The SEC’s most obnoxious fans: There’s a new orange No. 1
Our inaugural ranking of the SEC’s most obnoxious fans was presented in 2008, and much has changed over 24 months. Mississippi State has switched coaches. Auburn has switched coaches. (Then again, when doesn’t Auburn switch coaches?) Tennessee has switched coaches twice. Kentucky’s coach quit. Vanderbilt’s coach just quit. Florida’s coach quit and un-quit.
Amid such flux, it’s only fair that our rankings don’t remain static. Indeed, I’m proud — actually, I’m not sure if “proud” is the proper word — to note that our new rankings are completely different. Not one of the 12 positions has gone unchanged, which says … well, I don’t know what it says. But there we are.
A note: I asked for your input the other day, and I have taken your thoughts under the deepest advisement. Indeed, the results of our little poll are included herein. But I must stress that these are my rankings, and I’m a neutral. (Full disclosure: I’m a graduate of Kentucky, which hopes one day to start a football program.)
Oh, and I probably should mention that I attended my first SEC game in 1969, covered my first SEC game in 1976 and have seen a game at every SEC stadium. Meaning: I might be an idiot, but I’m a well-traveled idiot.
And with that, I hereby unveil the 2010 rankings of the SEC’s most obnoxious fans. In honor of our previous champion, fans of the new title-holder are required by executive order to wear jean shorts for the next two years.
12. Tennessee (No. 7 in 2008, No. 4 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Purely a sympathy vote. The formerly Big Orange has seen itself massively devalued from within. It has a lousy AD who hired the brat Lane Kiffin, and now this program is in a world of hurt. (In a display of bravery, the lousy AD just canceled a series with North Carolina) Put simply, I feel sorry for Tennessee fans. They deserve better than ham-handed Mike Hamilton.
11. Vanderbilt (No. 10 in 2008, No. 10 in 2010 AJC.com poll): It’s never a good sign when a coach quits a month before summer camp convenes, but that’s what Bobby Johnson did. He did it because he was tired of losing. Johnson is a fine football man who stands as Vandy’s best coach in the past quarter-century. He went 12-52 in league play. Imagine having to watch that every season, world without end.
10. Kentucky (No. 11 in 2008, No. 11 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Big Blue football rooters didn’t do anything obnoxious these past two seasons. Big Blue rooters save the obnoxious behavior for basketball, a sport for which they have no peers regarding exess. They’ve only moved up — or down, depending on your point of view — to No. 10 because I happened to feel really sorry for Tennessee and Vandy.
9. Mississippi State (No. 12 in 2008, No. 12 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Backers of the maroon Bulldog believe Dan Mullen can win more than his share of games. If so, it would only trigger the scariest words in the English language: More cowbell!
8. Ole Miss (No. 9 in 2008, No. 9 in 2010 AJC.com poll): I can handle Rebel fans most years, but occasionally they’ll get all geeked up and start sounding like Georgia or South Carolina folks. (“This is finally our year! This time for sure!”) For the Rebels, last season was such a time. Naturally, they went 4-4 in SEC play, including an egg-on-the-face loss to Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. And now coach Houston Nutt, who’s nutty, has allowed quarterback Jeremiah Masoli to walk on despite having been kicked off the Oregon squad and having pleaded guilty in separate incidents. Nutt has promised “zero tolerance” regarding Masoli. Me, I anticipate more egg on the Ole Miss face.
7. South Carolina (No. 6 in 2008, No. 7 in 2010 AJC.com poll): I keep thinking the Gamecocks are going to be really good this year. I also keep wondering what will happen with their fans — who have thought the Gamecocks are going to be really good every year since ‘92 (and I mean 1892) — are finally proved right.
6. LSU (No. 8 in 2008, No. 5 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Here’s where you and I disagree the most. I’ve always considered a trip to Tiger Stadium a treat. Then again, I don’t sit in the stands, an experience I’ve been led to believe is most challenging. But I will tell you this: The best scripted moment in all of college football is when the Golden Band from Tigerland and the Golden Girls conduct their pregame march to midfield. Beats Ohio State’s “Script Ohio” six ways to Saturday.
