11/10/22 Auburn Articles

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Report: T.J. Finley expected to enter transfer portal 'soon'

JD McCarthy

2 minutes

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Auburn has already lost several players to the transfer portal and could be losing a former starter according to a report by Jeffrey Lee of On3.

T.J. Finley was Auburn’s starting quarterback at the beginning of the season but lost his job to Robby Ashford and is apparently unhappy according to Lee’s report.

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Finley started Auburn’s first three games and he completed 33 of 53 passes for 431 yards and one touchdown. He has also thrown four interceptions and lost two fumbles. A shoulder injury forced him to miss time and Ashford was able to cement himself as the starting quarterback.

In addition to losing his job, Finley’s mother is unhappy with the fact that the payers and their parents found out about Auburn firing Bryan Harsin through the media and were not told directly. She also believes that she and the rest of the parents need to be informed of how the coaching search is going, according to Lee’s sources.

Clearly, that will not happen and Lee’s sources expect Finley to enter the transfer portal “soon.”

One possible destination is Southeastern Louisiana, where his brother Kody plays wide receiver.

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow JD on Twitter @jdmccarthy15.

Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today!

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Cadillac Williams identifies the most improved unit at Auburn, cites discipline as an area of concern

Keith Farner

2-3 minutes

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Cadillac Williams will coach the second game of his time as interim coach at Auburn this week when the Tigers take on Texas A&M.

But this is the first home game, and Williams has already reached out to the student section to be loud, and added on the SEC coaches media teleconference that it will be a “dynamic, electric weekend” for recruiting for Auburn. They expect a lot of big-time recruits under the lights at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

“We are going to level up, and we’re going to take this thing to another level,” he said.

Since Williams has taken over, he was asked where the most improvement has been.

“I’d have to say the offensive line,” Williams said. “Those big boys are coming together, playing physical, playing Auburn football.”

Conversely, discipline is an area of concern.

“We’ve got to be more disciplined. We had 14 penalties for 115 yards. We have to be more efficient on third down. We were 6 for 18.” he said about improvements this week.

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Joseph Goodman: Give Coach Cadillac a chance to win the job

Updated: Nov. 09, 2022, 12:19 p.m.|Published: Nov. 09, 2022, 6:57 a.m.

6-8 minutes

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Ted Lasso got a tattoo of a Cadillac the other day.

First tat ever for the unlikely coach of AFC Richmond. Did it hurt? “Does a buffalo use its horns for honking?” he said.

I took that as an answer in the affirmative.

“Never too late to believe in heroes,” Lasso said while settling into the tattoo chair. Such a Lasso thing to say. So pure. So true.

And then Lasso had a Cadillac inked right there on his awe-shucks heart. Drop top Caddy, of course, and with Aubie at the wheel wearing an Elvis jumpsuit. Nice rims. Fat tires. All the things. The Cadillac was old school, of course, and it had the wings of an eagle and the head and tail of a tiger. Two words were written under Lasso’s mythical Auburn Chimera: “Go Crazy.”

Am I?

Maybe.

Hopefully.

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Am I going crazy, or is Auburn interim football coach Carnell “Cadillac” Williams accomplishing something no one believed to be possible this season? Is Williams Lasso-ing this thing by the horns when everyone thought he was the sacrificial hire to be trampled by someone else’s stampeding failures?

Williams was named Auburn’s interim coach less than two weeks ago. It was Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Halloween. In that short amount of time, Williams is doing something that recently fired coach Bryan Harsin never had the capacity to even understand, and something former coach Gus Malzahn gave up on years before he was let go.

The thing is this. Williams is bringing Auburn together through his ability as a leader, and he is inspiring people without even winning on Saturday. “Go crazy,” Williams likes to say. It’s his catch phrase as a coach, and it was coined by Auburn play-by-play announcer Rod Bramblett during a famous touchdown run by Williams in the 2003 Iron Bowl.

I’ll just come right out and say it. I’m rooting for Williams to be seriously considered for the permanent position of head football coach at Auburn. Does he have what it takes to be the guy? That’s for new director of athletics John Cohen to figure out. I know this, though. In a few days on the job, Williams already proved that he should be in the conversation. Maybe this feel-good story doesn’t have to stop.

