TRANSKRIPTIO 🔗
Wheeler: What's going on, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Auburn Today podcast. As always, my name is Noble. I'm joined here with my co-host Wheeler. Today we have a really exciting podcast ahead: breaking down Auburn versus Florida, talking a little bit about Auburn's win against Southern Myths. sitting here right now, just watched some of the the highlights and things like that for Florida football. And, you know, I I really feel like Florida is very similar to Auburn in how they've looked. It it seems like they've played two Southern Misses. Or or really maybe a team in Florida Atlantic that's a little bit better than Southern Miss. They had a really solid week two win against Navy. Campbell, I I mean, I don't even know anything about Campbell football. That is the epitome of the I'm surprised they don't play on Wednesdays. I th I'm sure that they probably have some Tuesdays or Camels. Hump Day. Hump Day. There you go, man. Yeah, we got you on that one. Wheeler's full of it. But yeah, I mean I'm I'm sure that they have some Wednesday games scheduled because just when you watched them play you thought, wow, this is bad boss. This is just a different level. Yeah, this is there there's levels to this. But so we're gonna talk about Florida. We're gonna talk about Auburn. Let's start. Talking about the Southern Miss game. Byron Brown, solid game. I would say what we wanted to see from Byron, we definitely did see. Made some really nice throws. Had a couple touchdowns taken off the board through no fault of his own. Had a really nice rushing touchdown where got held back or got called back for a hold. And honestly, I really don't think that it you can make the debate on if you think it's a hold or not. Regardless, I don't think that that guy was going to make the tackle. So if we're just looking at Byram, he also had that really nice throw, Jeremiah Coger, that was ruled incomplete in the end zone. But what you wanted to see out of your quarterback, you saw. You saw him making a lot more plays in the run game. You saw him making a lot of really nice throws. D do you think that a lot of that is more so he's playing against just a bad team, a lesser opponent, and he was able to show out a little bit more, or do you think that Baylor, there were some first game jitters, he kinda got those out and he was able to play a lot more calm and and controlled. You know, I think that in everything that we're doing tonight, you could really you could really skew it and I'm trying to hit it down the middle because I I honestly waffle throughout the day. You know, people ask me all day, What do you think about the game? And I could really see it in a positive light and I can really see it in a negative light. And I think Byram is kind of a microcosm of that, where I think overall Byron in the Baylor game looked a little slow. That was kind of our biggest takeaway is man, he didn't look as fast as I thought he was, and I thought that his decision making was slow. I thought that on Saturday he looked a lot faster and his decision making was faster. My biggest issue with that is Byrum looked fast and had fast decision making last year. when he was playing teams of Southern Mississi caliber every single week. Right. So did he look just like speed wise faster to me because I was sitting inside of Jordan Here Stadium closer to the field versus watching on TV? Or was it because his competition was lesser? Same with his decision making. Is he gonna is he one of those guys that when the game is big and he's nervous, he's gonna try to aim the ball and he's gonna move slow? A and and that's the that's the biggest thing that we don't know. The thing that concerns me is last year against Florida, Byron did not look like he did against Boise State. So if you go watch the South Florida Boise State highlights, and then you watch the South Florida Florida highlights, obviously South Florida beats Florida, so that's great. Byram looked a lot more like he did against Baylor than he did against Southern Miss in that Florida game. He looked a little bit slower. He looked a little bit more hesitant on the trigger. What we don't know is Well you have that swagger this time 'cause he's already played Baylor. And now he's like, Okay, I'm on this level, I'm gonna do this. And there there is definitely something to be said about that because at USF, it doesn't matter when he goes in to play Miami, they're not thinking, Man, we already beat Florida, we're here, that we can beat this. We can beat this team. They're still thinking, This team paid us a million dollars to come play. Exactly. That is still a fresh thing in their minds, whereas that that's not the case here at Alban. And and I would say if you just showed me Byram's South Florida tape or not South Florida Southern Miss tape, I'm happy. I mean, was he perfect? No. I and th but if the standard's perfection, you're not gonna be happy with anybody. I mean there there's no one in college football that plays a perfect game. T guys win the Heisman Trophy and don't play perfect games. So I'm not looking for perfect I thought that he looked great. I thought that if he looked like that against Baylor, we probably run away with the Baylor game. I expect him to take a step back from the Southern Miss. I don't think that I think that if he played like he did against Southern Miss in every single game, then he's a Heisman trophy candidate. I mean, that's just the long and short of it. I if he does that against Florida, he does that against Tennessee, he does that against Georgia, I mean, that's like legendary SEC 'cause what I mean, how many yards did he throw for? He had he had a little over three hundred total yards, three total touchdowns. I mean, yeah. Like if you're a game. If you do that every game, you're you're pretty dang good. But I think you know, and I do think that there is to a degree it is a lesser opponent. But then there are some things where I just