5. Alabama (No. 4 in 2008, No. 3 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Being old enough to have seen Alabama under the Bear, I dreaded the thought of the Tide rising again to eminence. In the ’70s and ’80s, there were no worse fans. (Except maybe Kentucky basketball fans, and even then it was a coin flip.) But I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the relative moderation that has accompanied Bama’s latest national championship. Maybe this has to do with Nick Saban, who never crows and is never satisfied. Whatever the case, I offer this relatively benign ranking as a thank-you.
4. Georgia (No. 3 in 2008, No. 2 in 2010 AJC.com poll): If it’s possible to have sympathy for folks who take pride in trashing their own campus, I have some sympathy for Dawg-lovers. Because I think every Georgia road game this autumn is going to be off the hook. I think this because of Damon Evans and red panties.
3. Arkansas (No. 5 in 2008, No. 7 in 2010 AJC.com poll): It wasn’t enough that Hog fans ran off Houston Nutt and welcomed Bobby Petrino as a conquering hero, not the sinking-ship-deserting rat he was. But now apparently you have to pass a loyalty test to work for an Arkansas radio station. (Reporter Renee Gork was fired after wearing a Florida hat to a press conference; being Petrino, he noticed and objected.) And Hog fans reacted as if her dismissal was a good thing. Where’s Edward R. Murrow when you need him?
2. Florida (No. 1 in 2008, No. 1 in 2010 AJC.com poll): I know, I know. It takes effort not to put the hated Gators — and they’re hated in every SEC outpost, not just Athens, Ga. — at the top of anything involving the word “obnoxious.” But I have to confess: I never understood why everybody hated Tim Tebow. He was a really good player who seemed like a really good guy. If he played for Georgia or Alabama, would those fans have not similarly lionized him? But if you’re asking me to defend jorts … well, that line I will not cross.
1. Auburn (No. 2 in 2008, No. 6 in 2010 AJC.com poll): Because Tiger fans still worship at the tainted feet of Pat Dye. Because they run off coaches on a whim. Because they’ve grown as arrogant as Alabama backers without one-tenth the justification. Because they’re still whining over the national championship they didn’t win in 2004. Because the world’s worst fan — the Montgomery banker Bobby Lowder — is an Auburn man. And because I would pay money (though not a lot) to see Bobby Lowder in jean shorts.
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1,009 comments Add your comment
Tfunk
August 29th, 2010
1:34 pm
ROFL anyone else notice all the Auburn fans Obnoxiously complaining about being the most Obnoxious fans.
Ron R
August 29th, 2010
1:40 pm
Hmm. UT is top on my list. TN is the only stadium I have ever had to fight my way back to my car from..lol. Having things thrown at me from drunk obnoxious fans, yelled at, etc.
Lewis
August 29th, 2010
1:54 pm
As a LSU fan, I can honestly say that the Dawg and Auburn fans I have encountered have been hospitable and not nearly as annoying as UF fans. Yeah we have the Golden Girls, but honestly nothing beats UGA sorority girls. It’s like every man’s fantasy being at Sanford Stadium. Gorgeous ladies everywhere dressed to the 9’s. Love those trips to Athens.
TL
August 29th, 2010
3:08 pm
Ok… If we are talking about teams and there coaches. I would think Alabama has had more than any. Is this article a joke or are you serious? And you don’t diffend your article very well when you respond. I’m sure you are think, now, “I must have been drinking when I wrote this.”
...
August 29th, 2010
4:03 pm
SCREW THA BAMMERS! SCREW MARK BRADLEY! SCREW ALL YOU AUBURN HATER!
WAR EAGLE!!!
Byron
August 29th, 2010
4:10 pm
Out of all of this I found 2 things funny. 1st was his defense of LSU, ” I like the band and sit in the press box.” #2 Bama fans being so low. They threw a brick through their coaches window after goign 10-1, who else would do that?
