Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Meanwhile, in football news

Just saw that the NFL’s Denver Broncos waived former Auburn guard Tim Duckworth. That was quick…apparently Duck’s knees were as bad as pre-draft rumors said they were.

Odd that that never seemed to come up during his three-year AU career…Auburn’s coaches are usually very upfront about players’ injuries.

I feel bad for Duck, though. He always seemed like a nice guy, though he wasn’t very happy during 2007 as AU’s offensive line struggled and the Tigers lost two games in his senior season. I wish him the best.

More updates on AU’s other NFL guys as they happen, which reminds me: Kevin Sears signed a free-agent deal with the Browns on Tuesday. The Browns have a LOT of linebackers on their roster, though their depth chart is a lot less helpful.

Slater will stay

Apparently Jay Jacobs isn’t a big fan of suspense.

The Auburn athletic director issued a statement recently that appears to confirm that baseball coach Tom Slater will coach the team at least one more year.

“Tom Slater has a plan in place to return the Auburn baseball program to national prominence,“ the statement says. “ I believe in Tom and his plan for the baseball program and I am behind him 100 percent.“

That’s a pretty unambiguous vote of confidence. And you can’t argue with Jacobs’ timing. With speculation swirling around the Internet for the last week that Slater was on the way out, an announcement was needed one way or another.

Obviously, things aren’t great with the Auburn baseball team at the moment: With Paul Burnside still injured and freshman Taylor Thompson is Auburn’s next-most reliable pitcher. And he, like any freshman, is going to be up and down (the last few weeks, it’s been mostly down). Besides those two, Auburn doesn’t have any pitchers that have inspired much confidence lately—though former Central star Bryan Woodall pitched well Sunday at Mississippi State.

After three seasons, the program is still very much a work in progress. The best sign for Slater is that most of the Tigers’ best players—Burnside, Thompson, Joseph Sanders, Robert Brooks. Luke Greinke and Mike Bianucci*—
are freshmen and sophomores. That’s proof that Slater’s much-touted abilities as a recruiter are getting results.

*I’m including Bianucci out of habit—he showed as a freshman that he’s got plenty of talent, even if injuries have contributed to a inconsistent ‘06.

In the end, the promise of youth—along with the undeniable potential Auburn showed during an 18-3 start to the season—made up for all the negatives, including the fact that AU is more or less guaranteed to miss the SEC Tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

Another worrisome trend for Auburn fans should be the way AU has finished the last two seasons. The Tigers lost their last 10 games in 2006, and with series against No. 1 Vanderbilt and at Kentucky still to play, 2007 could end with another ugly slide. AU has already lost four in a row and seven of its last eight.

Still, giving Slater a fourth year is the right thing to do. Basketball coaches Jeff Lebo and Nell Fortner each received fourth years, and though Lebo’s team showed improvement in the third year, Fortner’s wasn’t much more impressive than Slater’s is now.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Another Tiger in trouble

Walk-on linebacker Jacob Shirey was arrested early Tuesday morning for “driving under the influence of liquor.“ (Which, honestly, is a weird way to put it.)

Jacob has never played in a game and isn’t on AU’s depth chart, but he was on the 105-man practice roster throughout last year. The Ft. Payne native is the second Tiger to be arrested on alcohol-related charges in the last 10 days and the fourth in the last year. (In order, from oldest to most recent: Tray Blackmon, Montae Pitts, Oc Balkcom, Shirey. Kevin Sears was convicted of DUI and a few related charges last July, but that conviction stemmed from an arrest in 2005.)

No comment yet from AU, not that I really expect one…the university doesn’t really have any incentive to respond to a story like this.

It’s safe to say that Jacob is now, or will very soon be, an ex-member of the Auburn football team.

Obviously I’ll have a longer story in tomorrow’s Opelika-Auburn News.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Auburn’s Draft Day, Part II

The second day of the draft has its high points—it moves faster, for one thing—but also some lows. NFL teams seem fixated on finding a diamond in the rough or the coveted “sleeper” in the late rounds. That means a lot of big-college guys—the ones who weren’t quite high-profile enough to be first-day picks—seem to slide as NFL teams rush to draft guys from Texas Southern and North Dakota State. Or wherever.

It’s 2:33 p.m. and we’re in the second half of the draft, and there are a LOT of big-name college stars still on the board, including Florida linebacker Brandon Siler and quarterback Chris Leak, plus several Auburn guys, including Courtney Taylor—which is a shocker to me.

