metafour

Do you now? That number seems awfully high given the actual mortality rate that we now know to be factually accurate. Highly improbable statistically. Furthermore, from reading this board casually over the past few years, you're at least the 3rd or 4th person (all Left leaning by some peculiar chance!) who have claimed to know an absurd amount of people who "died from COVID". The AUFAMILY political board must be the unluckiest sample population size on the entire internet. But hey, you said it on the internet 😉.

Except that Wiltfong at 247 also put in a Crystal Ball to Stanford today. If you know anything about Wiltfong, his predictions are virtually flawless. He's a national guy and not connected to Stanford nor Auburn. This kid (House) had Ole Miss thinking that he was going there post-visit, then he visited Auburn and "committed" to us. He's probably very impressionable in which case Stanford hosting the last visit likely worked in their favor. Maybe this recruitment isn't over, but this has nothing to do with Freeze trying to tell an AU writer to pretend like this kid is going to another school lol.

Stanford got the last visit and they flipped the kid. Can't argue this one as anything other than embarrassing considering that this is the main kid that they threw the "Bat Signal" party for the other weekend.

He's pretty average athletically. Had a decent freshman season at LSU but then transferred out because he got passed by a bunch of younger WR's. He's OK, nothing to really write home about.

He had season ending injuries in both seasons.

Of course it's unrealistic. But the whole point here is that the QB's that we have/had are part and parcel why this was a 5-win team last season, and a 6-win team the year prior to that. They simply weren't good. So the whole point is: why would Hugh Freeze risk his own ass under the extremely small likelihood that these guys are going to be "developed" into being SIGNIFICANTLY better (which is what it will take), when he can just go out and get someone who is already good on top of being considerably more experienced? It's a really silly proposition. Some of you need to put yourselves in Freeze's shoes. This is his last shot and he got a miracle to land a job of Auburn's caliber. He has ~2 years to start showing something on the field, and year #1 is extremely important for recruiting purposes. Pretend you are in his shoes and tell me with a straight face that your plan is going to be to "develop" Robby Ashford LMAO. This is the most important position on the field. Ashford has been in college for 3 years and still has not developed basic consistency, decision making, etc. Do you understand that guys like this RARELY ever magically get better in year 4? So do you expect Freeze to behave in a suicidal manner? Or do you expect him to behave like a coach being paid $6+ million to produce results in the toughest conference in the country?

The Benz came from a chop-shop in Albania.

They are both about equally mobile. Neither guy is looking to run, and Freeze isn't really looking for that either. Basically, that isn't going to be the deciding factor if they like Thorne's arm or health better.

Thorne was apparently playing through multiple injuries last season: https://www.mlive.com/spartans/2023/04/payton-thorne-has-no-regrets-about-playing-through-injuries-last-season.html Anyway, you have three top QB evaluators on staff. If they like Thorne better, it's for a reason. I don't put too much stock into the whole "MSU fans said ..." analysis. We actually could have easily landed Casey Thompson last season, but if you remember there were a lot of AU fans scoffing at that because Texas didn't want him anymore lol. One thing that's potentially significant: Thorne has considerably more pass reps than Thompson has had.

I mean, NIL money is limited and needs to be allocated appropriately. I certainly hope that they're doing their homework and making calculated decisions. What would you like them to do? Pay 2x more than what they think a player is worth because someone else will give them that much?

He can't play at this level. Hopefully he finds a good spot in a lower conference.

Richardson: 71.2 QBR Ashford: 50.3 QBR Richardson: 131.0 Passer RTG Ashford: 107 Passer RTG Richardson: 3 fumbles Ashford: 8 fumbles Richardson: 6.3 YPC, 10 rushing TD's Ashford: 4.6 YPC, 7 rushing TD's So basically, "super raw" Anthony Richardson was considerably better as a passer, was a better rusher, and finally was considerably less turnover or mistake prone. In other words, he was better at every single aspect of playing QB. So even your pie-in-the-sky comparison to someone who is a "great athlete but still raw" is again, absurdly optimistic because that player was CONSIDERABLY better than Ashford was.

Lol. Try looking at the stats harder. Richardson was still CONSIDERABLY better than Ashford. So even that comparison is highly optimistic.

No, I don't believe that helps them either. I'm pretty sure that was the case with the WR from Texas A&M (Caleb Chapman) which ultimately forced him to transfer out of conference.

Jelen Milroe can't help us. Any SEC transfer right now is ineligible to play this upcoming season.

He was a True Freshman with 14 receptions for TCU. Most certainly not their leading receiver.

There are a lot of big-money guys in Dallas which is why SMU is able to make this play. He was actually committed to SMU at one point while in HS. This is a big deal player for them and it seems like they're serious about bringing him home.

