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al.com Goodman: With a splash, Hugh Freeze sends a message to the SEC Updated: Aug. 02, 2023, 8:14 a.m.|Published: Aug. 02, 2023, 7:12 a.m. 5–6 minutes The message sent by Hugh Freeze was clear. He’s coming for the dynasty. The goal is to officially end the one in Tuscaloosa. The hope is to maybe start one at Auburn. Fall camp begins on Thursday for the Tigers and for the Crimson Tide. College football is back, baby, and with it comes a glorious sunrise on The Plains. For the first time in years, Auburn will go into the preseason with more buzz around its program than Alabama. On Saturday, Freeze received a poolside commitment from five-star receiver Perry Thompson. It was the stunning climax of Auburn’s first Big Cat Weekend under its new coach. Thompson is from Foley, and he was previously committed to Alabama. The Crimson Tide thought it was getting the next great receiver from Lower Alabama. Nope. Freeze flipped a player who Alabama fans were already calling the Crimson Tide’s next Julio Jones. It was all by design and served as a reminder to anyone who might have forgotten an important lesson about Freeze. Auburn’s new coach is calculated, shrewd and, most importantly, a talented recruiter with the ability to build an SEC powerhouse. And it all came with a touch of theater. RELATED: Some late-summer spice added to Iron Bowl scrap RELATED: Auburn’s three biggest storylines entering fall camp RELATED: Alabama’s three biggest storylines entering fall camp GOODMAN: Finding refuge on a soccer field in Birmingham Freeze had been maintaining a low profile until this past week. With SEC Media Days out of the way, Freeze began making his moves … and they were brilliant. First, Auburn’s coach landed an enormous commitment from five-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick of Chilton County. Riddick chose Auburn over Alabama and Georgia. With the lodestone defender of his 2024 recruiting class in place, Freeze was set to make the largest splash possible during one of Auburn’s most important recruiting weekends of the year. The splash came figuratively and literally, too, because after Thompson committed to Auburn and Freeze, the players attending Big Cat Weekend picked Freeze up like he had just won a national championship and then launched Auburn’s coach into the pool. It was fun. It was entertaining. It was Freeze announcing his return to the SEC. Freeze came to Auburn with some baggage, but he’s already delivering major victories for the Tigers before the preseason even begins. Season tickets sold out earlier this summer and single-game tickets are already gone for home games against Samford, Georgia, Ole Miss and Alabama. Get your tickets fast for anything that remains. Auburn football has a pulse again. The blood is flowing. The mighty roar of Jordan-Hare Stadium will be deafening for the home opener against UMass on Sept.2. The dark days seem so long ago now. This time last year, Auburn football entered fall camp at war with itself. It was ugly. It was embarrassing. My fingertips felt dirty just writing about it. Then came Halloween. Trick or treat, Bryan Harsin. After months of ignominy, after having to watch Bo Nix dismantle the Pac-12, after witnessing a corpse walk the sidelines on Pat Dye Field, finally, beautifully, Auburn fired one of the worst football coaches in the history of the SEC. They asked a beloved Auburn Man to restore dignity on The Plains. It took Cadillac Williams 60 minutes. That was the beginning of Auburn’s return and don’t anyone ever forget it. It was Cadillac who saved Auburn from the fall. It’s Freeze and Williams together who are restoring balance to The Force. “Auburn football is A-OK,” Williams said on social media after the commitment from Thompson. It just takes one. In the SEC, when it comes to recruiting, it just takes one big splash to begin a title wave. Now comes everything after, and it is how Freeze navigates the ripples of his disruption that will determine Auburn’s future. With Auburn aligned, the SEC should probably brace for a flood. What can one recruiting splash do for a program? Auburn was picked to finish sixth in the SEC West this season, but any struggles will now be viewed as building blocks for what’s to come. What can one commitment bring? Freeze knows his SEC history and so does every college football fan in Alabama. While Nick Saban was busy chasing Georgia, Alabama’s coach was losing ground, and recruits, to Auburn. It’s a ruthless game, and no one plays it better than Saban. Freeze learned from the best. Thompson, the receiver from Foley, announced the decision to spurn Alabama with Freeze casually standing by his side. What can one recruiting victory signal? How about a new fight between old friends. It was Saban who started a flood in 2008 with a receiver from Foley. We all know what happened next, and now we’re all watching Auburn to see how one major splash sends shockwaves through the SEC. 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. 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.

