FanHouse David Irons

The New York Jets started their preseason with a bang. Led by back-up quarterback Kellen Clemens (16 of 22 for 174 yards and 3 touchdowns) and running back Leon Washington (127 total yards), they were able to ground the Atlanta Falcons in a 31-16 victory.

One of the more sparkling plays of the game came courtesy of cornerback Drew Coleman, who made an excellent read on a Chris Redman pass and was able to tip it away. Unfortunately, he missed an easy interception only a few plays later.

Jets back-up tight end Sean Ryan (4 receptions for 29 yards) also had a an excellent game, grabbing two touchdown -- one of which came on a brilliant diving catch in the back of the endzone.

Finally, cornerback Alphonso Hodge had a very impressive open field tackle on the Falcons' Laurent Robinson that saved a first down and ended Atlanta's drive. Little things like this go unnoticed in the box score, but you can bet Eric Mangini gives him a pat on the back tomorrow when they watch the film.

I get it. I understand this whole myspace.com thing. I'm down with the technology of the college age student. But at 37, there's little chance you'll ever see me there. As my wife would say, that's kind of creepy. Having a myspace site at my age is akin to Matthew McConaughey hanging out with the kids in Dazed and Confused.

But if you play college football, having your own space on either facebook.com or myspace.com is almost mandatory. And that drives college coaches and administrators crazy. The problem is, well, college kids can sometimes get a little crazy and express themselves too much.

For those of you who aren't hip like me, and don't know about the latest crazy sweeping the country, myspace and facebook are areas where primarily college age students go to "claim their domain" and set up a mini web site about themselves.

Some are more elaborate than others. Most include pictures of themselves, their friends, pets, favorite cars, favorite music, etc. It gives young people a way to go and get to know each other. It's kind of like your room at home when you were a kid. It's a place to express yourself. Got it Dr. Phil? Good.

This phonemonon has not been lost on the Auburn football players. More than a few of them have their own sites, including Kenny Irons, Brad Lester, Courtney Taylor and David Irons. Christa Turner, who's the Auburn beat writer for the Columbus (Ga.) Ledger-Enquirer writes an interesting front page story today about the Auburn players and their "space."

Below are links to some of the Auburn players sites. They are unique to say the least...

Kenny Irons

Brad Lester

Courtney Taylor

David Irons

Karibi Dede

Link: Football Saturday In The South

All the talk this week has been on the homecoming of Auburn's Kenny Irons and his scheduled return to Williams-Brice Stadium to face South Carolina. However, it's brother David who will get the real test Thursday. David Irons will have the task of covering the best wide receiver in the SEC in Sidney Rice.

With the quarterback situation becoming more clear in Columbia, Rice becomes more of a threat to the Tigers defense. How good is Rice? In only 15 starts, the sophomore has already caught 18 touchdown passes. Last week, he was named the SEC's Offensive Player of the Week after catching 9 passes for 161 yards and five touchdowns against Florida Atlantic.

The most impressive part of his performance is that he was pulled with 10 minutes left in the third quarter. It's easy to dismiss it and say it was Florida Atlantic, but anyway you cut it, that's pretty heady stuff.

Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier has settled on Syvelle Newton at quarterback. The results have been positive. Newton came in following the loss to Georgia and has added stability to the position. He replaced Blake Mitchell who was pulled for a number of reasons including an off the field incident at a local bar.

Newton moved over to the quarterback position after playing wide receiver. He even played tailback some last season and is a threat to run. He missed the last five games of 2005 after suffering a torn ACL in the Vanderbilt game.

In other news, South Carolina tailback Cory Boyd is questionable for the Auburn game after suffering a high ankle sprain and missing last week's game. Auburn and South Carolina kickoff at 6:45 p.m. CST from Columbia and the game will be carried by ESPN.

I can tell football is really here. Why? Because the Alabama fans are already getting paranoid about their chances this year. Just as predictable as Labor Day coming in September, the Alabama faithful have resorted to story telling.

It seems that the age old story of the Irons brothers (Kenny and David) having contact with an agent has surfaced again. You may recall that this story surfaced a while back and was quickly dismissed. Apparently, a rogue agent has been in contact with the Iron's family trying to sign the brothers. The family quickly reported it to Auburn officials and both of the players were cleared of any wrong doing. In fact, they handled it textbook perfect.

