aubiefifty

sports.yahoo.com 4-star defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford to visit Auburn JD McCarthy 1–2 minutes Auburn football is returning to the Plains this weekend and there will be several important visits for their game against Samford. One of them is four-star defensive lineman Jourdin Crawford, who is from Birmingham, Alabama. Crawford announced on social media that he was “looking forward” to visiting Auburn this weekend. The 6-foot-1.5, 300-pounder is a member of the 2025 recruiting cycle and is being recruited by Auburn defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett. The Tigers have already landed one four-star defensive lineman in the 2025 cycle in Malik Autry. Crawford is the No. 202 overall player and No. 23 defensive lineman in the 247Sports composite ranking. He is also the No. 12 player from Alabama. He is enjoying a strong start to his season for Parker High School, having made 11 tackles, 5.0 sacks and one fumble recovery in three games. Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow JD on Twitter @jdmccarthy15. Story originally appeared on Auburn Wire

wbrc.com Auburn prepares for homecoming weekend against Samford Jake Stansell ~2 minutes AUBURN, Ala. (WBRC) - Auburn is off to a nice 2-0 start to begin the college football season after grabbing a late 14-10 win against Cal on the west coast this past Saturday. It marks the Tigers’ first win in the Golden State in four tries. Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze took to the podium late Monday morning following this weekend’s game to give opening remarks ahead of the upcoming game against Samford. Freeze credited the defense and mentioned how the defensive unit continues to find ways to get the Tigers out of trouble. When it comes to the series history with Samford, Auburn has never lost to the Bulldogs with the latest matchup coming back in 2019 when the Tigers blew out Samford, 52-0. Freeze understands the season is only going to get more challenging as there will be plenty of local interest with the Bulldogs paying a visit to The Plains. “Did we improve from week one to week two? Absolutely,” Freeze said. “Now, are we fixed yet and ready to say we’re going to dominate and hold every opponent to 10 points? I’d like to say that, but that’s not accurate. We got to keep working because tougher tests are coming.” Kickoff between Samford and Auburn at Jordan Hare Stadium is set for 6 p.m. Saturday. Get news alerts in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store or subscribe to our email newsletter here. Copyright 2023 WBRC. All rights reserved.

