Last Word on Sports continues its offseason look at the legendary players from college football programs across the country. As we continue the Mount Rushmore series, today we hit The Plains for the Auburn Tigers.
The psyche of an Auburn football fan is complex.
For all of the success the Tigers have had over the generations, it is usually the Crimson Tide that is on the tip of people’s tongues when it comes to football in the state of Alabama. Former basketball star Charles Barkley said an interview a few years ago that Auburn has had a long standing inferiority complex. Auburn couldn’t even get a home and home series for the Iron Bowl until 2000, playing the previous incarnations at Legion Field in Birmingham. Even the neutral site game was significantly closer to Alabama’s campus than it was to Auburn’s.
Nonetheless, we start with the fact that the namesake for the Heisman Trophy – John Heisman, was the Auburn football coach from 1895-1899, and move on to the fact that some of college football’s elites have worn the blue and orange for the Auburn Tigers.
The Mount Rushmore of Auburn Football
Vincent Jackson (Running Back 1982-1985).
I just felt like using Bo’s real name because so few people do.
Bo Jackson’s career stats at Auburn were not mind blowing. He had a career 650 carries for 4,313 yards and 43 touchdowns. Nice numbers by any measurement, but not what some might expect based on the legend that is Bo. When he won the Heisman Trophy his senior season, Jackson had a nice 278 carries for 1,786 and 17 touchdowns. That is a decent enough 148 yards per game and the total yards was a SEC record at the time. But, fast forward to now and can you imagine that any team with a running back with the physical gifts of Bo Jackson would only have him carry the ball 23 times per game?
To watch Bo is to appreciate Bo. Thirty years later, you can watch film on him and see he was a once-in-a-generation athlete. His ability to run over people and then hit a fifth gear in the open field was unparalleled. The total athlete, out of high school Jackson turned down a baseball contract with the New York Yankees in order to play football at Auburn. He of course also played baseball at Auburn and ran track, qualifying for the NCAA nationals in the 100 meter dash as a freshman and a sophomore. His pro career both with the Raiders and the Kansas City Royals carry the stories of legend. A once-in-a-lifetime athlete tops the Auburn football Mount Rushmore list.
Pat Sullivan (Quarterback 1969-1971)
No matter what name I put here, it would be hard to follow Bo, but Pat Sullivan deserves legend status at Auburn.
He finished 6th in the Heisman voting in 1970 even though he led the nation in total offense with 2,856 yards. He won the Heisman as a senior in 1971, becoming the first Auburn player ever to garner the player of the year status. Sullivan was also an All-American in 1970 and 1971 – a unanimous selection in 1971. His 71 career touchdowns, (53 passing and 18 running) were a NCAA record at the time, and there is the too easily overlooked fact that he was an Academic All-American his senior year. He was a 2nd round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons and spent six years as a quarterback in the NFL, (Falcons and Washington Redskins). He came back to Auburn as the QB coach from 1986-1991 as part of a 38 year coaching career and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1991.
Tracy Rocker (Defensive Tackle 1985-1988)
We could just list a bunch of awards and accolades that Tracy Rocker garnered in his college career and that would be good enough to warrant his selection to the mountain side.
Rocker was a USA Today high school All-American out of Atlanta, GA but that was the just the beginning. At Auburn the defensive tackle was a two-time All-American in 1987 and 1988. A consensus pick in ’88, Rocker would finish his senior year with 100 tackles and 10 sacks, helping him win the Lombardi Award given to the best lineman or linebacker in the country. He also won the Outland Trophy as the best interior lineman, becoming the first player in the history of the Southeastern Conference to win both awards in the same year. It’s not much of a surprise that he was named 1988 SEC Player of the Year. Unfortunately, because of knee injuries, he would only play two seasons in the NFL for the Washington Redskins, and one season in the World Football League for the Orlando Thunder before going into coaching, (currently the defensive line coach and associate head coach at Georgia). He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004 and is a member of the Auburn Football Team of the Century. Easy enough.
Carnell Williams (Running Back 2001-2004)
The fourth spot on the mountain side was not as clear cut as the first three.
We went with “Cadillac” Williams because while he lacks the accolades of others, but his collegiate numbers measure up against the best of the best in Auburn football history, so he makes Mount Rushmore. In a very crowded backfield, Williams made it to the #1 spot a little more than halfway through his freshman season after torching Arkansas for 177 yards. In his first game as a starter he ran for 167 yards, catch 71 yards worth of passes and score two touchdowns against Georgia. After a broken leg cut short his sophomore season, he spent the rest of his career sharing backfield carries with Ronnie Brown, yet his stats are still eye popping. He finished his career with 276 points, which is good enough for third all-time and places him ahead of even Bo Jackson. His 3,831 career rushing yards is second all-time in school history behind only Bo. He spent seven years in the NFL with Tampa Bay and St. Louis.
It Was Hard To Leave Them Off The Mountainside:
Pat Dye (Head Coach 1981-1992): Dye ‘s 99 wins are third all time at Auburn and his 71% winning percentage is nothing short of phenomenal as he was splitting time as the school’s athletic director. The Tigers won four SEC championships under him including three in a row from 1987-1989. He got left off the mountain because of an NCAA investigation in 1990, that focused on payments from boosters going to at least one Auburn football player. Dye was never directly implicated, but the NCAA determined he should have known what was going on and his tenure as AD, and ultimately as coach ended in less than stellar form.
Cam Newton (Quarterback 2010): It might seem odd to leave off the school’s third ever Heisman winner, but we had to be objective. Yes, he won the Heisman and AP Player of the year in his one season at Auburn, and yes, the Tigers won the BCS title in 2011 with Newton at QB. But we kept coming back to the idea that only one year at the school does not let you leap over others who have history at the school, no matter how “Superman” you may be.
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