John Reed-US PRESSWIRE
Each week (or some weeks, actually) we profile an opposing player to keep an eye on. Find out who Dave South is talking about if you are somehow stuck in an electrical closet and forced to listen to the game on the radio.
This week was no great challenge. First, I completely eliminated the entire offense. Then, I noticed that one guy was the stat leader in several major defensive categories, so I picked him.
We had season tickets in 2003. One of the bright spots of that awful year was the play of Jaxson Appel. He seemed to come up with plays just when we needed them the most and kept us from being embarrassed too badly on a couple of occasions. We knew that the Wrecking Crew was gone, not to be seen for some time again, but along with the gentleman who had the seats next to us, we coined the phrase "Wrecking Dude." Auburn has their own version of that this year in senior linebacker Daren Bates.
Bates is listed at 5’11" and 215lbs, but he "plays bigger" to cop a football cliché. He’s a four-year SEC starter with a national title, but naturally projects as a very late draft pick because NFL scouts gonna NFL scout. His arms are probably really short because he’s under six feet or something terrible like that. But he’s a football player, make no mistake.
Daren Bates' 2012 Stats
| Stat | % of Team Total | Team Rank |
| 74 tackles | 14 | 1 |
| 5.5 TFL | 14 | 1 |
| 2 Sks | 15 | T-2 |
| 1 Int | 100* | 1 |
| 2 PBU | 9 | T-3 |
| 3 QBH | 8 | T-5 |
| 1 FR | 13 | T-1 |
*Auburn has only one interception this year. I had to double-check this. There is only one team with fewer: USF.
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