Ball banished for bailing with Birmingham Bowl ball

The Auburn Tigers dominated the Birmingham Bowl, winning 31-10 and shutting down Paxton Lynch of the Memphis Tigers.

Auburn finishes their season with a 7-6 record, avoiding their first losing season in Gus Malzahn’s tenure. It was a year of growing pains for Jackson and the Cardinals, but he finished with two throwing touchdowns (227 passing yards) and two more rushing touchdowns, rushing for 226. Auburn returner Marcus Davis sprang free on the punt, reaching the six-yard line.

Video showed Memphis cornerback Reggis Ball getting into an altercation with an Auburn team manager and using force to steal a football before running away with it (see the video at the top of this post). Auburn almost cut that total in half, limiting Memphis to just 99 yards on 31 carries and no touchdowns.

Lynch ended the game completing 17-of-38 passes for 104 yards, no touchdowns and an interception. In five snaps of the second half, Johnson threw an 11-yard slip screen to Jason Smith for a touchdown, ran 5 yards for a second score and handed it off to Jovon Robinson for the final score of the game.

Ball’s Birmingham Bowl antics didn’t go well with the Memphis Athletic Department.

It took Auburn 10 plays to move 70 yards on the following series with Jovon Johnson bursting to the end zone from the eight-yard line to give his team a 10-0 lead.

“I’m definitely disappointed in myself”, Lynch said. Kevin Steele, the former Alabama staffer and LSU defensive coordinator, was rumored to get the job, but on a day that showcased Auburn’s finest showing on the defensive side, that speculation was put to the side – kind of. “We will look into what went on, that’s not us”.

In the days and hours leading up to kickoff, speculation about the replacement for Will Muschamp at defensive coordinator surrounded Auburn.

Sean White returned to the starting quarterback position after missing the last four games due to injury to his knee and foot.

A native of Stone Mountain, Georgia, Ball started 11 games this season and recorded 57 tackles.

Johnson said he’ll be back to build on his game.

A 53-yard field goal by Jake Elliot was nice, but not enough to undo all the special teams snafus Memphis had.

“I am very happy for our players”, said Malzahn.

White and Johnson shared playing time in the third and fourth quarter.

“He handled himself like a champ”, Malzahn said.

The turnovers wiped away a almost ideal first half from the defense.

Elliott’s field goal came after Smith was picked off on a trick play.