11.15.23 Football Articles

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

si.com

 

New Mexico State QB May Not Be Available vs Auburn

Lance Dawe

~2 minutes

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Auburn may be facing New Mexico State without their star quarterback.

Auburn may be facing New Mexico State without their star quarterback.

According to Colin Deaver of KTSM 9 News, Jerry Kill said that New Mexico State QB Diego Pavia practiced some today. He wasn’t full-speed, and it seems like he’ll be day-to-day for Auburn this Saturday. Kill said Pavia is tough and will do everything he can to be on the field.

Pavis played through injury against Western Kentucky last weekend, completing 14 of his 24 pass attempts for 141 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 44 yards.

New Mexico State has already clinched a spot in the C-USA title game. There's a chance that they rest Pavia against Auburn in order to not potentially injure him further.

Tigers' head coach Hugh Freeze had a lot of praise for Pavia on Monday.

"Very talented quarterback, extremely, extremely tough," Freeze said. "He's mobile, he's a handful for sure... they've got a really good plan, and he can make a lot of things happen with his feet."

In 11 games for New Mexico State this season Pavia has completed 59.7% of his passes for 2,257 yards, 19 touchdowns against six interceptions. He also has 703 rushing yards and five rushing scores.

Auburn returns home to take on New Mexico State this Saturday, November 18th. Kickoff is at 3:00 pm CT on the SEC Network.

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[aubiefifty 18,259]

247sports.com

Phillips Tuesday afternoon musings

Phillip Marshall

7–8 minutes

Major honors for McLeod, Scott

Auburn edge rusher Jalen McLeod and punt returner/defensive back Keionte Scott were named SEC Players of the Week Monday. McLeod, who had nine tackles, three sacks and four tackles for loss against Arkansas, was named the defensive Player of the Week. Scott, who returned a punt 74 yards for a touchdown was special teams Player of the Week. On Tuesday, McLeod was named the Bednarik national Player of the Week.

McLeod became the first Auburn player with three sacks, four tackles for loss and a forced fumble in a game in at least the last 18 seasons. His four tackles for loss is tied for the highest number in the SEC this season. His three sacks are tied for second most in the league this season.

Scott’s punt return was the third-longest in the league this season and sparked Auburn's 21-point first quarter, marking the team's highest-scoring first quarter in an SEC game since 2017.

Maybe Auburn caused Arkansas’ dreadful Saturday

It seems most of the talk around Auburn’s 48-10 victory at Arkansas has been about how poorly Arkansas played instead of how well Auburn played. The truth is Arkansas was the favorite going into the game. It was playing at home and coming off its biggest win of the season. Maybe Auburn was the reason the Razorbacks didn’t look so hot.

Auburn played its best game in a long while. McLeod was nothing short of spectacular on the edge. Auburn dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage. Auburn could have won by more were it not for the kindness of head coach Hugh Freeze. The notion that Arkansas players didn’t care is ridiculous. It’s easy for a team to lose its edge when it is behind 21-0 halfway through the first quarter, but that doesn’t translate into not caring.

Freeze cautions that momentum can be fleeting

Freeze welcomed the momentum that has come from three consecutive wins, but he cautioned at his Monday press conference that momentum can go away as quickly as it comes.

“You know, you can't help when you win some games and you're getting quality recruits, I mean, that's cause for you to say you have momentum, but you have the job and the choice to continue that,” Freeze said. “If we stump our toe this week and it's easy to say the momentum would be shifted the other way and everyone that's praising you right now would not be praising you.

“So momentum is an everyday thing. I firmly believe in life you're either winning or learning. And I think that's a choice. You can also choose losing. But one thing's for sure: You better get to choosing or life has a way of choosing for you.”

Auburn defensive line stands tall

The biggest surprise on Auburn’s football team? For me, it is the defensive line. I thought going into the season that it was going to be a huge issue. Jalen McLeod, when healthy, has been a force on the edge. Tackle Marcus Harris has become one of the SEC’s top defensive tackles. But it’s not just them. From top to bottom, the defensive line has exceeded all expectations.

Can Pittman hang on at Arkansas?

Jimbo Fisher is gone. So is Zach Arnett. Is Arkansas’ Sam Pittman next? I have no inside Arkansas information, but from my vantage point, the tea leaves don’t look good for the likable Arkansas coach.

