Tag: Sammie Coates

How realistic is a blockbuster LB trade between AFC North rivals?

With the rumored departure of Cleveland’s Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, would the team trade their star player to Pittsburgh for the right price?

There is no love lost in the bitter rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. While trades within the same division are rare, these AFC North rivals have made deals before. Notable trades occurred in 1968, 1973, 1984, 1993, and most recently in 2017, when WR Sammie Coates and a 2019 seventh-round pick were sent to Cleveland in exchange for the Browns’ 2018 sixth-round pick.

One recent and exciting revelation swirling around the trade deadline rumor mill is that the Cleveland Browns have been receiving trade calls for their star LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. While the Steelers have other pressing needs on the roster, LB Patrick Queen’s performance has been inconsistent, to say the least.

Owusu-Koramoah is currently ranked 3rd out of 154 eligible linebackers against the run, per PFF. Even if the Browns were to entertain sending their linebacker to the Steel City, how much draft capital would the Steelers send back to their rivals?

The Cleveland Browns’ linebacker would make an already great Steelers’ defense even more spectacular. This likely speaks volumes to how unlikely this trade speculation is; however, unlikely circumstances, such as Cleveland’s urgency to sell at the November 5th trade deadline, could allow certain rarities to take place.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Dameyune Craig set to join staff at Georgia State

Craig will reunite with Dell McGee by joining his new staff at Georgia State.

Georgia State made a home run hire by naming former Auburn player [autotag]Dell McGee[/autotag] as its next head coach last month. McGee is quickly proving that he is the right man for the job by putting together a respectable coaching staff.

One of the first hires he has made involves a former Auburn quarterback and assistant coach. Matt Zenitz of 247Sports reports that [autotag]Dameyune Craig[/autotag] will join Georgia State’s coaching staff as an offensive assistant.

Craig joins McGee’s staff after spending the last six seasons at Texas A&M, serving as wide receivers coach. While in College Station, he coached Evan Stewart, Moose Muhammad, and Ainias Smith to successful college careers.

After playing for the Tigers from 1994-97, and later served as a co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach for [autotag]Gus Malzahn[/autotag]’s staff during the 2013 season. Auburn had three receivers haul in at least 200 yards during that season, with [autotag]Sammie Coates[/autotag] leading the way with 902 yards and seven touchdowns.

Craig has also served as an assistant coach at LSU, Tuskegee, South Alabama, and Florida State.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

Missing the cut: NCAA Football 16

Here’s a look at Auburn players who missed out on being a cover athlete for the popular EA Sports video game franchise for the 2016 edition.

Many sports video game fans across the country (including myself) were excited to learn that the NCAA Football franchise is on track to return to our lives in the summer of 2024, which will be re-named “EA Sports College Football.”

Plans for the game were threatened to be delayed due to a lawsuit from The Brandr Group, citing that the franchise’s $500 million pool, which would give each athlete represented in the game $500, was considered to be “far below market value.”

Despite the setback, EA Sports remains on schedule to release the game next summer.

“We’re incredibly excited to bring back an authentic college football experience for fans and athletes that have shown such passion for the franchise, and we’re looking forward to delivering it in Summer 2024,” an EA spokesperson tells On3’s Pete Nakos.

It has been ten years since the release of the last game, NCAA Football 14. It has us at Auburn Wire thinking… which Auburn athletes missed out on being a cover athlete for the famous video game franchise?

In the first edition of the series titled “Missing the Cut”, we took a look back at which Auburn players had the best chance of being the cover athlete for NCAA 15, ultimately settling on [autotag]Chris Davis[/autotag] and now it is time to break down who could have been on the cover of NCAA Football 16.

After making a run to the BCS National Championship Game in 2013, Auburn’s 2014 season did not go nearly as well, the Tigers finished the year 8-5 and lost four of their final five games. However, several players had impressive seasons and have strong cases for being on the cover but only one player can be picked.

