Will Hugh Freeze's Auburn Tigers Run The Score Up On Cal?

[Music] what's up warport family we are back with another great edition of the Auburn Express powered by the war report week one is in the books week two is coming up quickly and joining me to talk a little bit about what's going to happen in week two is one of my favorite guests Brandon Marcelo let me bring Brandon in here Brandon thanks for joining me man how was your uh week one of college football it was good busy I was all over the country Colorado Atlanta Clemson Georgia back home uh finally a lot of delays out there uh at airports but man I was glad I got to watch football in person uh before we get into Auburn Colorado huh uh how was that week one over there I know they ended up winning but the game was maybe a little tighter than a lot of people expected yeah you know the the belief in Dion is very much still strong there but it was the first game that wasn't a sellout under him it was a Thursday night game plus it was an FCS opponent but when they were down in the first half the fans were getting a little Restless you could tell they're like okay let's see something defensively this is can't be the same old story from last year but um man it's quite the scene there Sidelines filled with guests and celebrities and it's like the only person I wrote a story about all that going into the Nebraska game for them but it's the only place like in college football where a a celebrity can just fade into the background because everybody's paying attention to Dion and crew and they're just kind of leaning against the wall taking it all in themselves as Spectators it's uh it's quite the scene plus I mean um Boulder is just a beautiful city anyway it's an incredible city as you can tell I bought a flat irons hat I went hiking I was like you know what I need a hat but uh it's a great City it's a great campus yeah I've been to Boulder one time on a business trip uh back in my Corporate America day a little granola for me but definitely a nice city definitely a nice city let's talk about Auburn here Auburn blew out Alabama A&M in week one uh they dropped a 70 piece on them now I know it was just an FCS School same as what Colorado played but um U freeza's team definitely I think showed some improvement in week one they didn't have a single game last year where they executed at that level as a matter of fact very interestingly Brandon uh after halftime the announcer gets on the PA and says uh yeah so the next two quarters are going to be 10-minute quarters and we're like what they can do that so apparently the refs discussed it with themselves went to the A&M coaches and they took it to Hugh frees and said hey if you'll agree we want to shorten the game because you know an incredible AC of sportsmanship actually uh and hu frees agreed despite wanting to get his young freshman some time in that game uh but uh after the blowout uh hu has quickly turned his attention to cow now this game was really close out on the west coast last year um do what do you think Auburn accomplished in week one do did we learn anything about the Tigers here headed into Cal I think more than anything that game provides them just an opportunity to get in a rhythm offensively and defensively um you know I wrote about this earlier this week and and I hate to be negative but like we gotta stop scheduling FCS teams in the SEC it's getting ridiculous the average including all games not just FCS the average winning margin in the SEC in week one was 53-5 I that's crazy we had what three teams score 70 plus five teams won by 60 plus points I mean what are we learning out there um the gap between the FCS and the SEC and the Big 10 has only gotten wider and it's only going to widen even further with the transfer portal and and and U nil and revenue sharing I don't know who it does a Serv too at some point we just got to go hey if you want to schedule like an instate FCS team for a spring game where we allowed to do that maybe we do that and but stop scheduling FCS teams in the season I I it it's just not it's not watchable television anyway so yeah having said all that Auburn was able to get in a rhythm offensively very impressed by the receivers cam Coleman Keandre Lambert Smith um Real Deal huh yeah he's the real deal I think kind of the thing that surprised me a little bit is he's like uh he's a little bit faster and shiftier than I remember at Penn State right um defensively I think Auburn's gonna be very good but um it's just so hard to read in there are several teams is very hard to like give like this is what I think this team's goingon to look like this season because the opponent they face Auburn was one of them uh Arkansas missou even they played Murray State and it was just they did the same thing 10-minute quarters in the second half I believe I think Arkansas did the same 10-minute quarters in the second half but um uh the the one thing that still concerns me with auburn is I know pton Thorne put up big numbers but there were some underthrown balls and you know receivers wide open so fine but man that there's just things like that that kind of makes me go oh man he's not quite the you know maybe a top Echelon quarterback in the SEC hre mentioned it after the game he said that there were still some things that pyton Thorne did out there that he coached him on and he said damn it we can't do this this year right um so uh Hank Brown got in in the second half that's good yeah and he threw a deep like 50 yard touchdown pass to