The traditions of Auburn’s pregame ceremony only last around 20 minutes, but to Tim Speaks the time seemed to tick by for maybe just as long as it had taken to reach this dream in the first place.

For so long this had been just that: a longshot dream.

It had been four years since Tim and April Speaks sat down in their seats at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium. Section 31, row 36. They’d been busy on Saturdays the last four years at another school. But these had been their seats for more than a decade, and even in those years when they couldn’t make it to Jordan-Hare Stadium, they continued to buy their season tickets anyway.

They knew they’d be back. But they never thought it would be for a moment quite like this.

And judging by those in the seats around them and the Auburn community where they live, the Speaks’ hadn’t missed anything.

“Congratulations,” one fan said as they walked up the stairs to their row.

“This must be so freakin’ cool,” said another.

Jordan-Hare Stadium announcer Ric Smith delivered his traditional “uniquely Auburn” line as Independence prepared to fly around the stadium to midfield. But this moment for the Speaks family in the stands and on the field was uniquely Auburn, too.

It was a moment to think about his own father, Mikell, who graduated from Auburn in 1967 and went to Auburn games with Tim. Mikell passed away just over a year ago and Tim couldn’t help but wonder about the smile on dad’s face if he were around to see this.

And it was the moment a father, who played on that same field with Bo Jackson, got to watch his son Griffin have his turn.

At last, the moment Tim had been nervously, excitedly waiting for came.

The band played, the smoke machines blasted and a teary-eyed Tim with his own broad smile watched his son take the field for Auburn for the very first time.

“It’s just surreal seeing him in the blue,” Tim said, pointing to Griffin on the field. “I can’t believe it.”

***

Tim and April spent those four years away from Auburn football games to attend every single one of Griffin’s games during his time playing at Baylor. But when calls from the school first came, Tim had to answer one question that was probably pretty important for going to see Griffin’s games there.

“Where is Baylor,” Tim said he asked when Griffin was first being recruited.

Griffin’s recruitment process wasn’t busy. He played quarterback at Auburn High School but wasn’t sure if he wanted to play baseball or football if he had the opportunity to play either in college. Tim jokes that his son doesn’t have a lot of height in his genetics — neither Tim nor April are tall. His Auburn roster page lists Griffin at 5-foot-11, 188 pounds.

So the collegiate offers weren’t flowing in.

“I’ve always loved football,” Griffin said. “It’s always been my first love. I’ve just tried to be realistic with myself. Do you have a better chance of playing really good at the next level in this sport or that sport?”

As his senior year of high school went on, Tim remembers Griffin telling him he wanted to play Power Five college football. That put Griffin in search of a walk-on role, and made him weigh his desire to play high-level college football with his desire to see the field at all.

He sent his high school tape around the SEC. No one returned his messages. So Tim said Griffin should look west.

One team responded: Baylor.

Matt Rhule was the Baylor head coach then and had the Speaks come to Waco, Texas for a visit. Tim said Griffin loved it, and he did too. But he didn’t have a guaranteed spot on the team. Griffin picked Baylor anyway. He’d go on to make the team for the 2019 season.

He redshirted his freshman year with a knee injury, Tim said, and did not see the field until the final four games of the 2020 season — including appearing in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia on Jan. 1, 2021.

Including those four, Griffin played 31 consecutive games for Baylor — largely in a special teams role — which includes every game in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Even when he was injured, Tim and April traveled to every single Baylor game — home or away.

Baylor ended the 2022 season with a loss in the Armed Forces Bowl against Air Force. But a week before the game, then-Baylor defensive coordinator Ron Roberts left to take the same position with newly named Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze.

Griffin graduated in the spring of 2023 with a degree in entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. But he still had more eligibility. Now that he graduated, he wanted to try something new.

He entered the transfer portal without any one school in mind. Sure, the thought crossed his mind of the connection to Auburn that existed with Roberts there, but he didn’t see that as anything realistic — especially when weeks went by of him in the portal without any word from his hometown school.

But finally, Griffin’s phone rang with a call from Roberts.

“He made it very clear,” Griffin said. “He’s like, ‘Griffin, I know you can play here. I want you to come over here and see it first hand that you can.’”

***

Tim Speaks never left Auburn after he played for the football team and graduated from the university. He owns a land sales company now, located just off the intersection of Opelika Road and Gay Street in downtown Auburn.

Sitting in his office two days before Auburn’s game against UMass, he thought back on raising his four boys to play football. And even though a miniature Baylor helmet sits on the corner of his desk these days, he’s still an Auburn fan first and foremost. It’s the way he raised his family.

For many years, Griffin and his brothers would dress up as Auburn players for Halloween.

Griffin stormed the field after the Kick 6 — his family sitting in the same row they still do now. He watched Zac Etheridge, who is now his position coach, play for Auburn’s 2010 championship team.

