BONUS: What is Auburn football going to do at the quarterback position?

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Give us the Zach Blackerby take on this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, first one is Casey Thompson, right? The former Texas and more more recently the former Nebraska quarterback. He enters the portal. A lot of all preventings get excited. He's quickly on Auburn's campus on an official visit about 48 hours after the fact. And then on Sunday, you know, the last day that the portal was open, you see Peyton Thorne, the former Michigan State quarterback, enter the portal. And with Thompson kind of coming and going kind of makes you wonder it kind of seems like Doug kind of seems like Hugh Freeze is really interested in what Peyton Thorne could offer to this team. And the two years to one there, do you believe we talked about this with Gordy for a little while? You know, if you bring in Thompson and you sit down the other two guys, a governor and and Robbie Ashford and say, look, sure, guys got more experience. We're going to pretty much believe that he may win the job, but we don't want you going anywhere. The next time the portal opens, we want to improve your play, get you better because he's just going to be here one year. You know, we think both of you guys are individually, you'll have a great chance to make it happen in 24. What are your thoughts about that? If that happened, I don't know if the guys currently on the roster would buy it. I think I don't think Hugh Freeze would mind if either of those guys enter the portal next year. I think they need a meeting this year. What is going to be in December, right? It's going to be in December next time it opens. So after the season, and so I think, I don't know what Robbie's graduation situation is. Obviously, he's already transferred once from Oregon to Auburn. And so he'll have to do similar to what TJ Finley announced. He was doing yesterday. He's going to have to wait to graduate to be able to transfer again without sitting out that holding your owner could transfer whenever he wants. And so, you know, especially if it's Peyton Thorne, like you said, has two years left, the timing makes a little bit more sense when you do it that way. If you look at the quarterbacks that Hugh Freeze has brought in, not the ones that he inherited, the ones that he brought in. So it's all of a sudden, in 23, you would get Thorne. In 24, you would get Thorne unless he was either really bad or really, really good and went to the NFL. I think he's going to be kind of in the middle of the pack there. So you probably get two years with him. And then you got Hank Brown, who will be a freshman this year. So he'd be a red shirt sophomore at that point, or you can bring in Walker White to start after two years of Peyton Thorne. So the timing makes more sense in my mind if you get the two-year dude. And so, you know, then all of a sudden, Hugh Freeze has quarterbacks to pick from that he brought in, not that the, not that that previous guy brought in. Has there been a decision made either way, the young man or whether Auburn's interested in the Michigan statewide receiver that jumped into the portal, basically the same time Peyton Thorne did? I'm sure they're interested. I don't know. I haven't really heard a whole lot about Coleman being interested in Auburn, talking to folks up in Michigan State. As soon as Thorne entered the portal, there was buzz around, okay, he's probably going to Auburn. With Coleman, there was a lot of buzz to Oklahoma and a few other schools have popped up since then. I've seen Florida State, I think, be kind of another leader. I'm sure Hugh Freeze and Marcus Davis, I'm sure they've called him. But there's also a report that 247 put out, I think last night, Doug, that Coleman entered the portal to get away from his quarterback. I don't know if I'm buying all that. But I mean, if that's the case, then of course he's not going to come to Auburn. But wouldn't you say, and let's leave that potential fact off to the side for a second. Okay, if you're a guy that has had success at the power five level in a league like the Big Ten, right, if you looked at Auburn's wide receiver room, wouldn't that be an attractive landing spot to you if you were going to leave and especially getting down to the south and into the league where more recruit more guys sign NFL or get drafted by the NFL than any other league? Yeah. Yeah. But they haven't done it at Auburn, right? I mean, if Bama called or if Ellis, you called, I'd probably pick up a phone and talk to him. But until Hugh Freeze kind of elevates the play at wide receiver, if I was a top guy, I don't know why I would go to Auburn. I'm just being honest, Doug. I mean, until you've seen guys get drafted and they end up being a little bit better in the NFL than they were in college, you know, your Anthony Schwartz's or your Darius Slatons and, you know, he, I mean, he even dropped off this past year, some, but I just, I think, I think Hugh Freeze is going to have to develop some of these guys that he has on the roster and kind of prove to say, Hey, doesn't matter who you are, I can get you open and I can help you accumulate yards. And we'll certainly see if he's able to do that. I talked to Camden Brown yesterday, Doug, and you know, he loves this new offense. The receivers love this new offense. They feel really good about the work that they did in spring as far as dissecting and absorbing everything that Philip Montgomery and Hugh Freeze were talking about, but they've still, they've still got a long way to go. And they're all open to the fact that there's going to be a ton of battle still going on in the fall, which Auburn needs right now because competition makes you better as a team and as a program as a roster. So as far as attracting top receivers, I think