Auburn Football Season Preview: 2024 Predictions, Impact Transfers, More

we are South Eastern 16 as we cover all things SEC as we're getting ready for the 2024 college football season we're previewing all 16 teams and today it is the Auburn Tigers turn Brad law of the Auburn Sports Network also the village Vice podcast he'll break down the Auburn Tigers with us but first let's remind you about our friends at bet online the world's most trusted betting platform and your number one source for everything online sports betting right now you can receive a 50% Free Bet of up to $250 on your first deposit to bet on anything from the Olympics to baseball to Formula 1 racing bet online has every stat every matchup and even live odds and spreads while the games are being played when the game's over you can head over to the online casino get in on game of blackjack or poker unwind with one of the over 150 slots games you can head over to the website today to get out on the action use promo code believe bav for your 50% Free Bet credit on your first deposit up to $250 bet online the game starts here well Brad appreciate you coming on talking some Auburn football as hey we're uh we're getting so close to this 2024 season yeah I think we're down to four Free Saturdays four or five Free Saturdays before we have college football again and um it's it it feels a little bit different every now and then there's like just a little hint of a chill in the air sometimes if you're out early enough and um we love it this is just it's phenomenal so 2024 year two for Hugh freees uh year one six and seven obviously not what what uh what Auburn would have liked um what has been to you kind of the the focus Point since the last game last year heading into the the spring into the summer what has been one big Focus for Albert uh I think it's continuing the recruiting momentum and relationship building hre said the 25 and 26 classes in particular will be the ones that really help determine the future of the program under his leadership and so um you know the 24th season is a part of that you got to have a successful 24 in order to continue your momentum in 25 and 26 and to do that you had to replenish the wide receiving Corp you had to add some bodies to the defensive line um and you needed to take a step up in in a couple of other areas but mainly wide receiver interior defensive line at a pass rusher and they did that in the offseason and so you know with five home games to start the year a chance for some early momentum uh they they sort of went out and did I thought the best job they could do going into year two in replenishing the the two clearest areas of need going into the year yeah and let's start with the offense here and and there was there's no secret last year the passing offense was not great uh but like you said they have enhanced the wide receiver room big time we'll talk about that in a second but I want to thought talk pton Thorne for a second he's coming into to year two as being the main starter under Hugh FES who we all know he has been a great offensive coach kind of a great quarterback's coach over the years what is it uh and and a lot of folks were saying hey is Auburn gonna go to the port or they gonna get a new quarterback but it's obvious that pton Thorne's the guy that's who Hugh freeze wants what is it about pton Thorne to you uh being around the program that he freees yeah he he's my guy I want him to lead this Auburn team I think part of that answer the the you know the the graham cracker crust to the pie so to speak like the foundation of that is just what you said he's Hugh freeza's guy and I think he wants to create a culture and a program where if you bring a player in you believe in that player and you want to teach and you want to mentor and you want to help that player get better from one year to the next Payton's attitude is uh I can never watch too much film there's always more to study there's always more to learn um he's added a great deal of of Confidence from last from the end of last year to now getting ready for fall camp and at media days he talked about the reason for that confidence and a big part of that was the identity of the offense and the commitment to the identity of the offense you saw Payton's numbers uh go up that looked better they improved and he just looked more in command the second half of last season whated happened the second half of last season they stopped rotating quarterbacks they made more of a commitment to the true RPO nature of of an offense and in any of the games that Auburn lost I would tell you probably outside of Texas A&M and LSU Payton played well enough to win the game Auburn you you didn't look at those games and go clearly the quarterback's the reason they lost the game so uh a lot more confidence when he was already gaining more confidence toward the end of the year people count bowl games I understand the bowl game wasn't good bowl games don't count unless they're playoff games that's sort of the way that that's that's the way we've been taught by ESPN and that's the way that college football in general uh works now that's the message they've delivered is that they don't really count unless they're playoff games so I don't count the bowl game against uh pton Thor and when it comes to guys around pton Thorn we mentioned wide receiver and I'm so excited to see cam Coleman you know in in a game he's uh just watching him in high school and and he's just a dude excited to see him you got guys Perry Thompson Robert Lewis the the wide receiver room I think uh and and you've you've watched a lot of Auburn football over the years and of being part of the the radio crew I mean this has got to be uh one of the most solid wide receiver rooms we've seen in a