Auburn’s win at A&M was for Jeremiah Dinson

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Daniel Thomas: Auburn’s win at Texas A&M was for Jeremiah Dinson

Posted Sep 22, 2019

4 minutes

Daniel Thomas didn’t know Jeremiah Dinson’s story when the Montgomery native arrived at Auburn in 2016.

He didn’t know that Dinson’s career almost ended at Kyle Field in 2015, when the then-freshman defensive back was on the receiving end of a brutal blindside hit that resulted in injuries to his right knee and left shoulder. When Thomas heard about Dinson’s journey, though, it stuck with him — and it was at the forefront of his motivation when Auburn returned to Texas A&M this weekend, coming away with a 28-20 victory to open SEC play against the then-No. 17 Aggies.

“It lets you know, it shows you the character of your team,” Thomas said of the win. “And it's big, going on road games, that we're prepared against hundreds of thousands of people, 70 or 80 guys having each other's backs. We did it for Jeremiah, man. I mean, when he was telling me his story, when I first got here, it made me want to just do it for him. And that's who we did it for.”

Auburn’s defense was oftentimes dominant against Texas A&M, particularly against the run. The Tigers limited the Aggies to just 56 yards rushing in what was tied for the third-best effort against the run in SEC play during the Gus Malzahn era.

Auburn also generated solid pass rush, led by a commanding performance from Derrick Brown in his return from an upper-body contusion he sustained a week earlier against Kent State. Brown was the first Auburn player since 2012 to record at least one sack, a tackle for loss, a forced fumble and a pass breakup in a game, as he finished with four tackles, including three for a loss, a pair of sacks, two pass breakups and a forced fumble.

The Tigers’ defense as a whole had seven tackles for a loss, with three sacks, as well as seven hurries to go with four pass breakups. The unit also limited Texas A&M to just 5-of-14 on third-down attempts for the afternoon.

“It was a huge win for us,” Dinson said. “Good team. Texas A&M is a good team, and that stadium does get loud in there. But you know, after the game, this team is a good team. We have a good defense and we have a good offense. It just brung us together. But we got to be consistent. We got to go — we watched film today and corrected some things and stuff like that, but after a win like that, you can't complain.

“You got to take what you can take from those type of games and just move on."

While it was another dominating effort from the defense, several players acknowledged that it was far from perfect and that there’s still room for plenty of improvement. A win is a win, however, and this one—on the road, in the SEC and against a ranked opponent in front of more than 100,000 people—was certainly a big one for Auburn.

The fact that Dinson’s teammates wanted to win it for him made it even bigger for the redshirt senior safety, who finished with three tackles, marking the first time this season he hasn’t at least tied for the team lead in tackles.

"I mean, that's big,” Dinson said. “They know the story. I don't got to really talk about it like that. They knew the story and they knew the feelings I was feeling when I walked into that stadium. You know, everybody came up to me and said they had my back, and that was special to me, because like I said, again, they knew the story.

“We were just out there fighting for each other, and I'm happy we got the win."

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.