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247sports.com

Two games that will shape Auburns 2024 football season

Jason Caldwell

4–5 minutes

With three straight losing records, Auburn heads into the 2024 season looking to take a step forward in year two under Hugh Freeze. For that to happen, it will take winning the games you're supposed to win, but also handling several toss-up games along the way. When you're talking about games that will shape the season for the Tigers, you could list almost every SEC game and make an argument why that's correct.

When I look at Auburn's upcoming schedule, there are two games that I feel like will shape the season for the Tigers as they look to take things to another level this fall.

September 21, vs. Arkansas

Plain and simple. If Auburn wants to take things to the next level, this is a game you absolutely have to win. With an opportunity to build some momentum early in the season, a win over Cal in week two should mean a 3-0 group of Tigers heading into this game. With Oklahoma up next before road games at Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky to follow, Auburn faces what amounts to a must-win when the Razorbacks come to town.

This will be a team that comes into this season with a ton of pressure following several subpar years under coach Sam Pittman. With Bobby Petrino coming back to Arkansas to run the offense, this feels like a season where it's all or nothing for the Razorbacks.

It will be a very different looking Arkansas team next season with KJ Jefferson now at UCF and Boise State transfer Taylen Green expected to take over the role as starting quarterback. A talented athlete and big guy at 6-6, 223, the Texas native could create some issues for teams because of his ability to run and pass. With tight end Luke Hasz back along with what should be an improved wide receiver group, Arkansas is an offense that has a chance to be significantly better this season.

Defensively, Landon Jackson is back as one of the best pass rushers in the league to lead coach Travis Williams' defense. Bringing in transfers at linebacker and in the secondary, the Razorbacks should be more athletic on that side of the ball this season.

The issue once again is the schedule, Playing on the road at Oklahoma State in week two, Arkansas has a home game against UAB the next week before hitting the road to Auburn. With Texas A&M at Arlington, home games against Tennessee and LSU, at Mississippi State, back home to face Ole Miss and then Texas to end a stretch of seven-straight SEC games, Arkansas could be improved but it may not show after facing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

October 26, at Kentucky

This is a big game because of where it falls on the schedule. After playing Oklahoma, Georgia and going to Missouri in three straight games, this may be the most winnable game for a month for this team. Kentucky has been a very good team at home the last few seasons and this won't be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but the Wildcats will have a new quarterback and another new offensive coordinator this season.

Brock Vandagriff is expected to be the quarterback for the Wildcats after transferring from Georgia, and he brings a dynamic athlete at the position. Wide receiver Barion Brown is one of the best playmakers returning in the SEC.

But the story of his team is going to be on defense where they brought in some talented transfers to continue to field talented groups on that side of the ball.

Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson could be one of the better players in the league at his position and Cincinnati cornerback transfer JQ Hardaway from Central-Phenix City is an elite player on the outside of the defense. 

Auburn's game in Lexington is sandwiched between trips to Florida and Tennessee for the Wildcats with Ole Miss and Texas the other two road games in the league for the Wildcats. While Mark Stoops has guided Kentucky to a pair of 10-win seasons in his 11 seasons in Lexington, he has lost at least six games in eight seasons with five losses in the other one. For Auburn, this is a game that could make the difference between okay and good.

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

auburntigers.com

 

On The Plains with Rivaldo Fairweather: 'Fell in love with it'

Auburn University Athletics

6–8 minutes

---

AUBURN, Ala. – If you had asked senior tight end Rivaldo Fairweather in high school where he thought he would be in four years, he would have said playing basketball and preparing for the NBA.

Now, in his second year as a student-athlete in the Southeastern Conference, Fairweather is looking to seal his name in the Auburn record book.  

Most people would assume that SEC athletes have been playing their sport since around the time they could walk. This is not the case for Fairweather.  

“A lot of people don’t know this, but I started playing football kind of late,” Fairweather said. “I started my junior year of high school, so I was about 16 years old. I had always played basketball and I had always thought I was going to go to the NBA.”

The Lauderhill, Florida, native attended Boyd Anderson High School. “I was in the gym one day and the football coaches, Coach Gray and Coach Tindall, asked me to come play football,” Fairweather said. “I used to always get fouled out a lot, because I was a lot more aggressive on the basketball court, so they told me to come out and try it and I just fell in love with it.”  

After focusing on football, Fairweather began his collegiate career at Florida International University, where he caught 54 receptions for 838 yards while earning Preseason All-Conference USA honors, before transferring to the Plains prior to the 2023 season.  

