12.14.23 Football Articles

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sports.yahoo.com

 

4-star DL Amaris Williams: ‘Auburn has a big chance right now’

JD McCarthy

~2 minutes

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Hugh Freeze and Auburn’s coaching staff made several big additions last year during the early signing period and they are looking to do so once again. One of their top targets is four-star defensive lineman Amaris Williams, who has been committed to Florida since June.

They have already shown the ability to steal a commit from the Gators, flipping four-star edge rusher Jamonta Waller earlier this cycle and following an official visit to the Plains, Williams admitted the Tigers could do so once again.

“Auburn has a big chance right now,” Williams told Auburn Undercover’s Christian Clemente. “Even though awhile back I told Coach JG (Jeremy Garrett) I wasn’t considering Auburn at the time, I feel like that’s just because I never visited and because of what I had already seen from other colleges. Actually being here today and seeing what it’s all about, it’s a really big chance I could come here.”

Williams is the No. 84 overall player and No. 12 defensive lineman in the 247Sports composite ranking. The Clinton product is also the No. 1 player from North Carolina.

It won’t be easy for Auburn to land Williams, Florida is fighting to hold onto him and Ohio State and Georgia are both pushing for a flip and can’t be counted out.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow JD on Twitter @jdmccarthy15

Story originally appeared on Auburn Wire

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si.com

 

COLUMN: Auburn Football Got Hosed With Its 2024 Schedule

Lance Dawe

~2 minutes

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The Auburn Tigers got the short end of the stick with their 2024 schedule.

The Auburn Tigers got the short end of the stick with their 2024 schedule.

Granted, it's difficult to conclude the Tigers have "won" with any schedule they've been dealt since forever, but their first season in a new, division-less SEC is going to be a rough one.

Not only do the Tigers have to take a road trip to Georgia - winner of the last two national titles - but they also will travel to Kentucky and Missouri...

All in a row.

This is how the Tigers' 2024 schedule shakes out:

Vs Alabama A&M

Vs California

Vs New Mexico

Vs Arkansas

Vs Oklahoma

At Georgia

At Missouri

At Kentucky

Vs Vanderbilt

Vs ULM

Vs Texas A&M

At Alabama

That four game stretch in the middle of the season - vs Oklahoma, at Georgia, at Missouri, and at Kentucky... all at once?

With a road trip to Alabama still looming at the very end of the season?

Auburn's schedule could have certainly been shuffled around to be more balanced, but this is exactly what happened this season. It's an uneven chaotic mess of a schedule that will likely frustrate fans.

It's almost hard to wrap the mind around... three straight road games against three teams that finished 2023 above .500, two of which are currently ranked inside the top 10? Since when have the Tigers played three straight games on the road, much less like this?

It's ridiculous.

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al.com

 

Auburn football’s 2024 season unveiled: Who do Hugh Freeze and the Tigers play and when?

Updated: Dec. 13, 2023, 6:29 p.m.|Published: Dec. 13, 2023, 6:28 p.m.

~3 minutes

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General view of Jordan-Hare Stadium during the first half of an NCAA football game between Georgia and Auburn on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)AP

The wait is over.

Auburn football’s 2024 slate is set in stone as the Tigers’ full schedule was released Wednesday night as part of the 2024 SEC Football Schedule Reveal, which aired on ESPN and SEC Network.

The Tigers’ highly anticipated matchup against the new kids on the SEC block will come on Sept. 28 as Auburn hosts Oklahoma at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Sept. 28′s meeting will be the third ever between the two programs, with the Sooners holding a 2-0 record over the Tigers. However, Oklahoma has never paid a visit to Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Auburn’s meetings with its pair of opponents in Georgia and Alabama will come during familiar parts of the season as the Tigers visit the Bulldogs in Athens for the “Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry” in Week 6 on Oct. 5. Meanwhile, Auburn heads to Tuscaloosa for the Iron Bowl in Week 14 on Nov. 30.

Hugh Freeze and the Tigers’ non-conference slate features a season-opening home game against Alabama A&M on Aug. 31, followed by hosting Cal on Sept. 7. Auburn will then play a home home game against New Mexico on Sept. 14, followed by Louisiana-Monroe coming to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Nov. 23.

In SEC play, Auburn draws home games against Arkansas, Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M. Meanwhile, the Tigers’ conference road slate features visits to Georgia, Missouri, Kentucky and Alabama.

