Early game-week impressions as Auburn preps for Alabama A&M

and welcome on in everybody Nathan King here the Auburn undercover YouTube channel Auburn undercover podcast joined by Jason Caldwell it is finally game week here at Auburn they just wrapped up their first practice first inseason practice here well not wrapped up yet we wrapped up out of practice here on uh on Tuesday afternoon heard from Hugh frees on Monday got to go check out practice heard from players on Tuesday obviously they get set for their season opener on Saturday night in jordair Stadium first of five straight home games the first one against Alabama A&M 6:30 Central Time Jason we were talk into freeze yesterday I think one of the most you know position specific things people wanted to talk about was the offensive line because we know that freeze and that staff made some late preseason changes he said it was going to be a mixture at that left tackle spot Percy Lewis Dylan Wade and Tyler Johnson now Tyler Johnson is a guy I think you if you've been listening to us you know about him but may have flown a little bit under the radar 2023 recruit red shirt freshman former three star flip from Texas Tech being out there at practice though Jason I would be really shocked if Tyler Johnson is not your starting left tackle on Saturday yeah I think it is all three guys I think all three guys will mix in it looks like right now that Tyler Johnson's a guy they want to see get some experience early on see how he adapts but but physically he's exactly what you're looking for out there he he gives you a little bit of Greg Robinson vibe to be quite honest but like he's an athlete when you look at him but a guy that's 66 310 lbs that can move I think he's a guy you'd like to get some experience on uh let him kind of get get his feet wet a little bit this season I think if it if you came down and said hey who's your next tackle I think is probably Dylan Wade I think he probably moves inside we saw Tate Johnson in the guard there Percy Lewis is still at left tackle I think he'll be in the mix there too but it kind of feels like those other two guys might be the guys that you look at first but I do think we'll see a bunch of different guys some rotation up there kind of see what the best group looks like they do have options and that's the biggest news is that there are some options for this offensive line un like we've seen the last few years yeah I mean you want to rotate a lot of guys against a team like Alabama A&M I think regardless of who they were going to be playing in this first game though you would see some mixing and matching I mean we saw ronen Chambers kick inside to guard he's been the second team right tackle all preseason DeAndre Carter got some second team work there at I believe it was left guard guard so we we will we will definitely see all of those guys there in the first game um a couple housekeeping injury things to touch on the ones that freeze mentioned yesterday were Keon Scott he's been dealing with that hamstring issue all preseason and Austin Keys who suffered a sprain MCL in that first scrimmage he said the medical staff told him they're both probable so that's encouraging but he said I want to see some quality work from them in practice before I give them the green light no non- contct Jersey today both of them look like they were just fun yeah look good uh you know Austin Keys came up and and spoke to us as we were going off the field in our period and he said yeah I'm good and so Keon we he said today he looked he looked good he was out there looked to be fine wouldn't be surprised if they limited those guys a little bit after you know kind of being limited some in the preseason but both look like they're good to go Austin key just wearing a brace to kind of protect that spring Dy but other than that look pretty good it's uh JC Hart as well I know he's probably happy to be out of that non-c contct Jersey uh he separated shoulder about three and a half weeks ago so just sort of a precaution thing but uh he was out there hitting guys in practice um just some other practice notes to touch on that secondary was really interesting to watch kind of see how they're going to line up in this first game seems like between Caleb wooden and Sylvester Smith Caleb Gets the nod there Sylvester Smith will continue to play at safety oh jiren Thompson also is in a non- contct I think he'll probably mean I think that was just cautionary probably bruise something like that because he was running around practicing doing all those things but it did open the window a little bit for another guy we've been talking about yep Caleb Parris um tree freshman from Thompson a guy that's been impressive the coaches have talked about him really since the spring about how quickly he was able to pick up and adapt and he's out there getting some first team reps today we're going to see a lot of that true freshman in the secondary yep Caleb Harris was in there I think your backup nickel at this point is JZ Robinson the uh the Colorado transfer who started his career at Alabama of course the guy that Charles Kelly knows very well that was an interesting competition um Aman Lane gayus I think is your bottom cornerback there not in a scout team jersey so I think he's going to remain with that with that normal set JC Hart is the number three corner I think there's pretty much no question there saw a lot of rot rotation between Jay Crawford and Antonio kite there behind him um Jason talking a little bit about kind of what to expect from this game I think one of the biggest points of emphasis talking to Hugh frees you wrote about it yesterday it doesn't matter who you're playing but especially when you're playing a team like Alabama ANM you just want to see your team go out there and execute but