12/20/22 Auburn Articles

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"Attacking, stopping the run first," Reed said of Roberts' defensive philosophies . . .

 

4-star DL Darron Reed ‘recruited a lot’ during Auburn’s big weekend of visits

Nathan King

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Less than a month ago, Auburn’s head coach-less staff made another push to bring a local 4-star recruit on board in their 2023 class.

This weekend on the Plains, Darron Reed attempted to repay the favor.

The top-200 recruit made his first visit to Auburn since flipping from LSU in late November. The D-lineman of course wanted to meet his new head coach, position coach and defensive coordinator, but Reed also spent the weekend chipping in where he could with the bevy of other recruits — both from the high-school level and transfer market — and attempting to recruit them to join him next year.

“I recruited a lot,” Reed said. “... I forgot all their names. There was a lot of them.”

Rated as the No. 26 defensive lineman in the 247Sports Composite, Reed is the second-best prospect in the Tigers’ class, right behind running back Jeremiah Cobb.

One of his recruiting targets was fellow defensive lineman Wilky Denaud, a 4-star pass-rusher from Florida. Denaud was tight with assistant coach Roc Bellantoni, who was not retained on Hugh Freeze’s staff, and Florida State has been creeping up, attempting to get in the mix for a possible flip ahead of Wednesday’s early signing period. Denaud also visited Indiana last weekend.

But Reed is confident Auburn doesn’t have anything to worry about.

“I think I did my thing with him,” Reed said.

Reed committed when Auburn still had defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding, and this weekend Reed spent time with new DC Ron Roberts, who most recently spent the past three seasons at Baylor.

“I talked to him a lot, really all weekend,” Reed said of Roberts. “We talked about the defense, all that, where he sees me playing at.”

Roberts sees Reed, at 6-foot-4 and 270 pounds, playing “anywhere across the D-line” in a scheme Reed called a base 4-3.

“Attacking, stopping the run first,” Reed said of Roberts’ defensive philosophies.

Reed’s position coach was changed, too, since his last visit in October. Jimmy Brumbaugh was not retained, and Jeremy Garrett comes over from Liberty. Garrett has been on the road recruiting for the better part of three weeks, but one of his first priorities after being hired was to link up with Reed.

“Great dude,” Reed said. “First time he hit me up we had a great conversation not even on a football level, just outside of football. Just talking and getting to know each other.”

Reed said he’ll sign Wednesday, during a ceremony at Carver High School (Columbus, Ga.) at approximately 9 a.m.

There won’t be any fireworks there, with an important signee simply making things official. That can’t be said for other recruits, though, as Reed claimed Auburn will surely see the fruits of its massive weekend of visitors within the next few days.

“We’ve got a lot of stuff coming,” Reed said. “That’s all I’m going to say. Big weekend.”

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Zac Etheridge ‘here to stay’ as part of Hugh Freeze’s Auburn staff

Updated: Dec. 19, 2022, 8:46 p.m.|Published: Dec. 19, 2022, 8:43 p.m.

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Nov 19, 2022; Auburb, AL, USA; Coach Zac Etheridge during Tiger Walk before the game between Auburn and Western Kentucky at Jordan Hare Stadium. Todd Van Emst / AU Athletics Todd Van Emst / AU Athletics

Zac Etheridge is officially remaining at his alma mater.

Etheridge has been expected to remain on staff under new Auburn coach Hugh Freeze -- and has been out recruiting for the Tigers the last several weeks leading up to the start of the early signing period -- but the former Auburn captain and national champion made it official Monday. Etheridge announced late Monday afternoon that he is “here to stay” at Auburn and will be a part of Freeze’s inaugural staff on the Plains.

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Etheridge just completed his second year on staff at his alma mater, coaching the Tigers’ defensive backs and serving as the program’s recruiting coordinator this past season. He was hired by former coach Bryan Harsin in January 2021 to be part of his inaugural staff and coach cornerbacks. Etheridge chose to remain at Auburn last offseason despite overtures from other programs, including defending national champion Georgia, where coach Kirby Smart attempted to lure Etheridge to Athens, Ga., for a role on staff with the Bulldogs.