auburntigers.com Meet the Coaches: Auburn offensive line coach Jake Thornton Auburn University Athletics 6–7 minutes AUBURN, Ala. – Kickoff on The Plains is one month from Wednesday. It will mark the first Tiger Walk of 2023. The first eagle flight. The first football game. For Jake Thornton, it will be the first time he will take the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium on the Auburn sideline. Thornton, Auburn’s offensive line coach who was hired in December, has been to Jordan-Hare twice before – once as a graduate assistant at Alabama in 2017 and again as the offensive line coach at Ole Miss in 2021. Alabama came in ranked No. 1 while Ole Miss was ranked No. 9. Auburn won both games. “Every SEC stadium is big. They’ve got great stuff. But when you play here at Auburn, it’s very intimidating,” Thornton said. “When you pull into the stadium, like in 2017 for the Iron Bowl, the Auburn people are all over you. It’s not that they’re shaking the bus or throwing stuff at the bus. It’s just – they’re everywhere. They’re all wearing their Auburn stuff, and they’re chanting ‘War Eagle.’ It’s very imposing. “I tell every recruit I talk to. That game in 2021 was the loudest crowd I’ve ever been a part of. It was deafening. Right when we walked out for pre-game, the student section was already filled. That’s the most packed stadium I have ever been in that early. They’re on top of you right away." Thornton is a football guy. He grew up around the game. At 6 years old, he spent the week in Canton, Ohio when his grandfather, Billy Shaw, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Shaw played 10 years in the NFL as an offensive guard for the Buffalo Bills. “I can remember just about everything about it,” Thornton said. “At the time, I didn’t understand how special that was. But now looking back on it, it was awesome. He still calls me, talks about football. He’s involved with a lot of different things in my life and my family’s life.” Thornton, like Shaw, played offensive line. He was a three-year starter at Western Carolina before graduating and getting into coaching. He started out as an assistant offensive line coach at his alma mater and made stops at Alabama (GA), Tennessee Tech, Gardner-Webb and most recently Ole Miss. That’s when Hugh Freeze called and offered him the job at Auburn. Immediately, Thornton was intrigued. He’d seen the atmosphere at Auburn first-hand. He knew how special it was. He also knew what Auburn was capable of with the right coach. Growing up in Toccoa, Georgia – right in between Clemson and Georgia – it was Auburn who was the premier program during that time. The Tigers consistently won nine or more games and then won a national championship in 2010. In the world of college football where there’s so much transition all the time, we wanted to come here and grow as a family and build this o-line up to be the best unit in the country. Jake Thornton But the biggest reason Thornton took the Auburn job wasn’t the atmosphere or the tradition. It was Freeze. He had never played or coached under Freeze, but he saw the success Freeze had at Ole Miss on the field and also knew how important family was to Freeze off the field. “I always knew he had a winning mentality when it came to football,” Thornton said. “And then when I was at Ole Miss, Derrick Nix – Coach Freeze’s running backs coach at Ole Miss – he and I got really close. I look at him like a mentor of mine. He always talked highly of Coach Freeze – how good of a guy he was, how he treated them in the office, and most importantly, how he treated families. “I’m willing to work, I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get our guys ready to go play and win games, I just want my family taken care of. Because when I know they’re taken care of, I feel like I can do my job to my maximum performance.” Thornton’s family consists of his wife, Alyssa, and their two children, Shaw (3) and Sutton (8 months). The decision to come to Auburn was as much about them as anything. “We came to Auburn to be at Auburn and to be here,” Thornton said. “In the world of college football where there’s so much transition all the time, we wanted to come here and to grow here and grow as a family and build this o-line up to be the best unit in the country. We’re devoted to doing that. We want to be involved in the community and be a part of Auburn and be Auburn people.” For any coach, the first year is always a challenging one. But Thornton has had his hands full since he arrived at Auburn with building an offensive line that features so many new faces and meshing those new players with the returning players. The Tigers brought in five transfers, six with the recent addition of Northwestern transfer Dylan Senda, and four freshmen this offseason. It is up to Thornton to put the best unit on the field and lay a foundation for the future, but he hasn’t had to do too much to build chemistry. The players have already done a good bit of that on their own. “I felt like it took our guys a month, and they acted like they had been together for five years,” Thorton said. “That’s a huge credit to the culture of Auburn, what this community means to these guys and also what Coach Freeze has done with the culture of the team.” The true test will come in one month when Auburn opens the season with Kickoff on The Plains. Thornton can’t wait. He'll be on the right sideline this time.

