AUBURN, Ala. – Accustomed to hearing the crowd roar at Jordan-Hare Stadium, former Auburn football star Keldric Faulk felt right at home Saturday on the Plains.
Before the game, Faulk served as honorary mic man. Afterward, he celebrated Auburn’s comeback win over Arkansas with head coach Alex Golesh in the locker room. During the game, he received the 2026 Cliff Hare Award, the highest honor an Auburn student-athlete can receive.
Presented annually since 1958 to a senior student-athlete for academic and athletic success as well as leadership, integrity and courage, the award honors Clifford Leroy Hare, who played on Auburn's first football team in 1892 and later served as Auburn’s dean of chemistry and president of the Southern Conference, which would become the SEC.
“I’m extremely blessed to receive it,” Faulk said. “For people to see me that way, how I live my life, how I approach football and approach every single day, I’m extremely grateful for the award and extremely grateful for this place and this opportunity. I love it.”
Making the moment extra special for Faulk were the family members joining him on Pat Dye Field, his mother Lakendral Barnes, his younger brother, Auburn linebacker J.J. Faulk, and his sister, Erica.
“It means the entire world,” Keldric Faulk said. “Those people are my everything. To have them here to see what my brother and I could achieve and let my mama witness it, it’s the best feeling in the world.”
Selected by Tennessee in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft, Faulk recorded his first sack for the Titans in September.
“You see talented guys everywhere across the field,” he said. “You’ve got to separate yourself and that’s something I’m working on now. At the same time, it’s fun to go out there and compete, show my talents to the world and build on top of each week.”
A native of Highland Home, Alabama, Faulk received the award from Cliff Hare, the grandson of award namesake Clifford Leroy Hare, for whom Auburn’s stadium was named in 1949.
“A great young man,” Cliff Hare said of Faulk. “Following through with his dreams of being a collegiate and professional football player and remembering that when football’s over, he has to be a man. That’s what character is all about.”
A team captain who started 32 consecutive games for Auburn, Faulk exemplified the qualities Cliff Hare espoused when he said, “Athletics make men strong, study makes men wise and character makes men great.”
“He never stopped,” Cliff Hare said of Faulk. “He’s always working hard, he kept the team up, always a leader on the team. That’s what counts in life is being a leader.”