Here is Auburn football’s full schedule for the 2024 season:

Aug. 31 — vs. Alabama A&M

Sept. 7 — vs. Cal

Sept. 14 — vs. New Mexico

Sept. 21 — vs. Arkansas

Sept. 28 — vs. Oklahoma

Oct. 5 — at Georgia

Oct. 12 — OFF

Oct. 19 — at Missouri

Oct. 26 — at Kentucky

Nov. 2 — vs. Vanderbilt

Nov. 9 — OFF

Nov. 16 — vs. Louisiana-Monroe

Nov. 23 — vs. Texas A&M

Nov. 30 — at Alabama

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al.com

 

Some thoughts on SEC schedule spectacular, winners and losers

Published: Dec. 13, 2023, 8:43 p.m.

6–8 minutes

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This is an opinion column.

The Finebaum Show ends and rolls straight into the night’s special programming.

It’s 6 p.m. in the Central time zone. We’ll be done by 8 because when the full 2024 SEC football schedule is released, 60 or 90 minutes wouldn’t cut it. The 120-minute special on the SEC Network followed the trend of creating entertainment products out of what used to be an email.

Yet this is the dawn of a new era that extends beyond the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to what was already a gauntlet.

Welcome to the Monopoly Era of SEC television programming.

No longer will CBS throw a wrench in the ESPN empire’s scheduling machine. No more 2:30 p.m. game-of-the-week outside the family and that was subtly made clear this week.

Even before the 7,200-second SEC Network reveal Wednesday night, the Disney tentacles were at work.

You saw a few game dates revealed on ESPN’s broadcast of Monday Night Football.

A few more were announced on the Manning Cast alternate broadcast of MNF over on ESPN2.

Then, the Georgia at Alabama game date was unveiled on the Wednesday edition of Good Morning America on ABC. Even more notable, a kickoff time and network were attached to that unboxing.

In the dark ages of last season, CBS would have had first dibs on this Tuscaloosa showdown between the two most dominant programs in the league over the past decade.

Now that that deal’s expired, the four-letter network could safely announce that Sept. 28 game in Tuscaloosa will air at 6:30 p.m. CT on its three-letter father. No longer a midafternoon shoo-in, Alabama-Georgia will air in primetime on ABC -- the broadcast network in the same corporate family as ESPN.

To keep the synergy going, the Missouri-Vanderbilt kick time should be revealed only to the winner of a Disney World scavenger hunt broadcast exclusively on the SEC Network +.

Anyway, there’s some advantage for fans to this new absence of competition in the broadcast realm.

You might actually get to plan your fall trips more than two weeks in advance if there isn’t the roadblock of CBS making its first pick.

In fact, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Nov. 30 said they expect to have “right around half” of the league’s complete schedule slotted in specific broadcast windows.

“Working with ESPN, ABC, the SEC Network,” Sankey said in advance of the SEC Championship game, “the opportunity to know the noon eastern time kickoffs throughout the season will allow our campuses and our fans to plan rather than having those six-day and 12-day experiences around that early kickoff.

“We’ll have some flexibility between the midday and the primetime games and some scheduling which is a bit of an hour differential rather than just waiting and wondering about the entire broadcast day. So great question, and really excited about the opportunity with Disney, ABC, ESPN, the SEC Network, and even the ESPN+ digital platform in the future.”

So that’s good news.

And now, a few more thoughts from the actual meat of what was announced on the SEC Network on Wednesday night.

-- The Iron Bowl will have a whole new feel without the pastry appetizer. It became tradition to play a nobody the Saturday before the state championship game but the SEC scheduler had other plans.

Alabama, instead of its customary dip in the FCS pool, will head to Norman to play Oklahoma seven days before Auburn’s visit. The Tigers, meanwhile, get a home date with a Texas A&M team they’ve beaten just once in the previous four seasons. Perhaps the Aggies will present a more respectable challenge than New Mexico State next November.

-- The quirks of the calendar and the constellations creates one of those seasons with two open weeks for each team. With that comes a race to see who everybody gets a rest before playing who.

Auburn didn’t catch much of a break by getting a break before heading to Missouri on Oct. 19 and before hosting Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 16. There’s a joke here but I’m taking the high road because it could cut either direction and nobody really wins.

Alabama’s are timed more favorably. After playing at Wisconsin in Week 3, it gets to hit pause the following Saturday before Georgia visits Week 5. The other bye is wedged between an Oct. 26 home date with Missouri and a Nov. 9 trip to LSU.

-- Everybody got screwed.

-- Part of the deal that comes with the eight-team league schedule is a required Power 4-to-5 opponent. Which of the 16 teams has the most challenging step outside the family?