Jim
August 29th, 2010
5:13 pm
As an Auburn fan. When I first read this, I was a bit offended. A day later, I think it was all in jest. Seriously, UT at 12 out of sympathy? Bama was only ranked at 5 because Bradley thought they would be worse. How’s that for logic? And one of the most innocuous fan bases out there, Auburn was ranked at #1. And, his most specific reasons why had nothing to do with the fans anyway.
Mark, you should have picked Vandy. It would have been funnier.
Mark "Kiss Up" Bradley
August 29th, 2010
5:42 pm
shocking list coming from the biggest kiss up sports writer in this town….
pucker up
AUBURN SUCKS
August 29th, 2010
6:13 pm
Dear Lord at all the pathetic Auburn fans pretending to be Vandy fans and making ridiculous attempts to claim they aren’t the most obnoxious fans out there. The comments on this article are even funnier than the article itself. Why don’t you Auburn fans rejoice in receiving some–now national–attention, because Lord nows it doesn’t happen very often.–ESPECIALLY when it comes to winning.
Bobby B
August 29th, 2010
7:32 pm
To “The General Feeling” – before you call the University of Alabama “stupid” for erecting statues to the coaches who won National Championships, you should know that Notre Dame has also erected four statues for the same reason. I guess if your school had a reason to erect a statue in tribute of a National Championship then it would have already done it.
But primarily, before you call Alabama stupid you should get back to your basic grammar and know that “rein” means the “area around the kidneys” while “reign” means “to have control or authority.” Now if you are calling our kidneys stupid, well then that’s one man’s opinion.
Alex P in Smyrna G
August 29th, 2010
9:15 pm
Up until hiring Chizik two years ago, Auburn had three coaches over a 28 year span. They stayed for 13, 6, and 9 years, respectively. Yeah, that’s a regular revolving door.
Let’s see. Over the same period Alabama had Bryant, Perkins, Curry, Dubose, Franchione, Price, Shula, and Saban. That’s eight. Throw out Bryant (because he only lived to see the first two years of Pat Dye), Price (because he never coached a down), and Saban (because he was just two years into his tenure when Tubs left). and that’s still five to Auburn’s three.
Doug Fresh
August 29th, 2010
9:15 pm
Mark, I’m pretty sure youre IQ is less than that of Sean Penn in I Am Sam. Auburn fans are not in anyway obnoxious, but if you and that smartass smirk made a visit to the plains you might get an old-fashioned ass whooping.
lAUra
August 29th, 2010
9:16 pm
Thanks man. Really. You have no idea what an obnoxious fan is until you spend a football season bartending at a sports bar where Alabama fans are the majority– and you’re wearing an Auburn jersey. Thanks for giving them more ammunition for their rants about how great the Bear was and 13 national championships. That really ought to help.
Rob Ness
August 29th, 2010
9:31 pm
How you can rank auburn above LSU, Florida, Bama, UGA is laughable. Worshiping at the Dye alter, what about those ridiculous houndstooth hats that every bama fan wears. And I would like to see any of the teams fans in the sec (vandy may be an exception) that would behave any differently if they won every game and the title was withheld.
Dawn
August 29th, 2010
11:00 pm
Obviously, you haven’t been to many football games outside of Athens. Arkansas, Alabama, and Ole Miss fans are much more obnoxious than any Auburn fan I have ever met. Auburn fans don’t obsess about the past (i.e., The Bear), nor do they wear animal-shaped hats on their heads. Mark, you are a sports columnist, not an op. ed. columnist!
Andrew
August 29th, 2010
11:29 pm
Mark,
Bobby Petrino was never the coach at auburn, i get what you’re saying, but still he wasn’t a coach. Pretty simple football knowledge there. And Lowder isn’t a banker anymore and lives in Auburn. So…. I’m not real sure where your getting your info from but it’s wrong.