while at alurn yeah it has the potential to be one of the best um you know I I before I worked on the radio crew I was you know just a fan and uh like so many people watching I was a fan and so I watched uh that group in 2002 with Deon Aroma shidu and Ben obomanu and Courtney Taylor came in a year or two later and Anthony Mick was a part of that crew jarus McIntyre you know 20 years ago Auburn had a stacked wide receiver room this could be the most stacked room since that time and it does start with Cam Coleman I've seen Cam he's every bit as advertised uh when you think of the impact that you know an AJ Green made when he came into the league when you think of the impact that Julio Jones made when he came into the league um there are guys who have been in this league as freshman who look like there is no learning curve there is it's not an easy transition but they make it look like it and I just think cam Coleman has all the attributes of those guys and more that we mentioned he he looks ready to come in and from day one be wide receiver one now they brought in Rober Lewis uh from Georgia State 600 plus yards a year ago a thousand yards in his career they brought in Keandre Lambert Smith the number one receiver on a Penn State team that'll by the way won 10 games back-to-back years so um they have a loaded room and we didn't even get to raldo Fairweather who was sort of a combo receiver tight end a year ago he's a matchup problem he can win 5050 balls and in this offense if you have multip multiple receivers who can win 5050 balls and you have a tight end who can go up and win a 50-50 ball and oh by the way you have a strong running game you can't double team everybody like just schematically logistically defenses can't stop that consistently enough and I think that's what the offense is counting on and as far as running the ball goes I mean we talk about kind of rebuilding the receiver room there's no rebuilding that needs to be done with the running game I mean around what 189 yards per game last year you bring back jarz Hunter deari Austin Jeremiah Cobb I mean that's that's three guys who they are dangerous when you when you turn them loose yeah like 20 total touchdowns among the three of those guys I think a year ago or close to it um yeah uh Hunter had he played in the first game would have gone over a thousand yards for the season that's not a stretch deari Alon was injured several games he averaged five yards or so a carry Jeremiah Cobb had a Str a stretch where he three games he had one touch and scored on that on that one touch so um we love the explosiveness of that group the only real notable um guy or absence in that room is is of course Brian bti because of the tragic circumstances over the summer but otherwise um it's it's an offense that was 24th nationally in rushing last year 24th nationally in rushing when the passing game was struggling as as much as it did and teams just started stacking the box and said we're going to try to stop you from running and they did a little but Auburn was still a top 25 rushing team a year ago I think the expectation is it starts offensively with the running game um and the balance of the passing game will only help jarquez deari Jeremiah and and pton when he goes to run the ball too which he did effectively but all that can't happen but but if if there's not a good offensive line uh so looking at the offensive line Conor Luke coming back he was a great freshman offensive lineman uh a season ago you got a transfer from Mississippi State what what's the offensive line uh looking like for this year Big Percy Percy Lewis mountain of a man left tackle um it allows Auburn to move Dylan Wade to left guard his footwork is exceptional Dylan's going to be an NFL guard in all likelihood it is not dissimilar to what Auburn did last year with Wade at left tackle and him playing left tackle allowed gunar Britain to move from right right tackle to left guard and play there a pretty good bit and so you felt good about the left side of your offensive line and that led to among other things Auburn being a top 25 rushing team in the face of a struggling pass offense so I think they feel very good about the left side of the offensive line on the right side Jeremiah Wright um local guy veteran at guard and then isavia Miller two tall Miller or Tyler Johnson who's a young who's I think a red shirt freshman um two was not supposed to play as much last year as he did then he got in Fall camp and wowed everybody and they said well can't keep him off the field so yeah those veteran returners plus Big Percy on the left side and you know the thinking is that the offensive line got better from last year to this year well let's move over to the defensive side and I want to start with the defensive line you mentioned that at the uh the start of our conversation here that's one of kind of the focal points in the offseason let's let's get better at defensive line well my goodness they they went out and just uh you you think as some coaches approach to the transfer portal is let's just get as many guys as we can H free said let's get the best defensive lineman we can and I was really impressed with what he was able to do in kind of rebuilding the the defensive line out of the portal yeah of of all the losses from last year's team Marcus Harris may be the the most difficult to replace um he was a leader on the field he was a leader off the field this is a guy that we may have talked last year Chase he would stay after practice and lead the defensive lineman through additional drills and no you're not getting low enough that's not how we do it it was a player Le situation and as you know when players create the standard and hold others to the standard then you got the makings of of of