CHF's staff is very accomodating to high school coaches, if you're willing to reach out and ask for things/access. We were able to attend multiple practices this spring and got first hand looks at hours and hours of film on schematics and concepts in all three phases of the game. I am very very appreciative of what they were willing to share. For those interested I'll share a stream of musings regarding where I think AU is at this point. (Pre spring transfer portal)
Coaching-
PR be damned, DJ Durkin is my favorite AU hire since Will Muschamp. He's a ball of intensity and energy at practice. He communicates every single play and never wastes an opportunity to coach players up. On top of that I love his defensive scheme. He got deeper into his bag in the spring than most coaches are willing to go. IMO that's one reason that the defense looked as well as they did at ADay, as they are throwing a lot more at the offense than the offense is throwing at them. Durkin's scheme is aggressive and multiple. You'll see 3,4, and 5 man fronts, 3 high safety stack looks, old school big personnel 4-3 looks, and some "bear' concepts. What his defense has to have to thrive fits AU personnel fairly well. He needs a versatile off-ball linebacker that can play inside and outside of the box, and be an effective blitzer when called upon (think Edge Cooper last year at TAMU) and AU has that in Asante. He needs a thumper at MLB that has to live violently B gap to B gap. The combination of Keys and Mausi "should" provide decent to good value there. He needs aggressive safeties that can excel at and around the line of scrimmage, and this DB group looks to have a few. The one missing piece IMO is a body in the middle of the DL that can reset the line of scrimmage and stalemate a double team or drive a single block into the backfield. AU doesn't have that right now. Josh Aldridge is the exact same kind of coach, and future star in the profession.
WR Group-
Will be the most improved group on the field. The CC hype is real, and I wasn't a beleiver until I saw him in person do things seemingly every other practice rep that makes you say Damn!
Jackson is a sleeper addition, his explosion and acceleration stands out. He was limited all spring bc of post surgery restrictions, but he can be a major factor in the screen game as well as a legit threat on the jet sweep. Rivaldo is a further evolved version of what he was last year. The GA state transfer is solid, if unspectacular. He runs good routes, has good hands, but is smaller than I expected him to be. The rest of the returners in the room have done very little to separate themselves.
OL-This group looks physically better than an AU OL has looked in atleast a decade. Percy Lewis will need the summer with Coach Stud to improve his composition and mobility, but he's the best LT AU has fielded in a hot minute. Wade is a zone scheme NFL guard. CL and JW are maulers in the middle that can set the tone in a run game. Too tall looks like a giant DE playing RT and moves very well. All that said, they have to get better at blocking DL movements and getting to the second level. I think they can. Depth behind the front 5 is still less than ideal.
RB-perhaps the deepest RB room in the SEC. Learned something about Jarquez that gave me an entire new level of respect for him as a player. He's AU's best cover guy on special teams. He takes a tremendous amount of pride in it, and is a hell fire missile on kickoff coverage. He also refuses rest on KO team after offensive drives. Coach told us after the longest TD drive of the Iron Bowl last year when JH had carried the majority of the load, that he told him he'd get him a sub for kickoff team and the response was "Ill fight your ass if you take me off kickoff". Love that grit. Cobb's role has increased and will result in more explosive plays. Alston is the most complete back on the team.
DL- Faulk is very good. Walker, Trill, G Keys are all solid. Jones has gotten better, but still lacks burst. McCloud is a difference maker at the Bandit spot. The depth behind them is YOUNG! As in they should all still be in high school. It's a group of specimines, but they are still kids. Lindsey is the biggest 17 year old I've ever seen, he looks like a 10 year NFL vet. They need a player on the interior and on the edge from the portal to be a 9-10 win team.
QB- Thorne is the best by a wide margin, and he was inconsistent all spring. His good looked good, and he was good more oftent than not, but his bad was still evident. Brown's mechanics have his passes nosing down too often to effectively work the middle of the field. White is the most athletically gifted and physically impressive, but his eyes cant digest SEC secondary speed at the level they need to right now, and that's understandable. Thorne is good enough for this to be a winning football team, but not good enough yet for this team to win big. How much better can he get between now and fall camp? Does another influx of catch-radius receivers make him any better?
Offensive Scheme- The way Freeze packages plays and call sequences is special, and can be devastating. However, players have to understand their "if- thens" pre-snap. The basic option route concepts they tried to employ last year were botched wildly by the WRs, and are what led to Thornes often looking confused, as what he thought to be right and what the receiver did were not the same. That has already improved, but will need to continue to evolve for Freeze to be able to attack defenses with the full arsenal of his schematic desire. The scheme is so RPO based that the coaches don't know pre snap whether the plays will result in a run or pass on 60% of downs. Decision making abilities are paramount on the field.
S&C coach = UBER homerun. I'll spare you the science garble behind that assessment for now. Studzinski seems like the best parts of Ryan Russell and Yox fused into one.
Overall, this is an improved team. How much is to be seen. It's also just spring ball and there is a lot of time to be had between now and kickoff. I do love what I see out of the coaches on the field, and what they are trying to accomplish with their schemes. Continued roster improvement and player development will ultimately be what makes those schemes succesful or not.
TL, DNR, SIW
