< Previous NEW C OMER Q&A: KILIAN ZIERER 71 Q: Why did you choose Auburn? A: I just felt really good when I came here on my visit. I was at a junior college in California, so I really wanted to stay out there. When I came on my visit here, however, I knew I was going to go here. It just felt right. Q: What athletic goals do you have while here at Auburn? A: I definitely want to compete for a starting spot. It’s kind of hard right now because I came off a knee injury last year. The goal is to compete for a starting spot and then just compete for a national championship. Q: What are your academic goals? A: I am working on a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. I hope I can get that by December of next year. Then I’ll try to start a Master’s in sports nutrition or dietician. It was always something I did in high school that I really enjoyed and it also helps me with performance in football. Q: Coming from Germany, how did you get into playing football? A: I played soccer for 10 years. Then I got injured and I just didn’t have fun playing soccer anymore. A lot of my friends started playing football like a year before I started and so I kind of knew that we had a team around. Then I went to Miami for vacation in 2015 and I watched the NFL Kickoff. That was really the first football game I had ever seen. I thought that it looked awesome and that I could try that. I watched the entire NFL season in Germany and then I started playing when I was 16. One of my friends asked if I want to go to practice with him and see how it feels and I started playing from then on. Q: What has been the biggest difference between playing football in Germany to playing football in the United States? A: The biggest difference is definitely the speed. Football in Germany is literally just for fun. You practice twice a week. It’s like a club sport where you go and practice for two hours once a week. You maybe have six to eight games in a season. You don’t lift weights, you don’t have team meetings, you don’t really have anything. You literally just do it for fun. Here you practice sometimes five times a week, you have meetings, you have workouts, you have everything. The athletes are just so much better. When I first got to California, it took me a while to get used to how quick those guys are. Q: What has been your favorite football memory so far? A: I would say going 10-0 in my first season of junior college was pretty awesome. Even though we lost in the first playoff game, it was still a really cool experience. I got to California late and came right around fall camp. I only had six weeks of practice before we went off and won ten straight games. That was pretty cool. Q: What sport would you play if you weren’t playing football? A: I would like to still say soccer, but I’ve gotten too tall for it, I think. I don’t think I would play a team sport. I would probably just go into weightlifting. Q: Who is one football player that you’ve looked up to or modeled your game after? A: So, I started playing receiver and tight end when I was in Germany and I started following Rob Gronkowski. He was in the first football game I ever saw. He’s 6’6” and I was 6’5” back then so I thought I would try to play tight end. There’s a bunch of guys that I just love watching, but I started modeling my game after him when I started playing. Q: If you could bring one food from Germany over to the U.S., what would it be and why? A; My favorite food is my mom’s pot roast. She makes it almost every year for Christmas now and it’s awesome. I have not seen one here like it yet. Q: If you could have dinner with any person, either alive or not, who would it be and why? A: Honestly, it would probably be Rob Gronkowski. I think he’s so much fun. I’d love to be around him. Q: Favorite U.S. tradition or holiday? A: It’s definitely Thanksgiving. We don’t have a Thanksgiv- ing in Germany. It was awesome my first Thanksgiving here. There’s nothing better than eating a great meal and watching football afterwards. Q: Did you pick No. 77 and if so, why did you chose it? A: Yes and no. I was a receiver first in Germany and started out as No. 81. Then they put me at tackle. There was a German tackle in the NFL, who also played for the Patriots, and his number was 76. I started out with that here in the States, but somebody already had that number here at Auburn. I asked if I could move up to 77. You see a lot of tackles with 77 so I thought it fit. Q: How would your friends and family describe you in three words? A: Patient, tall and motivated. NEWCOMER Q&A BY HELEN ULRICH A UBURNTI G ERS.C O M KILIAN ZIERERAlabama Contract Sales, Inc. Auburn, Alabama P: 334.821.4500 www.alabamacontractsales.com COMMERCIAL • INDUSTRIAL • INSTITUTIONAL SIDES DRYWALL, INC. 1937 WHATLEY ROAD, BLDG. C |AUBURN, AL 36830 | OFFICE: (334) 826-3264 Capt Shaun Chaplin Phone: 334-844-4355 Email: sdc0039@auburn.edu ROTC BUSINESS FRIENDS WORKING FOR THE FUTURE OF AUBURN Approximately 9 people die and 1,000 are injured every day in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers. Sending or reading a text message takes your eyes off the roadway for 5 seconds. At 55 mph, that is the equivalent of driving the entire length of a football field with your eyes closed. No text is worth a life. LeeCountyDA.org Discipline Drives the Process Finding Value is the Art www.brightinvestmentsllc.com 570 Devall Drive Suite 303 | Auburn AL 334.321.2321 Auburn FB 20.indd 4Auburn FB 20.indd 48/17/20 11:39 AM8/17/20 11:39 AMUNIVERSITY NEW S 73 Auburn University is using radio-frequency identification, or RFID, technology on this season’s football “field access” passes to monitor access to Pat Dye Field during home foot- ball games. With the specific guidelines for field access dictated by the Southeastern Conference (SEC) due to COVID-19, Auburn’s RFID Lab and Auburn Athletics have teamed up to use hand- held scanners, floormat readers, and antennas in Jordan-Hare Stadium to confirm persons entering the