Here is your actual timeline on Robby Ashford's career: 1) Was hyped 4-star QB at Hoover entering his SR year. Has a poor SR season and falls to 3-star as his final rating on most sites. 2) Was committed to Ole Miss prior to Kiffin being hired, ends up flipping to Oregon to be the 2nd QB in their class after the coaching change at Ole Miss (Kiffin didn't want him?) 3) Year 1 at Oregon: Plays baseball for ~20 games, quits to focus on football completely. ~#4 on their QB depth chart. 4) Year 2 at Oregon: Doesn't make much movement on their depth chart. Stuck at #3 or #4 on the depth chart. Opts to transfer. 5) Year 1 at Auburn: Loses fall camp battle to TJ Finley. Would have been #3 on the depth chart had Calzada not been injured. 6) Year 1 at Auburn: Pushed onto the field as the season collapses. Plays "hard", but not very well. 7) Year 1 at Auburn: Doesn't show much if any improvement game to game as the season progressed. In fact, after Harsin was fired they had to change the offense completely in order to work around his deficiencies. His completion percentage was actually WORSE in the 2nd half of the season. 8 ) Year 2 at Auburn: Shows some "improvement", but leaves Spring camp without being named the starter. Freeze and company are still searching for QB's in the Portal. Keep in mind, he has now been through 3-4 Spring Camp sessions and has not once been able to actually "win" the starting job. He is in year #4 of his NCAA career and is not even technically the starter here. If you actually read the above timeline and think objectively, there is absolutely nothing in Ashford's resume to suggest that this is the makings of an actual worthwhile SEC starting QB. Hope and prayer that he makes some sort of drastic improvement is all there is. But really, a QB who has been training for 3+ years already in college under multiple P5 coaching staffs is more or less developed by this point.

Most of the 1-year eligibility guys would have already transferred in the first window. Why would they wait till the spring to transfer if their intention was to transfer at all? Nobody said that we were hunting for a 1 year eligibility guy in this second window. There are a few that may be out there, but it's not many. The post-spring window at QB will be for guys who are in heated QB battles and lose (or appear to be trailing), or for a highly talented young backup at a top program who we think is better than everyone we currently have. The delay here is that MOST schools either just played their spring game yesterday, or they haven't even played it yet. Our spring game actually occurred much earlier than most teams. A QB isn't going to transfer out before they conclude the spring at their current school and find out where on the depth chart they sit. This is all going to take lots of tampering, by the way. The kid from Texas who just showed out at their spring game (Maalik Murphy) is someone who would be an easy target, but it would require convincing him to leave. One of the roadblocks is that schools like Ohio State who have two hyped young guys competing will delay and stall the naming of their starter in the hope of keeping both guys there till the fall in an "open competition", in which case it's now too late for whoever they plan to be the backup to leave and join a new team. Anyway, there is too much panic over nothing. Most teams are still not through spring. There are still several schools that have options that could/will become available. Finding a QB will require brokering interest before their guy is even "in the portal".

Lol. Florida also wanted McCall in the first window and couldn't make it happen. Hence why they took Mertz from Wisconsin. The McCall stuff is just unfounded wishful thinking based off of next to nothing. No offense, but find something more tangible to be concerned about. Fun fact: Coastal Carolina's new HC Tim Beck is a former QB coach; he was the OC/QB coach at NC State (Devin Leary's QB coach) and prior to that coached at Texas and Ohio State. By all indications, McCall likes the new HC. He's done nothing to give any indication that he's leaving.

That was 100% planned and planted. Think about it, Walker White isn't choosing who Freeze and company ultimately want to recruit lol. You think he's just randomly naming players he knows off the top of his head? What if the coaching staff hasn't offered or doesn't want who he's naming? He's not going to be "recruiting" players that the staff isn't actually pursuing.

J.Lee just dropped an interesting update.

QB's commit extremely early. If you miss on White, you need to move your attention to the next guy immediately. They can't let every QB on the board commit elsewhere and then spend 10 months hoping you're going to flip this kid from a school (Clemson) that doesn't lose many commitments. By the way, White has indicated that he's not taking any other visits after he commits. This isn't a "I'm committing today, but I'm still taking all my official visits" type recruitment. If you remember this past class, the reason why Brock Glenn was the only QB worth a crap to recruit is because everyone else had already long committed to other schools and was off the board.

Looks like Walker White is committing February 3rd....which probably doesn't bode well for us coming off that Clemson visit and subsequent confidence from their mods:

This is all massive wishful thinking. I understand that this is a fun thing to "hope" for, but it's just not overly realistic. The reality is that this kid turned out to be a giant dumbass. Hence why he's been in college for 4 years and can't transfer anywhere, and isn't even on track to graduate. So ask yourself this: if you expect him to be able to take 20, 30, however many credit hours and somehow squeeze them all in a few short months...why would he be in this situation in the first place lol? No, Hugh Freeze's master plan does not include McCall studying 24/7 over the next few months and somehow graduating so that he can transfer in. The kid isn't smart enough to accomplish that even if he wanted to. And here's the thing: if he wanted to study hard, why hasn't he been doing it already lol?