Auburn DB had 5 tackles in title game

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

Not even 48 hours after winning the BCS championship trophy, and less than 18 hours after stepping off of their chartered 747 jumbo jet and waving to the thousands of cheering Auburn fans at the airport, T’Sharvan Bell and many of his Tigers teammates were back in class, just like millions of other college students returning from the holiday break.

But, what a break it was for the Tigers.

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard to believe we won it. It’s just setting in a little, now,” Bell, the 2008 Osceola High grad, said from the Auburn campus last week.

The Jan. 10 thriller ended when Auburn’s Wes Byrum kicked a 19-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Tigers over Oregon, 22-19, for Auburn’s second national championship and its first since 1957.

Bell, a Tigers cornerback, made five tackles in the championship game as Auburn’s defense contained a Ducks team that averaged 49 points during the regular season.

Bell said that the Tigers got tired of hearing that Oregon’s offense would roll over Auburn.

“We took it personal, it was like a slap in the face to us,” Bell said. “We felt like we weren’t being respected for what we accomplished all year.”

Auburn, 14-0, held the Ducks, who averaged 304 yards rushing, to 81 in the championship game in Glendale, Ariz.

“Our philosophy was to shut them down as much as we can, don’t give up the big plays,” he said. “Except for that one long play (an 81-yard pass in the third quarter from Ducks QB Darron Thomas to Jeff Maehl), we didn’t give up anything big.”

Bell, affectionately known to his family and friends as ‘T-Bell’, watched from the sidelines as as the biggest play of the game unfolded in front of him. After Oregon tied the score at 19 late in the fourth quarter, Auburn freshman running back Michael Dyer ran 37 yards to the Duck 23 on a controversial play.

Dyer appeared to be tackled at midfield, but he rolled over a Ducks defender and his knee never touched the ground. He stopped, like everyone around him, but the Tigers coaches and players told him to keep running, Bell said.

“The coaches were yelling, we all were yelling,” Bell said. “We didn’t know what happened; it looked like he was down. But, we didn’t hear a whistle, so we yelled at him to keep running.”

After Dyer later ran to the 1, Byrum kicked the winning field goal.

The Ducks had a chance to score a TD in the third quarter, but they were turned away at the Auburn 1, thanks largely to the play of Tigers defensive tackle Nick Fairley. He spent the game knocking Oregon offensive linemen backward.

“Oregon, speed-wise, they can run with the best of the SEC. But, I don’t think they were as physical up front. It seemed like we could do whatever we wanted up front against them,” Bell said.

Bell was the do-everything quarterback/defensive back who was largely responsible for Osceola’s great 2007 season, when it won 14 straight games. He missed the state championship game against St. Thomas Aquinas when he suffered a knee injury in the state semifinals at Bartram Trail. Watching on crutches when Aquinas beat Osceola, Bell said he made a vow to his Kowboys teammates.

“I never loved a group of guys as much as I loved the guys on that Osceola team. We were family,” Bell said. “It really hurt that I couldn’t be out there for them against St. Thomas Aquinas. I told them then that, one day, I was gonna win them a ring.”

His first phone call after winning the BCS championship was to his brother, Momo Thomas, a junior defensive back at Colorado State.

“I told him, ‘Brother, we did it. We got it!’” Bell said.

For the 2010 season, Bell had 38 tackles, 29 solos, and a pick-six in the SEC Championship Game rout, 56-17, of South Carolina.

The red-shirt sophomore said that, as huge as the SEC Championship Game was, and as big as Auburn’s thrilling 28-24 come-from-behind win over rival Alabama was in November, neither could compare to the atmosphere in Glendale.

“It’s like, man, you can’t even describe it. It’s at a different level. The SEC Championship Game is big, but it’s nothing like that,” Bell said.

Auburn, No. 22 in the preseason rankings, moved up steadily as the Tigers, behind controversial Heisman Award-winning quarterback Cam Newton, knocked off the SEC heavyweights one by one: South Carolina, LSU, Arkansas and Alabama.

“I think after the LSU game, I think after we beat LSU, because that was such a tough game, we started to think that maybe we had something going,” Bell said.

Alabama bolted to a 24-0 lead the day after Thanksgiving in the Iron Bowl before the Tigers came back. Bell sacked Tide quarterback Greg McElroy late in the fourth quarter as Alabama was driving for a potential winning touchdown, knocking McElroy from the game.

“It’s my coaches and my teammates, that’s why I’ve been able to do those things,” Bell said. “They’re depending on me to step up in those situations and make more plays.”

Bell was recruited by Tommy Tuberville’s staff at Auburn and he red-shirted to heal from knee surgery. After the 2008 season, Tuberville was fired and replaced by Gene Chizik.

“At first, I was like, ‘Man, this isn’t what I signed up for,’” Bell said. “But then I looked at it as kind of an advantage. I had an opportunity to show what I could do.”

Bell played safety during the 2009 season and had three interceptions.

The Tigers will celebrate their national championship Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“It’s going to be crazy,” Bell said.

Then, it’s back to work.

“We get a couple of weeks off, then we start the winter workouts to get ready for spring,” Bell said.

The Tigers, with Newton and Fairley declaring for the NFL draft, are 50-1 longshots by one oddsmaker to repeat as the national champs.

Bell doesn’t much care. He’s getting a ring.

“We’re the best in the country. We went 14-0, and we beat a lot of good teams to get here. Nobody played the kind of schedule we did; it’s indisputable,” he said.