field have met the prescribed guidelines. “Field-gate workers scan each person’s field pass,” said Justin Patton, RFID Lab director. “The scanner’s screen lets them know if the person has been recently tested. Everyone in close and regular contact with student-athletes, coaches, and game officials needs to have passed a recent COVID-19 test to enter the field. It also shows a photo of the person the pass is issued to, so people cannot swap passes.” RFID technology uses a small, paper-thin tag with an elec- tromagnetic chip that gives an item, in this case a field pass, its own serial number identity, which is detected by a scanner 5 to 10 feet away. The screening, using the RFID Lab’s proprietary software, is only for persons using field passes, such as coaches, media, and others approved under SEC policy to access the field. It does not include student-athletes, who are monitored consis- tently by their institutions, or fans in the stands. “RFID is an excellent, added measure to monitor field ac- cess. We can track pass holders’ movements on the field and state confidently that we are working with a person that has met policy and they are where we’ve asked them to be during the game,” said Jeremy Roberts, associate athletics director of operations. During the week prior to a game, Auburn Athletics submits all field passes, including those for the visiting team, to the RFID Lab, which adds RFID tags. “I believe we are the only school in the U.S. using RFID in this manner,” Patton said. “We encode RFID tags with an ID number and put a tag on each field pass. We do not put personal information on the tag. We compare their ID number with a database.” The database is pre-generated by the Auburn Athletics operations team and includes information required to meet SEC policy. Patton’s lab adds the RFID tag numbers to the database when placing tags on the field passes. Patton says an RFID tag on a field pass is like a license plate on a car, which doesn’t contain any information about the vehicle or the driver, but can be referenced in a Department of Motor Vehicles database with vehicle and owner information. At each game, RFID Lab students set up the system and distribute scanners to field-gate workers who scan the passes. “We have a team of three or four students from our lab help- ing monitor the scanning at the stadium,” said Blake Silver, RFID Lab project manager. Thus far, the RFID system has indicated everyone entering the field has met SEC policy. There have been a couple of incidents of people associated with a visiting team who did not have an approved field pass. The RFID scanner detected it was not an issued field pass, so they were not allowed to enter the field. “The passes were for stadium access but not field access, and we were able to recognize that quickly with the RFID tag,” Patton said. “We can certainly apply this technology in the future as we continue to assist in providing a healthy, safe, and secure gameday.” Persons entering the field also walk across RFID-scanning mats that record when each person enters and exits the field. In addition, antennas are placed around the field so the RFID Lab can see sections of the field accessed by each person. “This provides more extensive contact tracing should that need arise,” Patton said. The RFID monitoring system originated this summer when Auburn Athletics asked the RFID Lab to help do an inventory of RFID-tagged gear and clothing. “We had the idea the RFID Lab could help with field access monitoring,” Roberts said. “We have worked with the lab in our equipment room, so this has been an extension of that relationship.” Patton adds that RFID was used during graduation in August to help honor new graduates by showing their individ- ual names on the Jordan-Hare videoboard. RFID tags were placed on name cards that were scanned when graduates walked across the stage. “The system was connected to the videoboard to display their names,” Patton said. Patton says the RFID system to monitor limited access areas at other venues will expand to other sports and events at Auburn and could lead to opportunities for other schools to deploy the system. A UBURNTI G ERS.C O M Auburn is using RFID technology on “field access” passes to monitor access to Pat Dye Field during home football games. UNIVERSITY NEWS Auburn using RFID technology to monitor access to Pat Dye Field BY CHARLES MARTIN B AND, CHEER & TIGER P A WS 75 BAND, CHEER & TIGER PAWS A UBURNTI G ERS.C O M Marching Band Marching Band Director — Dr. Corey Spurlin Assistant Director of Athletic Bands — Dr. Nikki Gross Percussion — Dr. Doug Rosener Director of Bands — Dr. Rick Good Graduate Assistants Josh Singleton Natalie Smith Daniel Rodriguez Hayden Upperman Tiger Eyes Instructors Beth Bowman (coordinator/flagline) Jessica Coleman (majorettes) Lydia Mitchell (danceline) Tricia Skelton (flagline) Percussion Instructors Andy Martin Aaron Locklear Drum Majors Peyton Flowers Trace Johnson Millie Livingston T.J. Tinnin Tiger Eyes Captains Kelly Reynolds (danceline) Madeline Whitmer (majorette captain) Sydney Turner (flagline captain) Erin Greer (flagline co-captain) 2020-2021 Auburn Cheerleaders Anthony Bostany Elli Bradley, Co-Head Charlotte Dayton Cody Diemont Casey Doerer Gary Gray, Mic-Man Kacie Griffith Tanner Hendrix Caleb Kennefick Kathryn Lusk Rachel Lusk Murphy McCammon Cooper Monistere, Co-Head Cameron Monistere Caleb Moses Emmalyne Phillips Miracle Scott Nic Smith Izzy Smoke Matthew Tuttolomondo Britt Ware Latisha Durroh, Spirit Coordinator 2020-2021 Tiger Paws Catelyn Alexander Rae Brown Olivia Couchot - Captain Abigail Coleman Darby Hines Mary Hanlon Hunton Skylar Johnson Abbey Jones Ellie Korotky Evie Ann Owen Virginia Macoy Mary Hinson Mims Kate Richardson Lucy Rogers Emma Sanders Abby Smith Megan Smith Jessie Stevens Brooke Tarrant Amy Vaporis Helen Baggett - Coach2020 AUBURN TIGERS A UBURNTI G ERS.C O M PAYTON ANDERSON 37RB5-11 n 225 n RFr. 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