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Texas A&M Transfer QB Zach Calzada Commits to Auburn


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18 hours ago, gr82b4au said:

I don’t think anyone would say he is an upgrade over Bo but we all hope he is an upgrade over TJ. 
AU fans have lost their minds because some thought CW was a real option even though the people that cover AU kept saying that is a huge long shot and we were getting Calzada. They have been saying it the last 3 days. 
Give the guy a chance. I said the same thing for TJ and that was a bust. So…We will try again with Cal. 

I'll say he's an upgrade over Bo, head to head, he led his team to beat AU. As I recall he even connected on a perfect deep throw. He appears to plant hi feet well and moves the D with his eyes....something Bo appeared to struggle with.

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1 hour ago, gman87 said:

I'll say he's an upgrade over Bo, head to head, he led his team to beat AU. As I recall he even connected on a perfect deep throw. He appears to plant hi feet well and moves the D with his eyes....something Bo appeared to struggle with.

It got to a point where toughness and mobility were about all anyone could gush about with regards to Bo, and Calzada has the toughness part in spades. Might not be quite as mobile but if he can connect on the occasional deep ball...

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He's very accurate on long passes. If we had hit only a few more of those this year, we'd have 2-3 more wins.

There's going to be a lot of competition in the QB room this year.  Calzada will be a worthy competitor in that group. 

Welcome Zach and War Eagle!

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22 hours ago, ClaytonAU said:

Actually sad that this should be something celebrated that someone chose Auburn and people are posting negative things. Some of y’all need to take a breather. 

Not to mention the idea we might get a "franchise" QB in the portal is totally delusional unlikely.

Edited by homersapien
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8 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Not to mention the idea we might get a "franchise" QB in the portal is totally delusional.

Why?

You do know that just such a guy is reported by pretty much everyone to be visiting our campus this weekend or soon thereafter, right?

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4 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Why?

You do know that just such a guy is reported by pretty much everyone to be visiting our campus this weekend or soon thereafter, right?QB

First, most QBs of that stature are already starters.  There just aren't that many to be had.

Second, why would such a QB transfer to a school with so many questions at OL?  What would make Auburn such a desirable move?

 

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24 minutes ago, homersapien said:

First, most QBs of that stature are already starters.  There just aren't that many to be had.

Second, why would such a QB transfer to a school with so many questions at OL?  What would make Auburn such a desirable move?

Right, but Caleb Williams was the starter at Oklahoma, and was wildly successful, and is leaving because his head coach left.

As for why he'd come to Auburn, the top two reasons have been discussed quite a bit. He's got a connection to Austin Davis, our new OC, and would like to be coached by him. The other of the top two reasons is that we have put a competitive cash offer on the table. As for the OL, the pass protection wasn't nearly as bad as people keep insisting it was this season, and the two questions that people really need to be asking themselves are 1) who are the other teams who might land him and 2) are their OL situations any better? 

And I'll mention the other concern, which is our WRs. Well, package deals rarely work out and nobody's heard anything solid about it, but Williams's top receiver at OU is also transferring and has stated explicitly that he wants to continue playing with Williams. That may or may not help us relative to our competition- maybe other locker rooms aren't as well positioned to welcome a new day one WR1 with open arms as we are- but it definitely helps us in general. 

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Loof, I agree on all points and specifically on pass blocking.   Our OL held up pretty well in pass pro.   It was run blocking where they fell off.  WDE. 

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1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Right, but Caleb Williams was the starter at Oklahoma, and was wildly successful, and is leaving because his head coach left.

As for why he'd come to Auburn, the top two reasons have been discussed quite a bit. He's got a connection to Austin Davis, our new OC, and would like to be coached by him. The other of the top two reasons is that we have put a competitive cash offer on the table. As for the OL, the pass protection wasn't nearly as bad as people keep insisting it was this season, and the two questions that people really need to be asking themselves are 1) who are the other teams who might land him and 2) are their OL situations any better? 

