This story appears in Wednesday's Birmingham News:

AUBURN -- Josh Bynes knew something was wrong with his teammate when he tried to help Zac Etheridge up after a tackle.

"The only thing I saw was his eyes moving," Bynes said.

Etheridge lay on the Jordan-Hare Stadium turf temporarily paralyzed and scared during Saturday's win over Ole Miss. But, three days later, the Auburn defensive back was back with his team mates in a harness-like neck brace he said he'll have to wear another three or four months because of torn ligaments and a cracked fifth vertebra.

Tuesday, he said he felt lucky he could walk.

He says he plans to play next season.

Auburn coaches have juggled their lineup since Saturday, moving cornerback Demond Washington to Etheridge's starting safety spot. But there's a lot of experience lost and there is even more leadership gone, say his teammates.

But Tuesday wasn't for that worry.

"I played a video game with him last night," said defensive back Walter McFadden. "He's still talking trash. He's still the same Zac."

But Etheridge, a recognized voice of the team, was introspective and thankful Tuesday for a series of events that prevented a bad situation from turning worse.

It has, Etheridge said, "been a miracle."

"We feel like we can play in his honor," McFadden said.

It was an uneventful event on the play-by-play sheet. Rodney Scott ran for a yard late in the first quarter, the same Rodney Scott who committed to Auburn last year but picked Ole Miss following Auburn's coaching change.

Etheridge and Bynes made the tackle. But Etheridge had collided with teammate Antonio Coleman's shoulder pads, and he didn't get up.

It happened so fast that, "I thought the guy on the bottom was injured," Coleman said.

Etheridge knew something was wrong immediately.

"I was in shock just not being able to move," he said. "The only thing I could say was, 'Jesus, Jesus' . . . just calling out his name."

Etheridge was hurt, and lucky. He had landed on Scott, but Scott didn't move, and thus didn't jostle Etheridge.

"If I had moved, he could have been paralyzed," Scott said.

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said Etheridge was lucky because "we are always coaching to get off the ground and get back to the huddle. It was really a miracle he didn't push the guy out of the way like we normally do."

Bynes, seeing Etheridge was hurt, told Scott not to move. With members of each team kneeling in prayer, Etheridge and Scott lay together for long minutes until the medical team strapped Etheridge on a board, locked his head and neck down and wheeled him off the field.

"When I was on the ground, I was moving my toes a little bit," Etheridge said. "I didn't have much feeling, but when I got on the stretcher, they were like, 'Move your hands and just let everyone know your fine.' That's when I was able to put a thumbs-up and that's when I knew that all the prayers that went up, God answered."

But could he play again?

"That was probably the first question I asked," Etheridge said.

Etheridge was taken to the East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika with his parents following the ambulance.

"All moms, they don't like to see their child on the ground," Etheridge said.

Etheridge said "they were trying to hold me down" at the hospital, but showed everybody he was bouncing back. Against advice, he walked to the rest room. The doctors wanted to be sure he was OK, so they sent him to a Birmingham hospital by ambulance.

Etheridge put an optimistic spin on what he heard.

"At first the doctor gave me that 'they don't know," Etheridge said. "We got some pretty results from the MRI and the X-rays and the CAT scan -- things look up and I'll be able to play again."

Coach Gene Chizik and some teammates went to Birmingham on Sunday and visited him. He's been texting his teammates throughout.

Tuesday, he surprised them by walking in on a team meeting.

Then he volunteered to talk to the media to thank the fans who had expressed their concern.

"I told my mom that I got messages from a lot of people," Etheridge said. "I want the world to know that I'm fine. I want to thank everybody for their prayer requests. That helped my family out."

Auburn Athletics Director Jay Jacobs called his Ole Miss counterpart Monday to praise Scott.

Ole Miss Athletics Director Pete Boone said he's also heard from a lot of Auburn fans.

Etheridge tried to call Scott on Tuesday to thank him for not doing anything. He missed on his first call, but did talk to Nutt and thanked him for the Rebels' sportsmanship.

Chizik said Sunday "it was one of the most amazing things I've seen" the way Scott knew not to move.

Etheridge was with his team as Tuesday's practice began. He says he's under doctor's orders not to attend Saturday's homecoming game against Furman.

"They want me on bed rest," Etheridge said.

That may be a hard pill to swallow.

"I will definitely be at the Iron Bowl," he said.