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This is an opinion column.

It’s Mississippi State on Saturday for the Auburn Boo Birds and that got me thinking about this time last year.

Auburn was terrible back in 2022, or kinda like the team now, but yet the spirit on the Plains was about to change from doom to dreams thanks to the leadership of Cadillac Williams. It was beautiful and unprecedented in sports, and I wish that it could not only be remembered but recreated. Auburn needs that spirit again, and they deserve to have it, too.

I’ve been a reporter going on 25 years, and I’ve had the great privilege of covering some of the biggest stories in sports during my career. I was there with Tim Tebow and Joakim Noah in Gainesville for the Florida Gators’ golden years. I covered every moment of LeBron’s time with the Miami Heat. I was in the old Tiger Stadium press box as a student journalist when UAB upset Nick Saban’s LSU on homecoming 2000.

Then, in 2020, I wrote a book about Nick Saban’s “ultimate team.”

I say all this because I’ve witnessed the magnetic power of sports at every level, and in just about every way, and in all that time I’ve never seen anything like the way Cadillac transformed the energy surrounding Auburn football when he took over the program as interim coach on Oct. 31, 2022.

It was pure and it was beautiful and, for a lot of longtime Auburn people, the most fun they’ve ever had on the Plains. That sounds weird, considering Kick Six in 2013 and Cam Newton in 2010, but people were dedicated to what Cadillac represented like nothing I’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t it be nice to have that back? Certainly beats booing the home team.

Don’t boo Auburn this Saturday, please, no matter what. After everything they’ve been through, those players deserve respect for sticking around and dedicating their fleeting time in college to rebuilding Auburn football. Instead of booing, do something symbolic to remember the time Auburn handed over its keys to Cadillac Williams.

Shake your keys in the air if you want to let Auburn know how much you care.

There has been a lot of talk about locker room culture this week in Auburn. It’s only been a year, but people forget how dramatically Cadillac changed everything during the 2022 season. It was before Mississippi State week last year when Auburn fired Bryan Harsin. They named Cadillac the interim coach and he instantly turned jokes to joy for the Tigers. It was a stunning transformation.

Cadillac and his assistants had little time to prepare for State, but Mike Leach and the Bulldogs needed overtime to win it in the end. Auburn then defeated Texas A&M and Western Kentucky before giving Alabama a much tougher game than anyone could have expected.

I was in the locker room with Auburn after the Iron Bowl. Here was Cadillac’s final message to his team: “Serve. Serve. Serve,” he said. “If you don’t get nothing else from this, serve. Serve.”

Don’t boo when things get tough, in other words. Instead, shake the keys to Auburn’s heart for everyone to hear.

New head coach Hugh Freeze is playing the long game at Auburn, and he has the full support of the administration.

Is it going to work out? I don’t have those answers, but everything Freeze is doing this season is for the future and that includes pointing to the field as proof that the top recruits can come in and play immediately in 2024 and 2025. After two years with the worst coach in Auburn football history — and we’re all looking at you, Bryan Harsin — this is the way it had to be.

Auburn fans booed their own team last week during the Tigers’ loss to Ole Miss. It was fair criticism based on what we’ve seen, but I’m still cheering the fact that boosters ponied up to fire Harsin on Halloween last year. Imagine if they hadn’t. Auburn would be losing recruits to Troy and South Alabama this season instead of pulling in prospects like the most recent commitment, Thompson High safety Kaleb Harris.

Don’t judge Freeze by wins and losses this season, or in-game decisions or which starting quarterback is on the field during the fourth quarter. Don’t try to evaluate his offense on Saturday against Mississippi State as proof of anything other than being a placeholder for the best quarterback prospects in the country.

Hopefully Freeze is at Auburn for a long time and competing for the SEC championship in a couple years. Do I have faith in Freeze’s ability to consistently win games? I’m not going to even begin considering that until next season.

I say all of this as prelude for something that I know every Auburn fan is experiencing in their hearts right about now. I really miss the feeling of seeing Cadillac running up and down the sidelines as Auburn’s interim head coach.

It was electric and inspiring and I want that feeling back for Auburn fans for the rest of this season. How can we make that possible?

Why not give Auburn fans something to celebrate while everyone waits for Freeze to revamp the roster?

Why not give the most loyal college football supporters in the country something to rally behind in the present while Freeze recruits for the future? After everything they’ve been through, they deserve it.

Is it too much to ask, just for the next couple months, to give the keys of Auburn football back to Cadillac?

Auburn swaps out the quarterbacks just about every quarter. Why not the head coach, too?

Ludicrous idea? Maybe, but in sports sometimes it’s fun to bend the rules. Cadillac is the best coach Auburn has had in the last few years and he’s still a major part of the team. While Freeze is focused on recruiting for the Tigers, maybe putting Cadillac back in charge of the current squad is the best shot for Auburn to make a bowl game and extend its season.

That idea isn’t crazy at all, and it’s probably true.

At this point, Auburn could use any and all ideas to stimulate some momentum. Maybe he wasn’t ready to be a permanent head coach, but Cadillac can motivate a team like no one I’ve ever seen.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, wild times and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.