Cohen had his introductory news conference on Tuesday. He left Mississippi State to be the AD at Auburn. The biggest decision of his career could be his first on the job, hiring Auburn’s next football coach. Naturally, the position of football coach dominated his first interview with reporters. What’s his process of hiring a football coach?

“It’s a very, very long process,” Cohen said. “In fact, I have 58 things on this piece of paper that we’ll go through as we go through this process of looking for a new head football coach. It all starts with culture. It starts with X’s and O’s and it starts with recruiting. Those three things have to be up-front, but there’s a whole lot of other things that have to be answered before you get really deep into it.”

Alabama’s Nick Saban isn’t an “X’s and O’s” coach. He transformed Alabama’s culture. Same for Clemson’s Dabo Swinney. They’re culture and recruiting guys. Saban is the ultimate CEO. Dabo treats his staff like family. They’re empowerment people. In his first week, Williams has established a new culture inside his Auburn locker room that makes everyone believe in a common purpose. It’s undeniable.

Cohen says he wants to change the narrative surrounding the derogatory phrase “Auburn being Auburn.” Well, I know a guy. Would anything be more transformative for Auburn’s image than the hiring of Cadillac Williams for the permanent role of head football coach?

I’m not saying to hire Williams based on one game against Mississippi State. That’s silly, but it would be equally shortsighted to discount Williams based on what we’ve already seen. The players love and respect him. The fans are inspired. People are starting to believe in the unthinkable, and it’s not as crazy of an idea this week as it was the week before.

Cohen, Auburn’s new AD, was asked what he’s learned by hiring football coaches in the past. He hired Joe Moorehead at Mississippi State, and Moorehead lasted two seasons. Cohen then hired Mike Leach, who is the current coach of the Bulldogs.

“I’m going to drop a cliché on you right now. And I’m going to use the ‘F’ word,” Cohen said. “Fit. And everybody uses it, but it’s real. And what is a fit for Mississippi State University is a different fit for Auburn University. And that alters the paradigm and again, you have to make those considerations.”

Let me just put this out there. Is Hugh Freeze a better “fit” for Auburn than Williams? Is Lane Kiffin a better “fit” for Auburn than Coach Cadillac? No, they are not. They might be more experienced coaches, but they are not better fits for Auburn than the guy making Auburn radiate with sudden pride amid a 3-6 season.

What does a successful team culture look like? Williams was hired on a Monday, and on Wednesday he said he wanted his team to play with toughness. Did any team in the country play harder than Auburn this past week? Mississippi State won the game 39-33 in overtime, but Auburn scored some momentum that night, too. Auburn lost, but not before coming back from down 24-6 in the third quarter.

It was beautiful. Honestly, as Williams would say, I might have had a little water in my eyes watching it.

Williams not only inspired his players to work harder, but he compelled assistant Zac Etheridge to run down the sideline so fast he pulled a hamstring. “Ted Lasso” is just a television show about something Williams is actually doing in real life. He is making people believe in things again through the power of positivity and the unflappable belief that believing is the most powerful thing of all.

The culture is there. Can he recruit as the interim head coach of Auburn? We’ll see. Flip a five-star, Cadillac, and watch Auburn believe in that impossible, infectious, give-me-a-tattoo kind of crazy.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.

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Cadillac Williams confident Auburn will have better gameplan vs. Texas A&M

Published: Nov. 09, 2022, 7:10 a.m.

5-6 minutes

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Cadillac Williams presented a challenge to his coaching staff during their Monday morning meeting that may have been his biggest ask of them yet during his short tenure as Auburn’s interim coach.

He wanted them to carve out time for self-care: sleeping, eating, working out. There wasn’t much time for any of that during last week’s hectic series of events — beginning with the firing of Bryan Harsin and six football staffers — that led to a frenzied week of preparation that saw the coaching staff piecing together a gameplan on the fly, working in the athletics complex until 1 or 2 a.m. each night.

“Last week was a rare one,” Williams said.

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The making of Coach Lac: Cadillac Williams’ humble journey from DII intern to Auburn interim head coach

“Auburn being Auburn”: AD John Cohen wants to flip the script on familiar “JABA” refrain

This week should see more of a return to normalcy for Williams and the rest of Auburn’s coaching staff, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. Along with Harsin’s firing last week, Auburn lost offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Eric Kiesau and tight ends coach Brad Bedell. That prompted a restructuring of the Tigers’ remaining offensive assistants, with every coach taking on new or expanded roles leading up to the Mississippi State game.

