ITKAuburn University’s football program is at it again. The Tiggers are once again actively pursuing a criminal for their football team.

READ AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY HERE.

Thug U. may soon be the new home for Jonathan Taylor, the former Georgia defensive lineman kicked out of the Bulldog program after being arrested and charged with aggravated assault/family violence.

Taylor is in junior college now, and while second chances aren’t anything new in college football, the number of castoffs (if not criminals) finding sanctuary at Auburn is downright humorous.

We all remember Cam Newton who was suspected of stealing a laptop at the University of Florida, only to flee to junior college and emerge wearing orange and blue.

Of course, current Auburn QB Nick Marshall did the same, suspected of stealing from teammates while at Georgia. After a brief stint in JUCO, ta-dah! Tiggers, you gotcha a QB.

One of the latest castoffs was former Georgia defensive back Tray Matthews, charged last spring with “theft by deception.” Matthews accepted an offer to play for Gussy Malzahn, and now wears orange and blue.

The bottom line is, Auburn will go after any criminal they think will help their second tier, hayseed program. And if you could measure the prayers sent up when Jameis Winston was under legal fire…any of the times…you could bet most of them came from our orange and blue clad little brothers. They know the drill.

There’s nothing illegal about the serial practice of going after criminals. It’s just comical how often Auburn does it. And even more comical how delusional their cult, err, fan base is about the wholesomeness of that program.

Auburn has no shame. And come on…it’s just funny.


(Follow ITK on Twitter for Bama news, commentary and smack.)

47 thoughts on “Shocker: Auburn pursuing another player with a criminal past”

    1. Here A Gump,There A Gump,everywhere A Gump Gump…Damn Gumps,all you do is live and breath Auburn.Worry about your own team,because the “love affair: you goofs are having with Lane Kiffin, is about to end..First time Blake Sims has A bad game,you all will be calling for his head.

      1. I couldn’t disagree with you more, Jon.

        Blake Sims WILL screw up. And Alabama will lose a game this year. Maybe two. Hell, maybe Alabama will drop all the way to 9th place? After all, they were proclaiming “Bama is back” on the live-air commentary last weekend, after Alabama fell all the way to…third…

        Way to start completely off-topic, though. Impressive.

  2. I’ll admit, at this point it’s just gotten funny. I can’t decide if it’s genius or moronic, but it’s definitely hilarious in the way it bisects the irony of Auburn’s cultural mantra.

    1. If Auburn beats Alabama, Marshall probably wins the Heisman.

      And if he wins the Heisman, he’ll get a statue just like Newton. Good call, bamabino.

      Did you know it took more time to design and build Newton’s statue than he spent as a student at Auburn?

      The more you know…

        1. It’s funny, the more you know, right?

          Like reading?

          Because I said the time Cam spent AT Auburn as a student. We don’t even have to discuss the online classes whatsoever, nor whether or not anyone ever expects Cam to graduate from any of the colleges he’s attended including Auburn, as both are essentially incidental—-Cam Newton spent X months at Auburn, and it’s not a lot. I’ll let you fill in the blank this time since you always seem to know “the truth.” I’ll give you a hint (again), it’s less time than it takes to build a statue.

          1. He is still there as a student. Obviously he is not there in season, but he is working towards his degree. It is not online, but then again, as a Bama fan, you don’t let facts get in the way of your hatred for Auburn, and Cam in particular. Any NFL player can only return to class in the offseason. That limits the amount of time they can spend in school. When, not if Cam graduates from Auburn, I will remind you, you were wrong again. He has been in class the last 2 quarters in the spring. And most on this site said he would never return to Auburn. Wrong again!! To which you will say, you are deflecting.

  4. Good read ITK, however, in this day and age being ‘bad’ or worse seems to be the norm in this day and age. I’m over seventy yrs. old and was told the other day that my ‘ideas’ and ‘values’ were ‘so out of place in today’s society, and what made it worse was that this young lady was a collage graduate from a pretty good collage. I sometimes wonder what these collages are teaching our young people these days……. RTR

  5. Just another day at “Keep It Down Home, Cuz” University.

    If you think about it, the school colors match a Policeman in a blue uniform and a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit.

