Scarbinsky Piling On...

[wesfau2]

What is it they say about the condition that leads otherwise sane and rational adults to put on tinfoil hats and scan the skies for black helicopters?

Oh, yeah. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

That’s the feeling among some Auburn fans as they prepare to head back to campus in what may be the largest numbers in school history for a spring game.

The final roll call at Toomer’s Corner after the game is an emotional attraction to be sure, but the gut-level pull of this weekend goes deeper.

Call it A-Day 2013: Auburn against the world.

It may be "A New Day" for the program, as the new billboards featuring new head coach Gus Malzahn proclaim, but one thing hasn’t changed.

It doesn’t matter that, after last season’s 3-9 debacle, the Tigers won’t be circled on the schedule of many opponents next season. The people who care about the program have been circling the wagons just the same.

The emails, texts and tweets from the orange-and-blue crowd continue to arrive centered on a fundamental question that has nothing to do with who’s going to play quarterback.

It’s this: Why do people who seem interested in issues that touch college football from coast to coast continue to beat a path to Auburn’s door?

Have Auburn football players smoked synthetic marijuana? Yes, and several of them have admitted it under oath, but none of them is as well-known nationally as former LSU star Tyrann Mathieu.

Mathieu and two teammates were suspended for one game in 2011 - the Auburn game - because they reportedly failed a drug test for synthetic marijuana.

Who reported that? ESPN.com.

Yet when ESPN decided recently to spend six months investigating the use of the relatively new substance in college football and the response to it, it examined the subject at one major college football program.

It wasn’t LSU. It was Auburn.

Meanwhile, USA Today reported last week that when one NFL team asked him how many drug tests he’d failed at LSU, Mathieu said, “I stopped counting at 10.”

LSU coach Les Miles was asked Thursday on NFL AM on the NFL Network if that number was correct.

“I don’t really have the numbers there,” Miles said. “I would be remiss to comment on number.

“I can tell you this: We have tested, re-tested, completely tested and tested twice in weeks at times. So just because there’s a number reported, I don’t know if that would be low or high, to be honest with you, and I can only tell you that it was based on our ability to treat and help.

“I don’t really know exactly what Ty’s specifics were, but I stand by our policy, and it really did help, in some way, identify a problem.”

Imagine the reaction had Gene Chizik said those exact same words about Mike Dyer.

Is Auburn the only program accused in media reports of breaking NCAA rules on recruiting and extra benefits?

Of course not, and it’s never good to be included in that kind of headline, but when a new website founded by an Auburn grad looked into that issue recently, it looked into one program: Auburn.

It’ll be up to the NCAA to separate fact from fiction there, if it so chooses after striking out the last time it looked under every rock thrown at the Tigers, but of the two programs that played in the BCS National Championship Game to close the 2010 season, only one has admitted to committing a major NCAA infraction.

It wasn’t Auburn. It was Oregon.

On Monday, Oregon released 515 pages of documents related to the ongoing NCAA investigation of its football program, which is headed toward a hearing before the Infractions Committee, according to Oregonlive.com. The probe centers on the relationship between the program and recruiting analyst or street agent (take your pick) Will Lyles.

One of those documents contains the following admission:

“The enforcement staff, institution and involved individuals agree that the findings constitute a major infractions case," according to a summary disposition overview dated Oct. 30, 2012. "Football staff members were not aware that the manner in which they were using scouting/recruiting services was impermissible. Nonetheless, the recruiting advantage that was gained via the oral reports from scouting services personnel was more than the minimal."

Imagine the fallout if Auburn released that kind of statement, should it actually receive a Notice of Allegations.

One thing that’s not in dispute: A-Day 2013 has a lot going for it. It’s a beginning for Malzahn as the boss and the ending of the Toomer’s Corner trees as the center of so many celebrations. It also just happens to fall right in the middle of a lot of wagons circled around the program.

So don’t be surprised Saturday if the Tigers set a new school record for A-Day attendance, and cut them some slack if you spot a few tinfoil hats. Their paranoia isn’t totally unfounded.

Harvey Updyke, for one, was out to get them.

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2013/04/get_ready_for_a-day_2013_also.html

[dallaswareagle]

 

[AWK]

He is best professional journalist in the state of Alabama.  That is why Alabama fans hate him.

[WiregrassTiger]

Spot on.

[dallaswareagle]

He is best professional journalist in the state of Alabama.  That is why Alabama fans hate him.

To bad it won't go any further than inside the state.