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look at of i if you're hitting good throws on a rollout, if you are hitting throws over the middle, he he didn't really miss any throws. No, he didn't miss throws. But my thought is this. So if you look slow on the trigger, it's probably because you're not sure if your guy's open. And against Southern Mists, you know sooner whether the guy's open with your own eyes and it's less of a feel and it's less of a trust and it's more of a what do I actually see. So if that's if the problem is you're slow on the trigger, then a game like this doesn't tell you anything. If the problem was I don't have time to process what's going on because I have somebody on top of me, like in the Baylor game, this game you don't have as fast of a pass rush. So again, all of the issues that we had with Byrum were kind of remedied at a slower pace of play. And that's what concerns me. Is that when we watch him against Miami, we watch him against Florida last year, he looks a lot like the Baylor version of Byram. Whereas when we watch him against Grouper Five competition, he has just a split second more time, he looks a whole lot better. Can he get up to that speed of play? That's the million dollar question. The concerning thing is that he's a fifth year senior. I think that or just a straight up he's a senior The the good part is he really doesn't have that many reps against that speed of competition. And so we could see a little bit of development in that area as he starts to play that competition. But looking at the Florida game, I think you see the regression. I think you see somebody who's slow on the trigger. I think you see somebody who's slow on their decision making. Yeah, and and I I really don't know what you're gonna see, honestly, because we don't know is Baylor what he is, or is Baylor the worst game that he's gonna play all season? You know, a and you just don't know that. And I think that if Golish is washing, Golish comes into the press conference and he is livid from what he saw against Southern Pass. And he was mad and he was mad about what he saw against Baylor. So is he mad because he is washing a product on the field that he views as unacceptable and it's just just flat out that he doesn't think that they should be doing that? Or does he is he mad because he knows that that's not them? And that he sees a better unit in practice and he's not seeing it in the game and he's trying to figure out how to fix that. And I think that that's the question that we're gonna get on Saturday. I feel like Florida is a good enough team that if Auburn's playmakers can make plays against Florida, you feel pretty good about them being able to make plays for the rest of the season. So moving moving into that, you saw Omar Mabson, great game. You saw Jeremiah Cobb, solid game other than the fumble. On the five yard line, but other than that, averaged about seven yards a carry, 85 yards on the ground, good in the blocking game. What do you think? I mean, Byram again, you know, Byram had 13 carries against Southern Miss. He had a lot more against Baylor, but some of that counts as sacks. What do you think the rushing distribution is gonna be from those three guys? Doesn't feel like Bryson Washington is going to get a ton of carries against Florida. So what do you want to see from the run game? And in my opinion, I I I think that this run game is the most important thing on Saturday, that you have certain guys that like Singleton has been the guy on on the receiving end, in my opinion. You feel like every time that the ball is going to someone else, it almost feels like it's been schemed up. You saw a lot of schemes for Deshaun Spencer. We'll talk about him later. You saw a lot of things specifically going to Nimrod, but Nimrod's much more of a deep play guy and Both the games so far, they've been having a safety shaded to his side and they've been taking away the deep ball. If you can establish the run, Florida's gonna drop that safety down and I think they're gonna say, All right, Byron's gonna have to beat us through the air. And if you can hit on some of those explosive plays, I I think that that's really the key to the game, that if Auburn can run the ball, I feel very good about this game. Yeah, I mean I I think if if you can ever run the ball, you feel better about a game. My thought is this, I expect Florida's gonna play really aggressively on defense. I I don't I think they're gonna kinda take a different approach than what Baylor took. I don't think that they're gonna sit back and let Auburn drive down the field. I think it's gonna be much more load the box and then press on the outsides and make the deep threats hit. Make su make the Auburn offensive line block, make Byron make the long throw. Don't give away easy yards on screens, don't give away easy yards on slants, outs, etcetera. Tight end little dump offs. Because the bread and butter is that. Everything is really short, everything's really small, and Auburn hasn't shown the ability to take the top off the defense. And I I'm concerned about that. I mean I I I am highly concerned. I'm less concerned about Florida being just unreal. as I am, Auburn has not looked clean yet. And Florida, while they didn't play really good teams, did not look as messy. I agree. And so that's that's where that's where I'm coming from. And you look at like, you know, Golish comes in and I I think we can all agree we really we really like the guy that comes in and he has the same mentality that the fans do. Where when the game is sloppy, he doesn't come in and say you know, great performance by everybody. It was just, you know, just a humdinger. It's hard to win college football games. I'm gonna go roll tumors and really enjoy this one while I can. Nobody wants to hear that. But at the same time, you look at somebody who's saying, We gotta clean these things up, okay, so we look at like penalties. I would say penalties are a big issue for this Auburn team right now. Okay,
last year, South Florida, now some different players, but Honestly not that many different players and basically the same coaching staff. So far through two games, Auburn averaging sixty yards in penalties per game. Last year, South Florida averaged sixty one yards in penalties per game. That's concerning to me. Cause that seems like with the style of play, with the current roster that you have, you're probably gonna be sitting at about sixty yards of penalties. That's a pretty high number. of penalties. I mean it's not impossible to win the game, but it that's gonna be difficult. I think too, you look at the effort of the receivers. I thought against Baylor the effort of the receivers in blocking was not supreme. I thought that the effort running routes off the ball against Southern Miss was not especially wonderful. And I think those are the things that he's looking at that's like we can control penalties, we can control effort. What what What are they not getting through their