And I'll mention the other concern, which is our WRs. Well, package deals rarely work out and nobody's heard anything solid about it, but Williams's top receiver at OU is also transferring and has stated explicitly that he wants to continue playing with Williams. That may or may not help us relative to our competition- maybe other locker rooms aren't as well positioned to open a new day one WR1 with open arms as we are- but it definitely helps us in general. 

I forgot to mention the lack of experience in receivers, but OK. 

(I changed "totally delusional" to merely unlikely.  ;) ;D)

Edited by homersapien
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4 minutes ago, LPTiger said:

Loof, I agree on all points and specifically on pass blocking.   Our OL held up pretty well in pass pro.   It was run blocking where they fell off.  WDE. 

And a limited run game makes a QB's job harder, for sure. I get that. But I can't abide the "running for his life" narrative. I don't think that's accurate. And I'm not ready to concede that Williams is going to like the total package more elsewhere.

Generally speaking, I'm just really rejecting all the absolutes in which people are speaking this week. I don't understand it. I understand and support those who aren't ready to embrace Harsin completely at this stage. That's healthy and intelligent. I just don't understand the assumptions and certainties. It doesn't compute. Literally all of our last 4 coaches suggested one trajectory in their first two seasons before taking the program on a very different one. How on earth can we assume that 2021 is what we should expect in 2022 and beyond? 

I'm naive, though. As silly as it is for this fan base to never learn from the past, it's just as silly for me to keep expecting us to. 

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I'm trying to tell myself that QB recruited by Jimbo Fisher should be a good pickup... But I'm still just not that excited. Maybe it's the stench of "But, he beat Bama" (because we all know that's a justifiable reason for not cutting your losses) that blinds me to his potential.

What we need is better-than-Bo-Nix production next year or we will be hurt'n. I don't know if Zach Calzada (or TJ Finley) can do that, especially without significant improvement in our O-Line.

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17 minutes ago, JBiGGiE said:

I'm trying to tell myself that QB recruited by Jimbo Fisher should be a good pickup... But I'm still just not that excited. Maybe it's the stench of "But, he beat Bama" (because we all know that's a justifiable reason for not cutting your losses) that blinds me to his potential.

What we need is better-than-Bo-Nix production next year or we will be hurt'n. I don't know if Zach Calzada (or TJ Finley) can do that, especially without significant improvement in our O-Line.

Jimbo has a very good eye for talent, but really isn't that great a coach.

If Harsin thinks he can win with Calzada, I am convinced we should let him try. He has a track record of getting the best out of people...

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I have seen several people say that Fisher isn't great coach.  I wonder if they thought the same when he was coaching at AU.  Or maybe they don't remember that he was at AU.

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1 hour ago, LKEEL75 said:

I have seen several people say that Fisher isn't great coach.  I wonder if they thought the same when he was coaching at AU.  Or maybe they don't remember that he was at AU.

A lot of people say Kirby is not a great coach just a great recruiter.  While being a great recruiter doesn't make you a great coach having the horses sure makes coaching easier. Kirby just got over the hump Jimbo was the only Saban assistant to beat Saban until Kirby did it last night.  4 Top 6 classes in a row at A&M and the monster number 1 class he just brought in and he will start winning more and more games and competing for the national title.

There are better on-field coaches then Saban but it is the total package that counts. Building an organization, recruiting, retaining players you want to keep, filling needs on the portal, hiring the right assistants, coaching. It is the total package that makes Saban the great coach he is.  Now that Jimbo has talent to match up with teams like bama and UGA the next few years will show if he is the total package that it takes to be great.

As for Calzada if he wins the job then I hope we coach him up but more importantly we add the pieces he will need O-Line and WR. 

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13 minutes ago, AuburnNTexas said:

A lot of people say Kirby is not a great coach just a great recruiter.  While being a great recruiter doesn't make you a great coach having the horses sure makes coaching easier. Kirby just got over the hump Jimbo was the only Saban assistant to beat Saban until Kirby did it last night.  4 Top 6 classes in a row at A&M and the monster number 1 class he just brought in and he will start winning more and more games and competing for the national title.

