Bob Holt and Gus Malzahn go way back. Bob is a veteran sports reporter in Arkansas who covers the Razorbacks. Gus is an Arkansas native who coached high school football there for years and coordinated the offense for the Hogs for one reality show of a season in 2006. Call them the Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear of SEC football. Bob and Gus have such a good relationship that, in introducing the Auburn coach Thursday at SEC Media Days, Commissioner Greg Sankey joked that Gus

This is the way the best Auburn year ever ended. Not with a bang, but a swing and a miss. Not with a national championship, but a postseason run heard 'round the world. The Auburn baseball team won't win the ultimate prize, not after losing a two-day elimination game to Louisville 5-3, but the Tigers can put the bats and balls away for now having earned an incredible amount of respect. They did something no team at their school had done in 22 years. They did something no team

They should've won the game. You know it. I know it. Butch Thompson and every one of his players know it. You go to the bottom of the ninth with a three-run lead - in a World Series game in Little League, travel ball, college or the majors - you should win the game. Auburn did, and Auburn didn't. It was so Auburn, it hurt. Even if the other team is Mississippi State, one of the best teams and programs in the country, this year's national leader in comeback victories, you shou

They did it for Rod. For Rod and Paula. For Hal Baird and Bo Jackson, Frank Thomas, Tim Hudson and Gregg Olson. For anyone and everyone who's cared about and contributed to Auburn baseball through the years. Twenty-two years after their last trip to the College World Series, the Tigers are headed back to Omaha because of course they are. Because no team has faced more adversity and handled it with more grace. No team has had its heart broken in more places and found more stre

The last time I saw Rod Bramblett was … Tuesday. It hurts to type those words because they mean what they too often do. They mean I'll never get to see him again. In the press box at the Hoover Met, I ran into the Voice of the Auburn Tigers for the first time in more than a year. He was getting ready to do what a lot of people may not realize he did the rest of the year when he wasn't painting amazing pictures with his words on fall Saturdays in Jordan-Hare Stadium. He was ge

If you like daytime drama and nighttime reality TV, you have to love Auburn. If you're a fan of hair-raising, jaw-dropping endings that go down in the most unthinkable, improbable ways, you should paint your face orange and blue, warm up your toilet paper throwing arm and scream "War Eagle!" at the top of your lungs at every opportunity. Nobody makes sports worth watching quite like the Tigers. In victory and defeat. In football, basketball, baseball, secret plane trips and e

Samir Doughty, the glue guy on an Auburn team whose bond was essential to its unprecedented journey, committed the Final Four foul that will live in infamy. Eyes still red, he met the press at his locker and refused to blame the officials. "They're going to do their job the best that they can," he said. "The referees don't try to tell me how to put the ball in the hoop. I'm not going to tell them how to make the right or wrong call." The morning after, it was easy to see he c

No way no how nowhere should a game of Final Four magnitude be decided that way. Foul on Auburn? Maybe, but the official on the scene didn't hesitate to call it with .6 seconds left. Double dribble on Virginia a second or so earlier? Absolutely, but the two officials looking right at it flat ignored it. Their ignorance was the inexcusable, unconscionable difference in an incredible, unforgettable game. Make that call, and it's Auburn ball with a two-point lead with two second