.....with Jay G. Tate's permission to distribute
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AUBURN |Saturday was a hopeful day on the Plains.
Will Muschamp was hired to save the Tigers' defense from near ruin and everyone, even those staunchly opposed to everything Auburn, agreed that things were about to change.
That optimism is gone.
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| AuburnSports.com |
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| Jakell Mitchell impressed coaches with his attitude and progress last fall. |
Freshman tight end Jakell Mitchell was shot and killed early Sunday morning. It happened at the same apartment complex where former players Eddie Christian and Ladarious Phillips died from gunshot wounds during the summer of 2012.
Another young man dead. Another bright light extinguished. Another family's future forever changed. And another arduous journey toward justice that will leave everyone wondering why this keeps happening.
Auburn is a nice place. It really is. The community itself is a big reason why Muschamp -- and many coaches before him -- choose to work here when similar schools offer similar kinds of opportunities.
Yet here we are today once again agonizing over tragedy.
There are so many questions.
They start here for me: Why Mitchell? So many kids simply endure the process of becoming a recognized recruit, of managing the waves of coach calls and interview requests, but Mitchell handled it with so much enthusiasm. He wasn't annoyed; he appreciatedthe interest.
There was no skepticism.
Mitchell redshirted during the 2014 season to add weight and prepare for a new job at H-back. He was going to give Auburn a new dimension at that spot -- a big kid with great hands who could block on the perimeter.
Offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee loved what they had in Mitchell. There was a lot of optimism that the Opelika High graduate, beginning this spring, was going to jump into the competition at H-back and push for playing time.
Mitchell created that kind of confidence with work. Hard work.
We'll never know what he could have accomplished, how quickly Mitchell would have engendered trust with Lashlee and Gus Malzahn. My guess is quickly. They both considered Mitchell a rising star.
And now this.
We're once again lamenting the loss of a special young man who had his entire life ahead of him. The University Heights murders were a gut punch that made me cry. Philip Lutzenkirchen's death last summer was a gut punch that made me cry.
You've surely experienced the same feelings.
Bad things happen and I'm told we simply must learn to move on, but I haven't. I cannot understand why someone so able to change lives for the better, which Lutzenkirchen did better than anyone I knew, would be taken away from all of us when we're in such dire need of someone like him in our lives.
Everyone benefited from Lutz being around, you know?
We all need heroes. There is no maximum.
Mitchell had heroic ability. He was bright, energetic, full of optimism, talented, altruistic. He had the tools to be great in a variety of ways.
Now he's gone and we're all left to wonder why.
One less hero.
One less bright light.
We need them all. Every last one of them.