auburnwire.usatoday.com JUCO safety Laquan Robinson places Auburn in top five Taylor Jones ~2 minutes Hugh Freeze and the Auburn coaching staff are beginning to take a look at the junior college ranks in an effort to fill out their 2024 recruiting board. Like their high school targets, Auburn is going big when it comes to landing the best players from the JUCO level. One of the nation’s top JUCO recruits recently revealed his top five choices and has included Auburn in the mix. Buy Tigers Tickets Laquan Robinson, a three-star JUCO safety originally from Greenville, Alabama, dropped his top five on Tuesday. Joining Auburn in the hunt to land him are Florida, Houston, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M. As a high school recruit, Robinson was ranked as a four-star by On3 and 247Sports in the 2022 recruiting class and was the No. 20 player from the state of Alabama for the cycle. He was considered to be one of the top available prospects following early signing day in January 2022 by On3. Laquan Robinson is another prospect who has very little happen recently in his recruitment. Ole Miss and Auburn were considered the leaders at one point, but it remains to be seen if that is still the case. While he searches for his next home, he currently resides on the Holmes Community College football roster. According to 247Sports, Robinson is the No. 5 JUCO prospect for the 2024 class and is the No. 1 safety. HERE we go Top 5!!📣📣 locked in now‼️ pic.twitter.com/IOKl1E4z7T — Laquan Robinson (@3LaQuanRobinson) August 1, 2023

247sports.com The Real Deal Episode 2 Camp time for the Auburn Tigers Jason Caldwell 2–3 minutes Auburn tight end Luke Deal previews preseason camp for the Tigers Auburn tight end Luke Deal is entering his final preseason camp with the Tigers. After playing for both Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin during his career on the Plains, Deal talks about the differences under Hugh Freeze and this staff, his position groups to watch, and much more. Check out The Real Deal here: From Tuskegee to the NFL: Willie Whitehead looks to help Joe Phillips follow suit A former Tuskegee-native and Auburn player is working with a future Auburn player hoping to follow in his footsteps. VIDEO: Auburn QB commit Walker White discusses Big Cat Weekend Auburn Undercover's Phillip Dukes contributed to this report. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram @DukesTheScoop. TUSKEGEE, Alabama — There aren't many better examples for Top247 edge rusher Joseph Phillips to follow than Willie Whitehead. Originally from Tuskegee, Whitehead walked on at Auburn in 1991 before earning a scholarship and by the time he was a senior, he became a productive pass-rusher for the Tigers and racked up 65 tackles and five sacks in '94. From there, he signed on with the San Fransisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent, also getting some time in the CFL before really establishing himself during a seven-year stint with the New Orleans Saints. Now, Whitehead works as a trainer in Atlanta and returns home to Tuskegee every Tuesday to help out with the Booker T. Washington squad. "Oh, very special," Whitehead told Auburn Undercover about his time working with Booker T. "It’s my home and I love it. We’ve been through a lot as a city, Tuskegee especially. Not getting exposure and now we’ve got a great coach — Coach (Lawrence) O’Neal — a great staff. Got to the playoffs last year, I just want to see them get to the state. I want to see more guys get scholarship offers, so it’s not just a one-off here or there, it’s three or four, five, six guys. We have the talent. Why not us?"

