TJ Finley is gone, Auburn football adds Jalen McLeod | Auburn Tigers Podcast

TJ Finley is gone and Auburn lands a top Target freezing temperatures are likely for several hours Inland and a few hours closer to the coast Yahtzee you are locked on Auburn your daily podcast on Auburn Tigers part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day yes welcome on into locked on Auburn your daily Auburn Tigers podcast I'm your host Zach blockerby and thank you so much for making locked up on your first lesson every single day joining us today is little war a poor Wednesday action Mike G of the war report we will talk about Jalen McLeod the newest Auburn Tiger at the Jack position but first things first we talked quarterbacks here on this show and Auburn is down a quarterback yesterday TJ Finley will enter the portal as a grad transfer and he will be playing somewhere else his Auburn career comes to an end Mike G yeah listen if you've been paying attention this is not a shock to you at all no no it's not yeah you know you knew this was coming uh listen he was asked in an interview after a day if you freeze brought in the quarterback would he stay or not uh he gave a very auspicious answer um and it indicated that he was exploring his options because the team would be exploring their options um guys this is simple despite what you think about TJ Finley and how he's performed here um he's got to do this for him right and sure uh there's no other way to look at this he's got one year left to play he's got to get something on tape Zach he's got to get tape and you know before we started recording you and I were kind of talking about you know what is the best route to that for him you know just go someplace where you can be the guaranteed starter it may be a lower level of football put up numbers the NFL likes big quarterbacks you know maybe you know he can make something happen you know from that level so you know wishing him the best uh I think for the most part while he was here carried himself you know um uh fairly well uh you know he won over the team a year ago going you know that big quarterback battle between Zach calzada and him and Robbie Ashford I mean he won over the team it still has fans on the scene I think so I think so yeah yeah so um sounds like he commanded the locker room more than any other quarterbacks but I think Albert's looking elsewhere I don't think Auburn's looking currently on the roster for the next quarterback so um thank you for TJ Finley I think he brought a lot of excitement when he committed two years ago but he is no longer on this and then look this is another Brian harson guy that's off of this roster as you freeze and the staff actively fight to flip this roster this is just kind of another step towards all of that so do you think this has any impact in regards Auburn pursuing quarterbacks or do you think this would have happened anyway this was gonna happen man this was the it was this was always the way it was going to happen yeah if you listen to lockdown if you listen to the warp or if you listen all the everydayers out there yeah Mike G and Zach blackerby you know we've been saying this was gonna this was coming it was just a matter of when and uh as they get closer I think it's an indication though that Auburn is getting closer to signing their portal quarterback right uh because he likely had a conversation with the coaches about where he stands what their plans are what they're doing and what that means for him so you know this is this was this is all part of the design right I'm there with you I'm there with you so now how Auburn will fill out this quarterback room I think it's I think it's going to be Peyton Thorne if I had to guess I think it's gonna be Peyton Thorne or Casey Thompson the fan base is kind of split right now in fact that it seems like more people are higher on Casey Thompson but we'll discuss that whenever yeah yeah I mean who cares I mean it's up to what you freeze wants because it seems like they're both super interested in Auburn so we'll see but so now you're looking at transfer quarterback Robbie Ashford Holden gerner and Hank Brown going into the fall once again assuming Auburn has a quarterback but I think we all feel pretty good about that now uh yeah so again if you're Robbie Ashford your situation is unchanged there are they were all at same for Holden they were always going to bring in a quarterback I think Holden's the winner in TJ leaving uh yeah 100 well I don't know man I don't know that he's any more a winner than he was before he's gonna get more reps he's gonna get more reps because of it oh he's going to get him anyway because we knew TJ was out of here right I guess my point is like yeah but I mean you can't you can't say that until like he's actually gone though okay fair enough you know I'm just saying we knew this was coming and so you know the the the the mission is the same the assignment is the same for these guys right uh continue to try to win the locker room when the team show the coaches that you could be the guy be Humphrey's definition of an SEC quarterback uh in the in the summer and then go into fall camp with hopefully that edge on whoever they bring in and you know you know maybe you know with the calls ball the card spot where they may you know one of these guys comes out with a job I still have high hopes for Holden Garner um as somebody who can be really the future of a program uh rocket arm you know uh all the football smarts right and uh just a great kid in general uh you know for Robbie Ashford you know I think his window is closing I think his window was closing to try to win this job here right so I well Mike G I think if it ends up being Peyton Thorne when it's all said and done the transfer from Michigan State he's got two years left I think that almost closes the door on Robbie and Holden just from a timeline perspective yeah it's tough right because here's the deal it is tough you you I still believe the most effective way to build a program is through recruiting