Everything’s going to be alright.
The people of Auburn — the persistent people of Auburn — striped the stadium. A father and a daughter with an orange-and-blue bow in her hair lined the railing on the ramp, expecting another wild LSU rivalry game and getting one. A husband helped his wife with a cane down the steps in section 11 before the game, and the fine people of Auburn cleared the way with a smile. The sun shined in Auburn, until the sun went down, when two students waved flags behind the tubas above the band, the American flag and the AU, during another raucous game under the lights in the loveliest village.
Fall is coming and the people of Auburn love the fall: The leaves will turn brown and fall, skidding across the street on a chilly, windy day, and this will make them happy. They’ll still throw football. They’ll still tailgate. The boys know they only get so many of these days every year, and the girls already have their outfits planned through the Arkansas game.
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Everything’s going to be alright.
Auburn will move on soon without Bryan Harsin. If his players have had a special bond with him, it’ll come out, and they’ll always have each other’s number. If he was a prick, it’ll come out. If he was a prick as a result of problems and pressures in his life, the fine people will help him, and we’ll learn and we’ll grow and we’ll know life is about more than football — it’s about the people we share football with.
I try not to speak for others in this space, but: Allen Greene, if this gets to you, you would be welcome at any tailgate in Auburn, offered food and a drink and a squeeze on your shoulder and a, “How you doing?” Auburn is moving forward but there’s a reason coaches keep their houses in Auburn, because the fine people of Auburn move forward together.
Moving forward means change and improvement and tough conversations: This demagogue garbage has got to go. Next time, there’s no sense splintering yourselves, demanding obedience to some coach just to feed some stupid old idea of dictatorship. The Junction Boys are dead and those days are long gone.
Auburn must not be so bitter to their own: If that’s the legacy Bo Nix leaves at Auburn — that next time they’ll be nicer, that next time they won’t think so much of the Auburn Family that they hold one of the Auburn Family’s own to such impossible standards — then I think he’d be OK with that legacy. Anders Carlson is not having a senior season as good as his brother, and that’s OK. It’s OK.
On that ramp, after an unfortunate turn of momentum at the end of the first half, a woman threw up her hands in exasperation and said, “Auburn’s gonna Auburn.”
Auburn’s gonna Auburn, and everything’s gonna be alright.
The fine, persistent people of Auburn push forward together.