[autotag]Cameron Artis-Payne[/autotag] had the tough task of attempting to replace the production of [autotag]Michael Dyer[/autotag] and he proved to be up to the task. He wracked up 1,608 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground en route to being named to the All-SEC First-Team.

Artis-Payne rushed for over 100 yards in nine different games including a monster game against Texas A&M where he ran for 221 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.

His great season was just enough to edge out wide receiver [autotag]Sammie Coates[/autotag] and cornerback [autotag]Jonathan Jones[/autotag] both of whom had breakout seasons for the Tigers.

Here are the best photos of each of the candidates that could have been used as the cover image.

Throwback Thursday: Auburn defeats Missouri in 2013 SEC title game

On a ‘Throwback Thursday’, Auburn Wire takes a journey back to 2013.

The Auburn Tigers will face the Missouri Tigers on Saturday morning for just the 4th time in history, and for the first time ever at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

In honor of Auburn’s SEC opener, Auburn Wire travels back in time to an important game in the short series between these two programs with our “Throwback Thursday” feature.

Today’s rewind takes us back to the 2013 season when Auburn defeated Missouri, 59-42, in a battle of unlikely representatives in the SEC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

The matchup was surprising, as Missouri represented the East division despite only being in the SEC for just two seasons. Auburn rebounded from a 3-9 season one year prior to represent the SEC West in Gus Malzahn’s first season on the Plains.

Both teams nearly matched each other, as neither team held a lead of over eight points through three quarters of play, with Auburn holding onto a 45-42 lead heading into the final stanza.

Auburn, who had pulled off miraculous plays against Georgia and Alabama just a few weeks prior, had more magic in their pocket.

Auburn running back [autotag]Tre Mason[/autotag] rushed for two scores in the 4th quarter to lift Auburn over Missouri to claim their 8th SEC Championship.

Mason rushed for four touchdowns in the game and recorded 304 total rushing yards in the game. Quarterback [autotag]Nick Marshall[/autotag] rushed for an additional 101 yards and completed 9-of-11 passes for 132 yards. Most of Marshall’s passes went to [autotag]Sammie Coates[/autotag], who caught six passes for 94 yards.

Here is a look back at one of the most important wins in the series against Missouri, the 2013 SEC Championship Game:

All-Auburn Offensive Team during Gus Malzahn era

Taking a look at the elite of the elite for Auburn on offense during the eight years of the Gus Malzahn era on the Plains.

The Gus Malzahn era at Auburn started out with a bang on the offensive side of the ball has Nick Marshall, Tre Mason and company lit the scoreboard on fire on their way to a SEC title and spot in the BCS National Championship Game.

While the Tigers’ offense would never reach those heights again under Malzahn during his eight years in charge, there were still plenty of great offensive players to come to the Plains during that time.

But who is the top of the top and the elite of the elite? We name our All-Auburn Offensive Team from the Malzahn era along with who would serve as second string.

(Note: When it comes to offensive linemen, we did not choose someone for each position but the top five guys that made the biggest impact.)

Shea’s Favorite Auburn Games- No. 8 Auburn vs Texas A&M 2013

The Tigers went into College Station and took Johnny Manziel and the Aggies down.

Can you believe that Auburn football returns in eight days!? I sure can’t, but to keep this countdown train going we’re reminiscing on my eighth favorite Auburn game!

Number 8: Auburn vs Texas A&M 2013

After losing to LSU in a deluge during the early part of the 2013 season, Auburn was getting no love by any of the college football talking heads when they had to travel to College Station to take on Johnny Manziel and a top-ten Texas A&M team.

Manziel gashed the Tigers in 2012, as a freshman I went to that game and witnessed the first half of that massacre. I left at halftime because number one, it was freezing and number two, Texas A&M was beating Auburn 42-7. My only regret in leaving that game was that we’d left to go to a restaurant where I found a suspicious hair in my pasta. Texas A&M put up nearly 700 yards of total offense against the Tigers, and Manziel went on to win the Heisman that year.

