Auburn University Athletics Director Jay Jacobs spoke at the Selma Quarterback Club Monday night, reminiscing about his playing days for the Tigers and discussing the current state of Auburn athletics.

With the Auburn football team becoming one of the stories of the college football season — from 3-9 last season to No. 11 in the BCS standings this season, Jacobs spent a lot of the evening discussing reasons for the turnaround. One of the reasons he pointed out was the strength of the Southeastern Conference.

“It is just the strength of this league and how competitive it is,” Jacobs said of the SEC. “Most of the time it makes us all better. Sometimes you will hit a down turn and all of a sudden you look up and today were on the upward climb.”

Jacobs said it is great to be an athletic director in the SEC and especially at Auburn, because fans care so much about the athletics programs and the student athletes.

“It is great to be in this league where the success, not just in football but all of our sports, has been nationally noted and people are passionate about college athletics,” Jacobs said. “It makes it important and it makes us do our job better.”

Jacobs said that the challenging part of his job is to make sure the athletes at Auburn understand how many resources are actually available to them.

“There are so many resources available to our students and our student athletes that I just want to make sure they know what they are and take advantage of them so they can be more successful in whatever it is they do,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs also played football at Auburn in the 1980’s. As a walk-on, he earned two letters as an offensive tackle in 1982 and 1983. In 2004, Jacobs was named the athletic director after working in almost every area of the Auburn Athletics Department in the previous 20 years.