. LSU also has road trips to Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Arkansas, along with a home matchup against Kentucky Feb. 18. Auburn faces the Wildcats again Feb. 29 in Lexington. The second half of Kentucky’s schedule includes home and aways against Florida and Tennessee plus road trips to LSU and Texas A&M.
This race is still wide open at the top.
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When I look at next year’s defense, my biggest concern is not the defensive line. It’ll be impossible to completely replace stars like Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson, but if anybody can, it’s Rodney Garner. And even if AU’s defensive line does take a step back from last season, it won’t be a big one.
No, my biggest concern is on the backend where the Tigers have to replace four of five starters in a division that puts a premium on pass defense. Auburn has been fortunate the last three seasons to have a premier cornerback from Carlton Davis in 2017 to Jamel Dean in 18 and Noah Igbinoghene last season. I’m not convinced Auburn has a player currently on the roster ready to play at their level. Maybe one will emerge in the spring, which would be fantastic. But right now, AU will look toward a number of young and inexperienced players to step up this spring and then hope one of the signees such as junior college standout Marco Domio, who still has to qualify, or Eric Reed Jr. can help out right away. Nickel signee Ladarius Tennison enrolled in January and will go through spring.
More help could come from redshirt freshman Jashawn Sheffield, who was a standout at wide receiver during bowl practice, but is expected to work at cornerback in the spring. Christian Tutt returns at nickel with Roger McCreary the most experienced returner corner. Nehemiah Pritchett, Traivon Leonard and Jaylin Simpson will all be in the mix at corner.
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In today’s musical journey we go back exactly 61 years to the day the music died. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and their pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed when their Beechcraft Bonanza crashed shortly after take-off from Clear Lake, Iowa on Feb. 3, 1959. Valens was just 17 years old, Holly 22, and Big Bopper, aka J.P. Richardson, 28. Holly and his band, which included Waylon Jennings, were touring the midwest at the time and wanting to avoid another long bus trip, Holly chartered a plane to Moorhead, Minn. Richardson, who had the flu, swapped places with Jennings while another of Holly’s band members, Tommy Allsup, lost his spot on the plane to Valens on a coin toss. Don McLean immortalized their deaths in his 1971 song American Pie.
A Lubbock, Texas native, Holly began his career in 1952 appearing on local television. He eventually opened for Elvis Presley in 1955 and released two big hits in 1957, That’ll Be the Day and Peggy Sue. He was one of the first artists inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Rolling Stone ranks him No. 13 on its list of 100 Greatest Artists. Valens, a Los Angeles native and the son of two Mexican immigrants, had a short eight-month career in which he had several hits including La Bamba, which he adapted from a Mexican folk song, and Donna. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. The Big Bopper, who played guitar, is best known for composing White Lightning, which became George Jones’ first hit, and Running Bear, which became a No. 1 hit for Johnny Preston after Richardson’s death.
Holly and Valens were pioneers of the 1950’s rock and roll movement. Below is a clip from Holly’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in 1957.