Offensive line coach Will Friend and wide receivers coach Ike Hilliard assumed co-offensive coordinator duties, as the two worked in tandem developing an offensive gameplan and calling plays on Saturday. That was no small task, as they had to quickly familiarize themselves with a play-sheet that wasn’t their own. At one point during the Mississippi State game, after a timeout, Friend sat down behind the training table on Auburn’s sideline and pored over the play-sheet to try to get up to better understand the calls and where everything was on the laminated sheet of paper.

“Again, this is new,” Williams said. “We’re all new. I threw a bombshell on them. Auburn threw a bombshell on me, so I threw it back on (Friend and Hilliard). So, again, I thought those guys worked good together.”

Despite being put in a tough situation, Williams heaped praise on how Friend and Hilliard handled their circumstances. Auburn’s offensive gameplan was far from perfect, and it wasn’t always pretty, but the Tigers overcame a slow start and an absent passing game to score 33 points on the road while rallying from a 21-point first-half deficit.

“Them guys are like football junkies,” Williams said of Friend and Hilliard.

With that duo running the offense, and Williams overseeing the whole team, Auburn elevated offensive analysts Kendall Simmons and Mike Hartline to offensive line coach and quarterbacks coach, respectively. Joe Bernardi took over the tight end group, and Jeff McDaniels assisted with the running backs to ease the load off Williams.

“I’ve got full confidence in that offensive staff and the guys that I’m working with,” Williams said. “Honesty, they make my job a lot easier where I can kind of try to do this head coaching thing and touch our players.”

In the Tigers’ eventual 39-33 overtime loss to the Bulldogs, after falling behind 24-3 in the second quarter, Williams and the rest of the staff delivered a message of “fight or quit.” Auburn’s players chose to fight, turning in their best offensive second half of the season, while the defense largely stood tall after some early struggles against the Air Raid.

Auburn particularly found success on designed runs for quarterback Robby Ashford and some explosive carries from Tank Bigsby and Jarquez Hunter, as the team finished with 256 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground while averaging 5.57 yards per carry. It was Auburn’s second-best rushing performance of the season against Power 5 competition, trailing only the Ole Miss game before the bye week.

Williams anticipates the offense will look better this weekend, with a full week of preparation before Auburn hosts Texas A&M on Saturday night at Jordan-Hare Stadium. The staff will have a normal week of prep to watch the Aggies and formulate an optimal gameplan. Williams is optimistic that as things settle down, the Tigers will be able to avoid another slow start like the one they had in Starkville.

“Those guys are in the lab right now working,” Williams said. “One thing that I do know is they’re going to come up with a good plan, and we are going to be together. It ain’t going to be pointing no fingers, and we’re going to have fun doing it. Whether we’re up by 20 or we’re down by 20. I don’t want the negative energy. I don’t want the negative vibe. We’re all working for the same cause.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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Tipsheet: Auburn coaching search heats up, Freeze campaigns for job

Jeff Gordon

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Mizzou announced a two-year contract extension for head coach Eli Drinkwitz on Saturday, Nov. 5. He talked about the move after the team's loss to Kentucky the same day. Video by Mizzou Network, used with permission of Mizzou Athletics.

Missouri did the sensible thing by extending Eli Drinkwitz’s contract in the midst of a hard-luck season. Coach Drink has accomplished plenty outside of game days at Mizzou and athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois is betting that more victories will follow.

New Auburn athletic director John Cohen is not expected to take the sensible course while replacing coach Bryan Harsin. No, boosters on The Plains expect him to make a spectacular hire – and they are only too happy to assist in the process.

Cohen met with the media for the first time Tuesday to discuss the search.

“It obviously dominates my time, which it should,” Cohen said. “The football head coaching position at Auburn University is a critical decision and we take it with the utmost seriousness.

“There will not be anything we don't look at. Everything is on the table every day. I'm not going into dates and times and the process and when the finish line is going to be. We'll get there when we get there and we're going to make the right decision for this great institution.”

