5.15.23 Football Articles

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Playoffs? CBS Sports says Auburn has a chance

Taylor Jones

3–4 minutes

The SEC has dominated the College Football Playoff since its’ inaugural season in 2015. The conference has been represented every season and has won six of the nine possible championships, including the last four.

Alabama, Georgia, and LSU have all reached the top of the college football world by winning a College Football Playoff championship, but CBS Sports feels that a new member of the SEC could make a run to the 2024 playoffs.

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Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports recently shared his picks for “dark horse” candidates for each of the Power Five conferences. His pick for the SEC? The Auburn Tigers.

Jeyarajah chose teams with 50-1 odds to make the College Football Playoff or lower by Caesars Sportsbook as part of his criteria. At 100-1 odds, the Tigers are a risky, yet interesting pick.

Picking an SEC squad is especially difficult as five teams are excluded from consideration. So ultimately, we’re going way off the board and betting on Hugh Freeze to be a wild card in the SEC West with a revitalized staff and dynamic energy. The path through the SEC — which includes Alabama and Georgia — makes things more complicated, but it also presents a major opportunity.

The Tigers ranked No. 18 in 247Sports Talent Composite in 2022, far ahead of their 5-7 results. Furthermore, Auburn fortified the passing game by adding veteran Michigan State signal caller Payton Thorne and Ohio State wide receiver transfer Caleb Burton. A fresh coaching staff and key pieces in the passing game could lead to a quick turnaround if Freeze can get everyone on the same page.

Although the Tigers appear to have improved drastically based on talent acquisition alone, Auburn still has “long shot” odds to win the College Football Playoff National Championship. BetMGM, like Caesars, gives Auburn 100-1 odds to win, while FanDuel gives the Tigers 200-1 odds.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

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si.com

 

Auburn football listed as a team to watch for a bounce-back season in 2023

Jack Singley

~3 minutes

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Athlon Sports says Auburn is one of five teams ready to bounce back.

Auburn has the potential to break through into contention in the 2023 season, and Athlon Sports recognizes this potential. The site mentioned Auburn as one of its five teams to watch in the 2023 season. 

Auburn along with another SEC school, Texas A&M, are mentioned. The reason A&M is on the list is similar to that of Auburn, a revamped coaching staff along with key acquisitions in the portal lead to a potentially promising Aggie season. Specifically for the Aggies, new Offensive Coordinator Bobby Petrino will look to work his magic on Conner Weigman and the rest of the A&M offense. 

Auburn under the helm of a completely new staff that is headed up by Hugh Freeze was tabbed for a rebound season due to the SEC experience that Freeze has and the aggressive acquisitions they have made during the portal windows. 

Freeze and staff managed to grab the third-best portal class in the country according to 247Sports. The headliners of the class are Rivaldo Fairweather, Payton Thorne, Brian Battie, and a handful of offensive linemen that all look to start for the Tigers. It is hard to imagine that a 5-7 team that won two of its five games with an interim head coach could turn it around in just one year, but with this new age of college football, it has become clear that a one-year turnaround is not a pipe dream. 

The coaching improvement itself will also lead to a much more improved on-field product. Freeze and Offensive Coordinator Philip Montgomery got their man in Payton Thorne and will look to scheme around his strengths and lead to a much more improved offense compared to the Harsin-led offense that ended up with one of the worst scoring offenses in the SEC. The defense under new Defensive Coordinator Ron Roberts will also look to improve from their bottom-half finish in both stopping the run and total points allowed. 

The list rounded out with Miami, Nebraska, and Oklahoma being listed as the non-SEC teams expected to perform well following a letdown season in 2022.

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lets get the blood pumping this morning shall we?  worth a repeat...........

 

 

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Why Trent Dilfer said Auburn football QB Hank Brown has 'all the skills' to reach the NFL

Richard Silva

AUBURN — Most of the attention at quarterback for Auburn football fans is on Robby Ashford, Holden Geriner and Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne.

And rightfully so; one of those three is likely to start for the Tigers in 2023. But there's a fourth scholarship QB on the roster: Hank Brown, a true freshman out of Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. The 6-foot-4, 195-pound Brown was coached in high school by former Super Bowl champion Trent Dilfer, before the 51-year-old accepted the UAB job in November.

"They got a great recruit," Dilfer said of Brown at the Regions Tradition pro-am golf tournament in Birmingham on Wednesday. "He’s a very talented player but he’s a better human. He’s one of the finest humans I’ve ever been around; his family is incredible. Work ethic is second to none. He’ll know that offense as well as any person in that building after a couple months there.

PAYTON THORNE:'People want to follow him': What Auburn football is getting in the transfer quarterback

RECRUITING:How Auburn football's Hugh Freeze has done in building relationships with in-state coaches

"He’ll do the lonely work, the stuff that doesn’t get celebrated, so that he’s prepared. He does need to get bigger and stronger, and he knows that. But Auburn has great resources to do that. He’ll get bigger, stronger and faster. He’ll become more of a man here shortly."

Dilfer doesn't think Brown's success has to end in college, either.

"He has all the skills it takes to become an NFL quarterback," Dilfer said. "I told him right before his senior year that if he continued to progress on the track we’re progressing him on, he’ll get drafted."

Brown guided the Mustangs to a 13-0 record and the 2022 Tennessee Division II-AA state championship as a senior. He completed 73.3% of his passes for 3,264 yards and 47 touchdowns, with the latter being the fifth most in Tennessee state history.

His performance earned him a three-star ranking in the 247Sports Composite, and he committed to coach Hugh Freeze at Liberty in June. Once Freeze joined the Tigers, Brown went back on his commitment and eventually signed with Auburn in December.

But not before Dilfer tried to persuade his former quarterback to reunite with him at UAB. Brown received an offer to play for the Blazers on Dec. 3.

TRANSFER PORTAL:Appalachian State transfer pass rusher Jalen McLeod commits to Auburn football

JOHN COHEN:Why Auburn AD John Cohen hasn't made up his mind on SEC football schedule decision

"His instincts are second to none," Dilfer said. "This is not about me, but that football team last year in Tennessee is the finest football team to ever play Tennessee high-school football. And Hank is a huge reason for that. His ability to solve problems, his ability to distribute the football, handle critical situations, handle a week of pressure and high expectations was just phenomenal."

Brown, who was rated as the No. 70 quarterback in the nation for the Class of 2022, told the Montgomery Advertiser in December that Auburn's offensive coaches − special assistant to the head coach Kent Austin and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery − were a big draw to the Tigers.

Freeze said Wednesday he thinks he has "got some of the best quarterback coaches in the country" at Auburn.

"I do believe I'd fit very well in his offense," Brown said of Montgomery's system in December. "I think he does a great job of accommodating his offense into what type of quarterback he has; he's worked with many different styles of QBs. From RG3 to Case Keenum. So, I think he does a great job adjusting based on his quarterback's talents."

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Thanks Fifty!!!