8 hours ago, Mikey said:

Thanks to NIL and the current transfer rules I've already lost a great deal of my interest in college sports. I suppose I'll always want Auburn to do well but my thoughts and money are already going elsewhere. What I'm giving to AU is completely on the academic side.

Same here. I guess I've been fooling myself for better football for a long time, but what's the point in b-level pros? If I want that, I can go watch the Birmingham Stallions for a LOT cheaper. 

Well, at least we can say both corners of the stadium will now need sunglasses. 

A bit dramatic, but there is a change in the dynamic so far. Saban quickly dominated national recruiting and turned his defensive knowledge into a feared weapon. Freeze has unquestionably made quick strides in recruiting, but on the field, he still seems very wishy-washy and out of sorts. Hopefully his taking responsibility for playcalling will pay dividends and shape up a more cohesive staff. People have questioned Saban's actual in game coaching at times, but one thing he always excelled at was rolling with the changes in the game and making the most out of his talent. Freeze will have to improve on that level quite a bit before we can start comparing. 

4 hours ago, Chaotic_zx said:

Now that we are into the discussion of Durkin's coaching. I have been trying to read on some concerns TAMU fans had when he was their DC. They mentioned that his defenses gave up 40 yard runs or 40 yard passes consistently. His defenses had a tendency to give up third and longs. Apparently would make some sort of face(blank stare maybe) on the sideline that they didn't care for. 

Giving up third and longs, 40 yard runs, and 40 yard passes. Where have I seen that before?

 

He sounds very much a bend don't break, heavy DB philosophy kind of like Mason. 

Apparently we like that sort of defensive approach, because that's where we tend to land. Until our secondary grows up a bit, it might be messy to watch. 

Glad they got a hire before spring, but I just don’t want to hear about “building a culture” anymore.

18 minutes ago, toddc said:

I don’t think so. CHF has done really well in the portal to fill needs. I’m not sure why this narrative is so prevalent in here.

Manny Navarro of The Athletic recently revealed his winnersand losers from the SEC when it comes to their activity in the transfer portal. At the front of the “winners” list is Auburn. Navarro says the Tigers’ transfer additions have outweighed their departures.

QB is a need. Thorne is not SEC level and that will continue to equal losses. D-line is thin, linebackers thin, we got a couple of offensive linemen who can possibly start, but stress on possibly and we’re still thin there. WR is going to be very thin on experience. 
 

I just don’t see it. To me, he looks like he’s gambling heavily on freshman at too many key positions…and he’ll have to renegotiate pay with most of them going into year three. 

On 1/26/2024 at 9:38 PM, AUwent said:

I will say, Freeze deserves four years

The game has changed. There are no longer guarantees of keeping any roster together longer than one regular season, so talk of "getting his players" is less a four year proposition than it once was. 

Hugh has done a good job recruiting high school. He has done a poor job in the portal. If he wants to make it four years, that will have to change, because every team is going to get their talent poached year to year. It's the new reality of college football and if he decides to leave the coaching to his assistants again this coming season, year three's seat is going to be scorching hot. 

3 minutes ago, ScotsAU said:

 I don’t love the idea of bringing Durkin on given his past. But I’d rather have the stability of a Durkin if this is true.

Durkin hasn't been at any stop more than two years for most of his career. I don't see him as a stability hire, either. 

Waiting on Kiffen is the only thing that makes sense. I haven't seen any homerrun hires mentioned in this search, so I'm hoping we just get someone in for the spring and get this over with. 

What was the last team we had with reliable shooters?

On 1/22/2024 at 5:51 PM, Hank2020 said:

My thoughts are that Kiffin strategy is better. Use most of NIL to get proven good/great players every year and using schollys/smaller NIL offering for HS players to build around them.

It’s all a risk right now, but I think it’s a bad idea to ignore either side. You’re going to have to re-recruit your roster every single year, but Auburn also can’t ignore the holes we have going into the next couple of years. Freeze obviously feels comfortable with the patience of the money men, but the fans will wear thin if he isn’t in a clearly better place in year three. We lose a lot of starting pieces going into this season and offensive improvement is no guarantee with the inexperience at key positions. If some of that high school talent gets bought away going into year three, Hugh will have a lot of ground to make up in the portal, which he hasn’t handled all that well to date. 
 

Success as a head coach to me seems more about overall roster management than purely high school recruiting. Freeze is gambling a bit. We’ll see how that works out.

21 minutes ago, aujohnson said:

As far as the culture question goes, there are so many variables to something like that…it would definitely give me pause I just hope that those that are making the decision get all the info to make the right call. Culture is after all what all the talk has been about getting it right.

The Harsin hire was supposed to address "culture". It made it more toxic than it has in many years. Our response was to hire a controversial head coach. More culture problems developed within his first staff. If we hire a guy known for creating a toxic culture moreso than anything his defenses have accomplished, it's hard to take the "culture" talk seriously. 

12 hours ago, toddc said:

going 6-7 in Year 1 under Freeze, including three straight losses to begin the season.

15 minutes ago, PigskinPat said:

He just couldn’t stay away from that second paragraph, could he? 😂

I feel like before the OM communications department got a hold of it, it was basically this:

18 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Sorry.  Situation is very fluid.  Hugh has a plan and is working it perfectly 

1 hour ago, TigerVII said:

To me the worst-case scenario would be repeating the insanity of the last 4 years - hiring someone like Chad Morris, Mike Bobo, or Montgomery for more than $1 million per year on a multi-year contract and then firing him after one year while still owing him the balance of the contract.  I'm sick of paying assistant coaches (and their agents) to coach elsewhere.