heads of this is important to demonstrate effort for these sixty minutes of football? And I think that's why he's frustrated. I don't think he's as frustrated that, you know, Byram's feet aren't set or that Byram's a split second slow. I think he's frustrated at we've got a lot of penalties and we've got a lack of effort, especially out of the receiving group when they're not going to get the football. Contrast that with I think the offensive line and the running backs efforts have been exceptional. I think Jeremiah's co Jeremiah Cobb's effort in blocking has been unreal. You go watch some of these plays in the the Baylor game he got, you know, publicized for it for it being really good. Nobody talked about it in the Southern Miss game. There are plays in the Southern Miss Game where he's outrunning a receiver to go and get a blocking assignment. He is actively seeking out a block as if he has the football in his hands. So kudos to him. Same with Elmar. I thought Omar did a great job blocking. I thought that the O line, you know, they may have some difficult they're still shuffling pieces, but I think the common denominator is there's still good effort out of all of them. It doesn't seem like there's a lack of willingness to get a hat on the guy. It just may not be the right assignment. Mm. Yeah, and I mean speaking of that, you know, Wilson Zier got a lot of reps at the guard position. even had, if I'm not mistaken, he had the the most reps out of any of the guards. So do you see that as as a a potential change that you might see this guy starting on Saturday as a true freshman, you you feel like there's still gonna be some moving around probably against Florida and against Vanderbilt and I would imagine after that game is they'll say, All right, now we have to have a solidified offensive line. But it really seems like him maybe a guy like Jack Lyre, you know, I May maybe he could be another guy to slot in. Doesn't feel like Derek Plaz is going to be that guy, which it
seemed like he was in fall camp. So don't know what happened there, but it it feels like this offensive line is almost assuredly not going to be the same group starting in week one as it will be in week five. Yeah, I I think the tough thing is it's really hard as a true freshman to come in and start on the offensive line in the SEC. And I think it's just you you can do it I think well against a team like Southern Miss. I think back to last year with Cale Ellis, how even Kentucky they lined up a nose guard and they just bloodied his nose all night long. Kale's gonna be a fine SEC offensive lineman. He he had a tough night against Kentucky. And I it's not e again, it goes back to where it's not an effort piece. I don't think that he wanted to, you know, get blown up play after play. But there's something about I mean, these guys are huge. If you're eighteen, the guy across from you's twenty-three, twenty-four, like, and that dude's been in the strength program for six years. And not even physically and and even if you ignore the physical aspect, if you watch a high school football game, the defensive line is not running anything super complicated. Yeah, the twists and stuff and the mental I think that's a The mental aspect if you are a yeah. Hey, you're bigger and stronger than everybody else. You're gonna be a really good lineman. But in college, it's it's much more of, hey, by the time you're a year or two in the SEC, you're really strong. You're really athletic. The guy across from you is really strong and really athletic. They they try to scheme guys around you, they're gonna throw you at looks that you don't know. And then that's where the center and the quarterback have to communicate really well. I I thought that Zierer played very well. I would like to see him definitely against Florida in in some capacity. I'll be interested to see how that really looks. But I I don't know, man. I I think the offensive line has been okay in the past two games. A little bit probably a little bit better than I expected, especially on the tackles. I mean, do we do we think that this is a a solid offensive line group? Do you think that there will be offensive line problems on Saturday. What do you think from Florida's perspective? I know you said that you expect a a very aggressive defense, but do you think that Auburn will struggle in the line? Do you think that Auburn will struggle from Byram? Do you Auburn will struggle from the receivers? Where where are Auburn's offensive struggles going to originate from on Saturday? I think the I think that it's going to it's gonna be twofold. I think it's gonna be similar to Baylor. I think that the guards are gonna be somewhat of your liability. Like if you had to pick one spot, I think your guard's probably your right guard. It's gonna be your biggest liability. I think Byrum's speed of decision making is gonna be your second biggest thing. I think that in a game like this Florida game, the effort pieces seem to work
out a lot of the time. Like if you have a problem with effort over and over, you typically don't see that in the Iron Bowl. You don't typically see that in the Auburn, Georgia game. Right. You don't see that in These guys, this is their first big time home game. You have SEC Nation coming, you have all these college football shows coming to campus. And while that like they're not going to those events, that feels like, okay, this is a marquee this is probably the second biggest game of the weekend. I mean, I know it's being head to head with the LSU Ole Miss game, but it is a big time game. If LSU Ole Miss was not happening at the same time, I I think that this would probably be the most watched game of the Saturday. Yeah, well if if this was At least in the South. If this was three years ago and CBS still had the contract with the SEC, this game's being played at the same time and it's gonna be this is the prime time right night game. Playing right out of the So yeah, so this is you roll right out of that and everybody's like, What a great weekend you've got this game and this game. Yeah. That being said, I I think that the efforts, you know, receiver effort, I think that that gets cleaned up. Just just solely from what the game is. Not from coaching, not for I think it's just solely what the game is. I'm concerned about Byron. But I've been concerned about Byrum the entire time. Baylor did not rest any of my concerns. If anything, it somewhat solidified the concerns that I had for him. I wanna