[Music] exciting weekend of college football I think Labor Day is probably the most exciting outside of uh the bowl season and now we have a 12 team playoff uh coming in 2024 I mean it's just a plethora of college football whether it's FCS BCS um you get a chance to see some uh teams uh come out and really perform go ahead and subscribe to Veron speak Sports Auburn once again it's Canard Veron Stewart here for the podcast we're talking Auburn football and you know just got a few takeaways excuse me from the Auburn versus Alabama A&M football game down in the comments section I want to you to leave like what was your biggest takeaway just from college football in general you know I thought some teams um you know really didn't perform as well as I thought they would have I thought Florida kind of laid an egg against my Miami um I thought the Texas A&M and Notre Dame game you know kind of led up to his bilding I was really intrigued by the Georgia versus Clemson game Georgia getting off to a slow start only to go ahead and dominate uh Clemson in that particular football game there were some others that we just don't have time to talk about right now um you also look at how old Miss thrashed Ferman how Arkansas just rolled over Arkansas Pine Bluff now now my thing against with um Arkansas is I just want Arkansas to keep that same energy because they had a lot of arrogant stuff going on in that game you know waving at the cheerleaders when you score a touchdown things like that which I mean I'm fine with I mean I I get it you know it's college football you want to you know celebrate and things like that but I just want you to be able to do that in that same arrogant fashion once this season gets a little bit tighter but we got some takeaways from the Auburn versus Alabama A&M game which was a very interesting game when especially when I had the opportunity to go back and look at the football game I think Auburn did some things particularly well got five takeaways as to how what Auburn was able to accomplish in a very short period of time I mean the game was abbreviated because of the mercy rule especially in the second half but Auburn really didn't have the ball that long in this game we'll talk about that some in the video number one the the biggest takeaway we've talked about pton Thorne at nausea nauseum over the off season we thought that pton Thorne you know wasn't particularly a great decision maker especially at critical points of the game good news is he didn't make those mistakes the bad new and against Alabama andm the bad news is he W wasn't really put in situations where he had to be analytical of the opposing defense he didn't have to do much as far as checkdown goes he didn't have to do a lot of thinking Auburn's offense and Talent on offense was just superiorly talented over Alabama A&M I think Auburn would have been able to do this against a few teams maybe even a couple of teams in the power five I think Auburn is that Talent at the wide receiver position you look at Payton Thorne even with the offse criticism had the best game of his Auburn career 322 yards in the first half and four touchdowns no interceptions had a couple of drops otherwise a pretty Flawless performance I'd say impressive now all the action though for the offense as a whole was in like a really short span of time and we're going to get in that to get into that as we talk about the receivers performance but I still want to see I'm not I'm not saying that I'm I'm not impressed with Thor's performance because I was I mean 322 yards in the first half against any team is absolutely impressive the confidence that he showed I think the offensive line did a great job of protecting them especially on the perimeter of the offensive line the offensive tackles did a great job with that now the next step comes I want to see the decision making when let's just say Auburn is down by 10 points right before halftime and they trying to sneak in a score or in the third quarter where it's a because you know we we all know the third quarter is a very transitional part of any football game how can he handle that stretch with you know not being being able to just go out there drop back and throw a fade route or go out and throw a out route and it just be wide open having to really decipher what the different defensive schematics are looking like I think we don't want to get for a lack of better way of putting it we don't want to get too drunk or too high off of Payton stor pton Thorn's performance in this game because there going to be some challenges there's going to be a lot more pressure there's going to be a lot more talented cornerbacks that are going to be able to possibly match up with the skill set of Auburn's new receivers and some of the old receivers I don't think cam Brown got a lot of act Camden Brown didn't get a lot of action in this game uh but I want to see pton Thorne under the rest so I'm I'm still on the fence as to whether you know pton Thorne has WR writed the wrongs of 2023 because I got to see some pressure on him and I think we're going to see that in the Cal game Cal California is a lot more talented team even though they did struggle a little bit in week one against a menial opponent but they did pull it out they do have um the type of talent that can challenge this Auburn offense and put them in more situational play calling maybe it put them in situations pton Thorne has to check down or check um plays at the line of scrimmage I want to see more of that from pton Thorne all right so number two all new wide receivers at Auburn had 30 yards or more Malcolm Simmons Perry Thompson Keandre Lambert Smith cam Coleman all had over 60 yards now I like that I think that's pretty impressive and I think that was appr for the talent set that Auburn was competing against but here here's my problem though and see a lot of y'all y'all get on here thinking I'm trying to hate and you