Here we go again.

Let me start off by saying I didn't watch the Auburn-Appalachian State game. I couldn't; I was in a motel room in Bristol, Virginia, making plans to do a little day-hiking in Cumberland Gap National Park the next day, and for some strange reason nobody there cared to televise the game on pay-per-view (as far as I know). I couldn't even listen to the game; no Auburn Network affiliates were in the broadcast area, and their Web server had some sort of catastrophic hardware failure--so no RealAudio downloading, either. However, I've spent the last couple of days reading selected newspaper accounts of the game, and my opinion of Auburn's porspects this season are the same as my reaction was when I first saw a mid-game score Saturday night. It can be summed up in two words:

"Oh, no."

Yup. It's deja vu all over again.

Actually, it's not; this season, expectations are considerably lower than last year (obviously), and the Terry Bowden Auburn Football Soap Opera has drawn mercifully to a close. For the first time in over a year, we have a chance to have off-the-field developments take a back seat to actual football games. But as far as on-the-field accomplishments, welcome to 1998, the Sequel. It's going to be another tough year.

I understand this was the first game, and the first game of any season is going to have blunders, miscommunication,and oftentimes downright poor play. But this was a Division I-AA team, for crying out loud! I mean, it's great for Ben Leard to come off the the bench and throw a game-winning touchdown with less than a minute to go in the game. But the fact is, Ben Leard shouldn't have had to do any game saving!

Like I said, I didn't see the game, so I really can't comment on specifics. The only good thing I can say about it is that I'm glad it wasn't Florida State. In fact, after Saturday's near-disaster, I'm more confident than ever that taking the FSU game buyout option was the right thing to do. Not because we would've gotten beat; that was a foregone conclusion and there's no shame in losing to such a superior opponent. No, it was the right thing to do, because we would've gotten beat so badly that we wouldn't have learned anything--we wouldn't have anything to build on for the the next game. We would have been so outmatched by FSU that as far as knowing our own strengths and weaknesses, we wouldn't even have a starting point--sort of like last year when UVA shut us out.

But even though we almost got beat by lowly Appy State, we have some idea of where we are and what we need to do. We were able to learn about our football team. And we did win the game, after all. I think the 'W's are going to be hard to come by this year; I'll take them when and how I can.

In fact, this year, there's only one 'W' that matters to me: the one against the hated Crimson Tide. The idea of losing to UAT at Jordan-Hare makes me sick to my stomach.

Now, bring on the Vandals.