It's once again time for TIGER TALK on the radio waves throughout the Southeastern United States!
LIST OF AFFILIATES AND LINKS
PREDICTION: None tonight. (Andy is out becuase there's a late basketball game tonight.)
**********
(They're at Baumhauer's tonight.)
NOT ANDY wants to talk about the ULM win. "Is there a way we can go back and have that be Game One?"
GUFFAWS ALL AROUND (
He said it was the most complete game they've played since he's been at Auburn.) "It was a really good effort. Complete game. Great crowd."
NOT ANDY asks about to know if Freeze knew they'd be that sharp. "I had a feeling after the two weeks we had. I just felt like we could be our base self and go tempo and get people involved. In this game, you felt like we were the better team roster-wise."
NOT ANDY asks about Cam Coleman's big day. "I know two of the catches were run plays, a response to what the defense was giving them. Malcolm got involved also. Dre went for 100 yards also."
NOT ANDY says that's the first time since 1994 that Auburn had a 100-yard rusher and two 100-yard receivers in the same game. "A stat like that says that you were having a good day, for sure. It felt that way from the get-go. They believed in the tempo and what we were doing."
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
NOT ANDY wants to talk about Payton's game. "It should have been 26 of 32 for sure and maybe more. The guy threw five touchdowns and completed a lot of balls for us and didn't turn the ball over. He played really, really well. It'd be nice to have a repeat of that on Saturday. That would be real nice."
TERRY is in the house. He wants to know about how Auburn doesn't lose people in the portal. "We've got to get the '25 class signed on Dec. 4. Our current players ... we started having conversations during the dead period (the prior week) with all of what we'd consider to be our Tier 1 or Tier 2 guys. It's very uncomfortable for me. I want to coach them. I want to build a real, genuine relationship that's not based on money being a motivating factor even though I'm happy that they get it. We've already begin trying our best to be proactive. We think revenue sharing is coming in July, which will be a good thing. Prior to that ... this run through December and January could get really, really, really wild. You have no idea what truth is. It's an ever-moving goalpost. Inflation for recruiting in the portal has tripled for sure. I don't blame the kids. Whoever allowed the start of this didn't think it through very well."
NOT ANDY wants to asks about how the schedule affects portal recruiting. (The early NSD occurs before the portal opens.) "You don't think through all this stuff until it happens. You're kinda at a disadvantage by having an away game as the last game of the season. If you have a home game, you can bring in the visits again right before. Fifty percent of our league will have targets that we want, (players) that are committed to us, they'll have them on their campus. Every other year, we'll kind of be at a disadvantage. Now that you don't have visits in December, January will be a mad, mad rush."
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
NOT ANDY wants to talk about Ian Vachon. "I think Towns (McGough) is going to be outstanding. You don't get leg strength like Towns has very often. A freshman DB or a freshman O-lineman makes a mistake and it kinda go unnoticed. A freshman kicker makes a mistake and the whole world knows it. It's kinda in a funk right now. Ian was really solid. That was good to see."
KYLE is in the house. He wants to know if Auburn is going to run the ball a lot Saturday. "We've got to figure out how we want to run the football on them. Hopefully it's successful."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about tailbacks. "Jarquez has been the bell cow. To see him get 1,000 yards is gratifying. You talk about the future and all of that ... Damari and Jeremiah Cobb are two outstanding players. Those are two guys we have prioritized and need them to hang around here. Hopefully they follow in Jarquez's footsteps."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about the defense. "We've gotten better and better and better as we've gone on. We're stopping the run. We're containing the quarterbacks decently, which will be tested Saturday night. Credit to DJ and the defensive staff. They continue to grind. DeMarcus Riddick has been a spark ... with the way he runs. Keldric Faulk and his leadership has been invaluable, also."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about those young guys gaining confidence. "I think I see that in them at practice. It ticks them off when they give up explosive plays. Saturday night will be one of the better tests we've had."
FLETCHER is in the house. He's young. He wants to know Freeze's favorite color. "Can I go with two favorite colors? Orange and blue."
GUFFAWS ALL AROUND
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
NOT ANDY asks about how Texas A&M's defensive front will be a challenge. "Stay out of 3rd-and-Long. We really need to stay in 3rd-and-Manageable where they don't know if it's run or pass."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about how Auburn did well on converting third downs against ULM. "We worked very hard on that during the open week. Payton did a nice job in those situations of getting them to the open people and getting those conversions."
NOT ANDY wants to know if misdirection will help Saturday. "It's more about keeping them unsure. You want to stay out of negative plays."
NOT ANDY wants to ask about A&M's offense. "I just think they're a complete team. They've lost a starter, but I don't know that their stats have gone down much."
NOT ANDY wants to ask about this being Senior Night. "I wish it wasn't on an SEC game. I wish we'd have done it last Saturday. They don't ask me those things. It's hard to truly honor (them) ... at the same time, you know what's getting ready to happen. You're kinda scattered. All the hoopla right before kickoff is a bit much, truthfully, with everything that's going on. It's just a lot."
***COMMERCIAL BREAK***
GREG is in the house. He wants to ask about freshmen playing at Auburn this season helping recruiting. "It's something we've used for sure with this '25 class. This is our vision of building it — with high-school kids. We think that's the most sustainable model. We need you to come help up and return glory to Auburn. The level to which we're recruiting outweigh the classes from before our arrival. We're going to play the best kids. We've certainly used it a lot. I think the '25 kids believe that."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about Walker White playing against ULM. "It's invaluable, the experience. I wanted to throw it some more with him because his arm is live. We were up and we want to have some class. I might should have put him in a little bit earlier."
NOT ANDY wants to talk about formulating game plans from week to week. "We'd love for it to be that easy (like it was against ULM). Our roster was better than Monroe's roster. That's what should happen when your roster's better. We still had to make plays. You still had to do things the right way. They're not going to line up and play 10 yards off your receivers, Texas A&M. They're going to get up in your grille and it'll be press coverage and they'll be in your backfield pretty quick if you're not careful."
NOT ANDY asks about keys defending a mobile quarterback. "Rush lanes. You've got to have rush integrity. If dual-threat guys are able to go north and south right now, that's a problem."
NOT ANDY asks about how the season is almost over. Isn't that crazy? "It's going to be a long off-season waiting for another opportunity to give our fans a full season ... where they're more excited than not. Until then, let's get ready for thse last two and make some noise."
Freeze ends with an affable "War Eagle."
BE GOOD. BE YOU.
--30--