Will Herring and David Irons aren’t on the board, though. Will was the third AU player selected in this year’s draft, going in the fifth round to the Seattle Seahawks (the 24th pick of the round and No. 161 overall). It’s an interesting spot for him…the Seahawks have a good young defense, but there are some opportunities at linebacker. Will really helped his value by showing scouts he’s an accomplished deep-snapper at AU’s Pro Day. He never snapped at Auburn, but I’m told several NFL teams saw him as a future deep-snapper. And while there’s not a lot of glory there, there’s decent job security. There’s no such thing as being too versatile, especially on an NFL team’s 53-man roster.

David’s staying close to his Dacula, Ga., home,  going to the Atlanta Falcons in the sixth round (No. 194 overall).

UPDATE: Courtney was just drafted, the 197th overall pick, going to Seattle. The Seahawks seem to like Auburn players…In the last two years, they’ve drafted Courtney, Will and Ben Obomanu and signed Kevin Hobbs to a free-agent deal. Ben and Kevin didn’t stick, though both came very close. There’s an opening there at wide receiver, because the Seahawks traded WR Darrell Jackson to San Francisco. I’m very optimistic about CT’s chances…he has great hands, which should make up for a lack of great size or speed.

Of course, I would have bet my life Travis Williams would make an NFL team, so who knows?

If I had to guess, I’d say this is it for Auburn players in the draft…I’d expect Tim Duckworth, Jonathan Palmer, Marquies Gunn, Karibi Dede and all three kickers to sign free-agent deals, along with Montae Pitts. I’ll have a story on all the AU guys tomorrow, along with today’s baseball game (currently 4-1, Arkansas, in the fourth), and a short story on former Auburn pitcher Josh Hancock, now with the St. Louis Cardinals, who died in a car crash early this morning. Auburn had a moment of silence for Josh at Plainsman Park before the start of today’s game, a very nice gesture.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Auburn’s Draft Day, Part I

And the first Tiger is off the board, as Ben Grubbs goes to the Baltimore Ravens with the 29th overall pick. Ben’s Auburn’s first first-rounder since Ronnie, Carnell, Carlos and Jason made history in 2005.

Auburn has had 24 NFL first-round picks in its history.

Modesty forbids me from pointing out I predicted this pick. (You know, because I’m so well known for my modesty.)

It’s a good situation for Ben, a veteran-laden team with some older linemen, including star—and future Hall of Famer—Jonathan Ogden. Obviously the biggest advantage to being a late first-round pick is you’re almost always going to a good team, and Baltimore fits that bill. The Ravens are an older team, especially on offense, but Ben could be part of a solid young core that includes WR Mark Clayton, TE Todd Heap, RB Willis McGahee, C Jason Brown, WR Demetrius Williams, OT Adam Terry, OG Chris Chester and WR Clarence Moore, all 27 or younger.

Ben’s supposed to have a teleconference in about an hour…I’ll post an update then.

Not much else going on with the draft…quite a few SEC players off the board, including two of my personal favorites, Ole Miss LB Patrick Willis and Florida S Reggie Nelson (who went to my Jaguars, much to my relief).

The next Auburn player off the board will probably be Kenny Irons, but it could be a while. I still think he’s a third-rounder, though with RBs Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch off the board in the first 12 picks, that’s a long gap between tailback picks. (That’s assuming, as I am, that Kenny’s the next back off the board. Mel Kiper would apparently rather have Rutgers FB Brian Leonard, who wasn’t even the full-time ball-carrier for freakin’ Rutgers. There’s no accounting for taste.)

***

Meanwhile, at Plainsman Park, it’s tied, 9-9, in the bottom of the seventh. Trailing 9-6, Auburn loaded the bases with one out and scored a run on a groundout by Dustin Spruill. Robert Brooks hit a two-run double to tie it.

Ross Smith singled to move Brooks to third, then Ben Jones (or “Loud Ben Jones,“ as he’s known around these parts) reached on a throwing error by the second baseman, scoring Brooks.

It’s now 10-9, Auburn, in the top of the 8th. Brett Butts is in now for a chance at a two-inning save. Chris Dennis could wind up as the winning pitcher. Obviously, Arkansas’ offense will have a lot to say about that.

In other news, Auburn head coach Tom Slater was ejected in the sixth arguing a bang-bang call at first base. He put on quite a show…He appeared to be looking to get tossed, and maybe it’s inspired his team. In the top of the seventh, the Tigers held Arkansas scoreless in an inning for the first time all game and tied things up in this half-inning. We’ll see if it keeps working.

***

One more thing: The Auburn softball team swept a doubleheader against South Carolina today. Freshman Anna Thompson threw TWO shutouts, as Auburn won 8-0 (five innings) in the first game and 1-0 in the second. Thompson struck out 21 in the two games…she had a one-hitter in the first game with 11 K’s and just one walk. Not bad.