8.1.23 Football Articles

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

Perry Thompson has been recruiting hard since flipping to Auburn

Andrew Stefaniak

2–3 minutes

Auburn flipped five-star Alabama commit Perry Thompson during Big Cat Weekend, and since he has been recruiting others to join him.

We have seen Auburn quarterback commit Walker White doing this for a while, and now Thompson has joined him.

If I am a high school recruit and White and Thompson are in my ear about coming to Auburn, it's hard to say no.

With Thompson helping Coach Freeze recruit, there is no doubt in my mind the 2024 Auburn recruiting class can finish top ten in the nation.

Hopefully, Thompson can work some magic to get KJ Bolden to commit to Auburn this upcoming weekend.

There is a lot to look forward to on the Plains with Hugh Freeze at the helm.

It seems like Auburn football is officially back, and as Coach Carnell Williams said, Auburn football is AOK.

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

saturdaydownsouth.com

Malcolm Simmons, 4-star ATH from Alabama, reveals SEC commitment

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football. Follow on Twitter.

2–3 minutes

Malcolm Simmons is a 4-star athlete out of Alabama for the class of 2024. On Saturday, he finalized his commitment.

After generating offers from Arkansas, Coastal Carolina, West Virginia, Liberty and Troy, he announced a commitment to Auburn during the program’s “Big Cat” recruiting event. Simmons is the 13th piece for Hugh Freeze’s 2024 recruiting class with the Tigers.

Simmons is listed at 6-feet and 165 pounds out of Benjamin Russell School in Alexander City. He’s rated as a 4-star recruit and the 28th ATH in the country for the class of 2024 per the 247 Sports Composite. Simmons is also the 19th overall player out of Alabama for the cycle.

Simmons’ primary recruiter is listed as Marcus Davis, the WRs coach for Freeze’s Tigers, so that is likely where Simmons winds up playing with the program. Here’s a look at what he can do via his Hudl highlights:

Simmons becomes the 13th player committed to Auburn in a group that is currently ranked 23rd in the country per the 247 Sports Team Composite. He is also the 10th 4-star recruit to pledge the Tigers in the class of 2024.

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

auburntigers.com

Auburn Athletics introduces new field suites at Jordan-Hare Stadium for 2023

Auburn University Athletics

2–3 minutes

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn Athletics and Tigers Unlimited are reimagining the field level premium experience at Jordan-Hare Stadium, to include six new and improved suite experiences for the 2023 season. Originally introduced in 2021 with one suite in the southeast corner of Jordan-Hare, this season will feature two field-level suites in each of the southwest and southeast corners of the stadium and one each in the northwest and northeast corners.

These new suites, in partnership with RevelXP, will each feature televisions, fans, high-top seating, drink rails, along with premium food and beverage offerings. Suites will range in capacity from 16 to 24 guests with prices ranging per game from $200 to $1250 per person.

"We are excited to partner with RevelXP inside Jordan-Hare Stadium to enhance the field-level experience we provide for our Auburn family," said Senior Associate AD for Development, Jacob Jordan. "We are accustomed to their first-class experience provided outside of the stadium and we look forward to bringing additional premium opportunities inside Jordan-Hare. Demand for premium seating is at an all-time high and we are thrilled to be able to bring this elevated experience to our Tigers Unlimited donors."

Field suites will be offered in Tigers Unlimited football priority order starting on Tuesday, August 1. Fans that are not a current Tigers Unlimited football season ticket holder and are interested in purchasing a field suite or any future premium options with Jordan-Hare please click here. For additional information on the field suites, please contact the Tigers Unlimited office at 855-282-2010 ext. 2 or click here.

Auburn football will open the 2023 season with Kickoff on The Plains on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 2:30 p.m. against UMass in Jordan-Hare Stadium. While season tickets, Four-Packs, and select games are already sold out, single-game tickets for the home opener are available for only $25 and may be purchased by visiting AubTix.com while supplies last.

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

247sports.com

Auburn fall camp preview 5 players with something to prove

Nathan King

10–13 minutes

One of the most exciting offseasons at Auburn in recent years is almost wrapped up, and football is almost back on the Plains.

This Thursday, the Tigers will kick off their first preseason camp under head coach Hugh Freeze. Since spring ball ended in early April, Freeze and his staff added eight more players from the transfer portal, continued to chip away at their 2024 recruiting class, and saw the current roster put in work with strength coach Dominic Studzinski. Now it’s finally time for things to resume on the field in preparation for the season opener Sept. 2 against UMass

“We're excited to get started,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days earlier this month. “We've got a lot of questions about exactly how we're going to be, and truthfully I don't know all the answers to that yet. This is a strange feeling, and in some ways for me I've never experienced going into fall camp and having so many unknowns in my mind, whether that's because of the new world of you gained some of your roster from transfer portal world, or you gained it even after spring practice through the portal world, and then obviously summer enrollees come. There's a lot of things that I'm not quite certain about, also, but excited about the opportunity.”

