Auburn football recruiting could be impacted by the transfer portal

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Happy crutin' Thursday to all who celebrate as we are joined by Brian Smith. Lockdown recruiting insider. Brian has been a big thing throughout the Auburn fan base and I guess throughout the SEC because it's a big deal. This past weekend Hugh Freeze and the Tigers bring in three more dudes. I put them in over 20 guys joining the team being the transfer portal since he's been here, which is crazy. Talk about flipping the roster. But you talk to these high school kids all the time that look at all sorts of different things when they're getting ready to make a decision. It's playing time, proximity to home, whatever it may be, relationship with coaches, there's a million different things that it could be. But have you heard of anybody kind of talking about the fact of like, well, they're bringing in a bunch of transfer guys. They brought in the student in my position that's got three years left of eligibility. Like what does that look like? Is there any way that this could impact Auburn recruiting? Oh, it can. But it's a case by case basis. You're talking about players from a kid from Phoenix City Central. That's a pretty confident program, usually pretty confident kids, probably not as much. The kid from some Poe Dunk school that the coach doesn't have much advice for because he doesn't have recruits. I could see him look at a Troy a little more or something like that. It's different for each player. It also depends on the position. Quarterbacks a whole different animal than running back because you don't rotate the guys. So Auburn, I mean, what is it? 21 guys or something like that? 21. Yeah. That's a whole recruiting class. In addition to a recruiting class. So literally like half their roster has been flipped. So part of that, I'm guessing some of these kids wanted to see Auburn in spring, watch the spring game. How much am I really going to play? You got to answer it yourself. But it is something that's talked about. And a lot of the high school coaches that I talked to get really ticked off because the coach comes by from school X, whatever one it may be, they want this kid. And they're like, well, you just took a guy that still has four years of eligibility that's enrolled this spring. Why would I send my guy there? So it can get touchy. It depends on the situation. Yeah. In certain positions, man or more, I think that's a good point because one that Auburn's been pretty aggressive with, I guess there's really three positions where they've really stocked up on guys. Lately, it's been wide receiver in the first portal period. It was offensive lineman and linebacker a little bit in both. But those are all positions where you play multiple guys, especially offensive line and wide receiver. But a lot of these guys have like two years left of eligibility or they could go in theory if they're really good this year, they're draft eligible after the season if they wanted to go. And to me, I'm guessing that's part of this coaching staff's pitch of like, look, I inherited a really rough thing. We want you. You're one of my guys. And coaches typically value their dudes, right? And so I don't think it's going to play into it too much. But I think there's a few guys where they kind of look at it. It's like, well, why did you bring in the Burton kid from Ohio State? He was a highly tied a dude out of Texas and he's got four years left of eligibility kind of playing that slot receiver role. So I don't know. It's going to be fun to see. And also I had somebody reach out yesterday and kind of ask Brian with some of these bigger receivers that are coming. Does Hugh Freeze just need dudes to kind of prove that he can use big body receivers at Auburn because there's not really those guys on the roster when he took it over? Well, you need some balance. Obviously, when he was at Ole Miss, they had some big dudes that made plays for him. So that helped. But if you can get great talent, I think you just got to look at it too. They needed playmakers. I know you're as big Auburn fan as I've met. Name a spot they needed more help. Maybe there's maybe D-line or something. There's some arguments you can make on a couple of spots. But you got a score now. Look at the college football playoff games. Look at the championship games, et cetera. If you can't score, you will not win. They needed more help on the outside. So they get some big kids like that. And your point about, well, we still want you just from an overview looking at this. If you're confident in yourself, you can go play at Auburn. That's the other thing. Freeze has to look at this like, I got to get as many players as I can. If somebody doesn't make it, they transfer out. It's on them. I'm going to bring in as much talent as I can because the guy in Tuscaloosa is doing that too. So, I mean, it's an arms race. How many good players can you get if somebody leaves is what