With football season poised to get underway within the month, it was appropriate that the speaker for Fairhaven Baptist’s weekly men’s luncheon this week was former Auburn quarterback Stan White.

White, who quarterbacked Auburn to its perfect 13-0 1993 season under Terry Bowden, told attendees that the Tigers they got to watch take the field for Demopolis last season weren’t too shabby themselves.

“I saw them play twice,” White said, against Trinity in the semifinals and against Deshler in the state title game, “and I said, that’s one of the best teams I’ve seen in a long time…Trinity hadn’t lost for a long time before you all took them to the woodshed.”

White spoke on several different topics regarding his experiences with Auburn and as a back-up quarterback with the New York Giants. One of the things that has pleased White most, he said, was the chance to work in Auburn’s radio booth alongside Auburn legend Jim Fyffe before his death in 2003.

“I’ve led a blessed life,” White said. “I grew up listening to Jim Fyffe, I was on the field for games that he called, and I got to work with him in the booth for two years. I’ve been pretty blessed as an Auburn person.”

Not every memory White shared was as fond as the 1993 season or his time with Fyffe, however. He called the 1992 Alabama defense that carried the Tide to its last national title “the toughest I played against in my 45 games at Auburn.”

“At the end of [that season’s Iron Bowl], I was pretty hurt,” he said. “Not only emotionally, but physically…that’s just the way Auburn-Alabama games are.”

As for Auburn’s chances this year, White said the team has plenty of talent, especially on both the offensive and defensive lines, but that backup QBs who are “just not ready yet” could mean big problems if starter Brandon Cox is injured.

An avowed and public Christian, White cited team chaplain Chet Williams’s guidance as one reason for Auburn’s recent run of success under Tommy Tubberville and closed reminding attendees that faith, like football, was something that has to be worked at.

“It’s not easy. You can’t touch faith,” White said. “It’s a quest every day.”