Scarbinsky: Tommy Trott says David vs. Goliath sells Auburn football shortBy Kevin Scarbinsky -- The Birmingham NewsNovember 25, 2009, 5:30AMAUBURN -- Walk in the lobby of the Auburn football building, look left and you can’t miss the sign. It’s painted in big letters on a large glass wall.This is what it says:‘‘Remember, David was a 40-point underdog to Goliath — Shug Jordan.”Tommy Trott has seen enough of that sign, and the fifth-year senior tight end has a message for the person or persons that painted it.Get rid of it, or he might do it for you.‘‘I hate that I had to be here to see that David and Goliath sign,” Trott said Tuesday. ‘‘That just ticks me off all kinds of ways, that somebody put that on our window at our complex, trying to motivate us.‘‘That David and Goliath stuff, I have a feeling it’s going to be erased today, if I don’t do it with my own hands.‘‘That’s not what this is. This isn’t David and Goliath.”This is Auburn vs. Alabama.This is an Auburn program that has a winning record in Iron Bowls if you count the last five (4-1), 10 (7-3), 15 (9-6), 20 (11-9), 25 (14-11) or 30 years (16-14).Yet a lot of people, including some who’ve been walking around the Auburn football complex with paint and good intentions, think a win Friday over Alabama would be an upset of biblical proportions.I think an Auburn win would be the single biggest upset in Iron Bowl history. Trott does not.Let’s hope he doesn’t take a stone and slay the window.‘‘I don’t want to read that on that window,” he said. ‘‘It kind of ticks me off that things have gotten like this. It wasn’t but two years ago that we were on a six-game win streak (against Alabama).‘‘We’ve lost one ballgame, and all of a sudden people are putting up ‘I believe’ signs.”Uh-oh. More motivational messages. It’s a sign of something.When exactly did Auburn become the college football equivalent of the Hickory High basketball team in Hoosiers?Wait. I know. Nov. 29, 2008. The day Alabama ended the streak and flipped the series 36-0.Think about it. Auburn won its six straight from 2002 through 2007 by a combined 47 points.Alabama can better that margin in two years if it wins Friday by 12 or more.‘‘People are saying things have flipped,” Trott said. ‘‘I’ve been here five years. We’ve beaten them three times and lost once.‘‘It’s not like we don’t have a shot. I’m tired of people thinking that. It’s got people around here a little angry.”Trott, at 6-foot-5 and 243 pounds, is not a little anything. He was more than a little annoyed last year that he had to watch the beatdown in T-town on TV from his brother’s couch in Montgomery.Two weeks earlier, the tight end had torn up a knee against Georgia. So he had to undergo the pain of surgery, followed by the pain of watching Alabama cut open his teammates.‘‘It was a terrible feeling,” Trott said. ‘‘That second half definitely hurt. I watched all of it. I wanted to support my teammates. I appreciate the way they fought. I wished I was there.”He’ll be there Friday for his final Tiger Walk, followed by his final Iron Bowl, which will be his final game in Jordan-Hare Stadium.He can’t wait. He opened his eyes at 7:30 Tuesday morning ‘‘and had no chance of going back to sleep.” He didn’t have to be at the football complex until 11 a.m. ‘‘but I rode up here at 9 because I got tired of sitting around the house. Watched a little film. Tried to calm myself down.”And then he saw those signs.And then he was not calm.‘‘Maybe the fans are trying to inspire us, whoever’s putting that stuff up there, but we don’t need any inspiration for this game.‘‘It is what it is. This is the Iron Bowl.‘‘It’s gonna be a ballgame.”
Trott will forget everything he said in that article tonight after he drinks $200 worth of alcohol at Sky Bar.
I like the man's attitude.
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