The Video Board in Auburn Has Made All The Difference
By Ryan McMunn
Sep 12, 2015; Auburn, AL, USA; General view of the stadium with the new video board prior to the game between the Auburn Tigers and the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at Jordan Hare Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports
It’s been the talk of college football for months now: Auburn’s new video screen is the biggest in the universe! It’s so big that it has actually helped them out tremendously on the field this season… Don’t believe me? Just keep reading!
‘Tis true, Auburn has installed a gigantic video board inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. They were progressive in this action, as they were wanting the astronauts on the International Space Station to have the ability to watch a game, live, from outer space without having to stream it, thus moving humanity into an entirely new age of media viewing and entertainment technology.
I tip my hat to Malzahn and the folks on the loveliest village on the plains.
However, if you aren’t careful, you may see through the superficial aspect of the video board and you’ll miss all the benefits that it has brought the War Eagle Tigers this season on the field.
For instance: Gus Malzahn’s high-tempo, unstoppable offense has been just that thus far. Every time that the Tigers have been inside the redzone and not turned the ball over, kicked a field goal, or ended a half, they’ve scored a touchdown!!! That is absolutely unbelievable! Take that, you pundits that keep cutting them down.
Oh, and on an individual level, we all know that Jeremy Johnson was benched after their hard-fought loss to the LSU Tigers, and freshman Sean White started in place of Johnson for the Mississippi State game (not the X Games athlete), but why was he benched?
The easy out would be to say that Johnson just didn’t play well, but the real reason has to do with that video board.
Sep 5, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Gus Malzahn walks the sidelines in the third quarter of the 2015 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against the Louisville Cardinals at the Georgia Dome. Mandatory Credit: Shanna Lockwood-USA TODAY Sports
You see, Johnson was distracted over the first two home games. When the Tigers played host to Jacksonville State, if you looked closely, you could see Johnson constantly looking up at the screen, peering into it as if he was making sure something didn’t appear that shouldn’t be up there. Upon further investigation, it became known that he was actually keeping an eye out to make sure the camera didn’t show his head coach picking his nose in front of 87,451 loyal Auburn fans.
He was being responsible. You can’t fault the guy for that.
Well, after they traveled to Baton Rouge and left with a moral victory, the Tigers hosted the Bulldogs of Mississippi State. They played great and held their own in the loss, but nobody has even thought about how the video board helped them out that game.
They kicked three field goals, and only made two of them. Do you know why they made those two? Because kicker Daniel Carlson was kicking the two made attempts… toward the video board! He could actually watch himself, literally larger than real life, kick the ball, and thus making it much easier to see the field goal posts!
Guys, people mocked the gargantuan video board previously, but just keep these thoughts in the back of your minds when you watch the Tigers on television again, and you’ll see just how much it helps them out.
Texas A&M has the 12th man, but Auburn has the 1080p man.