If new developments arise in Smith lawsuit, Chizik will handle them in ‘right way’

Here’s tomorrow’s notes today.

Gene Chizik said Thursday night that any new developments in the lawsuit against running back Eric Smith will be dealt with “the right way.”
Decari Jenkins, an Auburn University student, is suing Smith, 19, for compensatory and punitive damages after Smith allegedly assaulted Jenkins, 22, in the parking lot of the Lexington Hotel in Auburn on Aug. 21.
The lawsuit also alleges two unnamed AU football players were involved in the incident.
“I’m not at liberty to talk about those types of issues,” Chizik said. “We’ve done everything that we needed to do when the whole thing arose three months ago. I’m not aware of any official anything that has happened right now.
“I know there is stuff out there. I can assure that we will deal, again, with everything the proper way if that does occur. There hasn’t been anything that I’m aware of right now that has happened. Again, when it’s our time, and we have to deal with that, we’ll address it in the right way.”
Smith was suspended from the team for 2 1/2 weeks after the August incident, missing the first game of the season against Louisiana Tech.
Since, Smith has played in every game, rushing for 99 yards on 20 carries and a touchdown, while catching 17 passes for 225 yards.

LB Evans next in line
Jonathan Evans might get the first start of his career next Friday against Alabama in the Iron Bowl.
The true freshman filled in for starting linebacker Eltoro Freeman last week in the Tigers’ loss to Georgia, after Freeman went out with a concussion in the third quarter.
Evans finished with four tackles in a quarter and a half of play.
Now, Evans has a chance to pad those stats if Freeman, who hasn’t practiced since the injury, can’t go against Alabama.
“Again, Toro is going to be a day-by-day situation,” Chizik said Thursday night. “We don’t really know when that will be. But if Jonathan has to be the guy, he had to be the guy in the second half of the Georgia game.”
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof likes what he’s seen so far from Evans during the bye-week practices.
“He’s getting better every day,” Roof said. “He’s done a good job. He’s gotten better at making more plays, more active. That’s what we expect him to do, that’s what’s got to happen.
And the experience he received last weekend will go along way, says Roof.
“Oh yeah, it’s critical,” the defensive coordinator said. “There’s only one first time and that was his first time really being in there when the game was still in the (balance). I thought he did a good job for the first time. He didn’t panic. I’m sure internally things were moving pretty fast, but I thought he did some nice things and I look forward to more and more nice things as time goes forward.”
Both Chizik and Roof wouldn’t discuss who might be after Evans on the depth chart, if Freeman can’t play.
Chizik did say, however, that he didn’t see Adam Herring (heel), who has started four games this season, being available.
“At this point, I don’t see that being an option,” Chizik said, “but I’m not ruling that out, either.

Auburn Notes: The ‘fixin’ the little things’ edition

Hello everyone, I’m Mike Szvetitz filling in for Andrew Gribble, who has the next couple days off.

Here’s tomorrow’s notes ... today.

Auburn’s not going to reinvent the wheel during the bye week.
No, the Tigers are going to spend the next 10 days preparing for the Iron Bowl and No. 2 Alabama trying to get down to the basics of why it rolls.
And how to keep it on track. Especially after last week’s loss to Georgia, which was marred by penalties and undisciplined mistakes.
“If we’re gonna get this thing clicking, we need to get all 11 guys doing the little things right,” said junior left tackle Lee Ziemba.
And it starts with the penalties.
“They’re killing us. We’ve got to stop committing those errors,” said Ziemba, who jumped offside on Auburn’s final drive, further hurting its chances for the game-tying score. “It’s all about the fundamentals. If you do the fundamentals right, you’re not going to commit those penalties.”
Auburn was flagged nine times for 60 yards against Georgia.
“Very disappointed with the penalties,” head coach Gene Chizik said. “Those are undisciplined things that we have to get better at. We can’t, again, go into any game against any good football team and have as many penalties as we’ve had and expect to win.
“That was evident on the last drive, there were a couple penalties there that just put us in bad situations. So that’s disappointing, too.”
Over the last six games, in which the Tigers have gone 2-4, they have totaled 49 penalties for 354 yards.
“We’re trying to correct those,” offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said Wednesday night. “The discipline part—just the overall execution of doing what we do. We’re trying to get those corrected before the next game.”
If the Tigers want to compete with Alabama next Saturday, that’s imperative. Especially on offense.
“They’re very talented,” Malzahn said of the Crimson Tide defense. “They’re very fast. Very rarely do they get out of position. They make you earn it. We’re going to have to do a good job.”
So Auburn spent today’s practice, the first since the loss in Athens, focusing on the “little things.”
“The big thing is looking at all the details, fixing the little mistakes that kind of hurt ourselves on,” quarterback Chris Todd said. “That’s something you really got to pay attention to, because they can make a bigger difference than you think, and that’s definitely important. And when you’re playing a really good football team, every little thing matters and so you really need to look at the details and fine-tune everything.”

