7.30.23 Football Articles

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ESPN lists Ron Roberts among most interesting coordinator hires

Daniel Locke

Sat, Jul 29, 2023, 12:00 PM CDT·1 min read

Auburn has a historic reputation as a strong defensive team. However, that was one of the many aspects of the team that struggled under Bryan Harsin.

Hugh Freeze wanted to hire a coordinator capable of lifting Auburn back to a high level of defensive play and is confident Ron Roberts is the man for the job.

Roberts previously served as the defensive coordinator of the Baylor Bears.

An article from ESPN by Adam Rittenberg discusses the most interesting coordinator hires in college football heading into the 2023 season and Roberts made the cut.

The article included quotes about Roberts that Freeze told ESPN’s Heather Dinch.

“The mad scientist,” Freeze said. “He truthfully is probably the most knowledgeable coordinator out there that has trained pretty much everybody in this conference right now that’s doing [the
system]. That was the value I was looking for.”

According to Freeze, Roberts is excited about improving the Auburn defense.

“The biggest challenge I have with Ron is, ‘Let’s don’t do everything in Year 1. Let’s just do what we can do,'” Freeze said. “But I love his maturity and his wisdom.”

Roberts will have his work cut out for him but seems excited about his journey on the Plains.

More Football!

Auburn Tigers Snapshot Profile: No. 30 Larry Nixon III

Auburn looks to flip another high-profile SEC commit during Big Cat Weekend

Auburn Tigers Snapshot Profile: No. 29 C.J. Johnson

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 Daniel on Twitter @DanielJLocke

Story originally appeared on Auburn Wire

Edited July 30, 2023 by aubiefifty

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yahoo.com

 

5-star receiver Perry Thompson reveals why he chose Auburn football, when he knew decision

Richard Silva, Montgomery Advertiser

3–4 minutes

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AUBURN — The latest Auburn football commit says he knew what decision he'd make about a month ago.

Five-star wide receiver Perry Thompson flipped from Alabama and to the Tigers at Big Cat Weekend on Saturday, giving coach Hugh Freeze his second five-star commit in four days, as coveted linebacker prospect Demarcus Riddick backed off his pledge to Georgia in favor of Auburn on Wednesday.

Prior to Riddick's announcement, the Tigers hadn't had a five-star commitment since Owen Pappoe in 2019. And as receivers go, Auburn hadn't had a composite five-star player since Ben Obomanu in 2002.

"Really just the legacy I can make," Thompson said Saturday when asked why he chose the Tigers. "We can be back there, running the SEC (like) the Cam Newton era when he came through. I feel like we can bring that back with our '24 class."

MEASURING STICK: What does success look like in Year 1 for Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze?

RECRUITING: 4-star receiver Malcolm Simmons commits to Auburn football at Big Cat Weekend 2023

Thompson, who had been committed to Alabama since June 2022, said coach Nick Saban reached out to him Thursday in an attempt to convince him to take a trip to Tuscaloosa for a recruiting barbecue instead of going to the Plains for Big Cat.

"He was trying to get me over there to their little cookout thing and I told him I was heading up to Auburn," Thompson said. "He respected it."

Entering his senior season at Foley High School near Mobile — the alma mater of Alabama legend and NFL superstar Julio Jones — Thompson said carving his own path played into his decision: "The Julio Jones (thing), it's not a bad comparison, but at the same time I just want to be Perry Thompson."

"I watched some film at Liberty and we sat down and he talked me through some of the plays that they run," Thompson said of Freeze's offensive system. "A lot of one-on-one matchups. Just you and the cornerback, make plays and score touchdowns."

 

Five-star wide receiver Perry Thompson from Foley High School at the Woltosz Football Performance Center in Auburn, Alabama.

 

Asked about the future of his recruitment, and if he was ready to shut things down, Thompson said he was "pretty much" done and that he would "probably not" be taking any visits to other schools before signing with the Tigers in December; he plans to be an early enrollee. He said the odds of him signing with Auburn are "100%."

Thompson added that wide receivers coach Marcus Davis and director of recruiting relations Trovon Reed were two members of AU's staff who played a big role in his recruitment, saying the latter is like an uncle: "Just that family feeling."

"When I get up here just know, we're going to change Auburn around and get them back to how they was," Thompson said.

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Perry Thompson: 5-star receiver breaks down Auburn football decision

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si.com

Auburn offensive line target DeAndre Carter could start early in his career

Andrew Stefaniak

~3 minutes

DeAndre Carter could "start as a freshman" at Auburn.

Auburn is in the mix for four-star offensive lineman DeAndre Carter who is ranked as the number one interior offensive lineman in the 2024 class according to 247Sports. 

Carter is currently on the Plains for Big Cat Weekend, and the feel is the Tigers have a real shot at landing him. 

Locked On recruiting expert, Brian Smith joined the Locked On Auburn Podcast to discuss the recruitment of Carter.

Here is what Smith had to say, "Getting a Los Angeles kid to go to Auburn is not an easy task, especially with his offer list because it's basically a whose who. Again it's kind of like Riddick; he wants to call Alabama; he can do that. He wants to go to Texas; he can do that. This would be huge for Auburn, and they need O-Lineman we talk about that all the time. Plug and play, in my opinion. Tackle in the SEC is another animal he has to prove it to me, but I think he could start at Auburn as a freshman on the interior."

If Auburn were to land Carter, he would be the best offensive line recruit we have seen on the Plains in a long time.

The addition of Carter would boost this 2024 Auburn recruiting class up the rankings. 

Other Articles

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al.com

 

A brief history of 5-star flips between Alabama & Auburn

Updated: Jul. 29, 2023, 9:25 p.m.|Published: Jul. 29, 2023, 7:48 p.m.

6–7 minutes

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Foley High School wide receiver star Perry Thompson flipping his verbal commitment from Alabama to Auburn on Saturday was nearly unprecedented in the modern era of football recruiting in this state.

“Nearly” is the operative word in the previous sentence.

Still, a 5-star recruit — particularly one from inside the state — making a move like Thompson’s is very rare.

Our sense of history compels us to note that there are still almost five months between now and the beginning of the early signing period for the Class of 2024, meaning Thompson could always flip back, or sign with another school entirely. However, it’s still a worthwhile exercise to walk through the brief history recruits flipping between Alabama and Auburn over the years.

But first, a few caveats ...

This list will not include such high-profile recruits — both of yesteryear and more recent times — such as Auburn’s Bo Jackson or Alabama’s Rashaan Evans, whom many assumed would end up at one school, but then signed with the other. Jackson and Evans (among others) stuck with their original public commitments, surprising and/or controversial though they might have seemed at the time.

We’re also going to stick to true “5-star” prospects of the modern, internet-based era of recruiting, which for purposes of this study are from 1999 onward. So this list won’t include the tales of Richard Todd (1971), Terrill Chatman (1986) or Sam Shade (1991), all good-to-great players who originally committed to Auburn but wound up at Alabama.

Another “exception” here is Corey Grant, an Opelika High School running back who signed with Alabama in 2011 before transferring to Auburn in 2013. He’s the lone notable player of the modern era to play at both schools, but alas, he was “only” a four-star recruit.

We’re really talking about three 5-star recruits — in three consecutive years a decade ago — who have pulled off an “in-state flip” prior to Thompson. Here’s that list:

Cyrus Kouandjio, a 5-star offensive tackle at DeMatha Catholic School in Hyattsville, Md., originally committed to Auburn in 2011 before later signing with Alabama. (Birmingham News file photo by John McDonnell)bn

1. Cyrus Kouandjio (Class of 2011)

Kouandjio, a 5-star offensive tackle from DeMatha Catholic School in Hyattsville, Md., shocked the world when he committed to Auburn during a nationally televised announcement on National Signing Day in February 2011. Kouandjio’s older brother, Arie, was then a freshman at Alabama, after all, so it seemed like a fait accompli that Cyrus would follow him to Tuscaloosa. Cyrus never sent his Letter of Intent to Auburn, however, and huddled with his family for a day or so before changing his mind and signing with the Crimson Tide. Kouandjio was a two-year starter at left tackle for Alabama — with Arie playing next to him at left guard in 2013, when Cyrus was a first-team All-American. He left school after his junior year and was a second-round pick of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, playing five years in the league with three teams.