there's, I don't think it's a coincidence, Doug, that Auburn has offered a lot of these top receivers in the portal, but nobody's been super excited to come here yet. So I want to ask you this because you're much more qualified to answer it than me. You talk to players on a, on a daily weekly, if not daily basis. If I were a wide receiver and forget that it's Auburn, I would be more interested in Hugh Freeze and what he's done at Ole Miss and at Liberty with receivers. Not so much what the last couple of Auburn coaches have done with receivers. I want to know what's happened in the future, not the past. And, you know, Dante Moncrief played at Ole Miss under free. So did Lequan Treadwell. He had some other receivers that did really well. He was able to recruit some really good receivers. That's what would most interest me, but, you know, maybe I'm off base there. Yeah. You know, DK Metcalf, AJ Brown, I mean, yeah, he's had a great run of receivers at Ole Miss and, you know, there were some Liberty receivers that got drafted over the weekend, too, one to my New England Patriots. So yeah, there's no question, Doug, but I still think if you're a receiver and you're seeing some of these receivers take their time, right? That Burton, the former four-star Ohio State wide receiver, or a Montana, Lemonius, Craig, the Colorado receiver that's in the portal right now that is a lot of people are calling and hitting up right now. These guys are taking their time. I think some of it has to do with the fact that they're like, okay, who's going to be throwing me the football? And that's something that, if they ask that question to Hugh Freeze, either he knows something that isn't made public yet, which could certainly be the case, or he has to say, I don't know yet, but I hope it works out. And so until a pain thorn or a casey tops that come in, I don't think receivers are going to be thrilled to transfer to catch passes from Robbie Ashford. That's just how I think right now. So let's talk about what we do know. Auburn did get a commitment out of the portal this week. Talk about the edge rusher from App State. You had mentioned last week that that was a position of me, that the coaches were looking hard in the portal for some help there. Yeah. Yeah. Jalen McCloud, the top edge rusher from App State a year ago. I think there's a lot to like about this guy. He's got a good motor. He's got a good first step. He's aggressive. He's violent at the point of attack. And I think this is what the portal, this is like the positive side of the transport portal. We always want to complain about certain nuances of the transfer portal in the current state of college football. And I get it. People can do whatever they want. But this is a kid who out of high school, his best offer was App State. And then he develops as a football player and all of a sudden schools for the best conference in the highest level of college football, want him to elevate his game and come on. And so now all of a sudden he can play in the SEC and potentially get drafted down the road, maybe a little bit higher than he would have at App State. So I think that's pretty, pretty cool. The pressure, his best game of the season last year was against Texas A&M, which is cool because I, you know, that was pretty much their best competition that they went against. And Texas A&M's not great, right? But Auburn plays Texas A&M. They play teams. It's going to be in the same tier as Texas A&M. So the fact that he wasn't just accumulating stats by beating up on smaller teams, he could do it against teams in the SEC. That was in Texas A&M too. It was in college station. So got five quarterback hurries against the Aggie last year. Auburn will take that this season against the Aggies and all heartbeat from one player. So you like that? Some interesting things. And this is just kind of the nerdy stuff that I look at. But the jack position that Hugh Freeze and Coach Roberts, the defensive coordinator, have brought in so far, the builds a little different. You know, they brought in the lone five star from this past class, Kelloggiuk, Fox, Six Five, Elijah McAllister, both these guys, Six Five, Six, 260-ish pounds. This dude is not that. Some places have Jalen McCloud listed at 6, 1, 2, 30. I've seen other places have them listed at 6, 2, 2, 20. Regardless, this is a smaller guy. I'm curious to see if they can use him on early downs against run heavy teams that run early in the, in the, in the, in the snap count when it comes to, you know, conference play. I'm curious. I'm curious to see how they use them. I think he's going to be primarily just used to the pass rusher. Zach, over the last couple of weeks, you've been not very optimistic if you were pushed against the wall to say how many wins you think are coming in 2023. Is that changing any? You're growing an optimism here because I think your number over the last couple of weeks has been around six. So I'm curious as to where that stands now. Yeah. I mean, I think most of the time when I answer that question at seven and five, which is pretty damn close to six. I don't, I don't, I don't think I don't know where we've added another win or two. Yeah. It's, it's patent for no one win or two wins, better than Robbie Ashford. I don't know. I don't know. I could talk myself into it to some extent, but is a passing game going to get dramatically better? I'm not sure because you're probably going to lose some of the rushing game too. If that's the case. So I don't know. I don't know. Right now, Doug, until something crazy happens and Auburn brings in some receivers and maybe another Jack or two that you feel pretty good about the pass rush. I'm probably going to stay at seven and five for a while. Zach, I want to take a break and we get back. I want to share with you a conversation that I had with former Auburn quarterback Charlie