AUBURN | Derick Hall danced with his teammates, cut out a little slice of the Jordan-Hare turf for himself and took some pictures with his family.
Shortly thereafter, the Auburn senior came to the postgame media room. Not because he was requested, but because he wanted to be there.
“I just wanted to say thank you to you all,” said Hall. “I know I’ve done a lot of media and y’all have had a lot of questions for me and y’all made this time nothing short of amazing with interesting questions, of course. I just wanted to thank y’all. You know we’re all family here. My time here has been great.”
And that was it. At least it was supposed to be. But of course, a full house of reporters couldn’t let Hall leave without asking him a few more questions starting with the experience of playing his final home game.
“My time here at Auburn has been nothing short of amazing,” said Hall. “Auburn is a very special place. I came in as a 17-year old boy and I’m leaving as a 21-year old man. Auburn has done a lot for me. I'll forever be indebted to this placed. I’ll forever be indebted to these people.
“But I know one thing about Auburn. They say if you love Auburn, Auburn will love you back. This is home for me and I know I’ll always be able to come home.”
Hall has been a standout at Auburn on and off the field. A permanent team captain in 2022, Hall has 19.5 sacks in 46 career games including 30 starts, which is tied with Reggie Torbor for fourth all-time in school history.
He was one of 24 seniors honored before kickoff.
“That’s the last time I’ll ever, ever play a football down on that field,” said Hall. “You know, I tried to delay it as long as I could. Obviously, it hit tonight. I just tried, like I said, tried to delay that process. I mean I couldn’t sleep last night. This morning, I was very anxious.
“When I got here, it hit me going down Tiger Walk, all those fans, all the Auburn family. But it definitely means a lot to get that win and to be able to get the last one that I had here in Jordan-Hare.”
The Tigers will conclude the regular season against No. 8 Alabama in the Iron Bowl next Saturday. Kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT on CBS.
