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[WAR-MATT 2]

T-Rob's bond with Auburn is for a lifetime

By Phillip Marshall, Senior Writer

Posted Jul 14, 2008

Copyright © 2008 AuburnUndercover.com

Travaris Robinson, left, talks with former DB Pat Lee during his Auburn days/Photo by Todd Van Emst

They came from big cities and small towns. Some were highly recruited, but most weren’t. They came to Auburn to help Tommy Tuberville build a football program.

Travaris Robinson, T-Rob to almost everyone who knows him, was a freshman wide receiver in 1999. He would become a cornerback and finally an All-Southeastern Conference safety. He played two seasons in the NFL, returned to Auburn as a student assistant to finish earning his degree and spent two more seasons as a graduate assistant.

After last season, Robinson moved to Western Kentucky, where he will coach defensive backs in the coming season. But home, he says, will always be the east Alabama college town where so many opened their arms and their hearts to a young man from Miami and so many others.

“I think we all came here for the same reasons,” said Robinson, in town last Saturday to work Auburn’s final camp of the summer. “They were 3-8 the year before we got here. We all had the mentality we wanted to be part of the growth and development of this program. Under Coach Yox’s and Coach Tuberville’s tutelage, it helped us grow as people. We started from the bottom up.”

Robinson, in his first college football game, might have saved Tuberville acute embarrassment. Auburn had made a controversial decision to back out of its scheduled game with Florida State and scheduled Division I-AA Appalachian State instead. With the scored tied 15-15 in the fourth quarter, the ball was snapped before quarterback Ben Leard was ready. As it bounced around inside the Auburn 5-yard line, Robinson saw it from his wide receiver position. On the dead run, he beat a host of Appalachian State defenders to the ball. Eventually, Auburn 22-15.

Robinson didn't win a Southeastern Conference championship in his days at Auburn, but by the time he left, the Tigers could look anyone in the eye. His class laid the foundation for a 13-0 season in 2004.

“I come back and I see the new locker room and I see a lot of stuff that is changing,” Robinson said. “I know Auburn has a big-time history. We respect that and love that, but for this era, that class, Coach Tuberville’s first recruiting class, were the kinds of guys you want to start a program with. We didn’t have the greatest talent, but we had the greatest hearts and the greatest workers and the greatest people.”

The players who were part of those trying but satisfying days, Robinson says, are as close as brothers to this day. That closeness, he says, is what playing the game is all about.

Reggie Torbor came in 1999 as a running back from Baton Rouge, became a dominating defensive end and won a Super Bowl ring with the New York Giants. His success story is one of many.

“I got up with Reggie, Spencer (Johnson) and Demarco (McNeil),” Robinson said. “We just fellowshipped. We went to Reggie’s house. He just bought a nice house in Birmingham, in Liberty Park. Man, I’m so proud of him. We were looking outside and I looked at him and said ‘We made it, man.’

“Before we came here, I never knew he existed. He was in Baton Rouge doing his own thing and I was in Miami doing my thing. For us to just bond like we did, like all the guys did, it’s amazing. We all communicate to this day, check on each other. All of us are successful.”

That sense of brotherhood extends beyond the proud group that arrived in 1999. Johnson arrived a year later as a linebacker from Southern Choctaw High School in the little town of Silas and played the past four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings.

“Demarco, Reggie, Dexter Murphy and I all went up when Spencer’s dad passed away,” Robinson said. “We went up to Silas. Just to see his expression when he saw us meant so much. God works in such mysterious ways. We ended up being the pall bearers in his dad’s funeral. It means a lot. When they say college is the most important decision you’ll ever make, it is.

“It isn’t because of the university or going to the national championship, it’s the relationships you make. These kids out there, when I’m recruiting them, I tell them to meet the guys that are around the program and see what the program means to them. That will tell them a lot.”

Robinson knew for a long time that he wanted to coach. In his two years as a graduate assistant for Will Muschamp, he was a valued member of the Auburn staff and a confidant for players. It’s the least he could do, he says, for the school that did so much for him after assistant coach Eddie Gran talked him into leaving his comfort zone in south Florida.

Robinson says Gran had an impact on his life beyond football and even on the life of Jordyn, his 2-year-old daughter.

“I came from a single-parent home,” Robinson said. “I’d never anyone interact with their kids as far as a father. He made me a better father. He showed me how to be a man.”

Robinson is having a lot of fun these days. He’s doing what he wants to do and is eager for the coming of the season, WKU’s last in its last year of transition from Division I-AA to Division I-A. The Hilltoppers play a fearsome schedule that includes a trip to Alabama on Sept. 13.

“I told the guys I’ve never lost there,” Robinson said, “and I don’t want to start now. Who knows? As long as you believe, anything can happen.”

Discuss in the Auburn Undercover Forums

[Ravad 78]

The Hilltoppers play a fearsome schedule that includes a trip to Alabama on Sept. 13.

I told the guys Ive never lost there, Robinson said, and I dont want to start now. Who knows? As long as you believe, anything can happen.

[AUBURNJAC 53]

If I could have one wish......JUST ONE WISH.............

It would be for the hilltopers to BEAT BAMA on September 13th!

I can't even imagine a feeling like that..............................Oh wait............yes I can...............

I had it last year when La. Monroe put lil' Nicky in his place!!!!!!! I will NEVER forget that as long as I live!

[OldNewby 27]

I've always believed Auburn is more than a school and place. It's a spirit. CTT and staff help teenagers become men. They are role models for success.

[GoAU 1,694]

Yet another example of the "extra something" that CTT and his staff have put in place at Auburn - it's so much more than X's and O's, or even wins and losses...

[WarTim 3,525]

Class, Character, etc.... Coach Tubs and His Staff have always and will always do things the right way for the right reason. We need not look to far around to be reminded of how blessed we are to have these men represent AU.

WDE!