Fairweather quickly found his home at Auburn because of the Auburn Family. “I was able to see how it was family-oriented, and I knew about the culture here – how it really is a football school,” Fairweather said.

“I came from a smaller school without fans like that. I remember watching some of the Auburn games before I came here and thinking one day I want to be in the SEC. It’s really just a blessing. There are a lot of legends like Pat Sullivan, Bo Jackson and Cam Newton who have come here, and I want to be able to put my name in the history books right next to theirs.”

Being able to adjust from the different environment of a small school compared to an SEC school extended beyond just the football field for Fairweather. One of those big adjustments came in the classrooms and on campus. Transitioning from primarily online classes to in-person classes was a big change, but Fairweather has enjoyed it.  

“When you walk around campus, people will say, ‘Hey, what’s up ‘Valdo,’ and it’s just a blessing to have people who know my name,” Fairweather, a sociology major in the College of Liberal Arts, said. “It makes going to classes fun.”

The work you put in when you’re not in the stadium and it’s not gameday, and the work you put in while everyone else is just relaxing – that is the work that really shows on the field.

Tight End Rivaldo Fairweather

Fairweather, who won the Pat Sullivan Award as the 2023 outstanding player on offense, has a lot of anticipation for what is to come and a desire to build off last season. His 38 catches in 2023 set an Auburn tight end receiving record and he totaled six touchdown catches for the Tigers, including scores in SEC wins over Arkansas and Vanderbilt and the game-winning touchdown at California.

“I give all the glory to God because He put me in this position, and He had a plan for me,” Fairweather said. “I am just so thankful for my name to be associated with Pat Sullivan, someone who won a Heisman here.”

Fairweather feels that this year will be even better on the Plains not only for himself but the team.

“Just from the spring, we are clicking fast,” Fairweather said. “Quarterbacks, receivers and all the offense are on the same page. Our defense is really good, and that makes us better.”

Individually, Fairweather has a lot of goals as he returns to the team following an extremely solid first year wearing the Orange and Blue.

“I want to show that I can be the best in the SEC, and I felt like last year, I showed it here and there. But I felt like I left a lot of food on the table,” Fairweather said. “This year, I want to show that I am the number one tight end in the nation.”

Part of being the best is also what you learn off the field, and head coach Hugh Freeze has taught Fairweather a great deal.

“Coach Freeze has said that football teaches you a lot of life lessons,” Fairweather said. “You are not going to succeed every time. Sometimes you are going to fail, but it’s not failure. It’s a learning opportunity and a steppingstone in your path.

“One game you could go out there and catch 10 passes, rush for 100 yards and score a touchdown, but then the next game the ball may not come your way and you may lose the game. It teaches you to never focus on the past, but to focus on what is to come.”

Fairweather is focused on moving into this season and reaching new heights. “I just want to let the Auburn fans know that there are plenty more rewards coming in the season ahead,” Fairweather said, looking ahead to the 2024 campaign as well as his planned graduation in December.  

Fairweather can remember what it was like to just be starting his football career, especially starting on this path later than most, and his outlook toward reaching his goals has not changed.  

“Just keep pushing and trust in God,” he said. “What happens in the dark is going to come to light. The work you put in when you’re not in the stadium and it’s not gameday, and the work you put in while everyone else is just relaxing – that is the work that really shows on the field.” 

[aubiefifty 18,260]

247sports.com

Auburn AD John Cohen absolutely in favor of more CFP expansion

Nathan King

7–9 minutes

'Participation in postseason is an incredible experience that you want as many kids to experience as possible.'

College football's postseason will already be bigger than ever before this year, by a substantial margin. But many in the sport's leadership roles are already thinking forward in a rapidly changing and advancing landscape.

Just a few months ago in March, agreements between conferences and the College Football Playoff were finalized for changes as early as the 2026 season. The expected outcome is a 14-team playoff field, just two years after the highly anticipated expansion to 12 teams.

Auburn did not appear in the four-team playoff era from 2014-23, and will be angling to return to the postseason under Hugh Freeze's leadership. Second-year athletic director John Cohen did not mention his own program, however, when discussing potential expansion Monday at an APSE region meeting in Birmingham, Alabama. Instead, Cohen simply expressed that growth for the sport's postseason is something he's been eager for.

"Absolutely," Cohen said in a video interview with him and Alabama AD Greg Byrne, via BamaCentral. "... It will evolve, and it should evolve. I don't think a 12-team system or a 14-team system is perfect by any means."

How big should the bracket get? Cohen, who was hired from Mississippi State in the fall of 2022, remembers the late Bulldogs coach Mike Leach talking about expanding college football's postseason to 64 teams, like the NCAA Tournament in basketball.

