4/22/23 Football Articles

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

 

ESPN FPI: Ranking Auburn's 2023 opponents from easiest to hardest

Taylor Jones

3–4 minutes

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The early Football Power Index rankings from ESPN have just been released, and one thing is for certain… the Auburn Tigers will face a challenging schedule.

That fact is nothing new, as the Tigers compete in arguably the toughest division in college football, the SEC West. Not only that, but Auburn has the luxury of playing the two-time defending College Football Playoff national champion, Georgia, every season.

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According to FPI data, Auburn is projected to go 5-7 in Hugh Freeze’s first season. But, of course, the projection could change drastically, as the initial rankings were released during the spring transfer portal window.

How realistic is a 5-7 record for Auburn in 2023? The schedule certainly has its difficulties, but most of Auburn’s hardest games will be at home. The Tigers will face five teams in the FPI top 25. Out of those games, Auburn will face three (Alabama, Georgia, and Ole Miss) at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

This early on, it is hard to accurately predict what the story of the 2023 Auburn Tigers will be. However, we can make assumptions about how challenging each game will be.

Here’s a look at Auburn’s opponents for the 2023 slate, organized by ESPN FPI ranking.

Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Sept. 16
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI Ranking: N/A

Tallahassee Democrat

• Date: Saturday, Sept. 2
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 133

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Nov. 18
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 130

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Nov. 4
• Location: FirstBank Stadium (Nashville, Tennessee)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 73

Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Sept. 9
• Location: California Memorial Stadium (Berkeley, California)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 51

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 28
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 32

Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Nov. 11
• Location: Reynolds Razorback Stadium (Fayetteville, Arkansas)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 30

For more Arkansas news, check out Razorbacks Wire.

Maria Lysaker-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Sept. 30
• Location: Kyle Field (College Station, Texas)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 19

For more Texas A&M news, check out Aggies Wire.

Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 21
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 16

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Oct. 14
• Location: Tiger Stadium (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 4

For more LSU news, check out LSU Wire.

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

• Date: Saturday, Sept. 30
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 3

For more Georgia news, check out UGA Wire.

Tuscaloosa News

• Date: Saturday, Nov. 25
• Location: Jordan-Hare Stadium (Auburn, Alabama)
• ESPN FPI ranking: No. 2

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247sports.com

 

Liberty edge rusher Stephen Sings enters the transfer portal

Cameron Salerno

3–4 minutes

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Liberty edge rusher Stephen Sings officially put his name into the NCAA transfer portal on Friday, 247Sports learned. In his collegiate career, Sings has 48 tackles, 9.5 tackles for a loss and seven sacks in his career. Sings played under former Liberty coach Hugh Freeze before he departed this past offseason to take the head job at Auburn.

A former three-star recruit in the 2020 recruiting cycle out if Charlotte (NC) Julius L. Chambers, Sings committed to Liberty over Virginia Tech, Auburn, Colorado, East Carolina, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Syracuse, UCF and more. Sings was ranked as the No. 49 wide edge rusher and the No. 33 player from the state of North Carolina in his class. He’s expected to be one of the top players at his position available in the portal during the late window.

Auburn went 5-7 overall last season, the worst record the Tigers program experienced in nearly a decade. Freeze previously coached in the SEC at Ole Miss from 2012-16 and spent the previous four seasons turning around the program at Liberty. Given that Sings already has a history with Auburn and Freeze, one could speculate the Tigers will be a team to watch as his recruitment moves forward. 

The 2022-23 cycle for the NCAA transfer portal is unlike any yet seen, with a spring window of April 15-30 for FBS athletes. Eligible players to enter before the window include FCS players, grad transfers, and those whose head coaches were fired.

The NCAA introduced the transfer portal Oct. 15, 2018, providing athletes a path to explore their options. Players do not need to ask permission from their coaching staff in order to transfer. They merely need to request that compliance enter their name. Usually, it takes 24-48 hours for a player to appear following their request. Schools are free to contact a player without restriction once their name appears in the portal.

While a player entering their name in the transfer portal means they intend to explore their options, it does not necessarily mean they will leave. A player is free to withdraw his name at any time. However, schools are under no obligation to keep a player on scholarship once they enter the portal.

There were 3,083 FBS players to enter the transfer portal during the 2021-22 transfer cycle, sources said. That is up from 2,646 in 2021-20, 1,692 in 2019-20 and 1,717 in 2018-19.

Get the fastest scores, stats, news, LIVE videos, and more. CLICK HERE to download the CBS Sports Mobile App and get the latest on your team today.

That whopping increase can be credited to the NCAA's new policy that student-athletes are allowed to transfer once in their careers without having to sit out a year-in-residence. That means all players who enter the transfer portal for the first time will be immediately eligible at their new school as long as they meet a NCAA-mandated entry deadline.