    Just put a fence around the campus and some of these guys would feel right at home!

  7. I am not going to sit here and name every tide player with a criminal history ( would take hours) , but do you really want to throw stones from that glass house? Just a few bama players that have criminal pasts :

    Tony Brown
    Dillon Lee
    Kenyan Drake
    Jarran Reed
    D.J. Pettway

    Just to name a few. Of course you bammers are stuck on Cam and Marshal considering they are undefeated against lil Nicky, but to really bring up recruiting criminals…..Pot meet kettle.

    1. I….think you completely missed the point.

      Way to deflect, though. Hell, even I have a “criminal history.” And when I got in trouble my boss didn’t tell me to come in to work late like Marshall.

      OK, I work for myself, but still.

      Tell me, aren’t you glad those elite Auburn players did things that were bad enough to get kicked out or their first-choice school?

      Cam Newton would have probably won two national titles at Florida. Nick Marshall would be on defense at Georgia, or at best would have sat the bench last season.

      If I were you, I’d hope more players from other SEC schools start getting in more trouble, enough to be expelled. After all, it’s a pretty successful pattern for success at Auburn, if nothing else. The pattern, you see, is what’s so funny, but at least it’s effective, and that’s what matters the absolute most at Auburn.

    2. None of the players you named were enrolled someplace else, got arrested and susquently kicked off said team, then enrolled at Alabama.

      …apples meet oranges.

      Auburn is the only school in the country that uses a police scanner as part of their recruiting base.

      1. @ITK

        Police scanners as recruiting tools?! Oh man, I owe you cash for that one ITK, hahahahahaha! Too perfect.

        Now let’s start making jokes about Blake Barnett committing to Oregon before signing day.

        Man, is it good to be Alabama. Roll Tide.

  8. Hilarious considering Alabama recruited a player kicked off Georgia’s team for criminal behavior and readmitted one of their own players that participated in the beating and robbing of your own students.

    1. peachy is right.

      If you get kicked out of the school you love, the school you chose over the rest, why not go with your only remaning choice?

      Plus you’ll have friends there who know what you’re going through and maybe spent more time in jail than you. It’s a great ice-breaker, yeah?

  9. Yep, funny thing about this article is the research has missed the mark, since Auburn is NOT recruiting this player. Might be nice to check your facts every once and a while, so you don’t come off half-witted.

    1. Taylor has yet to be offered again by Auburn, but believes it’s a possibility.

      “It would be pretty cool if I get an offer,” Taylor said. “Especially since I’m in junior college, it would mean a lot. I know I’m a good guy, and I hope I get a second chance to come and play again. I just feel like everybody has the wrong impression of me right now. I’m not a bad guy. I just have to live with my mistake and own up to it.”

      1. You might want to live in the real world peachfuzz. According to al.com……….errr…….au.com, he will be in Auburn for the La.Tech game this weekend. When asked about this two time losers’ character, Gus replied, “What’s his time in the 40?”

      2. Yep, because stories leaked to Auburn press outlets like AL.com come by chance, especially stories where the coaching staff has been interviewed and/or quoted.

        We all know you’re ignorant, but is the saying true? Is it really blissful?

    2. So the Auburn assistant quoted in the Al.com story is just “staying in touch” with Taylor to hear about how “mom’en’em” are doing. Riiiiiiiiight.

      We all know you won’t come back here and own up to what we all know is about to happen when it does, but rest assured we’ll all get another good belly laugh at you and your university when history repeats itself and it comes to fruition again.

  10. Hop on the Gus Short Bus once again. Now the idiot claims Mushmouf is the best clutch QB in the country. He looked real clutch vs Walkon University, aka K. State.

    1. @bamabino, in the words of Cheech Marshall:

      “Weohdontwutcoachwontdobecuhhegoneputuzenbessposhitahwenenweenohegonedugoodjobfuruz.”

