11/3/22 Aubrun Articles

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#PMARSHONAU: A special moment for an Auburn icon

Phillip Marshall

4-5 minutes

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It was reporting day for Auburn’s football freshmen in the summer of 2001 when running back Cadillac Williams sat down to talk with assembled reporters. He was a 5-star running back from Etowah High School, the crown jewel of the signing class.

The first question was predictable: “Do you expect to be the starter?” Williams pondered the question for a moment and smiled.

“I have not proved one thing to anybody here,” Williams said.

Asked if he had been promised a starting job, Williams laughed out loud.

“Aw, man, that’s just recruiting talk,” Williams said. “I didn’t pay attention to anything like that.”

Though he did not begin his first season as a starter, Williams quickly proved plenty to everybody at Auburn. He went on to become an Auburn icon, one of the great running backs in Auburn and SEC history, to be Rookie of the Year and play for eight seasons in the NFL. But he never really changed from the humble teen-ager who met reporters on that hot summer day.

Williams grew up an Alabama fan. He committed to Tennessee before switching to Auburn. And he became a loyal Auburn man through and through.

Ahead of the 2019 season, Gus Malzahn hired Williams to coach Auburn running backs. That was a big day in his life. On Monday, after Bryan Harsin was fired, interim athletics director Rich McGlynn informed him that he would be Auburn’s interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

For Williams, it was a moment so special that describing it is difficult. He will be the first African-American to be the head coach in a football game for Auburn.

“You know, just to hear that brings chills,” Williams said in his first appearance on the SEC coaches’ teleconference. “I get goosebumps. I never thought in a million years that I would honestly be in this position.”

And I promise you he meant it. That is who he is.

Auburn players stood and cheered when Williams stood in front of them for the first time. He is beloved by those players, and not just the running backs he has coached. He is a leader with so much to teach.

Williams’ first two Auburn seasons were cut short by injuries, but he fought back. He grew up in a family of modest means, but that never took the smile off his face. He willingly shared the glory with friend and fellow running back Ronnie Brown to help Auburn go 13-0 in 2004. Injuries cropped up again in the NFL, and he became the league’s Comeback Player of the Year.

And now, even if it’s on an interim basis, he has earned the opportunity of a lifetime. By the way, recruiting goes on.

“One of the things I definitely want to get out to recruits and the rest of the world: Only at Auburn do dreams come true,” Williams said. “I’m forever indebted to this institution. It changed the whole trajectory of the Williams family. I met my wife here, (had) my two boys. Auburn has been so good to me. Every dream I wanted to accomplish, this place gave me the opportunity.”

Auburn players haven’t stopped playing hard through a numbing four-game losing streak and 3-5 record, but they will play as hard or harder with Williams running things. Will they beat Mississippi State on Saturday? Will they win another game?

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“No promises,” Williams said. “One thing that’s going to make me happy is if we play good football -- and hard, Auburn football. Honestly, that’s what I want to get these kids to do - play hard and compete. At the end of the day, I told these kids, win, lose or draw, if we do that, not only will we make ourselves proud, but I know the Auburn family will be proud of us, too.”

For more than two decades, Williams has made Auburn proud – on the field, in the NFL, off the field and in the way he has lives his life.

">247Sports

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Auburn Morning Rush: Football players nominated for awards, gymnastics sells out

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Todd Van Emst/AU Athletics

River Wells

November 2, 2022 6:30 am CT

It’s another Wednesday in football season, Auburn fans.

It’s also the first game week without head coach Bryan Harsin at the helm, but that doesn’t mean that all Auburn football news this week has to be bad optics and gloomy futures. In fact, two Auburn football players have been nominated for awards amidst the chaos of the week. On top of that, Auburn gymnastics should expect full crowds for the 2022-23 season and the Auburn cross country team is being recognized for its SEC-best athletes.

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Check out the newest Auburn news for this edition of the Morning Rush below on Auburn Tigers Wire:

Owen Pappoe named as Butkus Award semifinalist

John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Owen Pappoe has been recognized as being among the best linebackers in the country.

Pappoe was named as a semifinalist for the 2022 Butkus Award on Tuesday, an award given out to the best linebacker in Division I college football. Although Pappoe has some stiff competition, making it to the semifinals is a testament to his production on this year’s Auburn defense. Pappoe has had 34 solo tackles and two forced fumbles on the year.

(AP Photo/Sean Rayford)

In other award news, Auburn long snapper Jacob Quattlebaum is getting some recognition of his own.

Quattlebaum was announced as a nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is given to the best player in college football that started as a walk-on. Quattlebaum has been with the team since 2021 and currently starts for the team as its long snapper.

Auburn gymnastics sells out season tickets

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Fans want more of Suni Lee and the Auburn Tigers.

Lee helped the team make an improbable run to gymnastics’ Final Four, and it seems that the Auburn faithful are ready to see it again — the team announced on Wednesday that season tickets had sold out for the upcoming gymnastics season, but that single-match tickets will be available soon.

Auburn cross country runners get All-SEC nods

John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

Auburn cross country can boast three All-SEC nods.

Three runners — Ryan Kinnae, Gene Coetzee and Joseph Perry — were given All-SEC commendations on Wednesday. Kinnae was named to the All-SEC Second Team and Coetzee and Perry were named to the All-SEC Freshman Team.

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check out the basketball section for some fun article i posted there this morning............

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Auburn football: Paul Finebaum links 1 current and 1 former Ole Miss coaches to HC job

Andrew Hughes

3 minutes

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Paul Finebaum linked 1 current and 1 former Ole Miss head coach to the likely imminent Auburn football head coaching vacancy Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-USA TODAY Sports

 

Auburn football losing for the third straight matchup by at least two touchdowns has pulverized any remaining faint sliver of hope for most fans regarding the 2022 season. AU hasn’t been on the winning side of a game since September — and they didn’t even deserve to win that one as much as Missouri had an unbreakable will to lose.

Talk of hiring a new athletic director is reaching a fever pitch, with Mississippi State’s John Cohen — a former baseball head coach with a pair of College World Series appearances under his belt — looking like the guy. Of course, AU is taking its time and there is some pushback to the potential hiring per On3’s Justin Hokanson, but the first step to removing Bryan Harsin could soon be upon us.

With that in mind, and with the Tigers continuing to lose football games in soul-crushing fashion, the talking heads continue to forecast the directions the Plains is headed in with new direction likely needed by season’s end in the coaching department.

Paul Finebaum weighed in with his own prediction, and it included a former coach and the current play-caller for the Ole Miss Rebels:

“So Harsin is gone, whenever that is. He just did a miserable job. Hugh Freeze I think is going to be the coach to watch. (Lane Kiffin’s) name comes up, but I do think there’s a lot of interest for Hugh Freeze there.”

Hugh Freeze’s potential price point for Auburn football recently revealed

If Hugh Freeze is committed to sticking in Lynchburg and leading Liberty forward, it doesn’t matter how big the bag is that Auburn football, or any program for that matter, throws at him. If, however, the Flames are a springboard to something bigger, the Tigers now have an understanding on what his price range will be.

Freeze will earn nearly $5 million per season under the terms of his new deal, which will run for the next eight years until the turn of the decade. That is the price of a coach with some past baggage over at Ole Miss, but a coaching resume that has a far better chance of holding up in the current SEC than the incumbent’s has.

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there is very littl out there today but i will check off and on today for more.