5.16.24 Football Articles

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

Three-star RB Daune Morris schedules official visit to Auburn

Taylor Jones

~2 minutes

One of the nation’s top 2025 quarterbacks, USC commit Julian Lewis, announced Tuesday that he will visit Auburn officially during the weekend of June 14. Later that day, it was revealed that a fellow Trojan pledge would also be on the Plains the same weekend.

Daune Morris, a three-star running back from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, announced Tuesday that he will visit Auburn during the weekend of June 14-16. Outside of Auburn, Morris will also visit USC on the weekend of June 21.

Morris committed to USC on April 7, choosing the Trojans over Auburn, Colorado, Florida, and several others. Despite committing to USC over Auburn, the Tigers and Morris are not ready to officially end their relationship. During a recent visit to Auburn, Morris shared with Auburn Live that running backs coach Derrick Nix is interested in Morris because of his versatility.

“(Nix’s) message is just letting me know that I’m a high-value guy to him. I’m the running back that he’s looking for. He really likes me,” Morris said. “He really likes that I’m versatile and likes me on and off the field. Coach Nix was just telling me that I’m the standard and that he wants me here.”

Morris is a three-star rated running back by On3, 247Sports, and ESPN, and is a four-star by Rivals’ standards. According to On3’s industry ranking, Morris is the No. 14 recruit from Tennessee for the 2025 cycle and is the No. 19 overall athlete.

locked in for june will be back in the plains 14-16 #WDE 🦅@AuburnFootball @CoachHughFreeze @AuburnMade @G_miller11 @DerrickDnix pic.twitter.com/dSWIwNqW70

— 1ne7 (@daune_morris) May 15, 2024

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si.com

Auburn Is Pushing For Top 2026 Recruits

Brian Smith

3–4 minutes

Auburn coaches are on the road securing official visits for the class of 2025, and it's not the only recruiting the Tigers are doing.

In today's modern recruiting, every FBS coaching staff must continually look toward the future recruiting classes. That means the 2026 recruiting class is squarely in the cross hairs as well. Here are a few 2026 recruits Auburn would love to sign

With Columbus, Ga. being on the border of Alabama and Georgia, it's roughly 50 minutes from the Auburn campus. One of the top prospects in Columbus South plays for Carver High School, all-around athlete Tristian Givens.

The 6-foot-4 and 215-pound player is rare because he could be a pure pass rusher, linebacker, wide receiver, or flex tight end. Givens is open to his future position. Anyone who watches Givens' HUDL film will see his many gifts.

Visiting Carvers' Tuesday spring practice, Givens let it be known that Auburn is definitely recruiting him and the Tigers did extend an offer on April 11. Many other programs are as well. Texas A&M, Florida State, Florida, Georgia Tech, Louisville, UCF, Vanderbilt, California, and Georgia Tech are a few of Givens' other offers. Remember this young man as he will be one of the most highly recruited 2026 players from Alabama or Georgia.

Additionally, Carver is full of young talent. The 2026 and 2027 classes possess several players Auburn could make a run at. Auburn is also not backing down from recruiting prospects committed elsewhere, even in the 2026 class.

Florida State holds a commitment from Darryon Williams, a burner from Tampa (Fla.) Gaither. He could play on either side of the football in college but projects as a wide receiver. He's the type of playmaker that will likely attract more than 30 scholarship offers.

Auburn is now one of Williams' opportunities to attend college for free. It's good to see Hugh Freeze and the Tigers make the offer this early to gain more traction with a top prospect like Williams.

Sticking with the state of Florida, a quarterback to know would be Michael Clayton. He will be playing for Sanford (Fla.) Seminole after transferring from Orlando (Fla.) Edgewater. The 6-foot-3 and 200-pound signal-caller is familiar with Auburn after taking an unofficial visit to the Plains earlier this spring.

There are good reasons for Auburn's interest. Even before starting a high school game, anyone watching Clayton pass the football would know he possesses a big arm, a natural release, and steady demeanor fit for playing quarterback.

Clayton's recruitment is starting to heat up. He has offers from Ole Miss, Arkansas, Illinois, Miami, Georgia Tech, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Purdue, and USF among others. Look for Clayton's offer list to grow with the May evaluation period currently ongoing. With that in mind, Auburn is already making inroads with him by hosting Clayton and that should bode well down the line.

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247sports.com

PMARSHONAU Inside the search for solutions in a time of turmoil

Phillip Marshall

7–9 minutes

As sports editor of the Montgomery Advertiser, I and some of my colleagues were once sent to a leadership seminar. I remember little about what I heard, but I remember this: An insurance company executive told us that, instead of giving bonuses to top performers, his company put their pictures on billboards. He said a picture on a billboard was more motivation than money. I had to swallow a laugh. My picture on a billboard or cash in my pocket? I knew which one would motivate me.

So it is in college athletics today. Believe it or not, most athletes did not and do not feel exploited or mistreated. It was others acting in their names that created the silly concept of "unpaid labor." But when there is money to be made, nothing is more American than trying to make it.

