Cowbells Tolling

Robert Jordan was assigned to blow up the bridge. He knows, when he receives his assignment, that he might not survive it. But he also knows there is camaraderie when facing an enemy in hostile territory. He knows the need to surrender oneself for the common good of his fellows. To do “as all good men should” means to be willing to sacrifice self. It means laying it all on the line. For Robert Jordan, it meant death over defeat.

I don’t know if Nick Fairley ever read Ernest Hemingway’s novel about Robert Jordan. He certainly played as if he did. After all, the junior defensive tackle had one interception, one fumble recovery, 1.5 sacks and 2.5 tackles for loss. He played as if he were a cloned mixture of Reggie White and Darrelle Revis. While the offense was sputtering in a bell-acious hostile environment, Fairley’s assignment from defensive line coach Tracy Rocker was simple: sacrifice yourself for 60 minutes and don’t let the bell-hounds out your grasp. Do it for your team. They will be there to drag you off the field of battle when it’s over. Surrender self for the common good of the team. Rocker asked Fairley to be like Hemingway’s hero.

Hemingway borrowed a line from John Donne and used it as the title of his novel. Most people think the line came from a poem entitled “No Man is an Island”, but actually Donne wrote it as prose in a piece entitled “Meditation No. 17”. Those memorable first words of the Meditation are: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main.”

Certainly Donne’s words were taken to heart by the men of the orange and blue on Thursday night. No one particular player was able to beat Mississippi State. It took a team. Not just the offense….in fact one might say “not the offense”, but also the defense. Not just Cameron Newton, but also the Nick Fairley led defense (here I insert a shade-of-memory shout-out to Wayne Hall, Auburn’s defensive coordinator during the Pat Dye era, as Scarbinsky did today in the Birmingham News) won the game in a manner reminiscent of his coach and mentor’s days on The Plains. No man was an island in Starkville.

Mississippi state circled September 9 as the turning point for their program. It was the first SEC game where the cowbells were legal. It was Thursday night on ESPN. It was against an SEC West opponent. It was their opportunity to gain respect. The cowbells would move them over the hump from that dreaded left side of the SEC bell curve. They had everything to win. Auburn had everything to lose. Even the prognosticators had pointed to this as a “trap game” for Auburn.

But State forgot one thing. They forgot to read Hemingway’s novel. Or even Donne’s Meditation.

The last line of Donne’s Meditation No. 17 reminds us of a bell. It reminds us of a bell we cannot escape. Certainly that is what every Stark-vegas Bulldog was thinking as they entered Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field. They must have been thinking, "Auburn....this is a bell you cannot escape!!"

That famous and often quoted last line reads “…for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”. Hemingway took part of this line for his novel: “For Whom the Bell Tolls”. Donne spoke of it as a death bell.

But as much as the maroon clad bulldogs rang their cowbells in an effort to confuse, frustrate and finally get the Auburn Tigers to roll over and die, it didn’t happen. Rather, Donne’s words came hauntingly back…..”For whom the bell tolls……it tolls for you.”

Is it Christmas Eve?

It’s Christmas Eve.

Not really, but almost.

Although tomorrow isn’t Christmas Day, it does begin another season of NCAA college football. With the Thursday night kickoff, the Southeastern Conference jumps right in with South Carolina taking on Southern Mississippi.

Later this weekend, the rest of the conference joins in and it looks like this:

Alabama hosts San Jose State
Arkansas hosts Tennessee Tech
Auburn hosts Arkansas State
LSU and North Carolina meet at the Georgia Dome
Mississippi State hosts Memphis
Ole Miss hosts Jacksonville State
Florida hosts Miami of Ohio
Georgia hosts Louisiana Lafayette
Kentucky visits Louisville
Tennessee hosts UT Martin
Vanderbilt hosts Northwestern

With most of the SEC playing scrimmage games this week, rather than predict winners and losers, I will go out on a limb and give predictions regarding each team’s Head Coach. You can hold me accountable for my predictions at the end of the season. If you have any comments, concerns or questions, feel free to chime in.

MY PREDICTIONS

The NCAA will not reverse their decision that the only Jeremiah the Right Reverend Houston Nutt will be able to preach from this year is found in the Good book, not the Mug Shot Book.

During the heat of a game, Bobby Petrino will cuss out and then fire an opposing team’s ball boy for wearing a team logo hat.

Lawyer turned Coach Derek Dooley will invoke the attorney-client privilege during all Vol team meetings.

Joker Phillips will find that having no returning starters on the Kentucky offensive line is no joke.

The hot seat that finally gets Mark Richt is the bench his team uses at the Clark County Jail.

Urban Meyer will continue to suffer from Esophageal Reflux from eating too much crow and having no Tebow steaks in his diet.

The Ol’ Ball Coach Steve Spurrier will find that his name is the only thing with a “spur” in it, as his tame roosters cause him to finally move out of a Columbia hotel also.

Les Miles will…..well…..be Les Miles.

Robbie Caldwell will take over for Jeff Foxworthy on “who wants to be smarter than a turkey farmer?”

Nick Saban’s statue will have the “s” missing from his name, but it will have more charm and personality than the Rain Man himself.

The bells Dan Mullen will hear ringing at the end of the season won’t be from Starkville cows, but rather BellSouth….as bigger programs come knocking on his door.

Gene Chizik will find himself neck deep in a post season recruiting battle for one of college football’s most prized recruits……Gus Malzahn.

That’s how I see it. What about you?

WJLaneSR