Trotman about Hugh Freeze. And I think it's very intriguing because we both agree on this and I'm dying to know what your feelings are. And I'll share it with you when we get back. But we're talking just about Hugh Freeze and how much he was buying into coach freeze and much more so now than perhaps when it when the hire happened. And he loves the humility that he sees from him and he compared it to the to that of Bruce Pearl. When Bruce Pearl was hired at Auburn and he sees it like I see it. I fully believe this, Zach. I'm curious as to where you are. I think Bruce Pearl will coach his last college basketball game as Auburn said basketball coach. And I'm believing the same thing with Hugh Freeze. I don't think he's going to ever leave for another job. I think he's going to do really well and I believe he'll coach his last college football game as Auburn said, coach. That's that'd be a great situation for Auburn because that means he's winning. And he's recruiting and he's doing everything he needs to do at a high level. So that would be that'd be awesome. I'm not quite ready to say that. But man, there are a lot of similarities between him and Bruce Pearl, aren't they? I mean, just the whole like this feels like the last chance, you know, to kind of come back at a high level and then the emphasis of recruiting and just the way they can connect with one another and to to the players and the boosters and the fans. I mean, at any time, like you stop Hugh Freeze at the complex, like he's not, he's not going to like just keep walking and say, Hey, good to see you kind of thing. He's going to stop, look you in the eye and talk to you like a human. And that's nice. Like I don't think Auburn's really had that since Tuberville. So I mean, that's that's a pretty cool thing. And Auburn, Auburn people are going to really respond to that. Yeah, I don't think there's any question about it. I'm curious through your interaction with the lockdown Auburn fan base. Have you noticed any, I feel at first it seems or far or kind of removed from it now, but it seemed at first there was pushback and not everybody was on the same page, but it seems like that's changed. Yeah, I was actually pretty surprised. I talked about this probably a few months ago at this point, but like I was surprised how quickly the side of folks, the part of the Auburn fan base that was like against the Hugh Fries hire, like they chilled out pretty quick. And it wasn't even, I think they kind of stopped kind of pushing back even before he really got the recruiting stuff going and finishing out the 23 class the way he that he did. So I don't know. I guess Auburn's PR was like, let's just grin and bear it and see what happens and it'll go away. It did. It went away in like probably 36 to 48 hours after he was hired. You know, I'm getting a bunch of texts, Zach saying, Oh, yes, please. I think he will coach his last came at Auburn. So they kind of liked that. And as you mentioned, do we really know? And we haven't known since, I mean, I think almost Pat died quite frankly, because of the turmoil that was present, that was present during the Tommy Tuberville years. Do we, do we really know what an Auburn football program looks like with complete stability at the, at the head coaches position? I mean, I think there were parts of the Malzahn era that showed that. I mean, early Malzahn 2013, 2014, I think certainly had that. And then kind of feels like the Malzahn era, it couldn't peak because he obviously never went back to a national championship after his first year, but I mean, 2017, I think there was a feeling around the program, like after the iron bowl, when Auburn for the first time really that I can remember, you know, in my adult life, that I actually handled Alabama. And like, okay, there was a feeling in that post game press conference that like Gus had done it, like Gus had figured out how to do it. And then obviously you get what by Georgia, because carry on got hurt in the SEC championship game. There was kind of a belief at that point where it's like, okay, you know, maybe this has been it. And then it kind of fizzled out because they've forgotten to recruit offensive lineman after that. But I think you felt it through parts of the Malzahn administration. I'm higher on Gus than a lot of Auburn people. I think a lot of Auburn people are kind of acting like Gus was a worse head coach than he actually was while he was here. But man, you know, we kind of heard all these stories about the recruiting during Malzahn and the recruiting during horse and relax thereof. And it's like, we've talked about this before, Doug, you know, when we were listing out traits that you wanted in the next head coach, recruiting was a big part of it. Like I've never really covered that before because Malzahn didn't really do it. He had staff, a staff that would, you know, they recruited the heck out of folks, you know, consistently in the top 10, but they didn't like wake up obsessed with it. And Brian Harson, of course, did it. And so now seeing like what Hugh Freeze is doing and his staff is doing, it feels different. It feels different. Something that I've never really been able to cover before because it hasn't been at Auburn. And so I think from a recruiting standpoint, yes, the stability is certainly there. Now the difference is in the caveat is like, what does NIL look like? How do you handle the stability with NIL when it's the rules seem to be changing every six months? So I still think it's going to take time. But the path to stability seems clearer at Auburn now than it ever has. So help me with this. And this also came up. We have very interesting breakfast, Charlie and I. You should come sometime. Sounds like we always pick up the tab for visitors. So you would eat for free. But it seems that over the last couple of regimes and maybe even going