Hiring someone like Luper. Porter or McGee for RB coach (as your post suggested) with Austin as QB coach is a better scenario than the terrible OC carousel we've been riding.  It will be a lot less expensive, meaning more money for recruiting.

Freeze will sink or swim with whoever he hires at this point. I just hope whoever he hires knows how to do more than only recruit. 

1 hour ago, EagleEye67 said:

There is some pretty stiff competition 

No kidding. The last time bama had uncertainty in their football program, Finebaum got big enough to get on satellite radio and eventually ESPN just from their fans alone. 

37 minutes ago, DAG said:

Go ahead and bring back Coach Craig 

Has that guy ever been a part of a major football program that wasn't overflowing with disfunction? 

2 hours ago, japantiger said:

The real reason I don't like the Freeze hire (his past and coaching shortcomings aside) is because there was never an actual coaching search.  The admin zeroed in on him immediately and that was it.  The admin screwed us, again; and here we are in half-assed land, again.  All the while ALA and UGA move farther and farther away and let's throw TX and OK into the SEC mix now on top of that.  Having a bad season while something is building is tolerable; this ain't that.

 

We are just not a very forward thinking program. The way things are, there are two primary considerations for a head coach. They have to be a salesman to keep the booster money flowing. Freeze has proven good at this. They also have to be able to prioritize and manage the portal. Freeze is terrible at this and it's going to become a slow leak on any recruiting gains he makes. 

NIL has allowed these kids to be what they are... amateurs looking to land a payday. As we speak, teams are shelling out major money to land QBs like Thorne or G5 skill players with some stats to fill holes. The biggest bank accounts will wait out freshman years and head hunt blue-chips in the portal. Right now, you've got highly recruited players on rosters seeing Jack State talent get paydays and I can't imagine it's good for team chemistry. That will require a lot of management skills from coaches to keep locker rooms stable. I think Freeze stinks at this. It also doesn't seem like Freeze enjoys taking charge of his staff. He's a high school coach that had a blip on the radar and he's in over his head. Unless he surrounds himself with pros who know how to manage like pros, we're going to have a hard time getting back up off the mat. This is no longer a three, four year build. It's year to year. Every year has to count. 

35 minutes ago, GreenTiger said:

We will soon find out if portal or HS recruiting is more important. I’m leaning towards the art of portaling  being the more important factor for success. 

They’re tied together, as Hugh will learn with his first big class soon enough.

8 hours ago, aubaseball said:

It’s the same as a Hail Mary.   If the play fails, the game is over because no more timeouts by Bama.   And I know it wasn’t a Hail Mary, I was comparing the supposedly impossible play to that play because it was a do or die situation 

It's an important distinction, though, because he had a long time without pressure to let our coverage collapse and get that receiver open in the back corner against an off balance defender. That was not desperation. Desperation would have been what would have happened if we would have brought pressure and forced him to hurry his decision. But, that's not what happened. 

5 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

That’s kinda a misleading stat.   I’ve seen a share of Hail Mary attempts be successful.    I’m not excusing the play because I think it was bundled by everyone, players and coaches.  

That wasn't a hail mary. 

9 minutes ago, ScotsAU said:

 I challenge everyone to step back and take a wholistic view of the program. 

Ok. We are bad on the lines, particularly offense and haven't seen much progress on repairing that. We lack a QB. Our receivers will get an upgrade in first year talent next season, theoretically, but who will throw them the ball? Running backs are decent to good. Special teams will be more of a question mark after this year. Secondary loses some players. Schedule gets tougher, conference gets tougher. Add to that we have a head coach who likes to passive-aggressively attack his own staff and shrug off responsibility. We're recruiting well, but from now on, that's only a one-year projection for any major talent. We're not doing very well in the portal, to date. 

Our own head coach has repeatedly suggested we lack leadership and I think he is a key part of that issue. Games like NMSU and Maryland are not flukes, they're warning signs and I really found Freeze's response to this bowl loss unsettling. He is going to have to demonstrate that this is HIS team, and to date I don't think he has done that. If he can change that and show some actual improvement and progress ON the field, I'll be much more enthusiastic about the direction of this team. But in this NIL/portal era, things have to turn around a lot faster than Freeze seems to count on or you're just stuck in a hole. 

I wouldn't waste any significant money trying to reruit this Liberty QB, but if he can be brought in at a reasonable rate, it would be worth the competition. I think the portal has too many once again seeing G5 players with a heavy dose of orange bias, but I don't think we have an SEC level QB currently on the roster, so the competition would be welcome. 

16 minutes ago, aucanucktiger said:

2025 is our year. People will just have to learn how to be at least somewhat patient.

How is this completely decimated roster suddenly going to have enough talent, depth and experience for it to be “our year” in a mere two seasons when we can’t even find a pulse with equal or better talent now? 
 

Do you actually think Auburn fans haven’t been patient?

11 minutes ago, autigeremt said:

Some fans see it for what it is and can give him time to rebuild from the ashes. If he doesn't get it going on the field next season and in 2025 I will be happy to join the "run his ass out of town" crowd. 

Some fans act like we've won 6 National Titles in 12 years. 

And some act like we’re playing with Sunbelt level talent at every position. Neither are true and Freeze underachieved his first season, to put it kindly. He’s got two more to produce results on the field. I hope he puts more effort into that side of things going forward.