AUinfusion

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

Doesn't seem to be looking promising.

I really hate that. I would live to see Shiver's speed versus PSU's front seven.

Loosing him against Penn State would hurt. His speed would really shine against PSU, IMHO.

I love all of the defenders who look like they barely got their heads turned around in time to watch him scream past them on the way to the goal line.

17 minutes ago, steeleagle said:

Can’t figure out why Mason has kept 29 and 99 in the game so late. 
 

also noticed he put back a lot of the DB starters too on this last Akron drive. 

womder what Masons reasoning is? 

Hopefully he’s setting some expectations. I felt like the second string DBs we’re not playing to their potential, so it’s a good message (IMHO) to lose playing time over that.

Was is it Campbell who said that he decided to commit to AU when he watched AU lose to UA, in Auburn, and the entire AU fan base stayed in the stadium chanting "It's great, to be, an Auburn Tiger" even after the loss? Seems like I remember that was him. We need some of that fan energy back.

52 minutes ago, Paladin said:

 

He's got a little bit of Kenny Irons "running like he's on fire" in him. I'll take that all day long.

1 hour ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

There was a Bama fan s**t posting on the rant about how Auburn looked “very undersized”, based on these practice videos. 
 

Nothing a little deer antler spay won't fix... 😉

3 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Big flaw in my entire online footprint, but especially here. 

I don't know what you two guys are talking about. What good is entertainment if it doesn't cause health issues, fractured friendships and a general worsening of our perception of our own life?

😉

Yeah, it is ENTIRELY possible to have a fun, we-are-family vibe AND be hard-assed and unrelenting about improvement and discipline, and you can present both side of that up-front. It would be nice to see that in action for a year, and have some players actually able to attest that "yeah, we have great fun when it's time to have fun, we work as hard as we can when it's time to work hard, and we are brothers throughout".

I am one of those who is naturally optimistic, but am having a hard time being optimistic about our current recruiting. That said, I think Riley-Ducker is an absolute steal. He has the kind of attitude we want on this team, IMHO.

9 hours ago, Mikey said:

Because it's going to work like this: School A tells 5* recruit they promise that he can sell 500 autographs at $1,000 each. Then school B says they'll sell 1,000 at $1,000 each.  That's how it's going to be.

Pretty sure the equivalent of that is already happening under the table. What was the store in T-Town that was giving away suits and managing the sale of signed photos?

I like to see all of those linemen in this group. Hardin really does seem to be focusing on the state of Alabama. It will be interesting to see how he manages to compete against Saban on the big name prospects.

It’s starting to feel like our priority in recruiting at this moment is “kids who went to high school in Alabama”.

49 minutes ago, Rednilla said:

With Ingram, we have 3 backs who have been successful in college. 

I don't think Ingram has actually played in college. I don't think he saw the field with CM, but I'm not sure it that's because he was a freshman, enrolled late, or what.

2 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Sigh. That's not what's happening at all. 

People are making him out to be better than he is. It's not a "desire to tear down" anyone or anything to correct that inaccuracy. There is no emotion in this. The emotion tends to come from those who want to defend certain players and coaches at the expense of honest assessments of the team.

You could say this about many guys on the team. You could probably say it about some of the OLs to whose defense nobody really seems to rush when all of Bo's problems are placed on them and the calls for replacement are shouted out. 

In my best Dwight Schrute voice, “false”. Everyone feels that they are on the rational side and “the others” are on the emotional side. Everyone is just correcting the errors of “the others”. The reality is that there is plenty of emotion and fudging of analysis on both “sides”, and now people are starting to react to each other. There shouldn’t be a “side” other than the AU side, but AU fans seem to love to do this.

My personal “correction” would be that a few people seem to be asserting that, at this moment, Finley is a better talent than Bo (so if neither improves anything, Finley is the better prospect). This seems based primarily on Finley’s one really good game (USCe), and seems to ignore the fact that in 2020 Bo finished higher than Finley in *every single QB stat*. Bo has some problems to correct. Finley has some problems to correct. As far as I can tell, neither is a bad guy, both wear the Orange and Blue (now) and both deserve some level of support.

I’m happy to defend the OL who are trying, and I will (it is, honestly, harder to go through and really see how the OL are performing, individually). I did see multiple plays last year where at least one of our OL (won’t name names) was largely just watching the play happen, so I was pretty frustrated with that guy last year. I do think it’s unfair not to credit Bo’s effort. No one could call his effort average, even compared to other D1 players.

As for who starts next year, no one really knows, because there are dozens of factors that will impact that decision, some of which might include apples-to-oranges comparisons (In offensive system A, I would rather have a QB who is pretty good at X than a QB who is super great at Y). I’m very glad that we got Finley, because we need another option in the QB room, and I honestly hope it works out where all three guys get their chance to become great players at AU.

Also, in case it's not clear, I'm being logical and everyone else is being emotional (what was the sarcasm color, again?).