back further that there has been input from folks outside the football office into the program. Okay, we'll just call it what it is. We'll leave it at that. Does that still exist to an unhealthy extent? Because there's always some of that. I don't care what program you have. There's some of that in Alabama. There's some of that in Georgia. There's some of that in Oklahoma and USC too. But it can get to an unhealthy level. I don't know what that is, but we feel it when it's there. Where does that stay in currently as compared to maybe where it's been over the last handful of years? That's such an interesting conversation. I think I look at this a little bit different than a lot of people and this may get some Auburn folks upset. But like you need that to a certain extent. You need that. You're telling me Nick Saban doesn't have a list of five, 10, 15 people he can call to put an NIL together if he catches when one of his guys is leaving. Of course he does. Of course he does. I'm glad that you said at the unhealthy level because it kind of felt like it got to that point towards the end of the Mao's On stint. But you've got those guys in the Auburn basketball realm and the Auburn basketball arena that are very, very involved. Bruce Pearl just knows how to handle it better. I don't think us really mastered the social aspect of all of that. And I think Hugh Freeze is going to have that. Nick Saban has that obviously. Kirby Smart seems to certainly have that. And so I think you have to have it. I think you have to have those people to win right now. And so if somebody's giving you a million dollars, whether it's to your program or to your collective, like, yeah, I mean, you got to give them some, you got to make them feel like they have somewhat of an input or you may lose that money. So it's a weird balance that I think you have to have somebody that socially gets it and is able to play that game. That's where the politician role comes in. That's what Brian Harsen would not do. And I think, you know, if you're a head coach in the SEC, yes, you're a head coach, but you're also a salesman. You're also an executive of a multi million dollar company and you're a politician. I mean, you've got a lot of hats you got to wear. All right, Zach, as we as we begin to wrap up here, your thoughts in the basketball portal, what's happening there, we always like to get updates from you. Do you foresee some different things? I kind of thought some things would have already happened since we last visited. And I'm a little bit surprised they have not. Yeah, I'm there with you. I'm there with you. I thought more would have happened as well. I guess the Matthew Cleveland stuff is still in the air, but if you're an Auburn person, you got to feel not as confident as you did a while ago. But you know, you still got Cheney Johnson. You got Aidan Holloway coming in. I mean, there's there's a lot to like about what they're doing. But yeah, I'm with you. I thought the roster would be closer to finish at this point than it is. And final point looks like butch Thompson's baseball team may be coming alive a little bit here late. Great. Yeah, this past weekend. Yeah, good for him and good for those guys. And so, you know, you go out and you win a series on the road against South Carolina, the number three team in college baseball who didn't drop at all in the polls, by the way. And then it doesn't get easier. Now you got to play the number one team in baseball and they're the number one team by a pretty wide gap. And so if Auburn can keep it going and if they were somehow able to take two out of three against LSU, all of a sudden it's like, okay, Auburn's back in postseason play and they're playing at a level where if you're an SEC team, you probably don't want to play Auburn if they're, if they're able to do all of that. So that's all without Joseph Gonzalez. You know, can Joseph Gonzalez come back? He's missed pretty much the whole season due to some shoulder. I forget if it's a shoulder or a elbow, but he kind of nicked it playing, doing some posts or some off season stuff with team USA. So can they figure all that out? If he can come back all of a sudden that six innings in a weekend that you don't have to worry about. I actually saw a baseball bracket, a tology earlier. Who knew? And it's got Auburn as a three seed. Um, real play it. Yeah, they're, they're, they're playing better baseball. So, uh, and it last check, Zach, as we close out, it's my understanding that if you're into such things, you can still bet on Auburn baseball. You can't do that with the team across the state, but you can bet on Auburn baseball if you so choose to do so. Yeah. What a, what a wild thing. I didn't know you could bet on college. I've never seen a sports book that allows you to bet on college baseball. So that was my first question when I read that, but yeah, weird that that came out and then like nobody really has a whole lot on it other than like they're just, they're pulling Bama baseball lines. Odd. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Yeah. I got sent a story out of New Orleans saying this one will explain it. I'll tell you anything, explain anything to me. No, it just says like unusual activity. It's like, well, what does that mean? Like, are you betting on LSU to sweep Alabama? Cause like they're sweeping a lot of people. That's not unusual. So, and then Alabama always came back at the end. So yeah, weird, weird storyline. All right. That gives us all the ways that we can track you down. I know you do the written word as well as the spoken word and the visual word with locked on Auburn and Auburn daily. Yeah. Locked on Auburn available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube, all you have to do is Google locked on Auburn and different ways to watch it. 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