AU's year filled with highs, lows

Will the real Auburn Tigers please stand up?

Are they the team that blew up Mississippi State for 589 yards in September? Or the team that managed only 193 against LSU two weeks ago? Or the team that then dropped 401 on Ole Miss last week?

Are they the team that managed just two sacks in three weeks against Tennessee, Arkansas and Kentucky? Or the team that had three sacks in each of the last two games?

Is Chris Todd the quarterback who threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns against West Virginia, and 226 yards and two scores against Ole Miss? Or the one who managed less than 100 yards against Kentucky and LSU?

When November rolls around, the pecking order in the SEC typically starts to become clear. But with teams such as Auburn pulling a Jekyll-and-Hyde act week to week, it's difficult to tell how the conference shakes out this season once we look past Florida, Alabama and LSU.

It appeared that the Tigers were on their way toward the bottom of the heap when they dropped three straight games to Arkansas, Kentucky and LSU. The Hogs have not won another conference game, and Kentucky was without its starting quarterback and its best defensive player. Then the Tigers suffered their worst offensive showing of the season against LSU, running for a season-low 122 yards and giving up four sacks.

But a week later, Auburn ambushed Ole Miss, which had seemingly gotten its season back on track with a big win over the same Arkansas team that beat Auburn 44-23.

Antonio Coleman lamented after the Arkansas loss that the Tigers' defense was falling back into last year's bad habits. But the performance against Ole Miss proved that 2008 is history.

"This is not last year," Auburn defensive back Walter McFadden said after the win. "We're not going to give up. We're not going to point fingers. We're just going to go out every week and play how we always play."

The Tigers aren't the only SEC team on a roller coaster lately. The entire middle of the conference is a jumbled mess.

Ole Miss didn't allow a sack against Arkansas, then couldn't block anyone against Auburn. Arkansas looked unstoppable against Auburn and took Florida to the final seconds, but fell apart against the Rebels. Tennessee lost to Auburn, then whipped Georgia and South Carolina. Kentucky beat Auburn and then lost to Mississippi State. Georgia, a team typically considered part of the SEC's upper tier, is 4-4 and 3-3 in the SEC.

In fact, every team in the SEC except Florida, Alabama and LSU has at least three conference losses, all of which should make for a very interesting November.

The month sets up nicely for Auburn. If it takes care of business against Furman, Georgia looks like a very winnable game, even between the hedges. Then even a loss to Alabama would leave the Tigers 8-4. I'm betting most Auburn fans would have taken 8-4 before the season, even 7-5.

An 8-4 record should be good enough to earn a trip to the Cotton Bowl or at least the Chick-fil-A. Not too shabby for either Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.

Contact Mike Herndon at:

mherndon@press-register.com

His column appears on Wednesdays in the Press-Register.