AcUmen

Roberts is the reason McGriff left and why Scott threatened to enter portal.

Because of the recent court ruling, I don't think he has to sit even if he doesn't graduate.

I don't think it happens, but if AU lands AW, LJ, KJ, and Echols, that has to be #1. LJ and KJ together are enough to get 5th. More realistically, I suspect we will land a couple more 4 stars (like AW and Echols) and wind up 7-9. No complaints here.

Auburn won't get an Air Jordan deal. Jordan has kept it one team per conference (with the exception of Pac who had both UCLA and Cal). With OU coming into the conference that will give us two Jordan schools (UF and OU). I doubt Jordan adds a third. Auburn is UA's 2nd biggest college brand (behind Notre Dame) so I am sure they will make the contract lucrative. I think switching to Nike might be more beneficial for basketball than football.

I just want to give Thorne a shout-out as well. He played a good game, gave it all he had, and deserved that win. Thorne has my respect. He plays hard, doesn't make a ton of mistakes, and isn't afraid to take shots. I like him and appreciate how he plays.

On defense, Simpson and James might be in their DB rotation. (Faulk would eventually work his way into their DL rotation). On offense, Hunter would be in their RB rotation. However, I can't think of anyone who would be a clear #1 guy on their squad. So, yeah, there's a major talent gap that's even larger than it usually is. It's a miracle AU was even in it. It should have been a 38-13 type of game.

Auburn needs to finish 10-12 this season in crootin. Even if we finish 12th, that will still only be about 7th in SEC. The 2025 class needs to be top 5 if we ever want to compete consistently at the top of the league. And top 5 might not be good enough (Bama/UGA finish 1 and 2 every season).

If Freeze didn't know who was back there on the punt return, well that is inexcusable. You don't put a guy with a history of muffing punts back there in such a critical situation. And if Freeze didn't know about it, then I dunno what to say.

Putting Koy Moore back there was inexcusable. The dude has muffed many punts before. Why not just put Keonte in like they had all game? And the prevent defense on 4th and 31 was ridiculous. Both were coaching failures.

The defensive call on 4th and long lost the game. What's that old saying, prevent defense only prevents you from winning.

Just a historically bad Auburn loss. Nothing new. The question will be how many recruits now flip to Bama/UGA/UF/FSU. Hugh just killed all momentum in recruiting. The 2024 class wasn't that great to begin with (9th in SEC), so AU absolutely cannot afford to lose people.

It's even worse than that. I did some digging on stats myself and found out the following: When looking at how teams have passed against P5 competition, AU is ranked 125 out of 126 teams. Only team worse is Eastern Michigan. This means that every Go5 school (except one) has passed for more yards against P5 competition than AU has. Against all FBS competition, AU is averaging 110 yards per game. Against P5 competition only, AU is averaging 78 yards per game. I honestly can't believe it is this bad. We probably haven't been this bad at passing since before 1986 when AU ran the wishbone. (Actually, let me check that)... Nope, I was wrong, we passed for 115 yards per game in 1985 (when we had Bo winning the Heisman). So that means when AU was running wishbone we passed better than we're passing now (not by much, but still better). Of course, we have faced the toughest defenses we will face this year. UGA and TAMU both have top tier defenses, so I expect the stats to get better as the year goes on. (I do have faith in Hugh to get it done).

Best player in all of college football, imo. I suspect he will be a top 10 draft pick as well. I can't recall a better TE that AU has faced.

Hugh Freeze obviously chose Roberts over Kelly for a reason (despite having the option of hiring either). I will trust his judgement. You see, he is paid $6 million to make these decisions, while most people on this board don't know the first thing about coaching. BTW, I am not bashing Kelly, as I am sure he's a good coach. But there's a lot more to consider than just googling some stats. Making a hire isn't that simple.

Me too. He also has a lot of experience coaching with Freeze.