2023 Discussion Thread

[80Tiger 899]

43 minutes ago, Zeek said:

Update... not a lot of nice things to say right now

That's putting it nicely. That may be the most depressing list you have ever put out.

[AuCivilEng1 10,999]

16 hours ago, Zeek said:

Update... not a lot of nice things to say right now

I’m glad to see that the resident “recruiting guy” is seeing things for how they are. We have a lot of people on the forum that are putting their head in the sand. I think it’s important for us to take the blinders off and see this recruiting situation for the utter failure it has been. These are not the kind of classes that you can compete in the SEC with. Period.

 

I will say this, the situation is going to get so bad that the PTB at Auburn may end up pulling an Alabama and giving the keys to the car to a real program builder to build the thing up from the ashes. Maybe……probably not though. 
 

Edited July 19, 2022 by AuCivilEng1

[e808 3,025]

6 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

I already mentioned the Mba was Juco in my original post. I mentioned Mba while not a Transfer but a Juco as he is an experienced college player coming in. You left out three key Players I mentioned James, Jones, and Asante two of those James and Jones are possible starters or at worse will get significant PT and Asante will get PT.  As for Calzada vs Bo statistics were similar last year where you would have thought a 3 year starter would have been superior so at worse that is a wash and if Calzada gets better then that is a gain.  I also mentioned in original post that losing the Hudson hurt but as he was our top WR but it is not like his numbers set the world on fire.  So I stand by my statement that we gained in quality.

Respectfully disagree regarding CZ and Bo . How are the statistically the same. One had a QBR of 57 and the other 70. That’s pretty significant to me. In school one is passing while the other is failing. Maybe my understanding is wrong. IJS

[provibe 261]

7 hours ago, AuburnNTexas said:

I already mentioned the Mba was Juco in my original post. I mentioned Mba while not a Transfer but a Juco as he is an experienced college player coming in. You left out three key Players I mentioned James, Jones, and Asante two of those James and Jones are possible starters or at worse will get significant PT and Asante will get PT.  As for Calzada vs Bo statistics were similar last year where you would have thought a 3 year starter would have been superior so at worse that is a wash and if Calzada gets better then that is a gain.  I also mentioned in original post that losing the Hudson hurt but as he was our top WR but it is not like his numbers set the world on fire.  So I stand by my statement that we gained in quality.

That is not the narrative that he is pushing, all negative all the time!

[JerryAU 1,658]

13 minutes ago, provibe said:

That is not the narrative that he is pushing, all negative all the time!

Well, it's up to CBH to push something (anything) positive our way.  He has a great opportunity to sell the program to some really talented kids who will be visiting for Big Cat and if he gets a few great commits the narrative will change. 

[PoetTiger 1,896]

1 hour ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I’m glad to see that the resident “recruiting guy” is seeing things for how they are. We have a lot of people on the forum that are putting their head in the sand. I think it’s important for us to take the blinders are and see this recruiting situation for the utter failure it has been. These are not the kind of classes that you can compete in the SEC with. Period.

 

I will say this, the situation is going to get so bad that the PTB at Auburn may end up pulling an Alabama and giving the keys to the car to a real program builder to build the thing up from the ashes. Maybe……probably not though. 
 

They won’t…The only chance Auburn has is to win on the field. Kids are not gonna come here knowing he could be ran outta town next season. And I would consider every recruit we have as a soft commit until the season unfolds.

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

3 hours ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I will say this, the situation is going to get so bad that the PTB at Auburn may end up pulling an Alabama and giving the keys to the car to a real program builder to build the thing up from the ashes. Maybe……probably not though. 

The only people who will come to this mess if Harsin is ran out of town are snake oil salesmen looking for a quick 10 million bucks, or some off-field analyst ready to make the big move up...

 

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

2 hours ago, PoetTiger said:

They won’t…The only chance Auburn has is to win on the field. Kids are not gonna come here knowing he could be ran outta town next season. And I would consider every recruit we have as a soft commit until the season unfolds.

Sad but true.

[cbo 7,835]

4 hours ago, JBiGGiE said:

The only people who will come to this mess if Harsin is ran out of town are snake oil salesmen looking for a quick 10 million bucks, or some off-field analyst ready to make the big move up...

 

I don't think so. Auburn is still a top tier college football coaching job. Let's quit acting like it's not.

There will be a few guys out there that we can get that would be a huge upgrade. Will that happen? Who knows. 