T.J. Yeldon, a 5-star running back at Daphne High School, committed to Auburn before flipping to Alabama just before the NCAA-mandated dead period began in December 2011. (Press-Register file photo by John David Mercer)MO

2. T.J. Yeldon (Class of 2012)

A 5-star running back, Yeldon committed to Auburn during the summer before his senior year at Daphne High School. He flipped to Alabama that December, however, with the timing particularly painful for Tigers fans. Yeldon made his announcement via a three-paragraph statement on a Sunday night, mere hours before the start of the NCAA-mandated recruiting dead period. Because Yeldon was an early enrollee, Auburn’s coaches had no opportunity to try to win him back before he was already a student at Alabama (by which time it was too late). Yeldon went on to be a three-year contributor for the Crimson Tide, won a national championship as a freshman and was a first-team All-SEC pick as a sophomore. He left Alabama after his junior year and was a second-round pick of the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, and played six years in the league.

Auburn High School linebacker Reuben Foster (2) is shown during a 2012 playoff game vs. McGill-Toolen. Foster flipped twice during the recruiting process, from Alabama to Auburn and then back to Alabama. (AL.com file photo by Scott Donaldson)MO

3. Reuben Foster (Class of 2013)

Foster’s saga had more twists and turns than a telenovela. Originally from Columbus, Ga., he committed to Alabama during his sophomore year of high school. Foster moved across the state line to Auburn High School for his junior year, and flipped his college commitment to Auburn in June 2012. It was revealed around that time that Foster had the Auburn logo tattooed on his arm, seemingly all the proof anyone needed that the 5-star linebacker intended to sign with the Tigers during his senior year. But nothing is ever certain in recruiting, and Foster flipped again — this time to Alabama — on the Monday before National Signing Day. Foster was a four-year contributor for the Crimson Tide, won a national championship as a junior and was a unanimous All-American who won the Butkus Award as the top linebacker in the country as a senior in 2016. He was a first-round pick of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in 2017, but off-field issues and injuries troubled him during his four years in the league. He most recently played in the USFL.

So it’s a short list to which Perry Thompson added his name on Saturday. He’s permanently burned his named into the ever-smoldering rivalry between Alabama and Auburn.

Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has written about college football and other sports for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at cstephenson@al.com or follow him on Twitter at @CregStephenson.

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al.com

Auburn football gets commitment from local 4-star athlete Malcolm Simmons

Updated: Jul. 29, 2023, 4:23 p.m.|Published: Jul. 29, 2023, 1:07 p.m.

2–3 minutes

5-star LB Demarcus Riddick on committing to Auburn; Why Tigers over Bama/Georgia

When Bryan Harsin was at the helm of the Auburn football program, local high school football coaches never felt like a priority in terms of recruiting. Auburn-area prospects were often overlooked by their hometown team.

Now, with Hugh Freeze piloting the Tigers, that’s changed.

Given his previous experience in the SEC, Freeze understands the importance of winning the recruiting battles in his backyard before venturing out around the country. As such, earning the commitment of Alexander City athlete Malcolm Simmons was a priority for Auburn during its Big Cat Weekend.

Fortunately for Freeze and the Tigers, the time and effort into Simmons’ recruitment paid off as the Benjamin Russell School standout took to Instagram to announce his commitment to Auburn on Saturday afternoon.

Auburn fended off the likes of Arkansas, Troy, West Virginia and Georgia Tech to secure the commitment of Simmons, who started trending towards the Tigers earlier this week.

Simmons, who also competes in track and field ad Benjamin Russell, was the Wildcats leading rusher last fall with 753 yards and 11 touchdowns. Simmons also tallied more than 500 receiving yards and seven touchdowns during his junior campaign.

With 18 total touchdowns in 2022, Simmons was his team’s top scoring threat while also notching an interception on defense.

Simmons, who comes in at 6-foot and 165-pounds, ranks as the No. 365 overall player in the 247Sports composite rankings.

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al.com

Former Auburn football player's wife accused of plotting to kill him

Updated: Jul. 29, 2023, 6:14 p.m.|Published: Jul. 29, 2023, 6:11 p.m.

1–2 minutes

By

Savannah Tryens-Fernandes | stryens-fernandes@al.com

The wife of a former Auburn football player was charged with plotting to kill her estranged husband in a Bahamian court.

According to Bahamas Court News, Lindsay Shiver, 36, conspired to kill her husband, Robert Shiver, in a plot that also included 28-year-old Terrance Bethel, who is reported to be her lover, and 29-year-old Faron Newbold. Both men were also charged in the unsuccessful attempt.

While investigating a break-in at a bar in Guana Cay, police reportedly found WhatsApp messages on a suspect’s phone detailing the murder plot.

Robert Shiver played long snapper at Auburn from 2006-2008 and is a native of Thomasville, GA. The two reportedly met at the university, where Lindsay Shiver was a cheerleader.

