Pate's Perspective: Four Auburn greats stand in the gap, fight for the program's legacy

Rob Pate played safety for Auburn from 1997-2000. Pate helped lead two teams to SEC Western Division championships in 1997 and 2000. Now, residing in Auburn, Alabama, Pate is an exclusive contributor to Auburn Live.

The first time I saw him, he came out of the crowd and joined Tiger Walk directly behind me. It was my last home game, the 2000 overtime win over Georgia, and Carnell Williams was the only recruit I had ever seen walk through Tiger Walk. “Cadillac,” they called him. I was finishing my time at Auburn; he was just beginning his. 

I knew he must be special to be allowed that honor. What I never imagined was he’d become the player he did. I certainly never dreamed he’d be leading the entire program one day. 

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They come from small towns across the South—Atalla—Troy—Ripley, Mississippi, and the larger Gainesville, Florida. Tasked with holding together a proud program they bled for as players, reeling from mismanagement and ineptness of the highest order. Williams, Zac Etheridge, Kendall Simmons and Jimmy Brumbaugh represent the brotherhood that is Auburn Football, linking memories of the past to present day realities to future greatness. They are standing in the gap to protect their home, their first love, their alma mater. They are doing it for their players, but also for the pride that resonates and flows deep within, a gratitude for Auburn and what Auburn allowed them to accomplish as well as the relational investment built by brotherhood from when they played. 

Auburn gave the promise to four young men to be the canvas of their creation. They created beautiful scenes of championships, NFL glory, and building their own families here in this town.

Now the program rests in their hands in a new way, a grander way, a more volatile way, a sobering way. 

Cadillac represents Auburn Football. He’s always been a model ambassador, but he’s an incomplete representation in his new role. He’s standing resolved in the physical as thousands of players stand with him in the background—many before him, many behind—all proud of the man taking on an unenviable situation with class, humility, hunger, and determination. 

He is also the physical embodiment of what many of my Black teammates and fellow lettermen likely believed they’d never see—a Black head coach at Auburn University. No matter the circumstances, Auburn University Head Football Coach Carnell “Cadillac” Williams is historic as he stands on the shoulders of many while providing hope and inspiration to a new generation of Auburn Tigers. 

Whatever happens and whoever ultimately is tapped to lead the Auburn football program at the season’s end, we can rest assured Auburn will be fought for, represented highly to recruits, rejuvenated emotionally, and better off for the next coach in line. 

If a call to arms went out—if the living, able-bodied lettermen were asked to come out and show their support for coaches Caddy, Etheridge, Brumbaugh, and my former teammate Kendall Simmons, to finish this season the right way—the field would be swamped. The groundswell of support would be staggering. We don’t expect perfection or even win, just to fight and finish. We expect them to emulate those coaches that wore the jersey and played their guts out for the program, and we expect the uniform to mean something. 

Turning the page on the Bryan Harsin era has filled the Auburn air with hope. That’s often times what change does. There’s a new, experienced and respected AD in house, and a renewed desire to align at the top to produce a consistent championship caliber product. There’s the feeling that anything is possible after being mired in the abyss. Rock bottom is hellacious to navigate, but it is a great teacher. It reveals character and sharpens the focus and resolve to claw out of it towards the mountaintop. 

Some former Auburn greats get to spearhead the resurgence, using that rock bottom as the foundation to spring upwards from. They need us all. It’s time for Auburn men and women to pull together in the same direction and alter the landscape of this conference. It’s there for the taking with only ourselves to blame if we fail to get it done. 

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The day is soon coming in which a new coach will take the reins and lead. In the interim, this week marks a new season with a new mentality. Full support from every corner.