1. We were playing memphis on the road. Last year we were playing at home... Duh, right? I know we had about as many fans as Memphis did.... but it surely wasn't a hyped HOME opener for us. what's the typical spread differential for a typical home-game vs an away-game... 3 points? I personally think it's probably more like 7-10 points in college football.... but when you add in the rivalry aspect then that away-vs-home differential can go exponential.
2. Which leads me to my next point....I remember reading numerous times about how seriously Memphis was taking their game with us... THEIR HOME OPENER.... I can't remember what the reason was (new offense? fresh enthusiasm?) but I got the impression that this was one of those "circled on the calendar" type games for Memphis and we basically had them grabbing their ankles from the get-go. Memphis may suck... but they way we drubbed them IN THEIR HOUSE with all of their pregame enthusiasm, was still pretty damn impressive.
Not buying into my opinion on the magnitude of home field advantage in rivalry games? Well riddle me this....how do you explain the homefield advantage in Eggbowls?
- The home team almost always wins even though it seems that, coincidentally, the home team has proven themselves to be the lesser team over the previous 10-11 games.
- Last years eggbowl was even evidence of how much effect homefield advantage plays in a rivalry game even though we won as the road team. We were about as good as I have ever seen us by the end of the year.... and Ole miss was about as bad as I have ever seen them... and we were only 8 points better than them? Get real...
Back to MSU @ Auburn: I can't speak for AU, but MSU has definitely started viewing that game with eggbowl-like animosity. I think if last years game was played @AU, then AU would have cruised to an 14+ point victory. But the atmosphere was so electrically amped on OUR CAMPUS that I'm sure our players were so juiced that they never even stopped to take a sip of water. That being said, we are obviously not the home team this year, but I think/know we are taking that rivalry-game mentality into it.... Judging by the lack of respect from AU fans, I can't say they same for them. That could spell trouble for AU since I legitimately believe that we are significantly better team than them this year. Hell, it'd be one thing to almost lose to USU in an away game.... but to almost lose in a home opener after a Nat'l Champ season.... well, to me, that says that they may be pretty bad this year.
One more brief example, remember when we almost, and maybe should have, beat LSU at home in 2009?... Well in 2010, with a team that was light years better than '09, we got thrown around Death Valley.