While Leach's ideas were usually larger than life, Cohen said the more postseason participation is usually the better, especially in an era where conferences are bigger than ever.

"One of the things you notice about football versus other tournament sports is the percentage of teams that get to participate in a postseason tournament type of play is much lower in football," Cohen said. "I would like to see that grow. … Participation in postseason is an incredible experience that you want as many kids to experience as possible." 

Of course, a major concern — as the requisite number of games for a championship consistently increases — is the safety of young players over a long season. Teams like Notre Dame in 2012 and Alabama in 2011 played for the national championship after only 12 games.

Auburn won the 2010 national title in its 14th game.

In the 12-team playoff this coming season, even if a team doesn't play in its conference championship, a 15-game season is the bare minimum for a team that makes the national championship. A team that, say, plays a conference championship game, doesn't receive a bye in the playoff, and makes the national championship would have a whopping 17-game season.

"It's a violent sport, and you keep adding teams and more games to the tournament, there's going to be a balance there," Cohen said. 

Freeze in particular expressed concern in the past about what a bigger SEC schedule — nine games instead of eight — would mean for a team's postseason hopes in an expanded playoff era: Would his Tigers' resume be punished for another loss against a quality opponent that wouldn't usually be on the schedule in the first place? Scheduling discussions were mostly nonexistent at this year's SEC spring meetings, seeing as commissioner Greg Sankey said the league will stick with eight games for the time being.

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Two games that will shape Auburn's 2024 football season

Two games that will help define Auburn's 2024 football season.

With three straight losing records, Auburn heads into the 2024 season looking to take a step forward in year two under Hugh Freeze. For that to happen, it will take winning the games you're supposed to win, but also handling several toss-up games along the way. When you're talking about games that will shape the season for the Tigers, you could list almost every SEC game and make an argument why that's correct.

When I look at Auburn's upcoming schedule, there are two games that I feel like will shape the season for the Tigers as they look to take things to another level this fall.

September 21, vs. Arkansas

Plain and simple. If Auburn wants to take things to the next level, this is a game you absolutely have to win. With an opportunity to build some momentum early in the season, a win over Cal in week two should mean a 3-0 group of Tigers heading into this game. With Oklahoma up next before road games at Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky to follow, Auburn faces what amounts to a must-win when the Razorbacks come to town.

This will be a team that comes into this season with a ton of pressure following several subpar years under coach Sam Pittman. With Bobby Petrino coming back to Arkansas to run the offense, this feels like a season where it's all or nothing for the Razorbacks.

It will be a very different looking Arkansas team next season with KJ Jefferson now at UCF and Boise State transfer Taylen Green expected to take over the role as starting quarterback. A talented athlete and big guy at 6-6, 223, the Texas native could create some issues for teams because of his ability to run and pass. With tight end Luke Hasz back along with what should be an improved wide receiver group, Arkansas is an offense that has a chance to be significantly better this season.

Defensively, Landon Jackson is back as one of the best pass rushers in the league to lead coach Travis Williams' defense. Bringing in transfers at linebacker and in the secondary, the Razorbacks should be more athletic on that side of the ball this season.

The issue once again is the schedule, Playing on the road at Oklahoma State in week two, Arkansas has a home game against UAB the next week before hitting the road to Auburn. With Texas A&M at Arlington, home games against Tennessee and LSU, at Mississippi State, back home to face Ole Miss and then Texas to end a stretch of seven-straight SEC games, Arkansas could be improved but it may not show after facing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

October 26, at Kentucky

This is a big game because of where it falls on the schedule. After playing Oklahoma, Georgia and going to Missouri in three straight games, this may be the most winnable game for a month for this team. Kentucky has been a very good team at home the last few seasons and this won't be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but the Wildcats will have a new quarterback and another new offensive coordinator this season.

Brock Vandagriff is expected to be the quarterback for the Wildcats after transferring from Georgia, and he brings a dynamic athlete at the position. Wide receiver Barion Brown is one of the best playmakers returning in the SEC.

But the story of his team is going to be on defense where they brought in some talented transfers to continue to field talented groups on that side of the ball.

Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson could be one of the better players in the league at his position and Cincinnati cornerback transfer JQ Hardaway from Central-Phenix City is an elite player on the outside of the defense. 

Auburn's game in Lexington is sandwiched between trips to Florida and Tennessee for the Wildcats with Ole Miss and Texas the other two road games in the league for the Wildcats. While Mark Stoops has guided Kentucky to a pair of 10-win seasons in his 11 seasons in Lexington, he has lost at least six games in eight seasons with five losses in the other one. For Auburn, this is a game that could make the difference between okay and good.

