The Auburn Tigers will honor Jakell Mitchell who was murdered over the weekend by wearing his No. 31 on their helmets for the Outback Bowl against the Wisconsin Badgers.
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Auburn lost another one of their own when redshirt freshman tight end Jakell Mitchell was shot and murdered early Sunday morning at the Tiger Lodge apartment complex. This was the scene where two former Auburn players, Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips, were murdered in June of 2012.
An arrest has already been made in the case for Mitchell on Sunday afternoon with the arrest of Markale Hart after an investigation by Auburn police and the Tallapoosa County Sheriff’s Department and Jackson Gap police. Auburn police to not anticipate any further arrests.
Auburn will honor Mitchell at the Outback Bowl by putting his No. 31 on each helmet for the New Year’s Day game against Heisman finalist Melvin Gordon and Wisconsin.
Malzahn: The last 48 hours have been tough and challenging. We lost a member of our family. Auburn will wear No. 31 on helmets for bowl game
— John Zenor (@jzenor) December 15, 2014
This is a nice gesture and tribute by Auburn to remember Mitchell who was robbed of his life and football career before it could even really take flight. The past year has been full of tragedy for the Auburn community who lost Philip Lutzenkirchen who was a tight end on the national championship team in 2010 to a fatal automobile accident in late June
Mitchell was the No. 17 tighe end coming out of Opelika high school, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings and was expected to compete for a starting job at H-back and/or tight end with the departures of C.J. Uzomah and Brandon Fulse.
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