09/17 at 10:43 PM

Tray Blackmon doesn’t mind the nickname Auburn fans have given him.

Since his arrival on the Plains as the star of the Tigers’ 2005 recruiting class, the 6-foot, 210-pound middle linebacker has been known as the “Little Ball of Hate.”

It fits, he says.

“The fans gave the name, so I’ve kind of taken it,” Blackmon said. “I think it kind of describes the way I play ...”

Almost. See, Blackmon doesn’t see himself as small.

“… just like one big ball of hate,” he continued. “See ball, hit ball, you know? Run around and be relentless.

“I just try to live up to me being that type of guy and playing that way. Every time I get on the field, I try to play my hardest and just be all out and be physical.”

That’s Blackmon. It’s the way he’s always been. That’s why Auburn, and seemingly everyone else, wanted to sign the linebacker out of LaGrange, Ga.

Blackmon can run, scrape, read, react and, most of all, hit. Boy, can he hit.

“No one hits like Tray,” said his backup, Josh Bynes, last week.

And by watching his play Saturday vs. Mississippi State — and the other 17 games he’s played in in his three years at Auburn — you tend to believe Bynes.

Blackmon just has a knack for the big hit. And the big play.

Remember Florida in 2006? Blackmon didn’t make one tackle in that game, but changed the course of the night by his pressure of Gator quarterback Chris Leak, which led him to fumble. Blackmon scooped up the ball, returned it 22 yards and Auburn held on to beat the team that eventually won the national championship.

That was Blackmon’s first game back from a six-game suspension to start the season.

He made a play then, and he’s been making them ever since. Take Saturday against Mississippi State, for example.

On fourth-and-1 with less than six minutes to play in the game with the Tigers clinging to a 3-2 lead, Mississippi State had the ball on Auburn’s 41-yard line. The Bulldogs elected to go for it, giving the ball to running back Christian Ducre.

Meet Mr. Blackmon.

“It was fourth-and-a foot and it ended up fourth-and-2 feet,” Tuberville said of the play where Blackmon was there to end MSU’s drive. “That was the best game he’s played since he’s been here.”

Blackmon finished with a team-high six tackles, including one for loss and was named the Tigers’ defensive MVP of the game.

And that’s just the beginning for Blackmon. The junior, who plays more in running situations, feels like the Mississippi State game was the jumping off point for a big year, especially in the SEC.

“SEC week, got a lot more teams that are going to run the ball at you,” Blackmon said. “It’s not going to be too much of that zone, outside stuff. They’re going to do their stuff. They come right at you. I look forward to that.

“Coming out of the Mississippi State game, I feel a little better about getting my pads hot — being more physical.”

And now that LSU’s coming to town, Blackmon knows it’s going to be more of the same physical, bone-jarring play he loves.

“It’s four quarters. It’s a dogfight,” Blackmon said of playing LSU. “You go in there, and like I said, those guys are big on the line, it’s a real physical game for the whole four quarters. You just got to get your mind right. You just got to go in there.

“That’s my type of game. I feel like I’m at my best when it’s more (of a) physical (game), where it’s not just technique and running around with those speedy guys. It’s going to be a physical game. It’s always a physical game.”

And the Little (or, should we say, Big) Ball of Hate loves it.

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