si.com Auburn LB Larry Nixon III excited about Tigers' hype heading into 2023 season Lance Dawe 3–4 minutes Nixon is excited to see Jordan-Hare Stadium full for the first time. Auburn got an uber-productive linebacker in Larry Nixon III. But they also got a great teammate. Nixon, a transfer from North Texas, joined the Tigers this offseason and has been participating in player-led practices, hanging out with the team, and getting to soak in the reality of having become an SEC linebacker. Nixon joined Zac Blackerby and Jason Campbell on the On To Victory podcast to talk about his excitement heading into the season. Campbell asked him how he felt about the recent hype the Tigers have received, with five-stars Demarcus Riddick and Perry Thompson flipping to Auburn. Safe to say, Hugh Freeze has done everything he can to get folks excited about the Tigers both heading into the season and for the long-term. “I love seeing that stuff," Nixon said. "I’ve never experienced anything like Auburn. It’s good. It feels good. I’m excited and looking forward to the season, and seeing the fans, and playing in the stadium, it’s going to be crazy.” The biggest thing Nixon is looking forward to the most at home this fall? “Ninety-thousand,” Nixon said. “Walking into the stadium, being on the field, looking around and just picturing ninety-thousand people in the stands, I felt that energy right then and there. I’m excited to run out of the tunnel, run out on kickoff, get to the first play of the game… I can picture it in my head.” With the additions through the transfer portal, Auburn should be a more competitive team in 2023. With players like Nixon buying in alongside the rest of the squad, the Tigers may surprise some people now that they seem to have some chemistry. The Tigers kick off the 2023 season on September 2nd at home vs UMass at 2 p.m. CT on ESPN. Here's a look at the entire 2023 schedule: Sept. 2nd vs UMass Sept. 9th at California Sept. 16th vs Samford Sept. 23rd at Texas A&M Sept. 30th vs Georgia Oct. 14th at LSU Oct. 21st vs Ole Miss Oct. 28th vs Mississippi State Nov. 4th at Vanderbilt Nov. 11th at Arkansas Nov. 18th vs New Mexico State Nov. 25th vs Alabama

do not include me in that crap cus i look good in a dress........grins.

i think we should add to this tradition. we should all do a buttery nipple shot to celebrate. and man those things are great.

the gop does not care about facts. they are mostly karens and richards who believe i bunch of bull and yet denie all the crap rum has done as fake news. and again if you have to vote for someone who committed treason you are pretty sorry in my view. it is one of the most american things you can do. prove me wrong. and use real facts please.

apologies i meant this to be on smack...........

people non maga know you cannot put lipstick on a pig. they knew what rump was. i like my typo. maybe i will refer to him now as the rump.................grins

i agree with this. anyone would be a fool not to look at all parties running.

maybe my ass..................hell at least be truthful. geez

he is just picking now. he can talk purty but if anyone votes for trump they have no room to raise hell about ANYONE else.

trump is innocent said no one ever with a brain................