and if you're going to bring in guys who have multiple years of Eligibility left this is why I was never high on Thompson right he's got one year left to play right and is bringing him him is he good enough to to to be worth upsetting the natural flow of your recruiting process at that position right because you got Walker white coming in who's going to be highly heralded and you know is he going to want to sit behind I painted door sure I mean I I think I think Casey Thompson a one-year rental type thing a Band-Aid would make sense if Walker white was already on campus and he was a true freshman and then you're able to roll him out and do the redshirt freshman or true sophomore I I think the timing right now unless you think Hank Brown could be that guy which I don't think is out of the question I think a lot of people have written off Hank Brown I actually think Hank Brown's a baller if I'm being honest with you but regardless I'm with you I think the two-year option makes sense for either of them get a guy that can come in start in 2023 and then worst cases he's fantastic and he leaves you know um but probably gonna stay two years I think he'd be a two-year guy I don't think he's quite good enough to be an NFL type player but then after that he either got Hank Brown who'd be a red shirt freshman or no a redshirt sophomore or you've got Walker who would be either a red shirt freshman or true sophomore depending on how how much they played yeah like listen this has to be the era of freshman quarterbacks coming into Auburn Zach and actually doing something in this system uh Hugh freeze has to start a pipeline of quarterbacks he's got to be able to convince guys too that your turn will come and when your turn comes it it will be up to you whether you seize the reins or not but you and only you we're not going to go looking for the next flash in the pan in the portal every single year because we trust the talent and the evaluation that we have in the recruiting process and you are our guy that is how the better programs are doing it that's how Auburn's gonna have to do it if they want to catch up to the likes of Bama and now LSU and Georgia and anybody else who's killing in the conference right now Five Guys from high school convince them to develop them in your program teach them your system and convince them to wait their turns act it's got to be I agree that's how you build a program I agree with you ironically ironically Bama brought in a transfer quarterback but big picture you were correct absolutely yeah absolutely correct I did it they did it right for years and years and years but I guess what it's funny that you say that and finally they ran out of luck yeah they struck out on two or three different guys that should have better yeah it happens it happens right and I'm still not convinced that they might not have to turn back to one of those guys during the season uh you know so we'll see we'll watch that situation I'm just saying like you know they brought in all these highly held guys and you can't say that Jayla Melrose didn't get a fair shot to win the job right I think they wanted him to win it they wanted him to win it if he didn't take it if you didn't take it in the natural succession in that program it's you right I think you know I mean likely it's you let me not say that with any definitive Definitive uh but like it's yeah that's how we're looking at it I think Hugh freeze needs the same thing at Auburn man like you know that's that's that's the formula yeah all right Jalen McLeod Auburn lands one of their priority Targets in the portal we discuss what this means in just a moment right here on locked on Auburn if you were looking for a delicious snack but you don't want all the sugar and calories and you need to try the best tasting protein bar ever built they've got built bars which are kind of similar to your traditional protein bars and also built Puffs where it's like chocolate and inside of it is this protein infused marshmallow it's delicious and they're good for you if you want to look like Mike G just super fit and super super handsome you need to check out built.com and load up on Bilt bars all these things are high in protein low in calories low in sugar keto friendly if you're into that sort of thing so check it all out built.com Mike G Auburn lands Edge former App State Edge now he's going to be listed as a jack linebacker um Jalen McLeod and there's a lot to like about this guy he's got a history of achieving um you know getting to the quarterback at the Sun Belt level at a high level um and if you're into the analytics which I know you you bring up PFF stuff fairly often his PFF stuff is pretty crazy his defensive grade is an 86.6 which is 27th and 862 Edge players that Pro Football Focus created Pretty stinking good and it's not like it's a small sample size I mean he played he played um 232 passing stats 150 rushing snaps I mean he played almost um almost 400 snaps so you certainly love love to see that I think Mike G I think his role here is pass rush specialist third and long you take maybe a bigger defensive lineman off the field and you put him in because some places have them listed at six one two thirty other places have them listed at 62220. regardless smaller than what this staff has gone after at the Jack position so far keldrick Falk is a giant you know six six five two sixty-ish is what they've looked at at keldrick Falk and with Elijah McAllister this guy's smaller which you would have to assume and hope that he's quicker so a little bit different body type and so I'm assuming his role will be a little bit different as well uh Jayla McCloud plays with an attitude um you know sure he look at his tape uh this guy plays with an attitude I think he's going to bring that in um Zach this is a this is a reminder that Dylan Brooks is gone still you and I didn't get a chance to talk about it are you sad about that yeah yeah you and I didn't get a chance to talk about this again I know you loved him Dylan Brooks has got can