11.2.23 Football Articles

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247sports.com

Vanderbilt plans to play two quarterbacks against Auburn

Nathan King

4–5 minutes

Auburn utilization of its two-quarterback system may be dwindling after Payton Thorne’s performance last weekend. But the Tigers’ defense will still have to prepare for two signal-callers this week.

Vanderbilt plans to play both Ken Seals and Walter Taylor against Auburn on Saturday afternoon, head coach Clark Lea said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. The Commodores did so in a 33-7 loss at Ole Miss over the weekend, as starter A.J. Swann continues to recover from an elbow injury that’s forced him to miss the past four games.

Seals took over as Vanderbilt’s starter in the three games after Swann’s injury. But against Ole Miss, Lea’s plan was to get Taylor — a redshirt freshman from Jackson, Alabama — involved in the offense with some package work, like Auburn has done with backup Robby Ashford.

But midway through the second quarter, Vanderbilt turned to Taylor for more extended work, and he was the primary QB for the rest of the game. Taylor went 4-of-12 for 38 yards, while Seals was 4-of-8 for 22 yards. Both quarterbacks had an interception. Taylor led Vanderbilt with 59 rushing yards.

Lea’s explanation of Vanderbilt’s quarterback rotation against Ole Miss is not dissimilar to how Hugh Freeze has shuffled Thorne and Ashford this season.

“The plan was to have Ken play the game but insert Walt in certain situations,” Lea said Wednesday. “We’re trying to get him some snap experience, and we also feel like he has a skill set that can help us generate offense. It became about interjecting a spark there in the second quarter, and Walt was able to do that. So coming out of halftime, we wanted to continue to pull on that thread.”

Much like Auburn was looking to avoid when it was rotating Thorne and Ashford — a trend that screeched to a halt against Mississippi State, when Ashford took only two snaps — Lea said his biggest concern is getting his quarterbacks out of rhythm when taking them in and out of a game.

“We want to control that (against Auburn) and hope the game play allows us to,” Lea said. “Meaning we want to strategically insert the quarterbacks to fit both situations, but also in ways that keep a flow to our game. That’s the one thing you worry about with playing two guys — getting out of sync or out of rhythm, and it impacting or affecting the chemistry on the field.”

Earlier this week, Lea called Swann questionable for the Auburn game, so it’s technically a possibility that the Commodores could have their starter back. Swann had been completing 53.8 percent of his passes, with 11 touchdowns and seven picks, while Seals has six touchdowns and three interceptions on 60.8 percent passing across four starts.

Auburn’s defense leads the SEC with 14 takeaways this season, including 10 interceptions. The Tigers have picked off the opposing quarterback in all but one game this season (Texas A&M).

As a team, the Commodores are second-to-last in the SEC in combined quarterback rating this season, in front of only Auburn. Their 11 interceptions on the season are tied for No. 120 in college football.

Another injury of note for Vanderbilt is that of leading receiver Will Sheppard, who exited the Ole Miss loss with an apparent upper-body injury and didn’t return. Sheppard is third in the SEC this season with eight receiving touchdowns, plus 591 yards.

Kickoff in Nashville is set for 3 p.m. CDT on SEC Network. Vanderbilt is currently on a seven-game losing streak, as Auburn is favored by 12.5 points in what would be its second straight SEC win after an 0-4 start.

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

'Plankton Mentality' catches the eyes of the national media

Taylor Jones

2–3 minutes

Prior to Auburn’s win over Mississippi State last Saturday, senior safety Jaylin Simpson described the way he motivates himself for every game to the media.

He used a unique, but accurate, description of what he uses to fuel his drive. It’s called “plankton mentality” and it comes from a character from the cartoon show Spongebob Squarepants.

The question from reporters stemmed from an Instagram post that featured Plankton dreaming of stealing the Krusty Krab’s secret Krabby Patty formula. Simpson provided further context in a humorous manner.

“Since I’ve been knowing Plankton, dude just got one goal, man: get that Krabby Patty formula,” Simpson said of “plankton mentality.” “He don’t stop, no matter what. Every episode, he’s on it. We gotta get that Plankton mentality every game. We gotta get that formula every game.”

The video of him explaining “plankton mentality” went viral, and became the “Phrase of the Week” in The Athletic’s most recent SEC Superlatives list.

Simpson’s quote was not the only superlative that Auburn received this week from The Athletic. Auburn’s “musical road” was listed as this week’s “best show of school spirit” winner. In 2019, an Auburn University engineering alum gifted the University an overlay that will play the first seven notes of the Auburn fight song “War Eagle” for those driving on South Donahue Drive.

