1/6/23 Auburn Articles

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This stat about Hugh Freeze recruiting is ridiculous

Zac Blackerby

~2 minutes

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The biggest item in the "pro" category when hiring Hugh Freeze to be Auburn's next head football coach was his ability and love for recruiting at a high level. 

In his first month on the job, he's doing things at Auburn that have not been done in quite some time. According to a tweet by Auburn Barstool, "Freeze has now had the same number of offensive tackles sign with him the past three weeks (four total) than auburn has had in total since 2017. Absurd."

Freeze has added Tyler Johnson from the high school ranks, Izavion Miller from the junior college level, and Dillon Wade and Gunner Britton from the transfer portal. 

He and his coaching staff's late push to get the 2023 class inside the top 20 was remarkable but the fact that he is adding players at positions of need does not need to be overlooked. 

Yesterday at Auburn Daily, we put out a way too early depth chart projection after Britton committed to Freeze and the Tigers. Four of the five projected starters are newcomers to the roster.

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Auburn football, basketball & gymnastics Tiger Tidbits

Mark Murphy

8–11 minutes

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Starting with football:

* With the Tigers still needing help at a variety of positions in putting together the 2023 roster the coaches have through Sunday to get players on campus for the second round of visitors from the transfer portal. The prospects are checking out the new football headquarters, which is still getting the finishing touches added to the $90+ million project.

One of the recent additions is a large sign over the front entrance that reads Woltosz Football Performance Center in honor of the major donors for the facility, Walt and Ginger Woltosz. Walt Woltosz earned bachelor’s (1969) and master’s (1977) degrees in aerospace engineering from Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering.

Early in his aerospace career, Walt Woltosz pioneered the development of innovative simulation and modeling software for key space and military systems. In 1996, the Air Force veteran and his wife founded Simulations Plus, Inc., applying similar technologies in healthcare to create software used by more than 200 pharmaceutical firms, including the world’s top 25, helping to analyze new products and saving millions of dollars in research and development costs.

* On the subject of Woltosz Football Performance Center, Auburn’s athletic department is thanking the major donors to the project with a dinner event on Friday night at the facility. I was told that approximately 100 Auburn families made substantial gifts to the project.

* Former Tiger Daniel Carlson’s sixth season in the NFL has been his most prolific for field goals of 50 yards or longer. He has hit 10-12 and for the season and has made 32-35 for the Las Vegas Raiders going into the season finale on Saturday vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. As a pro he has made 23-28 field goals from 50 yards or longer and is on track to finish above 90 percent on his overall field goals made for a third consecutive season.

Carlson has the Auburn record for carer field goal percentage making 92-114 for 80.7 percent. As a pro he is making 88.1 percent of his field goals.

In men’s basketball:

*With Coach Bruce Pearl saying that he was disappointed with his team’s play at the guard spots following the loss to Georgia, here is a statistical comparison of how the returning guards are currently performing compared to two games into SEC play last season.

Wendell Green:

–Scoring down from 12.7 to 12.3 points per game

–Field goal shooting down from 40.8 to 36.8 percent

–Three-point shooting down from 36.1 percent to 26.3 percent

–Rebounding down from 4.1 to 3.7 per game

–Assists down from 4.6 to 3.5 per game

–Turnovers increased from 2.3 per game at this time last season to 3.2

–Minutes played per game 24.9 this season compared to 25.4 through 14 games in 2021-22

K.D. Johnson:

–Scoring down from 12.1 to 9.2 points per game

–Field goal shooting down from 39.1 to 35.0 percent per game

–Three-point shooting down from 31.1 percent to 28.6 percent

–Rebounding down from 2.4 to 1.8 per game

–Assists up to 1.6 from 1.3 per game

–Turnovers up to 1.8 per game from 1.7 at this time last season

–Minutes played per game 21.4 this season compared to 25.2 at this time last year

Wendell Green is in his second season playing for the Tigers.   (Photo: Jason Caldwell, 247Sports)

Zep Jasper:

–Scoring up to 3.4 from 3.1 points per game

–Field goal shooting up to 35.3 from 34.7 percent last season

–Three-point shooting down from 57.1 to 28.1 percent

–Rebounding down from 1.1 to 0.9 per game

–Assists down to 0.5 from 3.0 per game

–Turnovers have improved to 0.2 per game from 1.2 last season

–Minutes played per game at 18.3 this season compared to 24.6 last season

* A player who has improved his numbers from last season is junior forward Chris Moore. His scoring average is up from 3.1 points per game at this time last season to 6.7. His field goal shooting is up from 45.5 to 54.2 percent. Last season through 14 games he was 0-5 on threes and has hit 8-16 (50.0 percent) this season. His rebounds are up from 2.2 to 2.8 per contest. Moore’s playing time is up from 11.6 minutes per game to 18.4.