[Tiger Wench]

He is best professional journalist in the state of Alabama.  That is why Alabama fans hate him.

He is certainly the most unbiased.  He will get after AU when it is warranted, and I respect him for that.  Unlike the members of the Turd Reich, I think that pointing out any truths about our program, pleasant or not, should be his job.

[oldautiger]

Turd Reich

Dats a dam goodun there Wench, classic shit

[Tiger Wench]

Dats a dam goodun there Wench, classic shit

Nothing but the truth, bro.

The Turd Battle cry to their midget god is "Seig heil!". I'm just stating reality.

[bottomfeeder]

I hope BSPN never steps foot back on AU's campus again.

[jmar]

I hope BSPN never steps foot back on AU's campus again.

IMO, ESPN was good for Auburn in 2010 even with the negativity. Early on in that season the talk was about Malzahn and the HUNH but gradually switched to the drama over Cam choosing Auburn over MSU and Daddy Newton's involvement. We became the black hats and I loved it. We were cleared but now that Emmert's group is exposed as being so terribly dysfunctional, ESPN and its agents are acting as unofficial whistle blowers with no authority except for its control over public opinion and the mindless masses that believe the garbage they are fed.

All I want for us is a quick turnaround on the field so we can stop being everybody's perp that gets dragged in for questioning because we happen to be in the fucking neighborhood where the kingpin of football malfeasance operates at a higher level than the college game has ever known.    We just need to play like Auburn. We have to take the bastards down again.     That's is all.     

[bottomfeeder]

IMO, ESPN was good for Auburn in 2010 even with the negativity. Early on in that season the talk was about Malzahn and the HUNH but gradually switched to the drama over Cam choosing Auburn over MSU and Daddy Newton's involvement. We became the black hats and I loved it. We were cleared but now that Emmert's group is exposed as being so terribly dysfunctional, ESPN and its agents are acting as unofficial whistle blowers with no authority except for its control over public opinion and the mindless masses that believe the garbage they are fed.

All I want for us is a quick turnaround on the field so we can stop being everybody's perp that gets dragged in for questioning because we happen to be in the fucking neighborhood where the kingpin of football malfeasance operates at a higher level than the college game has ever known.    We just need to play like Auburn. We have to take the bastards down again.     That's is all.   

I'd love to see us out score them like 75-35 in the iron Bowl this year and wipe out any chance of them seeing a three peat.

[Jumbo]

I'd love to see us out score them like 75-35 in the iron Bowl this year and wipe out any chance of them seeing a three peat.

Bama will beat us by at least 40 points.

[jmar]

Bama will beat us by at least 40 points.

We suck that bad huh Jumbo?

[JR4AU]

We suck that bad huh Jumbo?

Yes, it's going to be a very ugly 2013 football season.

[JR4AU]

Oh, and this just in...Scarbo gets it.

[Buzz Killington]

Bama will beat us by at least 40 points.

Are you kidding?  With Frazier Wallace Marshall at QB, we should be unstoppable!

[jmar]

Are you kidding?  With Frazier Wallace Marshall at QB, we should be unstoppable!

If Copperfield can land this babe I think Malzahn can (at the very least) make us respectable with the use of smoke and mirrors, minus the hokie leering of course.

We have "the pledge" of 2010 when he shows us the object.
We have "the turn" or the preview of early 2013...we want to be fooled.
And then we get "the prestige" coming this fall      -HE BRINGS IT BACK!

  ...I got nutin'.   

[Lurking Tiger]

Scarbinsky is an infected mommy part. He is every bit as bad as finebaum. And just like finebaum, he will throw out the occasional feel good story so he can claim to be unbiased. If you can't see that, you aren't paying attention. Or worse.

[Kaos]

Scarbinsky is an infected mommy part. He is every bit as bad as finebaum. And just like finebaum, he will throw out the occasional feel good story so he can claim to be unbiased. If you can't see that, you aren't paying attention. Or worse.

You couldn't be more wrong if you tried.

[WiregrassTiger]

Scarbinsky is an infected mommy part. He is every bit as bad as finebaum. And just like finebaum, he will throw out the occasional feel good story so he can claim to be unbiased. If you can't see that, you aren't paying attention. Or worse.

He has thrown out a lot more than an occassional feel good story toward AU recently. He's had several that actually were the voice of reason and defended AU.

 I have no idea about his motivation and don't know him personally but I don't think he's out to get us. There are a lot of UA fans that hate him. I group him in with the lot. Whatever sells papers gets printed.