Pittman said all the right things Monday, saying he was focused on the next game and that he expected to be Arkansas’ head coach in the future. But conspicuous in his silence has been athletic director Hunter Yurick. If the plan was to keep Pittman, you would expect that he would go ahead and say it. He has said nothing.

The Razorbacks are 3-7, but it’s not an ordinary 3-7. They lost on a last-second field goal at LSU. They lost by 3 at Alabama. They lost 27-20 at Ole Miss after leading in the fourth quarter. They won at Florida. They also lost to a bad Mississippi State team 7-3 at home. They were crushed 48-10 at home by Auburn. It seems ages ago, but they lost 37-31 at home to BYU. They should get to four wins Saturday against Florida International. They will be heavy underdogs at home to Missouri in the regular-season finale.

The Razorbacks were 7-6 last season. They were 9-4 in 2001. In 2000, his first season, they were 3-7. This season, they are 3-7. They are last in the SEC West and 13th overall. They are 3-10 in their last 13 SEC games. They have not beaten a Power 5 team at home this season. That’s not exactly a glittering resume.

My Heisman vote will go to Nix or Daniels

Unless something I don’t expect happens, the top two spots on my Heisman Trophy ballot will go to LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels and Oregon quarterback Bo Nix. I don’t know yet what the order will be.

I will say that LSU’s record will have no impact on my vote. It’s not Daniels’ fault that LSU is bad on defense. The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the player deemed the best in college football. Not the most valuable. Not the best player on the best team. The best player. That is the criteria.

Nix has been just as impactful for Oregon, just in a different way. Nix has passed for 3,135 yards. He has completed 77.7 percent of his passes for 29 touchdowns. He has thrown two interceptions. He hasn’t needed to run much, but he has scored five touchdowns on the ground.

I’m not prepared to say who will be third on my ballot.

America’s team? No way

Jim Harbaugh says Michigan has become America’s team because it overcame adversity and beat the first team it has faced with a pulse. He conveniently forgets to mention that adversity is 100-percent self-inflicted. He talks about taking civics as a high school senior and learning about due process and innocent until proven guilty. That would make sense if he was on trial in a court of law. Neither the Big Ten nor the NCAA is a court of law.

A mountain of evidence makes it clear that Michigan cheated in an effort to gain a competitive advantage. The Big Ten was within its rights to suspend Harbaugh for three games. The NCAA, which is already investigating Harbaugh in an earlier case, won’t likely stop at that, though I expect Harbaugh to have fled to the NFL before that happens.

America’s team? Give me a break.

Early success can be dangerous for coaches

Any coach would welcome taking over a team loaded with talent and having a big first season. But is that really the best career path? Gus Malzahn won an SEC championship and played for the national championship in 2013, his first season as Auburn’s head coach. It was a memorable and joyful season. But with it came expectations for more of the same, and that didn’t happen. He was fired after eight seasons.

Gene Chizik won a national championship in his second season. Once again, it raised expectations out of sight. He was gone two years later. The truth is, when there is a coaching change, there is going to be a transition season or maybe even two. Depending on the inherited roster, it might be the first one. It might be the second or the third, but it’s going to happen.

[SaltyTiger 8,579]

War Eagle from cool and wet Plains this morning Fiddy. On coffee #2 waiting on you.

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

al.com

 

As coaching carousel winds up, Hugh Freeze recalls his road from Liberty to Auburn

Published: Nov. 14, 2023, 12:04 p.m.

5–6 minutes

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Auburn introduces Hugh Freeze as head football coach

This time last year, Hugh Freeze was at the helm of the Liberty Flames’ football program, which at one point had strung together six wins in a row – including a 21-19 win over Arkansas.

Come the weekend of Nov. 19, however, Freeze and the Flames found themselves on a two-game losing streak after coughing up narrow losses to UConn and Virginia Tech. Liberty lost those games by a combined three points.

But then came Liberty’s regular-season finale – a home game against the 4-6 New Mexico State Aggies, who Freeze’s current team at Auburn is set to square off against this Saturday.

Liberty went on to lose to New Mexico State — and it wasn’t by a slim margin, either. It was a 49-14 thrashing, giving the Flames a season-ending black eye.

And this isn’t to suggest Freeze has bad luck against New Mexico State or that Saturday’s game at Jordan-Hare is shaping up to be some scary trap game.

But rather it paints a picture of how hard it is to lead a football team while also being considered for a coaching vacancy more than 550 miles away.