There are better on-field coaches then Saban but it is the total package that counts. Building an organization, recruiting, retaining players you want to keep, filling needs on the portal, hiring the right assistants, coaching. It is the total package that makes Saban the great coach he is.  Now that Jimbo has talent to match up with teams like bama and UGA the next few years will show if he is the total package that it takes to be great.

As for Calzada if he wins the job then I hope we coach him up but more importantly we add the pieces he will need O-Line and WR. 

A lot of stuff in there ANT. But breaking it down: Would you rather have: 1) a great coach that is a good recuriter or 2) a great recruiter that is a good coach? Personally, I'd rather have the best of both worlds, but if pressed, I'd go for option #2. (example UGA). wde

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24 minutes ago, AU North said:

A lot of stuff in there ANT. But breaking it down: Would you rather have: 1) a great coach that is a good recuriter or 2) a great recruiter that is a good coach? Personally, I'd rather have the best of both worlds, but if pressed, I'd go for option #2. (example UGA). wde

Same answer and I don't have to think about it even for a teensy bit. 

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57 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Same answer and I don't have to think about it even for a teensy bit. 

I'm opposite.

I think a great coach can get more out of a good player than a good coach can get out of a great player. To me the ceiling isn't as high for a great player with a good coach. Think of the last 8 years, we had great talent...now think of Fickle at Cincy.

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Just now, bigbird said:

I'm opposite.

I think a great coach can get more out of a good player than a good coach can get out of a great player. To me the ceiling isn't as high for a great player with a good coach. Think of the last 8 years, we had great talent.

But we didn't have a good coach.

Well, we did have a good coach coaching great talent on defense.

I need to pipe down though because this conversation is way too nuanced and I will get out of my depth quickly. Did Bill Snyder have good talent? Are we talking about all of the off-field coaching stuff that guys like saban do so well? How do we define good talent versus great talent? Are guys like Jovon Robinson great talent and would they have stayed on the field with great coaching? Was Roger McCreery great talent or good talent when he got to auburn? I know that he was under evaluated talent.

I couldn't begin to intelligently argue all of those aspects. But you have squeezed a lot of Charmin until it turned into real football players down there in Texas so I defer to you on this!

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2 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Same answer and I don't have to think about it even for a teensy bit. 

totally, as long as he bring in great coordinators who will make the difference when going up against other quality teams in the playoffs and big rivalry games.

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20 hours ago, LKEEL75 said:

I have seen several people say that Fisher isn't great coach.  I wonder if they thought the same when he was coaching at AU.  Or maybe they don't remember that he was at AU.

I don't think he was then, either.

Yelling at people doesn't teach them, and that is all Jimbo knows how to do

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On 1/11/2022 at 11:17 AM, JBiGGiE said:

I'm trying to tell myself that QB recruited by Jimbo Fisher should be a good pickup... But I'm still just not that excited. Maybe it's the stench of "But, he beat Bama" (because we all know that's a justifiable reason for not cutting your losses) that blinds me to his potential.

What we need is better-than-Bo-Nix production next year or we will be hurt'n. I don't know if Zach Calzada (or TJ Finley) can do that, especially without significant improvement in our O-Line.

I don’t think we need better than Nix production to have a winning season. You need better than TJ. 
 

Now if you’re shooting for something significantly higher than just a winning season…

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36 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I don’t think we need better than Nix production to have a winning season. You need better than TJ. 
Now if you’re shooting for something significantly higher than just a winning season…

What's wild is Nix level production gets us to probably 9-4 or maybe 10-3 if he was really limited vs MSU, after 6-7 everyone would be pretty ecstatic about that for a 1st year. 

Calzada might be a little more inaccurate than Bo, less shifty, but he can push the ball down field better than Bo.  So I'd hope we could have somewhat similar results.  Our schedule is kind of ugly with two stretches of LSU/@UGA/@Ole Miss then Ark/@State/Aggies.  Hopefully we can manage an 8-4 type season with a slightly improved Calzada.  Harsin/Austin Davis will need to work some magic to get us a lot high, IMO.

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