know hey just take the win and be yeah I I'm happy I I think they did a great job they did what they were supposed to do against the opponent that they played against here's what I want to see though because I'm always up for you know up to see these guys challenge themselves you know most of the Yards were on one play now this is absolutely not to take away from anything that these receivers did I it went just about the way I thought it would go I thought Alabama andm obviously an inferior opponent it actually went the way I needed it to go the way I wanted it to go because I didn't want these receivers to struggle under any level against Alabama A&M and no disrespect to Alabama ANM I think you know they played with poise and I think they played with um the confidence that they could play based on their talent level um but but I want to see week two against California I want to see a little bit more and I I think you probably will see a little bit more from a game plan standpoint a little bit more intermediate PL passing some more dig routes I think you will start to see how impactful these wide receivers can be against a little bit more competition I think California obviously power five football team you know entering into the ACC conference I don't know how that looks especially with you you're on the west coast but you're in the Atlantic Coast Conference I mean that's another question for another day but even still you compete in a conference that has that's Champions has the opportunity to be in the college football playoffs so that says a lot there and I think the Auburn wide receivers did show that they can create a lot of stress uh for a secondary and especially in the interior um create a lot of mismatches with linebackers create a lot of mismatches with those nickel backs really test the boundary and field cornerbacks and and cause a lot of duress maybe maybe similar and I'm going to make a bold statement maybe even better than the wide receiver core from LSU in TW I mean Auburn's got a lot of weapons at that wide receiver room and it's going to be be super interesting to see how Hugh freeze utilizes those guys moving forward now number three I think the defense was intense the whole game they didn't give up a lot of dumb play because you know when you look at these games where you know there's a not high consequence you know you're blowing them out but they played with intensity throughout the game and I think that's a big big uh shout to DJ jerkin Durkin and how he has prepared these guys and how he takes pride in the intensity of this defense um although they played very intense I think they were a little vulnerable and a little bit more vulnerable in the pass game than I would like Alabama ANM had 204 yards passing Cornelius Brown had a respectable 13 for 27 attempts at 182 yards he didn't turn the ball ball over and that's another thing Auburn did not create any turnovers I think that's something that Auburn is going to look for especially in this California game because they're going to be some games down the stretch where Auburn is is is going to have to flip the football field it's going to have to change some trajectory of the game by turnovers or by key stops or by fumble recoveries maybe even for a touchdown to make the difference in a game number four Auburn's defensive line and defense was very active in many ways uh a lot of guys just like you saw in the depth chart they had and you know this guy stars and or this other guy Stars they had pretty much the whole defensive line I mean the whole defensive Personnel that were listed as either starters or probable starters or we don't know but they didn't disappoint they were very active and they did a very good job in this game you know they gave up a little bit they missed a few assignments and I think that's something that can be corrected with film study but you know overall pretty impressive and five last but not least this was a big a big portion of Auburn's game plan is protecting the running backs um I think you know obviously with some pieces of the running game uh Missing You know you have Jero Hunter deari Austin Jeremiah cob I think and Sean jacks and a couple other guys you you have four core running backs that you need to have healthy down the stretch and to risk the PO now you did want to get them some reps but you also didn't want to risk injury in a game that just wasn't you know consequential but you did but to stretch fall Camp you got to get these guys in the game get them some touches get them some Nicks from another team um get you know get get that ingame experience and probably utilize them a little bit more against California and as the weeks progress as you start to talk about Arkansas Oklahoma Georgia that stretch Missouri but you got to keep those guys healthy and even in the limited roles that they played you know you had no running back for Auburn that had more than four carries and as a unit this steam team still produced 177 yards and that includes Payton Thorne who was active in the Run pass option I'm really looking forward to seeing the progression I want to see these guys against some competition um some more physical competition some more uh athletic competition and experienced competition you know when you look at teams how they've utilized the transfer portal and you start to even the playing field there I just say hey just put your just strap you know strap your chin straps and let's get this Auburn football season going got California next week Auburn opened up as a 12.5 favorite with a over under of a little bit over 50 points let's see how you bet there very impressive first week like this video comment and subscribe uh to Veron speak Sports AR get very active in the comment section what do you think was the defining moment of this season opening game in the Deep South College football is King and on the plains of Auburn the battlecry is war day a