In deciding to remain at Auburn last offseason, Etheridge received a raise as well as the added title of recruiting coordinator and defensive backs coach -- overseeing the entire secondary instead of just the cornerbacks. He earned $600,000 during the 2022 season as part of a new two-year contract. New terms for Etheridge to remain at Auburn on Freeze’s staff have not yet been released by the university.

A former four-year starter at Auburn and captain on the 2010 national championship team, Etheridge previously worked at Houston during the 2019 and 2020 seasons before returning to the Plains as an assistant coach. The former All-America defensive back began his foray into coaching in 2012 as a graduate assistant at Penn State. That was followed by two seasons as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech, which led to his first on-field assistant opportunity at Western Carolina in 2016. He spent two seasons at Western Carolina coaching cornerbacks and outside linebackers before coaching cornerbacks at Louisiana in 2018, when he worked under then-Ragin’ Cajuns defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, who was recently hired as Auburn’s defensive coordinator.

As of Monday evening, Freeze still had two on-field roles to fill on his inaugural staff: wide receivers coach and linebackers coach, the latter opening after Christian Robinson was not retained last week.

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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Hugh Freeze, with some sadness, ‘cheering hard’ for Liberty as Flames prepare for Boca Raton Bowl

Updated: Dec. 20, 2022, 7:07 a.m.|Published: Dec. 20, 2022, 7:04 a.m.

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Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze speaks during his introductory press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 29 2022 in Auburn, Ala. Todd Van Emst/AU AthleticsTodd Van Emst/AU Athletics/AU At

Hugh Freeze will be watching with interest - even sadness - when Liberty attempts to win its fourth straight bowl game when its plays Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The game will be live streamed on fuboTV (free trial).

The Flames will be led by interim coach Josh Aldridge after Freeze took Auburn’s head coaching job.

“What an incredible journey,” Freeze tweeted Tuesday morning. “Today, I will watch with some sadness to not be there as our guys go for their 4th straight bowl win. I’m forever grateful for the laughs, big wins, tears and most of all the memories with you all. Go get #4!!! I will be cheering hard from The Plains.”

Toledo, meanwhile, is 1-4 in its past five bowl appearances and has lost four straight bowl games under coach Jason Candle.

The two teams have only met three times, but not since 2007. Toledo has won each time.

Liberty and Toledo kick off at 6:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Freeze took over at Liberty in 2019 where he compiled a 34-15 record, including 8-4 this year. The Flames ended the season with three straight losses, including a 49-14 blowout against New Mexico State.

Mark Heim is a sports reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim.

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Auburn Football: Breaking Down Ron Roberts’s Defensive Scheme

Caleb Williams

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New Auburn football defensive coordinator Ron Roberts ingratiated himself to Auburn Twitter with a deep-fried profile picture Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

 

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New Auburn Football Head Coach Hugh Freeze has hired the first defensive coordinator of his tenure on the Plains. Ron Roberts, who has spent the last three years as defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at Baylor University under Dave Aranda, has accepted an offer to become the new defensive coordinator for the Tigers.

In an official statement from Auburn University, Coach Freeze called Ron Roberts “a great fit for what we are wanting to do on both sides of the ball.” Coach Roberts also said in this announcement that, “we want to be aggressive, put pressure on opposing defenses and fly to the football.”

What Auburn football Fans Should Expect from a Ron Roberts Defense

When looking at a defense that is coached by Ron Roberts, we can look no further than the 2021 Baylor defense, which gave up less than 350 yards per game and less than 18 points per game in an offensively oriented Big 12 Conference. Roberts has utilized a base 4-2-5 nickel defense throughout his career to allow for more flexibility in both pass coverage and run defense.

On the surface, the 4-2-5 is one of several forms of the nickel defense, which puts six defenders in the box and 5 defenders in the secondary. By balancing the number of defenders on the frontend and the backend of the defense, defenses do not have to commit numbers to either the run or the pass and can traditionally defend both out of the same coverage.