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Big Blue Fan
August 30th, 2010
8:32 am
Wow, I never comment on stuff like this, but this article is so completely ridiculous that I just have to. I’m a Kentucky fan, and it didn’t take me long to determine that Auburn has had 4 football coaches (including the current one) over the last 30 years. Do you actually research your articles? It might be fun to write whatever pops into your mind, but it’s lazy and irresponsible. Rant over.
ChiefRoyalHog
August 30th, 2010
8:35 am
Name one SEC school where a reporter wearing an opposing teams baseball cap at a preseason press conference would not have been called out by the coach and probably more strenously than Coach Petrino did? Watch the video, he was completely professional, he answered her question then said he would not answer anymore while she was wearing that hat. How would Urban Meyer have acted? Besides, she had several other issues before “hatgate” such as tweeting that she would rather be in Gainsville covering the Gators. Bottom line, she’ll find a job at UF if she is a good reporter. Time to move on.
ChiefRoyalHog
August 30th, 2010
8:44 am
And another thing Mark, when is Atlanta going to get over Petrino leaving? You have a good coach and a good young QB. You’ve been successful for two straight seasons and I expect you have high expectations for this year. Nutt had run his course in Arkansas and he probably got to stay longer than he should have after flirting with Nebraska and LSU. We’re happy he’s gone but of course he’s still in the SEC West so we still have to hear about him all the time. Atlanta can just ignore Arkansas unless we are coming to town so get over it.
Tennessee fan
August 30th, 2010
10:19 am
I am not sure most people making comments here even understand what “obnoxious” means, based on what they are saying. Or that this is a reflection of the past year. And it always cracks me up to see fans of any given SEC school make fun of another school for being hicks. I hate to be the one to break this to y’all, but we’re all hicks. Anyway, based on experience as a season ticket holder to UT this past season, Auburn by far was the worst as far as obnoxious fans. Both before and after the game. And THEY were the visiting fans. Going up and down the Strip doing that “War Eagle” thing. After the game, while walking on the Strip back to the car, some Auburn fan actually got out of his car, sucker punched a UT kid, then ran off and jumped back in the car and took off.
ATL Native
August 30th, 2010
10:28 am
Seeing as this is Atlanta, GA, I don’t expect the reporting on Auburn to be unbiased. However, sometimes it just gets ridiculous. Auburn fires coaches on a whim? Tuberville was there for 10 years. Besides, isn’t this an article on the fans? Since when do fans fire coaches?
Here are some other notable media hack jobs on Auburn:
1. Chizik hire – the media railed against Chizik’s hire even to the point of calling it “racist” (John Kincade) without giving thought to the fact that he coached at Auburn previously and that they might know and trust the man. By all accounts, their trust was well placed.
2. Auburn vs Citadel – this game was used as an excuse by Auburn rivals as to why Auburn should not play in the BCS NC game and echoed by the media. All SEC school play such opponents. UF played Citadel in 2008 when they won a NC. Where was the uproar then? Bama played Chattanooga and N Texas, TWO school worse than Citadel, last year.
3. Jetgate – any time you have a name attached to a news story, you know its gone too far. Besides, Auburn was justified in looking around after going 8-5 with the huge amount of NFL caliber talent. You only get that kind of talent once in a blue moon. You better make the best of it.
4. Firing Tuberville – It was reported that Auburn fired Tuberville after ‘one down year’. Anyone who actually did a little investigative reporting could see the program was in bad shape and getting worse. They went 5-7 in his last year. Recruiting was way down. Last year they had only 75 scholarship players only a few years from an undefeated season. That kind of performance should get you fired.
5. Bobby Lowder – The media has, for some reason, turned him into an infamous legend. The media never reports that he is a trustee. All schools have Bobby Lowder types. Local media outlets just don’t make villans out of them like they do rival schools.