Sam Jackson um and looked pretty good actually threw a former Cal player there former Cal quarterback yeah I wonder I wonder if H freze is GNA just design a play or two just for him against Cal to kind of get get him give him a little yeah I think he's going to get tricky there um Hank Brown also had a touchdown I posted this on social media I don't know if you saw it but um and Hugh fre responded uh but Malcolm Simmons he broke loose for like a 47 yard touchdown and almost dropped the ball right before he broke the plane I saw the video yeah yeah right so I posted the video and I said I'm sure he got a talking to in film review and Hugh freze replied said yes yes he did um so it was uh it was an interesting week one I think there was some teachable moments there but um they can't have a repeat against Cal now you went out and you snuck out of cow with the win 14-10 last year um you know what does this game need to look like for Auburn uh against Cal on the planes to show that he's still moving the program the right direction and last week wasn't just a fluke against like you said an overmatched FCS opponent well I think C's gonna have struggle scoring against Auburn's defense uh they slow Jaden not the the running back there who's phenomenal uh Auburn wins this one easy going away He's listed as probable by the way Brandon so really yeah yeah so there's a chance he may not go or maybe they're playing games with the injury report there maybe so maybe so but you know I think Al's gonna run away with this anyway by double digits it's going to look a lot different from last season's game I think offensively Auburn's not say Lightyear is better but they're much better than they were last year um even against Alabama and A&M you could tell I mean just the athletes that are out there at receiver in particular and I know you know just wait to you get jarz Hunter going too yeah you know that's the thing that's probably something they want to do against Cal get him warmed up going to SEC play so to speak but um and he missed game one last year so he came into that game kind of with slow legs trying to get his bearings so I I you know I hate to like summarize it by this but I think Auburn wins in a blowout against Cal all right I think they might win by three touchdowns in a game like this the matchups are just very conducive for Auburn all across the board when you look at it uh we're going to at the end of this uh in a few minutes I'm going to ask you for a score prediction here and I'll give mine but um going back to pton Thorne uh you know H freeze decided not to go after a QB in the portal they put their full weight behind Payton Thorn uh you had reported during media days that Auburn may even be saving money in nil to do some things down the road uh I don't know you know uh if you meant 2026 but it seems like they're not done in this 2025 cycle uh trying to flip Duce knight uh the kid from uh Melendez from Miami uh decommitted and there's a lot of people speculating that he's gonna commit they may have a festar Naim Alford was at the game uh and on the Sam Jackson touchdown you could see them in the background going nuts when Sam Jackson caught that uh deep ball from Hank Brown uh so they may be saving some money here to to try to push this to a second or third ranked class here in the 25 cyle um you know what is what does hu freze need from Payton Thorne in this one uh because he you know if you want to show off your receivers you need your quarterback to play well so you what kind of numbers does pton Thor need to put up here man in game two uh uh to show that last week wasn't a fluke and that he's not going to repeat some of the mistakes that he made last week that didn't cost the because of the opponent but might cost him in a power five game yeah give me 250 yards no picks uh 250 no picks okay yeah maybe just one touchdown that that's all I care about and what the thing that's really underrated about Payton's ability to run you know that we saw it last year I want pton Thorne to be a guy that gets me 35 yards a game on the ground that would be like my goal like we're not going to reach it every game but if we can get 35 yards out pton Thorn on the ground get him to throw for a little bit over 200 few first down feet yeah you're in a good damn space there because you're going to get rushing yards this year you're gonna be able to run the ball that offensive Line's really good um I I think that in a game like this just aim for that you know and going back you mentioned like saving the money thing you know a lot of what I was saying about that was about the transfer portal stuff like why they didn't go out and get a quarterback yeah that he wants to reward the high school kids that are sticking around for one to get them better paydays down the road in year two year three okay but also you know I mentioned this the last time I was on this program they're making a push so in December not just these immediate kids are talking about but in December potentially flip some guys from some big schools oh all right um you know in the industry the coaching industry back in late spring early summer the rumor going around was that there's some Georgia kids potentially that we're not really talking about but that was back that was several months ago as I was hearing from some coaches in the industry that are outside of Auburn so at the very least Auburn's got these coaches freaking out and chasing their tail going I'm heing Auburn's gonna be doing this in November