The streak has grown so long and has been brought to Jeff Thompson’s attention so often that the Auburn gymnastics coach can only tackle it with humor.

“When Alabama beat us up there last year, there was a guy who had a sign that said ‘80 and a thumb,’” Thompson said. “I thought that was pretty funny. I guess after Tommy (Tuberville) rubbed it in, we deserved it.”

Making matters just a bit worse on Auburn’s conscience, that streak is a bit longer than advertised by the sign-touting Tide fan.

But who’s counting, anyway? Thompson sure isn’t.

No. 15 Auburn will make its home debut tonight at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum when it will try to snap a 95-meet losing streak to No. 6 Alabama.

Though the Tigers have been unable to snap the streak, which dates back to 1979, progress has certainly been made. Auburn nearly upset the Tide in last year’s meet at home, losing by its narrowest margin in at least a decade.

That optimism has carried over into this season, as Thompson said his team has the potential to be the “best team we’ve ever had.”

“We’ve gotten better each year, so we’re able to attract the top kids in the country,” Thompson said. “Right now, we’re recruiting the same kids that Georgia and Florida and UCLA and Utah are. When you’ve got a facility like this and nice small town, great university, it’s been easier to get the top kids.”

Thompson had to say goodbye to one of the best gymnasts in Auburn history, Julie Dwyer, at the end of last season. But her departure, Thompson said, may serve as a positive as the season develops.

Instead of looking for Dwyer, a four-time Auburn gymnast of the year, to bail the team out late in a tight competition, the Tigers will have to prevent those types of nail-biting situations from even occurring.

Seniors A.J. Mills and Lindsey Puckett, along with sophomore Rachel Inniss, all picked up top marks Sunday in Auburn’s season-opening victory at Illinois-Chicago.

“The rest of kids know there’s not someone there at the anchor that’s going to pull them out of the fire if they mess up,” Thompson said. “You don’t have that automatic like we did. So I think it’s really helped.”

As hard as Auburn competes and as well as it performs against Alabama, it’ll still need all the help it can get from tonight’s panel of judges, of course.

Alabama, one of just four teams to win the NCAA Championship since it became a championship sport in 1982, has a national reputation Auburn cannot match, Thompson said. Not yet, at least.

Whether it can be proven or not, it can affect the way a meet is judged, Thompson said.

“The judges expect them to be better than us because they’ve always been better than us,” Thompson said. “They have girls on their team that the judges recognize from watching on television or from seeing them in magazines.

“We don’t have that, so we’re hoping that when the officials officiate the contest, they’ll judge what they see, and not what they expect to see.”

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