The Speaks family went to the 2010 BCS National Championship game against Oregon as Auburn won the 2010 title. They were in the Rose Bowl for the 2013 championship game as Auburn lost to Florida State.

When Griffin played at Baylor, Tim said fans would update April and himself on whatever the Auburn score was that day while they were at the Baylor game. After his own games with Baylor, Tim said the first score Griffin always checked was Auburn’s.

Griffin’s desire to compete at a level of football above him comes from his family. He and his brothers were so competitive, Tim joked they couldn’t go play putt putt at the beach without a fight.

And maybe that’s why for all the orange and blue in his makeup, just getting to wear an Auburn jersey and be a part of his hometown and favorite team wasn’t enough for Griffin. Tim said Griffin only wanted to come to Auburn if he could contribute on the field, just as he had in Baylor — even if it was just a small role.

Roberts couldn’t promise anything, but he could at least give Griffin a chance. He would join Auburn as a walk-on.

His experience with Roberts’ scheme over the last three seasons gave him a head start. Tim said Griffin knew the playbook “like the back of his hand.

But all the while, Tim is still just processing having his son home.

“They’re playing at your school, that’s the difference,” Tim said.

Tim said he gets breakfast at Byron’s Smokehouse every morning on his way to work. Since Griffin transferred to Auburn, he’s frequently asked how excited he is to see Griffin play.

Inside the Auburn facility, it didn’t take Griffin long for it to hit him, that he was suddenly actually on the team he’d always dressed up as.

“I think it was my first team meeting with Coach Freeze, that’s when it kind of all hit, coming into this incredible building every day,” Griffin said. “Showing up to work here, it was really cool. And Coach Freeze first team meeting, he brought us all together, looked us all in the eye and told us we were about to get to work. That’s when it all clicked.”

Since his arrival, Griffin has worked his way up the depth chart. Auburn’s scrimmages were not open to media members, but they were to parents. Tim and April said they saw Griffin playing with the second team group in those games.

He quickly made an impression on coaches and teammates who hadn’t seen him before.

“He’s in the right spot at the right time,” Freeze said. “Knows the system, gets the checks. I wish he was a little bigger and faster, but he’s going to be in the right spot, and he’s not afraid of contact. I think he can get everybody on the right page back there. Particularly if you’re playing all those young ones around him.”

“Griffin Speaks, that’s my guy from Baylor,” linebacker Eugene Asante said. “In terms of being a field general at the safety position, he does it to a T. He knows the defense and absolutely commands the defense when he’s out there. It’s a totally different thing when Griffin is out there. He’s getting everybody in line and knows the checks. It’s good to have him, and it’s a good addition to our team.”

It all led up to Griffin going from relative obscurity on the roster, to being listed as the second-team safety on Auburn’s first depth chart of the season.

Tim didn’t know the depth chart had been released. He only found out when his phone blew up from friends who had seen the list on X, the social platform formerly known at Twitter.

At that point, sitting in his office two days before the game, Tim said he was still a wreck of nerves.

Then Tim began to think about the coming moment of Griffin running out of the tunnel. He leaned back in his desk chair, and he nearly cried.

“He gets Auburn,” Tim said, choked up. “He just gets it, man.”

***

Tim and Griffin had talked about playing in Jordan-Hare Stadium before Saturday. Few people get it quite like Tim does.

The father and son texted in the morning before the UMass game. Tim told him to have fun, and to embrace the moment.

They’d see each other briefly during Tiger Walk but then Tim was left with the hardest of the day: to sit and wait for the moment he’d been waiting for. Tim said it himself, he was an emotional wreck.

“You control nothing up here,” Tim said. “I’m just a dad. I’m nervous.”

As those years raising his sons in Auburn reached this special moment watching his son take the field in the jersey he wore and loves, Tim clapped and beamed as his eyes seemed to water. Tim had said in his office there wouldn’t be a dry eye in row 26 with April and his mother there too.

He was right.

Griffin had hardly been on the field before April’s mascara was a bit smudged under her eyes.

Then Griffin got his chance to live his own dream. He played for Auburn.

“It was really special,” Griffin said. “I felt overwhelmed just with the opportunity. Extremely blessed. Just a lot of emotions from my childhood and growing up and going to games here, watching this incredible team, this incredible program. I just felt blessed.”

Griffin found his way into the game on special teams in the first half. As Auburn built its cushion toward a 59-14, Speaks made it in on defense.

He compiled four total tackles, the second-most on the team in the blowout win.

“I don’t care if he’s on defense or kickoff,” Tim said. “He’s part of that 11. That’s when he’s made it. That’s when it will hit.”

After the game, Tim said in a text that he couldn’t believe Griffin actually got to play. He said he felt blessed.

If only Tim’s dad Mikell could have been there to see it.

“If he would have known Griffin was playing here,” Tim said of his dad just before kickoff. “He’d have been so proud.

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