McCalebb back?
Freshman running back Onterio McCalebb made his first appearance in two games in the loss to Georgia, but it was evident that the speedster wasn’t 100 percent recovered from an ankle injury that kept him out against Ole Miss and Furman.
McCalebb rushed 11 times for 71 yards against the Bulldogs, but was slow getting to the edge on the speed sweeps that normally separate him from Auburn’s other running backs, and opposing defenses.
Malzahn is hoping the bye week will help McCalebb get back to form.
“I think that helps,” the offensive coordinator said. “You can see what he did early in the season and the speed he was playing at early in the season. If we can get him back 100 percent before we play Alabama, that would be nice.
McCalebb was all for the rest he’s already received the last couple days.
“It helped me a lot at practice today,” he said. “I felt real good.”

New go-to guy?
Ziemba also got on the stat sheet last Saturday against Georgia with his first career catch.
On a play that Auburn’s run a few times this season, the left tackle lined up in the slot as a receiver on third-and-3 from the Bulldogs’ 17-yard line midway through the third quarter.
After almost being sacked on the play, Todd threw to the only open Tiger he could find – Ziemba.
Of course, the O-lineman was not an eligible receiver, and Auburn was called for illegal touching, which Georgia declined.
Ziemba lost 3 yards on the play, but showed off his hands.
“He made a nice catch on it,” Todd laughed. “I was really waiting to see if he was going to break that.”

BCA gives AU passing grade
The manner in which Auburn conducted its search for a head football coach last December earned the school a passing grade in the Black Coaches & Administrator’s yearly report card, released Wednesday. But it wasn’t necessarily with flying colors.
Auburn received one A, three Bs and an F in the five categories designed to evaluate how colleges and universities are doing when it comes to interviewing and/or hiring minority candidates. That average left AU with a D overall.
The F came in the Affirmative Action category, which asks each institution to document the “affirmative action hiring policies and procedures the institution has.”
An A in that category means a school had a “highly detailed level of documented policies and procedures.” The BCA’s report card judges an F by a school having “no documentation of the policies and procedures at all.”
Auburn’s A came in the Communication category, meaning that Auburn had at least two communications with the BCA and/or the chair of the NCAA Minority Opportunity Interests Committee. The Bs came in the Hiring/Search Committee (20-29 percent of hiring/search committee were minorities), Candidates Interviewed (20-29 percent of candidates were minorities) and Reasonable Time (search/hiring process lasted between six and 13 days) categories.
In the 10 days between Tommy Tuberville’s resignation Dec. 3 and Chizik’s hiring Dec. 13, Auburn interviewed Buffalo head coach Turner Gill and Georgia assistant/defensive line coach Rodney Garner, both of whom are black.

(Photo credit: Todd J. Van Emst | Auburn Athletics)

AU basketball’s Kenny Gabriel out indefinitely

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Junior-college transfer Kenny Gabriel, a swingman with range, is out indefinitely after undergoing hernia surgery Tuesday, coach Jeff Lebo said today. A timetable for his return is unknown, but it looks like it’ll be later rather than sooner.

“We’ll be definitely without Kenny for a while,“ Lebo said.

