AUBURN | Auburn’s offense needed to improve after the Texas A&M debacle.

It did. And it came against the nation’s No. 1 team.

And more importantly, there’s still a whole lot of room for improvement, especially at quarterback and even more so at wide receiver.

When those wideouts are 1-on-1 with a defensive back, they’ve got to start making plays. Period.

The Tigers’ defense isn’t perfect but it’s playing winning football, and that’s with major injuries to two key players.

Now comes an off-week and an even bigger opportunity to make progress over the next 12 days before heading to LSU.

Nearly half of AU’s starters against Georgia were newcomers. A total of 24 newcomers played in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Anytime you experience that kind of roster turnover, there’s going to be growing pains. Combine that with one of the toughest stretches of games any team will face during the regular season and those pains are amplified.

Auburn’s not quite through that stretch but the determination and willingness to fight for four quarters was there for all to see Saturday.

It’ll be there again in Baton Rouge and then comes a stretch of games that are much more manageable starting with two at home.

Week-by-week, this team can and will get better. But more importantly, this football program is healing itself from a hopeless two years under the previous regime.

I’m not sure they ever had this many top prospects on campus in two years combined than Auburn hosted this weekend for the Georgia game.

Those visitors witnessed one of the best gameday atmosphere in college football from a program that’s a combined 14-16 over the last two-plus year.

Programs like Auburn don’t stay down for long because of that support.

And that support is what’s going to help AU fill its coffers with those top playmakers in the 2024, ’25 and ’26 classes to start competing with programs like UGA on a level playing field.

Those days are coming. Belief and hard work are going to turn into results

I’m reminded of Pat Dye’s words after a tough loss to Tennessee 42 years ago. They will always echo through the ages as the definition of the Auburn spirit.

“There’s a lot of days when you lay your guts on the line and come away empty-handed. Ain’t a damn thing you can do about it but go back and lay ‘em on the line again and again and again.”

In today’s musical journey, we go back 76 years to the first use of recovered Nazi technology by a legendary crooner, which revolutionized the music industry. On Oct. 1, 1947, Bing Crosby broadcasted the first-ever pre-recorded show on the Philco Radio Time show using a magnetophon, which was first developed in Nazi Germany. The technology was acquired by US Army Signal Corps Officer Jack Mullin as the Allies were moving through Germany in 1945 and perfected in America over the next two years. Crosby was in the audience when Mullin demonstrated his new magnetic reel-to-reel tape recording device and became an investor. It helped revolutionize the recording industry including the development of multitrack recording and eventually the video tape recorder in 1956. Crosby was perhaps the most popular and influential musical artists and actors of the 20th century. He recorded more than 1,600 songs and starred in more than 70 films. He won an Academy Award for best leading actor in 1945 and four Grammy Awards. He has sold more than 200 million records, making him one of the most successful artists of all time. Crosby’s 1945 Merry Christmas album is one of the best-selling Christmas albums of all-time and his version of “White Christmas” from the movie Holiday Inn is the world’s best-selling single of all time. He had 41 No. 1 singles, which is nearly as many as the Beatles (24) and Elvis (18) combined. Crosby was even the co-owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates when they won World Series in 1960 and 1971.

Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. was born in born in Tacoma, Wash., in 1903 ad grew up in Spokane. He got his nickname as a kid from a neighbor who called him Bingo from a local paper comic strip, which later got shortened to Bing. Crosby performing in a local group at age 19 and moved to Los Angeles in 1925 to pursue a musical career. He had several hits with the Rhythm Boys in before beginning his solo career in 1931. Crosby was very active in World War II performing for troops and recording propaganda to send to Germany, which earned him the nickname, Der Bingle. Some of his many hit songs included 1930’s ‘Three Little Words,” 1932’s “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime,” considered the anthem of the Great Depression, 1934’s “Love in Bloom,” 1936’s “Pennies from Heaven” from a movie of the same name, and his version of “My Blue Heaven.” His final No. 1 single was 1948’s “Now is The Hour.” His biggest hit, “White Christmas,” actually topped the charts on three separate occasions in 1942, ’45 and ’47. Crosby was married twice and had seven children. An avid golfer, Crosby died of a heart attack in 1977 shortly after finishing a round at the La Moraleja Golf Course in Spain.