This is an opinion column.
It’s Mississippi State on Saturday for the Auburn Boo Birds and that got me thinking about this time last year.
Auburn was terrible back in 2022, or kinda like the team now, but yet the spirit on the Plains was about to change from doom to dreams thanks to the leadership of Cadillac Williams. It was beautiful and unprecedented in sports, and I wish that it could not only be remembered but recreated. Auburn needs that spirit again, and they deserve to have it, too.
I’ve been a reporter going on 25 years, and I’ve had the great privilege of covering some of the biggest stories in sports during my career. I was there with Tim Tebow and Joakim Noah in Gainesville for the Florida Gators’ golden years. I covered every moment of LeBron’s time with the Miami Heat. I was in the old Tiger Stadium press box as a student journalist when UAB upset Nick Saban’s LSU on homecoming 2000.
Then, in 2020, I wrote a book about Nick Saban’s “ultimate team.”
I say all this because I’ve witnessed the magnetic power of sports at every level, and in just about every way, and in all that time I’ve never seen anything like the way Cadillac transformed the energy surrounding Auburn football when he took over the program as interim coach on Oct. 31, 2022.
It was pure and it was beautiful and, for a lot of longtime Auburn people, the most fun they’ve ever had on the Plains. That sounds weird, considering Kick Six in 2013 and Cam Newton in 2010, but people were dedicated to what Cadillac represented like nothing I’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that back? Certainly beats booing the home team.
Don’t boo Auburn this Saturday, please, no matter what. After everything they’ve been through, those players deserve respect for sticking around and dedicating their fleeting time in college to rebuilding Auburn football. Instead of booing, do something symbolic to remember the time Auburn handed over its keys to Cadillac Williams.
Shake your keys in the air if you want to let Auburn know how much you care.