be wrong. I want Byron to do exactly what he did against Southern Miss and I want Byr I would love nothing more than for Byron Brown to win the Heisman Trophy. That that would make me over the moon happy. But if you're asking me what I think is gonna happen I don't think he's gonna win the Heisman Trophy. I think he's gonna struggle against fast defenses to make the decisions quickly. And I think he's gonna look just a touch slow, at least here early in the season. Now maybe he starts to pick it up against Florida and he really turns it on against Vandy and gets going in the season. I think that's possible too, but I I think that looking at this game, I'm concerned about Byram being the biggest thing. I'm also concerned, and I know that the defense has had really good showing so far. I'm concerned about the defense tackling ball. Because we've had some issues with this defense in the past of missing tackles. And any defense is susceptible to you know, if you miss tackles, it's a problem. This defense in particular, and you saw it against Southern Miss. If you miss a tackle, you're in big trouble. 'Cause it's almost like they try to cover everything from a pre snap perspective and there's not a lot of secondary lines of defense if you miss your play. I think that that's something to watch out for is how well can the defense tackle because they did an okay job against Baylor, but that that's something that bears watching because a lot of Florida's plays came from broken tackles. Yeah, and and and and part of that also is that Florida was playing some pretty bad defenses. yeah. So there's more likely to be some tackles. If you watch Jaden Ball's highlight reel against FAU specifically, you see a lot of just bad, bad attempts at tackling from the s the secondary and from the defensive bags of FAU. I I really think that you have a very important matchup. So on the offensive end, it's all right, can we run the football and can Byron get some shot plays? Can you be explosive on offense? On defense, I really think it's all about stopping Jaden Ball. And that's where you lean on guys like Elijah Melendez and Xavier Atkins, which if you have to lean on somebody, that's I mean those are the two guys that you want to lean on for this team. So I I am excited about that. I feel like Florida's best is going up against our best. And you know, that's that's kinda what you want as a college football fan because if your best is not as good as the other team's best, usually you're you're not gonna win the game. But i it's not it's not like we can't stop the run and they run the ball all over people. So they're gonna have to run into the teeth of the defense. I I've think I've thought Philo has looked good in Florida's games, very efficient. He doesn't, you know, doesn't really throw many incompletions, really hits his guys. He's a solid quarterback. I don't know if he is just an absolute game changer. And I wonder if you can stop the guy that Florida has that's averaging 150 yards per game. What does that offense look like? And and I think that that's gotta be if you're DJ Durkin, that's gotta be the the perspective of we are gonna play aggressive, we're gonna play high, we're gonna stop the run, and we're gonna see what happens on the other end. And then do you have guys, you know, making plays p making plays that way. I you Andre Jordan, his first career interception on the first play of the game was a pick six, had another pick later. Felt li feels like the DBs play a little bit more ball hawkish this year, just a a different group than you had last year. So I I really I've been pleasantly surprised with the defense. I expected them to be a little bit worse than they've shown so far. You expect to get Womack back against Florida. That should help with the pass rush. Sig Sigler's looked great. Jared Smith has been really solid. Honestly, I I really feel like the defense, especially the defensive line, has been better than I expected. And obviously Saturday is when you find out. But honestly, man, I I I go back and forth with this game. I really do, especially because Auburn's offense in particular didn't give you a lot to be excited about against Baylor. But I I like this defense. And and I don't think that it is as good as last year's. But I think the offense is good enough to counteract some of the shortcomings. And also, I know we talked about this a few podcasts ago. What we expected from this defense was
to be more aggressive and seek out more turnovers. And I definitely think that they do that. yeah. And that's something that that is exciting as a fan and gets you gets you more excited because you think, okay. The offense doesn't have to be as good because the defense might give you the ball in a in an advantageous position. And that was something that, for all the greatness that last year's defense was, they your offense started a lot of drives inside your own twenty-yard line and on your twenty yard line, and the offense is was not good enough to go the length of the field. I think that this defense might give up a little bit more points, might give up some more yards. But I do think that they're gonna have a lot more drives where they force a three and out and get you some good field position. How many times are we gonna run that crazy cover zero thing? Where we put everybody on the line of scrimmage and then bump out half the I can guarantee you the first third and eight or over that they have, that's what we're gonna see. I can g I can almost guarantee it. And and I I hope it finally works. I I just don't know I just don't know if it will. But I I don't know, I mean, so what what do you think? w what do you think is the magic number for points that that Auburn has to score to win this game? I I'm thinking twenty four. wow, I was a lot higher than that. No, I mean I I really don't expect Florida to score that many points. I was expecting Florida to get twenty seven. Okay. So you think Auburn needs thirty twenty eight to thirty. Okay. Yeah, I mean I don't know man. I and maybe I'm wrong and it it's hard I mean Florida's offense did I mean they've put up What a hundred and sixteen points in the past two games? I mean that's it's about as good as you could possibly get. Now I mean, you know, Auburn put up what seventy three against Alabama A and under Hugh Freeze, and that was a a bad offense. So you it it's hard to it's hard to really justify that because a bad offense and a good offense looks great against a bad