Can you feel it? The season has arrived.
Tomorrow’s autumnal equinox happens at 2:50 a.m. ET, ending one of the harshest summers on record. Throughout the inner South, late nights have a hint of crispness now. On the balmy Gulf of Mexico, it might not feel outright cool, but the windows aren’t dripping in condensation each morning. And mosquitoes grow scarce. Relief is at hand.
Fitting that Auburn football opens their gauntlet of conference play the same day. They face Texas A&M for the first time under new coach Hugh Freeze, a man who worked miracles at Ol’ Miss and Liberty in the last decade. Auburn fans are counting on Freeze chilling the incendiary memories of two seasons in a gridiron Hell, where the program fell to a modern perdition.
Can Freeze’s troops shock the world? They are 8-point underdogs bringing a patchwork roster full of transferred players to College Station. They have a new quarterback in Payton Thorne, one who has had his hiccups after arriving from Michigan State over the summer. That said, every time Auburn has entered Kyle Field with a new starting signal caller, they have won. Nick Marshall in 2013, Jeremy Johnson in 2015, Jarrett Stidham in 2017, and Bo Nix in 2019. The only loss was with three-year-starter Bo Nix’s return in 2021.
An unexpected Auburn victory wouldn’t be the most mysterious thing to occur. Not for Freeze. Not for autumn.
Summer greenery now gives way to the bright hues of foliage and pumpkins. Auburn is bringing their own talismans of renewed spirits, special orange face masks imbued with memories of stalwart times and jubilant Saturdays. The season of orange has arrived.
Autumn is magical. For summer’s retreat, for a holiday awash in spooky superstition, for the clatter of state fair midways, and the aroma of cotton candy, caramel, and chimney smoke on the wind. And in the South, we add football to the mix, a demi-religion passed like legacies through generations.
Drink it in. Savor what slips away far too soon. The season is here.
Tomorrow’s autumnal equinox happens at 2:50 a.m. ET, ending one of the harshest summers on record. Throughout the inner South, late nights have a hint of crispness now. On the balmy Gulf of Mexico, it might not feel outright cool, but the windows aren’t dripping in condensation each morning. And mosquitoes grow scarce. Relief is at hand.
Fitting that Auburn football opens their gauntlet of conference play the same day. They face Texas A&M for the first time under new coach Hugh Freeze, a man who worked miracles at Ol’ Miss and Liberty in the last decade. Auburn fans are counting on Freeze chilling the incendiary memories of two seasons in a gridiron Hell, where the program fell to a modern perdition.
Can Freeze’s troops shock the world? They are 8-point underdogs bringing a patchwork roster full of transferred players to College Station. They have a new quarterback in Payton Thorne, one who has had his hiccups after arriving from Michigan State over the summer. That said, every time Auburn has entered Kyle Field with a new starting signal caller, they have won. Nick Marshall in 2013, Jeremy Johnson in 2015, Jarrett Stidham in 2017, and Bo Nix in 2019. The only loss was with three-year-starter Bo Nix’s return in 2021.
An unexpected Auburn victory wouldn’t be the most mysterious thing to occur. Not for Freeze. Not for autumn.
Summer greenery now gives way to the bright hues of foliage and pumpkins. Auburn is bringing their own talismans of renewed spirits, special orange face masks imbued with memories of stalwart times and jubilant Saturdays. The season of orange has arrived.
Autumn is magical. For summer’s retreat, for a holiday awash in spooky superstition, for the clatter of state fair midways, and the aroma of cotton candy, caramel, and chimney smoke on the wind. And in the South, we add football to the mix, a demi-religion passed like legacies through generations.
Drink it in. Savor what slips away far too soon. The season is here.
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