Cardin Drake

This was inevitable. The system has gotten really crazy with assistant coaches making millions, and players being penalized because somebody bought them a meal. But I'm not sure I'm going to like the brave new world. Schools can get creative with educational expenses. (How decked out will the players laptops be?), but the real game changer is still players being able to profit on their own likeness. How many $100 autographs can a school commit to for a top recruit? I'm starting to think we should just all go Ivy league on sports. Rooting for my semi-pro college team just has limited appeal to me. We'll see.

With our schedule, making the top 4 requires running the George, LSU, Bama, Georgia again gamut. Not going to happen very often. Expansion is the best thing that can happen to Auburn football. 12 teams would be great.

It's hard to get through a game with just one of them. They get tired.

A lot of people on the defensive side of Northwestern are leaving with the retirement of their defensive coordinator. This is from the public portion of a Northwestern rivals board on the 8 players entering the portal. If you are wondering if we just got a marginal player, the answer is no. Leota's a stud. Eku Leota's announcement, which came on Monday, was the stunner of the group. Leota, a redshirt sophomore, figured to be a huge part of Northwestern's defense for the next couple of years. The defensive end led the Wildcats with four sacks this season, and also added 13 tackles for loss and a forced fumble, against Purdue. A fast end with a quick get-off, Leota was the most consistent force in Northwestern's pass rush. Even though Northwestern's defensive end position is a deep one, Leota's loss will be significan for a defense that will likely have to replace a lot of talent next season. Eight players on the starting defense in Saturday's game against the Buckeyes were seniors, and it is unknown at this time how many will come back next season. This one is hard to explain. Leota was an all-Big Ten player and figured to be a guy Northwestern leaned on heavily next year to transition from Hankwitz to a new defensive coordinator.

I was just going to post that those are the two recruits that we just had to keep. I count today as a huge success that they and so many others signed. I am very, very excited about Davis. He is going to be great here. And Hunter is an awesome DT at a huge position of need. Brown's absence on the line this year is a sharp reminder of how much of a difference great tackle play makes to the defense. He was sorely missed.

It's nice that "offensive breakdown" doesn't mean "a list of what went wrong and who forgot to block who" for a change.

I'm not so sure. That game against Kentucky was closer than the score indicated. We were almost in trouble at the end of the first half. I didn't feel at all that we had the luxury of holding back. The defense stepped up in the 2nd half, and the offense did what it need to. We'll see. I don't understand the lack of passes to the tight ends and running backs, but I'm not convinced it will change. New Orleans completed 13 passes to Alvin Kamara at RB last night. I'd love to see Shivers getting the ball in space 5 yards down the field 13 times.

Good guys...

This could be viewed an athlete displaying an incredible amount of maturity and focus. Some might not view it that way. I doubt if anybody on the board knows Lee Hunter well enough to really comment intelligently on his situation. (I realize intelligent comment is not a staple of bulletin boards). I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I was very happy when Derrick Brown came back for his senior year, but I couldn't have faulted him at all had he entered the draft. I was ecstatic for him when his decision paid off for him with top of the 1st round NFL money. Lee may be a similar talent, and only he and his family can really judge what's best for him. I hope his path also leads to a big NFL payday.

D"onta Foreman, Jamaal Charles. Texas's roster not that deep right at RB right now, so that helps.

Depends on what the meaning of is is. But it is a pet peeve; when people do that I always wonder where they were educated at.

Gus has always liked having a wildcat QB. We have other candidates, but I would expect Caylin to get a shot at that. If he does well at it, who knows? It would be nice to have a wildcat QB where throwing was a real option.

Mack Brown is still trying to live down offering Robert Griffin III and Johnny Manzeil as defensive backs. I don't think Gus is planning on joining that infamous club.

I doubt Nick Marshall would have done "well" at Elite 11 competition. QB's that are elite runners win championships. That's not measured at these competitions. They have to be able to throw well too, but they can be a shade behind in pocket passing skills, especially if they can make throws on the run. I'm very excited about Davis. He's going to do great things in our offense.

Great pickup, great kid. War Eagle!

6' 5". Pretty sure we've got ourselves a dark horse for an offensive tackle spot. 🙂

Here's the thing with the state of Texas. We have a ton of quality D1 recruits. They really only have two premiere places to go in-state-Texas and Texas A&M. Other than that, it is somewhat 2nd tierish football schools-TCU, Texas Tech, SMU. So not enough quality places to go in-state for the amount of quality recruits. The population of Texas is nearing 30 million. And Texas and Texas A&M both have their own issues. Texas is still selling smoke and mirrors and "next year". Tom Herman is a good recruiter and has done well in spite of that, but that song and dance is getting old. Herman's coaching seat is getting a little warm. And playing in the Big 12 is getting less attractive. Jimbo has Texas A&M on an up cycle and he has done a good job of selling the SEC. But there are just lots of kids that don't want to hear aggie jokes for the rest of their lives, but are buying the SEC part. A&M is a good school and has a certain appeal, but it's not for everybody. Some kids just don't want to go there. We can go head to head with Texas and A&M and win, at least some of the time. Other than that, it's the same guys we always recruit against anyway. Texas is ripe. Auburn has good name recognition and can pull kids out of here to play in the SEC. We have done it, and we are going to do more of it in the future. There are good reasons to increase the focus here.

31-1 so far playing in Texas's toughest division. Guy is a stone cold winner. Yes, he's that good.

I was really impressed with the classy way Davis announced. I really, really wanted him to come. It's hard to fully appreciated how hard it is to win a 6A Div1 football state championship in Texas. This kid is a pure winner.

This is great news! Brandon is a likely starter. I'd love to get one more graduate transfer on the OL. This helps a lot, but we could still use more experience.

I've been saying for a while that it makes sense to recruit Texas. Herman is selling smoke and mirrors at Texas, and while he's pretty good at it, a lot of recruits aren't buying. A&M has raised the SEC profile in Texas quite a bit, but let's face it, going to A&M is like joining a cult, and a lot of kids in Texas would just prefer not to go there. But the SEC has a lot of allure, and it means a lot of kids will be heading east. Sure, we'll be fighting LSU, Alabama, and Georgia, but we already are everywhere else we recruit anyway.

Nope, just think Kobe Hudson has a nice ring to it...

Really, really happy to get this guy. I think he is going to be a superstar. And a great name.🤩

I'm glad the coaches forced the issue, and this didn't linger til signing day. Not hard to read the tea leaves on where this was headed. But on a scale of 1-10 of low, this was a 4, and Pickens was an 11. Kid got a late Plan B Bama offer, and took it, and acted immaturely. Pickens is a whole different level of low.

We have known we were doing that for a while. Just let me believe this is a good sign on Jones, willya? 😀