AUBURN, Ala. – Fourteen years after Travis Williams earned Associated Press first-team All-SEC honors, his protégé, Auburn linebacker Deshaun Davis, duplicated the feat.
"That was one of my personal goals," said Williams, Auburn's linebackers coach. "There are a lot of good linebackers in the SEC. For him to get first team, I'm about to cry tears of joy. I'm so proud of what he's done on and off the field, the work he's put in."
Auburn's leading tackler with 107 stops, Davis logged six games with double-digit tackles, including 14 tackles for loss.
"He's the smartest kid I ever coached," said Williams, who compared Davis' football IQ to former Auburn standouts and NFL linebackers Karlos Dansby and Josh Bynes. "He's a sharp, sharp young man.
"He never has a down day. He always wants to get better. You can coach him hard. He's a 'Yes, sir, no sir,' kid. He's an Auburn graduate. If you look up Auburn Man in the dictionary, you should see a picture of Deshaun Davis."
Like Williams, who played at 6-1, 209 pounds as an All-SEC junior on Auburn's unbeaten 2004 team, the 5-foot-11 Davis proved doubters wrong on his way to stardom.
"He's not a five-star recruit," Williams said. "He's 'too small, too slow.' We talked about being 'Kings of the Toos.' They're saying 'You're too this, too that.' You're going to be the best at it.
"His passion is second to none. He enjoys playing at Auburn. His teammates feed off his passion. He was a thrill to coach and I absolutely love coaching him."
A consistently disruptive force for Auburn's defense, lineman Derrick Brown earned AP second-team All-SEC honors.
The 6-5, 325-pound junior recorded 45 tackles, 9.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks in 2018. Brown added a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and 5 quarterback hurries.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer