FM Talk 1065 Podcasts
Tiger Talk Overtime w/Doug Holton 9.19.2024 Guests: Kevin Fitchner, Auburn Golf Coach-Nick Clinard, rand Stu Donald "Roasting The Hogs" Tailgating Tips
It's time now for Tiger Talk Over Time. Time. We should embrace playing the gold standard of this conference right now. You should welcome that. You should want that. You should want that experience. It should burn within you to say, I want that opportunity. Nobody's left. Give the ball up and over. And he and I believe that's enough. That's not over. Low and sure second effort by both guys. But he just got hit behind the line of scrimmage. Everybody think of what was coming. Alabama, they love what was coming. Both guys can just own sure effort. Got him out of shotgun. Patrick Nick, Alabama bringing everybody. Nick's is going to blow one for Sanders. Sanders. Oh, he caught him on the move. And he died damage. Touch Sam Auburn. Touch Sam Auburn. Oh my goodness. Carmel Williams at the tail back. They'll hand it off to Williams up the middle. 25. That's an inside. 30, 35, 40, there goes Cadillac to the 50, to the 40, to the 30, to the 20, to the 15, 10. Go crazy Cadillac. Go crazy, touchdown. There goes Davis. Oh my god. Davis is going to run it all the way back. Auburn's going to win the football game. Auburn's going to win the football game. He ran the best field go back. He ran it back a hundred and nine yards. They're not going to keep them off the field tonight. Road, home, dirt, grass. It don't matter. Just give us that opportunity. That's the fire that is within us. Works down in 10, just inside of it field. Here's Sam on the fake right up the middle. Breaks a tackle at the 40. Stays on his feet. 35, 30, 45, 20. Here's Sam Auburn at the beat at the 5. He hit his 3/2 touchdown. Auburn, flash that smile, Cam. Byron wipes for the snap in the place. There it is. The kick is up. The kick is good. Auburn wins. 22, 19. Tiger Talk Over Time is presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now at 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. [CHEERING] Now, here's your host, Doug Holton. Good evening, everyone. Welcome into the show. And it is certainly an exciting time on the Auburn campus, even with the lost count. Things haven't gone perfectly for the Auburn Tigers this season so far, year 200, Hugh Freeze. But still a chance, still an opportunity to do everything they wanted to do at the beginning of the season. Maybe a little tougher now, but Auburn still has that opportunity with Arkansas coming in this weekend, as you heard last hour. The first SEC game of the 2024 season. The Razorbacks coming in after a win over UAB last week had a chance to watch that one a little bit. And, of course, certainly had a chance to watch the Auburn Tigers last week. A rainy affair at Jordan Harris Stadium. As they took out New Mexico, did what they had to do on defense. And Hank Brown, what did you think? Coming in at quarterback to take over for Peyton Thorn. And I loved what he did with a slant pattern on the touchdown to Camden Brown. And he was ranked the fifth best quarterback. He graded the fifth best quarterback in college football last week. And also was on the SEC team for last week, the all SEC team for last week, and the all-college football team for last week. Something that maybe Auburn was looking for. They haven't had in a little bit. So we'll talk a lot about Hank Brown tonight. Kevin Fechner joins us to talk about the Hank Brown factor in just a minute. And we'll also talk to Nick Cliner, the Auburn golf coach this evening in the second segment as they get underway with their fall schedule, defending the national championship, or are they defending the national championship? We'll talk about that. And also, Stu Donald has some football talk for us in the second half of the show as we talk about tailgating, roasting that pork this weekend. And we'll get into some X's and O's and recruiting as well. But first, let's hear from Hank Brown. This week, he was at the microphone early in the week, talking about his first SEC start, this weekend, versus the Hogs. I'm really looking forward to it. Like you said, it's definitely an uptick in competition, and they're definitely gonna be a better defense than what we faced last week. But, you know, I'm excited for it. They're a fundamentally sound defense, and kind of know what you're getting. So I'm super excited, I think the team's ready, and we're gonna go out and execute. There were a few things that, you know, I need to improve on. I think one is just my awareness of the play clock, you know, I was talking to Coach Freeze about that, and just, there's obviously a lot of things going through my head during the game, but just being able to, you know, exit out all the distractions, and being able to focus on, you know, obviously what matters. - Okay, joining us on the line right now from Auburn, Alabama, USA. Kevin Fickner is with us to kind of set the scene for this weekend, and Kevin, great to have you again. The Hank Brown factor. We've been talking about that a little bit. What are people thinking in Auburn about the switch and quarterback? And as we mentioned, Hank, garnering a number of honors this week, I guess you would call them teams of the week, and the fifth highest rated quarterback in the country last week. So what are people thinking there about this? Could this be the answer? - Yeah, it possibly could, you know, it's SCC play now. I mean, from here on out, it's all SCC games, you know, mixed in with the game before, I'm not in Oklahoma, Texas A&M, but, you know, SCC play starts with Arkansas, and last week was a great week to get him involved. You