al.com Goodman: Auburn football feels like a mystery by design Updated: Sep. 12, 2023, 12:23 p.m.|Published: Sep. 12, 2023, 6:39 a.m. 6–7 minutes **Editor’s Note: Joseph Goodman’s popular college football picks feature, “Joe vs. the Pro and the Hero,” is adding readers to the action. Pick your Week 3 games here, and sign up for Joe’s newsletter to see how your picks compare to the experts (and Joe) as well as other readers. ________________________ This is an opinion column. Auburn will always and forever remain the SEC’s flat circle of Southern football peculiarity and high strangeness. What in the name of 10 years ago is happening down on the Plains? Old friend Bryan Harsin is gone, but once again we’re back to wondering if the head football coach is going to take over the play-calling duties. In the Tigers’ first real test under new coach Hugh Freeze, the offense registered four turnovers, only managed 12 first downs but — despite everything — won in the state of California for the first time in program history. It was heroically ugly. It was bizarrely beautiful. It was, naturally, just Auburn being Auburn, which means comfortably curious in every way. “That game went nothing like I expected — I just got to tell you,” Freeze said on Monday. “I guess that’s good and bad.” Auburn delivered a 14-10 victory against Cal over the weekend. It was good because Auburn plays Texas A&M in two weeks and the Aggies, based on everything we’ve seen out of Freeze’s Tigers, have absolutely no clue what to expect. It was bad in the sense that Auburn goes to College Station, Texas, in half a moon and Freeze doesn’t really know what’s going on with his team either. Or at least that’s what Freeze wants people to believe. RELATED: Freeze on QBs, ‘We’ve got to figure it out’ RELATED: Why Freeze didn’t take over play-calling CASAGRANDE: The ugly reality of Week 2 GOODMAN: Is the dynasty over for Nick Saban? Freeze’s big thing this season are these get-togethers he calls “truth meetings,” but the more I hear Freeze talk about his team the less and less I know what to believe. Funny how that works. On Monday, the truth meeting, according to Freeze, “had a lot of tough talks.” “It’s high time that no one has an ego,” Freeze said. Presumably, Freeze was either talking about the quarterbacks, offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery or all of the above. Montgomery is calling the plays (for now), and the quarterbacks are a major work in progress. “It was totally different than what I expected,” Freeze said, “but Philip is going to be fine and we’re going to work together this week and see if we can’t get a great plan in place to not repeat last week’s performance.” Who is the best quarterback? Who should be calling plays? These things will work themselves out eventually. Here’s all that really matters, and this shouldn’t be lost on anyone. No matter how it happened, there’s nothing bad about being undefeated going into homecoming week, and that’s exactly where Auburn finds itself to start the 2023 season. For the first time in years, Auburn alums and students have something to be hopeful about while other powerhouses in the SEC have faltered in more ways than simply losing on the field. “Ultimately, the bottom line is, our kids found a way to win, and we celebrate that,” Freeze said on Monday. “You can write it however you want to write it, but the bottom line is the Auburn Tigers are 2-0 and we celebrate that.” How about let’s write it this way. Auburn might have won ugly, but at least the Tigers didn’t lose badly. At least Auburn students didn’t scream racist and homophobic slurs at the opposing team’s players like the fanbase for cross-state team Alabama. The dynasty is cracking in Tuscaloosa, and at the first sign of trouble there is a new video making the rounds this week of a racist Alabama fan screaming hate speech at Texas players during the Crimson Tide’s 34-24 loss. Want to talk about ugly football? Clean it up, Alabama, or prepare for a long walk through the desert after Saban calls it quits. Giving up 21 points in the fourth quarter on Bryant-Denny Field is one thing. Being the cause of people around the world losing respect for the University of Alabama and the state is something far worse. Auburn isn’t Alabama today, and in more ways than one that can be considered good news. All Auburn did against Cal was play tough on a bad day and somehow, someway still find a way to win. When Auburn needed courage in the fourth quarter, Freeze said the offense had banked it away thanks to positive encouragement from the defense the entire game. For me, that’s the best sign of all. “You can build on stuff like that,” Freeze said. “I don’t think anyone stopped believing. Really proud of that growth that we can use to build on for sure.” How many third and fourth quarters did Auburn give away under its former coach? Those teams were thin on belief. This one is already relying on it to win a game it probably should have lost. Auburn won a non-conference away game against a Power 5 team when so many other, more celebrated teams in the SEC West already have one loss on the season. Texas A&M and Alabama were the big disappointments in Week 2. In Week 1, it was LSU fading in the second half against Florida State. At Alabama, Nick Saban continues with his struggles to keep up with the modern game. Down at LSU, Brian Kelly looks like the SEC’s new Gus Malzahn. Over at Texas A&M, Jimbo Fisher is on the hot seat. All things considered, Auburn has to be happy with where it stands two weeks into the 2023 season. Where does Auburn stand exactly? No one is quite sure, but it’s somewhere between Haven’t A Clue and Timbuktu. The Tigers remain a mystery, and I’m pretty sure that’s how the new coach wants it to be. Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