">247Sports

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What the hell?

 

al.com

Auburn football has the fastest shrinking fanbase in the nation

Published: Apr. 22, 2023, 8:00 a.m.

3–4 minutes

News

Auburn football has the fastest shrinking fanbase in the nation, sports marketing data shows

By

Ramsey Archibald | rarchibald@al.com

The Auburn Tigers are losing fans faster than any college football team in the nation.

Recently released data from the sports marketing firm SBRnet and analyzed by the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University and AL.com show the Tigers saw their football fanbase cut nearly in half in just one year - a huge decline for a team that was among the top 14 most popular schools in 2021.

Overall, SBRnet shows Auburn lost nearly 950,000 football fans between 2021 and 2022, a 47% decrease. Both figures led the nation.

RELATED: Alabama football loses fans, falls outside top 5 on national list of most popular teams

2022 was a tumultuous year for Auburn’s football team - the Tigers finished 5-7, their worst record in a decade, and fired Head Coach Bryan Harsin in the middle of the season.

Some other traditionally proud fanbases also found themselves near the top of the list. The University of Iowa saw the second fastest year-over-year decrease - the Hawkeyes saw a 42% decline. Florida (-26%), Notre Dame (-25%) and Texas (-22%) were also among the 10 fastest shrinking fanbases.

[Can’t see the list? Click here.]

In terms of total fans lost, Notre Dame was just behind Auburn, losing more than 860,000 total fans in one year. Third on the list? None other than Auburn’s in-state rival, the University of Alabama. Alabama lost nearly 700,000 fans from 2021 to 2022, knocking the Crimson Tide out of the top 5 most popular teams in the nation.

The Tide landed at No. 6 in 2022. Auburn, meanwhile, fell to No. 34 in the nation.

Some 885,000 of the nearly 1.1 million people who claimed Auburn as their favorite team in 2022 were from the South, but even among Southern football fans, Auburn was relatively far down the list of favorite teams. The Tigers ranked No. 24 in the South, behind several other SEC (or soon-to-be SEC) teams, but also a handful of notable non-SEC teams.

Eight non-SEC teams were more popular than Auburn in the Southern U.S. in 2022: Florida State, Duke, Ohio State, North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Clemson and Georgia Tech.

AL.com in partnership with the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University conducted an analysis of college football fans. All analysis is based on a nationwide survey of 6,330 sports fans in the U.S. conducted in January, 2023 by marketing research firm SBRnet.

Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Or questions about Alabama that data may be able to answer? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.

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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si.com

 

QB Bishop Davenport enters the transfer portal and has Auburn ties.

Matthew Jacobs

~3 minutes

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Auburn’s offensive coordinator has already recruited him once.

Bishop Davenport, a six-foot-two 180-pound dual-threat quarterback out of Spring, Texas, has entered the transfer portal. Davenport, who will be a sophomore in 2023, is out of the Utah State Aggies program. The Aggies are having what seems to be a mass exodus from their football program.

Davenport is a former 3-star prospect who was the Texas District 14-6A MVP in 2020 and 2021. He was heavily recruited by and built a strong relationship with Auburn’s offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery. Montgomery tried his best to land Davenport while he was head coach at Tulsa. To no avail.

Davenport took over for the Aggies in the last two games of the season and their bowl game. He went 27 of 44 for 245 yards and a couple of touchdowns with a 62% completion average. He also added in 30 rushes for 60 yards and two touchdowns, those numbers look a little off because he had some sacks behind an atrocious offensive line. Auburn fans can understand that view. He is an interesting quarterback who will likely end up at a Power 5 school. He would be an interesting fit at Auburn as well. He has played in a similar offense throughout high school and college. I am not sure if Auburn takes a swing at getting this young man, but he would be the “perfect” second portal guy if they wanted to go that route. And one that the coaches are familiar with. 

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Saturday smorgasbord

ByJason Caldwell 40 minutes ago

• I’m not a big fan of making changes to a sport that didn’t need to be changed. Yes, football games are longer, but the biggest culprit is the amount and length of commercials that slow the game down. Throw in reviews that last sometimes several minutes and there were ways to cut down the time of games without impacting the way the game is played. In the grand scheme of things, this won’t cost teams too many plays, but what it will allow is for some teams to play slower and potentially shorten games in a hurry. If you can run the football, you may be able to really impact the game and if you have a lead that could be an important strategy in college football moving forward.

 

• Speaking of football, I think the sport is in a really dangerous time at the moment because of the combination of the transfer portal and NIL. All you need to do is look at a move that was made a week ago to see everything that is wrong about college athletics at the moment. Bear Alexander played a good bit at Georgia on the defensive line and was in line to be a starter for the Bulldogs in year two. Instead, he entered the transfer portal. A player just left the two-time defending national champions while projected to be a starter on the defensive line, a place that Georgia is just reloading while sending players to the NFL. This one just sends up a red flag to me that nobody is safe and no roster is ever going to be set in stone as long as the rules remain as they are.

