Auburn football drops transfer; is Hugh Freeze the portal king?

It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Lockdown Podcast Network welcomes Brian Smith, longtime recruiting expert to our weekly lineup of local college shows. Brian provides breaking news and interviews you can't find anywhere else. Available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. You're part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. So apparently Auburn is now down a transfer and also is Hugh Freeze actually the Portal King. Reaching temperatures are likely for several hours inland and a few hours closer to the coast. Yes. You are Lockdown Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tiger. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on to Lockdown Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers Podcast. I'm your host Zach Blacker. I mean, thank you so much for making Lockdown Auburn your first listen every single day. And all the every day or is out there and know that it's Wednesday. That means we celebrate War of Poor Wednesday with Mike G of the War of Poor hanging out with us. You did a, you did a monologue earlier in the week about Hugh Freeze being the Portal King. We'll discuss that in a second. But first things first, it appears based on multiple reports now that Auburn is down a member of their transfer portal class, Cyrus Dumas, the, the cornerback from New Mexico State University. It sounds like Auburn is refusing to take his commitment, which, which is a shame because it really seems like he really wanted to be a part of Auburn. But the position where like, did you really need him? I don't know, but it sounds like there's not room for him from a scholarship point of view. Yeah, it makes you wonder, Zach, where the breakdown in communication was, you know, because you don't commit willy-nilly unless there was some sort of conversation about bringing this kid on, you know, from a PR standpoint, it's not a great look, right? Like you don't want kids out there saying, you know, when this broke, we were like, oh, do we talk about this? And then I started looking, I was like, I don't really see any confirmation here. That's just the way maybe there's something going on and then all of a sudden, bam, he's not coming, right? So, you know, you've got to, you've got to get whatever led to the breakdown in this communication where it was like, you know, psych, that's something I think they need to go back and take a look at and just make sure again that communication with these kids and these recruits is what it needs to be Zach so that you are not having these, what could be embarrassing sort of situations for these guys where they think they're coming and they are announcing it to their friends and family and then all of a sudden it's not a thing. Well, and this happens, right? I mean, I don't think it's going to hurt Auburn in any way. No. You know, I know you mentioned a PR standpoint, like it certainly doesn't feel good or look good now because I think we all care about these kids and, you know, I can't imagine having to tread water in these transfer portal waters. I mean, it's going to be tough, but like, this isn't a story, right? Like this is this maybe a story throughout the SEC, you know, today. It's an all a story. But like that's it. Right. That's it. You know, this is still up. A 20 man transfer portal class and Auburn still has a scholarship. So maybe they have somebody else in mind for it. Maybe there's grad transfer situations down the road and they just kind of want to hold it and see what happens. That's kind of it. But also like, you know, was it miscommunication or did somebody just change their mind? I mean, it could have been several different things. Oh, yeah. You know, that makes me wonder about moves that they are potentially planning as well. That's the other side of this is is that, you know, we thought we were going to go this route, but it makes me wonder if something happened and they're like, oh, we have a chance to get to guys in this and we need that scholarship spot. You know, do we feel better about defensive back and is there a move that they're trying to make it another positions act that caused that, you know, this was, you know, a byproduct of. And so I'll be watching that the next couple of weeks to see how those dominoes because if they end up picking up two more guys, right, and then we can look back on this and say, okay, this was strategic and they prioritized, you know, whatever position they picked up over this defensive back position that they thought they had open for Cyrus. Yeah. Do you think they caught wind of a grad transfer situation where it's like, all right, I'll be done in June or July, whenever, you know, their academic institution kind of sets all of that. That's what it feels like to me. And while I hate it for Dumas, I think he's a fine corner. I don't know how much he would have played. I think he was a fine corner. I think he would have made the roster better. Does it make more sense when you talk about like the upside of what this potentially being? It's like, I'd rather have the upside. I'd rather have the upside and the uncertainty of all of this. And I also kind of like the situation of going into the fall with a scholarship just in case. Right. Just in case something happens as somebody graduates at the end of the summer and you know, you want to throw it to somebody. I like the upside that having this little bit of freedom with this grad transfer era that we're about to venture into. I like what that represents more than the fifth or sixth corner on your roster. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, honestly, the defensive back room was not one I was super worried about going into the season. So you know, if they were picking him up, obviously you would feel like that was, they felt like this kid maybe either bolsters that position or has a chance to come in and compete for a spot. Or he's a backup this year. He could start next year is kind of now making for him. Yeah, you know, but if you don't need it right now and there are more pressing areas of need and you want to save that scholarship, I'm all for that strategy. You just want to make sure that on the front end that everybody is being communicated with in a way that they're comfortable with and that, you know, you're doing right by everybody involved in the process. Yeah. Yeah. So that's a shame. My favorite thing about him is like he really wanted to be at all. Yeah, that's that's where I feel bad, right? If kid really wanted to be here, now he's being told, sorry, you may want us, but we don't want you. That's staked. Yeah. Cause I think there was a quote. I talked about it when we did the reaction show for him. I think it was on on three. I think it was at Auburn live where they talked about, you know, like scratched and clawed to be here. And now he's finally here and it's like, man, like you really rooting for the kid and that opportunity doesn't appear to be there anymore, according to multiple reports. So stinks, but the corner back room, like you said, is fine, right? There's five guys that I think you feel really good about. Barring injury or, you know, somebody has to move to nickel for one reason or another. They should be good there. They should be good there. So before we move on to other topics, Mike, G, you're your initial reaction to the other two guys that Auburn got over the weekend, the edge from Liberty, Steve sings. Yeah. And, and the, I think the pretty dynamic wide receiver in Shane hooks, the former Jackson state wide receiver. What were your, what were your reactions when, when Auburn landed both of those guys? I love the viral clip that's going around with the hooks, making the one handed catch. The, the, the old Dell Beckham kind of showing, showing off pure athleticism. Hugh Freeze has talked over and over again, Zach about range at the wide receiver position range and catch radius. And you know, it's exciting to see them sign a guy who there is immediate and like obvious evidence about him out there displaying the sort of catch radius that Hugh Freeze says is important in this league. So super excited about Shane hooks. You know, he's going to come in and compete. And you know, if he picks up the system, you know, I expect that any, anybody who comes in with pure athleticism and looks like they can just go out there and be a playmaker is going to have a chance to play early and often. Yeah. Can't coach six, five either. I mean, that's right. Combination and hem and shorter makes this, this wider. So much better. So much better. What about things? Right. Yeah. So I think that this is. I'm singing. Wait, we got, we got to get in. We got those two dad jokes in before the end of the five. Right. So the idea here, which thing is the same as when we, when we talked about McCloud a few weeks ago, you know, in reanalyzing that situation, I just think it put, it shows the emphasis that Hugh Freeze is putting on making sure that they shore up that jack position. I think the thing is, is an obvious candidate to play there and having a guy's the body's there that you feel like can contribute immediately, rotate in and out and provide consistent pressure from the jack position of Ron Roberts defense is going to be super important. So I like this pickup. I think that Hugh Freeze, what I loved about what he's done in the portal so far, Zach, is is that they really are attacking areas of need. And that sounds like a real basic thing to say, but man, just not stuffing the roster or warm bodies who you feel like are good athletes, but really being choosy and diligent and meticulous about the guys that you add to make sure they fit your culture, that they fit what you want to do. And that they feel an immediate area of need for your team. I think Hugh Freeze has done a good job. Sing is going to, it's going to be, you know, hopefully a contributor there. But, you know, in terms of what they need, I love the pickup. Well, I mean, how many years have we gone into the offices like, wow, they really need to address offensive line and they really need to address wide receiver, you know, various other positions and it just hasn't been done for like the last half decade. It hasn't been done. And all of a sudden Hugh Freeze comes in here and finds a way to do it. The Jack linebacker situation, hopefully they can generate pressure and hopefully now they can carry a tune. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That was a bad joke. That was a bad joke. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. All right. Let's let let's continue this topic. But zoom out just a little bit. Is Hugh Freeze the portal? Can we discuss that in just a moment right here on lockdown Auburn? Mike G, a few questions for you. Do you like it when your clothes fit? Well, I do. Do you like it when they're comfortable? I do. What about when they have some versatility to them? A versatility is always a good thing, Zach. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Bird dogs is the place where you need to go to get all of your shorts or pants moving forward. They've got the built in liner as well, so everything is just more comfortable if you know what I'm saying. And they look good. They feel good. You can wear them to the gym. You can run errands afterwards. You can wear them to church if you wanted to. I mean, anything you want to do with bird dogs, you can do. And also, I think my wife likes me more when I wear them, Mike G. So there's that. I'm just putting that out there. So head over to birddogs.com slash locked on college. And when you place your order, you can enter the promo code locked on college and they'll throw in a free custom bird dog's Yeti style tumbler with every order. Once again, birddogs.com slash locked on college. Two best quotes. Mike G of the Warra poor hanging out with us today. You did a little bit of a model. Earlier in this kind of generates some conversation because I guess the origin of it. I think on three put out a graphic, right? Who's the portal king? And they showed four coaches and none of them were Hugh freeze, right? It was Lane. It was Lincoln Riley. It was Dion. Who's the fourth one? It was Jeff Brown from Louisville, right? It was Mike Norville. It was all off of this. Yeah, it was Dion and it was Lincoln Riley, right? I just like if it wasn't on there. No, he was not. And you know, I thought it was interesting that they put this list out like who's the portal king? You have a guy who has a portal class ranked in the top four and he's not on it and I don't get it. And it was like, okay, and this again, no shade the Dion, but hear me out, right? 48 portal pickups for Dion Sanders, Zach. He's a portal king by pure numbers, sure, whatever, but he kicked half of his team off like day one. He comes in and he was like, I'm not going to need most of you guys. And so then you go. I mean, I think he got didn't Dossen transfer there. I think that's right. Yeah, the bars are some transfer there. I mean, guys who couldn't cut it here. Well, I guess I guess he's got Louie, right? Because he said the people coming there that got Louie, which is cool. Good for him. Yeah. If the whole argument is who has the most, then there's not an argument. It's like there's nothing to debate. It's like so and so is added the most transfer. I think there's an element of the portal king discussion that isn't talked about enough. And I think it's retaining guys that you want to keep as well for sure. And everybody close to Colorado is going to say, well, everybody who left Colorado, Dion didn't want and we all know that's crap. We all know that that's not true. We all know that that's not true. You can't have that many guys leave. And some people are like, I didn't like his culture. I didn't like his coaching style, whatever it may be. Yeah, I mean, that's just, that's just not, that's not necessarily true. Hugh Freeze has the highest average of four stars from the portal. Anybody. Say it again. Say it again. Yes, the highest average of four star talent from the portal of everybody out there, man. How are you leaving him off this graphic? I don't know what the bias is over at on three. I really don't. You know, I get it's the off season, if you're clickbaiting people, whatever, maybe they knew Auburn fans were a spawn. I just thought it was completely ludicrous that you could put something like this together and completely ignore the job Hugh Freeze has done in the portal. He's on a fantastic jobs act. And you know what? He had the, you know, it's not like he didn't have talent. Like he had listened some talented guys walked off this team, right? And he replaced. It wasn't like he has been very, I think, intentional about my G. I'm trying to ask this without being disrespectful. Sure. But I'm going to do it anyway. And I just hope you trust where I'm coming from. It's a good place. So the talented guys that left as far as like the guys that have an impact when they left off of this team, who are they? Oh, like, I mean, when I say, when I say talented, I don't mean like, oh, they had some great impact, right? Okay. So I think they were talent like they weren't talentless guys. So like guys like landing King who left. Yeah, but I believe landing King to be a talented guy. But you know, from what I was told, he was informed that he would not have much of a role here, right? And so I like that honesty with the players. If you don't have a plan for him, let him go. Right. You know, and I think that there was a judicious process on, on Hugh Freeze's part about who to keep and who to let go. Sure. And then on it was just like, well, we let go half the team. We got to get guys in. You know, I like the job that Norville has done in the portal. I think he's done an amazing job when you look at their class. So it's not like I'm shading anybody who's ranked in a boat. I just don't know how Hugh Freeze is not at the top of the conversation for Portal King when you look at the guys that he's brought in versus some of the talent that was easily picked up by other schools. Right. So, and that's why I mean like it wasn't these weren't like some of these guys will play where they're going. You know, I believe landed King has a chance to play at Utah. You know, and they're moving him back to tie it in supposedly. Yeah, right. I just, I just think, man, you know, he let talent go and he brought talent in and Dion just let a bunch of guys, he didn't have a choice. 