it is? Yeah, you're right. And the emphasis in the state certainly seems to be a big part of that arms race. So we will see. We'll talk about a big guy that's already committed in the state in a little bit. But you're starting to see folks, more and more folks. Brian put out their list of, okay, these are going to be my official visits. These are the weekends. Let's start with a, let's start with an interesting one. Preston Tomala, he is from Hawaii. Four star guy, he is absolutely massive, but he is expected to be in Auburn on June 16th. That'll be the week after he's in Alabama. But this guy, four star kid across the board, regardless of which rankings you look at. And it kind of seems like it's pretty open among an interesting list. What's cool. You and I were talking about that off air. Arizona, Oregon, Auburn and Alabama. I don't even know where to begin with that. Sure. I get why he would do the visits to Alabama and Auburn back to back. So I'm sure he's going to stay in the state. He's not going all the way back out there where he's from. So he's probably going to, no, I can't even imagine doing two of those trips in a row. I don't know, that's horrible. But he's obviously intrigued with the rivalry between these two schools, which I know that I am too. I get it, but he wants to check it out. That's pretty cool. I mean, has anybody ever done that to your knowledge? Like Auburn, Alabama, like from there, even from California, that would, you know, I mean, it's just like, that's crazy. But Auburn needs offensive line help. They need defensive line help. Any big guys. So this is a big battle for them. It would be great if they could get him because they need to be able to play power football for you, freeze his offense to really work in the passing game play action, RPO. This is the kind of guy you could do that with. So I'm curious to see how he likes Alabama compared to where he's from, the whole state. It's talking about culture change. Yeah. All the interviews that I see about Tamala, and I hope we're saying his name correctly here. All the interviews talk about how big relationships are for him. And a lot of people kind of speculating NIL is not a big part of it, but I mean, still, you got to feel it is going to be taken care of in any of those schools that he picks. But just curious to see, like, with the relationship aspect of it, how much of it comes into play of like, you know, Coach Thornton is apparently extremely relatable. The offensive line coach at Auburn, offensive line commits or recruits seem to absolutely love him. So we'll see how that plays into it. His distance play a factor and the time difference and how much you can communicate. I don't know. But also Walker White, you talked about him last week, but he's quote tweeting them on his birthday, you know, and so Walker's making sure he gets to know him too. He's like, Hey, I need you to come protect me and blot for me. And so, you know, I think there's a few different angles as far as relationships go when you look at this kid. Those are very important things nowadays because of the internet and because of your phone, having access to it. And Walker can hit him up on Twitter at any time. And it's, I mean, 30 years ago, that would have been unheard of. Now kids know each other from across the country and even out to how is where he is. That's awesome because we get a totally different dynamic. We can follow recruiting just by scrolling Twitter or Instagram and group of Walker looking after himself too. Hey, I'd want somebody like that in front of me. I get it. If they need offensive lineman in this class, they need to start building that position of all because no position has to get a mesh more than a line. It's five guys trying to do the same thing. If you're going to hit the portal, that's great. But high school linemen would be a good thing for Auburn moving forward. There's no doubt. There's no doubt he's projected to play interior offensive line. He's six, three, three hundred pounds. So a lot, a lot to like about that. Auburn has also set an official visit for one of their favorite running back targets in this class. We'll discuss him in just a moment right here on locked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Bird Dogs. They are the most comfortable pants in shorts that you could possibly, possibly imagine they sent us a few pair of them. And I absolutely love them. They got the built in liners so you can breathe easy. 