Leading up to a highly anticipated fall camp, Auburn Undercover will dig into several aspects of the team exiting summer workouts, previewing the newcomers on campus, breakout candidates, position battles and more.

Our next installment: Every player wants to succeed on the college level, but some are met with more setbacks or criticism than others. Here are five Tigers who will have something to prove at Auburn's 2023 preseason practices.

QB ROBBY ASHFORD

Alright, it might be cheating to include one of the starting quarterback contenders on this list, but Ashford receives the nod because some are counting him out of the QB race against Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne before it even begins.

Sure, on paper, Thorne would be the favorite based upon his experience, his career numbers and Ashford’s performance in his first year as a starter in 2022. After taking over for T.J. Finley, Ashford had seven touchdown passes to seven interceptions in nine games, with the lowest completion rate (49.2 percent) for an Auburn starting QB since the late ‘90s.

But proper context is needed: Obviously, Auburn’s offense was in a bad spot most of the year; head coaches usually don’t get fired when things are running smoothly. Ashford also dealt with a handful of injuries from head to toe — and he played behind one of the Tigers’ worst offensive lines in recent seasons, and lacked consistent playmakers at the receiver position.

But there were still plenty of bright spots for the Oregon transfer, and the primary reason he may be able to go blow-for-blow with Thorne in fall camp is due to his athleticism. Last season Ashford had the most rushing yards by an Auburn quarterback (710) since Nick Marshall in 2013. Although Auburn’s quarterbacks won’t be live in preseason practices, that dynamic of Ashford’s skill set is something Thorne simply doesn’t possess, and Freeze has expressed his excitement to continue to tap into those abilities.

Is Ashford the next Malik Willis? Maybe not. But there’s little doubt he’ll be better positioned to succeed in Freeze’s offense — with a retooled O-line, more weapons out wide and presumably a coaching staff that will help tailor the passing game to his strengths if he wins the job.

“We’ve challenged Robby since I’ve been here to elevate what comes with being the quarterback at Auburn,” Freeze told local reporters at SEC Media Days. “And I think he’s responding, mostly positive with that. We haven’t been in the fires yet. We haven’t been in the competition yet to see how everyone is going to respond. Not just Robby. It’s going to be everyone, how do they handle it? This is life. On great teams, you’re never going to be the only guy that should be competing. Hopefully, he handles it well because I do think Robby Ashford helps us win football games.”

WR KOY MOORE

Amid the anticipation around a number of newcomers in the passing game — some highly experienced transfers from the Group of Five level, and some still plenty raw — one of the Tigers’ returning starters in the receiving corps is flying a bit under the radar.

Moore was by no means a game-breaker for Auburn after transferring from LSU last offseason. He had 314 yards on 20 receptions, plus a touchdown against Western Kentucky. But those numbers were good enough to make him the second-leading receiver in a bad offense last season.

Moore then hung around through the coaching change and garnered more first-team reps in spring practice. But now the room becomes more crowded, with the post-spring additions of transfers Shane Hooks (Jackson State), Jyaire Shorter (North Texas) and Caleb Burton (Ohio State).

All those newcomers are exciting in their own right, but Moore shouldn’t be counted out in the rotation at the Z receiver spot — otherwise known as the “flanker.” After all, Moore didn’t begin last season as the starter but overtook Malcolm Johnson Jr. after a few games and continued to grow in confidence within the offense as the year progressed.

Moore may not have the same acceleration as someone like Hooks, or explosiveness downfield of a deep threat like Shorter, but he’ll likely begin fall camp with the starters, and certainly has the experience level to continue to carve out a role for himself in 2023.

OG TATE JOHNSON

(Zach Bland / Auburn Athletics)

Things didn’t go as planned early last season when Johnson was thrown into the fire at center, but Auburn believes he’s better suited as a guard — and he’ll have an opportunity to redeem himself in a starting role this fall.

When veteran Nick Brahms decided to medically retire just a couple weeks before last year’s season opener, Johnson was thrust forward into the starting job. Before suffering a season-ending elbow injury in Week 4 against Missouri, Johnson struggled mightily, particularly in pass protection, where he allowed a whopping eight QB pressures in less than four full games of work.

Spring practices began with bad news for Johnson when he again injured his elbow, but things were less dire than Auburn expected, and he returned to the practice field a week later with heavy padding on his left arm. And working under new position coach Jake Thornton, Johnson — when healthy — consistently competed at right guard in the first-team offense.

It won’t be a surprise to see Johnson be Auburn’s first choice at the position when fall camp begins this week, as he’ll look to fend off the likes of fellow veteran Kameron Stutts — who saw some first-team reps toward the end of spring ball — plus freshman Connor Lew and Tulsa transfer Jaden Muskrat.

But Johnson will be out to prove that last season’s small sample size won’t define his contributions as a starter on the Tigers’ offensive line, and that he can effectively complement the trio of transfers now manning the starting left tackle, right tackle and center spots.

“I’m not ready to say that he’s standing out over anyone else, I just know that he – there’s an expectation that we’re trying to set, and he wants to drive the train for that expectation,” Freeze said of Johnson in the spring.