Auburn’s Jaylin Simpson explains “Plankton mentality” @jaylinsimp #spongebob #plankton #auburntigers #auburnfootball #wareagle #wde video courtesy @NathanKing247 pic.twitter.com/AOrh46Sbf7

— Auburn Tigers | AL.com (@aldotcomTigers) October 24, 2023

Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on  X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__

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saturdaydownsouth.com

Hugh Freeze explains how Payton Thorne has improved from week-to-week

Andrew Peters | 17 hours ago

2–3 minutes

Hugh Freeze is still looking for consistency at quarterback, but he believes Payton Thorne is improving every week.

Thorne, the passing threat in Auburn’s dual quarterback system, had one of his best games of the season against Mississippi State. He had 230 yards in the air, picking up 3 touchdowns in the Tigers’ win over the Bulldogs.

Freeze believes his growth is a testament to Auburn playing better as a whole and everyone understanding the plan more.

“I think it’s collective, I think we protected him better, I think our receivers are playing better and I think the plan is better,” Freeze said during the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday. “The plan is more comfortable, suited to his skillset and the elevation of our receivers playing a little better and us protecting him  better, I think it’s a combination of all those things.”

Freeze is hoping to get another big game from Thorne this weekend as Auburn takes on Vanderbilt. The Tigers are nearing the mark for bowl eligibility, and a win over Vanderbilt would make the mark much more achievable.

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al.com

Hugh Freeze addresses rumors of Auburn stealing signs against Mississippi State

Published: Nov. 01, 2023, 12:42 p.m.

2–3 minutes

Hugh Freeze on Auburn winning its first SEC game of the season

During the SEC’s weekly head coach’s teleconference, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze was asked about a report from Sunday his team may have been stealing signs during the 27-13 win against Mississippi State.

The report suggested Auburn’s defense may have figured out terminology for if Mississippi State’s offense was calling a run or pass play. But if Auburn did figure out such a code, the stats didn’t suggest Auburn played any better.

“Well, we did a poor job if we did,” Freeze said Wednesday. “They had more yards and more explosive plays in the second half than in the first.”

In the second half, Mississippi State’s offense had more than 100 yards more than it did in the first half —122 compared to 223.

“You need to come to your own conclusions from that report,” Mississippi State head coach Zach Arnett said Monday. “I let the facts speak for themselves.”

Freeze didn’t explicitly deny the report and said that it’s “no secret” that teams look across the sidelines during games. But he again reiterated that if Auburn did steal signs, they didn’t do it particularly well.

This rumor comes at the same time as a significantly larger scale sign stealing investigation involving the Michigan football team and led to Michigan reportedly rescinding a contract extension to head coach Jim Harbaugh.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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247sports.com

Worst to first: Tigers lead SEC in takeaways entering November

Nathan King

3–4 minutes

Auburn would obviously like to forget a number of statistics and trends from the Bryan Harsin era, and one of the team's biggest turnarounds thus far in 2023 has come from an opportunistic defense.

Through nine games, Auburn has surpassed its takeaway total from all of last season, now with 14 on the year compared to 13 in 2022. Auburn's 10 interceptions on the season are already its most since the 2019 season, when it also had 10.

Much of that success is due in large part to midseason All-American safety Jaylin Simpson, who has five takeaways on the year and four of the team's 10 interceptions. In five SEC games, six different defensive players — linebacker Eugene Asante, Simpson, pass-rusher Jalen McLeod, cornerback D.J. James, nickel Donovan Kaufman and safety Zion Puckett — had registered a turnover.

Defensive coordinator Ron Roberts talked in the preseason about his "Havoc Rate," a formula he's used throughout his career. Roberts said the goal is to create a havoc play on 20 percent of defensive snaps, and the defenses that have reached that mark over the course of a season have been some of his best.

In two of Roberts' three seasons at Baylor, the Bears were top 30 nationally in forced turnovers. Auburn is currently tied for No. 30 in 2023.

"Just emphasizing them in practice," pass-rusher Elijah McAllister said of the defense's forced turnovers this season. "He has something he calls Havoc Rate: TFLs, sacks, QB pressures, hits, turnovers. We track it throughout every single week. Just emphasizing it in practice allows us to do it every single game on Saturdays. It helps when you've got good players, as well."