* As a team here is a comparison of Pearl’s 2021-22 Tigers and 2022-23 squad in several key statistical categories going into Saturday night’s home game vs. Arkansas compared to what it was through 14 games last season:

–Field goal shooting is down to 43.4 percent from 44.9 percent

–Three-point shooting is down to 28.9 percent from 34.9 percent

–Free throw shooting is down to 66.9 percent from 71.3 percent, but free throws made per game is up to 14.3 from 13.3

–Rebounding margin is up to 5.7 per game from 3.4 per game last season

–Auburn’s field goal defense was better at this time last season when the Tigers allowed opponents to make 38.1 percent of their shots. It is currently at 39.3 percent

–Auburn’s three-point defense has improved with the opposition making 27.0 percent of those attempts compared to 31.8 percent in 2021-22

–Threes made per game is down to 6.1 from 9.1 last season

–Assists are down to 14.3 per game from 15.4 last season

–Turnovers per game have increased to 13.9 from 11.8 at this time last season

–Turnovers forced have dropped to 14.1 from 16.9 at this time last season

–Points per game is at 72.1 this season, down from 80.3 last season

–Points allowed per game is at 62.8 per game, an improvement from 64.3 through 14 games in 2021-22

In women’s basketball:

*After facing unbeaten, defending national champion and No. 1 ranked South Carolina on the road Thursday night the Tigers will play Alabama at 4 p.m. CST on Sunday in Neville Arena for the team’s annual Alumni Weekend game.

Aicha Coulibaly is back from her knee injury and is averaging 16.9 points per game, which ranks fifth in the league. She is still working on getting back to 100 percent physically and the same is true with the team’s second-leading scorer, Honesty Scott-Grayson (15.8?points per game), who has missed the previous two games due to injuries to her ribs and ankle. She is questionable for tonight’s game, but she made the trip to Columbia. There is a good chance she will be available for Sunday’s game vs. Alabama.

In gymnastics:

*On the subject of injuries to ribs, returning All-American gymnast Sophia Groth cracked one of her ribs in the intrasquad exhibition during warmups for the bars event. However, she is expected to compete on Saturday night in Las Vegas in the season-opening Super 16 event at Orleans Arena. The competition will be televised on the Big Ten Network at 8 p.m. CST.

Auburn, which finished fourth at the 2022 NCAA Championships, is ranked fifth in the coaches preseason poll. The Tigers will face defending national champion and preseason No. 1 Oklahoma along with No. 4 Michigan and No. 10 UCLA. Coach Jeff Graba notes that interest in his sport continues to grow and it is a nice honor for the program to be invited to the Super 16 event. While it would be a good thing for his Tigers to do well in Las Vegas the coach notes the important thing is to be a team that steadily improves and is performing well in the postseason in the spring

19COMMENTS

* Graba said that with sophomore Suni Lee planning to compete in the USA trials for the 2024 Paris Olympics that she will be doing skills in college meets that will be part of her training for international competition, which she will resume after the 2023 collegiate season ends. The Auburn coach noted that he and Suni’s coach (his twin brother, Jess) are working together to give the defending Olympic champion the best plan for being ready to win more medals in 2024.

A perfect score is 10.0 in an event that features skills that college  judges can award a perfect 10 based on difficulty. Graba said that Lee will be doing skills worthy of an 11.0 score with a perfect performance.

">247Sports

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Auburn lands walk-on quarterback John Colvin

JD McCarthy

1–2 minutes

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Hugh Freeze and Co. are working to replenish the depth on Auburn’s roster and on Wednesday they landed a quarterback who will do just that.

John Colvin, a Birmingham, Alabama, native, announced his commitment to Auburn as a preferred walk-on at quarterback. Freeze extended the offer to him in December and he is officially a Tiger now.

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The 6-foot-3, 185-pounder has not reported any scholarship offers but has had a decorated high school career. He threw for 2,450 yards and 21 touchdowns and led Mountain Book High School to the 6A state title game as a senior. He finished his high school career with a 25-5 record, completing 65% of his passes for 4,350 yards and 50 touchdowns.