Real Deal
August 30th, 2010
11:55 am
The problem with this list is that it is from the opinion of a sports writer. We all know the real measure of how obnoxious fans can be is by wearing opposing team colors on their turf and witnessing their behavior on gameday. If we take the most extreme case of fierce rivalries in the SEC, Mark Bradley could wear crimson and white to Auburn on game day and the most opposition he would find would be some good ribbing and heated debate. I had the misfortune of experiencing Gainesville during Florida-Florida State in Gainesville on more than one occasion, wearing garnet and gold as a fan of Florida State. It was extremely difficult to stay away from fisticuffs as their fans threw bottles and generally were obscene to the women I was with- everywhere we went. The Florida fans I was with even warned me about the fans beforehand and apologized on their behalf afterwards.
Having been to all opposing SEC stadiums supporting my alma mater and beloved Auburn Tigers, I can say with confidence that the fans at Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and LSU are the worst in that order. Go to Auburn on game day and you will see how welcoming and accomodating a fan base can be, evidenced by the amount of impromptu mixed fan tailgates you will find. I also have to say that fans from Ole Miss, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt display a high level of class and decorum.
hogman
August 30th, 2010
12:39 pm
Personally, I think you’re way off base with most of the picking order. Plus….if you think Razorback fans are obnoxious now just wait until we win the SEC this year !!!!!
Anon
August 30th, 2010
12:52 pm
“I’ve probably covered 30 games at Auburn, kb.”
Good luck when you come back, @s$hat. I’m sure you’ve been treated with respect every time, unlike opposing fans that visit Athens. Typical college football analyzation. Biased to the core. And we’ll look forward to seeing you next time. You might get a taste of your own medicine.
Anon
August 30th, 2010
1:10 pm
“ROFL anyone else notice all the Auburn fans Obnoxiously complaining about being the most Obnoxious fans.”
ROFL, anyone else notice all the Alabama fans obnoxiously commenting because they found a BS artist’s blog post that mentions Auburn in a negative light?
fred
August 30th, 2010
1:57 pm
Mark,
Based on this ranking and your previous columns about Auburn, you clearly have a bias against Auburn. The AJC fan ranking is much more realistic regarding the obnoxious level.
What is your deal with AU? Did some attractive coed not take to your cheesy mustache back in the 80’s?
War Damn!
August 30th, 2010
4:04 pm
Mark, you are uneducated and you suck. Nough said, WAR DAMN EAGLE!
War Damn!
August 30th, 2010
4:05 pm
and your fat lol
Well, truthfully
August 30th, 2010
6:29 pm
As a Bama fan, I think it’s funny that you chose AU as most obnoxious, only because it’s so far from the truth! To be honest, all SEC fans can be obnoxious! And most of us deserve it. We are the best conference, hands down! Also speaking as a bama fan, I know for a fact that we are just as, if not more obnoxious than AU fans. You got to understand though, dueling UA & AU fans is tradition here! If you’re a good sport, you take it all in fun. I live in LSU country, and I have to say, BY FAR, these fans are highly obnoxious and down right rude!!! But that’s possibly because of the whole Saban thing!!
L. Blaich
August 30th, 2010
6:41 pm
you have got to be kidding me?!?!?! AL fans cant even win with grace, much less lose with it. I hate football but every year, its shoved down my throat & i’m shocked, not that AU would be on the list, but that anybody could be more obnoxious than alabama fans.
Speechless
August 30th, 2010
6:56 pm
Wow! So many haters on here! It’s one guy’s opinion, folks! If anything, AU fans, by the comments you are making about the Tide, you are proving his point!!
Hilary NaLampoon
August 30th, 2010
9:40 pm
Not only is this article laughable, but it is completely unjustified. I am an Auburn student, but that has nothing to do with my personal opinion. I have been to several away SEC games and have been shoved, cursed at, and even ducked from thrown bottles. One of the things I am proud to say is that I am an Auburn fan and belong to a loving and friendly football family. I know absolutely no one who worships Pat Dye as the Crimson Tide constantly pray and hope that the ghost of Bear Bryant will be reincarnated and one day walk again.
justjim
August 30th, 2010
10:02 pm
auburn fans have a right to be proud, the majority of them attended the school. like vandy, if you cheer for auburn, you have ties to the school. unlike state named schools who boast every bumpkin as a fan. auburn has high standards and the majority of the fans are going to welcome opponents with open arms. tailgate at auburn and you will see.
as for the comments on f-baum- i believe if you look at his credentials, he graduated from tennessee. what does that say for obnoxious.
war eagle
AU Dan
August 30th, 2010
11:34 pm
AU changes coaches often? That’s news to me. Tubberville was there 10 years before Chizik. I think you have AU confused with the other school in the state ( or any of a number of other SEC schools). As a reporter you might want to look at the facts instead of just repeating fan gibberish. And Lowder? That is so out of date. He is not on the BOT anymore. Have you heard of Google?