Roberts' veteran presence as a seen-it-all coordinator was one of the reasons Hugh Freeze hired him on his inaugural staff in the offseason, but he's not the only Auburn coach who's done well in that department previously. Freeze said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference that Auburn D-line coach Jeremy Garrett, linebackers coach Josh Aldridge and special teams coordinator Tanner Burns had what Freeze thought was a successful system for practicing and emphasizing turnovers in practice when they coached under Freeze previously at Liberty.

This season, Freeze said Auburn has a turnover board directly outside the team meeting rooms that shows which players and which position groups are leading the standings in takeaways so far.

"That's something we've always believed in," Freeze said. "It's an emphasis, for sure. I'm sure everybody does that — and some years it works, some years it doesn't. Our guys have certainly tried to get turnovers for us in a lot of ways, and have been somewhat successful this year. So I'm thankful for that."

For as porous as Vanderbilt's team has been this season, Auburn's next opponent this Saturday is tied for the No. 2 spot in the SEC behind Auburn, with 13 takeaways this season. The Commodores also have 10 interceptions on the year.

"That's a stat that's going to mean a lot in the outcome of this game on Saturday," Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said Wednesday.

Kickoff in Nashville is set for 3 p.m. CDT on SEC Network.

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SEC Network’s Roman Harper: Auburn ‘right on target’ in Hugh Freeze’s first year

 

Roman Harper talks Alabama-LSU, Auburn and College Football Playoff rankings

By

• Creg Stephenson | cstephenson@al.com

SEC Network analyst Roman Harper said Wednesday he’s been impressed with Auburn’s progress under first-year head coach Hugh Freeze.

Harper, also a former Alabama and NFL safety, appeared Wednesday along with ESPN colleagues Matt Stinchcomb and Taylor Zarzour at the “Passion for Prichard” fundraiser for Prichard Prep Academy at Mobile’s GulfQuest Museum. He said Freeze has done a good coaching job with the Tigers this season, and that quarterback Payton Thorne’s performance in last week’s 27-13 win over Mississippi State could be a sign of things to come.

“I actually really like what Auburn’s doing, especially on the coaching staff,” Harper said. “I think they’re getting a lot out of their players. Payton Thorne played better. He completed some passes, he let the ball go, he let his wide receivers have one-on-one situations. I thought Mississippi State was a little bit more friendly on defense than I would have liked, but hey, they won the game. They did a great job.

“I think also getting (running back) Jarquez Hunter the ball as much as possible is also gonna help that offense out. You’re not gonna go out there if you’re Auburn and win games when you’re throwing the ball 40 times. That’s just not who this offense needs to be. But if they can run the football effectively, then Payton Thorne throw the ball effectively — and he also uses his own legs because he’s sneaky athletic — Auburn will be able to compete.”

Though Auburn is 4-4 overall and 1-4 in the SEC, Harper said their record is probably a true measure of where the program is in Freeze’s first season. Freeze will be able to make up the difference in the next offseason, he said.

Harper noted that Auburn’s schedule the next three weeks — at Vanderbilt Saturday, at Arkansas Nov. 11 and at home for New Mexico State on Nov. 18 — sets up nicely for the Tigers to gain some confidence going into the Nov. 25 Iron Bowl vs. Alabama.

“I’m looking at the schedule, they should be 7-4 going into the Iron Bowl,” Harper said. “And if they’re not, it’s a little bit disappointing. But as of right now, I wouldn’t say they’ve lost the game that anybody didn’t anticipate them losing already before the season. So they’re kind of right on schedule.

“Sometimes I look at them, I think they’re ahead of schedule. They’re just missing a couple of pieces. … I really like what Hugh Freeze has done in that whole staff. Overall, Auburn’s right on target. They’ve got a big Iron Bowl at the end of the year that can really just seal them a great season or not. That’s kind of a determining factor for them.”

Stinchcomb, a former Georgia and NFL offensive lineman who also calls games for ESPN in addition to studio work, is taking a more “wait and see” approach on Auburn. He said it’s possible the Tigers have underachieved, particularly on offense.

But as Harper also noted, Auburn’s schedule the next three weeks perhaps points toward a bit of a winning streak.

“They’re a team that, I think from a personnel standpoint, has been challenged,” Stinchcomb said. “They passing offense has not, as yet, been what I think many would have hoped it could be. But you’d think that perhaps (the upcoming schedule) is a chance for them to build on some success.”

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[SaltyTiger 8,579]

Trying Fiddy. Two of the Grandkids this morning and keeping me busy. Thanks and catch later today. Beautiful cold morning here on the Plains.

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guys i posted some basketball goodies you guys might find interesting. i think we have a whoop....................

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