welcome back to another episode of rock boys football Hugh freeze this Auburn offense it comes out week one Saturday night and just kind of makes a statement for a lack of better terms now I had to watch this game Sunday morning was watching my Michigan Wolverines on Sunday night that being said rewatching this game Sunday morning drinking my cup of coffee it just felt so good because we talked extensively about this Auburn passing attack and why we think it takes a step in 2024 and you know for all the reasons that we talked about this passing attack taking steps in the summer you know we kind of saw take place on Saturday night want to get into a little bit of what we saw some Concepts that were we really like heading into 2024 but I think most of all that vertical passing attack it's G to be there for Auburn in the 2024 season you go back to 2023 where I think they struggled the most on offense was just having pretty much no presence pushing the ball down the field now I think partially that had to deal with pton Thorne being a new quarterback and a new system not being in for spring practice but I think a lot more of the equation had to deal with auburn just not having difference makers on the outside you know I went back and said in the summer that I thought that Auburn wide receiver room in 2023 there's a good chance it was the worst in the SEC you take a look at what it looks like in 2024 there's a good chance this is probably the strongest unit on this Auburn roster which is kind of telling you something and you saw it on full dis play Saturday night whether it's cam Coleman whether it's Malcolm Simmons Perry Thompson Keandre Lambert Smith they just look different out there from a from a talent standpoint first of all right just the size the speed the juice that these wide receivers have it it looks different and it feels different and if Auburn can kind of maintain this kind of offense having an FCC play I think this team becomes very dangerous in the 2024 year fired up to get into it now before we doing as always to the Auburn fans most importantly I would love to hear how you guys are feeling in the comment section I'm personally it's no secret we talked a lot about this team I was on record saying I think this is the most improved football team in the country heading into 2024 there's nothing better than sitting down Sunday morning with a cup of coffee rewatching the Auburn game and just you know seeing this Auburn offense in Hugh freeze just absolutely go to work so I had a blast watching it would love to hear how you guys are feeling of course if you all do enjoy the content consider sub subing to the channel going to dive a little bit deeper into what we saw from this Auburn offense a little bit later on in the week we're going to preview that Cal game Monday morning but without further Ado let's get into this one and I want to start with again the vertical passing attack you talk about just the lack of space Auburn was able to create in 2023 I think a large portion of that had to do with just a lack of vertical threat that they had in this passing attack you go back to the 2023 season pton Thorne completed 28% of his passes 20 plus yards down the field now yes did Payton Thorne struggle in 2023 yeah there's no question about it but I think the bigger story line was who was he GNA throw to 20 plus yards down the field there wasn't really A Difference Maker in the pass catcher room and that Auburn offense through the air kind of relied on tight on revaldo Fairweather who I think is a very good football player that being said it it kind of tells you something when you're passing attack has to go through the tight end and so what you saw on Saturday night was a laundry list of players that are extremely Dynamic and can allow pton Thorne to push the ball down the field now pton Thorne was throwing some beautiful passes 20 plus yards down the field but cam Coleman or Keandre Lambert Smith or Malcolm Simmons or Perry Thompson those kind of wide receivers when they were asked to work vertically it just looked a little bit different and as that game kind of went through in Alabama A&M had to start respecting what Auburn could do pushing the ball vertically down the field what do we see a lot more space getting created underneath and guys operating after the catch really the key to this offense is just kind of finding that vertical passing attack not only is it going to help hit explosive plays like we saw last night but more importantly this Auburn offense is going to be able to run the football more you go back to 2023 teams weren't necessarily scared of what Auburn could do working vertically down the field they were just walking safeties in the Box it's really hard to run especially in the SEC when and yet teams are walking their safeties in the Box playing seven eight guys in tackle box that's what kind of Auburn's ofense struggled with the short intermediate Concepts were certainly not there because of these defenses kind of squeezing down on Auburn you're not going to see that in 2024 but if you do see it I think Auburn has the personnel and the playmaking ability to punish teams down the field this was an Auburn offense that last year in terms of yards per pass was outside of the top 100 16 and a half yards per pass for pton Thorne on Saturday night that is night and day different pton Thorne look good throwing the Deep Ball but I think more importantly you just got so many different wide receivers that can really give you that explosive element working vertically down the field couple other notes that I had one Malcolm Simmons is he's gonna be a guy I think I think there's a good chance I know Robert Lewis I think was banged up with a hamstring injury whether that's Malcolm Simmons earning that starting spot or just Robert Lewis