“Extremely, extremely difficult to manage,” Freeze said Monday when asked about juggling staying engaged with his current program, while also flirting with another. “I can’t explain how hard it is.”

After Auburn fired former head coach Bryan Harsin in the middle of the 2022 season, the Tigers were rumored to have zeroed in on Freeze less than a month later. Harsin was officially axed on Halloween and by Nov. 26, the same day Liberty hosted New Mexico State, Freeze was left addressing questions from his players.

Freeze is said to have given his locker room a transparent response.

“Is the job everyone is talking about one that I would have an interest in talking with? Sure,” Freeze said in his postgame press conference, echoing what he told his team. “That doesn’t mean they have offered me a job. Who knows where that’s headed but I’ve always said I’ve loved being here on the mountain. I’m happy here, but I’m not going to sit here and say to our kids it’s absolutely false and there’s no interest in it.”

Freeze was later asked if he thought the coaching rumors were reason for his team faltering against New Mexico State.

“I haven’t been offered a job but it certainly was hard to refute that report and it definitely was bothering some people,” Freeze said after the Flames’ loss to the Aggies. “Just hate it.”

In the past three days, two head coaching positions have opened within the SEC as Texas A&M was first to relieve Jimbo Fisher, followed by Mississippi State firing Zach Arnett on Monday.

And while Freeze and Auburn fans alike are relieved that neither party’s names are in the headlines for this year’s rendition of the coaching carousel, Auburn’s head coach can’t help but feel for families like Fisher’s and Arnett’s.

“You hurt for all these families that are gonna be displaced,” Freeze said Monday. “We all sign up for it, so we get it.”

Meanwhile, Freeze’s experience during his final weeks at Liberty can’t help but leave him sympathizing for the coaches on the other end of the stick: the coaches left addressing rumors – perhaps some true and some not.

“I also thought about all the names that start being floated around and just the challenge that it is because I just experienced it here recently,” Freeze said. “I don’t know what the right thing is to do because you’re trying to protect your relationship with those young men and the school that’s been so good to you — while you can’t help but want to listen to an opportunity like Auburn in the SEC. There’s not many of those jobs.”

Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and Oregon head coach Dan Lanning have each already been questioned about the coaching vacancy in College Station. And with both Kiffin and Lanning currently piloting top-15 teams and are eyeing notable postseason opportunities, both were quick to refute any speculation about them leaving their current posts.

How truthful those remarks were? Only time will tell.

But regardless of who the Aggies, Bulldogs and other programs searching for new leadership begin to zero in on, Freeze would warn the candidates that it’s going to be tough.

“It is extremely, extremely difficult to manage,” Freeze said. “That last 24 hours was rough.”

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[aubiefifty 18,259]

Just now, SaltyTiger said:

War Eagle from cool and wet Plains this morning Fiddy. On coffee #2 waiting on you.

my butt is dragging lol. not much at tigerland so i am looking. weird not much press.i bet if we were losing we would have a ton of articles. i partied and stayed up late.

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

[aubiefifty 18,259]

slow day folks. have a good one!

[AUGoo 2,703]

5 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

 

si.com

 

New Mexico State QB May Not Be Available vs Auburn

Lance Dawe

~2 minutes

---

Auburn may be facing New Mexico State without their star quarterback.

Auburn may be facing New Mexico State without their star quarterback.

According to Colin Deaver of KTSM 9 News, Jerry Kill said that New Mexico State QB Diego Pavia practiced some today. He wasn’t full-speed, and it seems like he’ll be day-to-day for Auburn this Saturday. Kill said Pavia is tough and will do everything he can to be on the field.

Pavis played through injury against Western Kentucky last weekend, completing 14 of his 24 pass attempts for 141 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 44 yards.

New Mexico State has already clinched a spot in the C-USA title game. There's a chance that they rest Pavia against Auburn in order to not potentially injure him further.

Tigers' head coach Hugh Freeze had a lot of praise for Pavia on Monday.

"Very talented quarterback, extremely, extremely tough," Freeze said. "He's mobile, he's a handful for sure... they've got a really good plan, and he can make a lot of things happen with his feet."

In 11 games for New Mexico State this season Pavia has completed 59.7% of his passes for 2,257 yards, 19 touchdowns against six interceptions. He also has 703 rushing yards and five rushing scores.

Auburn returns home to take on New Mexico State this Saturday, November 18th. Kickoff is at 3:00 pm CT on the SEC Network.

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Prepare for a Heisman performance from the backup.