team. I really think I believe forty three points great against a bad team? Yeah. Okay. I mean, okay, here's the thing. When you look at this the 43 points that Auburn scored against Southern Miss, yes, you you watch that game, okay, Auburn scored 43. You watch the Florida game, and you say, okay, FAU scored real points against a real defense. Arguably, it definitely two, maybe even a third touchdown against the number one defense for Florida. For Auburn, you scored 43, you have your star running back fumble on the five yards. Takes off takes off a touchdown. You drop a touchdown in the end zone. You left a lot of points on the board. And I'm not saying that that's an excuse or a moral victory, but this game was a 35 point win that felt like it was a much bigger win than 35 points. So I I really don't I don't put a lot of stock into only scoring forty three. I I think that Auburn's offense played well. I don't think that Auburn's offense was really trying to blow the scoreboard up. I I thought that it was very much, hey, we're gonna run we're gonna pass the ball with Byron, we're gonna get him involved and we're gonna show some of the things that he can do. And there were definitely some things where it was we want this on film so that Florida can prepare for certain things, you know, and you wanted to be able to have more formations and more things in your offense that Florida has to prepare for. Are you concerned at all that last time Goalish faced off against Summerall, he scored ten points? No. Not at all. Not a big deal. No, it's it's it's different. It's the same thing that they they were asking John Somerall all day in his press conference, you know, is this a revenge game for your team? No, it's when was that was what, twenty twenty four? Yeah. What what time of year? September. September of twenty twenty four. It's been two years. That was the game that Byram got hurt. I mean y yeah, I I I that's it's a different it's a different world. It's different teams, it's different logos, it's None of that is the same. I don't put any stock into that. I know that both of these coaches are really gonna win wanna win the game. I I I don't put in any stock into what happened last year or what happened two years ago. Okay. I mean that's fair. I mean, Oklahoma State lost sixty three to nothing to Oregon last year or sixty nine to three. And they and they win the next year. And they won this year. Yeah, and and in today's college football too, I mean, it's just like, yeah, there were some guys that were there, but they're not thinking If you put yourself into the mind of a g a USF transfer at Auburn, he's not thinking, man, this is a revenge game. I'm thinking I'm thinking less I'm thinking less like player revenge. I'm thinking more of schematically how Summerall's kind of defensive strategies go against Golish's offense. I mean, yeah, sure. How many I mean, you can y how how many times did Sabin shut down Gus's offense? Not many. I mean there were there were plenty of games where Auburn's offense could not move the ball against Alabama. Or can say though, but but on the whole, Gus Malzon moved the ball against Nick Saban. And you kinda had a feeling like, all right, Gus is gonna be able to move the ball against Saban. Like th that that was always my takeaway going into it. I don't know. I think I have to see. Same thing of like Gus against Brett Bielema. Yeah, but I I have to see a lot more than just One game of a sample size of okay, his quarterback got hurt and he didn't score any points. Yeah. It's like, okay, there are so many different things that go into a game plan, so many different things that go into matchups. I I I really don't put any stock into that whatsoever. I think it's two a completely different situation, new coaches, new teams. And I really don't know if I feel good about the game, but I feel better than I did at this point last week. Really? I do. And and
I might I might eat my words once I'm once I'm watching it, I might just be buying into the Jordan Hare mojo, having a night game, playing against Florida. I mean, honestly, you know, I mean Al Auburn has had some Auburn's had some success in the past against Florida teams and obviously, you know, none of that really matters, you know, looking at games from ten, fifteen years ago. Twenty years ago. Yeah, but I I don't know, man. I it's just something something about you just get a vibe. You get vibes about certain games and I don't know. I feel like this is going to be a good game. It's gonna be a close game. I think it's going to be if Auburn can win this game, I think that it is going to be a really, really catapult for the season. Yeah, and just a ki just a catapult for Alex Goelish. Like and I and I talked about this before. I think that this is the most important game on the schedule. I feel like when you watch Georgia, we don't stand a chance against those guys. I don't think. I don't think we have a great shot against them. LSU looks a lot better than we do. Ole Miss is is is not looking easy. But a and you might win those games. You might be able to to do something. But this is a game that I think you should and you can win. You've got you've got the home crowd. Should you win a game that you're not a favorite in? Truly. See see, I would say yes. Because i if you are a coach in the SEC, you can't just win the games that you're Because at some point No, not that you can't, but I don't think you sh I don't think you can say to someone you should win a game. I if an unranked team is playing in Jordan Hare at night, Auburn should win the game. That is my expectation of the program. That is my expectation of what Auburn football is. If you are the coach at Auburn University, you should not lose a game to an unranked team at home. I think the reason that people think this is Florida is unranked. Because last year's Florida team did not meet expectations. That's correct. It doesn't matter. But that doesn't mean that th this team and that's the t in week three, this could be the fifteenth ranked team in the country. When Gus Malzon was the head coach at Auburn, you never expected to lose any home game. Not really. If a team came into Alabama games where they're a team came into Jordan Hare, the amount of times that a number one ranked team came into Jordan Hare and you expected I think we're gonna win this game. Or at least I have a really good feeling. Feeling that we could win this game. And that is against top five teams. Yeah. If a team