 

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Many donors favor colorful Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin for the job. In response to mounting speculation, the ever-clever Kiffin nominated Jackson State coach Deion Sanders for the gig instead.

Meanwhile nobody is campaigning for the job harder than Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, who wants back into the SEC. He got bounced from Ole Miss after violating a bunch of NCAA rules and using his university cellphone to dial up escorts, but, hey, that’s water under the bridge.

Buying players is legal now and Freeze has produced mind-blowing offensive success at multiple competitive levels.

“I don't know that Auburn wants me. I have no clue,” Freeze told 247Sports after his Flames won 21-19 at Arkansas Saturday. “I know this: I have won everywhere I've been and my staff and kids have turned programs fast. It's our culture that we instill. I know we do that and the proof is in the pudding.”

Liberty athletic director Ian McCaw figures he will lose Freeze to a power conference school at some point, despite giving Freeze an eight-year, $40 million contract.

“I think we have a great situation for him but obviously there are some other really big jobs out there as well and we're going to do everything we can to keep him at Liberty,” McCaw told 247 Sports. “We certainly understand there are others that are going to pursue him.”

Some schools will pass on Freeze due to his past indiscretions, but sooner or later he’ll get his chance.

“I don't think I have anything else to prove," Freeze said. “I used to say stupid things three or four years ago like, 'Well, maybe one day I can have a redemption story.' And finally, man, a mentor and friend said, 'Dude, stop it. Your story is done. You don't need to prove anything to anybody.' And they're right.”

Here is what folks have been writing about the Auburn search:

Brandon Marcello, 247 Sports.com: “The Flames signed Freeze last week to an eight-year contract worth $40 million through the 2030 season. His average yearly salary is the largest among Group of Five coaches. Other details of the contract have remained private but the buyout is said to not be exceptionally large, which opens the door for other schools to pursue Freeze if they choose . . . Auburn is expected to pursue Ole Miss' Lane Kiffin under newly-hired athletic director John Cohen, sources told 247Sports, but Freeze is also a hot name and he has support among some boosters. Freeze said he and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, have not been contacted by Auburn as of Saturday.”

Adam Rittenberg, ESPN.com: “New athletic director John Cohen and the program aren't wasting time ahead of a huge decision. The name generating the most buzz is Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, followed somewhat closely by Liberty coach Hugh Freeze, whose team just beat Arkansas on the road. Some industry sources express doubt that Cohen would hire Freeze, given their time on the opposite sides of the Egg Bowl rivalry during Cohen's time at Mississippi State and Freeze's at Ole Miss. The other two buzziest candidates are Jackson State coach Deion Sanders and [Matt] Rhule. Sanders would be a fascinating and bold choice, but he also would instantly become Auburn's face, voice and brand. ‘If you hire Deion, he's the program, he's the show,’ a Power 5 administrator said. Oregon coach Dan Lanning's name has surfaced, and there could be some interest on Auburn's side especially. The Ducks simply can't afford to lose another coach after Mario Cristobal (Miami) and Willie Taggart (Florida State). Lanning on Monday said the ‘last thing I ever want to do is leave,’ and that ‘Oregon checks every box for me.’ At this point, it's hard to see Auburn not hiring one of those top four, but Baylor offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes and others remain options. Grimes helped Auburn win a national title as the team's offensive line coach in 2010 and is well-liked around the program.”