50 per over 50% of your roster, you had to pick up in the portal. That's crazy. Yeah. I don't know like, I don't know why people are praising that. I don't know why either. Right. I knew when I did that rant that it was going to sound like I was throwing shade at Dion. And I kind of am. You can. Like I think that's okay. Yeah. But ultimately, you know, to reward that as if it's some feat, but then leave Hugh Freeze out of the conversation. I, that's, I mean, again, that's willful ignorance, you know, in my opinion. Right. It's not based in any reality. And then when you go and look, I didn't get to see on three's portal rankings, but almost every other site that ranks the portal has Hugh Freeze ranked in the top three or four. I think on three has is it two? Yeah. Like what? How do you know they got a five? Yeah. Five. Okay. So, you know, maybe they're in their view. He's not, but it just to me, it was Brahms was way that way further. Again, I liked the job he's done it. But he was much further down the list. I think two, four, seven, maybe had him at like 14 or something like that. Yeah. You know, but putting him on over Hugh Freeze or saying, you know, praising the job that Dion's doing without a mention of you to me is, is, is a little disrespectful. I'm with you, dude. I'm with you. Do you get a, do you guys over the war, get a comment every now and then on any of your videos when people are like, uh, yeah, we, we should have gotten Dion over Hugh Freeze. I'm still getting some of those. And it's like, are you kidding me? Like you look at what Hugh Freeze has done versus what Dion's done. And it's just night and day different. Did you see the interview that, um, Dion did with Shannon Sharp, where he was like, what am I going to talk to boosters for? Like, yeah. Zach, it would have, this would have been a whole disaster. Right. Um, I mean, essentially said, um, no, I'm not glad heading boosters. What are you just talking them for? It's been a time with my kids and blah, blah, blah. Right. I was like, oh, you get coached at any SEC school then. Right. What you're saying, you can maybe get a job at Vandy. Right. So this was, this was, I think in terms of fit and culture, Auburn got the right guy. I think so too. I don't know how you can look in the last six months and say otherwise. Yeah. Right. He has worked his tail off Zach, uh, on the recruiting trail. He's made an emphasis on trying to develop all my, all my old misprints have said, Hey, listen, your challenge with Hugh Freeze is not going to be development. He knows how to develop players. It's going to be game day stuff. It's going to be game day decisions. It's going to be, you know, uh, you know, sometimes that inexplicable game you lose that you're like, how did we lose that? We should have won that game. And you know, you saw that Liberty last year. I mean, they would be Arkansas. Then like, I think they lost like a few games straight after that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, arguable. Maybe he was checked out when he was getting the over job, but like, to me, I just feel like Dion, you know, the comments again with people are always should have a Dion. It's just now, it would have generated a lot of excitement, but ultimately it would have been a disaster and he would have been in a win or else type of situation and the money they would have had it shelled out to get him. Mm hmm. Right. That's well. You're right. SCC because listen, Colorado got away with paying him like what? Like six million a year or something like that. He would have, he would have had that. I believe he would have had to have made more than that here. Maybe right. Yeah. Yeah. And it just wouldn't have been worth the money, the bank for the buck. Like you pay him that type of money. He needs to go out and contend for the West pretty quickly. And there's going to be, I think, a measured and reasonable amount of patience with Hugh Freeze understanding that he's got the end of the Gus era and what was Brian Hars' era to fix. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And like you said at the end of your video, Hugh Freeze may not be the portal king, but he is a portal prince. Yeah. I think we all could agree with that. He's number two, right? Yeah. I'm cool with that. All right. There's been some drama about the top five SEC stadiums. Let's touch on that in just a moment right here on locked on. Thanks for making locked on your first listen every day. The NBA draft is June 22nd and locked on NBA Big Board is the only daily NBA draft podcast. 