Jackson Timmerman was a reserve Offensive lineman who graduated last year. He's from this area and makes the occasional call to our local sports talk show. This morning, the discussion was on Auburn's offensive line after a good article in the paper about the experience our starters have. Anyone realize Ziemba has started 25 games? Pugh has started 18 and McCain hasn't started but played in 19 games on the O-line. Isom and Berry have either 7 or 9 starts each if I recall correctly.
Anyway, Timmerman called in to discuss the number of defensive linemen converted over the years and the success they've had with that. He talked a lot also about Lee Ziemba and said some pretty interesting things. First, he said what most people never realized last year, was that Ziemba partially tore his MCL a couple of days prior to the start of the season. It was reported as a banged up knee but the fact was, if he wasn't working out or fighting his way through playing football, he could barely walk. The false starts were directly attributed to this because he was trying to get a quick step back to get a jump on the DE's. Timmerman made a comment that was so true looking back on it. He said that as a freshman, Ziemba was extremely aggressive and was jacking people up 15-20 yards down field. You saw none of that last year because he simply couldn't do it. He also said in the Ole Miss game, they realized he was injured and bull rushed Ziemba like hell the entire second half and even went after his knee late a couple of times.
Even Timmerman said, "But hey, that's football. If someone's injured, you go after them."
He talked about some of the back ups and most notably, Jared Cooper. He said Cooper has the size, strength and skill to play tackle but apparently, has never shown the mean streak needed to compete in the SEC. He was asked about an obscure name, Andrew Parmer. His answer was funny as hell when he said "Parmer (5'10" 266)was one of the few guys who could make me (6' 300) look like Lee Ziemba" He said Parmer came in camp running his mouth and quickly found out he wasn't all that.
Just thought it was interesting to get the take of someone who's actually been there and done that.
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