something special well who takes on that mantle this year you got Jason Jones coming back on the interior of the dline Z Walker has always had loads of potential can he take that step forward um is it one of the new guys like a gage keys or an Isaiah Rees or a Philip bleedy or a Trill Carter they're GNA have six guys who can play on the interior of the defensive line I think in modern football where teams like to go fast gone are the days of having two guys on the inside who play 70 snaps and somebody else who plays 10 or 15 like six guys is probably what you need and even if none of them earn all SEC honors this year they could all effectively like did anybody on the Friends cast ever win best lead actor in a series I don't know but I'm sure there were a lot of best supporting actor nominations and wins from those six guys and that's what that reminds me of the Auburn interior defensive line like the cast of Friends they just need to show up be consistent and and kind of lead the way in that defensive line the rest of the defense what's it shaking up to me I know you got some some really talented players you got Eugene Assante Jayla McLoud keante Scott kay Lee what what's what's the rest of the defense look like I think the secondary is the strength and you just mentioned some of the guys in the secondary keante was a nickel um but he was a juuko All-American at corner and so with Kay and Lee on one side and keante on the other Auburn feels outstanding about its starting cornerbacks safety they've added big physical guys they added jiren Thompson who was a a transfer from Texas played a lot of physical ball I recently went back and watched last year's Texas Oklahoma game and physical presence on the back end Sylvester Smith is a guy you're going to hear from at U at a safety spot physical tall rangy so Auburn feels good about it maybe the strength of the defense is the secondary both from a talent and depth perspective and then uh you know Eugene Sante and Austin keys and Dorian Mousie and oh by the way some of the younger guys that uh were a part of of this highly ranked recruiting class that are coming in like a Demarcus rck and others that we expect to see in the linebacking core this year and when it comes to special teams that's been an area Auburn has uh has been strong in uh in in recent history as far as special teams go uh Brad what's it look like for Auburn this year Oscar Chapman's back to punt the ball the Australian uh you know Boomer and so and he almost is a boomer he's so old I mean he's been here for a long time so uh he's back that's going to be a strength for Auburn when they can't move the ball offensively uh if they get into those situations and then unfortunately Alex mcferson who did not miss a kick and that's not hyperbole literally didn't miss a kick last year field goal or extra point is battling some some health issues and I don't know that we're going to see him this year in aday we saw towns meoo who's from Auburn High and had offers from Old Miss and other places but wanted to stay here um play for for his hometown school and he was clutched at ad day can he be clutched during the season that's that's the question that's what we'll find out uh so you have one well-known entity returning in the punting game and one completely unknown in the kicking game and as for returns it's kind of the same thing Keon Scott's going to return punts in all likelihood and then you know Brian bti was the the primary kick returner so without him someone else will need to step up and return kicks also in the off season uh hu fre is able to uh get a new staff together Derek Nicks leading the offense you got DJ Durkin kind of a veteran uh SEC defensive coordinator uh at Auburn Charles Kelly part of that staff uh back at Auburn just what do you make of the staff and it it's got to be and and I've heard uh hree say he feels just more comfortable uh W with this staff that he has this year absolutely defensive side first I think it's about energy it's about youth it's about enthusiasm and confidence and um both of those guys both Charles and DJ uh personify that they are uh uh they're well liked they're well known they they're relationship Builders and players at every stop they've been before love playing for those guys and so that's what I think of uh about those hires defensively and Hugh frees has said over and over again about Derek Nicks and Kent Austin the familiarity from the terminology that they use now with the offense um to just his comfort knowing they're going to go into a a position group meeting and he's going to say all right I need you to tell these guys XYZ those coaches will deliver those messages in meetings on the practice field wherever and he knows exactly what message is going to be delivered like that old game where you used to whisper something into one person's ear they whisper it into the air then they all go down the line and by the time you get to the end the message is changed there isn't any of at with with this group of coaches now and as you know anybody watching knows when you are comfortable in your setting you know that time when you settle into a new job there there's a period where you have to get comfortable once you're comfortable your productivity tends to go away up yep that is uh for sure we are getting closer to Auburn football kicking off August 31st they will have Alabama A&M there in Jordan hair Stadium Brad really appreciate you coming on talking to Auburn football today well we'll have to do it again soon but always great to talk with you appreciate your time always good to see you chase always a pleasure War Eagle to the Auburn fans watching we got you covered all things SEC football here on southeastern 16 and of course brought to you by bet online