came in, if a team came in with a a teen or a twenty-something next to their name, you didn't you didn't even think that they were ranked. We were not aware of what teams were ranked when we were watching Gus Mells on football. If we were playing a home game, if we were playing a game at night, Auburn expected to win the game because you're at home and you're a good football team. And I don't think that it's an unreasonable expectation to have that, especially against a Florida team that yeah, even if they might become the fifteenth ranked team in the country, just looking at th it's not like they're some kind of juggernaut that is just a ticking time bomb waiting to happen to walk into the playoffs. I mean, if you just look at the SEC teams, I can name five or six that just on paper look better than this Florida team. And and so, yeah, Auburn is a two and a half point dog. I I I don't think that that should be a swing that makes us think, man, this is we we shouldn't win this game. I think it's it's a big game. It will be a really big win. But I think that the expectation as a fan of what the program is, that this is not a game that you lose. And certainly not next week against Vanderbilt. If you have a true freshman quarterback coming into Jordan Hare Stadium making his second collegiate start. Which is this Philo's first career start as a FBS quarterback? No, I believe he started I believe he started a game at Georgia Tech. I believe. Because what's the name got hurt? I think so. I mean I I could be I could be wrong about that, but I I do think that he he did have some kind of starting experience there at Georgia Tech. And obviously, you know, he's he comes in there you know, walks in to to be the starting quarterback of Florida. not not the most it wasn't like this was their guy. I mean, if you remember, Sumral shows up to to Florida and he wanted DJ Lagway to start. You know? I mean, he wanted this guy to be their quarterback and then something happened behind closed doors and Lagway leaves. So th this isn't like someone who this isn't like the Alex Goller situation where he comes to Auburn and he brings his guy with him or he takes a job and he has this pick of the litter of who he wants. I mean, this was kinda who Florida could get and they rolled with him, so He might be really solid, he might be a good player, but this isn't like someone that you know, John Summerall just picked out of a hat and was like, Man, this guy's gonna fit like a glove for my team. Yeah, I so I mean just a quick Google search. Philo started against Gardner Webb. He came in against North Carolina, but that was at home. So this'll be the first time that he has been the starting quarterback on the road for a big time game. A and that's That matters. It does matter. I mean he's a human. Yeah. And I mean you I think you even saw like last weekend, Keelon Russell, right? First half looked lost. Yeah. I mean lost. Turnovers every other drive. Goes into halftime, calms down, comes back out, and absolutely rips against Kentucky. And now I don't think that Philo's gonna come out and just rip this defense 'cause I think Kentucky is not the same caliber defense. But what I'm saying is if we can get out early, that would be very helpful 'cause I think he's gonna be a little shook. Not the same caliber atmosphere. Playing playing at Kentucky when the sun is out, yeah. And playing
it all in Yeah, it's it's very different. So and maybe he who knows, man. Maybe I'm just and I do think that we both might have a little bit of the curse that we think of Auburn football as twenty ten's era. Well I don't I mean I have us losing this game. Yes, but I think w when we think when when we talk about the program and what the program should and shouldn't do, if you look at Auburn the past five years, they lose this game. Yes, I think I but I think that our expectations of the program are in line with the commitment of the NIL collective and the facilities. Yeah. So therefore the expectation is not what they've done in the past five years, it's where is the NIL collective? And what should say what should you do right now? This this is how much of a financial commitment we have to this sport. So the expectation is that you achieve an outcome for this financial commitment. I mean, I think Cam Newton said it best. I really do. There's that clip of Cam Newton where he said that he wants them to tell recruits that we will give you money in exchange for wins. And if you do not give us wins, he in the words of Cam, he says control alt delete. Yeah. Now That's a little harsh. But anyway, but it's true. You're being paid to come in and win football games. So the expectation is that you're gonna win football games. And that's the expectation. It's not that you're gonna be close. It's not that you're gonna give the old college try. It's that you're going to score more points than the other team. Yeah. That being said, I think we lose the game. And and I I think that's it's fair and I'm I'm very excited to see what what is your score prediction? Let's go score predictions now. I have us at twenty seven or them. Twenty seven Florida, twenty three Auburn, with three field goals. Okay. I I really dude, I I really don't know. I've been going back and forth all week on if I if I really think we're gonna win, think we're gonna lose. I think that I am going to hype myself up to get hurt very badly on Saturday. I think that if Auburn loses on Saturday, I will be more down than I've been in a while. And usually I am The down to earth, you know, a avoiding the avoiding getting too high or too low. You need to eat a Ben's pretzel. I I need a you need a cinnamon sugar pretzel. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the homer. I'm gonna predict a win. I I'm gonna say Auburn wins something something weird. Maybe twenty eight to twenty four. That's not super weird, but but I I think a twenty eight to twenty twenty four. My score was way weirder. Twenty seven, twenty three which is way weirder than okay, maybe I need to change it 'cause I I think we will you basically just gave me the inverse of my score. We will have to kick some field goals. No, it's about it. You think we're gonna score touchdowns and not I think three field goals, I'm putting the over under at three field goals for all. Here's the th I expect and and and this is another thing that we haven't really talked about. Alex McPherson had a great day against Southern Mills. Need him to have a great day against Florida. And and and that that's the thing if if this guy especially if this offense can move the ball And maybe they can't finish drives, but if they can move the ball a little bit, if Alex McPherson can consistently hit from forty five, that is a huge deal, man. I mean, that is something that Auburn's offense just did not have last year. And that can change games. That can totally change games. So I I agree with you. Maybe I'll change mine to Let's go. Alright, hold on. Hold on. Let's do it this way. How many touchdowns do we score? I think three to four. Really? Wow. That was May maybe three. Maybe three. Three. I don't know. Okay. Here's the thing. I I I just think I really think I expect I expect one big play, at least one big touchdown play. I think is essential. And I think it could happen this week. And I think the defense makes a big play. Now, I don't know if the defense making a big play Get you in the red zone, just a big goal line stop, gets a turnover, gets a pick six. I don't know. But I think the defense is gonna make a big play, and I think Auburn's gonna have an explosive play. So that that's where I'm coming from from that. And maybe you just have one, you know, normal touchdown, then you have a couple weird things. So maybe twenty seven twenty seven twenty one, maybe something like that. I want everybody to know that I said twenty seven. twenty three and Noble gave me the off beat score of twenty seven twenty one. Thanks for being different, Noble. Right, but if you if you think that we are going to be in a certain range, it would be strange i if if if you who watch Auburn football all the time and you say, I think it's gonna be, you know, twenty what what did you even say? I said twenty seven, twenty three. Twenty seven, twenty three, and I'm like, no either, I think you're way off. I think it's gonna be fifty two to forty. It's like, okay, well maybe that's a that's a bit of a stretch. I mean, obviously the score predictions are going to be in the same stratosphere. Right. Okay. Now we we we've talked about the game. You mentioned Cam Newton. I saw this clip recently. Last year you had Deuce Knight coming in as a recruit, wanting to wear number two, and Cam Newton said, No. You can't. You can't do that, Deuce. I don't even know who you are. You know, you kinda you know obviously he kn knows who he is, but But it was kind of a Yeah, he c I mean he coached his did some stuff with eleven on eleven. So but but Cam was very adamant of like, no man, like I'm I'm Cam Newton and you're not, and you should blaze your own trail. Do you think what what are your thoughts on retired numbers? Do you think that you like that Auburn has retired numbers? Do you wish that Auburn did something like LSU where they give the best player number seven? What are your thoughts on the number debate? I think that having a number that is, hey, this was our
best player and it honors this person because they were such a good player is way cooler than nobody gets to wear this number. That's just my opinion on it. Well so it was interesting. I I heard a clip, Michael Irvin was talking about this and he was saying, Look, if somebody if you have your number in the rafters, it's cool when they put it up there, you walk in, but then no one ever wears it again. And you become forgotten. Yeah. And and I would say, you know, if you ask the average Auburn fan, hey, tell me about Terry Beasley, they couldn't. No. You know, 'cause no one's and and no one's worn eighty eight for the past fifty years. So, you know, i is that immortalized. Maybe not, but I mean that's that's not as immortalized as something like two and people know seven, but but you still have those retired numbers. But Michael Irvin said, you know, if it's retired, people forget about it. But If you're out there and you're wearing the same number, they will always compare you to that guy. So if you have a quarterback wearing number two and he overthrows a guy, the whole stadium says, man. He ain't Cam. Cam wouldn't have overthrown him. That guy, he's no Cam Newton. I also the thing that I like about Seven for LSU is it honors the player in the moment, but the program, the program, the program. This is about the logo on the front, this is about the Tigers on the like this is LSU football. And I think especially in the NIL era, I would like to shift towards that because what all of the collective and stuff really is doing now is going into this is this is your your memory of what Auburn football was. Because it used to be that you really were attached to the players on the team and they really did enjoy going to the same school you did and they really did enjoy the traditions. I hate to break it to y'all. Half the team that Auburn has doesn't give two cares about Auburn University. They will transfer and they will go somewhere else. And they will just keep on on their journey and it's just part of the life. I will say though, I think it is not like it used to be. But but I think people romanticize what it used to be a lot. Like you look at a guy like Eugene Asante, transferred to Auburn, got his chance. Yeah. And he and he has been a representative for Auburn. He is on the hype videos. He is His life has been changed and it is a round of. How many guys played in the two thousands and the twenty tens that you think were on the field and they maybe have come back once or twice and they just don't this is not that big a deal. How many guys were good players in the Gus Malzon days that you've never seen on Twitter posting about the games? You've never seen them coming back for games. You see a lot more of them. Like I bet when you do those team reunions and you see tea guys coming back from the twenty twenty three team, it's not gonna be as full as the the two thousand Pro probably not two thousand eight. Okay, but but do you think that there is a degree of if you were there a and this this does build to your point that if you're transferring if you were there for a good season, do you think that that affects the attendance at all? a hundred percent. I think that if you have the good season then people affiliate themselves with your school. I was there for that. It's like work you all so so let's talk about that like let's talk about like Perry Thompson. So if Perry Thompson goes to the playoffs with Auburn, Auburn says, Hey, we're not gonna pay you this much anymore, Minnesota's gonna pay me more He goes, gets his bag at Minnesota, does whatever as a golden gopher. Is