End of story? Of course not. It seems the story grew legs again on talk shows across the state yesterday with several calls about it surfacing on The Paul Finebaum Network. Unfortunately for Alabama fans, it was nothing more than wishful thinking. Both of the Iron's brothers still plan on being at Jordan-Hare West on November 18.

There will be no preseason warm-ups for Auburn cornerbacks David Irons and Jonathan Wilhite. The two will be tested early Saturday night when Washington State visits Jordan-Hare Stadium. While only winning four games a year ago, the Cougars are no push-overs when it comes to throwing the football.

Led by quarterback Alex Brink, look for State to throw the ball more than 50 times Saturday. Last season, Brink threw for nearly 3,000 yards and 24 touchdowns. His primary target will be preseason All-PAC 10 wide receiver Jason Hill. He had more than 1,000 yards in catches last year.

David Irons knows as well as anyone the importance of getting off to a good start. In his opener last year against Georgia Tech, All American Calvin Johnson welcomed Irons to big time college football. It's a performance he'd rather just forget.

Irons is determined to have a better showing this go around. And he has a lot riding on it. Unlike last year, David comes into the season with preseason All-SEC honors and a lot to prove. After all, he does have a brother that gets a little bit of love from the media.

Someone else who is out to prove something is Wilhite. The junior corner had a less than stellar performance in the Capital One Bowl against Wisconsin. Still it was a solid junior season for Wilhite who recorded 47 tackles and an interception against Kentucky.

Saturday's contest will probably be won or lost at the corners. Irons and Wilhite are determined to prove they are for real.

In recent days, Kenny and David Irons have gotten media exposure that few brothers from Dacula, Georgia ever see. Heck, let's face it, they've gotten coverage that hardly anyone sees. Yesterday, USA Today did a feature length spread on the two. Today it's ESPN.com. The Tigers feature tailback and defensive back are living large these days.

Both are preseason All-SEC selections. And both have been named to more than one preseason All-American team. Of course, Kenny is the better known of the two and is a Heisman Trophy contender. David on the other hand is the one with the sense of humor.

After noticing Louisville's Brian Brohm and Michael Bush (two of the Cardinal's Heisman hopefuls) on the front of the ESPN writer's notebook, David made this observation, "Man, my brother better step up his game. Auburn probably won't do that for him because he's an ugly guy. His looks might hurt his Heisman campaign. It sure won't help. But if there was an award for being ugly, he'd definitely win it hands down." That's good stuff there.

There's no doubt that Kenny Iron's success has been due in large measure to his brother, David. Both took long roads to Auburn and both are huge support mechanisms for each other. The falling out Kenny had with former coach Lou Holtz is well documented. Holtz is one of the great coaches of the last 25 years. But what he did to Kenny Irons was wrong.

ESPN.com chronicles the start Kenny had at South Carolina and the early successes. Unfortunately for Holtz the heat of a recruiting battle costs him the top runner in the SEC. Holtz promised South Carolina prep star Demetris Summers that he would get the first carry of the 2003 season if he signed with the Gamecocks. True to his word, Summers took over as a true freshman. Irons was out and that put into motion his move to Auburn.

Meanwhile, David was off at prep school trying to qualify academically at Auburn. Kenny was left to fall into a depression. David had always been there for Kenny. But not this time. It would be a long and winding road back to the Plains.

Last season it all came together. Both had break out years. Now the two have a chance to become the first brothers to be named All-SEC in the same season. An even bigger goal for them is to both be selected in the first round of next April's NFL draft.

If Kenny has a break out game against LSU on September 16th and follows it up with a big performance against Florida on October 14th, look for him to be the lead Heisman candidate. Both games are at home and with wins in both, Auburn should be in the upper ranks of the Top 5.

As for David, he's without question the best defensive back in the SEC heading into the season. He's nursing a hamstring but should be ready to go on September 2nd. The upside is tremendous for him. Another solid season will mean big bucks in the NFL next year and most importantly will mean a big bowl game for Auburn.

Football Saturday In The South