More Trouble Brewing In Auburn

Key Auburn starters Lee Ziemba and Ryan Pugh say, 'I didn't see a dime'

PUBLISHED 5 hours and 15 minutes ago

Ken Bradley Sporting News




As a true freshman in 2007, Lee Ziemba started Auburn’s first game of the season against Kansas State. Four years later, when the Tigers captured the BCS national title, Ziemba wrapped up his college career with a school-record 52 consecutive starts dating back to that win against the Wildcats.

Ziemba says he never received money from Auburn coaches or anyone else affiliated with the program. An HBO special to air tonight reveals four former Auburn players saying they received money while at the school.

“I think the guys who have come on the air obviously had something against Auburn,” Ziemba told Sporting News. I played with two of them (Chaz Ramsey and Raven Gray). … Two of them I know had bad divorces with the university. (Ramsey) got involved in a lawsuit that he didn’t win and obviously, must hold a grudge because we went on to win the national championship and were very successful with the guys he came in and was recruited with. I’m not sure what they’re trying to say. I walked out the same locker room doors as they did after games. I was recruited by the same men, and didn’t see a dime. I did things the right way.”



Lee Ziemba, who played for Auburn four years, starting in 2007, says he wasn't paid to play there, and he doubts anyone else was. (AP Photo)


Rivals.com rated Auburn’s 2007 offensive line class as the best in the country. Ziemba was the crown jewel, the highest-rated player Auburn signed that class. He said after four years on campus and starting every game and seeing players come and go, he would have heard something.

“No, I absolutely did not (receive money),” Ziemba told Sporting News. “In fact, it was the other way around. Everybody is complaining about (not having) money in college. I remember trying to figure out—I was just talking to my girlfriend about this yesterday—I just got my first credit card yesterday and I was talking about how nice it was not to have to choose between eating food and putting gas in my truck for once. Even though now I have money, I told her that would be helpful back when I was in college. That’s the way things were. They were late giving us our scholarship checks, we were getting money on the 17th or something like that, late on our rent checks and stuff. We struggled in college. As much as you whined and complained and tried to get money, you weren’t getting a dime. So I don’t know where all this is coming from.”

Center Ryan Pugh was also a four-year starter from the national championship team and a key piece from that 2007 recruiting class.
Pugh said that team leaders, like himself and Ziemba, would have known if teammates were getting handouts.

“There was probably some bad blood between some of those players who made comments and some things that happened while they were there,” Pugh told Sporting News. “I know with Chaz, he had unfortunate situation with an injury and was no longer able to play. I don’t know what the motive is behind this, really.

Ramsey recently lost a lawsuit filed against a former Auburn head athletic trainer, Arnold Gamber. The lawsuit stated that Ramsey reinjured his back and the injury ended his career while he was performing exercises during rehabilitation after back surgery.
“We played together, we came in as freshmen together so we definitely were close” Pugh said of him and Ramsey. “Since that freshman year, we haven’t been close at all. He was no longer on the team, we continued to play and some other things probably hindered that relationship since that time, but I’m sure he would have told us if there was something going on.”

In fact, Pugh said he and his teammates would have known if this happened.

“If things like that are going on, you tend to see your players who have produced more for the university,” Pugh told Sporting News. “There are things going on out there in Division I college football as far as receiving money from boosters. If that stuff is going on, you would think that some of the major players who are the face of the program would see some of that. For us to have played for four years and to have never seen anything like that, it really makes it hard to believe that stuff like that was really going on.”

Ziemba agreed.

“You get a fistful of cash, it’s hard not to tell anybody,” he said. “I haven’t heard that. I’m telling you. I was around that program, I did everything that program … I was part of a national championship program—undefeated. I didn’t see a dime, I’m telling you there’s no way these folks saw it.”