 

• On Friday night I saw true freshman make a play that I have never seen before. At first base with nobody out in the bottom of the eighth inning in a 1-1 game, Chris Stanfield tagged up on a popped up bunt attempt to the catcher and beat the throw to second. When the throw bounced away at second, he moved to third and scored on a sacrifice fly. It was the eventual game winner for the Tigers in a very important game. I asked the Auburn coaches if they had ever seen anything like that and they all responded with a no. The most interesting thing is that both Karl Nonemaker and Gabe Gross said they were focused on the catcher making the play while Stanfield did what he had been coached to do by going back to the bag. It was a huge play in what could turn out to be a huge game for the Tigers.

 

• Speaking of huge, that’s the case now with Auburn softball playing a doubleheader against Alabama on Saturday and another game on Sunday. That’s a lot of innings crammed into a short space for two teams that count so much on dominant pitchers. A clutch hit or two will likely be the difference in this short window of opportunity for the Tigers on the road.

 

• We are now into NFL Draft week and I’m excited to see what happens for the Auburn guys that are waiting to hear their names called. I don’t know where they will be drafted, but I’m confident that this group is going to be successful at the next level after everything they went through during their careers. Maybe the thing that showed me the most about them was the end of the year last year. Despite a coaching change during the season, not only did they not quit but they actually improved their play on the field down the stretch. That’s a sign of character and something that plenty of NFL teams still value.

[Gowebb11 9,878]

4 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

Yes, football games are longer, but the biggest culprit is the amount and length of commercials that slow the game down. Throw in reviews that last sometimes several minutes and there were ways to cut down the time of games without impacting the way the game is played.

I’m a fan of speeding all of these sports up. Baseball is much more enjoyable this year with 2.5 hour games instead of 3.5 hours. I believe football will benefit from shorter games as well. 

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24 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

I’m a fan of speeding all of these sports up. Baseball is much more enjoyable this year with 2.5 hour games instead of 3.5 hours. I believe football will benefit from shorter games as well. 

i agree! i am not sure i can go three hours without a nap...........grins

[Gowebb11 9,878]

23 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i agree! i am not sure i can go three hours without a nap...........grins

I only nap during ACC and Big 10 games. That way I’m fully alert (mostly) for the SEC contests. 😅

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NCAA approves rule changes to shorten college football games

• Published: Apr. 21, 2023, 2:28 p.m.

First down measuring tools and markers are on the field during an NFL football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)AP

NEW!

 

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By

• Mark Heim | mheim@al.com

The NCAA has approved three rule changes for the upcoming college football season in an effort to shorten games.

 

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel on Thursday approved rules changes for Divisions I and II intended to continue the “effort to control the flow of the game and encourage more consistent game management.”

 

The Football Rules Committee expects the adjustments will “modestly” reduce the number of plays in the game.

The rules:

1. No consecutive timeouts (Division III included)
2. The game clock will continue to run when a first down is gained.
3. The game clock will be stopped when a first down is gained during the last two minutes of either half.
4. Penalties at the end of the first and third quarter will carry over and be enforced on the first play of the next quarter. (Division III included)

Previously, the game clock stopped when a first down was gained, and the clock restarted when the offense was awarded a first down.

In the area of technology, teams will have the optional use of instant replay in games that do not have an instant replay booth official. Last season, the Division II Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association conducted a successful pilot program of this rule. This model allows the referee to use available video to make decisions on reviewable plays after a coach challenge.

 

 

[bigbird 60,940]

STUPID!

 

Want to shorten the game?

How about instead of expanding your 16 commercial breaks from 2:30 to 3:15, maybe shorten them from 2:30 to 1:45 and charge more. 

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18 minutes ago, bigbird said:

STUPID!

 

Want to shorten the game?

How about instead of expanding your 16 commercial breaks from 2:30 to 3:15, maybe shorten them from 2:30 to 1:45 and charge more. 

i was going to say that earlier. it has gotten bad to the point i do not watch a lot regular tv because they have gotten too greedy with commercials.

[AUwent 3,837]

51 minutes ago, bigbird said:

STUPID!

 

Want to shorten the game?

How about instead of expanding your 16 commercial breaks from 2:30 to 3:15, maybe shorten them from 2:30 to 1:45 and charge more. 

We all know that's the one thing they won't do. 🙄

Edited April 22, 2023 by AUwent

[ellitor 33,789]

Looks like I'm in the minority here on the 1st down clock thing but this is long overdue IMO, especially when you factor in it still stops for 1st downs the last 2 minutes of each half..