he gonna go back up to Minnesota? No, he's gonna come back to the playoff reunion. So yes. But again, then you're not you're still not committed you don't love Auburn. You love the memory of when you got an accolade. Mm-hmm. Whereas I think that a lot of people actually enjoyed attending Auburn University. They were part of Auburn University for longer than I took some online classes there. I think that's the other thing. I think online classes heard it too. Yeah, absolutely. Because like I mean even Cam Newton. Cam Newton was the biggest celebrity at Auburn. Man had to have a bodyguard to go to class because he had to go to class. Do you think Byron Brown has a single in person class at Auburn? Well, and that that's another thing that I will say. I I definitely saw that from my time. I was at Auburn from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five. And even in the earlier times I noticed more of I had athletes in my class. I would, you know, do have things with athletes. I would see people on campus. Later in my time at Auburn, it was very rare that I would see a football player on campus. I mean, Carrion Johnson was in my biology class. Mm-hmm. And I mean, Carrie on was a big time player. Yeah. And he was right there in the same class. You know what I'm saying? Like they were part of obviously they were different. They had the wellness kitchen. They had I mean it's clear that they were not just a normal student. Well and I remember but they were also it was more like almost a high school atmosphere of like, okay, I'm rooting for this guy who's in my class. So before Carrion Johnson is twenty seventeen Carrion Johnson, he gets in the game and I'm like, that's the guy from my class. Yeah. Well, I really hope that this guy does well. You know what I'm saying? Or like you have an offensive lineman or somebody and you're like, that's fun, he's in my class. Yeah. Well, and I mean and that even goes back to, you know, back then after you saw, you know, Carrion gets hurt in the Iron Bowl and people are making comments before the SC championship of, yeah, Carrion's in a sling right now. well, how do you know? I Well he was at biology class. Yeah, I saw him. He he was in class or he was at Mama Goldberg's and I feel like I I don't know. I I just feel like you definitely don't see that as much to your point. And there's online classes
that go into that, but also people transfer in and they might not give two cares about getting a degree, and they're just taking a bunch of classes that aren't even degree seeking. So you know what's funny though is I feel like the basketball team has done a really good job of I feel like the basketball players at Auburn care about Auburn. More than I more than I feel like the majority of the football players do. I agree a and part of that's culture. And part of it's that the basketball team's good. Yeah, but you also had culture pieces. You had a guy like Bruce Pearl that was very big on the program. You had guys like Dylan Cardwell who were Uber involved in the school. And honestly, Dylan Cardwell may not have really been to class that much, but he was on campus a lot. You know, and he was he was someone that people saw. And yeah, I I do think that you have that. And also the basketball team's graduation rates Some of the best in the SEC, you know, and that's because of, you know, guys like Bruce Pearl, other guys that are involved in the program, very big in the athletics that that have focused on, hey, we want guys to graduate. And if you have a coach that really cares about that, like Bruce Pearl, that that matters. And that gives people to really like their school and really build, you know, build that emotion that we all have. So And I think that that matters for winning games. I do too. I know I know that people say, I don't care, I care only about the ball. There is something about it and it's not it's not a direct thing. But when you mentor your players and you care enough about your players to say, listen, someday you're not gonna play basketball, get this degree. Or hey, while you're here, just go ahead and chip this off. Like, this is part of mental toughness is going and getting your degree. Like, go and do this thing. Don't just waste your time here. Take a bunch of classes that don't matter. Don't just do an internship at the driving range, like actually be involved in the university. Yes, I know you're a professional athlete. Right, but even then you see in international sports, you know, the World Cup just happened, you see that passion of people being like, I'm representing my country. Yes. And you see passion from a country that has no chance of winning. And those players are like, Man, this is the biggest moment of my life. Whereas if you watch a bad club team or a bad pro team, I mean the Jaguars just beat the brakes off of the Browns. And not a single guy there on that Browns team is like, man, I'm putting on for Cleveland. I'm putting on for the Browns, man. Like that's just not it's not the feeling. And if you're good, yeah, you can be like, hey man, I'm a I'm a Buffalo Bill. I'm a Kansas City Chief. Yeah. But it's much homes or somebody that's been there for forever. Yeah. But but you're good. You know, you you have to be good to have that. And and that absolutely happens with college football as well. And Georgia has that. Yeah. I mean Kirby has developed that But it's hard because you have to be good enough at the beginning To keep people. To say, Hey man, we're not gonna pay you that much because it's a privilege to play at Georgia. Yeah. Yeah, you can't say, Hey man, it's a privilege to play at Auburn. We're not gonna pay you as much as everybody else and they say, Well, big dog, you you won five games last year. I'm gonna go play from Minnesota. Right, exactly. 'Cause it's like sit on the bench for Minnesota. Yeah, but it but yeah, I mean you look at it and you're like, Well, I'm not winning here. I might as well not win where I can make money or go somewhere where I can win. So that that definitely goes into it, and hopefully we can we can turn the page and go back into an era of Auburn football that we can all be excited about, we can all be proud of. So, final score, you think we're gonna lose. I'm the optimist this week. I think we're gonna win. I'm smoking the crack. I'm excited, man. I think it's gonna be a really, really good weekend in Jordan Hare. But as always, thank you guys so much for listening, and we're eagle. We're eagle.