Favorite Auburn Walk-On

[Gowebb11 9,314]

Auburn has a strong legacy of walk-ons through the years, contributing at various levels. Who are a couple of your favorites? Feel free to share some info on where they are from and some of their AU highlights.

Two of mine are Kevin Greene and Kyle Collins. I’m not sure where Kevin is from, but he initially came to AU as an undersized walk-on in the early 80s and was a member of the Army ROTC program. Kyle was from Southside-Gadsden and walked on from Jacksonville State. In spite of an RB roster of future NFL talent ahead of him, Kyle worked his way into pretty considerable playing time over his 3 seasons. 

 

[passthebiscuits 6,844]

10. Tim Drinkard

9. Alex Lincoln

8. Bobby Strickland

7. Tom Ghosom 

6. Lewis Colbert

5. Bill Newton

4. Willie Whitehead

3. Rod Hood

2. Jeremy Ingle

1. Kevin Greene

HM: Chandler Shakespeare (all-name team)

[alexava 6,973]

Wr during tuberville time. Not exactly sure his name but started about a year and a half BEFORE he was on scholarship. Rod (Smith).  That name was a guess. 
jason miska. Alex Lincoln. But the WR under tubs was my favorite. I didn’t understand why it took as long as it did to get on scholarship. 

[AUApostle 7,651]

43 minutes ago, alexava said:

Wr during tuberville time. Not exactly sure his name but started about a year and a half BEFORE he was on scholarship. Rod (Smith).  That name was a guess. 
jason miska. Alex Lincoln. But the WR under tubs was my favorite. I didn’t understand why it took as long as it did to get on scholarship. 

Hicks Poor? 

[alexava 6,973]

3 minutes ago, AUDevil said:

Hicks Poor? 

No Hicks Poor was well before this. Think kid I’m trying to remember was black. 

[alexava 6,973]

6 minutes ago, AUDevil said:

Hicks Poor? 

No Hicks Poor was well before this. Think kid I’m trying to remember was black.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodgeriqus_Smith

[TexasTiger 12,829]

Danny Skutack

[Gowebb11 9,314]

3 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

Danny Skutack

I forgot all about him. He was a good one. 

[TexasTiger 12,829]

57 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

I forgot all about him. He was a good one. 

Tough as nails. 1st team all-SEC.  

[ToraGirl 5,498]

If Jay Prosch was one, he is mine...

[gr82be 14,423]

Lewis Colbert. What he overcame just to walk was a miracle but it didn't stop there. He was an inspiration and the first time I actually ever really watched a punter. 

 

AUBURN, AL (WTVM) - Lewis Colbert, an Auburn punter from 1982-85, became one of the stars of the team and a first team All-American. He would go on to play in the NFL.

What many didn't know about their All-American player was that those records were set and games were won with a severely disfigured foot.

Colbert was born with a clubbed-foot and with a 10% chance of ever being able to walk. He was rejected by his father since the day he was born. Colbert's father died 5 years later leaving his mother working two jobs and himself alone most of the time. But the emotional scars are just half of the battle Colbert fought every day.

"I was born with a severe handicap. My leg actually stopped at the ankle. My foot was rotated 90 degrees. It was folded in half and then it was folded again against the back of my shin," says Colbert.

His foot had to be broken in three places and he had four major operations in the first five years of his life. His early life was filled with pain, casts and leg braces.

"I remember trying to walk the first time and it was so painful because even today from the knee down my leg is half the size of my left foot and my foot is still turned. I walk on the side of it."

Which is what makes his quote, 'The Unlikeliest Auburn Tiger' the title of his book.

Barely making enough money for tuition for Auburn, Colbert walked into the auditorium for orientation, took a seat and looked in awe at the plethora of incoming students. That's the moment before his life would take a turn for the better.

"This lady that was running the orientation asked if there was a Lewis Colbert in there. I walked down to the front she had a note for me and I'm walking back to my seat I start opening up that note, I looked at it and I stopped and I just, 'wow'.  It said Coach Dye wanted to see me."

That day Auburn's new coach Pat Dye offered him a spot to walk on to Auburn's football team. He would be one of 17 punters.

"By spring I was second string. A-Day game the first string punter punted the football low,  it was returned, he had to make a tackle and he broke his ankle. Now how ironic is that."

Suddenly the boy who punted for only one season at Glenwood High School in Phenix City was the star punter for Auburn.

Shortly after seeing Colbert practice, fight adversity, and punt with the foot that he thought had ruined his life, Coach Dye called him into his office.

"Never came across my mind but that day he offered me a scholarship and that day changed my life forever."