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Get the latest on all the prospects and your team's needs with locked on NBA Big Board. Available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Bird of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Brian Smith, our guest today talking all things Auburn or crutin. All right, let's pivot to another official visitor that's on the way. Daniel Hill, which is an interesting name athlete slash running back. I always am a little intrigued when you see kind of guys classified that way, but he's expected to make an official visit to Auburn a little bit earlier, June 2nd through June 4th. Brian, what stands out when you look at Daniel Hill power. Sometimes it's not a it's not that difficult. It's don't get caught with force for the trees. He's put together now. Yeah, it's 220 pounds of muscle. And there's a reason that he has offers across the southeastern conference. And quite frankly, could be an early impact player, even in the SEC West where Auburn obviously plays. So the interesting thing with him, he's from Mississippi. What state did a certain Auburn head coach used to get like again? This is not that huge freeze guy. That's right. That's right. So I mean, he's obviously got contacts in the state. Auburn has always recruited Mississippi hard anyway. It's not like it's a news flash. So this is a big visit because he can be your every down. I'm going to beat you up guy that would be great in you freezes offense. I love his offense because it's really hard to project what they're going to do based on formation. And this guy makes it extension because he can catch the ball. He could be a blocker. He's one of the few kids that will come in as a running back as a freshman. Big enough to handle pass protection. Most running back as freshmen suck at it. Sure. True. So he's an every down dude. If you want to do that, but he's such a good athlete. I mean, if you wanted to play him a will or something, you could. I think I would, I think I'd give him the ball, but that's just me. So strength, speed, athleticism, he's total package. Auburn, South Carolina, a bunch of schools. Let's kind of see how it plays out, man. Yeah. Yeah. And so I mean, we talked about it last week, Brian, if you get one of those official visits, you got a chance. You're in the game, brother. You're in the game. You at least got a figure in the top five. So you only get five of them. Here's why I'm interested in this. And Auburn's been interested in, in Daniel Hill for a minute, but there's growing smoke around the program that Jamarian Burnett, a running back that's currently committed to Auburn, they're starting to kind of be more and more belief that there will be a mutual parting of ways. That seems to be more and more likely as the weeks go on. I'm curious to see how true that is, Brian. If you've heard of anything on that, let me know. But with them still going hard after other running backs, their belief is they're going to recruit multiple running backs in this class. But I'm just curious if the recruitment of Daniel Hill and the current commitment of Jamarian Burnett, I wonder if it's tied at all. Kids don't like to mention those things. And I have an interviewed Hill, so I'm not picking on him. But historically, when a kid is worried about another player, they get very defensive. And they don't know how to play it off because they're not mature enough yet. But I get it, Hill's a dude. Maybe he wants to be the only running back in the class and then on top of that, there's going to be a disc guy possibly in it. I would get it. But I don't understand why you would want to leave you freeze his offense. Yeah. I'm biased because I just like, I'm not an Auburn fan, but I'm, I just will be on it. Yeah, it's, yeah. Yeah. You can do a lot of things with it. I'm with you. Yeah. Whatever. I want to play for Cadillac Williams. And so I'm curious to see like, if this does come to fruition, which is, is it truly mutual? Is it one side versus the other? I don't know. Because his commitment took a little bit longer than we all thought too. And a few people thought that was kind of odd, but yeah, I'm not really sure how this is going to unfold because you got to think, Ryan, going into it. They're like, we're going to take another running back. We're still going to recruit other running back. It's not like they dropped that iceberg on his head three weeks after his commitment. He had to have at least some idea. So like you, I'm a little curious if that smoke is true. Why? Yeah. I'll let you know if I hear, but to now I have not heard anything. So it seems like Alabama is the current favorite for Daniel Hill. Are you kind of here and reading seeing the same thing? Alabama, South Carolina, depending on who you talk to, Alabama, once they zero in on a kid. That's tough. They just took two elite running backs in the last class. At some point, I, and I brought this up with somebody earlier today, I wonder when that's going to make a big impact. I mean, they took two dudes. Does he really want to go? I mean, I wonder what that past catching ability that he's got. I wonder if they showed him Jameer Gibbs tapes. There's got to be something. I mean, I get the attraction to Alabama. I get it, but do you really want it? I mean, okay, but that's not the move I would make. Yeah. But each, to each guy their own, South Carolina is the other one I'd heard a lot of smoke with. He would play earlier there. I think that's, I mean, the comparison