ScoutSouth.com: Auburn vs. Smiths Station

There is a big rock-paper-scissors game in southeast Alabama this weekend. Even the mascots have similar strengths, Tigers and Panthers. The striped cats will roll into T.C. Britton Stadium to meet undefeated Smiths Station tonight with a gaudy record of their own, 5-0.

There is a three-way tie at the top of region three with Opelika, Auburn and Smiths Station, all are undefeated in the district. Opelika will face Central-Phenix City tonight, but at least one team will drop out of that tie.

Auburn has scored 196 points in the first five games and Smiths Station 216. Auburn gives up 13.2 points per game while Smiths Station only allows 11.

The two teams have played two like opponents Dothan and Northview, and the teams had very similar results with a 37 (Auburn) and 44 (Smiths Station) point difference in those two games.

We turned to Auburn’s Coach Tim Carter for his thoughts on the game.

“We’ve got to hold on to the football,” Carter said. “Smith has a great running attack, and they aren’t going to make a lot of mistakes so we are going to have to keep the ball away from them. Score when we have our opportunities and not give them any easy chances.”

“Maybe one negative that we’ve had offensively is that we’ve had some turnovers in every game, fumbles, and we’ve got to hold on to the football. We cannot let them run the football. They are a very good running football team.”

We asked Coach Carter about about his record thus far.

“We are a little better than we expected," he said. "We’ve gotten off to a good start. We’re 3-0 in the region and 5-0 on the year.”

“We have a lot of new faces. We lost a lot of good players. The kids have just played real well as a team. The season gets tougher from here. We have Smiths Station this week, then we have Central (Phenix City) and Opelika in the second-half of the season. It is going to be pretty treacherous.”

“Our quarterback Calvin Jenkins (Junior 5-10, 180 pounds) has played well for us. He’s probably thrown for 10 touchdowns.”

“We are coming in at full strength. We lost some kids in the spring, but we’ve been able to make a plan that didn’t include them. We are real fortunate as far as injuries, so we’re ready to go.”

Auburns players to watch:

Auburn has done a 90-degree turn with their offensive line in the last two years. Their front line is Joshua Gore (6-4, 270 pounds), Will Dake (5-9, 240 pounds), John Hix (6-0, 245 pounds), Kirkland Harrison (6-1, 240 pounds) and the division one college prospect John Sullen (6-5, 300 pounds).

Senior running back, Latrell Jenkins (5-6, 185 pounds) leads the team in rushing and Andre Crowell (5-5, 155 pounds) will help out there.

The receiving unit includes Marquel Franklin (6-2, 180 pounds) and Akin McQueen at tight end (6-2, 225 pounds).

This game should be a good one for those not traveling to Nashville for the ‘big’ Auburn game against the Vanderbilt Commodores. This is a nice teaser to the nationally televised game on Saturday.

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