Auburn’s Coleman, LSU’s McFarland honored

By David Moorman  |   Tuesday, March 10, 2009  |  Comments( 1 )

College Football
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It’s not exactly out with the old, in with the new in the Southeastern Conference. Consider it more like commemorating the established and celebrating the present.

Then again, Auburn defensive end Antonio Coleman is hardly new. As the SEC’s latest Lombardi Award finalist, he’ll be a senior for the Tigers next season. If Coleman has a final season to match his previous one, Auburn first-year coach Gene Chizik can expect to have a rock-solid defense.

Coleman was one of 48 players named to the Rotary Lombardi Award Preliminary Watch List after having made the Coaches All-SEC first team last season. He earned the same distinction from the media. The award is limited to those players who line up within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage.

If Coleman can have a campaign coming close to any of the ones former LSU nose guard Anthony McFarland enjoyed during his distinguished career, Coleman could well win the award.

McFarland’s last collegiate season came in 1998, but he certainly hasn’t been forgotten at a university which inducted him into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Five non-football players were enshrined, too.

McFarland earned All-America first-team honors as an LSU senior, which certainly is in the realm of possibility for Coleman, who recorded 46 total tackles as a junior. Among those stops were six quarterback sacks and 10.5 tackles for loss.

Coleman also had a team-high 13 quarterback hurries, forced a fumble and broke up a pass. The SEC named him its Defensive Lineman of the Week after Auburn’s 14-12 victory over Tennessee in which he collected four tackles with a sack and 1.5 tackles for loss.

With 14.5 career sacks, Coleman needs one more to join Auburn’s all-time top 10 list in that category.

As the subject of constant double-teaming, McFarland still managed to record 17 career sacks before beginning a distinguished NFL career. In his final collegiate season, he totaled 61 tackles, including eight sacks, and forced one fumble. Such numbers allowed McFarland to finish his LSU career with 252 total tackles, including 55 for loss, 18 of which came his senior year.

You may not be able to go back in time, but you can relive the past, which is what LSU has done with its tribute to McFarland.

Auburn, on the other hand, is all about moving forward with Coleman at the heart of a defense ready for recognition.
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About David Moorman

Dave Moormann is an award-winning journalist, who has covered LSU athletics since 1980. He began his coverage with the Baton Rouge Advocate, where he was a writer and editor from 1980-98. In 1996, he authored a book on the history of LSU football entitled, "Fighting Tigers Handbook: Stories, Stats ...
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