I'll never understand the desire to tear down AU players who are committed to the team and trying hard. If the guy breaks a teammate's jaw, or can't stay out of trouble from parties and police, sure, dump on them, but why go out of the way to dump on a player that is busting his ass *trying* to win? I'm seeing people just cherry pick either good or bad moments to make what are honestly biased comparisons. Is either QB perfect? Nope. Both have made bone headed throws and while Bo bails on the pocket too early, Finley stays in it too long. Bo may or may not improve his accuracy and pocket presence, but you're going to have a hard time finding a player that will outwork him.
 

52 minutes ago, Dual-Threat Rigby said:

I don’t think height is Bo’s detriment so I didn’t mention it, but it’d be pretty ******* difficult to get a pass batted down from Finley, which might be a pro with this OLine

Actually, in the last AU vs LSU game, our DL batted down one of his passes and an LB intercepted it. The downside to being steady in the pocket is that... he's steady in the pocket, even its collapsing all around him. He and Bo both have things to work on.

5 minutes ago, DAG said:

The problem is we are hoping to keep two supposedly starters and that is not the way things work. The risk is going to be there regardless . So yes, if TJ comes and wins the job fair and square , Bo could transfer and that’s the way it goes. I would rather have a competent QB come in and start with success versus quality depth. I feel like this is the only position where folks tend to try to compromise 

I understand this position as it's been stated by several posters. I have no idea what TJ would do, assuming he signs, if Bo starts next year, but it's a really solid bet that Bo would leave if TJ starts, b/c his window for ever starting again at AU just shrunk to nil. In a perfect world we have *two* high quality QBs on the roster with a two year gap between them. Not saying that's how it would play out, but there is more of a chance of that scenario with Bo starting than TJ starting (unless you start looking at TJ --> DD?).

1 hour ago, DAG said:

There is a huge discussion about this in the recruiting thread, but why would this be the best case? Wouldn't the best case be to have the best player here to play the QB position ?

I feel like some people are misreading the AUCiv90's post, semi-purposely, due to previous conversations on the subject. AUCiv explains his reason pretty plainly. If I read him correctly we have to have space between high calibre QBs to keep them from transferring. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but if *both* are potentially really good players, if the JR loses out to the So, the JR is gone (transfer portal). The other way around, Finley could play a few games, RS, and have two years left as a starter. This is honestly why I was hoping to see Gatewood pull ahead of Bo. Bo could have RS'd and put enough buffer between him and Joey to make waiting his turn reasonable.

It's interesting how *young* this guy looks in the pics I can find of him. I wonder if Harsin is thinking he's got a lot more ceiling?

7 hours ago, Rednilla said:

Also, seems to me that helps start building the pipeline from Mobile. Pretty sure there's a guard from St. Paul's in the 2022 class that we might be interested in...

These are the recruiting conversations that are interesting to me. I have trouble, from a pure talent standpoint, of seeing Cody Brown as a "don't even look at him" and Ingram as an "immediate take". I'll grant that I could be wrong on that, too, but I'm sure Harsin has a larger, multi-faceted strategic plan for recruiting and it's interesting to discuss what that may be.

2 hours ago, Zeek said:

Big back with a lot of wiggle despite his size. Decent not great speed. Decent route running and hands out of the backfield. Plus he's a somewhat local kid which is a nice addition. 

Believe to be essentially a lock and has 4 years to play. However, he has coursework he has to finish before we could even accept him.

Interesting. I would like to hear from those more knowledgeable than me why Ingram is a quick take and Brown was a no go, especially given the "not great speed" comment. Not trying to start an argument, just honestly interested in the thought, here.

Did he play at all at Central Michigan? It doesn't look like it.

1 minute ago, steeleagle said:

Still disappointing there are no lineman left in that transfer target list. I hope there are more but they just haven't been leaked. I expect most have already been gobbled up, but we have to know we need some depth and if possible an improvement with at least 1 or 2 transfers.

Yeah, I expected to get a bit of a recruiting bump with Coach Will Friend, but it feels like we don't get much of a look with the OL transfers that pop up. I'm feeling a lot better about our transfer portal efforts, but we really need an OT (and maybe a center),  IMHO.

I typically don't like a lot of skill position comparisons between new (potential) players and previous players because I think that they tend to be wrong. I also tend not to put a lot of stock in the "we found the three star that is really a five star" assertions because I've been around long enough to recognize that stars matter when we are getting them, and they don't matter when we are not getting them. All of that said... this kid reminds me a lot of Tank in the way he runs. He is adamant about no being tackled, moves like a water beetle picking his way through traffic and has great body control such that if you fail to wrap him he will just bounce off of a hit and keep on trucking. I'm hoping that he really is 6'-0", 195lbs as an 11th grader, because I see a LOT of potential in him.

7 hours ago, steeleagle said:

This thread has really gone off the rails. How did we get from Powell's physique to burgers and beer?

I guess once he gets onto Pat Dye Field we will have to call Powell, '5 Guys Powell'!!

I’ll take the blame for this rabbit hole.