Because I am a terrible blogger…

Here’s a brief about four local players who made the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s player of the week lists. But a day late.

Better late than never, right?

Loachapoka junior Tracy Brooks matched his season interception total in about a minute of game time in the fourth quarter of No. 5 Indians’ 18-12 win over No. 4 Maplesville last Friday night, helping advance Loachapoka to its fourth quarterfinal appearance in the past six seasons.

That’s in addition to the pick he had earlier in the game.

Brooks’ three-interception performance against the Red Devils earned him a “best of the rest” mention in the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s defense/special teams player of the week list, released Tuesday.

Two of Brooks’ teammates joined him on the list: senior quarterback Patrick Moore on the offensive side and senior defensive lineman Jerome Greer on defense.

Greer recorded eight tackles and two of the Indians’ four sacks — giving him a team-leading five on the year — and also blocked an extra point in the win.

Moore accounted for 310 yards of offense — 178 rushing and 132 passing — and all three of the Indians’ touchdowns. Moore has now passed for 1875 yards and 17 touchdowns this season while adding 847 yards and 17 scores on the ground.

Auburn High’s James Ponder also made “best of the rest” on the defense/special teams list, recording nine tackles and 2.5 sacks in the No. 1 Tigers’ 27-24 win over Wetumpka. Ponder has 10 tackles for loss and a team-leading 5.5 sacks this season.

Deshler’s Deion Belue — an Alabama commit — won the offensive honor, compiling 287 all-purpose yards and scoring four touchdowns in a 49-13 win over Central-Florence in the Class 4A playoffs, also extending his streak of games in which he has returned a kick for a touchdown to six.

Ryan Romans of Russellville won the defense/special teams honor, blocking a 32-yard field-goal attempt and later returning an interception 90 yards for a touchdown in the first half of a 14-0 win over Muscle Shoals in the 5A playoffs.

How many Maddox sisters are there?

Oh yeah ... five.

Just when I got through watching Melissa help lead the Lee-Scott girls basketball team to a 46-21 win over Prattville Christian tonight (younger sister, Abigail, was there too, by the way), I find a press release in my e-mail inbox saying the one at the top of the screen (that’s Anna) is being a stud in soccer at the University of Mobile.

Read on:

Former Auburn High School standout Anna Maddox continues to make a strong impression at the University of Mobile.

Maddox, a junior goal keeper, is a three-year starter for the Lady Rams, who finished the season one game away from the 2009 NAIA National Tournament.

The Gulf Coast Coast Athletic Conference released the 2009 Women’s Soccer All-Conference team, and Maddox earned 1st-Team honors for the third straight season. She was also named GCAC Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season.

Maddox worked 16 games in goal, logging 1444:29 minutes. She posted 4 shutouts and racked up 84 saves, including 12 saves versus NAIA Top-5 team Azusa Pacific and 10 saves versus NCAA II Nova Southeastern.

Sidenote: Abigail is replacing this Maddox on the Lee-Scott basketball team, just in time for aforementioned Maddox to join the Maddox at the top of the page on the Rams’ soccer team.

It’s like our own little Manning family in the greater Opelika-Auburn area.

(Photo from: The University of Mobile’s athletics Web site).

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)

Freeman questionable heading into Iron Bowl

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Eltoro Freeman’s status remains uncertain heading into the Iron Bowl after suffering a concussion in the third quarter of Saturday’s game.

The sophomore linebacker went down when attempting to make a hit on Georgia’s Caleb King on the second play of the third quarter.

Gene Chizik, in typical fashion, remained vague when discussing Freeman’s prognosis.

“I don’t know,” Chizik said. “We’re going to have to play that one by ear.”

One of Freeman’s better friends on the team, safety Demond Washington, said Freeman was in good spirits, but that reporters would have to ask Freeman, himself, if he’d be ready for the Alabama game.

“I’m surprised he came back,” Washington said. “That’s a plus he’s doing good.”

Freeman was not made available for interviews Sunday.

Freshman Jonathan Evans, Auburn’s only available scholarship linebacker off the bench, filled in for Freeman in a pinch Saturday, picking up four tackles and half a tackle for loss. It served as a crash course for Evans, who had not previously seen any meaningful snaps at the position.