Matt Hayes, Saturday Down South: “Take this chance, Auburn. Take it and run with it, knowing everything else hasn’t worked — with the exception of 1-off seasons with a mercenary quarterback and a couple of fluke plays. There’s no luck with this move, no hoping for the best. This is the long haul. Before you make the easy hire, the expected hire of Hugh Freeze, take a long, hard look toward Jackson, Miss. You want the equalizer to the 5,000-pound elephant in the room? You need the most charismatic, dynamic personality in sports with the fattest NIL war chest in his back pocket. You need Primetime. You need Deion Sanders strolling onto The Plains, planting a statement flag and doing the only thing that can possibly slow the Alabama/Georgia train: reach and recruit young people like no previous coach at Auburn has. Want to know why Kirby Smart is the new king of the SEC and college football? Players. Or why Nick Saban has won 6 national titles in 16 seasons at Alabama and 7 overall? Players. Players win games. Players win big games. Don’t believe it? Check out Saturday’s Tennessee-Georgia game, where the Vols’ magical season came to an ugly halt because — I know this is going to shock everyone — Georgia had better players. Tennessee couldn’t block Georgia’s better players. Tennessee’s prolific receivers couldn’t separate from Georgia’s better defensive backs. Auburn had the better player (singular) once, and the greatest college player of the modern era (Cam Newton) led the Tigers to a rare national title run we may never witness again. Auburn had a handful of elite players in 2013 — and got a couple of huge breaks along the way (see: Kick-6, The Prayer at Jordan-Hare) — before Florida State’s better players (all 22 starters eventually on NFL rosters) won out on the last drive of the national title game. Players win games. Auburn will only get better — only becomes championship-caliber — if the coach at Auburn can convince elite, 4- and 5-star players to join a suddenly stale program that has fallen behind not only bitter rival Alabama in the SEC but everyone else in the upper half of the 14-team league. When Texas and Oklahoma arrive, it’s only getting worse. Now more than ever, the college game is about recruiting and developing players.”

Zach Barnett, Football Scoop: “A baseball coach by trade, Cohen hired two football coaches in his six years in Starkville. Both shared numerous traits. Joe Moorhead and Mike Leach both had previous head coaching experience, both were relative outsiders to the SEC (Moorhead had never worked in the league, Leach spent 1998-99 at Kentucky), and both were offensive-minded. Cohen fired Moorhead after going 14-12 in two seasons; Leach is 17-16 in nearly three full seasons.  But just because Cohen sought a certain trait at Mississippi State doesn't mean he will at Auburn. (Come to think of it, Bryan Harsin checked all three of those boxes before he got to Auburn, too.) One question moving forward is how much autonomy Cohen will have to make this decision. Auburn was aware of its too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen problem, and communicated to the media that he'll have more authority than his predecessors.  At the same time, Auburn just met the guy. They're not going to hand him the key to his office and say, ‘Here you go, let us know when you've made a decision.’  Cohen tried to walk that line on Tuesday. It'll be his hire, but it'll also be a consensus hire.”

MEGAPHONE

“The 35-year-old version of myself would have stuck my chest out and said, 'This is how it's going to be.’ The 56-year old version of John Cohen says, 'I want all the information that is available to me from anyone I can possibly get it from at Auburn and beyond.'”

Cohen, on putting up with booster input.

[aubaseball 2,819]

Can someone please contact the Finley’s and let them know how the coaching search is going!   😂 

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19 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

Can someone please contact the Finley’s and let them know how the coaching search is going!   😂 

i guess they see those millions slipping away.

[gr82be 14,912]

29 minutes ago, aubaseball said:

Can someone please contact the Finley’s and let them know how the coaching search is going!   😂 

I'm bothered by the fact that we found out about him entering the transfer portal through the media. His mother should have told AUFamily first. 

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NIL Now podcast debuts, covering the wild world of NIL in college, HS sports

Published: Nov. 10, 2022, 1:30 p.m.

2-3 minutes

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By

• Donna Ditota | dditota@syracuse.com

A new podcast devoted to aspects of Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) has been created to educate listeners about how NIL works and to provide real-time examples of college athletes making money in the space.

Kevin Jones, the former Virginia Tech running back who now is a partner in Triumph NIL, a collective aligned with the Hokies, and Lauren Sisler, who has worked for ESPN and the SEC, are the hosts.

Headline Studio has partnered with Reddit to produce the NIL Now show, which is available for free on Spotify, Apple and other podcast platforms.

In the first episode, the hosts discuss these topics in the first segment:

1) The Gatorade deal struck for the University of Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson. Gatorade, the sports drink, is a product historically tied to UF.

2) The Spyre Sports Group, an NIL collective formed around the University of Tennessee that has pledged to raise $25 million per year to support Volunteer athletes. Spyre said it has done $4 million in deals for Tennessee athletes this year.

3) Utah athletic director Mark Harlan’s assertion to Sports Illustrated that one of his program’s football players was offered $1 million to transfer to another school.