He is the second quarterback for Auburn to land in the 2023 recruiting cycle, three-star Hank Brown signed with Auburn during the early signing period.

The addition of Brown and Colvin helps keep the depth of Auburn’s quarterback room healthy after Zach Calzada and Trey Lindsey both entered the transfer portal.

[aubiefifty 18,253]

Auburn football adds walk-on WR/KR Will Upton

Lance Dawe

~2 minutes

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Upton eclipsed 1,000 yards receiving during his senior season at Jackson Prep.

Auburn has added preferred walk-on Will Upton to its roster.

Upton, a kicker/wide receiver, played at Jackson Prep High School in Jackson, Mississippi. This season Upton accumulated 1,071 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns, both of which led the 12-1 Patriots. He averaged 18.8 yards per catch. He also had 30 yards on eight carries.

The 5-foot-9, 165-pound receiver should remind fans of former walk-on WR/KR Will Hastings, who while slightly larger than Upton was an important part of Auburn's 2017 receiving core.

Auburn needs more depth in their receiving core, and a quick slot option like Upton could work his way up the depth chart like Hastings did.

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Auburn visit makes big impression on Georgia State transfer wide receiver

Jason Caldwell

~4 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama—A talented and productive receiver that played his high school football just down the road at Troup County High in Georgia before starring at Georgia State the last four seasons, Jamari Thrash is a player the Auburn Tigers have targeted from the transfer portal and he’s currently on campus visiting what Tigers.

Listed at 6-0, 180, Thrash has put up monster numbers for the Panthers in his four seasons in Atlanta with 104 receptions for 1,752 yards and 12 touchdowns. His best season came last year when Thrash caught 61 passes for 1,122 yards and seven touchdowns to lead the team.

A first-team all-state performer as a senior while catching passes from former Auburn and current UCF receiver Kobe Hudson, Thrash caught nearly 100 passes in his final two years at Troup County with 28 touchdowns.

New Auburn wide receiver coach Marcus Davis and the Tigers are looking to add a veteran presence to a room that needs productive help immediately in year one under Hugh Freeze. Thrash is a player that could deliver that type of ability right out of the gate in Philip Montgomery's system.

"I was really highly impressed with the new facility and talking with coach Freeze and coach Davis," Thrash said. "They really showed me I was going to be a point of emphasis in the recruiting process. Auburn really made a nice impression on me today."

Planning a second visit this weekend before sitting down and making a decision this weekend, Thrash said he's basically down to just two schools and it's all because of what Auburn showed him on Thursday.

"I'm going somewhere this weekend," he said. "I really already had my mind made up where I was going, but today made a big impact on me. It's going to be a long car ride home."

One of the biggest things for Thrash was getting to sit down with Davis and get a feel for what the new wide receiver coach is all about.

"I feel like he's a unique coach," Thrash said. "He's still a young guy, so I feel like I could relate to him a lot more. He's from Florida and my dad is from Florida, so I get along with Florida people good. I like his personality. He brings a lot of juice during the meeting room. I feel like I get a long with him pretty good."

Already very familiar with Auburn after making multiple visits during his high school career, Thrash knew Auburn went the Tigers were very run-heavy. With Freeze and Philip Montgomery running the show, he believes it's going to be a new day on the Plains.

"I actually did my research on coach Freeze and coach Montgomery," Thrash said. "Coach Montgomery was the head coach at Tulsa last year and I know they threw it around a lot, too. I'm really excited to see how things are going to be."

16COMMENTS

As to the question of what the quarterback position could look like for the Tigers, Thrash said the coaches told him all about it.

"I have to know who's getting me the ball," he said. "They told me about Robby (Ashford) and how he feels like he can polish Robby to the quarterback he can be. Last year Robby didn't have to throw the ball a whole lot, but obviously he probably will now. Coach Freeze has a lot of confidence in Robby and he talked highly about him in the meeting. I'm excited to see what happens in the future."

">247Sports

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[aubiefifty 18,253]

 

[aubiefifty 18,253]

this i thought many of you might find amusing of LSU sex parties.............

 

 

[Mikey 16,781]

2 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

In his first month on the job, he's doing things at Auburn that have not been done in quite some time. According to a tweet by Auburn Barstool, "Freeze has now had the same number of offensive tackles sign with him the past three weeks (four total) than auburn has had in total since 2017. Absurd."

What's absurd is Barstool's claim. I'll address this more fully in the recruiting forum, later. For now, I'll just say that the OL recruiting was bad enough without making up lies.