Fred Smoot

When No. 1 Auburn faces second-ranked Oregon in the BCS title game, the Tigers' two biggest stars will be junior college transfers.It's a path many players take to major college football, though it's one just about all of them would rather have avoided.In most cases, they find themselves in towns such as Wesson, Miss., or Brenham, Texas, because they didn't make the grades in high school to qualify to play at a four-year school. That's why Auburn All-American defensive tackle Nick Fairley ended up at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi after he graduated from high school instead of going straight to Auburn.In some cases, like Cam Newton's, they land at a JUCO because things didn't work out for them at a big school.Mississippi State assistant Tony Hughes, a former junior college coach, says JUCOs are "a second chance for kids."Or, as Auburn assistant Trooper Taylor puts it, "a last chance."Fairley is the typical junior college transfer in many ways.He grew up in Mobile, Ala....

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