The play began with the so-called too-small outside linebacker ready to spring against the right tackle amid the cauldron of the largest stadium he’d ever had a game in. As the visiting defense, he didn’t have to worry about the noise of the 92,664 people around him at Kyle Field.

So Jalen McLeod could focus on the reason Appalachian State recruited him in the first place despite the reservations others had about his 6-foot-1 frame: getting to the quarterback.

When the ball was snapped, McLeod — ranked outside the top 1,500 recruits in his high school class — burst toward Texas A&M right tackle Reuben Fatheree, a former top 150 recruit. He launched with such speed that he tossed a backpedaling Fatheree into the ground and turned toward another top-150 recruit, quarterback Haynes King. With his right arm, he knocked the ball loose from King’s hand. Right guard Layden Robinson picked up the ball and because one strip wasn’t good enough for McLeod, he raced up behind Robinson and punched the ball away from him, too. That time, the Mountaineers fell on it.

McLeod jumped and ran toward the sideline to celebrate where his head coach Shawn Clark immediately knew

“Oh shit, really good play,” Clark said he remembers thinking on the sidelines. “But now we’re gonna lose him.”

Appalachian State would go on to win that game over then No. 6 Texas A&M in what would go down as the upset of the 2022 season. But Clark was right, he would lose McLeod.

McLeod calls these types of games against high-caliber opponents “Money Games.”

“You do big in these games, there’s no telling what you’re going to do at the next level or how the team going to play out,” McLeod said Monday.

McLeod and Clark prepared for the money game by well, not changing anything. Clark said when he watched the Aggies’ game film, he didn’t think they were “the same team as the year before.”

During a phone interview with AL.com on Monday, Clark said it didn’t take much more than turning up the noise in practice to simulate the crowd and instilling a belief that Appalachian State — a program famous for its 2007 upset against Michigan in Ann Arbor — could truly and realistically knock off another giant.

That’s exactly what it did.

Clark knew on the sidelines after McLeod’s two forced fumbles that he might be on his way to losing him. He said he remembers telling his staff after the game and after the celebrations that Appalachian State had actually played too well, because he know McLeod wouldn’t be the only one to hit the transfer portal.

Clark said he used to get upset about players leaving after the work he’d done to recruit and coach them. But in the modern age of the transfer portal and NIL deals — to capitalize on money games — Clark understands now. In this way, seeing a player like McLeod move on to a bigger program signifies he succeeded in developing the under-recruited players he targets.

So McLeod’s money game performance brought him to the SEC, brought him to Auburn. And in the SEC, there are more opportunities to play money games.

It’s fitting his first SEC conference games would be going back to College Station.

Auburn will kick off against Texas A&M at 11 a.m. Saturday at Kyle Field and McLeod said Freeze has already mentioned his performance last season to him.

“Coach been making fun — not making fun but like you had a good game last year so they want to make it two big games in College Station,” McLeod said.

This is a different type of money game than the one he played on the same field a year ago. Then, it was play well and earn your way to more exposure at a bigger school. Now, it’s more about true money than ever, as McLeod looks to these games as a means to build his own tape for a potential entry into the NFL draft.

Play well, and get paid.

“That’s how we all think,” McLeod said. “If I play good, if Austin Keys or Larry Nixon play good, you never know what can happen in the future. If we keep playing good against Georgia and LSU, first of all we’re going to be ranked and have a good defense. And then second, the next thing come is you. This is what I’m putting on tape against these type of teams. That’s what you look for when you play these type teams. Get paid on Sundays.”

McLeod said enters the game with a chip on his shoulder against a roster of so many highly ranked recruits, and also still at only about 85% health.

He’s been dealing with an ankle injury picked up during fall camp. He didn’t play against UMass, battled through the injury against Cal and while he started against Samford, wasn’t able to finish the game.

“It’s been annoying, it’s been nagging,” McLeod said Monday.

So McLeod finished his Monday round of interviews, got up from the round table in the Woltosz Football Performance Center multipurpose room and went right to get treatment.

He plans to get closer to 100% health. He has money to make.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]