They weren’t joking in the above post. My Jersey and NY friends and neighbors call it Pennsyltucky. Very friendly people in general and I can assure you the talent you saw 99% are not from pennsytucky areas.
Was impressed with Auburn. I think you’ll win a lot of games this year and SEC west looks pretty wide open. Had good auburn fans around me in the stadium. Lots of auburn folks made the trip. Can’t wait for the trip next year. Bigsby and that OL are gonna eat a lot of yards against a lot of teams.
Dragging a little this morning. We didn't get back to the place we were staying (Aaronsburg) until about 1:00AM ET and had to get up at 6:30 yesterday to drive back to Philly to catch our flight. A few thoughts on the experience and the game: - First, I thought the fans I encountered were great. Had the occasional "ROLL TIDE" from some college kids, which I found funny (and even saw a few people wearing Alabama gear), but overall, the fans were welcoming, knowledgeable, and pleasant to talk with. - The tailgating is different. Not bad at all, just different. It's more like what I envision at professional games where everything seems to happen in the parking lots, but I was also seemingly surrounded by parking lots at Lot 41 and didn't get to see some of the other areas. There did look to be a Tailgate Guys setup, which is more like what we have in Auburn. Still had a good time. Hopefully, some of the #Penn State Nittany Lions guys here come to Auburn next year and see what I mean. - Because we stayed outside of State College in what seemed like the heart of Amish country, I didn't get to spend much time at all in State College. I kinda hate that because, driving through on Friday, it looked like a great town with a shit ton of stuff going on. I really want to go back for a non-Auburn game just to experience State College more. - The White Out was really, really cool. The crowd being in sync and the student section with the shakers was a great sight. - The game itself: I thought Penn State was the better, more prepared team. I thought they executed well on both sides, didn't make any critical mistakes, and made Auburn's offense earn everything. I thought Auburn seemed a bit confused as to what they wanted to do offensively for most of the game, almost overthinking things. And the defense was a mess. Penn St's pace and tempo really fucked with Auburn's ability to get lined up and set, and I think it ultimately caused us to scrap some defensive plans and play more base defense. But that's a major credit to Franklin and Yurcich for having the superior game plan. - The officiating was subpar for a game of that magnitude. How you completely miss a down and don't review to check that is beyond me. Not a fan of the targeting call, but I realize that's not exactly on the officials but on the rule and the replay booth. Both plays should've been called for grounding or neither should have been. They let WRs and DBs play all night until that last call. Thought they should've reviewed the potential safety, although it might've stood as called on the field. All in all, it was just inconsistent as fuck, and that shouldn't happen in a game like this. The only consistent thing they did all night was not call holding on any OL. There were some muggings on both sides that were never called. - All in all, I mostly got what I wanted. A competitive game against a really good opponent that exposed Auburn's weaknesses. Would've loved to come away with a win, but we just weren't good enough to do that Saturday night. Big thanks to zeberdee RockHardJawn39 and the other PSU fans for the advice and suggestions on the travel. Glad to be home, but I will definitely make another trip to Happy Valley for a game.
Very nice write up. Thanks. And already checking Airbnb for Auburn next September. Although I'll actually be there much sooner. My neighbor has two daughters there and invited us down for the Georgia game on Oct 9th. Can't wait.
I can't remember ever watching a cfb where I thought the officiating was good. I've just accepted they're going to fuck up 2-4 calls every game
Eh, attempts to “both sides” these SEC refs aren’t going to hold up. It seemed that even the Auburn players knew they were getting the benefit of doubt. The personal foul call on Brandon Smith for touching Nix wasn’t worthy of a penalty. Maybe a Oscar though. Same on the 4th & goal play. #5 wasn’t even trying to make a play on the ball. He was trying to act his way into a PI call. Surprised it didn’t work honestly. I don’t understand how people are upset about the PI on Dotson. The CB never turned his head. Seems textbook. Intentional grounding on PSU was not grounding. No duress or danger of losing yardage. If you call that grounding on PSU…the Nix call is a no brainer. Multiple shitty spots. All seemingly benefitting Auburn including the 4th and 1 call that was never reviewed. They even missed a delay of game and false start. Smoke’s retro “throat slit” gesture had been flagged out of existence…or so I thought. They were bad to the point that it is more than fair to question their intent. Too many absurd calls to be a coincidence.
I don't think so. Finley has looked less than good against Alabama State and Akron in his appearances. He's more inconsistent than Bo and supposedly doesn't know the offense that well. From a talent perspective, I think he has the tools. I'm just not convinced he will ever play a meaningful snap at Auburn. I'm no Bo Nix stan, but I definitely don't think Finley is anything close to an upgrade.
Not for Auburn, according to most of our fans. I think most would've preferred BIG officials because REC.
Well, if you had John O'Neill as the ref the game would have been given to Auburn as a forfeit for unruly fan noise.
So I'm bored and watching the Sky Cam replay of some of our missed opportunities. Was pretty drunk to start the game so it's all fuzzy, but damn this is an awful deep throw by Bo. He essentially threw the ball at the fucking T and completely off target of where Robertson is running. He really threw the ball directly over the head of the PSU safety on the screen. This should have been a TD
Let's just say that your inconsistent unsteady QB made me feel a lot better about our inconsistent unsteady QB
This was should have been at least a contestable ball, but wasn't even close to being on target. At a minimum it should have been thrown toward the ref or maybe even a little further left....Bo launches it towards the T in the State and not even close to on target. Fromm has no play on this ball
Bo isn't great, but facing absolutely zero pressure made your inconsistent QB look like Peyton Manning going 12-12 in the 2nd half
It looked like he expected the WR to work more up the field than across it. Fromm runs more of a post but Bo throws more of a seam there. And if that ball is thrown more towards the goal post, the safety definitely is closer to making a play on it. Not sure he could've stopped a completion, but the freeze frame makes that look worse than in real time. Looks like Bo is trying to throw to open space where the safety can't make a play, but he and the TE aren't on the same page. Bo is also working up in the pocket and to his right and throws that without his feet set.
Yeah, I think him w/out a good base is more of an explanation than on the wrong page. Bo released the ball and it was already behind the TE at release.