Stephen
August 31st, 2010
3:16 am
Every fan base has people in it who are assholes. To put AU on top of the list is just ridiculous, though, and it shows your lack of skill as a columnist. It’s obvious to me that you’ve had some bad experience with Auburn (perhaps we beat your favorite team… I’m not really sure), and you’re biased against us to begin with. The only people I can say we’re truly assholes to are Alabama. But they are assholes to us, as well… it’s just part of a great football rivalry. Everyone else we’re great too. The thing about Auburn fans is that most of them are educationally connected to the university either because they attended AU themselves or an immediate family member did. We represent our school with dignity, which means being a welcoming entity to everyone but Alabama.
House Divided
August 31st, 2010
2:38 pm
Mr. Bradley, you’re nuts if you think Auburn has the most obnoxious fans. I have kids that attend AU and UGA and have attended games at both schools. Auburn is a much better fan environment…exponentially better. The people are friendly, courteous, and patient with fans from other teams. They also don’t turn the campus into a garbage dump after tailgaiting on a Saturday. Just because you have one guy from Montgomery who throws his weight around when he doesn’t like the direction the team is headed, doesn’t mean that you should fault the remaining 87,500 who show-up on game day, and the hundres of thousands that follow their team on TV and radio. As an objective observer of both schools, I’d reather spend a Fall afternoon or evening in Auburn vs Athens any time. As for the rest of the SEC, you can have your pick of LSU, UF, or Tennessee as the most obnoxious fans…
Absolutely embarrassing!! - VolNation
August 31st, 2010
2:40 pm
[...] Absolutely embarrassing!! How can this be?! We are way more obnoxious than Vandy…atleast. This is a slap in the face. What do you all think? The SEC's most obnoxious fans: There's a new orange No. 1 | Mark Bradley [...]
Black Bart
August 31st, 2010
3:30 pm
A little homerism? UGA at 4? It’s Florida 1, UGA 2. Period. Auburn at 1 is a joke. I don’t remember any one of them worshiping Dye. That happens across the state from them where bama fans worship a man that’s been dead for 28 years. Bama fans are far more obnoxious than Auburn fans. As for Tennessee, the North Carolina thing is nothing new. I remember UGA canceling a series a few years ago and no one mentioned it. Tennessee was canceled on for this year, thus UT-Martin ended up on their schedule.
Black Bart
August 31st, 2010
3:33 pm
To your credit though, since Logan Young is now dead, Bobby Lowder MAY be the world’s worst fan.
thatthang
August 31st, 2010
5:39 pm
While the writer loses some credibility by attaching AU for its coaching changes, I think one has to take a serious look at AU’s historic role as secondary to UA to understand their psyche and why many would consider them to be so obnoxious. I can honestly say their status in that state has created some of the nastiest fans I have ever, as in clinically disturbed Of course all fan bases have their idiots, especially on the internet, but did you see that a group rolled Toomer’s Corner today to celebrate Mark Ingram’s knee injury? Of all the crazy things I have seen from just about every fan base, I struggle to see that kind of behavior being tolerated in, broad daylight nonetheless, in Knoxville, Athens, or Tuscaloosa.
Volnuts
August 31st, 2010
6:13 pm
You’re an idiot. Sympathy vote? Let’s hear that after another a## beating between the hedges come October.