The three suspects, who have not yet entered a plea, will return to court on Oct. 5.

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al.com

Bruce Pearl sums up Hugh Freeze’s Auburn recruiting haul with 2 words

Published: Jul. 29, 2023, 6:33 p.m.

~2 minutes

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl welcomes former Auburn Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton to the student section during the Tigers' game on Saturday against No. 2 Georgia.

How big a week has Hugh Freeze had on the recruiting trail?

Well, while the Auburn football coach was being thrown in the pool by recruits in celebration of Perry Thompson’s flip, Bruce Pearl showed some love on social media after the news break.

In fact, the Auburn basketball coach summed up the success with a two-word tweet: “It’s Freezing!”

On Saturday, the Thompson wide receiver switched from Alabama to Auburn.

Thompson, who had been committed to Alabama since June of 2022, flipped on Saturday. Malcolm Simmons, a four-star athlete out of Benjamin Russell in Alexander City, announced on Saturday as well.

Then, of course, on Wednesday, 5-star linebacker Demarcus Riddick committed on Wednesday.

Pearl has always been one to show support for other sports on the Plains. In June of 2022, he showed his support for the baseball team. Who could forget in 2021 when he went shirtless in the student section for a football game? Cam Newton was with him.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

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al.com

Auburn professor, deans agree to dismiss suit on athletic department 'abuses'

Updated: Jul. 28, 2023, 7:59 p.m.|Published: Jul. 28, 2023, 7:58 p.m.

4–5 minutes

Education

Auburn professor dismisses suit claiming title stripped for speaking on athletic department ‘abuses’

By

Howard Koplowitz | hkoplowitz@al.com

An Auburn University professor and the two deans he accused in a federal lawsuit of helping strip him from his role as graduate program officer of the Economics Department for speaking out on the unusually high number of football players in the school’s public administration program have mutually agreed to dismiss the suit.

U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze dismissed Professor Alan Seals’ lawsuit against Deans Joseph Aistrup and Jason Hicks on Thursday without prejudice, meaning Seals cannot refile the lawsuit that claimed retaliation and conspiracy to violate Seals’ civil rights.

Seals filed the lawsuit in federal court in Montgomery in June 2019, alleging he was a source on a Wall Street Journal story published in 2015 that reported about half of students majoring in public administration at Auburn played sports, including nearly all the top players on the football team, in 2013. The story quoted an email where an unnamed official wrote that “If the public administration program is eliminated, the [graduation success rate] numbers for our student-athletes will likely decline.”

The professor participated in the story a year after John Urschel, a mathematician and former NFL offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, conducted an analysis that determined the chances that 23 of 43 upperclassmen football players were public administration majors while only 88 total upperclassmen at the entire university had that major were “about one in three undecillion.”

“For those of you not familiar with your large numbers past trillion, that is a digit 3 followed by thirty-six zeros!” Urschel wrote in a post published in The Players’ Tribune. “Yes, 1 in 3,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s roughly equivalent to you flipping a coin and landing on heads 125 times in a row.”

Seals was also a source for an Alabama Gazette story published in November 2015 titled “All the Speaker’s Men and the Collapse of AU Athletics,” according to his suit.

The economics professor, who remains at Auburn, said he also protested the school’s “ongoing actions,” which he said included “the explicit offer of Athletics Department money to fund the troubled [public administration] program and pay professors’ salaries” in late 2015 and early 2016.

The protest included “a picture of then-Provost Timothy Boosinger next to a picture of Joseph Stalin and a photo of Dean Aistrup arm-in-arm with then-Athletic Director Jay Jacobs which first appeared on the Dean’s twitter account.”

Seals claimed he was stripped of his position of graduate program officer of the Economics Department and had his benefits and compensation reduced.

“The Plaintiff’s constitutionally-protected speech regarded matters of public concern made as a private citizen, specifically, abuses in the Athletics Department, as set out in articles participated in or generated by Plaintiff in the Wall Street Journal, Chronicle of Higher Education, the Alabama Gazette, as well as his office door collage,” Seals’ lawsuit stated. “Said speech played a substantial part in Defendants’ decision to discharge the Plaintiff as the Economics Department’s Graduate Program Officer.”

Seals was not the only Auburn University professor to file a lawsuit over the scandal.

Michael Stern, an Auburn economics professor, alleged he was unfairly targeted after he complained about the high concentration of athletes in the school’s public administration program.

