TL/DR.
I happened to get to put a question or two to former AU running backs coach, Tim Horton, on Rob Brown's Sidelines.live radio program out of Memphis on April 9th. Rob's a good Auburn man. I wanted his high points of coaching a stud back like Tre Mason, and secondly, if Coach would take us inside THE play of his first year on Malzahn's staff, 2013 - the Kick Six.
If you care to hear Coach Horton live on the banter (it's worth it), you can do so HERE at www.sidelines.live/sidelines-9-april-2021/, but I've got most of it below. Just go to the 1 hour 24 min mark of the April 9th show.
Tre
Tim talked about how at first, Tre Mason was a bit of a "fence rider". "He wasn't sure if he was going to buy into this new RB's coach, and this new system. The jury was still out. So finally, it was one of those deals in which we threw him in the pool, and said you're either swim out, or you're gonna drown. And Tre bought in, worked super hard that Spring, and had a phenomenal year. At some point, those kids have to wanna be coached. He said, 'I'm gonna take coaching'." He gave big props to Artis-Payne and Corey Grant as well.
Kick Six - The FG BLOCK was the CALL (not a return)
"Coach, where were you (box or on field) on THE play, and take us inside the headsets." Horton was clearly glad to get this question, and I imagine being gone from AU and Gus's staff, he felt very free to tell it like it went down - at least through his eyes and ears.
"I was on the field, on that sideline, and in fact, almost got run over by Chris as he raced down that sideline. Prior to the play, on the headsets the coaches are talking as the officials try to determine if one second goes back on the clock. We've got Ryan Smith back in the end zone to catch the kick or defend on a fake, and a time out gets called. Ellis Johnson (DC) says on the headset, 'if we're gonna put a deep guy back there, let's put Chris Davis in, our returner."
I asked Tim if the call was "punt return left", and to my great surprise, he said "No, it was not. We had a FG BLOCK ON, but once the block was called - and this is where some people may not admit this, but it looks on the play like we deliberately set up a WALL. We didn't set up a wall. It was all FAKE. I hate to tell you, but we weren't THAT well coached!"
I then joke with Horton that 'what you need to do at that point, Coach, is tell people 'Of course, it was a called punt return left'. (Which to my memory, is pretty much how Gus played the ensuing folklore on the Kick Six, and WTH, I don't blame the guy. Let massive stories just get bigger and better.)
"So it was not a bad kick, but Chris took it to the house and the place went nuts on the biggest play in Auburn history if not in college football history."
So most people watched the Kick Six play and thought we had called setting up this big wall for Chris on the play, as it sure appeared so. But Tim Horton basically confirms that what we were, in fact, watching, and I find even more impressive - is Auburn players with tremendous "in the moment" instinct. They see the FG attempt sailing to Davis, and have the presence of mind to get to the Auburn sideline quicker than Saban's ill-fated "fat guys" FG personnel, and annihilate at least 5-6 pursuing "punt coverage" dudes, with Davis simply blowing past the other dudes. And only Robinson Therezie # 27 added suspense with a perilously close "game saving tackle" for bammer.
Horton goes on to share that Lance Thompson, who was on the bammer staff for the Kick Six game, and later joined the Auburn staff, talked to him about the Kick Six game and the big play. "A few years later, Lance is on our staff, and Kevin Steele is on our staff (Steele was also on staff for Saban 2013 after being canned at Clemson). Lance has told me before, 'As soon as he kicked that ball, we knew we were in deep trouble. We had some linemen on the field that we knew weren't going to catch Davis."
Perhaps Horton's account of the epic moment not new to some, but it's the first time I learned it was a called FG Block on the big play. What if? Roughing the FG kicker, or a clean block but no TD scored off it. Nah, our guys were too smart to blow history in that moment. Some things are just written in the stars.
Oh why not:
I happened to get to put a question or two to former AU running backs coach, Tim Horton, on Rob Brown's Sidelines.live radio program out of Memphis on April 9th. Rob's a good Auburn man. I wanted his high points of coaching a stud back like Tre Mason, and secondly, if Coach would take us inside THE play of his first year on Malzahn's staff, 2013 - the Kick Six.
If you care to hear Coach Horton live on the banter (it's worth it), you can do so HERE at www.sidelines.live/sidelines-9-april-2021/, but I've got most of it below. Just go to the 1 hour 24 min mark of the April 9th show.
Tre
Tim talked about how at first, Tre Mason was a bit of a "fence rider". "He wasn't sure if he was going to buy into this new RB's coach, and this new system. The jury was still out. So finally, it was one of those deals in which we threw him in the pool, and said you're either swim out, or you're gonna drown. And Tre bought in, worked super hard that Spring, and had a phenomenal year. At some point, those kids have to wanna be coached. He said, 'I'm gonna take coaching'." He gave big props to Artis-Payne and Corey Grant as well.
Kick Six - The FG BLOCK was the CALL (not a return)
"Coach, where were you (box or on field) on THE play, and take us inside the headsets." Horton was clearly glad to get this question, and I imagine being gone from AU and Gus's staff, he felt very free to tell it like it went down - at least through his eyes and ears.
"I was on the field, on that sideline, and in fact, almost got run over by Chris as he raced down that sideline. Prior to the play, on the headsets the coaches are talking as the officials try to determine if one second goes back on the clock. We've got Ryan Smith back in the end zone to catch the kick or defend on a fake, and a time out gets called. Ellis Johnson (DC) says on the headset, 'if we're gonna put a deep guy back there, let's put Chris Davis in, our returner."
I asked Tim if the call was "punt return left", and to my great surprise, he said "No, it was not. We had a FG BLOCK ON, but once the block was called - and this is where some people may not admit this, but it looks on the play like we deliberately set up a WALL. We didn't set up a wall. It was all FAKE. I hate to tell you, but we weren't THAT well coached!"
I then joke with Horton that 'what you need to do at that point, Coach, is tell people 'Of course, it was a called punt return left'. (Which to my memory, is pretty much how Gus played the ensuing folklore on the Kick Six, and WTH, I don't blame the guy. Let massive stories just get bigger and better.)
"So it was not a bad kick, but Chris took it to the house and the place went nuts on the biggest play in Auburn history if not in college football history."
So most people watched the Kick Six play and thought we had called setting up this big wall for Chris on the play, as it sure appeared so. But Tim Horton basically confirms that what we were, in fact, watching, and I find even more impressive - is Auburn players with tremendous "in the moment" instinct. They see the FG attempt sailing to Davis, and have the presence of mind to get to the Auburn sideline quicker than Saban's ill-fated "fat guys" FG personnel, and annihilate at least 5-6 pursuing "punt coverage" dudes, with Davis simply blowing past the other dudes. And only Robinson Therezie # 27 added suspense with a perilously close "game saving tackle" for bammer.
Horton goes on to share that Lance Thompson, who was on the bammer staff for the Kick Six game, and later joined the Auburn staff, talked to him about the Kick Six game and the big play. "A few years later, Lance is on our staff, and Kevin Steele is on our staff (Steele was also on staff for Saban 2013 after being canned at Clemson). Lance has told me before, 'As soon as he kicked that ball, we knew we were in deep trouble. We had some linemen on the field that we knew weren't going to catch Davis."
Perhaps Horton's account of the epic moment not new to some, but it's the first time I learned it was a called FG Block on the big play. What if? Roughing the FG kicker, or a clean block but no TD scored off it. Nah, our guys were too smart to blow history in that moment. Some things are just written in the stars.
Oh why not:
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