[au302 2,669]

@Zeekthe most surprising thing is that we're getting waxed worse on defense than offense. Usually it's been the opposite, but our boards on defense are decimated, even with C-Rob and Zac over there.

Offense strangely enough I still have hope. Caddy and Ike are working in silence and have the luxury of that with their top targets secure. Harsin and Bedell are gonna have their work cut out, but I think each can get a solid QB and TE to come here. 

According to On3 articles most of these new OL targets are stating that Joe Bernardi is who they are now primarily talking with. A lot of speculation over there that Bernardi is basically overtaking Friend. Good move if true imo. Hopefully he can somehow change the energy there, as it's been piss poor for a while, with Friend doing nothing to change it.

[cbo 7,835]

9 minutes ago, au302 said:

@Zeekthe most surprising thing is that we're getting waxed worse on defense than offense. Usually it's been the opposite, but our boards on defense are decimated, even with C-Rob and Zac over there.

Offense strangely enough I still have hope. Caddy and Ike are working in silence and have the luxury of that with their top targets secure. Harsin and Bedell are gonna have their work cut out, but I think each can get a solid QB and TE to come here. 

According to On3 articles most of these new OL targets are stating that Joe Bernardi is who they are now primarily talking with. A lot of speculation over there that Bernardi is basically overtaking Friend. Good move if true imo. Hopefully he can somehow change the energy there, as it's been piss poor for a while, with Friend doing nothing to change it.

As I, and others, said at the time of his departure, Mason was undervalued. He's the only reason the last recruiting class wasn't a disaster. 

OC and DC matter, especially when the HC isn't getting it done. Mason had name recognition and is a charming, relatable guy to recruits in the SE. Schmedding probably is not. 

And I personally think it's wild if Bernadi is truly taking over OL recruiting. I'm glad they are trying something different, but why the hell is Friend still on staff? How can Bernadi, as support staff, seriously be expected to recruit against big time OL coaches at our rivals?

[PoetTiger 1,896]

52 minutes ago, cbo said:

I don't think so. Auburn is still a top tier college football coaching job. Let's quit acting like it's not.

There will be a few guys out there that we can get that would be a huge upgrade. Will that happen? Who knows. 

They won’t hire them though. That has always been the problem…could have had Kirby, some say Cristobal was attainable, Stoops, etc. Auburn will never give the keys to FB to no one. And when a guy tries to take control you get the mess we had earlier this year. They want to micromanage the football program, so no real coach is gonna touch it, until they get outta the way.

[cbo 7,835]

44 minutes ago, PoetTiger said:

They won’t hire them though. That has always been the problem…could have had Kirby, some say Cristobal was attainable, Stoops, etc. Auburn will never give the keys to FB to no one. And when a guy tries to take control you get the mess we had earlier this year. They want to micromanage the football program, so no real coach is gonna touch it, until they get outta the way.

Your first two sentences are the perfect counterpoint to my argument. We've had chances to hire the right guy and we haven't made it happen. 

But I firmly believe the Harsin mess is more than just a guy trying to take control. A huge part is that it's not the right guy. 

 

[abw0004 10,110]

Edited July 19, 2022 by abw0004

[Zeek 16,649]

8 hours ago, cbo said:

As I, and others, said at the time of his departure, Mason was undervalued. He's the only reason the last recruiting class wasn't a disaster. 

OC and DC matter, especially when the HC isn't getting it done. Mason had name recognition and is a charming, relatable guy to recruits in the SE. Schmedding probably is not. 

And I personally think it's wild if Bernadi is truly taking over OL recruiting. I'm glad they are trying something different, but why the hell is Friend still on staff? How can Bernadi, as support staff, seriously be expected to recruit against big time OL coaches at our rivals?

Bellantoni, Brumbaugh, and Schmedding have done nothing to instill confidence. 

[Sani-Freeze 552]

11 minutes ago, Zeek said:

Bellantoni, Brumbaugh, and Schmedding have done nothing to instill confidence. 

True, and part of that is just lack of experience/name recognition. But I have to believe the main issue here is just that Raine is sitting on his hands and letting them struggle because he is mad they hired someone outside his control.

[Sizzle 3,911]

7 hours ago, cbo said:

But I firmly believe the Harsin mess is more than just a guy trying to take control. A huge part is that it's not the right guy. 