when you have so much freshman Talent like this that's going to see the field seeing them execute is very important as well so I think we're going to see a lot of those guys in the second half of this game a lot of them in the first half of the game as well they're going to have roles to play freeze is going to want them to be out there executing well because again it doesn't matter who you're playing probably right now but later on in the season you're going to need it when you're playing someone like in Oklahoma or in Alabama this is an important week because this is the first time since they've been at Auburn that these guys can focus on an opponent so you narrow down what you're doing in terms of offense defense you narrow down what you're doing in terms of play calls and it shortens so you're able to then to hey you're repping a certain amount of things for guys like Malcolm Simmons and Perry Thompson especially probably the wide receiver group you're probably only going to rep five to 10 things this week that you're really specifically focused on so they'll go hey we're going to get you touches in these areas here's what you need to worry about and then you'll add more to their plate week by week so this is an opportunity for those young guys especially ly to get a feel for hey what it looks like on a game week narrowed focus on what you're going to go execute and then go out and and not have to worry about so many things yeah obviously you know the the excitement this offseason is how can Auburn make Payton Thorne better it's probably the number one Narrative of the entire offseason was how they can improve this passing game and you sort of mentioned it there something freeze touched on on Monday he has been really hard on these freshman wide receivers and for a reason he knows they're all really talented but the other side of it OB you know besides wanting them to develop properly the other side of it is he knows sometimes it doesn't matter what pton Thorne does if if the other side of the route is not run properly and so that is something I think to focus on as well we know about Robert Lewis we know about kandre Lambert Smith the experienced guys that you would expect to run this system well but at the same time Jason only two returning scholarship receivers yeah I think you might see some clunkiness here and there but that's something look freeze is going to want to get that on tape from the first game and makes her that sharp going into yeah and I think you're like you got a lot of newcomers even though they' played a lot of football um Sam hasn't played wide receiver Robert Lewis you know Keandre Lambert Smith haven't been here and then that entire group of freshmen we looked out there and you're going to see a lot of different rotations they can go pretty big for this group which would be a Camden Brown you know Sam Jackson inside you know cam Coleman outside raldo Fairweather like you could have a bigger group of guys you can go speed with Robert Lewis and Malcolm Simmons Bryce Kane you know who knows like they have again it's much like the offensive line you have a lot more options you have a guys now it's the same thing holds true now you got to go out and make plays and and that's the key okay go out and play and and back up what you look like physically because physically this is a much better roster than we've seen in quite a while now you just got to go out there and do it I thought one of the most interesting things he said this week something you wrote about this morning they're going to have a free rotation at receiver and obviously that informs good execution you can't have that free rotation if guys aren't executing but freeze basically said like we've got too many good guys if someone isn't playing well to leave that guy out there like if if explosive plays aren't happening if they're not running the right routes if they're not executing well you're not going to stay on the field we have too many other good receivers on the bench I think that aspect of the rotation will be really interesting to watch as well I think I think it pairs with something you wrote which is because of the the helmet communication because of things cutting off at 15 seconds I think you'll see really fast at times and I think you'll see slower at times and I think he you know he talked about hey now you're throwing a deep ball you slow down then to to make a trans position to allow another guy to come in where you stay fresh maybe then hey we're going to huddle up a little bit and make and force the defenses hand a little bit say we'll make our call I was thinking about it going hey you make your call with with with 16 seconds left get it done and then you get on the field and start doing those things the defense then has to respond without the the benefit of being able to be talked to there's some things that they can maneuver with I think we'll see Tempo but I think we'll see it slow down some too yeah fre talked about that on tiger talk yesterday said there might be a little bit of a chess match you can do there don't your personel until the last possible second all of a sudden if you're a defense you only have 14 13 seconds to adjust to that tou on this defense a little bit kind of what fans should expect to see we've heard about it all preseason with this defensive line rotating and how many guys they're going to play up front I think you and I agree every coach wants to say that but this this group I mean it there's no smoke involved in that we saw it at practice today um it is truly going to be six seven eight guys we saw them all with the first team out there including Malik blockton was the first defensive lineman I saw he's going to play all those transfers are going to play Bobby Travis was out there at nose tackle rotating