  11. So ITK’s point is it is ok for players to commit crimes as long as they are already on campus? Wow….who knew? So D.J. Pettway beating the shit out of fellow students , and then robbing them, is not as bad as Newton taking a laptop? While we are bashing our rival schools recruiting, whats up with bama recruiting a kid that could only play a 1/4 of his senior year because he is almost 20 years old? What kind of dumb ass fails that many times, and is still being recruited by a major school? I guess like one of the bammers said earlier. ” When saban was asked about this recruits grades, he replied , whats his 40 time? ” I feel another Hoover , Josh Chapman, grade change coming on.

    1. @dose of “reality”

      You’re kidding, right?

      DEFLECT! DEFEND THE CULT!

      It’s not Scientology (although it sounds exactly like it), it’s the Auburn culture.

      “whats up with bama recruiting a kid that could only play a 1/4 of his senior year because he is almost 20 years old?”

      You didn’t think about this, did you? I don’t mean offense by that, but I think anyone could come to a logical conclusion if they thought about it for a little bit first.

      For example, I transfered to another state with my family when I was in grade school. Long story short, I had to re-take an entire grade when we came back to that original school district, as did my twin brother. It was the easiest year of my education.

      I also had a friend who missed a year due to leukemia. I’m confused what you might be inferring by a kid’s age and high school rules? I mean, you have a problem with a college giving a scholarship to…a college-aged kid? After all, it’s college. I can’t imagine you got this upset about Brandon Weeden at Oklahoma State, did you? Hell, he didn’t even enroll in college until he was 24, and played QB as a 28-year-old. Don’t forget, Weeden was the QB for the team some people still think might have been better than the Alabama team with the same 11-1 record which held 8 teams to under 200 total yards (3 to under 100 total yards, including the #1-ranked team), beat 5 ranked opponents and the defending national champs, and had an average margin of victory over 30 points.

      As for failling a class, while I had excellent grades in school, the only class I ever failed is now my area of expertise; it’s literally what I do for a living. I don’t suppose you’re any more interested in that story than you are in the 19-year-old recruit’s story. Your hate clouds your ability to be logical about Alabama.

      D.J. Pettway may not have deserved the same second chance Auburn is so generous to dole out. But D.J Pettway didn’t beat anyone, which, perhaps only due to your bias, is what you said he did (again). You don’t need to make stuff up to have an argument about it, least of all in this singular case regarding Pettway (yes, it’s not a pattern of recruiting), but in Taylor’s case, he instead did exactly what you’re illegitimately accusing Pettway of, and there’s no confusion in his case.

      “He did make a horrible decision to be involved with this incident but his involvement and the severity of his punishment was based on his involvement.”
      -Nick Saban

      “We have a zero tolerance policy for domestic violence.”
      -Gus Malzahn

      You know what’s really sad about continuing to throw the Pettway thing back to deflect the attention? DJ Pettway had to hearn his way back.

      I can’t tell you exactly what he had to do, and I suppose therefore it’s only fair if you presume it was essentially nothing, and no, maybe having anything at all to do with a violent crime isn’t as bad as Auburn’s most recent statue model or their latest QB victor over Big Brother, but one thing we do know is that’s exactly what these criminals had to do to get their second chance at Auburn; absolutely nothing. For all intents and purposes, they’re rewarded for their crimes, not punished.

      I don’t disagree people deserve second chances, including the Auburn players kicked out of their first-choice SEC schools, but in those cases it’s been nothing but an advantageous reward rather than a punishment or a criteria for the university to even consider the possibility of reinstatement, all during a period of complete no-contact.

      Nick Marshall, just as an example, got the starting quarterback job at Auburn at least a full year before he ever would have at Georgia, if at all; Georgia’s starting QB this season might not be great, but would Nick Marshall have beaten him for the position or would he maybe still be at a different position altogether, including if he had done any of the things Pettway did to be reaccepted by the university first?

  12. “We have a zero tolerance policy for domestic violence.”
    -Gus Malzahn

    What’s worse is the Auburn fans who vigilantly defend Auburn for deliberately recruiting those players expelled from other schools, including, in this case, for comestic violence.

    I hope Taylor enjoys his time in Auburn this weekend watching the Tigers give a beatdown to LA Tech. The poetic justice is just too conspicuous.