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

[Auburn93 783]

3 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

247sports.com

Two games that will shape Auburns 2024 football season

Jason Caldwell

4–5 minutes

With three straight losing records, Auburn heads into the 2024 season looking to take a step forward in year two under Hugh Freeze. For that to happen, it will take winning the games you're supposed to win, but also handling several toss-up games along the way. When you're talking about games that will shape the season for the Tigers, you could list almost every SEC game and make an argument why that's correct.

When I look at Auburn's upcoming schedule, there are two games that I feel like will shape the season for the Tigers as they look to take things to another level this fall.

September 21, vs. Arkansas

Plain and simple. If Auburn wants to take things to the next level, this is a game you absolutely have to win. With an opportunity to build some momentum early in the season, a win over Cal in week two should mean a 3-0 group of Tigers heading into this game. With Oklahoma up next before road games at Georgia, Missouri and Kentucky to follow, Auburn faces what amounts to a must-win when the Razorbacks come to town.

This will be a team that comes into this season with a ton of pressure following several subpar years under coach Sam Pittman. With Bobby Petrino coming back to Arkansas to run the offense, this feels like a season where it's all or nothing for the Razorbacks.

It will be a very different looking Arkansas team next season with KJ Jefferson now at UCF and Boise State transfer Taylen Green expected to take over the role as starting quarterback. A talented athlete and big guy at 6-6, 223, the Texas native could create some issues for teams because of his ability to run and pass. With tight end Luke Hasz back along with what should be an improved wide receiver group, Arkansas is an offense that has a chance to be significantly better this season.

Defensively, Landon Jackson is back as one of the best pass rushers in the league to lead coach Travis Williams' defense. Bringing in transfers at linebacker and in the secondary, the Razorbacks should be more athletic on that side of the ball this season.

The issue once again is the schedule, Playing on the road at Oklahoma State in week two, Arkansas has a home game against UAB the next week before hitting the road to Auburn. With Texas A&M at Arlington, home games against Tennessee and LSU, at Mississippi State, back home to face Ole Miss and then Texas to end a stretch of seven-straight SEC games, Arkansas could be improved but it may not show after facing one of the toughest schedules in the country.

October 26, at Kentucky

This is a big game because of where it falls on the schedule. After playing Oklahoma, Georgia and going to Missouri in three straight games, this may be the most winnable game for a month for this team. Kentucky has been a very good team at home the last few seasons and this won't be an easy game by any stretch of the imagination, but the Wildcats will have a new quarterback and another new offensive coordinator this season.

Brock Vandagriff is expected to be the quarterback for the Wildcats after transferring from Georgia, and he brings a dynamic athlete at the position. Wide receiver Barion Brown is one of the best playmakers returning in the SEC.

But the story of his team is going to be on defense where they brought in some talented transfers to continue to field talented groups on that side of the ball.

Georgia linebacker Jamon Dumas-Johnson could be one of the better players in the league at his position and Cincinnati cornerback transfer JQ Hardaway from Central-Phenix City is an elite player on the outside of the defense. 

Auburn's game in Lexington is sandwiched between trips to Florida and Tennessee for the Wildcats with Ole Miss and Texas the other two road games in the league for the Wildcats. While Mark Stoops has guided Kentucky to a pair of 10-win seasons in his 11 seasons in Lexington, he has lost at least six games in eight seasons with five losses in the other one. For Auburn, this is a game that could make the difference between okay and good.

JC's article is important. Freeze has to win the 'lesser' games. This is his weakness. It was Tuberville's issue. Still, we have to stay with Freeze for a time because the college game is still in flux. 

Edited June 5 by Auburn93

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

[aubiefifty 18,260]

 

[TeamZero77 1,940]

12 hours ago, Auburn93 said:

JC's article is important. Freeze has to win the 'lesser' games. This is his weakness. It was Tuberville's issue. Still, we have to stay with Freeze for a time because the college game is still in flux. 

That 4 game stretch of Oklahoma in Jordan Hare and then at Georgia, at Missouri and at Kentucky is gonna be alot tougher than people are thinking. Like the article mentioned, Kentucky has ex-Georgia QB Brock Vandagriff and a stud WR. I remember alot of people on this board wanted Vandagriff here at Auburn. Kentucky is usually tough in Lexington too.

You're exactly right about Freeze has to win the "gimme" games and has struggled throughout his career to do so. Praying it doesn't happen again this season.