Barrett Trotter, standing in the pocket and waiting for a slow-developing play to run its course, knew he was about to get creamed.
The Auburn quarterback, who had been wearing South Carolina defensive end Melvin Ingram like a jacket all day, heard the footsteps coming behind him and had a pretty good idea whose they were.
With the clock running out and his team down by 4, though, Trotter knew he just had to grit his teeth and bear it.
“When you look at what you’ve got to give up for what it’s worth, it’s not even close at all,” Trotter said. “I’ll take that every time if I have to.”
Tackle A.J. Greene had to break the news to Trotter, who was lying sprawled on the Williams-Brice Stadium turf: Philip Lutzenkirchen had just caught his pass for a 9-yard, go-ahead score with 1:38 to go, the eventual winning touchdown in the Tigers’ 16-13 win over then-No. 10 South Carolina.
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LaDarius Owens and the young Tiger D showed they can play in the SEC.
T’Sharvan Bell listened last week as a variety of sources came up with a variety of reasons for why Auburn would lose to South Carolina.
Marcus Lattimore was going to gouge the Tigers’ porous run defense. Alshon Jeffery was going to catch 35 passes for 750 yards.
The road atmosphere at Williams-Brice Stadium was going to eat the young Tigers alive, just as it did at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium two weeks prior.
Bell heard all that. He just chose not to believe it.
“All week you hear about how bad we are, how South Carolina is going to do this and how they’re going to do that,” Bell said. “Guys just took it to heart.”
That manifested itself in the lowest-scoring output for an SEC team against a Ted Roof Auburn defense (13 points) and the third-lowest yardage output (289 yards).
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This Auburn defense needs to step it up and learn how to stop the run
Ryan White has never played a game at Williams-Brice Stadium.
The Auburn sophomore cornerback has a pretty good idea what to expect when he gets there Saturday, though.
About the same thing he saw at Memorial Stadium, 130 miles up the road in Clemson two weeks ago.
“They’ve got that big, huge revenge factor,” White said. “I think everybody just wants to beat Auburn this year for what we did last year. Anywhere we go is going to be hard.
“I’m not expecting this game to be too much different.”
The Tigers got the better of the Gamecocks twice last year, first in a tight, 35-27 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Sept. 25 and then a 56-17 drubbing in the SEC Championship game in Atlanta.
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Frazier will continue to see his role in the offense grow
Kiehl Frazier took a snap from Reese Dismukes in the third quarter of Auburn’s 30-14 win over Florida Atlantic on Saturday, on a second-and-5 from the Owls’ 14.
The dual-threat quarterback faked a step toward the line, like he was going to bowl his way through the middle.
Just like Cam used to do.
He stepped back to throw instead, firing toward an Auburn receiver in the end zone.
Just like Cam used to do.
Frazier’s throw — into double coverage — fell short of Emory Blake, bringing up a third down and bringing Barrett Trotter back onto the field.
Not quite like Cam. But Frazier’s got time to learn.
“I was so nervous going in,” Frazier said. “I had two options so even though it was double-covered, I had to try to get it in there.
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