Auburn Commit TJ Yeldon Runs For 363 Yards In 45-24 Daphne Win Over Fairhope

My football watching career began in the fall of 1979 when I was in the second grade.  It was a monumental year and I can recite the record of every SEC team, although I won't do it.  But to prove my point, Mississippi State finished with a 3-8 record while Ole Miss finished at 4-7, with Ole Miss beating State in the Egg Bowl 14-9. 

Don't believe me?  Go ahead and look it up.  I'm sure it is on the internet somewhere, and as you and I both know everything on the internet is true.  Sorry, its Friday and I couldn't resist from engaging in a little football nerd smack talk, and what a better way to do that than recite scores and records from losing teams 32 years ago.

I make the point of mentioning my interest in football coinciding with second grade because it actually established a long term academic significance.  My obsession with football didn't end with just watching it on tv, or in person when I got the opportunity to see State or Ole Miss play in person at Memorial Stadium, located only a mile away from where we lived.  It also continued with the daily reading of the Clarion Ledger sports page to see the scores from the day before and the teams' records and standings, within their conferences and divisions.  One observation that stood out to me in both college football and the NFL was how all the conferences and divisions were divided up geographically.  This actually led to a curiousity about where the teams I was following so closey were actually located, whicch I would look up in the Rand-McNally Map booklet.  Geography then became relevant to me in school even though it was never taught as a subject on its own, but usually as a part of History or Social Studies.  It was really the only subject I was ever genuinely good at because I had done so much homework on my own from reading the sports page each day and watching football on TV.

I mean what kid really cares about what X is or what the Periodic Table of Elements are?  And even later on when I became introduced to the concept of Pie Squared, I never could break my mind free of two slices of Lemon Meringue.  When I watched SEC Football however, I really wanted to know why Florida and Georgia played in Jacksonville each year instead of Gainesville and Athens, even though I was a fan of neither.  Knowing that Jacksonville was on the border of Florida and Georgia was something that related to actual life for me.

Despite my deep interest in football and the connections that the teams have to cultures of the fan bases in which they were located, one team that confused me early on was Auburn.  Until I got to 4th Grade, I actually thought Auburn was another state.  A few year later after I realized Auburn was not the 51st State, I gained some clarity that Auburn was Alabama's version of Mississppi State.  Except it would have been like if Mississippi State was named Starkville University instead.

Even though I may have been unable to grasp the concept of Auburn's statehood status, one thing that was not ambiguous about the War Eagles/Tigers/Plainsmen in my early football fandom career was their strong running back tradition.  The first great Auburn running back I remember was James Brooks who later stared in the NFL.  In addition, when I started watching football there were already two great NFL running backs who had already done their time at Jordan-Hare in William Andrews of the Atlanta Falcons and Joe Cribbs of the Buffalo Bills.  After Brooks this trend of top notch running backs really took off with Lionel "Little Train" James, BO JACKSON, Brent Fullwood, Stephen Davis, Rudy Johnson, Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, Ronnie Brown, current Houston Texan Ben Tate, and even today with sophomore sensation Michael Dyer.

Last night I believe I saw the next great Auburn running back.  Fox Sports South did an excellent broadcast of the "War on the Shore" between the Daphne Trojans and Fairhope Pirates.  The game between the Eastern Shore rivals featured many Division I college prospects, but the one who shined the brightest was Daphne running back TJ Yeldon who has committed to Auburn.  Yeldon proved that his rating as the number #1 running back in Alabama is no hype, as he ran for an amazing 363 yards and 4 touchdowns against a 6-1 Fairhope Pirates team.  Yeldon did it all.  He ran over, around and past Pirate defenders all night.  At 6-2 and 210 lbs, Yeldon is a big back type with speed, power and amazing cutting ability.  With his size, I find him very similar to former Auburn great Stephen Davis, who excelled under Terry Bowden's regime.                                   

I eventually not only found Auburn on the map but also got to visit it in person.  Four years ago over Labor Day Weekend, I flew from DC to visit my good friends Heather and Hood Harris in Birmingham.  Hood is an Auburn Alum and a big fan and took me to their opener against the Warhawks of Louisiana-Monroe (Warhawks vs War Eagle, how ironic).  Through a good friend of his, Hood was able to get me in the press box for the first half of the game to sit in the booth with Auburn's radio broadcast team and watch them announce the game.  It was quite a treat to see how it all came together.

However, this now brings back most recent memory of Jordan-Hare, which was watching Mississippi State quarterback Chris Relf get tackled just short of the goal line as time expired and my Bulldogs fell 41-34.  Better let sleeping dogs lie and sign off now. 

Keep your eye on Yeldon though.