No wonder newspapers are “folding” left and right
Bill
August 31st, 2010
11:04 pm
I always thought Florida fans were the worst. Several years ago my wife and I decided to follow the Vols to every SEC stadium except Florida over the next few years. Our first venture was to Georgia. After being tounge lashed, fingered and cussed for one quarter by a young petitie drunk female GA fan, I told my wife I had to either leave or punch her lights out. I chose the latter. Howver, the whole situation left such a distaste in my mouth that my wife and I decided to watch every game from the couch at home. To hell to all obnoxious fans from every team, especially Georgia”s!!
Zac
September 1st, 2010
3:35 am
Poor choices indeed. I’m always impressed with the way our AU fans treat rivals when we host. Whenever I hear speaking between fans its either “glad to have you here” or lighthearted nagging. Every school has their arsehole fans, I couldn’t disagree more with your rankings. I see it as LSU, AL, GA, in the top three. God help anyone who travels to Baton Rouge.
Also, worshiping Pat Dye? Please. I think it was Alabama who just put up a STATUE of their coach of two years.
Parson Brownlow
September 1st, 2010
12:17 pm
There will not be any sympathy votes needed for Tennessee when basketball season starts. Mike Hamilton hired Bruce Pearl and for that he’s earned much gratitude from Vol fans. There’s a lot of us who think that he’s a great AD.
DROCKUTK
September 1st, 2010
3:01 pm
Border Dawg,
You sound like an intelligent man, being from GA your vernacular seems to be right on, just in case you’re not sure of the big words “vernacular – mother tongue or mother language, and less frequently one sense of idiom and dialect, is the native language of a population.
Obviously your vernacular seems to be much more refined than that of the hicks from TN. By the way, how did all that “hoot like a family of howler monkeys” sound when we were putting a big monkey foot up side your face last year? How did it feel to get beat by a team that is just so bad? Maybe I should ask your last DC about TN, think he might have a different take on the situation.
Living so close to TN isn’t bad for you at all, I know that you may be home sick and miss the trailer park you grew up in GA, (yes there are more of them there than here), but gaining a little class from your neighbors up north may just do you some good. In time you might even become a respectable redneck hick like the rest of.
Yours Truly,
Dr. Hick from Tennessee
glen
September 2nd, 2010
3:45 pm
Great – A F’ing hillbilly from Kentucky making fun of Auburn. Doesn’t say much for the AJC editorial staff that they hired an employee from a university that just recently switched over from crayons.
katherine
September 2nd, 2010
10:42 pm
this is quite possibly the more inaccurate blog i’ve seen in my entire life. tennessee as the LEAST obnoxious?? auburn as the worst?? do you live within a 100000 mile radius of a single school in the sec? in NO WAY does auburn’s worship of pat dye compare to alabama’s worship of bear bryant. i mean there’s nothing else you can say.. that is just ridiculous
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[...] aspect to Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports columnist Mark Bradley’s breakdown of the SEC’s Most Obnoxious Fans, other than the guilt-by-association pathology behind his booyah of Bobby Lowder (“the [...]
AuburnAlum05
September 3rd, 2010
12:42 pm
Mark,
I think this colleague of your’s would disagree with you. I think he had a pretty good time at the Auburn game.
Written by Bud Poliquin, a columnist for the Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper after covering the 2002 Auburn vs. Syracuse football game in Auburn. The article was written for and published in the Post-Standard on October 3, 2002.
BY BUD POLIQUIN
POST-STANDARD COLUMNIST
I have descended into college football’s Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have done all of these things and I’ve been changed forever.
I knew, of course, that we were different up here. I understood that autumn Saturdays in our burg have never been given over to any kind of serious sporting fervor. I’ve accepted for a good, long while that a fair amount of our citizens regularly choose to pick apples or seal driveways rather than head to the Carrier Dome to watch the Syracuse University Orangemen at play.
But, Lord have mercy on our college football souls, I’ve come to realize we’re not merely quirky in these parts. And we’re not just overly particular. No, having attended a game in Auburn, Ala. – which is like going to Mass in Rome – I’m convinced that, by comparison, we’re as dead as the flying wedge.
