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Unique Experience Awaits USF At Auburn

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By BRETT McMURPHY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

Updated: 09/05/2007 12:55 am

TAMPA - In its short history, the University of South Florida has played at Oklahoma, Penn State, Miami, West Virginia and Louisville, and also played Alabama in Birmingham and Arkansas in Little Rock.

Nothing, though, will compare with the atmosphere and tradition awaiting the Bulls when they visit No. 17 Auburn.

Toomer's Corner.

Tiger Walk.

An eagle circling inside Jordan-Hare Stadium before kickoff and landing on the field.

'I get goose bumps just thinking about it,' said former Chamberlain star Brian Adcock, who lettered at Auburn in 1995-96. 'It's one of the neatest experiences in college sports. When you see the eagle fly around the stadium and the crowd is doing chants of 'War Eagle,' it's a pretty awesome experience.'

Former Auburn coach Terry Bowden said 'it raises the hair on your arms; it's a Kodak moment.

'It will be a great experience for South Florida,' said Bowden, a college football analyst for Westwood One and ABC Sports. 'But I don't think they'll be so star struck. They've played in some pretty nice stadiums.

'This will be great tailgating, a great campus atmosphere, a wild audience, a packed house, all the things you love in college football. It will be everything South Florida hopes to be one day.'

When at least 86,000 fans cram into Jordan-Hare Stadium for Saturday's nationally televised game (ESPN2, 9 p.m.), it will become the fifth-largest city in the state.

And the loudest.

'No doubt it is intimidating,' said Bucs running back Cadillac Williams, who played at Auburn from 2001-04. 'I feel like we have the best fans in the country. It gets loud. I'm sure USF has probably played in other places where it is loud, but I don't know if it's louder than where they are going to be.

'The atmosphere is unbelievable.'

USF coach Jim Leavitt said he thought about pumping crowd noise into practices this week but 'I don't think we have big enough speakers.'

'It's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play at Auburn,' USF quarterback Matt Grothe said. 'They're an SEC powerhouse. It's Auburn. Even people that don't know about football know about the big-name schools like Auburn.'

Bowden said despite all of Auburn's history and tradition, the Bulls shouldn't be in awe.

'USF has been to a few dances and knows how to act,' Bowden said. 'But you're walking into the bastion of Southern football. Where they believe - and rightly so - that they play in a conference that looks up to no one.

'Just playing between the hedges in the SEC - when you say that, that means something to some growing up in the South.'

USF defensive coordinator Wally Burnham went 1-3 in Jordan-Hare as an assistant at Florida State and South Carolina.

'It's one of the best atmospheres,' Burnham said. 'You won't be able to hear - even on defense. Our kids played at Alabama and Oklahoma, but this is a little bit more unique. It will be fun.'

About 15,000-20,000 people will gather for Tiger Walk, to get a glimpse of Auburn's players making the two-block walk single-file from their dorms to the stadium. 'The fans will gather and form a tight gauntlet,' Bowden said. 'It's really awesome.'

And then there's the 'rolling' of Toomer's Corner.

That's at the intersection of College Street and Magnolia Avenue where the oak trees - and anything else that doesn't move - are engulfed with toilet paper after an Auburn victory, a tradition that dates back nearly 50 years.

'It's not a good idea to get in the business of ranking college football customs,' Austin Murphy wrote in his book, Saturday Rules. 'But none is more kick-butt than this.'

Bulls receiver Courtney Denson was at Auburn in 2003 before transferring to USF.

'You run out the tunnel at Auburn and see all those people,' Denson said. 'It's college football right here. They have a lot of good fans. Their fans love football, but USF fans are much better. They're way more crazy.'

Bowden said a USF victory would be another sign of progress for the Bulls.

'It's one more step for USF,' Bowden said. 'It's not 'if,' it's 'when.' Then it's how far they can go. A win over Auburn would be one more step along the way to becoming a college football upper-echelon team.

'If you want to be a national factor, you have to beat a top-10, a top-20 team at their place.'

A place like Auburn.

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