Auburn Football: Where Were You When Wes Byrum Drained the Swamp?

Do you remember where you were when Auburn freshman Wes Byrum nailed a 43 yard field goal to knock off the Gators in the swamp?

I do. It’s crazy how people can remember an entire sequence of events that occurred in one evening 12 years ago, but not remember what they had for dinner last night.

It was September 29, 2007. Being a native Huntsvillian I was hanging out at the Big Spring Jam (RIP sweet prince). I was 13 years old at the time and couldn’t drive so me and my friends pow-wowed around downtown Huntsville with my dad. We’d started off the evening with Parliament Funkadelic led by George Clinton in a diaper. This was an era before smart phones so we literally just prayed for Auburn the whole time. If you wanted to know the current score you had to ask a guy who knew a guy who’d met a guy in line for the port-a-potty. Those were the days.

Los Lonely Boys started an hour and a half after kickoff, so when we heard about halfway through their set that the game was close, a mass exodus of people left the crowd in pursuit of the nearest television. Again, nobody had phones.

The closest televisions we could find were on Clinton Avenue next to a funnel cake stand. There were at least 250 people in front of these two big screen televisions. I, a 13 year old twig child could not see anything and neither could any of my 13 year old twig friends. I’ll never forget when we got to the television area we ran into one of my crazy 13 year old friends who had a light up pacifer in his mouth.

He was unsupervised (WHO DROVE YOU!?!?) and with a gang of private school friends who also had light up gear on. “This is the coolest rave ever,” he said. Or something like that. Anyway, that was the first time I’d ever heard of a rave and I didn’t think it was as cool as football so I said, “laters baby.” Good lord I was uncool, but at least I didn’t have a pacifer in my mouth.

F Scott Fitzgerald put it so eloquently, “so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past, marching on toward the moving picture boxes displaying college football.” We all began asking the closest stranger what was going on and then they had to ask the people in front of them.

Finally, we got the answer we were looking for.

Auburn and number 4 Florida were tied at 17. Tuberville had engineered an electric drive to get Auburn deep into field goal range with three seconds remaining on the clock. We couldn’t see any of this and at the time I was mostly irritated that I didn’t get to see my childhood crush and Auburn quarterback Brandon Cox ball out. He was hot.

The smell of funnel cakes was getting annoying. I think the commercial break before the field goal occurred lasted longer than my four years at Auburn. Luckily for us 13 year old twig children the inebriated vocal crowd erupted when the game came back on. They were even kind enough to provide commentary.

“OH HE’S KICKING IT Y’ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!”

We were at the television on the right which had a 10 second delay. We knew when the crowd on the left went bananas that Byrum had nailed it.

And then they started booing.

By this time my giant 6’4 dad had finally caught a glimpse of the television. “Urban iced him out,” my dad said. “WHAT DOES THAT MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN!?!?!?!?” me and my friends started asking him. “He has to kick it again,” he replied.

The nerve of Urban Meyer. I stood there inhaling greasy funnel cake air trying to ignore the pervasive vomit smell only to get stuck standing there LONGER. The inebriated vocal crowd started up again. That meant the ball was about to be snapped. Long before my praying in Jordan Hare days there are my jumping up and down on Clinton Avenue to try to see the television screen days.

This was that moment. It didn’t work, but I knew when the crowd on the left went legit bananas this time that it was real and the evilness that was Urban Meyer and funnel cakes had been defeated.

When the game was done and the win was sealed me, my friends, and my dad headed over to The Commodores and I learned that night that Auburn isn’t easy like Sunday morning. I don’t know what those guys were talking about and that’s probably for the best.

I WAS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!