3/17/23 Football Articles

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How Hugh Freeze is retooling the offensive line at Auburn

Updated: Mar. 16, 2023, 3:59 p.m.|Published: Mar. 16, 2023, 1:58 p.m.

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Hugh Freeze recaps Auburn's first week of spring football practice

By

Nubyjas Wilborn | nwilborn@al.com

Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze, offensive line coach Jake Thornton, and assistant offensive line coach Kendall Simmons had the arduous task of quickly rebuilding a depleted offensive line room.

The trio saw an issue with an offensive line with seven returning players after Nick Brahms, Austin Troxell, Brandon Council, and Alec Jackson ran out of eligibility. Freeze likes to carry 16 offensive linemen. Auburn needed at least four capable starters and several incoming freshmen to develop depth.

Before the advent of the transfer portal, this would’ve been a particularly problematic scenario. With the transfer portal and lots of work in recruiting, the Tigers added Gunnar Britton (Western Kentucky), Dillion Wade (Tulsa), Avery Jones (East Carolina), and junior college lineman Izavion Miller.

Read More Auburn Football: Hugh Freeze chimes in on NCAA’s proposed changes to clock rules

Kickoff time, broadcast and ticket info set for Auburn’s A-Day game

Ben Aigamaua is optimistic about Auburn’s tight ends during spring football

Jeremiah Wright is the lone returning starter on the line. He believes that adding Wade, who played at Tulsa under former head coach and new Tigers’ offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, will help build teamwork since the center intimately knows what Montgomery does on offense.

“First of all, D-Wade is an incredible athlete, and I am enjoying getting to know him,” Wright said. “He helps us with the terminology and footwork. He’s been a blessing to our group.”

Tight ends coach Ben Aigamaua works closely with the offensive line since his tight ends also have several blocking responsibilities. He added some insight into the new recruiting philosophies in the transfer portal and NIL era.

“It’s very similar to the NFL, with the free agency and people moving everywhere,” Aigamaua said. “The terminology may differ, but the blocking scheme and the footwork may be the same. I think that’s where you’ve got to make sure that the guys that you recruit fit the mold of your program, fit the mold of your offense, so that when they do get here, it’s not, you know, you go from a pro-style type of run team to a spread, power type of run team, where you’ve got to make sure that the footwork all matches.”

Freeze remembers when college teams wanted offensive linemen to develop together as freshmen into playing by their sophomore or junior year. Winning teams had a constant rotation of developing big men who played in the trenches. Times are changing, and Freeze knows the portal means getting creative on finding quality pass protectors and run blockers.

“I think players by now if they’re realistic, they understand at this level (that) every year we’re trying to out-recruit you. Not many coaches will say that, but that’s the truth,” Freeze said. “You’ve got to compete every year to earn your time, and we’re going to try again next year to go find another even better one, But you still need all of them and forming them together when they’re competing for playing time and also trying to form a great team, that’s probably somewhat of a challenge for sure. But it’s something that we’re used to now.”

Nubyjas Wilborn covers Auburn for Alabama Media Group

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

 

Four-star WR Nick Marsh to visit Auburn

JD McCarthy

1–2 minutes

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Four-star Nick Marsh was committed to Michigan State for over seven months before reopening his recruitment on March 7 and Auburn has wasted no time getting involved with the wide receiver.

Wide receiver coach Marcus Davis offered him a scholarship on March 8 and Marsh has already scheduled a visit to the Plains. He told Allen Trieu of 247Sports that he will be visiting Auburn on March 24.

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Marsh is the No. 72 overall player and No. 12 wide receiver in the 247Sports Composite ranking. The River Rouge native is also the No. 3 player from Michigan.

Auburn is looking to land multiple wide receivers in the 2024 class and the 6-foot-3, 195-pounder is exactly the kind of impact receiver they need.

The Tigers have already landed commitments from four-star quarterback Walker White and four-star cornerbacks Jayden Lewis and A’Mon Lane.

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1. Auburn Football

Veteran coach believes Auburn’s Zac Etheridge a ‘rock star’ in the making

• Published: Mar. 16, 2023, 8:00 a.m.

AUBURN, AL - February 27, 2023 - Auburn Associate Head Coach & Safeties Coach Zac Etheridge during spring practice at the Woltosz Football Performance Center in Auburn, AL. Photo by Austin PerrymanAuburn University Athletics

 

 

 

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By

• Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Wesley McGriff has seen plenty in three-plus decades of coaching. It has taken him from small-time college ball to the NFL and multiple stints as an assistant in the SEC, with other stops along the way.

 

He only needed a fraction of that time — less than three months and just four full practices this spring — to see that fellow Auburn assistant Zac Etheridge has a bright future ahead of him in the business.

“Keep an eye on him, now,” McGriff said Tuesday. “He’s going to be rock star; he’s going to be a household name.”

