3/1/23 Auburn Football Articles

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'Intelligent' and 'tough' Johnson catching the eye of new OL coach Jake Thornton early in spring

Jason Caldwell

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AUBURN, Alabama—A player that put in the work behind the scenes his first two years on the Auburn campus, Tate Johnson finally got his shot to shine last season following the retirement of Nick Brahms. Winning the starting center job for the Tigers, the redshirt sophomore played in the first three games of the season before injuring his elbow in a win over Missouri in game four.

Coming back from surgery, Johnson has continued to grind in the weight room and it’s already paying dividends after just one spring practice under Hugh Freeze and new OL coach Jake Thornton. Working at guard on the first day, the 6-4, 295 junior earned praise from his new position coach for his attitude, effort and the work he put in on Monday.

“Tate is doing a great job,” Thornton said. “I thought yesterday he was one of the better ones on our team in practice. In the walk-throughs that we have talked about and had, he had played some right guard and played left guard yesterday. He’s got to know how to play all three of those middle spots.

“He’s intelligent. He’s tough. I believe he’s an Auburn man. He’s been through a lot of lows and a lot of highs here and come out on the other side. He had a really good day yesterday and I’m excited to watch him.”

Where he winds up playing is anyone’s guess at the moment. With Thornton wanting all of his offensive linemen to learn every position along the front, that means plenty of mixing and matching for guys throughout the spring. While Johnson isn’t the type of guy that is going to play tackle, he is going to have an opportunity to earn a starting job at one of the three interior positions as the competition heats up throughout the spring and carries over into August.

Thornton said so far the fourth-year junior is off to a good start as he looks to pick up where he left off last season.

“He’s a technician,” Thornton said. “He knows how to use his body. He’s not the biggest guy, but he uses his strengths and he capitalizes on what he’s good at. That’s something that’s fun to watch and he certainly adds a huge element to us right there in the middle of our O-line. Excited about his progression over the next 14 days and going into the season.”

Johnson was one of a big group of offensive lineman that stood out on day one, Thornton said. Having to learn a new offensive system, how to work with each other with eight new players on campus, and with a new position coach, he said the entire offensive line has done the right things to this point and that has him excited about their potential.

“I think everybody, collectively, had a good day effort-wise,” he said. “Everybody showed up for practice and they worked. They have been working really hard in the meetings. I can go through the entire 16 guys and I can point out something good they did. They have all been in and watched extra film on their own. Last night there were about eight of them that called me between eight and 11 o’clock and asked me questions. They were watching it on their computers.

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“They are excited about coming in for meetings. I can point out a bunch of different things that happened, but I believe all of them are in the right direction. As long as we have that mentality of getting better and stacking days, I think we’ll come out of spring; nobody in the country is going to where they want to be at the end of spring but I think we’ll be on our way to where we want to be after this spring practice is over with.”

Auburn returns to the practice field on Wednesday afternoon with the second of 15 scheduled practice days this spring.

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si.com

 

Cole Cubelic chimes in on upcoming Auburn quarterback battle

Andrew Stefaniak

4–5 minutes

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Former Auburn offensive lineman Cole Cubelic discusses his thoughts on the Auburn quarterback battle.

The Auburn quarterback battle is going to be the main talking point all the way until a starter is named before the season starts. 

Robby Ashford, TJ Finley, and Holden Geriner are using this spring practice window as an opportunity to show Hugh Freeze and the rest of the new staff why it should be them. 

Many Auburn fans hope the answer is not Finley, but after the first spring practice, it seems his name is in the running for this job more so than many would have imagined. 

On his podcast, The Cube Show, former Auburn offensive lineman, and current ESPN and SEC Network analyst Cole Cubelic shared his thoughts on the Auburn quarterback battle. 

Here is what he said: "What are some things that we are watching? Offense, let's start there. We know quarterback, right? Robby Ashford. You've got Hugh Freeze, you've got Philip Montgomery, you've got Kent Austin on this staff, so the development should be able to take place. TJ Finley still has a lot of experience; keep in mind TJ Finley's played a lot of football. He was forced into being a starter at LSU. Bo Nix goes down; he's a starter at Auburn. He got the start in the bowl game, so he's played in a post-season game. I think people forget sometimes that TJ Finley, even though it all hasn't been great, he's played a lot of football. I do think there may be some development left in TJ. Now he doesn't add the dynamic run ability that Robby does, but he's a guy that still could give you a veteran presence from a certain standpoint that's played a lot of ball that could potentially help you out. Maybe as a starter or maybe just as a backup who needs to come in and play at times on the roster. We've seen across college football you better have two that can play. I mean, hell, we're talking about Auburn. That's a perfect example of the last couple seasons."

"Holden Geriner is going to be there; I don't think you count him out. When I talked to Hugh Freeze a couple of weeks ago, he likes him. He likes his competitive nature. The kid goes out and works his a** off. Wants to try to be good. He wants to compete for the job. Hugh's going to let them all compete. Don't think that any of these quarterbacks are going to come into this situation and not have the opportunity to play. They absolutely will."

"But I want to go back to Robby for a moment. We mentioned it with TJ. Think about this with Robby, too; he played a lot last year. I mean, you got what a good three-quarters of a season as like the guy or whatever it was. Go back to this time a year ago. I had the Auburn spring game last year, so I met with Harsin. I went to practice a couple of times. I called the game. Richard Cross and I were there on the sideline talking to Harsin about Robby during the game. He was almost an afterthought right now going into spring ball. Then remember through spring ball, a little more discussion, little more discussion, little more discussion, and like midway through spring ball, it kind of got to like, oh, could we have a package for this guy? Then toward the end of spring ball, it was like, he's going to play. He came a long way in one spring. He didn't play a ton of football at Oregon. He missed the majority of his senior year at Hoover. That's one thing that Hugh and I talked about a little bit is the amount of development that's left in these Auburn quarterbacks. I think is way past what a lot of people believe."

The more people talk about it, the more it seems like this truly is a three-man race. 

It's going to be the talking point of spring and summer to find out who will sling it for the Auburn Tigers in 2023. 

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Auburn ramping up efforts to win over 2024 Crimson Tide recruit

River Wells

~2 minutes

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The Tigers currently have two recruits in the 2024 class, but Hugh Freeze and his staff have been actively working to lure another 2024 prospect from the team’s biggest rival.

Auburn Undercover’s Christian Clemente reported on Sunday (subscription required) that Auburn has been increasing its efforts to win the favor of 2024 edge rusher Sterling Dixon, who is currently committed to the Alabama Crimson Tide.

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Here is a little of what Dixon told Auburn Undercover about Freeze’s efforts:

“They’ve been calling pretty much every week, making sure that I feel like a priority and I really love them. I’ve been talking to Coach Freeze the most. He called me earlier, he’s a pretty cool guy and I mess with him.”

Dixon committed to Alabama on Dec. 1 of 2022, but that hasn’t stopped him from continuing to evaluate his options. He attended Alabama’s junior day on Jan. 14 of this year, but he also attended Auburn’s junior day on the 28th of that month, so his commitment to the Crimson Tide doesn’t appear to be unwavering. On top of that, the article stated that Dixon is primed to visit a few other schools such as Colorado and LSU.

As it stands, the Tigers currently have the No. 20-ranked recruiting class for 2024 with three recruits.

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