War Damn Legal: The Slogan Behind Auburn Success And Failure
By Chris Hale
It’s no secret that universities will take in someone that may have had some legal troubles if it will help their team but others seem to embrace doing it. Look at our neighbors to the southeast. Some of their fans even like to refer to Auburn as Second Chance U which is a play on words from LBU, RBU, or etc and many of the troubles happen from student athletes in attendance at Auburn at the time. Is it the close proximity to prisons in Wetumpka or fairly close distance to Atmore? What is it about Auburn having players with criminal records or blemishes to said record?
Just looking at the current players on the roster, defensive end Carl Lawson was sent home during “The Opening” during his recruitment for what was described as “disrespectful” behavior. One of their incoming recruits, Kalavaraz Bessent, was arrested prior to his arrival in Auburn. Current quarterback Nick Marshall was dismissed from the University of Georgia in 2012 for allegedly stealing money from another team mate and found a home on The Plains. By all accounts so far, Marshall has a been great at Auburn so far but what part of stealing money from a team mate screams “I want you to be the leader of the offense”. Auburn safety Demetruce McNeal was dismissed from the team after being arrested on charges of second-degree marijuana possession.
That’s not to mention one of their better players to come through with Cam Newton who had legal problems of his own. He was arrested for the theft of a laptop plus 3 instances of academic cheating and faced expulsion from Florida according to reports. Just a short time after that 2010 season, you had Mike McNeil, Antonio Goodwin, Shaun Kitchens and Dakota Mosley with each getting charged with five counts of first-degree robbery, one count of first-degree burglary and one count of third-degree theft of property. Plus, you have to add in Micheal Dyer’s troubles, too.
A lot of these athletes probably do fall under the “wrong place at the wrong time” saying. Some of the charges were dismissed and some of them were not. But what is the problem at Auburn? Is it an win at all cost mentality that they are under there? If that’s the case, they may need a retake on it to see if it can be revised to a better version. People that have criminal tendencies seem to have a weaker mentality than one that has stayed straight and that may be better prepared. Sure, Alabama has had our troubles but we have also still won our share of BCS Titles in the past few seasons, while the ones with all of the problems just have one.
With a new man leading the charge at Auburn, things are surely to change now. Well, one may have thought they would until they learned that recently dismissed former Georgia player Tray Matthews was on campus this weekend visiting. Matthews has named Auburn as one of his possible landing spots. Sometimes these schools have to sacrifice their “Creeds” that they have just because they want to win a football game. Just because you want to win a football game, there is not a thing wrong with that. With some of the things you preach and taking in some of these players, however, it makes you sound like total hypocrites. Plus, assistant coaches arguing with fans on social media is not a really good look either. If fact, it’s down right trashy looking but if you like that sort of thing, raise your “All In. Family” glass filled with cheap whiskey and toast your significant other in your double wide trailer. Truth be known, you can probably drop the family thing after so many pulled the fiasco with Rashaan Evans after he committed to the Tide. His father was a player at Auburn and he nor his son deserved some of things thrown their way just because he committed to a school you didn’t want. This is usually the part where I get accused of sending death threats to Cade Foster. If you take a look back at my tweets from that night, you will not find one death threat from me; only uplifting messages and thanking Cade for everything he did for Alabama. You see? All fans of schools are not alike. I saw more people uplifting Foster than I did trying to take him down but one thing is for sure. I hardly see any movement from the Auburn faction standing up to not wanting these athletes with questionable things in their past. We as fans don’t make those decisions but we do have outlets to express our opinions.
While Alabama may take in some kids with legal troubles as well, you won’t hear me celebrating from the rooftops about it nor will I tell everyone that it’s just a “God Thing” or a “New Day”. Former Clemson QB Chad Kelley visited Tuscaloosa just this weekend and I wanted no part of him with Alabama.The name of the game is football. If you think a player will help you out, take him in. However, don’t stand on the mountain top pretending to be a beacon of light and all things good. Take a look at your hypocrite meter every once in a while and try to keep it at a moderate level.
I do understand however that Auburn suffers from a serious condition called LBS, also known as Little Boy Syndrome. Please note there is no brother in this condition. While some Alabama fans claim Auburn is our little brother, but who wants to be related to them? Personally I would rather be related to players on The Longest Yard team. Have you noticed how often Auburn fans will bring up the 1 second run back? Have you also noticed how angry these fans get when Alabama fans refuse to respond? I believe this is because Auburn knows they hit their pinnacle last season. Think about it. Auburn knocked off Nick Saban’s Alabama team. They contributed to Alabama not going to the SEC Championship and stopped our chances of a 3rd straight national title. Auburn would take our place in the SEC Championship and beat Missouri with ease. They then would play on the biggest stage in college football. Nick Saban would only be around for pregame coverage. This day was for Gus Malzahn and his Auburn dream team. Sure, they would lose ironically in the last minute of the game. Something Auburn fans tend to leave out when mentioning the 1 second run back in the 2013 Iron Bowl. At Alabama, we celebrate National Titles. At Auburn, they celebrate wins over Bama more than the conference title they won. Alabama held Auburn to no offensive touchdowns for 2 years but if you ask Bama fans what they remember, it will be the BCS Titles. Winner or loser, Auburn did better than Alabama last season. There is no question and it’s been written into college football history. However throughout this off season, we have seen respectable analysts and writers put Alabama above Auburn in every preseason poll. Then there is recruiting. Auburn, the team that beat Alabama and went to the national championship, never even had a chance to beat The Crimson Tide in recruiting. The lack of confidence from national analysts and inability to compete with Alabama in recruiting are probably two major reasons why Auburn goes after players with a tainted past and ignores their poor choices while on campus. If Auburn didn’t look the other way, they would not be able to compete the Alabamas and Florida States of college football. Auburn needs these players as much as these players need a second, third, or fourth chance. Without these players, Auburn would fall completely to LBS. All that matters is to win and even with a roster full of kids that have been dismissed from schools where rules were broken, you still got a lot of work to do. Good luck catching up. War Damn Legal.
-Co Authour