    1. Hey ease up on the “Deflection” accusations. It’s not deflection. It’s Auburn fans finding it hilarious that Alabama fans only find fault with how AU does things. Petteway is an example of someone who committed a crime, was kicked off a team (Alabama) and then given a second chance and let back on a team. That is not different than Cam Newton, Nick Marshall, Tray Matthews or any number of different football players who are given second chances every day by major Universities. Jarron Reed was given a DUI a few months ago. A DUI. Now before you say I am deflecting please know I am not. I am just stating facts. He was charged with a DUI. He was “suspended” from practice and then let back on the team. Nothing wrong with that. He is a freak of a DLineman and he was let back on the team. That is in no way different than Newton, Marshall, or Matthews. If it is please explain it to me. It’s insulting to AU fans for Bama fans to paint an incorrect picture of AU football. You don’t like AU and that is fine. I hope Bama loses at every sport they play. I don’t hate anyone that goes there, but I don’t like UA. It’s a great University and is represented well. But once again I don’t want Bama to win at any sport. But that’s the AU fan in me coming out. I am not naive enough to think Bama won’t go after a kid they like if he was kicked out of another school and you shouldn’t be either. I know once l submit this you will come back with another argument to down play what I just wrote. I am sure ITK will comment on how stupid I am and we AU fans are cultist. No we are fans of our team. Bama fans are the same way about Alabama. This website proves it. Bama is always right and nothing good comes from Lee County. Same old rhetoric, different day.

      1. Not fault.

        Hilarity, but not fault.

        And, um, yeah, it was immediate deflection to point at Alabama instead of the actual story at hand.

        “I am not naive enough to think Bama won’t go after a kid they like if he was kicked out of another school and you shouldn’t be either.”

        Only Alabama doesn’t. Auburn does. That’s just kinda why it’s happened enough to be definitive enough for it to become comical, especially in this case due to the nature of the crime committed.

        And we’re back to where I start again, with deflection. You see, you care about saying Alabama fans are wrong to say what they’re saying. But here’s the thing—–do you ever care about what Auburn does enough to be critical of it? Like, is it even possible? Seriously, this pattern doesn’t bother you?

        I mentioned how the players you listed were absolutely different? How’d that part get skipped?

        Like, what exactly WOULD it take to be critical of Auburn instead of defend at all costs? No, Alabama isn’t perfect, that’s not what I’m saying. But saying Pettway is the definition rather than the exception, let alone if it’s worthwhile, just because he can play (as if Alabama hasn’t demonstrated through class after class that they can’t replace talent), I just don’t get what it would take?

        I mean, we said the same thing about Jeremy Hill staying at LSU because of a player VOTE, so no, it’s not a bias thing, but in THIS case, in THIS story, after the stories of reward we’ve seen from enough other high-profile expelled athletes, why not comment on that in the first place?

        The answer is I don’t think you can. I think that’s what the cult term comes from—-you see it as hateful rival bias, but can’t swallow even the possibility that there might be ANYTHING Auburn, or more to the point, you can do if you only cared enough to believe it was in any way wrong. But you don’t think it is and never would BECAUSE it’s Auburn, right? It’s like the exact opposite of what you’re accusing me of. I just, I mean, I can’t make it up.

          1. Wait, so this doesn’t bother you?

            Not even a little bit?

            Forget the part about you reading this story here on an Alabama site—it’s not the only place to find the information, so don’t let that part cloud your judgment of the circumstances themselves.

            This player, arrested and booted for domestic violence, is being recruited by Auburn now. It’s not a secret, it’s not a conspiracy, it’s not even an accusation. Are you going to be at the Auburn game? Because Taylor will be.

            Sigh.

            I feel like I keep ignoring when I’m unaware I might be giving Auburn’s culture the benefit of the doubt too much. I mean, this couldn’t possibly be a trend, and if it is, it’s not one fans of any team would be OK with, let alone proud of, right?

            Wrong, apparently.

            And yet it still never ceases to amaze me.

            Never, ever stop. Please.