al.com Auburn’s defense didn’t forget about Jaydn Ott’s jabs, played the role of a poked bear vs. Cal Updated: Sep. 12, 2023, 12:27 p.m.|Published: Sep. 12, 2023, 6:00 a.m. 4–5 minutes Auburn’s 14-10 win over Cal on Saturday night wasn’t pretty. Prior to Auburn’s win over Cal, teams that committed four turnovers and neglected to tally at least 15 first downs were just 1-65 since the 2018 season. Now such teams are 2-65 with the Tigers being one of them. “You just don’t win many games like that, so we’re very fortunate,” said first-year head coach Hugh Freeze. “I know this: I don’t know that I’ve ever had a season when you didn’t have a game where you felt like you easily could have lost that game, but boy, our kids found a way.” While it felt like the Tigers nearly did everything in their power to give the game to Cal, the Golden Bears might not have helped themselves in the days leading up to the cross-country matchup. Cal running back Jaydn Ott poked the bear on Wednesday, giving Auburn the kind of material that’s perfect to put on display around the locker room. “There’s a lot of focus on the name ‘Auburn’,” Ott said in a media interview Wednesday. “But what I’ve seen on film is not really in comparison to what their name is. I just want to get that into my guys’ heads that a name doesn’t mean anything. At the end of the day, they’re still human, and we have just as much of a chance as they do to go in there and get the win.” In his first game of the season against North Texas, Ott rushed for 188 yards and two touchdowns, so maybe some of the confidence was warranted. Little did he know, however, that word got back to Auburn’s locker room and some of the players didn’t think too kindly of it. Ott’s words weren’t a huge topic of conversation or affixed to the walls of Auburn’s locker room, Freeze said. “I did mention it in my pregame talk,” Freeze said. “I don’t think that’s the reason we stopped the run. It certainly did get them some motivation, for sure.” Against the Tigers, Ott rushed for 78 yards and touchdown while only averaging 3.9 yards per carry and posting a game long of just 14 yards. Following the game, Auburn defensive lineman Marcus Harris took a jab saying, “I guess they were supposed to run the ball on us or something.” With Ott leading the charge, Cal rushed for 141 yards against the Tigers – a mark well below its 361 rushing yards from the week prior. “We don’t take things like that lightly in terms of how we prepare,” Auburn linebacker Eugene Asante said. “And, you know, when chatter comes — it comes with the game. Some guys are overconfident. Some guys are cocky or arrogant. I’m not saying that Cal is that way, but it just comes with the game. But when we heard it, it really motivated us.” Asante and cornerback Keionte Scott are two guys who really get riled up by outside chatter, said Auburn freshman cornerback Kayin Lee. While they might not pick a fight or go out of their way to seek the outside noise, when they hear it, it digs at them. “They’re going to back it up,” Lee said. “We’re all going to back it up every time.” Scott didn’t have a bad game as he recorded three tackles. But Asante? Asante backed it up. With 12 tackles, 1.5 tackles for a loss, a sack and two quarterback hurries, Asante played hero ball Saturday night as Auburn leaned on its defense with deadweight as the Tigers’ offense sputtered. Asante’s effort was enough to earn him SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors. Ahead of Saturday’s showdown in Berkeley, Calif., Freeze approached Asante to discuss Ott’s jabs, Asante told reporters Monday. “To be honest, I appreciate (Ott) for saying what he said. I appreciate him for speaking his mind and being truthful of how I feel,” Asante said. “Some players come up here, they: ‘You know, we’re playing a really good opponent.’ And they lie, but he just said what he felt. Like, the truth. What he thought was the truth. So I appreciate him. It helped us a lot.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

247sports.com Freeze says Fair and Johnson need more touches for Auburn offense Jason Caldwell 12–15 minutes Auburn wide receivers Jay Fair and Ja'Varrius Johnson have been the most consistent players at the position. AUBURN, Alabama—This season the Auburn Tigers have completed just 24 passes in two games with 16 of those going to wide receivers. Of those 16 catches, 12 have gone to either Jay Fair or Ja'Varrius Johnson. While they have been the dominant receivers for the Tigers, that’s not enough touches for the duo, said coach Hugh Freeze. “Five and six for us need more touches,” he said. “Those two guys, they're our best receivers. I wish they were bigger, because the catch radius is not big but we've got to improve the others. But those guys are pretty good in space, so we've got to use those guys.” While both are currently slot receivers for the Tigers, something may have to change to allow both guys to get on the field together as they continue to produce while others struggle to get involved in the offense. With only Shane Hooks and Malcolm Johnson Jr. having catches from the wide receiver position in addition to Fair and Johnson (two catches each), the need to find someone else to make plays is a big one heading into this weekend’s game against Samford. “We haven't proven we can do it yet,” Freeze said. “Until you do, we've got to prove we can win some one-on-ones, and get the right balls to them. We've got to improve that room; I've said that since I got here. That's still the case.” Right now that may depend on getting more from Fair and Johnson moving forward. Could that mean putting them on the field together? Freeze said that’s a possibility as he and Philip Montgomery continue to tweak the passing game to try to find more explosive plays down the field. “I don't think either are built to play outside, truthfully,” Freeze said. “Unless you get in 10 personnel -- one of them will have to if you're going to play them both at the same time. I said they needed to get more touches. Does that look like them playing more at the same time? Maybe. We've got to figure that out this week for sure.” The plays from the passing game have to come more consistently for an Auburn attack that is ranked 123rd nationally after two games and is ahead of only Nebraska as the worst Power 5 team in the country. What Fair and Johnson could bring is more explosive plays, something that has been non-existent through two games. Auburn has just 10 passing plays of 10 yards of more, which is tied for 123rd nationally. Seven of those have gone for more than 20 yards, which isn’t a bad number, but the Tigers don’t have a single passing play of 40 or more yards this year. If Auburn wants to challenge the top teams on the schedule, that’s one of the first things that has to change. Auburn takes on the Samford Bulldogs this Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

