"From someone who just finished playing Division 1 CFB last year here is my 2 cents…
I played under Coach Kane Wommack and Major Applewhite who are very well respected coaches with long tenures in CFB so I would say my opinion on this matter is valid.
Auburn is close… very close. If you know football and watched yesterday you can clearly see that. Is this year a wash? Sure. Should we be VERY optimistic about auburns future? Absolutely. Here’s why:
The people saying auburns recruiting is going to fall apart are wrong. From someone who went through the recruiting process and have many close friends who went through it as well at the power 5 level, team success matters but not as much as it may seem. If Auburn goes 6-6 or 5-7 will they lose 1 or 2 guys? Yes. Will they lose the majority of their class or even a good portion of it? No. The guys who want to be in Auburn will be in Auburn come December/February. If you have been listening the vision Freeze has is still in tact and all the recruits can see that.
Piggy backing off that… we all need to CALM DOWN. From the time he was hired Hugh said he was going to build this program through high school and not the portal. He also acknowledged that it may take a little longer than our impatient minds want. He is doing exactly what he said and it’s very promising. If you can’t look out there and see Cam Coleman, Demarcus Riddick, Kaleb Harris, Cayin Lee, Malcolm Simmons, Keldric Faulk, Malik Blocton, Connor Lew, JC Hart and Jay Crawford getting meaningful, valuable reps and playing well without getting EXCITED for the future then idk what to tell you. You’ll be stuck in a mental prison for the rest of your life as an Auburn fan. Hugh is building a PROGRAM not a pump and dump one stop shop.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying Hugh is untouchable and not to blame for the way this season has went thus far. His biggest mistake was not getting a QB in the portal this offseason. Thorne looked dang good for 50 minutes of yesterdays game but that does not matter when you can’t show up when it means most. Hugh should have told him to hand the ball off every play on the drive after Auburn had stopped OU on 4th in the 4th quarter. That is on Hugh for not doing so. I think the Pick 6 is also on Hugh to a certain extent as well. As a college quarterback you go through cover 0 checks every week and study the tendencies of the other defense when they are in cover 0 because every team has their own twist. Thorne should have been prepared for the LB to drop into the slant window based on film that week and he wasn’t, resulting in a catastrophic error.
Lastly, Coach Applewhite used to harp on turnovers every week. He’d bring up this study he did as a GA at Texas. Over 100 games he looked at Texas record when they won and lost the turnover battle. When Texas won the turnover battle over those 100 games they won 76. He also would go into explosive play battle and all that but that’s irrelevant to the point. I know it’s beating a dead horse but at worst Auburn should be 4-1 at least right now but the truth of the matter is Auburn is good enough to truly compete in every game but no where close to good enough to turn the ball over and compete even against sub par to average football teams.
So all in all please stop whining and complaining. It’s not a good look for us as a fan base or to the recruits. Rally behind Hugh Freeze because he is building a PROGRAM and remember… no matter what you say on the board he’s not going to get fired because of your words so make them positive and enjoy the growing pains. It’s part of football. Does it suck being 2-3 with so much hope going into the season? Yes. But all the whining and complaining with no optimism is annoying and childish.
Thank you."
I played under Coach Kane Wommack and Major Applewhite who are very well respected coaches with long tenures in CFB so I would say my opinion on this matter is valid.
Auburn is close… very close. If you know football and watched yesterday you can clearly see that. Is this year a wash? Sure. Should we be VERY optimistic about auburns future? Absolutely. Here’s why:
The people saying auburns recruiting is going to fall apart are wrong. From someone who went through the recruiting process and have many close friends who went through it as well at the power 5 level, team success matters but not as much as it may seem. If Auburn goes 6-6 or 5-7 will they lose 1 or 2 guys? Yes. Will they lose the majority of their class or even a good portion of it? No. The guys who want to be in Auburn will be in Auburn come December/February. If you have been listening the vision Freeze has is still in tact and all the recruits can see that.
Piggy backing off that… we all need to CALM DOWN. From the time he was hired Hugh said he was going to build this program through high school and not the portal. He also acknowledged that it may take a little longer than our impatient minds want. He is doing exactly what he said and it’s very promising. If you can’t look out there and see Cam Coleman, Demarcus Riddick, Kaleb Harris, Cayin Lee, Malcolm Simmons, Keldric Faulk, Malik Blocton, Connor Lew, JC Hart and Jay Crawford getting meaningful, valuable reps and playing well without getting EXCITED for the future then idk what to tell you. You’ll be stuck in a mental prison for the rest of your life as an Auburn fan. Hugh is building a PROGRAM not a pump and dump one stop shop.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying Hugh is untouchable and not to blame for the way this season has went thus far. His biggest mistake was not getting a QB in the portal this offseason. Thorne looked dang good for 50 minutes of yesterdays game but that does not matter when you can’t show up when it means most. Hugh should have told him to hand the ball off every play on the drive after Auburn had stopped OU on 4th in the 4th quarter. That is on Hugh for not doing so. I think the Pick 6 is also on Hugh to a certain extent as well. As a college quarterback you go through cover 0 checks every week and study the tendencies of the other defense when they are in cover 0 because every team has their own twist. Thorne should have been prepared for the LB to drop into the slant window based on film that week and he wasn’t, resulting in a catastrophic error.
Lastly, Coach Applewhite used to harp on turnovers every week. He’d bring up this study he did as a GA at Texas. Over 100 games he looked at Texas record when they won and lost the turnover battle. When Texas won the turnover battle over those 100 games they won 76. He also would go into explosive play battle and all that but that’s irrelevant to the point. I know it’s beating a dead horse but at worst Auburn should be 4-1 at least right now but the truth of the matter is Auburn is good enough to truly compete in every game but no where close to good enough to turn the ball over and compete even against sub par to average football teams.
So all in all please stop whining and complaining. It’s not a good look for us as a fan base or to the recruits. Rally behind Hugh Freeze because he is building a PROGRAM and remember… no matter what you say on the board he’s not going to get fired because of your words so make them positive and enjoy the growing pains. It’s part of football. Does it suck being 2-3 with so much hope going into the season? Yes. But all the whining and complaining with no optimism is annoying and childish.
Thank you."