DT ZYKEIVOUS WALKER

Welcome back. This marks the second straight year we’ve included Walker, a former top-100 overall recruit, on this list, as one of the most impressive athletes on Auburn’s roster is still searching for a consistent role on the defense, now in Year 4 with the program.

To Walker’s credit, he’s stuck through a pair of coaching changes at Auburn. He was a rotational piece as a true freshman in 2020, then dealt with injuries in 2021 and saw his role diminish. Last season, Walker spent some time away from the team for personal reasons during the season, appeared in only one game and eventually entered the transfer portal. Two weeks after Freeze was hired, however, and new D-line coach Jeremy Garrett was brought in, Walker opted to withdraw from the portal and give it another go with the Tigers in 2023.

One of the biggest recruiting wins of the Gus Malzahn era, Auburn landed Walker in the 2020 class as the No. 79 overall player in the country, and the No. 3 strongside defensive end. Georgia, Alabama and Florida wanted him. But beyond some promising flashes as a freshman, he’s been unable to find his way onto the field consistently.

For Walker, the approach from Garrett of utilizing more depth in a true defensive line rotation — something Auburn certainly failed to do over the past two seasons — is a good sign for a player like Walker, who should be able to find a role in some capacity, if not a minor one early in the season.

But Walker’s talent level and NFL-ready frame at 6-foot-4 and 294 pounds will continue to make him an intriguing project for Auburn’s coaches. Auburn brought in some experience in the portal, but beyond a name like Justin Rogers from Kentucky, there’s not necessarily a ton of proven star power anywhere along the defensive front entering the 2023 season. As has been the case since he arrived on the Plains, Walker will continue to have his opportunities to crack the primary rotation.

LB WESLEY STEINER

Yes, the rising senior Steiner — also one of the top-rated recruits on Auburn’s roster — is technically a returning starter on defense. But his usage took a nosedive at the end of last season, and now he has serious competition to overcome if he hopes to reprise his role at middle linebacker.

Steiner started alongside Cam Riley at linebacker last season in the biggest roles of both players’ careers thus far, and Steiner logged 35 tackles through eight games.

When the coaching staff was shuffled following Bryan Harsin’s firing, however, Steiner was rarely utilized down the stretch. He played 12 combined defensive snaps over Auburn’s final four games of the season, and didn’t play at all against Texas A&M or Alabama. Neither Steiner nor any of his coaches have mentioned an injury being a factor late last season.

According to Pro Football Focus, Steiner logged more missed tackles (14) than any other Tiger last season, and his run-defense grade (60.4) was the worst on the team.

New defensive coordinator Ron Roberts and his staff offered everyone a clean slate in the spring, however, and Steiner continued to work with the first-team defense — competing primarily with Ole Miss transfer Austin Keys.

At the moment, Steiner should be expected to be one of Auburn’s primary linebackers in the rotation, considering position coach Josh Aldridge said he plans to give at least four or five players significant snaps every game. But Steiner will be out to prove he’s a more consistent defender than his 2022 numbers indicated — and that he can hold down his starting job over a newcomer like Keys.

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aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

al.com

Auburn announces fall camp practice schedule

Published: Jul. 31, 2023, 1:50 p.m.

~3 minutes

AUBURN, AL - February 27, 2023 - Sunset during spring practice at the Woltosz Football Performance Center in Auburn, AL. Auburn will be back on the practice field on August 3 to begin preseason camp. Photo by Austin PerrymanAuburn University Athletics

Football is finally back on The Plains. Well kind of, at least.

In a press release, Auburn officially announced players will report to preseason camp on Wednesday this week with the first practice to begin on Thursday.

And head coach Hugh Freeze tailored the practice schedule based on his own experience in the South: having nearly all of Auburn’s practices early in the morning before it gets too hot in the August sun.

Freeze will speak to the media for the first time during fall camp at 8:30 a.m. central time Thursday. Freeze currently has three scheduled press conferences during fall camp, which will run through August 19, according to a press release from the program. Other members of Auburn’s new coaching staff including offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery and defense coordinator Ron Roberts will have press conferences as well throughout August as well as players after certain practices.

Highlights on the practice schedule include a scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium on August 12 which will allow for media viewing during individual drills. A second stadium scrimmage on August 19 will not have an open period for media.

Auburn will have seven practices during fall camp with open viewing for the media during individual drills. There are three listed practices with no media viewing including the second stadium scrimmage.

Auburn will have off days on August 5, August 9, August 13 and August 16 — which is the first day of classes for students.

The quarterback battle between most likely sophomore Robby Ashford and graduate transfer Payton Thorne is expected to be the story of fall camp, along with the further implementation of a new coaching staff and a roster with over 40 new faces from a year ago.

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aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

i hope everyone has a great tuesday! be careful of the heat and as always WAR EAGLE!

aubiefifty · August 1, 2023

al.com

Auburn announces fall camp practice schedule

Published: Jul. 31, 2023, 1:50 p.m.

~3 minutes

AUBURN, AL - 2023.02.27 - Spring Practice