He could now afford to stay at Auburn University. "My ankle doesn't move like everybody else's. The flexibility in it, the range of motion is probably half of a normal ankle which is also amazing about me being able to punt a football because I can't depress my ankle all the way."

But something was right with that foot that led Colbert to several records. He averaged 45 yards a punt. Some of his records have yet to be broken and took the Tigers to victory.

Coach Dye said Colbert's toughness, determination and will power made him an inspiration to all. Colbert would be named team captain in 1985.

"There's a lot of things that happen out there. It's how you deal with them that makes a difference. I'm not the only person with challenges. I tried to be as good as I could be to help our team win. "

Colbert began to see the benefits and successes of staying positive and believing you can beat anything.

Coach Pat Dye became the father Colbert never had. "He guided those young men into grown men with responsibility. He taught us how to do things right for the right reasons."

There are a number of lessons Coach Dye instilled in Colbert but the one that he thinks about every day is a saying at first he didn't quite understand, "Keep Choppin' that Wood."

"Being determined, having perseverance. Not giving up. You continue to stay after it and stay after it."

Not just on a sports team, but in every single thing you do "Keep Choppin' That Wood."

To order the book, follow the link below:

http://www.theunlikeliesttigerbook.com/

 

 
 

[PT Doc 7]

Chip Powell 

[Gowebb11 9,314]

30 minutes ago, PT Doc said:

Chip Powell 

Coach Dye discussed him in his book “Inside the Arena.”  Powell is a great story. He was really good, too. 

[bigbird 60,480]

Jason Miska

[NES 124]

Ronnie Daniels

[alexava 6,973]

47 minutes ago, NES said:

Ronnie Daniels

He wasn’t really a true walkon. Kinda. But he was more valuable than anyone else mentioned so far. 

[Leftfield 2,593]

1 hour ago, bigbird said:

Jason Miska

Lived at the Extension one year when he was there. Trying to remember the line Bowden used about him. Something like it's not that he had a ton of athletic ability, but "he's like a roach....he falls into stuff and messes it up."

[alexava 6,973]

18 minutes ago, Leftfield said:

Lived at the Extension one year when he was there. Trying to remember the line Bowden used about him. Something like it's not that he had a ton of athletic ability, but "he's like a roach....he falls into stuff and messes it up."

I knew a couple students that hated him on campus. I sure liked him on the field. 

[CodeRocket 410]

7 hours ago, passthebiscuits said:

5. Bill Newton

Bill Newton of 17-16 fame? If so he blocked the two punts that David Langner ran in for touchdowns!

He should be everyone's favorite walk-on. Never realized he was a walk-on. Amazing!

Another interesting tidbit was that the extra point after Bama's first touchdown was blocked by Roger Mitchel

and he may have been a walk-on also.

One thing is certain, there have been some great players that were once walk-ons at Auburn University.

[ToraGirl 5,498]

46 minutes ago, alexava said:

He wasn’t really a true walkon. Kinda. But he was more valuable than anyone else mentioned so far. 

????

Impossible to quantify. Love the overcomer stories myself. That's definitely what makes Auburn, Auburn...in a good way. 

[Gowebb11 9,314]

14 minutes ago, ToraGirl said:

????

Impossible to quantify. Love the overcomer stories myself. That's definitely what makes Auburn, Auburn...in a good way. 

I’m with you on the overcomer stuff.  I knew walk-ons when I was at AU who never played a down or very little, but their accomplishment is no less significant to me. One guy I was in ROTC with would show up battered and bruised from practice, but he stuck it out all 4 years and probably never saw a meaningful snap. 

[AUDub 11,147]

Adlai Trone. Trussville boy. 

[LKEEL75 2,566]

2 hours ago, alexava said:

He wasn’t really a true walkon. Kinda. But he was more valuable than anyone else mentioned so far. 

That's a tough statement. K Green has truly meant quite a lot to AU and its future since he left

[alexava 6,973]

2 hours ago, LKEEL75 said:

That's a tough statement. K Green has truly meant quite a lot to AU and its future since he left

I don’t really remember him as a player at Auburn. But he was a huge success in the nfl. Ronnie Daniels was playmaker on an offense that had none. He only walked on because his MLB contract paid for his college. So I can’t compare him to Green because I don’t remember him in college but to make a career like that from a true walk on start is amazing. 

[Viper 3,130]

14 minutes ago, alexava said:

Ronnie Daniels was playmaker on an offense that had none. He only walked on because his MLB contract paid for his college.

Didn't he sign with FSU out of high school, then went the MLB route?