i am thinking 3-2 good guys...........

they have an acclaimed forestry program as well or did when i was a rug rat.............

i am lying my butt off...............grins.

you know i am from new jersey right?

i am up for more cobb................

i like DA but our main guy was rusty so i would like to give him a couple more games.

i get it. and i did not say rex was wrong. i do not care for them and their 2.0 chant. i just think Auburn is a wonderful place and has a lot to offer. nothing more. and of course all places have crazies. auburn has a homeless guy wearing some kind of crazy looking pants threatening students here and there. this is according to auburn students on reddit. and the 2.0 thing is political so i am not going to get into it much other than to say i am a lib and i did not care for it. i was stationed in the pentagon for three and a half years and think or did that most southerners were morons. and i am sure cal has some wonderful people but the how cal crowd chanting 2.0 because they think they are superior sticks in my craw and i will not apologize to anyone for it. this is more about cal than rex for the record.

i am pretty sure i am as i am a homer but i was nice right?

i do daily football articles so i see a bunch of them and you are absolutely right! i have seen reporters using each others stuff and changing just enough to make it look legit but they just copied someone else. oddly it seems to happen less in podcasts. now remember i am talking sports but i did want to backup what you were saying.......

how did they finally get rid of the naked man? i always thought it was a great story. it was an interesting look at freedoms as well.

Auburn has some wonderful restaurants and i am pretty sure you can buy craft beers all over the place as well. also auburn fans do not chant 2.0 at the visiting team basically calling southerners stupid. i am an auburn homer and i will die one. and i am pretty sure auburn went out there to play a game and it was considered a big deal by many. i am sure cal has some nice things going for it but at the end of the day i will choose auburn over and over. and i am not sure if you go to auburn to a five star restaurant you will find human feces close to the door. you are welcome to your opinion but i choose to disagree. and in my mind a homie is another word for someone loyal and i am proud to be an auburn homie. but thanks for posting!