Evans appeared active from the start, but constantly needed the help of safety Daren Bates to get in proper position before the snap.

Georgia amassed 131 of its 169 rushing yards in the second half.

“We had faith in Jonathan,” linebacker Craig Stevens said. “We talked to him on the sidelines and tried to help him get aligned and just calm down out there and play just like practice. He did OK out there. He’s not like Toro out there. Toro has a lot more experience than him out there.

“I feel like he did all right once he got out there. He did better than I thought he would.”

Chizik said Evans played adequately.

“For getting kind of abruptly thrown in there, I thought he did well,” Chizik said. “Obviously there were some things in there he could have done better.”

Dropping the ball
Washington said his excitement might have gotten the best of him after his 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Saturday’s fourth quarter.

Replays of Washington’s run showed that he barely crossed the goal line before dropping the ball to celebrate. Once the side judge’s arms went up in the air, though, Washington had no reason to risk going back and picking the ball up, he said.

“Coaches told me to take the ball to the ref next time,” Washington said.

It wasn’t as if scoring the touchdown came as a surprise, said wide receiver Emory Blake, who served as Washington’s lead blocker on the return.

“Demond was telling us all night that he was going to take one to the house and all we needed to do was get our blocks,” Blake said. “That’s what I did. That’s what everyone else did—and we made a big play.”

He’s OK
Georgia safety Bacarri Rambo was released from St. Mary’s Hospital in Athens on Sunday after passing his medical tests “with flying colors,” Georgia coach Mark Richt told reporters Sunday.

Rambo was motionless for nearly 15 minutes late in the fourth quarter Saturday after making a hard hit on Auburn’s Mario Fannin. He lost consciousness on the field, but did not suffer any serious injuries.

Richt said Rambo, who suffered a concussion, will not play Saturday against Kentucky.

Still 25-worthy to some
Auburn’s loss Saturday didn’t dissuade all of the Associated Press’ poll voters, as two in the 60-member panel kept the Tigers in their respective top 25’s.

Auburn received a total of nine voter points, which would put it at 33rd if the poll went that far. The Tigers received eight votes in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll.

Auburn has yet to crack the BCS top 25.

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)

Gene Chizik speaks in a casual setting

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Gene Chizik spoke this afternoon.

He wore a shirt that we can’t even begin to describe. Let’s put it this way: It was festive.

Here are some of the highlights.

(On the sloppy run defense late in the game)
“We were really playing the run well and I think when Eltoro went out, that certainly didn’t help our cause. That’s not an excuse at all, but for a good bit of that football game we were playing well against the run. We’ve got to be able to sustain that through four quarters. It’s just that simple.“

(Eltoro’s status?)
“I don’t know. We’re going to have to play that one by ear.“

(How did Jonathan Evans do in his place?)
“For getting kind of abruptly thrown in there, I thought he did well. Obviously there were some things in there he could have done better.“

(Late penalties killed you again)
“And they’re by veteran guys. Really, really disappointing. I just addressed that in our team meeting. These are guys that you’re counting on to win ball games for you. They’ve played a lot of football. There are so many other things that happened before we got to that. We could have played so much better as well. You can’t pin it on one guy, but in those critical situations, without question, I just think it’s a lack of concentration and attention to detail. That’s what I said in the team meeting.“

(This one hurt, didn’t it?)
“That loss is very hard to swallow period. We had so many opportunities in my opinion. We had opportunities for turnovers that we didn’t capitalize on. If you go back and you look at games this year where we’ve won, there’s been turnovers defensively that we created somewhere in there. That was a big one where Josh (Bynes) went up and he had the interception—obviously I’m not blaming anything—but Josh went up and it went through his hands and their tight end caught the ball. That was a huge point in the game even if he knocks it down. We had opportunities to create some momentum swings and changes and we just didn’t do it.“

(This bye came at a good time, right?)
“I think it’s big. The debate is, do you want the open date earlier or late in the season? But, you know, where we are right now, obviously, I think it will be advantageous to have it now.“

(Photo credit: Todd Van Emst)