“Let me tell you something,” said Paul Pasqualoni, the SU coach who can recognize bedlam when he is forced to shout above it. “Being in that stadium with all those people – the noise level, the atmosphere – was exciting. It was a lot of fun. To me, it was just spectacular being there.”
He was speaking of Jordan-Hare Stadium, where four days earlier his SU club had lost to the Auburn Tigers 37-34 in an environment that was equal parts Woodstock, Mardi Gras, New Year’s Eve and Madonna’s last wedding. And the Crimson Tide boys, those rascals from the other side of the state, weren’t even in town, to say nothing of the Bulldogs, Gators or Razorbacks.
Nah, it was just the Orangemen, a non-league bunch from somewhere up north … with a losing record yet. But it didn’t matter. This, because the cherished Tigers were on the other side, and that was enough for those Alabama locals to respond the way the French did when Patton’s army showed up in Paris.
“I missed my wife’s birthday so I could cheer on my beloved alma mater against Syracuse,” Brent Miller wrote in an e-mail addressed to me following the three-overtime affair. “But you know what? I would have been there if our opponent had been the state of New York’s worst high school team.”
“Country, God and college football are usually our top three passions,” e-mailed another Auburn guy, Steve Fleming. “But not always in that order.”
“I grew up in Denver in a family with season tickets to the Broncos games,” e-mailed yet another believer, Rick Pavek. “I call Auburn home now and, take my word for this, Broncomania is nothing like Tigermania.”
The point is, with the Orangemen returning to the gray Dome that is so often lifeless to play Big East Conference foe Pittsburgh on Saturday, it’s clear that somebody’s not getting it. Either the Auburn faithful – and people like them in Knoxville and South Bend and Lincoln and Gainesville and Columbus and Austin and elsewhere – are far too crazed or we’re way too cool.
Listen, down there in eastern Alabama they pass out full-color, high-gloss, 22-by-17-inch, two-sided, fold-out pamphlets titled, “The 2002 Guide To Game Day At Auburn University.” And on Page 2 of each can be found the announcement that nobody is allowed to begin tailgating until 4 p.m.–the day before the game.
“You can’t be anything but envious,” said Jake Crouthamel, the Syracuse athletic director who was a wide-eyed witness to all of the SU-Auburn doings. “You can’t be anything but envious when you have that kind of support. I mean, there were 84,000 people in the seats. And the RVs and house trailers were lined up five miles outside of town. When you talk about the epitome of what the college football experience is all about … that’s it. Auburn is the epitome. You couldn’t possibly be unaware of the spectacle, even if you were trying to be unaware.”
The orange-clad zealots, who are in their seats fully 30 minutes prior to kickoff, thunder through choreographed cheers. The band, which is saluted upon its arrival by the big house with a standing ovation, blares. The PA system, which continuously blasts the sounds of a growling tiger, pipes in songs by the Dixie Chicks and interviews with the Auburn coaches.
Before the game, there is the great Tiger Walk during which the Auburn players march along Donahue Street through thousands of people, some of whom weep, and into the stadium. After the game, there is the mass papering of famous Toomer’s Corner downtown. And between all of that, a golden eagle circles the place before landing on the field to a deafening roar.
And us? Um, let’s see. We can’t fill 49,000 seats. We debate, ad nauseam, standing-vs.-sitting in the Dome. We give our tickets to takers at the door who had to be schooled in the art of courtliness. We regularly vacate the joint long before the final gun. We allow, in a good-idea-gone-bad, a bunch of vulgar louts planted in a thing called “The O-Zone” to chant expressions you’d never say in front of Mom at the dinner table.
In other words to compare our college football experience to that of Auburn (and a lot of other places) is to compare a skillet of beans to a plate of Chilean sea bass. And while that might sound harsh, it doesn’t make the words any less true.
Believe me on this. Please. I have descended into college football’s Grand Canyon. I have stood in its Alps. I have gazed at its ocean sunset. I have attended a game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Ala. And I’ve been changed forever.