 

Yeah Harsin and his guys look like they’re in over their heads recruiting wise. This was a concern when they first got hired and we’re seeing it in real time 

[au302 2,669]

8 hours ago, cbo said:

As I, and others, said at the time of his departure, Mason was undervalued. He's the only reason the last recruiting class wasn't a disaster. 

OC and DC matter, especially when the HC isn't getting it done. Mason had name recognition and is a charming, relatable guy to recruits in the SE. Schmedding probably is not. 

And I personally think it's wild if Bernadi is truly taking over OL recruiting. I'm glad they are trying something different, but why the hell is Friend still on staff? How can Bernadi, as support staff, seriously be expected to recruit against big time OL coaches at our rivals?

Change Mason to Nick Eason and I agree. I do agree that Mason was a charming guy, but I think his eval skills were horrible. Dreshun Miller, Ro Torrence, Donovan Kaufman, etc.... all secondary guys tied to him. Obviously Harsin had to sign off on them at the end of the day, but that's terrible. Zac will handle the secondary just fine. Brumbaugh and Roc are what's killing us.

And to be clear that's just speculation that Bernardi's overtaken him. I'm sure Friend is still very involved, but a lot of us just find it odd that nearly every recruit is like "I just got off the phone with coach Bernardi." I agree that he probably can't go up against them, but he's a young hungry coach, and tbh it can't get much worse than Friend imo

[aucom96 1,618]

29 minutes ago, Sani-Freeze said:

True, and part of that is just lack of experience/name recognition. But I have to believe the main issue here is just that Raine is sitting on his hands and letting them struggle because he is mad they hired someone outside his control.

That seems likely. 

The timing was just bad, but bringing in a my way or the highway style coach who thinks he's going to billy-ball his way to wins was a bad move with NIL being what it is. I don't see Harsin surviving, not because he isn't a good coach, but because he's not a good enough coach to overcome the talent deficit he'll be facing in the SEC. As long as this current form of NIL stays a reality, the best chance of success Auburn has is a coaching staff who can politic with the likes of Rane and also know what he's doing on the field. I think the days of the god-like coaches are mostly over and everything will be much more strategic and off the field than even before. 

[1auburn1 1,110]

53 minutes ago, Sani-Freeze said:

True, and part of that is just lack of experience/name recognition. But I have to believe the main issue here is just that Raine is sitting on his hands and letting them struggle because he is mad they hired someone outside his control.

Yep.    My thought is that AU, if Harsin doesn't make it, should just let the money guys pick the next coach, more or less.   Come together on a short list with the AD, and let them decide who they want to back because if the big donors aren't behind the HC, especially in this day and age, he's doomed.       

[80Tiger 899]

1 hour ago, Sani-Freeze said:

True, and part of that is just lack of experience/name recognition. But I have to believe the main issue here is just that Raine is sitting on his hands and letting them struggle because he is mad they hired someone outside his control.

His money. He can do what he wants with it.

[GwillMac6 20,666]

2 hours ago, Zeek said:

Bellantoni, Brumbaugh, and Schmedding have done nothing to instill confidence. 

Bellantoni was one of the absolute most laziest hires of a Auburn on field position coach I’ve seen in awhile. We literally hired him just because he was analyst here last season. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever on his resume that inspires confidence that he can even remotely come close to being the recruiter we so desperately need. He’s barely even coached on the power 5 level ffs 🤦‍♂️… after last season the number 1 priority for ALL new hires should of been recruiting recruiting recruiting. Instead we promoted in house with kiseau, schemed and roc and hired a guy that Jeremy fuggin pruitt fired at Tennessee and was a analyst at Oregon last season. SMH…. The only hire on paper that looked like it was a good recruiting hire was Christian Robinson. Roc has a 5 star first name but is having 1 and 2 star results in recruiting.

[GwillMac6 20,666]

2 hours ago, Sani-Freeze said:

True, and part of that is just lack of experience/name recognition. But I have to believe the main issue here is just that Raine is sitting on his hands and letting them struggle because he is mad they hired someone outside his control.

I don’t think the staff we have would be good at recruiting NIL or not tbh….

Edited July 19, 2022 by GwillMac6

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,662]

I'm not surprised per se, but how do you lose out on the legacy guy literally named after Auburn

[GwillMac6 20,666]

3 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I'm not surprised per se, but how do you lose out on the legacy guy literally named after Auburn

The same way we can lose out on a guy with a auburn tattoo on his forearm….