Bobak Ha’Eri is front and center for the Reddit-centric second segment, which for this episode is a stroll through various NIL situations. Something might happen in a game, say, and a player might make a shirt to profit from it. Or a player might endorse a brand of mustard. (You get the idea.)

The final segment features Jack Adler, a senior at Syracuse University who co-founded Out2Win sports, a place that helps college athletes build their brand and their NIL experiences.

The podcasts will roll out on a regular basis.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

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Auburn long snapper Jacob Quattlebaum honored by Burlsworth nomination

Updated: Nov. 10, 2022, 2:57 p.m.|Published: Nov. 10, 2022, 11:27 a.m.

4-6 minutes

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If not for the prompting of his seventh-grade coach, Jacob Quattlebaum might not be where he is today.

Quattlebaum was playing center for Dauphin Junior High in Enterprise when coach Marc Sieving wanted to see if he could also play long snapper. It’s not the most glamorous position, to be sure, but one that is crucial to special teams operation—punting, field goals, extra points; long snappers are the triggermen in those facets of the game.

“Hey, you snap with one hand already, let’s just throw second hand out there and throw it 10 yards further,” Quattlebaum recalled Sieving telling him that day in practice.

Read more Auburn football: Jordan-Hare Stadium set to “go crazy” in Cadillac Williams’ first home game as interim coach

Mississippi State is in John Cohen’s DNA, but “a whole lot of wow” drew him to Auburn as AD

Goodman: Give Coach Cadillac a chance to win the job

Thus began Quattlebaum’s journey as a specialist, one that ultimately led him to walk on at Auburn, where he has appeared in 28 games as the Tigers’ long snapper over the last four seasons and where he has been nominated for the Burlsworth Trophy, which is awarded annually to the nation’s top walk-on football player. Quattlebaum is one of 81 players from across the country to be nominated for the honor, which is in its 13th year of existence.

Quattlebaum is one of three long snappers nominated this season, along with Tennessee’s Matthew Salansky and Ohio State’s Bradley Robinson. He is the sixth Auburn player ever nominated for the award, joining linebacker Barton Lester (2021), wide receiver Will Hastings (2017 and 2019), tight end Tucker Brown (2018), punter Kevin Phillips (2015) and safety Trent Fisher (2013).

“It’s a real honor,” Quattlebaum said. “I’m lucky to be in the position I am today, walking on back in 2018 here at Auburn. There’s a group of older guys that really led this team strong…. They really taught me how to come in and work the way Auburn’s supposed to work, how to perform, how to put in the hard work each and every day and how to get yourself prepared each week for the game. And, you know, it’s an honor to be nominated for this award and kind of seeing where all that hard work is starting to pay off.”

Past winners of the Burlsworth include Heisman winner Baker Mayfield (a two-time honoree in 2015 and 2016), former Southern Miss quarterback Austin Davis in 2011 (he was also briefly Auburn’s offensive coordinator back in January, former Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin (2012), former Clemson/current Las Vegas Raiders receiver Hunter Renfrow (2018) and most recently Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan last season.

For Quattlebaum, the nomination provided a moment in the spotlight this week. He spoke with the local media for the first time in his Auburn career, providing a rare occasion for the team’s long snapper to make a press conference appearance during the season.

Quattlebaum was all smiles during his time at the podium inside the auditorium of Auburn’s athletics complex, thanking a handful of specialists who helped him pave his way on the Plains — former long snappers Bill Taylor and Clark Smith, former walk-on kicker Sage Ledbetter, and of course the man he has spent his career snapping for, Anders Carlson.

There were others who helped him along the way, of course. He spent countless hours in his backyard in Enterprise over the years perfecting his craft — and occasionally arguing— with his dad, Russell. Those squabbles, usually over proper technique, and long hours were all worth it, Quattlebaum said. So, too, were all the camps — from the Kohl’s specialty camps, to Rubio Long Snapping and mini-camps throughout high school.

It all led him to Auburn, where he became the team’s regular long snapper midway through the 2019 season following an injury to Taylor. He took a backseat in 2020, appearing in just one game, but he has reassumed the top spot at long snapper the last two seasons for the Tigers.

“It started at a young age,” Quattlebaum said. “I kind of built upon it and realized, you know, I might not be the most athletic guy on my team, but I am the best at throwing the ball between legs 15 yards.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.