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There was some drama, Brandon Walker, who's with Barstool. He went after Georgia saying that San Francisco Stadium is not a top five stadium and his argument, which is valid. I think it got buried with some of the pushback, but his argument is Georgia's never beaten somebody at home because of their home field advantage. That was the point that he was making. He said that LSU is better than Georgia Stadium. Auburn's better, A&M's better, Tennessee's better, and the swap where his top five. And I agree with him. I agree with him. I think I think Tiger Stadium is in its own tier. Then I think after that, you've got Auburn and Gainesville. I don't know if I want to put a college station up there. There's a bunch of them. It's massive. Yeah, Auburn's won a lot there. Yeah, I think I put kneeland up there before. Yeah, I was going to say, if you have been anywhere in the SEC, you know, Death Valley, the real Death Valley is the hardest place to go play in college football. And at night, forget about it. That is a difficult environment to go in in. I literally, one year, they tried to turn the bus over with Tuberville's family in it after the game, bro. I don't know why I say about those guys down there. They're built different. It is a wild environment. After that, I would have kneeland like, listen, Tennessee has a rockets environment. And you know, especially now that they're good again. Yeah, they have the most annoying fight song and they make sure you know how annoying it is, while loud and often they play it. Back in the day when we would play NCAA on PlayStation, oh my God, I got so sick. All my friends who played with Tennessee, I eventually was not. So worst fight song, fortunately, though, is not in the SEC. It is Clemson's Clemson's. Yeah. Yeah. That delayed end thing like, oh, like nails on the top and he has like, stop it. Stop it. So you got kneeling. I believe you have dirt and air after that, right? And the swamp may be interchangeable. Again, if you haven't been down to Gainesville to see what the way, you know, it's, you know, it's not just across the way they built the stadium is built kind of below. People are close to the field. It's like, right. And then at the end of it, like, listen, if you want to throw Georgia in on the back end of the top five, like whatever, you know, you know, Brian Denny, maybe who knows, I, I just think I don't think so. I don't think Brian Denny is like a big home field advantage. They're just good. Good. They're just good. Nick Saban complains about their crowd all the time. Right. You know, you know, now they did build up the stadium to add more seats because, you know, in the last 10 years, they've gone over a hundred thousand seating capacity. So I think they're beside Tennessee. They're the only other stadium in the SEC that is, you know, six figures in terms of capacity. And, you know, they got the light show going on there. Right. Like, so, you know, all these schools have worked to try to create an environment. But man, when you talk about what's happening on the planes, I think that Auburn versus Texas A&M says everything that it needs to say. I'm with you. Right. I'm with you. I'm at the bottom and they, they, and they created a championship environment out of one of the worst seasons in Auburn history in the last 50 years. Come on, man. Right. That is a top five environment in the SEC hands down. Like I said, it's, it's close between, for me, between Florida and Auburn, but talk to any players, Zach, they'll tell you we hate going to play at Auburn. That's right. Consistently, we hear that after during when people ask, what's it like to play at Auburn is like, dude, that is a hard place to go play. Right. And you just don't hear that about Brian Denny. Right. Alabama is hard to play. Sure. But is the stadium hard to play in? I don't know. No, they're fans. Like an Alabama home football game to me seems like a, like a business meeting almost, where it's like they're there like, yes. Good job first down. Good job. Yeah. All right. Okay. But when you come to Jern Hare, it's like you just got a bunch of people just screaming their tails off and they just, yeah, it's great. It's great. The hedges are whatever they got at Sanford Stadium. Like I said, this is not a bad football environment, if you ask me, right? The blackout thing that they do every once in a while is really cool. Right. You know, I think that people got offended thinking because we're national champions, you have to rate us the best at everything because we win national champions back to back. Yeah, you won a national championship because you're more talented. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're holding millions. Five stars. Yeah. Right. Right. But, you know, ultimately it's a tough place to go play, but it's the SEC. There are other tough places to go play and whether you win or not there is beside the point in terms of how tough it is to play there. Sure. Mike Gee, how could people love you, period watching support you, all that stuff? Listen, we have some content coming for you guys. Heather didn't join the show on a building report. Talk about her shade of the wide receivers. Great conversation with Heather. And we've got some more stuff coming with Mr. Cole Cube. Like you definitely don't want to miss this content, man. The SEC Media Days is coming in a couple of months. We're going to be providing lots of great content there. So make sure you subscribe on YouTube. Follow us on Twitter, all the social media platforms, the War for you can find all my written work at Auburn daily.com and we will see you tomorrow. This has been locked on Auburn. Mm. I'm going to be talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this. I'm going to be talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this. I'm going to be talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this. In the fact that we're going to be doing this, we're going to be doing this. I'm going to be talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this. Yeah, we're going to be talking about the fact that we're going to be doing this. of no water tampons come, it's getting an ungabot spitting wind.