The gamers are getting paid. The instances are altering. Tailgate Guys tents take declare to the nice spots on campus, they usually cost $25 for the locker room excursions now, as a result of it simply isn’t the way in which it was. The barbershop downtown closed and moved, and so did the ironmongery shop. Up go extra luxurious condos. It simply isn’t the small city it was, is it? It simply isn’t like the times passed by, is it? You possibly can’t whistle with a fishing pole over your shoulder anymore and you’ll’t throw soccer out within the entrance yard anymore, kicking up the fallen leaves round you and listening to rating updates hollered from the porch, as a result of Auburn simply isn’t Mayberry, is it?

What if I advised you there was this city the place you purchase lemonade on the nook?

What if I advised you the city has a soccer crew, and the crew has an opportunity to do higher this yr?

What if I advised you the mayor of the city was on the pep squad on the college, and his household ran the bookstore?

What if I advised you there’s this columnist for the newspaper who will get individuals all riled up and upset?

What if I advised you everyone within the city is aware of this tiger, who walks on his hind legs, and he has a reputation they usually’d all promise to you he’s actual?

What if I advised you there’s this one huge receiver?

What if I advised you that on a quiet morning, should you hear actual shut and if the wind is blowing a sure manner, you’ll be able to hear the marching band training?

How naive we’d must be to assume Mayberry is an actual place on Earth.

However when that ball’s within the air on Saturday, you’ll really feel prefer it’s true once more.

The NIL stuff is all completely different however when Pat Sullivan and Terry Beasley had been right here they began permitting freshmen to play varsity and that was a radical change. Texas and Oklahoma are the largest modifications coming to the SEC since, nicely, Texas A&M and Missouri, then Arkansas and South Carolina. Texas A&M being within the SEC is bizarre however the concept of Texas A&M being within the Large 12 is beginning to really feel even weirder. All people’s frightened in regards to the election however elections are supposed to be frightened about. Within the e-book Friday Night time Lights, there’s a chapter the place a participant sits behind a pickup truck, watching the West Texas sundown, frightened sick that the very material of society was going to be torn asunder by some existential risk named Dukakis, and that was again within the 80’s. Change is fixed. Mayberry was altering.

It doesn’t matter what’s occurring, Auburn remains to be Auburn, and Auburn will be Mayberry, as a result of Auburn is absolutely the way you expertise it, how you reside it, the way you select to actualize it — and it’s not outlined or dictated by some actual property investor group, or anyone who wears a tie for a residing.

Auburn is a soccer coach getting a congratulations on a Sunday strolling out of church. Auburn is a kiss within the bleachers. Auburn is a father and son throwing the ball on the tailgate, and it’s the rap track coming by means of a participant’s headphones on his manner by means of Tiger Stroll, on his manner into conflict.

When that ball is within the air and 87,000 individuals are all watching that one ball, NIL and realignment and elections and every little thing else goes manner again on the backburner. Paradise is discovered. It’s soccer once more. It’s Auburn once more, for everybody who desires to stay it how they stay it.

There’s this city, the place the crew is the Tigers, they usually’re 0-0. There’s this coach, there’s this quarterback, there are these boosters, there’s you and me, the newspaper and the rankings and the schedule. It’s not so completely different when the ball’s within the air.

It’s acquainted. For a lot of, it’s house. For all of us, it’s soccer season.