bostic up the middle

This is spot on...improvement all around and keep that fight going. One of the things I hope to see is an amazing environment. The AU Fam needs to bring it before, during and after. Our team needs us and it needs to be electric! It also won't hurt to show out for the large number of recruits we have coming as well.

Imagine for a moment that there is a group of people that love an institution so much, they complain in a publicly searchable forum about young men that come to defend their beloved institution, giving pause to other young men who might want to join their family and take up their fight. I know we are upset. We have been in search of a direction since 2018 and it sucks. But these young men chose to come here. Some chose to come a while ago and made the decision to stay, a few chose to spend their final year of eligibility at Auburn and others used their only transfer to play at Auburn. These are D1 athletes...evaluated by D1 coaches. A players performance due to positioning or the scheme they were put in, should be attributed to THAT and the coach called out. It is the COACHES job to get the right people in the right seats on the bus. Please quit calling out players. I want more of these bright young men to come to Auburn and return our football program to greatness. I don't care what state they came from, what university they used to play for. If they are evaluated to benefit this program and given a scholarship to defend our name, then I say, "War Damn Eagle" to them. If that proves not to be the case, for whatever reason, that is on the adult in the room and we need to remember that. Support these young men...and yes, at the moment, support these coaches. Believe in the process and believe that the coaches are scheming and designing plays that fit the strengths we have vs the strengths our opponents have. We are excited to have a solid direction and solid recruiting for the first 9 months, but don't let a little dose of reality change our support for the team. Things said on this forum about a player can only hurt that players (and possibly future players) belief in Auburn. War Eagle, and beat UGA!

agreed. the foundation is being built. heavy on the xfrs to stop the bleeding, and recruiting for long-term success. 2010 and '13 spoiled us, it's easy to forget that was due to the 2004-2007 and 2010-2011 recruiting classes.

forgot to mention, the data backs up a 3-year delay from recruiting success to on the field success. The transfer portal has changed that; however, it is still not immediate. Colorado's success is unique and can be attributed to the fact that a good portion of skill players from Prime's previous team came with him. They had already had time to gel, learn about each other and build trust. That point cannot be overlooked.

visual trends (they line up with success on the field too). I'll update that data in the next few weeks.

Agreed. He was confident, but didn't come off arrogant. His approach to recruits put them in the mindset that they are competing to learn from him, a page from Saban's playbook. His interaction with the Rock was classic!

your indention to detail is amazing 🙂

A simple set of packages executed to perfection. Thorne confident and in-charge. Running back rotated effectively with no drop-off in production Remaining out of the Top 25 before our SEC opener

This isn't the entire interview, there was more talk about the game before this and a question about his best Hugh Freeze impression after this (which he declined to do for fear of running laps 🙂 ). I'll keep an eye out for the whole segment. http://www.secsports.com/video/38394742

My initial reaction while watching was that something didn't feel right all night. Being an out-of-conference game with an un-ranked team, I assume the play book was closed for Cal and we installed packages just for that game situation. Possibly live-fire testing and assessment. It doesn't seem fair to judge QB play on that game, maybe preparedness or adjustments. I believe when we get to SEC play, things will look different.

FYI - Eugene Asante will be on "Out of Pocket" on the SEC network tonight at 7pm Eastern - interviewed by non other than our very own Takeo Spikes!

I trust Cadillac to put the right rotation on the field more than I do myself 🙂

here is one of his comments - around 0:38 - down two DBs in the second half played a bunch of freshmen https://www.espn.com/video/clip/_/id/38366909

late reply! yes, Freeze said in a post game interview he wasn't sure if the person asking the question realized that after a few injuries, we played a bunch of freshmen in the 4th quarter.

Thank you for the articles. I have creeped on AUF for years, always looking forward to your list of articles - and never said thank you! I knew the story of the day would be the TX vs AL game result, but I figured we would get more air time (either good or bad) since we were only 1 of 2 SEC teams to beat and out of conference opponent. Chris Doering on SEC this Morning did have a positive, yet measured, view of our win. I guess until we find our offensive identity, it is probably best to fly under the radar while we figure things out

I think the video above from the TX sideline is (sadly) typical of any inebriated fan after a beat down by a team they believed would come in scared. That doesn't excuse any racist, homophobic or any other personal attacks. They are trying anything they can to get a rise out of the players and kudos to them for ignoring this fool. In today's college football world, these regional or cultural taunts are even more ridiculous. Take the inbred taunts by Cal fans, do they realized that Mosiah Nasili-Kite, one of our DL is from Cali? Just as it would be for our fans to make fun of west coast people with three or four of them on our roster as well. When I was younger, I was one of these young idiots spouting off at the mouth at something I thought was the most important thing in the world. Hopefully, they realize or are taught that these are 18-21 year old kids playing a game to make money. If they really feel the need to yell, make it about their game and performance. Everything else is a personal attack and shows your ignorance. The problem today is there are cameras everywhere. Growing is now a public experience.

Shhhhh - don't say that about the T column on a public thread. The other teams will figure it out😬

I feel like we do, but they aren't comfortable with each other or the offense yet. But, yeah, it would be nice for the WRs and tight ends to be in sync with the QBs - like what Manziel had around him to make him so successful.

I agree @passthebiscuits, this game was a difficult situation for us and we came out with a W. We played a bunch of freshmen, didn't open the play book too much, and got some live experience against a decent team. Cal could end up running the table and this W at their house looks amazing. They could also lose a few more games and this W is about in-game gelling and travel experience. We should Take the dub, enjoy our Sunday and our families and take pride in the fact that we were only one of two SEC teams to win out-of-conference games this weekend and the only one to win on the road. WDE

one more!COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL computer picks auburn: -3.91

Thank you @southern_sports. This game is such a conundrum for Auburn. The upside is small, even with a win. Say we win, is it a good win? Did we learn anything about our team? We still won't have those answers, yet. If we win by a little vs. a lot, what does that mean? Either way, there won't be much talk about the win. With all due respect...it's Cal. The same could be said for Cal beating Auburn. We are both recovering from last year. The one downside I see in (possibly) winning is opening up the playbook and still not being in SEC play. But if we lose, the sky will be falling on the plains. It will be overreactions galore. Will those reactions be warranted? "We still won't have all the answers, yet." Cal could go on to destroy the twelve-pac, beat Deion and his Buffs by 20, destroy Oregon and losing to them at Cal, early in the season won't look too bad. If they do the opposite, then we look the opposite. I feel like we have the dub on Sunday morning. I think it will be close to the fourth quarter. I think Mr. Freeze will try to keep the playbook closed and just out talent them. Either way, I pray we walk out with no injuries and a stronger team with more experience regardless of the result.

I think we are good talent-wise, it's the gellin' of first time teammates I'm worried about

just rant through a few of their sub-reddits and nothing mentioned there.🤷‍♂️

Agreed - and speaking of having a single data point, I am a firm believer that all polls should not release their first ranking until the 4th or 5th week. Things have to shake out for a while to really see where a team is. I don't subscribe to the thought that there have to be pre-season and week 1 polls to generate interest in a game in the first week or two. We are so starved for football in week 1 and 2, we will watch darn near anything!

SEC this Morning power rankings segment mentioned AU at #5 in the top 5 (not #5 in the conf, just top 5 things they saw this weekend) - "Freeze warning, Auburn won the off-season, got fans together and bought-in, offensive balance good on Saturday, mix of Thorne and Ashford worked well." We weren't mentioned in the bottom 5 or in the tape of crucial WR drops across the SEC.