That's where we are. Lawyers and "student-athlete advocates," in their zeal to get their own hands on some of the money, claim to represent poor, mistreated athletes. Yet, with rare exceptions, the athletes themselves are strangely silent. One of those so-called associations said it was dropping its push for players to be employees because it found many players don't want to be employees.

Yet the money is flowing, and though they might not feel mistreated, players certainly want it. And who can blame them?

Meanwhile, all that money has created a whirlwind in college athletics that blows harder by the day. Numerous court cases have been lost and others are pending. State laws have been passed in efforts to give programs in those states competitive advantages. Those things, combined with a flood of NIL cash and unlimited penalty-free transfers, have created unprecedented circumstances.

Settlement near in House case?

A number of reports in recent days have centered around the House case, a lawsuit that demands back pay for athletes who competed before NIL was allowed. Those reports indicate that a settlement that would pay those former athletes and establish pay to current athletes is close but not done. Meanwhile, the uncertainty continues.

I talked to a man who consults with collectives for three athletics departments. Because he did not want his name used, we will call him Joe. He helps with contracts between the players and schools, compliance, funding and executing the contracts with the players.

Joe sees turmoil all around.

"The NCAA is just the organizational arm of the universities," Joe said. "The universities passed the rules. The NCAA carried them out. Right now, we are sitting pretty much with no police, no fire department, no government. For this to work, that is going to have to come back into play.

"In my opinion, they have to become 1099 employees, and you have to have collective bargaining. They don't have to become full-benefit employees of the school. We are trying to run on the old structure, but it is getting pulled down piece by piece."

Coping and searching for solutions at Auburn

Rich McGlynn, Auburn's executive deputy athletics director, is among those trying to cope with what is real now while searching for solutions. A recent decision by the NCAA to allow schools to help facilitate NIL deals, he said, has been helpful.

"In practical terms, it is allowing us to help them find deals," McGlynn said. "It says we can assist. What we are saying is we can do basically everything but be the people that pay. We can go out and try to solicit deals for them, help them with their negotiations. We can do their taxes for them. We can do everything but be the entity that actually pays them."

McGlynn and Joe agree that the time  is near when athletes will be paid by the schools. Reports on a potential House settlement say schools could agree to pay as much as $22 million to athletes.

Even then, not all the issues would be resolved. Another pending court case claims that collectives are parts of athletics departments. Should the court agree, massive Title IX problems could result. Nothing in the proposed agreement would keep athletes from making their own NIL deals with collectives or businesses.

The craziness continues

Joe said things change almost daily. Football and basketball programs continue in hot pursuit of players in the transfer portal. Those programs also have to make sure those they want to keep on their rosters are compensated well enough to keep them from leaving. Incoming freshmen, he said, are last in that picking order.

"First, you are having to pay your own players to stay," Joe said. "Players see online what they believe they should be worth, but the only way to find out your true value is to put your name in the portal and go hunting. Portal kids are a known commodity. A freshman, no matter his talent level, is not a known commodity."

In the men's Final Four, 14 of 20 starters were transfers. In football, portal quarterbacks and defensive linemen who have shown their worth are hotly pursued.

"If you are talking about the average, the overall payroll is up," Joe said. "I'd say the big deals are down."

Donor fatigue is a growing issue

Meanwhile, in most programs, a relatively small number of donors provide most of the money to collectives. And that, McGlynn and Joe agreed, is not sustainable. Donor fatigue is a real issue.

"Right now, we are at a good place compared to our competition," McGlynn said, "but there is a lot of fatigue. At first, there was a lot of excitement and people were willing to do it. You are going to the same people, and they are saying 'I keep giving and I don't see any difference in the outcome.' I think that is happening across the country. I think that's why people are coming to this realization that we have to find a way to bring it into the athletics department."

A settlement in the House case would be a significant step toward restoring some sanity, but just some. It wouldn't be the end of anything.

"We are just in this space where I think there was what it used to be and what it will be," Joe said. "Everybody knows what it was, and we're not there. Nobody knows where it is going, so we are not there. We are just in this spot.

"Players are at their schools, but collectives and private NILs are paying them. The NCAA has lost court cases on how to handle all this. We are just in a very unknown spot. The games will be played next year, nonetheless. People will be fired and hired and get raises."

Much remains to be decided

McGlynn reflected on the upheaval that struck the NBA before there was collective bargaining. Rookies were being paid more than veterans. Collective bargaining changed that, and he believes something similar will happen in college athletics.

For now, those with the most money have significant advantages. To a great extent, that means the SEC and the Big Ten, but the soon-to-be 34 schools in those two conferences are not all on the same level, either. So much is to be decided. Can potential Title IX issues be dodged? What about non-revenue sports? If schools start to pay athletes, how will the money be divided? Are partial scholarships going away? Will roster sizes be reduced? Will coaches' salaries continue to be inflated or will they, as many predict, start to go down?

"In the NFL, in any league, the rules are meant to create an even playing field," Joe said. "The NCAA has been broken all the way down. Now you have an open market for players. It's like the stock market with no rules."

[JerryAU 1,694]

Thanks '50.