plenty with that first team especially when they get into the second half of this game I mean you are going to see 15 plus defensive lineman I would I think yeah when you when you talk about from defensive end to Jack linebacker y the front four group I think we'll see 13 14 guys probably that are playing in that by the time you get to the second half of this game um that's going to be huge for them to be able to stay fresh also to find out who can be a playmaker yeah have him in there amarus Williams was a guy we saw rotating with that first team group as well I think he's sort of shown you have that five star Talent he's probably too good to keep off the field um at this point before we go wanted to I'll rotate in here I'll leave it to you Jason talk a little bit about recruiting um if we don't get to a full recruiting podcast in terms of previewing this first game I know everyone's looking to the first visitor but kind of what are you and Christian looking at in terms of visitors this weekend yeah you know I think a lot of that'll be determined by um you know once you get into um once you get into you know the actual visit time I think we'll we'll figure out a lot more of those later this week Thursday Friday we'll have an idea of who those visitors will be um who were looking forward to Christian but obviously everybody's kind of pointing to Deuce that's that's kind of the one everybody looks at hey when is something going to happen um we've been hinting that we thought it might happen this weekend still believe that's the case and so um you know we still like Auber chance is a whole lot there with dece to get that quarterback in and if that happens it could really kick off another big you know couple of runs for for them as they finish off this 25 class even though we're still just here and going to be still in late August yeah yeah that's the thing with Deuce I mean once we get to Friday I mean we're already on alert because we already think something could happen in terms of Auburn flipping him once we get to Friday we're really on alert y um and then he'll obviously be in with his whole family over the weekend Tom lyd reported that um expected in still after his game on Friday night probably come up Saturday morning or something like that but timeline wise thingss like that are a little fluid they always kind of are with a flip sometimes it's hard to tr really get an idea of when something could happen but leaning a little bit more towards Saturday as of now um but again that's what we're recording this on Tuesday things could change tonight not in terms of Auburn's chances we don't think those will really change but just timeline timeline yeah this could be one where you know if you do that you come in Saturday you hang out get a chance to see everybody and say cuz we've seen these before you know kickoffs at 6:30 you see a guy that goes hey at 5:00 I'm going to do it you get everybody get to the stadium you get there they're in the recruiting l with what we expect to be a bunch of Auburn commitments in this class hey I'm in let's go celebration time give him the mic yeah and so I I think it could be something like that where you may that may be a pregame announcement that blows the roof off the place so we'll see but should be a good one I mean there's you know it's not the biggest game but this is a this is a group I think that'll be a good one obviously built run a bunch of commitments yeah that's the thing I mean thinking about it we're we're in Uncharted Territory a little bit at least past couple years compared to the class is pretty well built up right now going into the first game you've got 22 or 23 commits something like that there's not a lot of targets that are still out there that we're tracking in terms of are they coming in for a visit Andrew babalola is not a guy who's going to take a game visit he's on Commit watch between Auburn Michigan Stanford that'll happen within the next you know week or two and he's not going to take any visits before then Malachi Goodman's up in New Jersey he's not coming down for a visit it's Duce Knight who we know is visiting it's Usman chroma it's name offord those are the guys that were watching in terms of when are they going to visit are they going to be here this game yeah but then it's all your commits and then the 26 class yep and getting younger and younger yeah that's it it'll be it'll be some names to kind of okay that's a name to perk up maybe to to watch and see where those guys show up um in the 26 class and you're right just some of those 25 guys to pay attention to but um this one all all about deuce and see what happens with Auburn's you know quarterback Target yeah then the only other thing I would mention with 25 is like Malik Atri and tarus dice both expected to go visit Florida for the opener against Miami obviously anytime a commit goes and visits somewhere else you're watching it a little bit you're a little concerned these guys have visited Florida a good bit throughout the process but not a huge concern level there and look they'll both probably be at the cow game um we haven't confirmed that but you do kind of watch now going into this fall for us like I said Uncharted Territory you have to start watching where Auburn's commits going to visit because over the last couple years it's been okay what kids committed elsewhere coming to visit so that's kind of what we're watching a little bit but Jason like you said all eyes on Deuce this weekend and we think that think that his commitment status could change by the time the weekend is over yeah absolutely so keep it locked in Auburn undercover uh 24/7 YouTube channel um Instagram Twitter all of the above we'll have full coverage rest of the week and uh look us up on Saturday as we get ready to kick off the 24 season