Great article on what it truly means to be an Auburn Man

The ties that bind
Friday night meetings have helped Auburn through hard times
10/03/00
By PHILLIP MARSHALL
Times Sports Staff

AUBURN - It started in dark and unhappy times for Auburn's football team.

Five straight games had been lost. Late in Tommy Tuberville's first season as
head coach, the team was fractured, divided by the stress of almost two years
of trouble, despair and losing.

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''It was defense and offense,'' offensive tackle Kendall Simmons said.
''Whatever happened, we pointed fingers at each other.''
On the Friday night before last November's game against Central Florida, a
small group of players gathered at the team hotel at the urging of fullback
Heath Evans. They prayed. They talked about life and the sometimes bitter
turns it can take.

A bond began to grow among players young and old, black and white, starters
and reserves. It wasn't so much about winning and losing or even about
football. It was about matters of the heart.

''We may have had 15-20 guys show up that first night,'' senior whip
linebacker Rob Pate said. ''Since then, it's just like another thing on the
itinerary. It's not mandatory, but we have basically the whole team there.
We've got five or six coaches. Coach Tuberville comes in there. People just
lay out their hearts, whatever is on their minds.''

Auburn has won seven of the eight games it has played since that November
night. Players say they've done it with trust and a unity of purpose that has
grown ever stronger.

It has carried the 15th-ranked Tigers to a 5-0 record going into Saturday's
Southeastern Conference West Division showdown at 20th-ranked Mississippi
State.

Pate says they'll go firm in the belief that they can count on each other in
the most difficult times.

Pate knows about pain and even fear. A mysterious disease, now seemingly
under control, threatened his senior season.

''When you see a guy at his weakest point and he's reaching out asking you
for help, you know everything about a guy,'' Pate said. ''With me, it was my
health. Before the first game, they set a chair in the middle of the room and
every guy in there put his hands on me. We said a prayer together. Man, I was
crying.

''It's like that every weekend. Somebody on this team is suffering through
something. They share it. When you line up on Saturday, it's a lot easier to
look at that person and know he is going to give it everything he's got.''

On the field, there has been little but happiness for Auburn this season.
Tuberville says it started when Auburn players, strengthened by the bad
times, put aside their differences and their individual desires to play for
their teammates and their school.

''I've never been around a team this close,'' Tuberville said. ''They get
along. We haven't always played as great as we wanted to, but we've had guys
urging the younger players and younger players pulling for the older guys to
get better.

''It's just a special group. They enjoy being around each other and
understand what it's going to take for us to win.''

The change from not so long ago is striking, Simmons says.

''If you don't really know each other and everybody is in their own little
group, things aren't going to work,'' Simmons said. ''If you have trust in
your teammates, you can build a good team. Right now, we've got that going.''

It starts with the seniors, who have seen the good and the bad of college
football. They went to the SEC Championship Game as freshmen in 1997. Then
came two losing seasons and the resignation of their head coach, Terry Bowden.

They revel in their success, yet they know it can be ever so fleeting. They
take pride in the closeness of a team on the way back.

No one understands better than fifth-year senior quarterback Ben Leard. He
went from starter to third team in 1998, then won his job back in 1999 when
hardly anyone thought he could.

Today, he has the highest efficiency rating of any SEC quarterback.

''We have been practicing since August and we have yet to hear anyone say
'Man, I'm looking forward to playing in the NFL,' '' Leard said. ''No one is
worried about their personal accolades or how they are doing status-wise.
Everybody just wants to win ball games. The relationships we have on this
team are like brothers.''

Leard says nothing that happens can change that.

''If we lose every game from now on, this will be one of the most special
seasons I've ever had in my life,'' Leard said. ''We've got people excited.
We're excited. The fun is back in it for us.

''It's a great feeling to be able to almost look forward to coming to
practice, to see the guys, to have fun and talk. There are no fingers being
pointed anywhere. There are no individuals on this football team.''

Evans was one who showed the way, happily accepting the unglamorous role of
blocker for tailback Rudi Johnson. Every Friday night, Evans is still the one
who leads his teammates as they share their joy and their pain.

''Heath is just like that all the time,'' Pate said. ''He's a great example
of somebody who lives what he talks. He's a role model, not just for younger
people but for all of us.''