        2. One of the main reasons we point out the fault in the articles on this site, is because the stories of Bama players getting arrested are NEVER on this site. If reports of wrongdoing by your players were covered, we wouldn’t have to bring it up. After all, this is supposed to be news, commentary, etc about Alabama. It is news when a player gets arrested, no matter what the offense. When you have had 3 times more arrests in the last 2-3 years, and not ONE time was any of those EVER a story. But if a player from anywhere else, especially Auburn, it is trumpeted with great fanfare here.
          And yes, I know I am deflecting, and it felt good.

  13. “Flournoy-Smith played at Georgia as a true freshman in 2012, appearing in 8 games for the Bulldogs before leaving school after multiple off-field incidents, including an arrest in February for filing a false report of a crime after cashing in text books he had reported as stolen, and later an incident involving the use of marijuana in a dorm room in May.”

    http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/02/alabama_lands_commitment_from_5.html

    This isn’t deflection, just trying to get this site back on topic after all it is the Capstone Report not the Plainsman Report.

    Let’s here your disgust with Saban recruiting a criminal dismissed from UGA…..

    1. #1 I thought y’all were cool with a lil’ weed? I don’t get it. I remember the textbook story, but my guess is you don’t, or maybe you choose not to. He didn’t exactly make a fortune, and it was more stupid than outright criminal like stealing expensive property from someone else or cash from your teammates, not to mention beating someone up. I hear you though, and yes, he was a criminal and the severity of his crimes can’t mean everything, which leads me to #2.

      #2 This isn’t a pattern for Alabama. The reason this story came up in the first place, and not just on this site you think is out to get you, is because of the pattern Auburn has for seemingly targeting recruits kicked out of their first choice school and, perhaps maybe only in my opinion, but for worse crimes. Certainly, at least so far, Taylor’s takes the cake (no pun intended).

      #3 Apathy. You get mad and defend it BECAUSE it’s an Alabama site that says it. “You’re not perfect, either Alabama!” Nope, you’re right. I said that myself. But try to do anything to change it or admit that you’re OK with anything Auburn does. Seriously, it’s a pattern and now it’s including a violent criminal…and that doesn’t bother you more than the fact that you’re reading about it here instead of anywhere else?

      You see it as a witchhunt or something, but try to consider that it’s actually happening. Taylor is in Auburn today. They are recruiting him. And I don’t think he has other choices, but have you considered the reality of that pattern? And even now it doesn’t even make you have a single modicum of doubt or concern for the place you’ll defend at all costs?

      So, my question to you is, without deflecting anything back to what makes Alabama also imperfect, what would it take to ever be capable of thinking it’s something you would want to stop or change at Auburn? Something worse than Taylor, for example, right? But what?

      1. I’m not defending anything. Clean up your house then you can move on to others. Other than your obvious obsession with Auburn is there any reason why you care what Auburn does? So UofA has an inferiority complex with Auburn, grow-up, move-on. Trumpet what UofA does great then discuss how it should not recruit criminals. All this hysteria over Auburn makes you look petty and jealous. Pick your chin up, you still have a lot to be proud of.

        1. Isn’t that what I said though? Clean up our house. Really.

          It’s pretty immaculate around here, albeit no team anywhere is spot-free, but I guess apples ARE oranges to some people.

  14. Fuck Auburn in the pussy!! Oh wait FSU already did that! Bama pulled out a little bit too early! Either way the barn will never be anything but someone elses bitch! Let them recruit thugs who cares? Guz is a hippocrite we all know it i mean why else would he suspend marshall for half game for an illegal “citation” and then turn around and suspend whitehead indefinitely for an “altercation” with an assistant? Yea that program runs a tight ship for sure!

  16. well I had to speak in a language the barnturds understand! I see you comprehend it well! I bet you can translate cheech marshall to a T after 9 natty lights and two joints….ahhh the acorn doesnt fall far from the tree or in this case the shit paper doesnt stray far from the wire!

  19. It’s gonna be fun watching Mullet U burn this year like a funeral pyre. Lame will be the first to take all the blame, then the black Qback. As we all know Mullet U is a racist program.

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