AU FOOTBALL: McFadden now a leader

TAMPA, Fla. — Walt McFadden always knew he’d eventually be a leader in some fashion by the time his Auburn career came to a close.

When he was in the midst of some well-documented growing pains, McFadden saw how players like Anthony Mix and Devin Aromashadu carried themselves on and off the field. Neither player’s voice carried loudly in the locker room and neither mugged for the camera or had their quotes show up in newspapers on a frequent basis.

The cliché way to describe it was that they led by the example. That’s what McFadden wanted, too.

“They just did the right thing every time,” McFadden said.

McFadden has certainly done it the right way since he enrolled five years ago. He just hasn’t stuck to the plan.

McFadden is a talker. A big one at that.

“I love the trash talk,” offensive tackle Andrew McCain said. “I’ll give myself a six or a seven, but he’s a 10-plus. I need to get on his
level.”

McFadden, the loudest and most vocal leader among Auburn’s 13 seniors, will wrap up his Auburn career in today’s Outback Bowl.

He’s put forth his best season in an Auburn uniform to this point, hauling in a team-best four interceptions — the most by a Tiger since 2004 — on his way to second-team All-SEC honors. He’s also stayed relatively healthy in a year that has seemingly put every Auburn defender on the sidelines at one point in time.

Most notably, though, McFadden became the voice and face of Auburn football, blending leadership with humor and trash talk with results.

“He’s mature beyond his years,” coach Gene Chizik said. “He’s been absolutely phenomenal for our football team. All the guys look up to him.”

McFadden’s affable personality has always been there, his coaches say. It just took a while for it to emerge on center stage, the result of a frustrating freshman season and a traditionally stacked depth chart that sat in front of him until now.

“There’s a lot of freshmen that come in that just aren’t ready that first year,” cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley said. “It took a year, but Walt is a great kid and always was and that’s the reason he made it through all that.”

McFadden, a Pompano Beach, Fla., native, originally committed to the University of Florida but was swayed toward Auburn after a handful of in-house meetings with Chizik, then Auburn’s defensive coordinator. He appreciated Chizik’s honesty and straightforward demeanor, as he often recalled how floored he was by the fact that Chizik asked his mother for a glass of water immediately upon entering his house.

His attitude would quickly change.

Chizik left for Texas before McFadden even arrived. David Gibbs replaced him.

It’s safe to say if Gibbs were around during McFadden’s recruitment, he would have stayed committed to Florida. McFadden admitted that he often brooded that first year and grew frustrated with his lack of playing time.

Everything seemed like a lost cause. He wasn’t talking trash or having a good time.

“If’ you’re a bad kid, you don’t ever make it through,” Lolley said. “He wasn’t bad. He just needed some adjusting that first year.

“But what a player he’s developed into.”

McFadden credited the presence of Will Muschamp through his next two years as the kick in the pants that has landed him among the elite SEC cornerbacks and yet another NFL-bound Auburn defensive back.

“He came in with that attitude that everybody knows he has: the big bad boy attitude,” McFadden said. “He kind of helped put me in my place with coach Lolley. He told me that if you had a attitude you wouldn’t get nowhere.”

McFadden didn’t go anywhere until the seventh game of his redshirt freshman season when he was finally able to get regular work in Muschamp’s rotation.

He hasn’t missed much time ever since.

“I just had to do what I had to do to be that guy and be a part of the team,” McFadden said.

The man who brought him to Auburn has brought out McFadden’s personality.

After going through a tumultuous 2008 season where leaders were few and far between, he said, McFadden took it upon himself to make 2009 an enjoyable last hurrah for him and his teammates. Chizik told him to talk more and let loose that hilarious personality as a way to make life easier for the numerous young guys not only in the secondary, but the entire team.

Consider that a rip-roaring success.

“He’s always keeping everyone loose and keeping everybody cracking up but he’s also a fierce competitor,” McCain said. “And when you have that combination, it just gets a lot of respect from the guys because they can see the balance of cutting up and laughing, but then when he gets on the field, he’s ready to play ball and he plays his heart out.”

agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561