Auburn also losing players

By Robert Rousseau  |   Monday, June 29, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

Auburn Tigers
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With all the talk on how well the Auburn Tigers and new head football coach Gene Chizik are doing when it comes to recruiting, the fact that they're also losing players isn't gaining as many headlines. Earlier this season, Tray Blackmon, Chris Slaughter, Raven Gray and Ryan Williams all left. And now it appears that they've lost a backup safety, a backup defensive tackle and a backup linebacker.

The names are Christian Thompson, Jomarcus Savage and Marcus Jemison.

Thompson had received praise from safeties coach Tommy Thigpen this spring for his tackling and was considered a pretty important backup to Mike McNeil and Zac Etheridge. Coming out of high school in 2008, he was thought of as one of the top 100 players in Florida and his potential was beginning to be realized. Thus, his departure sure doesn't help the team.

On the flip side, both Savage and Jemison's departures were perhaps less painful to the Tigers' future success. Savage was slated to be a third-string defensive tackle and had been slowed by a shoulder problem that required surgery last season. Jemison's position had been changed to linebacker from safety, and he was coming off a broken leg last season.

In the end, none of these new-wave departures should hurt too much. That said, the Tigers could use some depth in some spots -- particularly if you've noticed how many injuries their players have sustained over the past couple of seasons -- so losing more players can't be considered a good thing.

And the beat goes on.
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About Robert Rousseau

Robert Rousseau is a sports writer that has been published in a variety of print and online venues. He’s been writing for RealFootball365.com for almost three years now. When Rousseau isn’t writing about college football he tends to be penning mixed martial arts pieces for MMAFighting.com or ...
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