you wear Dylan Brooks Jersey can we just pretend he stayed um did they make those at the end of the day uh they needed to go out and recruit this position um you know off camera you and I had a conversation about what this possibly means for Elijah McAllister um you know you got to be stacked you've got to rotate a bunch of guys on defense you guys who can come in and spell other guys um you know this is another piece in the process for Ron Roberts defense right he has explicitly uh stated over and over again how important that Jack position is bringing in guys who can do the job who you feel like can do the job what's going to be important so cloud is going to be an intro like an integral piece in feeling the depth of that position if not becoming a star of that position for Ron Roberts yeah I mean he's definitely going to be in the rotation I don't think there's any way you can keep him off the field given the current state of the roster and the depth chart in that position we'll talk about kind of the pecking order in a second but I think um I there's just a lot to like about all of this and it seems like he committed Sunday night and just kind of waited until today to or yesterday to pop and kind of make everything official but you gotta think you gotta think he's got high expectations as far as okay you know I did it at App State I did it at the Sun Belt level can I do it at an SEC level and it looks like you know my favorite thing about this is when you look at his numbers do you know analytically from PFF grades his best game of the season do you know who was against I'll tell you can I tell you permission to tell you yeah it was against Texas A M on the road in College Station it's not like they beat up on somebody this guy when he was faced with the toughest competition on the schedule and a m wasn't great but still you know Auburn's gonna play Auburn's gonna play a m right I mean Auburn's got to play a bunch of people that you know are average SEC teams this season all the years right still like still you take it you you certainly take it I think it's a sign he had a 92.2 defensive grade he had five hurries he had five quarterback hurries against Texas A M that that's that's pretty solid I mean I don't think that against any SEC you and I both know there's no greater indication of future success than a PFF grade right like if you get a good PFF grade you're guaranteed star uh I mean they get it right a lot like I mean I know I know you're being a little sarcastic there and I'm cool right I'm totally cool I mean they get it right I mean you look at their top grades and it's like no those guys are those guys are some of the best players in college football I get it yeah no listen the PFF grades are impressive and they're definitely something to look at right like you know my expectations for him were tempered I expect them to be a piece in the puzzle right uh and I think that those grades suggest that he can be a very important piece in the puzzle so uh Jalen McLeod man it's been slow in the portal I think this is good news for Auburn and they're gonna need to continue to pick up pieces like this over the next few weeks or until the portal you know period closes and you know get guys in who can help immediately so you know year one for Hugh freeze is about filling pieces that can come in and make you the best football team you can be in year one right that is his job Jalen McLeod is that kind of player for him them on defense would you say that this could make the weather a little bit more cloudy for opposing quarterbacks yes I think okay cool it might have a big problem with uh take a little clouds so you gotta make sack yeah yeah big sandwich right oh my gosh so people are gonna hate that people are gonna hate that Mike discord's gonna blow up with hell yeah goodness gracious Mick cloudy day for opposing quarterbacks um okay I want to discuss I guess it's the impact on the roster and how I think you could do now that you've got this extra Jack that I think you feel comfortable playing there's some fun things you can do regarding alignment and I want to talk about that in just a moment right here unlocked on Auburn want to encourage you to join the lockdown Auburn Discord it is free all you have to do is click the link in the episode description down below so all of a sudden now when I when I first saw this news you think okay who are winners and losers in this situation well there weren't really any guys behind them because Harvard doesn't have a whole lot of edge players and so all of a sudden you're like okay does this impact Elijah McAllister and then you start looking at their heights and their weights and I said that a second ago and it's like no I think I I don't think you can play Jalen McLeod consistently on first and second down against teams that have a tendency to run on early Downs I just don't think you can do it because I think with that size and the SEC I think you'll get pushed around could be wrong that's just kind of my gut feeling on this so all of a sudden when you're third and six and longer and you think the opposing team's gonna pass the football all of a sudden you could take Elijah off the field put Jalen McLeod on and so many people are like what about what about keldrick fog and just talking to folks it seems like keldrick Falk is going to get more reps at strong side defensive end than we originally thought due to the situation of Jeffrey imbal leaving and I think there's a big gap between Marcus Harris at defensive end and everyone else so all of a sudden Mike G this pass rush situation let's say you let's say you go with Auburn's base that we think it's going to be which is you start Elijah McAllister at Jack then you've got Jason Jones and Justin Rogers in the middle you're two big guys and then your defensive end is Marcus Harris all of a sudden now you can take Jason or Justin Rogers off the field and move Marcus Harris inside to which we've seen him excel at that spot consistently throughout his career so far and then you