Hugh Freeze didn't love Auburn’s two-QB rotation at Cal. What now? Published: Sep. 11, 2023, 3:42 p.m. 6–7 minutes Auburn first-year head coach Hugh Freeze said leading into Saturday’s game at Cal that he intended to use multiple quarterbacks, just as he did in Week 1 during Auburn’s 59-14 win over UMass. He then went on to say that if the Tigers get to 2-0 using two quarterbacks, he might still keep at it. “I know people in this world and day in time (think), you know, you can’t play two quarterback,” Freeze said on Sept. 4. “Well, I don’t know, maybe they’re right. But we’re 1-0, and if we go 2-0 doing it, we’ll keep doing it.” Well, here we are. Auburn is 2-0 after beating Cal 14-10 in a game that likely left many Tigers’ fans reaching for another late-night drink. But perhaps more importantly, the inept performance from Auburn’s offense left Freeze scratching his head with questions. The Tigers totaled 230 yards of offense against the Golden Bears, whose offense managed to tally 273 yards. And of those 230 yards of offense, less than 100 of them came through the air as Auburn was unable to establish any kind of rhythm — let alone threat — in the passing game. Since being named Auburn’s starter in mid-August, junior Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne has done just that as he started first against UMass and then again Saturday night against Cal. However, unlike his first start against UMass — which saw him pilot the Tigers on an 11-play, 62-yard scoring drive — Thorne didn’t help Auburn get out to the start it wanted. Instead, after shoving the football into the belly of Jarquez Hunter on back-to-back plays to see a 3rd and 5 situation, Thorne scrambled around for a first down, only to be stripped of the football as he was spun down to the turf. In his next outing, Thorne was sacked for a loss of seven yards on third down, forcing Oscar Chapman to punt from inside his own endzone. It wasn’t until there was under a minute to play in the first quarter that Thorne completed Auburn’s first pass of the night — a 4-yard toss to Hunter on first down. Even after Thorne hit Jay Fair for on a 13-yard touchdown pass in early in the second quarter, it still felt as though the Tigers’ offense was flat as a board. There was no spark, let alone fireworks. “We just had no juice, no momentum,” Freeze said. “And so you’re kind of searching for it.” On Saturday night in the hills of Berkeley, Calif., the hope was sophomore quarterback Robby Ashford could be what the Tigers were looking for. After all, that was certainly the case against UMass as he rushed for three touchdowns. While Freeze believes in him as a passer, many of Ashford’s packages are designed to tailor to his strengths — meaning Ashford will often be asked to call his own number and tote the ball, or run option plays with Auburn’s committee of running backs. “Robby’s got to get his touches,” Freeze said. “We had a really good package for him, had a good drive going in that package. And then one of our running backs went the wrong way and created a negative play and got us behind the chains. So it was just one thing after another offensively, which ultimately it has to start with me and our offensive staff as to why we did some of the things we did.” Respective to Auburn’s offensive struggles on Saturday night, griping about one negative play is like crying over spilled milk. The Tigers turned the ball over four times as Thorne, Hunter and Damari Alston all had fumbles with Thorne also throwing an interception. And not being able to maintain possession and build a sustainable drive definitely had a negative effect on Auburn’s offensive groove. “I’m not making any excuses because we have to own what’s on the film. But when you turn it over four times and you don’t get a lot of possessions in a game, it’s hard,” Freeze said Freeze added that he wasn’t disappointed with Auburn’s play calling on offense — even when the Tigers completely abandoned the pass game in the third quarter, not throwing a single pass. Not having a firm grasp on who your guy is going to be under center complicates things a lot. Thorne was advertised as a guy who completed more than 60% of his passes and averaged more than 220 passing yards a game at Michigan State. So far, Thorne has checked the first box with a 61% completion percentage through two games. But Thorne is averaging just 117 passing yards per game after going 9-for-14 for just 94 yards against Cal. “We need Payton to play better, truthfully, too,” Freeze said. “I’m not beating up Payton. He played really well that last possession, but we really do need more consistency there throughout the whole game. And that’s our challenge, is to get him and Robby and Holden to that point.” Down four points with just more than 11 minutes to play, Thorne piloted the Tigers on a 10-play, 69-yard march that ended in a 5-yard, go-ahead touchdown to Rivaldo Fairweather. It was Auburn’s longest drive in terms of distance, time of possession and the number of plays. Thorne went 4-for-4 for 56 yards and a passing touchdown in that drive. “The last drive was one we’re going to choose to concentrate on and focus on, and see if we can’t build on that,” Freeze said. “It was inconsistent until that point.” But was that lone drive enough to sell Freeze on Thorne and a more traditional one-quarterback approach? It doesn’t sound that way. However, what it does sound like is that the quarterback situation could look a bit different moving foward. “I do not like the way the other night went with it,” Freeze said. “At the same time, I think Robby has to get his touches. So that is absolutely something that’s on my mind, and we’ve got to figure it out.” If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. By browsing this site, we may share your information with our social media partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

this might be a repeat but lets honor the man again........