The 4-2-5 is the most popular defensive scheme in 2022 because of how well it translates to both spread offenses and smashmouth pro-style attacks. This is because there are theoretically as many as ten run defenders and seven pass defenders on the field at all times.

All four corners, including the nickelbacker, who is a cornerback/outside linebacker hybrid and traditionally plays in the slot, can fill the box. Both true linebackers can drop into coverage. This style of defense is extremely versatile for adapting to the many styles of offense that Auburn football will face in the 2023 season and beyond.

Run Defense

In the run defense, Roberts will use what he has endearingly called “creepers”, which are non-defensive linemen used to blitz and create pressure. The beauty of this is that there is an extra man in the box to stop perimeter run plays like outside zone and jet sweep so that the defensive line and linebackers do not have to pursue long distances. In a day and age where teams are looking to get the ball to the perimeter with all five eligible receivers, this can greatly help contain outside runs from turning the corner.

Utilizing a 4-2-5 with creepers also ensures that there are enough players in the box to stop both gap and zone blocking schemes. Traditionally, gap schemes are run against even front defenses, like 4-2-5, 4-3, 4-1 dime defenses, whereas zone schemes are typically run against odd fronts, such as 3-3-5, 3-2-6, and 5-2 defenses. By ensuring that a corner or nickelbacker, will always be entering the box, both gap and zone schemes are going to be choked off from finding space.

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Jason Caldwell's Monday morning quarterback column

Jason Caldwell

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Down the stretch they come

With just a few days left and the hay in the barn as far as pre-early signing period football visits go, Coach Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers are done with in-person visits as they continue working the phones to try for a strong finish to the early signing period. Who knows how it will turn out, but I’m not sure what else this coaching staff could have done to pull things together beyond what they’ve done since pulling together. 

It’s early and we’ve got a small sample size, but I don’t remember a head coach in my 20+ years of covering that Tigers wo recruits as well as Freeze does. He seems to connect very well with the players and parents. If you’ve got a guy like that then you’ve got a chance to do big things on the recruiting trail.

Speaking of big, Auburn already has four high school offensive linemen committed and are looking for maybe four more guys heading into the 2023 season. The Tigers have put themselves in a great position with new OL coach Jake Thornton and staff members Joe Bernardi and Kendall Simmons both doing a great job of selling the Auburn program and the potential for early playing time.

With junior college tackles Isaiah Jatta and Izavion Miller visiting the last two weekends along with transfer players like Amari Kight, Walter Rouse, Dillon Wade and Ben Scott, if the Tigers could get three of the six tey would be in really good shape for next season.

This class has the potential to have a big finish with James Smith, Qua Russaw, Tony Mitchell, Keldric Faulk, Tyler Scott and others still looking at the Tigers.

No matter what happens the next three days, I have seen enough to show me that the future is going to be very bright under Freeze at Auburn. 

Basketball thoughts

I’m not sure you could play worse than Auburn did against USC on Sunday. To have a chance to still win the game shows you the competitive nature of this team and program, but they’re going to be on the losing end a lot more this season if they don’t shore up some of the big issues for this team.

On Sunday it was turnovers, especially in the second half. A team that features plenty of older players just looked out of sorts at times. While USC has a pretty good environment, this Auburn team is going to face a lot tougher road ahead against more athletic teams. The turnover issues have to get solved in a hurry.

One way may be for Tre Donaldson to keep getting more playing time. One week ago I talked about getting him on the court more at the point guard position and this week he has delivered. Auburn played its best basketball when he was on the court against the Trojans before foul trouble cost him and the Tigers.

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For a team that has a group of guards that all seemingly play like shooting guards, Donaldson is a classic point guard that takes me back to the days of Doc Robinson and a guy like Corey Beck at Arkansas. Doc ran the show for some very good Auburn teams and was in control. Beck played the game like a strong safety, which is what Donaldson was in high school. He has that same mentality.

The key for this Auburn team and how far they can ultimately go may well rest on Donaldson’s shoulders and how much he continues to develop.

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