Coffee and Magnolia: 9 January 2015

AUBURN FOOTBALL

Sammie Coates had a pretty good final season here at Auburn, even though he was playing through injury during much of it. I would have loved for Sammie to return for one more season, but when you have a player of his caliber who already has a degree in hand because he graduated early, then you thank him for just being an awesome player and human being and wish him well. I hope Sammie straight kills it in the pros. He deserves it.

We've discussed players currently on the roster who will try to take Sammie's place, along with some players we're recruiting. Another player who may be moving over to receiver is QB Jonathan Wallace. Wallace played some receiver in the Georgia game and caught a pass from Jeremy Johnson on the Tiger's final drive. Wallace will always hold a special place in my Auburn Tiger heart for 2012. He was put in a very tough place and did the absolute best that he could starting at QB as a true freshman.

On the coaching front, former DB coach Melvin Smith has landed at Louisiana Tech to coach with Mark Hudspeth. The two have worked together in the past. Also, Auburn's offensive analyst Brent Dearmon is moving on to be the offensive coordinator at Arkansas Tech.

Also on the coaching front, word has emerged this morning that former Miami stand-out (and coach) Michael Barrow has emerged as a candidate to fill the linebacker coach role at Auburn. I don't know a lot about Barrow, but the Auburn message boards are going crazy at the thought of bringing him in. This would likely mean Will Muschamp will coach Safeties, or he won't coach one specific position at all and let Travaris Robinson coach the entire defensive back field.

For a few brief moments, someone on Twitter named Alex Kirby stirred up some rumors that Gus may be talking to some NFL people because of canceling an appearance to speak at the AFCA. Some others quickly jumped in to point out that Gus had to clear his schedule to appear on ESPN's championship coverage, a fact later confirmed by various sites. I have no idea about Gus Malzahn's future plans, but I really think he wants to win a national championship as a college head coach before considering a jump to the NFL. That is pure speculation on my part, though.

Former Auburn Tiger walk-on, all around football star, and alumnus of the Army ROTC War Eagle Battalion Kevin Greene is a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2015. Kevin Greene is one of those awesome stories of someone who started as nothing and became one of the greatest of all times. I look forward to seeing him in Canton.

AUBURN BASKETBALL

The ladies dropped their third straight SEC game against #10 Kentucky last night. It's been a rough start to the SEC schedule for Coach Flo's team, but they've really been front-loaded with some of the tougher teams in the league to start out.

AUBURN SPORTS

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams gave it a good run yesterday, but dropped to the higher ranked Texas squads in the James E Martin Aquatics Center.