news.yahoo.com James Comer Skipped His Panel’s Big Biden Probe Interview With Devon Archer Roger Sollenberger, Sam Brodey 6–8 minutes Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Twitter When Rep. James Comer (R-KY) made the rounds on primetime conservative cable TV on Monday night, it was to divulge details of what Republicans called a bombshell day for their investigations into the Biden family. On Capitol Hill earlier that day, members of the House Oversight Committee privately interviewed Devon Archer, a longtime business partner of President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter. When Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Comer about “major takeaways” from the interview, Comer delved into what Archer had told the committee, claiming that it had made an alleged Biden “bribery scandal… more credible.” In another Monday night interview on Newsmax, host Greg Kelly claimed that Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY), who participated in the interview, looked “spooked” afterward. “You were in the room,” Kelly told Comer. “Are these guys recognizing that this is beyond their control now?” “The walls are closing in on the Bidens,” Comer responded. House Dems Demand Probe of Comer’s Indicted ‘Missing’ Biden Informant What Comer failed to mention was that he wasn’t actually in the room for his committee’s big interview with Archer. According to two sources familiar with the proceeding, Comer failed to show up in person on Capitol Hill, and he did not participate remotely. Comer, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, has been the face of the GOP’s investigations into Hunter Biden, and he had hyped the Archer interview as perhaps the biggest moment yet in the party’s efforts to prove that the Bidens had leveraged their power and influence for personal gain. And yet, just like Comer, the vast majority of the Oversight panel’s membership did not attend either, with the interview taking place in Washington on the first Monday of the extended summer recess. Still, Republicans seemed shocked that the man running the investigation could not find time in his schedule to show up for a key interview, with one source telling The Daily Beast it was like a general abandoning his troops during battle. “A few Republicans were disappointed that Chairman Comer didn’t show up to the Archer transcribed interview,” a senior GOP source told The Daily Beast. “It was like following a general into battle, but the general decided to stay home instead of fight,” the source continued. “Especially when there are other Members who would love to have interviewed Archer but aren’t on the Oversight Committee and not allowed in the room.” Reached for comment, an Oversight Committee spokesman confirmed Comer was not there. “Transcribed interviews are primarily staff led and Chairman Comer had scheduled commitments with constituents in Kentucky,” they said. According to one source, Rep, Jim Jordan (R-OH)—who chairs the House Judiciary Committee but is a senior member of the Oversight panel—was present for most of the interview. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a leader of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, was, too. No other Republican members came. While it is true that committee staff often do the bulk of questioning in closed-door interviews with witnesses, when it comes to high-profile investigations, lawmakers often come and participate, most of all the chairman or ranking member of the committee. USA-BIDEN/HUNTER-CONGRESS REUTERS/Leah Millis" Ahead of the interview, Comer appeared to have other obligations besides preparing for Archer’s questioning. In a photo posted to his Instagram page on Sunday, Comer was eating barbeque with a friend. The caption said they had been “battling all weekend” in a golf tournament held in his hometown of Tompkinsville, Kentucky. The Kentucky Republican’s failure to show up for the Archer interview will likely add to questions about his performance as leader of the House GOP’s all-important investigations into the Biden family and administration. Since beginning investigative work in January, Comer has faced criticism and scrutiny from right-wing political and media figures for not uncovering the kind of damning information about the Bidens that they promised. In June, former Trump adviser and far-right influencer Steve Bannon torched Comer for what he viewed as a subpar interview on Fox News, in which he discussed his investigations. “You are not serious,” Bannon said of Comer. “It’s all performative.” Since then—with Trump now facing three criminal indictments—House Republicans have coalesced around their own Biden investigations, arguing they form the basis for a possible impeachment inquiry into the incumbent president. Archer is key to those plans. From 2014 to 2016, Archer served with Hunter Biden on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, which was the focal point of Trump’s attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dirt on the Bidens, leading to his first impeachment. In June, Comer issued a subpoena for Archer’s testimony. Republicans believed he would provide key details about Hunter’s work for Burisma and the extent to which his father was aware of that work. Ultimately, the GOP’s goal was to support their still-unfounded claim that Biden was bribed to call for the ouster of a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma. According to reports of the interview, Archer told the committee that Hunter was selling to interested parties the “illusion” of access to his father, a comment that was interpreted vastly differently by the Republican and Democratic sides of the panel. The Archer interview grew even more politically important to Republicans the next day, when Trump was indicted in D.C. federal court for his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election. On Tuesday evening, a number of top GOP lawmakers referred to the Archer interview, and the alleged bombshells it contained, to deflect from Trump’s indictment and to claim the Department of Justice was trying to distract from the Hunter case. In his interview with Newsmax’s Kelly, the night before the indictment, Comer continued to play up details of the meeting he did not attend. Archer, Comer said, “was under a lot of pressure today.” “But despite that, I think he answered a lot of questions that needed to be answered,” Comer said. “This was a bombshell today.” WOW this is supposed to be important and he skips but acts like he was there..........grins. i think all maga pols are liars. i mean this as fact and not a shot. it is what it is. i am also saying dems have their own liars as well but if you are going to destroy someone at least get the damn facts right and show up for the committees when you are supposed to. comer can kiss my big fat behind and i am seriously considering emailing his staff and telling him personally.

trying to steal the election and all that would have happened afterwords is way worse than anything biden has done. i was wrong to tell you who to vote for but trump did some treason type stuff so i will never have any use for him. but i saw a ton of messed up vets during my tour at the end of the nam war and it was so heartbreaking. and trump stold from a veterans charity. i have posted this several times but you are not picking the least of the evils i can assure you. again you do you but that is a horrible look and i am not being smart here but i just do not get you guys. i also think biden is too old to be honest. but i will take him over trump any day. twice on sunday.

get back to us when you guys actually prove something. hell your side has lied. they "lost" their witness a couple of times and have posted a bunch of nothing burgers. this is so laughable because if trump is the gop guy most of you will still vote for him after all that he has done and which means you give him a pass while attacking joe which is a very bad look.