trying to get back healthy Malcolm Simmons is going to he's going to have a real presence in this offense and quite frankly he should because when he has the football in his hands he looks a little bit different I think Auburn scripted up the first play to get the football into Malcolm Simmons hands and Malcolm Simmons is a guy that kind of flew under the radar because you know the national media wants to talk about a guy like cam Coleman which I'm all for cam Coleman should get all the attention he deserves that being said because of that you know the late and rolly Malcolm Simmons it kind of comes into Auburn during the summer for the Auburn fans who read the fall Camp notes certainly know Malcolm Simmons was making some plays and that kid didn't look like a true freshman out on the football field you look at the rushing attack averaging almost 10 yards per carry jarquez Hunter looked very solid in a a light workload for jarquez Hunter week one this vertical passing attack not only do you see it show up when we're hitting explosive plays down the field but more importantly it shows up with the rest of this Auburn offense it gives Auburn just a little bit more space to work the Run game to work some of the short intermediate passing Concepts and you look at the best offenses in the country all the best offenses are able to create space and it looks like Auburn's able to do that in 2024 because of that vertical passing attack that we saw Saturday night against Alabama and I think to kind of round out that conversation I'm looking down at my notes Here I I think all the things that we talked about the reasons we talked about this Auburn team taking strides in 2024 we kind of saw it against Alabama A&M and I get it it's Alabama A&M Auburn should be doing that but to see it kind of manifest on the football field I think was just a really good feeling for a lot of Auburn fans couple other notes I had offensive line again it's Alabama A&M we expect to dominate along the lines of scrimmage zero quarterback curries zero sacks 10 yards per carry this Auburn offensive line looked good Tyler Johnson at left tackle I was impressed I think Auburn is developing some nice depth on the offensive line as well then you look at the defense and say you played a lot of guys if I'm being nitpicky maybe sloppy at times in zone coverage which kind of makes sense because DJ Durkin wants to bring a lot of pressure and then drop back into some weird zones that's a defense that I could see having some Growing Pains early on I expect Auburn and DJ Durkin to kind of fix some of those things you saw some of DJ durkin's aggressive nature Auburn did not play a vanilla football game like they went out there and ran their defense ran their offense were sending line backers on the blitz we're pushing the ball down the field and we kind of said heading in we want to see that I think most importantly for the offense you want to put on film that you are a team that can vertically attack opposing defenses if they do want to put Bodies In The Box and so you look at that Cal game week two when Cal's digging into some of this film say hey we probably got to leave our two safeties High because if we don't we are liable to give up a very good play to this Auburn passing attack that Auburn just didn't really threaten you to do in the 2023 season on the defensive side of the football outside of the sloppy zones and I say sloppy it was pretty solid I mean Cal B&M scored three points I know they missed a couple field goals but I thought overall is good this pass rush looks to be legit I mean whether it's Kon Crawford whether it's Jaylen McLoud whether it's kri faul they got a lot of different guys that they can get really creative with in terms of dialing pressure against opposing offenses we know that DJ Durkin wants to affect the passer whether it's blitzes whether there at stunts there's going to be a strong emphasis on that and I think you certainly saw that Saturday night now we're going to get into a little bit more I do want to pull up just one play quickly that I thought kind of highlights the new Auburn offense if you will and that is we're splitting out wide one we get a light box right we can run in this box all day long we got a six-man box with a tight end in line so it's like this is this is a Auburn offense you didn't see these kind of boxes in 2023 because you look at these two High safeties they're coming down by the line of scrimmage because we're not nervous about the wide receivers on the perimeter now early in the second quarter Alabama Alabama andm quickly learned that they have to kind of respect what Auburn can do at the wide receiver position and what do you get you have this center of the field for a guy like raldo Fairweather to get active in now this is not a completion it ends up I mean this linebacker carrying raldo Fairweather up the seam hell of a play by the Alabama A&M linebacker I don't think there's going to be many many SEC Lineback that can carry revaldo Fairweather like that but you look at pton Thoren throws a really good ball probably should go for a touchdown if you ask revaldo Fairweather would you rather come down with that football raldo Fairweather probably says yes but the mere fact that there's that much space being created in the middle of the field because of the presence of the wide receivers that's what gets me most excited about Auburn yes they went out and executed it but the way the Auburn offense looked that was my biggest takeaway of that football game now we'll call it there we're going to circle back to this conversation specifically previewing that game against gal appreciate you guys rocking with the fellas again if you all do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel appreciate you guys and we'll talk to you all later peace