“Ever to Conquer, Never to Yield”

You just lost to the No. 1 team in the country by three points in a place called Death Valley, home of one-hundred-thousand sauced-up Cajuns, and now your program is ready to implode from the inside-out?

At least, that seems to be the perception painted by the lunatic fringe of the Auburn fan base.

And we all know by now that the backup quarterback thought it was in his best interest, not the team’s best interest per se, but in his best interest to quit the team in the middle of the season and abandon his brothers.

Who cares if the starting quarterback goes down with an injury on the next offensive play for the Tigers.

“That’s Gus Malzahn’s fault,” they’ll tell you with a straight face while I shake my head in astonishment.

It’s not Malzahn’s job to babysit and pacify a redshirt freshman in order to make him happy.

Gus Malzahn’s job is to play the best players that’s going to give Auburn the best chance to be successful. Bo Nix was and is that quarterback and when you compare his numbers to past former Auburn greats who started quarterback as underclassmen on the Plains, Bo is outperforming them all.

However, the first Auburn true freshman quarterback to start game one of his Auburn career has had his struggles, too, specifically on the road against the aforementioned No. 1 LSU and at No. 6 Florida in the Swamp, Auburn’s only two losses of the season.

Yes, you heard me right, Auburn (6-2, 3-2) is currently the No. 11 team in the country with their only two losses of the season coming on the road to the No. 1 and No. 6 teams in the nation.

And some in the fan base will have you believe that the sky is falling.

Don’t worry, it’s not.

Besides, they said the same thing in 2017.

It’s like so many of you have forgotten when the same lunatic fringe called for Gus’ head after Auburn had just taken their second loss of the 2017 season, by four points to LSU in Death Valley no less.

Everyone had written Auburn off for dead after that game, similar to this year. After all, on Friday’s Finebaum Show, Georgia beat writer Mike Griffith called Auburn, “a dead man walking.“

But how easily people forget 2017.

What did the Tigers do? Two-loss Auburn came back to Jordan-Hare and clobbered No. 1 Georgia and then beat No. 1 Alabama by double-digits in a fourteen day span to become the hottest team in college football, finishing the regular season with a 10-2 record and No. 2 ranking in the final College Football Playoff poll prior to the conference championship games. Had Auburn gotten a bye instead of Alabama in 2017 then the Tigers would have been one of two SEC teams represented in the playoff.

Gatewood’s departure could be a blessing in disguise (as long as Bo remains healthy, obviously) in terms of eliminating any outside distractions that try and make their way into the Auburn locker room.

Of course, there were a portion of the fan base who attacked not only Malzahn, but starting quarterback Bo Nix when Gatewood announced his decision to transfer. That should never happen.

There’s even Auburn fans active on social media who are circulating rumors about other players and its downright irresponsible. The weird thing about it is these people almost get off on posting this drivel, yet they claim to love Auburn.

And look, if there’s any truth then I hope those specific players are reading this, as well as those irresponsible fans circulating rumors — you are the problem, not the solution.

WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SEASON!

THERE’S FOUR GAMES LEFT, TWO AGAINST OUR BIGGEST RIVALS!

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO QUIT!

But I digress.

The best thing we all can do regarding the Gatewood saga and the murmurs that followed, is to wish him well, turn the page, and focus on finishing this thing out the right way.

We owe it to these seniors to send them out on a high note and have Jordan-Hare absolutely electric.

And let’s turn our attention away from all the vitriol, backbiting and noise happening in and around the program, and turn our attention towards this last home stand of the 2019 college football season.

After all, the great game of college football that we love so much is literally here today and gone tomorrow. The season is over before we know it.

Auburn has four games left to wrap up this regular season and every single one of them are at home in the month of November.

It all starts this evening at 6:00 pm/c vs. Ole Miss (3-5, 2-3) in an SEC West showdown televised by ESPN and streamed by the Watch ESPN app.

And as I write this, I’m not feeling all that confident about the game. It’s not that I don’t think Auburn is head and shoulders the more talented team than Ole Miss, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about the Rebs coming out of a bye week while Auburn’s licking their wounds after a gut-wrenching loss to LSU last week.

Vegas obviously doesn’t share my concern as the Tigers are 19-point favorites.

Ole Miss is not a bad team, but they’re not a good team, either. Prior to their bye week, the Rebs lost at home to Texas A&M, 24-17, so they have shown life as the season’s progressed.

And they’ve been focused on beating Auburn the last couple weeks of practice. Make no bones about it, Ole Miss wants to turn their season around with a signature win for their embattled head coach Matt Luke in Jordan-Hare Stadium on Pat Dye Field against Gus Malzahn’s Auburn Tigers.

Yes, Auburn could come out sleepy while Ole Miss comes out of their bye week fired up with a plan on playing inspired ball and upsetting Auburn.

But every body has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

If Auburn decides to come alive and take out their frustrations on the Land Sharks, it could be the shot in the arm and boost of confidence the Tigers need to finish off the season the right way…by not quitting and instead, epitomizing the Auburn spirit of “ever to conquer, never to yield.”