we do with those programs is quite large in terms of the distance between them. Right. Well, they've got a little momentum, but yeah, if he wants to go to Alabama, I'll give him all the credit in the world in terms of his guts because that is not going to be an easy running back room to move up. Yeah. All right. So those are our thoughts on Daniel Hill. I went to watch an Auburn 2025 commit this past Friday night and I will share some thoughts and Brian's thoughts as well. And just a moment right here on Lockdown. The frenzy around college recruiting is at an all time high. Lockdown podcast network knows you need all the best insights. So we're happy to welcome Brian Smith to the network with an unparalleled 30 years of experience. Brian delivers boots on the ground perspective that you can't get anywhere else. He's the ultimate recruiting insider and he's here to give you the breaking news and exclusive interviews you need to stay on top. Check out Brian Smith weekly on a variety of local college shows available on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts part of the lock down podcast network your team every day. Just as we definitely all predicted the eighth seed Miami Heat or one win away from the NBA finals. The heat have the urgency. We have the focus they smell blood in the water. They punch the Celtics in the mouth and the Celtics folded the 2023 WMB a season is officially underway. Alia Boston made her W.A. debuted against a Connecticut son on Friday. The number one thing for me is that she's really good and four teams are left battling for two spots in the Stanley Cup finals. The Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights found ways to win in overtime in dramatic fashion. For more on all these stories check out new episodes of locked on heat locked on women's basketball and locked on NHL all free and available wherever you get podcasts. Auburn, when I encourage you to join the lockdown, I'll be discord is free. All you have to do is click the link in the episode description down below. Brian, I went to Opelike a spring game to watch Malik Autry, the 2025 defensive line commit and it is remarkable how much larger he is than everyone as he is wrapping up his sophomore year of high school. I mean, unbelievable size. Yeah, I watched his film and when he was standing up before a play and he's kind of next to the kid and I'm like, what are they feeding this kid? You know what I mean? He's six, six, five, something like that. He's doing her pounds and he's not one of those big sloppy kids either. No, he's pretty lean. For how big he is, like he is not, I mean, he's not carrying a ton of extra weight. You know, a lot of the kids we see, even Auburn or Alabama side over the years, okay, we got a red shirt in, we got to get a change. No, I mean, he's a plug and play in terms of this physical. I mean, I don't know if he can figure out the playbook and all that intricacies, but you can't, you can't not like the body and then walked in his film. This is a kid that could to gap. He played some four I play to I, et cetera. He's a kid that could play nose for you if you wanted. He can move laterally. This is the kid that you and I talked about in general, Opalika, Auburn High School, Phoenix City Central, they have to get those kids if they're going to compete with Georgia and Alabama. Now the news flash and getting him is huge. This is a starting point because there's a couple of kids at Phoenix City Central in particular. I'm sure that Auburn fans are familiar with. They have to get those guys. This is a start and if you get a guy that's this good, especially a D line, which is always a critical need for every team, that's a great way to go, man. It's a big pickup for Preza and the Auburn Tigers. When you have a guy like this and you got to talk about when we got to a little bit with a caveat of like, he's got two years, two seasons left with high school football. So like, there's a little bit of a caveat here. But if you just took him and you know, you put him on the Auburn roster, like he looks more like a defensive end than an interior guy, but he's got two years left. I mean, he may get up to 300 by the time he's done. That's what they want him to do. And that's why he wants to do as a player. But do you kind of see guys and high school that are interior guys ever kind of slowly scoot to the outside of the defensive front? Is that a tendency you typically see or do you think he'll get big enough where he just stays in the middle? It goes from outside to inside. Once you're inside, you usually don't go back outside. Sure. That's just once you're big, you're big. But he's one of the rare guys athletically that he can play some strong side in and then depending on package, circumstance, third and eight, maybe you move him into nose guard because the other team center is not the biggest dude because this is a kid that's going to avoid 300 pounds easily, 310, whatever he wants because he's got the frame. He