December whatever okay so um but man Auburn is such a a freaking great place right now recruiting wise everybody knows that but and I mentioned this to you before but once they start piling up some wins this year it'll go up even further especially because I know everybody's focused on 25 this year but they're building for 26 too you already they already got the number one recruiting class for 2026 yeah so I mean they got the thing rolling right now they just need to get some wins now because if you don't you don't like get like eight wins this year or maybe seven or eight in a regular season then you might get some of those kids late for Auburn that are like you know maybe I should open my recruiting up again there's not a lot of kids that Auburn's got committed that are like that but there might be one or two but also but if you win those games as I said they're the the rumors out there the coaches out there are freaking out that they're gonna flip some kids late yeah and as you said challenge for a top two or top three class it's funny Hugh free says this about his own players here in Camp he says at some point the tape has to become the resume and every time he says that I think that about his program for potential recruits at some point the tape has to become the resume um so and that means wins on the field otherwise you know if there's no proof of concept um you know it's going to be really really hard to continue to sell come here I know what to do with your talent so uh he's got to do at least some of that this year I don't I don't think anybody expected Auburn to win the national title Brandon but you know eight wins should be a reality because Gus poured in eight every year like Clockwork um and you are supposedly bringing in even greater rated Talent than he brought in right um with the backing of money openly spent right like I mean you don't to do this thing under the table anymore man it's right out there so uh I think it'll be really interesting to see U you know what they do Saturday to help move that needle in that direction before we get out of here Brandon give me give me your give me your final score on this one I've got Auburn 45 Cal seven so I'm with you you on the Beatdown damn yeah I think that this defense is underrated and they play a lot better than a lot of people are expecting DJ Durkin is a master of Defense in the SEC uh what do you got here tell me tell me how much they win by a why I agree with the defense uh I got 3817 touchdown win um I I think that it you know I can't imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like Cal's not ready for that um and um yeah like my goal for pton thorn in every game this year give me 250 through the air don't throw picks and let's see if we can get you 35 yards rushing to open things up a little bit Scramble for me get get me something when the play's not there don't force anything just get me something with your legs yeah and I but in this game I think the running game is gonna get cranked up for Auburn they week yeah they didn't run it a lot last week uh and I think they saved something in the running game Brandon they didn't want to show anything right so um I'll end on this story jarquez Hunter told his uh his uncle and Mentor he said hey man he said Uncle what if I score on the first Carry of the night and they laughed about it and then on the first night CAC Williams play huh on the first car the night he carried it 37 yards into the end zone for a touchdown uh oh thank you Brandon for joining me here today on the Auburn Express Power by the war report before we get out of here tell people where they can find your so yeah cbssports.com and you follow me on all socials just I guess search for my name that's it man I'm I'm glad I'm sitting at home watching games this weekend man last weekend was a whirlwind I had water pouring on my laptop uh I came back at the Press Box from the Clemson Georgia game the air conditioner above me in the Press Box was just pouring water on my laptop my laptop thank God was working after all the flight delays and everything I was like this is perfect I'm not going to be able to write a story now but well I'm going to be jealous my friend because Auburn has five straight home games to start the season so I won't be get to sit at home and watch anything until about Oklahoma one of those yes that is the last game of the five game home stretch terrible Road game too yeah and they play Tennessee week before oh yeah I'll be at that game Tennessee but man o you anyway I could talk all day football U's about to find out what it's like in the SC it's big test for them I think they're up for it but man what a stretch you open with Tennessee high-powered offense against a motivated Josh hyp who's going back home for the first time since he was fired there and there's some bad feelings and then he got to go to Auburn at Jordan hair Stadium where yeah oh my gosh that that that's the toughest backtack opener for Oklahoma in conference theyve had probably ever yeah forever so I I know Hugh free is hoping to give him hell uh guys that's it for another great edition of the Auburn Express Power by the war report we'll be back at you guys next week hopefully Brandon will be joining me to talk about why we were right in our score predictions uh we're out of here uh but before we get out of here if you want more content like this please hit like And subscribe we are the war on every social media platform tww on Tik Tok signing off and as always War you a [Music]