The Tigers are already without guard Tay Waller, whose status remains in doubt heading into this weekend’s Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla., because of a sore quadriceps muscle. Oklahoma transfer Tony Neysmith, one of the team’s few options at backup point guard, has been nursing a sore ankle but should be available.

Gabriel averaged 4.5 points and 2.5 rebounds in the first two games. He spent one year at Paris (Texas) Junior College, where he averaged 13 points, seven rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.

(Photo credit: Auburn University)

Lawsuit filed against RB Eric Smith alleges two other football players involved

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A lawsuit filed against Eric Smith on Tuesday alleges that two other Auburn football players were involved in the August incident that left an Auburn student unconscious and bloodied. (Click to read the lawsuit here)

The lawsuit, filed by the victim Decari Jenkins, seeks compensatory and punitive damages for the injuries and post-injury trauma he suffered at the hands of Smith and two unnamed Auburn players, according to a copy of the suit provided to the Opelika-Auburn News by the Birmingham law firm Crew & Howell, P.C.

The suit is being filed in U.S. District Court in Montgomery.

Jenkins, a fifth-year engineering student, has “suffered and continues to suffer grevious and permanent injury,“ according to the suit, including classic Post-Concussion Syndrome, which, along with the injuries, has “significantly impaired his ability to execute his education.“ He also has substantial “hospital, diagnostic and medical bills,“ according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says Jenkins and a friend were attending a function at the Lexington Hotel on August 21 when he was approached by “two presently unnamed Auburn football players in a provocative and belligerent manner.“ Jenkins’ friend stepped in between the players and said: “We don’t want any trouble,“ according to the lawsuit.

Jenkins writes he was then punched by one of the players and rendered unconscious. Smith “then approached (Jenkins) in a hostile and aggressive manner and slapped a drink from his hand,“ the lawsuit claims.

Smith was then joined by his “cohorts” and all three began to “pummel Jenkins with hands and fists about his face and body.“ Jenkins was able to escape, fleeing down an outside stairway toward the front of the hotel, the suit claims.

While trying to make a phone call with his back facing the main entrance of the hotel, Jenkins went “limp immediately,“ as he was punched in the back of the head by Smith in front of police officers who were called to the scene, according to the lawsuit.

“Smith then kicked (Jenkins), turned away from the officers and casually walked away as if nothing happened, leaving Jenkins unconscious in a pool of blood,“ the lawsuit says.

Smith was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. He pled guilty and was granted youthful offender status, which effectively seals the case to the public. He later filed a countersuit alleging harassment against Jenkins, which was later dismissed with prejudice, according to the lawsuit.

Smith told officers at the scene that Jenkins punched him in the nose earlier in the night, according to a police report filed immediately after the incident. Smith “did appear to have blood coming from his nose at the time of the incident,” the police report says.

Smith missed nearly three weeks of practice and Auburn’s first game before returning to the team days before the Tigers’ second game of the season against Mississippi State. He has not missed any time since his return to the field and has received constant praise from coach Gene Chizik.

“We made a series of things that he’s still continuing to do that we felt like were going to be what he needed to do to get back,“ Chizik said in early October. “And he’s been great.“

Smith has rushed for 99 yards on 20 carries. He is Auburn’s fourth-leading receiver with 17 catches for 225 yards.

An Auburn official said the athletic department had no comment on the suit

(Photo credit: Cliff Williams)

Washington named SEC Special Teams POW

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Demond Washington is your SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after a record-setting performance against Georgia.

Washington returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to tie the game, 24-24, early in the fourth quarter. That return gave him a little less than half of his 204 kick return yards on the day, which was good for the all-time, single-game Auburn record. His 40.4 kickoff return yard average was the second-best in SEC history for a single game (min. four returns).

He finished with 229 total return yards for the day, which was good for fourth-best in SEC history. The bulk of his punt return yards came on his 19-yard return—an Auburn season-long—early in the second quarter.

Not bad for a guy who really didn’t have a significant role on special teams as a return man until Saturday.

The Tigers have now won player of the week awards in seven of the 11 weeks this season.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)