can overpower some guys. They can play games. They can run stunts with him. He'll play both. He's talented enough to do it. And whenever you get versatile D linemen, they're in the 300 pound range. That's when you're playing with some front. Yeah. Again, this is not rocket science. My dude is better than yours. Good luck to you. That's right. That's right. So Opalika stunted him a ton, which I think is good. A lot of time they stunted him out of the play, but it looked like it was a design play call. But despite him being like a foot taller than everybody else, his pad level is pretty good. I mean, it's hard to be a big guy and keep your pad level low while you're stunting as you know, a guy that's got two years left of high school football. So there are some traits and some technique stuff that I think he's doing that's like, man, I don't think he's just a big body. That's all I'm saying. Like I think Malik Autry is a dude that's going to be a really good football player, hopefully for Auburn when it's all set and done. He could be a top 100 recruit. Yeah. I mean, it's a little harder to tell with lineman because they're still growing into their bodies like a corner or saw out receivers will easier, obviously. But there's nothing not to like about him physically in that length. Your hands up to knock down passes, et cetera. Everything that Auburn got with this package is a big thumbs up. So now they just need more of them. That's simple as it gets. So when a guy commits to a school way early, what's the strategy for keeping him in your mind? Because Auburn's seen this a ton where a guy commits really it feels like whenever Auburn gets a commitment early, they eventually lose them. Sean Shivers is really the only one that I can think of that didn't do that. Really like stay true the whole time. Those like the first to commit and stay true the whole time. What's the strategy there in your mind, Brian? Well, there are two things. Number one, you got to communicate with them digitally and you know, phones and all that. But he lives what? 20 minutes from campus. Sure. You know what I mean? It's not very far. It's about getting him onto the campus as often as possible, making him feel like he's already there. Yeah. Then I mean, is he probably going to take a visit somewhere? That's two years a long time, brother. It's a long time. You already hit the nail on the head. You got to survive those moments. He can't panic if he visits, I don't know, Tennessee, I don't know, whatever. It is what it is, but he's human. You know, he may not even be able to drive a car yet. I'm not sure if he's older than him. 16. It's funny enough because when he got, never mind, I don't even tell a story, but yeah, he's 16. So, but I mean, you and I've been 16 years old before. Like you change your mind on everything all the time. Like it's just, this is hard. It's going to be interesting to see the strategy as far as keeping him committed because I think he's going to be a pretty sought after prospect. I think he's conservatively going to be a four star guy. Yeah. Yeah. You take that. You take that. Brian, how could people check out all the stuff that you've got going on right now? Whether it is YouTube, Twitter or Instagram, it's at FB Scout underscore Florida. I'm going to be doing a lot of stuff with the previews, with the recruits and all this stuff coming up across the South. And it's a lot of fun, man. June is the best month of the year for guys like me because that's when all the visits happen. So it's just check it out, man. There's going to be information popping left and right, especially like Auburn. This is important a month as there is. I'm going to scout some Alabama kids and what not to, let's see what happens, man. Let's check it out. Social media is where you can find everything really quick. So FB Scout underscore Florida. Yeah. Brian's going to do several, several previews for different various players. Last week we posted one with him breaking down Cam Coleman. So if you want to check that out, that's on, that's just on YouTube. It's on the YouTube page. So be sure to check that out. You can find all my written work at Auburn daily.com and we will see you tomorrow. This has been locked on Auburn. Just as we definitely all predicted the eighth seed Miami heat or one went away from the NBA finals. The heat have the urgency. We have the focus. They smell blood in the water. They punch the Celtics in the mouth and the Celtics bolded. The 2023 WMBAC season is officially underway. Oliya Boston made her WGA debuted against a Connecticut son on Friday. The number one thing for me is that she's really good. And four teams are left battling for two spots in the Stanley Cup finals. The Florida Panthers in Vegas golden nights found ways to win in overtime in dramatic fashion. For more on all these stories, check out new episodes of locked on heat, locked on women's basketball and locked on NHL, all free and available wherever you get podcasts.