Read more Auburn football: Wesley McGriff identifies three main goals for Auburn’s secondary this spring

Hugh Freeze chimes in on NCAA’s proposed changes to clock rules

kickoff time, broadcast and ticket info set for Auburn’s A-Day game

Etheridge has quickly made his mark in coaching circles in just a short time. The 34-year-old assistant is entering his third year coaching defensive backs at his alma mater after getting into coaching in 2012 as a graduate assistant at Penn State. In the years between, he served as a GA at Georgia Tech (2013-14), then as assistant at Western Carolina (2016-17), Louisiana (2018) and Houston (2019-20) before returning to the Plains as part of Bryan Harsin’s inaugural staff.

In 2021, he was selected to the AFCA’s 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute, a program aimed at identifying and developing premier, future leaders in the profession. Then last July he enjoyed a weeklong experience with the L.A. Chargers staff as part of the NFL’s Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, which serves as a potential pipeline to coaching opportunities in the NFL.

For now, at least, Etheridge is happy at Auburn, where he is adding another chapter to already-beloved story. A former four-year starter for the Tigers, Etheridge broke his neck during his junior season in 2009. Nine months later, he returned to the field and was a captain for Auburn during the 2010 national championship season. A little more than a decade later, he returned as an assistant coach and has garnered a reputation as Auburn’s best recruiter.

He was rated as a top-10 recruiter nationally for the 2023 cycle, according to 247Sports, and Rivals identified him as one of the top-10 up-and-coming recruiters in college football. Etheridge played a major hand in Auburn’s surge up the recruiting rankings late in the cycle, as helped the Tigers land 11 of their 2023 commits while finishing with the No. 17 ranked class nationally despite a late-season coaching change at the end of October.

 

 

“People always refer to him as a recruiter — and he does a great job recruiting — but that young man is also a great football coach,” McGriff said. “I’m closer to the end than I am the beginning, so I’m excited to go on this ride with him. But I’m also excited about watching his career down the road and watching where he’s going to go.”

So, what is it about Etheridge that stands out so much to McGriff, besides his ability to relate to younger players and his prowess as a recruiter? According to McGriff, it’s Etheridge’s knowledge of the game — particularly for someone who is still relatively young in the ranks — and ability to translate that to players on the field and in meeting rooms. He has a way about him with how he uses his football IQ to communicate techniques and schemes to players.

More than anything else, though, Etheridge is a people person who seems to genuinely care about his players, and that carries a lot of weight.

“He’s been blessed with a lot of qualities that are going to not only make him a good football coach but a great person,” McGriff said. “I’m telling you: His career is definitely going to take off, and Auburn is blessed to have him in the building, and I’m blessed to be around him. I’ve been doing this a long time, but when you have an opportunity to do it with a young man like that, chalk it up because it’s fun.”

 

 

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

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247sports.com

 

Auburn 'family' brings James back as key for Auburn defense

Jason Caldwell

3–4 minutes

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AUBURN, Alabama—Coming back closer to his home of Spanish Fort to play his junior season after playing three years for the Oregon Ducks, cornerback D.J. James had a big season for the Tigers in 2022, earning second-team All-SEC honors from the coaches and the Associated Press for his play.

At 6-1, 170 and with lockdown ability at cornerback, James was invited to play in the Senior Bowl in his hometown of Mobile after last season, but instead he decided to come back and play his final year on the Plains. Even with a coaching change and turnover within the program, James said for him the decision to come back came down to just the feelings he has built in a short time for Auburn.

“Auburn is a family,” he said. “This school is a family. They have treated me like family since I got recruited here. I trust Auburn. I feel like my best interest and the best situation for me was to come back to school for another year.”

Returning at cornerback along with veteran Nehemiah Prichett and second-year junior college transfer Keionte Scott, James is part of perhaps the most experienced and talented position on the Auburn roster in the first year under Hugh Freeze. Even with a new position coach in Wesley McGriff, having guys around him that he knows and trusts has made the transition an easy one, he said.

“It’s way more comfortable every day just knowing my teammates and knowing who I’m surrounded by and having that bond with them,” James said. “I can communicate with them after being with them for such a long time. Going through the season was great. We’re just all comfortable with each other right now.”

Ranked as one of the top coverage guys in the country by Pro Football Focus last season, James has no issues with the physical side of the game. Now he’s working on being a better all-around player. One of the ways he wants to accomplish that is by putting in more work off the field to help him and his teammates be ready when their number is called during the game.

That means work in the film room to get ready, something that McGriff said he’s demanding of his guys to make sure they understand what it takes to be successful.

“The players have to problem-solve,” McGriff said. “Because we can get on the grass, and we can show them in the classroom what it will look like, but of course, there are gonna be some different wrinkles that we can't show them. They're gonna have to problem-solve during the game. 

“That just leads to communication, being on the same page and having confidence. We want to make sure we're gauging their confidence every day. Because if they're very confident as a unit and as individuals, then we'll play at a high level.”

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That’s exactly what James said has been a priority for him to make him a better player and teammate.

“My goal is just to continue learning football,” he said. “You can never be too smart for the game of football. Just really learning and taking in everything all of the coaches have to tell me. They tell me certain stuff I need to do better and I just take that into account and try to get better each and every day.”

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