friday reaction: 11.12.10  

during the season, i’ll post a friday reaction column for everything that transpires over the course of the week in the world of auburn football. here’s some low-down on the week-that-was with my thoughts added in.

as far as i can tell, it’s been a hum-drum week on the plains.

(oh really? accused of what? who are the sources? oh ok, we don’t know anything about the sources who are making unsubstantiated claims. got it.)

instead of rehashing the blow-by-blow of the cam newton saga, i’ll take the opportunity to shed some positive light on auburn:

sophomore cornerback t’sharvan bell and sophomore linebacker daren bates are back in full health and have rejoined the defensive rotation. the tigers have been without bell — at full health — since the arkansas game and without bates since the first half of the louisiana state game. both have practiced at full speed this week.

this news is good. with georgia quarterback aaron murray looking like a future star in the southeastern conference, auburn’s secondary will not be allowed to sleep on the bulldogs’ offense, particularly wide receiver a.j. green. my guess is that this will be a game in which auburn defensive coordinator ted roof unleashes a bevy a five-defensive back looks, meaning we’ll cycle through quite a few bodies on defense.

**

we might lose nick fairley after this season. the junior defensive tackle was recently ranked sixth on espn pro football draft analyst mel kiper’s big board (subscription access only). interestingly enough, 10 of the 25 on the board are from southeastern conference schools.

i’m certainly not bitter about the prospect of fairley leaving with a year of eligibility left on the table. if a young man has an opportunity to make millions of dollars for his family, i support the decision to leave. let’s win with him while we can.

his distant future looks fantastic, as does his immediate future. he was named a finalist this week for the lombardi award, given to the best lineman in college football. tracy rocker, auburn’s defensive line coach and fairley’s mentor, won the lombardi award in 1988 while playing for the tigers.

@davidsmith28 @auburnjunglecat

the jungle cat is an online magazine dedicated to auburn tigers football, written by david smith, the creator of twenty8.