• Notre Dame at Texas A&M is spicy. Make that interesting.
• LSU vs. USC in Las Vegas sounds like trouble in more than one way.
• Cal at Auburn sounds about as entertaining as it did last year.
• Florida plays both Miami and Florida State to bookend the 12-game march for Billy Napier’s job.
• Georgia-Clemson in Atlanta likely sounded more exciting when they scheduled it.
• Ole Miss plays at Wake Forest.
• Alabama at Wisconsin will be a fun little clash of cultures.
• But it’s Texas at Michigan that takes the prize. Half of this year’s playoff field/a potential rematch of the national title game is a bold scheduling decision for Texas. You could have said the same this year but it was that win at Alabama that got the Longhorns into the semifinal.

-- Georgia has more of a challenge on tap without the East Division and its gifts of Vanderbilt, South Carolina and, before this season, Missouri.

Instead, road trips to playoff teams Alabama and Texas along with New Year’s Six bowl-participant Ole Miss will test the Bulldogs more than the pre-December schedule this season.

There’s plenty more to discuss but you don’t need another 120 minutes snatched from your Wednesday.

We have plenty of time to discuss this step into a new era of SEC football between now and Labor Day weekend.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

 

Mississippi State WR Zavion Thomas schedules Auburn visit

Taylor Jones

1–2 minutes

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Hugh Freeze and the Auburn Tigers are continuing their efforts to beef up its wide receiver room ahead of the 2024 season.

Zavion Thomas, formerly of Mississippi State, received an offer from Auburn on Dec. 7. He has a heavy interest in Auburn, as he has scheduled a campus visit.

According to Jeffrey Lee of Auburn Live ($), Thomas will visit the Plains this weekend.

Thomas was Mississippi State’s second-leading receiver in 2023 with 503 yards on 40 catches with one touchdown in 11 games this season, trailing just Tulu Griffin for the top spot. According to Pro Football Focus data, Thomas caught 40 of his 58 targeted passes this season with three drops and five contested catches.

Auburn looks to revamp its receiving unit before next season. The Tigers have four wide receiver commitments in their 2024 recruiting class and have added Robert Lewis to the roster from Georgia State.

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

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si.com

 

Alex McPherson will be a weapon for the Auburn Tigers in 2024

Andrew Stefaniak

~2 minutes

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Alex McPherson will be one of the best kickers in college football next season.

One of the most underappreciated positions in college football is the kicker. Kickers don't get much praise when they do well, but a ton of hate when they don't make a kick. 

An Auburn Tiger that hasn't been discussed enough is kicker Alex McPherson, who was a perfect 13-13 on-field goals this season, including three kicks in the 40-49 yard range and a 53-yarder. 

McPherson was also a perfect 39-39 on the season, kicking extra points. This means not one time this season did an Auburn fan have a reason to be upset at a field goal kicker. 

The Tigers have been blessed with some really good kickers over the last few years, and that trend will continue during McPherson's career on the Plains. 

Heading into this season, we didn't really know what we had with McPherson, as he only kicked seven field goals in 2022, making six of them. We assumed he was going to be great, but needed to see it this season to be sure. 

McPherson sure did exceed expectations, as he didn't miss a single kick for the Tigers this season. 

Hugh Freeze has to feel great heading into the 2024 season, knowing anytime a drive stalls while he would much rather have a touchdown, he is all but certain to get three points. 

It needs to be discussed more how good McPherson was for the Auburn Tigers this season. 

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cbs42.com

 

Auburn defensive lineman Marcus Harris declares for NFL draft

Associated Press

1–2 minutes

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Auburn All-Southeastern Conference defensive tackle Marcus Harris says he will skip his final season to enter the NFL draft.

Harris, who was a first-team Associated Press All-SEC pick, made the announcement in a social media post Tuesday night.

The 6-foot-3, 295-pounder made 40 tackles with 11 tackles for loss and seven sacks this season, easily the best of his college career. He didn’t indicate if he would play in Auburn’s Music City Bowl game against Maryland on Dec. 30.

Harris transferred from Kansas after the 2020 season. He had 11 sacks and 23 1/2 tackles for loss in 37 games with the Tigers, making 97 tackles.

His younger brother, Pike Road (Alabama) High School defensive lineman Malik Blocton, has already signed to play for Auburn next season.

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[aubiefifty 16,894]

our kicker never missed a single kicklast year! and we need some KY because we got screwed with the 24 schedule. anyway you guys have fun out there today.

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[aubiefifty 16,894]

i apologize folks for this ending up in media. i am old and sometimes my best is not what it should be. i do keep on trying for you guys.

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thank you golf for getting my rear end out of the fire! i am not sure how many favs i owe now but they are building up..................may your stroke be beautiful and your wife amazed...............grins

Edited December 14, 2023 by aubiefifty