can sub in Elijah McAllister for a Jalen McLeod who's a better pass roster I think we'll certainly see how it translates to the SEC but I think you will be and you can put keldrick Falk at strong side defensive end and all of a sudden that's a really tricky situation that you have to block yeah so it is really tricky I think and um they were like based on what we saw on a day right um I think maybe the defensive line has a little bit of work to do um in terms of what they're doing down there uh particularly in the Run game uh but you know the coaching staff doesn't feel that way I mean most of those runs came against the third team because it was all Sean Jackson it was three versus three and then I'm just telling you what they talk about in the meeting room and it's all about like them losing contain and it's like that's not all sometimes that's the Jack don't get me wrong but I don't think the run defense is as bad as people were making it out to be yeah it's listen man and talking to Jason Jones after you know a day you know they won't have those guys weren't happy with how they performed certainly right um as a group and uh you know this is going to be again the alignments I expect them to play with so you know what you're talking about with the different alignments with the players um I expect them to play with that um and try to come up with something because the same way that Q freeze is developing what they're going to do on offense Ron Roberts says indicated that they're still somewhat developing a plan based on Personnel for how they're going to run deep the defensive side of the ball too so his system is not set in stone just yet I think getting players in gives him a little bit more information about how he plans to run that defense um and you know how he plans to rush guys off the edge how they plan to play the run you know and and Rush the pastor so uh it'll be interesting to see there's still a lot of influx you know listening it's always I love when you do the hypothetical like you know hey this is the guy here this is the guy here you know we think this guy fits here um and you know Ron Roberts is just going to have to see where these guys fit you know when you get a guy after the spring Zach and he hasn't had a chance to play next to those guys you know uh and do some things in this defense it's really difficult to evaluate where he fits so um I would see it being a situation where these guys come in and they rotate them in they get them into the rotation right and as they start to get more game time and more playing time and they get to you know get a feel for what Auburn is doing uh you might see you know one of them end up being the guy by the end of the season so uh it's going to be really interesting to watch I think on defense um you know what they do along that d-line and particularly at the Jack position yeah so don't you think position matters though I mean I think this guy is going to be asked to rush the passer and that's about it like I don't think that's really a chemistry thing I don't think that's really A playbook thing well I think I think you need to do alignment stuff and all you need to learn where to line up and you know when you're subbing and situational stuff but for the most part I mean this isn't a middle linebacker or a safety yeah yeah I was gonna say that but you know yeah we'll see I just want to see what Ron Roberts is going to do you know I want to see what the plan is on defense for real for real and if they feel like they can go after the quarterback as much as they probably are going to want to um so you know uh uh depending on who you're playing your opponent has a lot to do with that strategy uh you know Auburn is going to have to be fluid on defense right so it's not going to be a one size fits fall it's going to be a you know does this guy fit the position you know uh the game plan that we have this day against this opponent based on who's that quarterback and what their run game looks like and what their offensive line looks like so uh it's a lot of different moving Parts there but you know ultimately I think they'll figure it out and then last thing I mean my biggest question has been how is this defense going to rush the passer that's been my biggest concern this is part of that puzzle like you said I don't know if it's necessarily gonna you know add two sacks on the seats and I I don't know I don't know is he two sacks better than you know giving more reps to Elijah McAllister I don't know it's impossible to know but you got to feel a little bit better um get a little bit deeper in that position but I'd still like another one you know uku the the guy from James Madison I'd love to add him still but we'll um I like him a lot I'd like to Google a lot yeah there's a lot to like about him yeah yeah and so uh yeah you've got it you've got it you've got to be able to get out you can't leave these DBS on an island this season that's for sure um and so you've got to be able to get after the passer I think that's some a place where where Auburn has waned on defense the last few years where they'll play great defense but in key at Key times in the game they are unable to get pressure on the quarterback and it's killed them yes absolutely killed them so it's definitely one of those things that they need to solve uh and quickly yeah good DBS go a long way but they can only cover for okay then the back pedal for so long exactly yeah that'd be tough that'd be tough especially against the these receivers in this league that's brutal Mike G how can people find Jim here you love you watch him all that stuff uh check us out on YouTube uh we've got a lot of great things going this summer so keep watching out for our interview series building reports coming at you we're at you guys at the morning drop every morning at the World Report every social media platform Zach check this out you can follow my socials at zblackerby and read all of my written work at auburndaily.com we will see you tomorrow this is Ben locked on Auburn