An Alabama jury awarded Stern $645,837 in damages in November, finding after a two-week trial that Stern’s former dean illegally punished him for speaking out. The jury did not agree with similar complaints against other university officials named as defendants.

Stern is also still a professor at the university.

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al.com

Iron Bowl recruiting: The Alabama fallout of Auburn landing 5-star Demarcus Riddick

Updated: Jul. 27, 2023, 8:47 a.m.|Published: Jul. 26, 2023, 4:58 p.m.

5–6 minutes

In February of 2022, an Auburn target and then-junior walked through his high school as friends, teammates and even a teacher approached him about the Bryan Harsin rumors.

Twitter exploded and the controversy buzzed the 2024 prospect’s phone. Was he still interested in the Tigers, an in-state school he’d always considered growing up? An Auburn coach had been on campus the week prior and left a good impression, now the same player was getting flooded with false information. The ordeal played out across the state with multiple recruits and coaches considering the recruiting harm the previous regime had done to Auburn football.

When Hugh Freeze was hired in November, he hoped Nick Saban and Alabama would be “a little nervous” about his appointment. He’s repeated since it would take time to build up to the Tide’s standard. Wednesday’s news should help.

Chilton County linebacker Demarcus Riddick became the first five-star to pick Auburn since Owen Pappoe, who committed in 2019. Perhaps even more impressively for Freeze and his new staff, they flipped Riddick from one rival, Georgia, and kept him away from another in Saban and co.

Alabama has proven it can prioritize local recruiting when needed. Of the top 125 prospects from the Yellowhammer state in the last five years, according to 247Sports rankings, 32 have headed to Tuscaloosa. In that same grouping, 17 chose the Plains.

But now with Riddick and with Foley’s Perry Thompson, another UA commit with strong links to Auburn, there may be a “new day” for the Tigers and a readjustment for the Tide. Among the committed top 25 rising seniors, Auburn has six players to Alabama’s four: Thompson, Jaylen Mbakwe, Jeremiah Beaman and Sterling Dixon.

“It feels like home being there. I love the coaching staff, love the coaches,” Riddick said after his announcement. “ ... See Bama, I love the school. I love the coaches there. I have a great, great relationship with the coaches. But It just didn’t feel like home there. I didn’t feel like that was going to be for me.

“Freeze is a good coach, he’s gonna be there. He’s a family guy. That’s one thing I like about him. Saban is too, but it’s just something different with Coach Freeze.”

Two coaches at premier high school programs told AL.com before Freeze’s arrival it’d take Auburn about three to five years — with a good coach — to get it right. Analysts had a different tone seven months later with one calling Riddick’s choice potentially the first domino.

“For Auburn to get Riddick’s commitment over Alabama, who usually grabs the top in-state talent year in and year out? It would be huge,” said Dexter Tolbert, a recruiting consultant and writer.

During Auburn’s strong finish last fall — a huge credit to Cadilliac Williams, himself a key in-state recruiter and legend —, Freeze made a statement with the flip of Keldric Faulk from Florida State and a flurry of transfer portal additions. Riddick is another massive piece. Just consider that in April, Riddick accompanied Saban to Denny Chimes for the A-Day captain ceremony and then rode back with the seven-time champ before the spring game.

“I think (Riddick) fits the description of an Auburn linebacker and a fit for the culture,” Tre Hall of Hall-Tech Sports said, “... A Sunday-type player.”

Freeze has made it a point to be seen early and often. Regardless if it’ll result in more talents like Riddick, that’s a decisive improvement from his predecessor and a potential change to the one-sided nature of the Iron Bowl recruiting rivalry.

When more than a hundred head coaches were in town for a convention during last winter’s Super 7s, played at Jordan-Hare Stadium, Freeze surprised staffers at a dinner at Baumhower’s Victory Grille. He made a strong impression, but Loachapoka assistant Travis Carswell nervously approached Freeze.

Carswell had a player, three-star JC Hart, who had committed prior to Freeze’s arrival and Carswell was unsure about his future with the Tigers under the new staff. Yet, when Carswell mentioned his role at Loachapoka, withholding Hart’s name at first, Freeze’s eyes lit up. He immediately asked how Hart was, Carswell recalled.

“I gotta get down (to Loachapoka),” Freeze told Carswell. Soon enough, he did.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at NAlvarez@al.com.

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Turd fans after losing Thompson.............