The 2013 Auburn team was a totally different animal from what Manziel had faced in the year before, and boy did he figure that lesson out the hard way.

The Aggies struck first with a 26-yard touchdown catch by Mike Evans. Then Nick Marshall and our boys went to work. The Tigers capitalized off of two interceptions thrown by Manziel in the first quarter and the game turned into an old-fashioned shoot-out.

I traveled back home to Huntsville for the weekend to watch the game with my dad. That day Auburn couldn’t stop the Manziel-Evans connection and that just gave us both fits.

You know I’m 100% his daughter because we both have the same coping mechanism strategy during stressful Auburn games. Pacing. He’d pace in front of our living room television, while I’d walk circles around our kitchen island. Finally my mom told us we both needed to sit down because we were driving our dogs crazy, and the pacing wasn’t helping anybody.

It had seemed as though every time we started pacing that Texas A&M would start to make a run, but then I discovered that as soon as I started to pet my dog Gracie that Auburn would start having better luck.

“I’m not superstitious, but I am a little ‘sticious”-Michael Scott.

That nasty Sammie Coates stiff arm? Every major run by Tre Mason? The heroic fourth down sack made by Dee Ford to end the game? They all happened while I was petting my dog.

That 2013 team never went down without a fight, and neither did my dog Gracie. We lost Gracie to lymphoma in 2017 after she put up one heck of a good fight. I miss that team and I miss my dog.

War Eagle forever.

(Editor’s note: This is also the game when, excited about the outcome, I jumped headfirst into what I thought was the deep end of the pool. It was not. Will spare you the infamous ambulance selfie.)

XFL day one review: How former Browns fared in the debut

Several former Browns took to the field on Saturday in the XFL’s debut

Day one of the inaugural season of the new and improved XFL is in the books and it appears to be a raging success. While everyone was focused on former NFL quarterbacks, Cardale Jones and P.J. Walker lighting up the stat sheet, a few fans were recognizing names from Cleveland past.

Elijah Campbell

Most fans won’t remember Campbell. He was mostly just a camp body as an undrafted free agent out of Northern Iowa, but he is still young, has solid size and runs in the 4.3s. Campbell was lock-down in his XFL debut for the DC Defenders and recorded one tackle with two pass deflections. He also blocked a punt.

Sammie Coates

This one hurts. The Browns traded for the speedster in 2017 and I like many were excited to see what he would do, but the answer was nothing. He was released before the 2018 season. Coates hurt me once again as I saw his name listed as the number one for the Houston Roughnecks and I immediately slapped him in every daily lineup I had. Coates saw the most targets on the team with nine, but his inconsistent hands-only allowed him to snag two of those for 26 yards.

Blake Jackson

Jackson was a former fan favorite for the Browns during the 2018 training camp as the former division-three quarterback is an exciting athlete that displays a tireless work ethic and he was etched in as a starting receiver for the Houston Roughnecks. Jackson has a realistic skillset to make it back in the NFL, but Saturday was a rough showing; he did not show up on the stat sheet at all and had a pretty upsetting drop in the end zone.

Pepper Johnson

Johnson was not only a former Ohio State Buckeye but was also a linebacker for the Browns from 1993-1995. Although he has coached in the NFL, the XFL’s Los Angeles Wildcats provided Johnson his first defensive coordinator opportunity. The season opener was not kind to Johnson’s defense as the Houston Roughnecks pounded the Wildcats, 37-17.

Rahim Moore

Moore never suited up in an actual meaningful game for Cleveland, but most will remember his signing in 2016 and his surprising release right before the start of the season. At 29 years old, it is unrealistic for Moore to receive another NFL shot, but it is pretty cool to see his rare athleticism on display as he notched the first interception in XFL history.

Gabe Wright

Like Moore, Wright is likely not going to receive another shot in the NFL, but the former Browns defender was able to tally a tackle and a pass deflection for the Houston Roughnecks in the season opener. Wright was in Cleveland during the 2016 and was released before the 2017 season.

[lawrence-related id=41352]