know, I know it was tough for Coach Freeze to make that switch, but he did it, and he relied on him, and he gave him an open playbook it seemed like, and Hank delivered. I mean, as you just said, he got a lot of accolades this week from his performance last week, and, you know, hopefully it carries into SCC play. We got Bobby Patrino, O-coordinator coming in town. So he's gonna try to put up points, but hopefully we can match them, and our defense can be a little bit better, but Hank did play great. He put balls in correct places. He made correct decisions. All that stuff about practice, not translating to the game. Well, it translated well to the game last week. - Yeah, I love that pass to Camden Brown for the touchdown. It's something we haven't seen, just the quick slant, and able to execute that for the touchdown. - Look how easy that was. You got the ball out of his hand fast, and that's what you gotta do. The receivers we have can do the stuff after they catch the ball. It's just getting in their hands in time, you know, getting them in a little bit of space and in their hands. - Yeah. Well, it'll be fun to see what he can do this weekend. And I like you mentioned a number of fun matchups to watch your Hugh Freeze against Bobby Patrino. You got Bobby Patrino against DJ Durkin, who have been on the same staff. And you got Travis Williams as the defensive coordinator for Arkansas, who played football in Auburn. So it should be a fun weekend to watch those. - Yes, it should, you know, they won't be, you know, worried about the environment because they've been in the environment. They've played here, they've coached here. So they will tell their players the same thing. I would assume we'll have a close to a sellout. If not a sellout, they're proud to be wild. It's 2.30. Well, once again, first SEC game, we're gonna see where we are. If we're two and two going into Oklahoma, the fans, the players may not be so excited. If we're three and one, you know, it's where we wanna be. - Yeah, it's not what we wanted, but I think we can still get it done if we win this weekend. And like you mentioned, it's a stripe out game. It's the first SEC game, it's a 2.30 game. And it is, I think, as far as the season's concerned, as far as the SEC is concerned, as far as the 12 team playoff is concerned, this is a must win for Auburn. 100%. I mean, you said it, if they lose this game, we're looking at, you know, music city ball again, or Birmingham, you know. - Which we don't want that. - Which we didn't want that. No, we've had enough of this lately. You know, we haven't had a winning season since 2019, actually, but yeah, we, this is a big game for us, for the fans, for the players. Let's get it done, boys. - Speaking of football, you had a chance last night to watch a different kind of football in Atlanta, Georgia. Tell us a little bit about that and how it was. - Yes, football. We went to, I took my two girls, my two oldest girls, to the Atlanta United vs Miami game, and MLS soccer, Major League Soccer, in Atlanta. Messi plays for Miami, and everybody knows Messi is the goat. He's one of the goats and not the goat. And he had just come off an injury, a two month injury, and an ankle injury where his ankle had swallowed up to a size of a grapefruit. Well, he came back last Saturday, played a full game, and he played last night the second half, and it was great. They tied two to two with Atlanta, but people were there to see Messi and he delivered. When he got on the field, it was just something different, the way he passed the ball, the way he moved without the ball, the way he moved with the ball, the shots he took. It was, it was great. It was, we were witnessing greatness, that second half of play when he was in the game. So my girls are big soccer players. We support the Auburn soccer team, University, the girls team here, they're undefeated, have not given up a goal all season in their first SEC home game. First SEC game period is tonight at home, versus Bandi. And so we're looking forward to going that game tonight. So last night we were seeing MLS soccer. Tonight we're going to Auburn University soccer. - We'll be keeping an eye on that as we're on the air here. And we'll post the score on WarEagleTV.com, the Twitter page at TV_WarEagle. People wanna check us out and get the soccer score there. So all right, Kevin, appreciate you being with us. It's going to be an exciting weekend. I'm about two goats removed, I guess, in soccer. The guy I remember is Paylay, so. - Paylay, yeah, there's Paylay, there's many goats, but the current goat at the end of his career now is messy, there's Ronaldo, there's Beck over back in the day, but everybody kind of, this era is the messy goat. - Yeah, I'm sure your girls will remember that for a long time. And like I mentioned, now you need to take him to see Caitlyn Clark, right? - Yes, yes, and that's next on the list because she's an icon too, as well as the, a lot of the players aren't big fans of hers, but they should be because she's helping support that league right now, and she's had a great season and they made a great playoff push. I think they're gonna make the playoffs in the WNBA, but yes, she will be next on our list. - And she's had plenty of support anyway, she's making $28 million from Nike, so. - Yeah, I mean, she's not, she's okay, she didn't let it go to her head though. Like she's not getting into the political battle, she's just playing, doing her thing, she's playing great basketball, helping her team, and look what's happened. They had a win record in quite a few years and here they are now and the win record is making the playoff push. - Maybe she should run for president. - And she would get some votes. - Yeah. (laughs) - All right, man, appreciate it. Enjoy the game this weekend at War Eagle. - War Eagle Doug. - Kevin Fickner from the Plains, when we come back, we'll link up with Auburn golf coach, men's golf coach Nick Kleiner as they head to Texas for a couple of weeks of tournaments, and we'll do that right after this. - Short break. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Tiger Talk Over Time, presented by Will 2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now, 3-4-3-0-1-0-6. (upbeat music) - Now, back to Doug Knowson. - All right, we want to welcome into the show the head of golf coach at Auburn University Nick Kleiner. Defending national champions, Nick always great to have you with us in War Eagle. - Thank you, Doug. Appreciate you in War Eagle. - I mentioned defending national champions. Is that, how do you handle that this year? Do you like having that tag? Is it a target on your back? Does that intimidate people, or would you just like to wipe the slate clean? - Well, first off, I mean, you can say it again, it sounds pretty good, I like the sound of it. You know, Doug, I mean, what I've told the team twice now is we're not defending anything. Last year is last year, and congratulations, it was a great year, and arguably one of the best years in the history of college golf. However, this is a new team, and it's a new season, and it's a new schedule, and we gotta go earn it, and we gotta compete, and that's gonna be given to us. So, you know, the biggest thing for us is keep improving, keep getting better, and we constantly are worried about our guys, and worried about Auburn, but we're worried in the right way as far as how do we keep getting them better, how do we execute a good plan for each individual, and that's what we're gonna bear down and be focused on. - You're off to the Valero, Texas, collegiate this weekend, and your first tournament was Inverness Collegian, I think, is that right? - That's correct, yep, I'll tell you that. - You had second place finish there, could've won that one probably pretty easily, and but Jackson was, Jackson Coivent Player of the Week this week, Anna Davis also Player of the Week from Auburn, so things look to be going in the right direction, but I was just thinking, how does Jackson top last year? How does he deal with that after such a fabulous freshman campaign? - I think he's figured it out pretty quick. You know, Doug, I think he just went out in Inverness and he made a statement, I think he had a seven shot lead at one time, you know, and ended up winning by two or three or whatever it may be, but, you know, he was honestly pretty disappointed. I mean, obviously he was happy that he won, but he's pretty disappointed we didn't win as a team, and the guys were a little bit down, but I think it might be the best thing to happen to him. I told him that, I think a little humble pie and sometimes a good thing. You know, when you won seven straight and all of a sudden you had a two shot lead with three holes to play with the team and we didn't get it done, we just were pretty loose coming down the stretch, which was disappointing, but I think it'll help the guys, and they're pretty motivated to get back out this week against a phenomenal field in San Antonio and Valero. And we're looking forward to getting there and competing on a pretty difficult golf course. - Tell us a little bit about the field, who would be the main competition there? And your lineup has changed a little bit this year. We'll talk about some of your new guys in a minute, but how about that field in Texas? - That's great. I mean, it's an elite field, and it's gonna have Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Clemson. You know, the list kind of goes on and on and on, but it's gonna be loaded with top 25 teams. And I think it may be 10 or 11, the top 25 there. So it'll be a good barometer where we are, you know, at the beginning of the season and see, you know, what level we can compete at. But listen, I think if we go out and do what we're capable of, and if I really, really get golf and stay focused, I think we have a really good chance coming down the stretch. - Yeah, I think you proved that last year. Having done that last spring, does that give the guys a sense of calm and a sense of I can do it when they're in a tight situation? I'm sure. - Yeah, it does. It's been a lot of peace, right? I just, a little bored of just being comfortable too, in that moment, in that environment. And, you know, like I said, last week we did, we weren't able to get it done, which was a little disappointing. But, you know, it's a new week coming up, and we have a chance to redeem ourselves. And, but I think we have a lot of experience. We have a good nucleus of young guys and older guys. You know, this coming week, we'll roll out two sophomores of freshmen and two seniors in the lineup. So it'll be a good mixture of youth and experience, but we're looking forward to it. - Yeah, let's get into that a little bit. I mentioned Anna Davis was co-player of the week for the girls this week after her, what did she finish? First or second, I can't remember. But in the first tournament, but. - Second, I think she finished runner up. - Yeah. Her brother, Billy, is at Auburn now playing for you. And he's gonna make the trip this week. And how close is he to making a major contribution? - You know, I think he's obviously what a great pedigree those two have. You know, being twins and being some of the best players in the country of their age is phenomenal. But, you know, he's gonna be in the lineup this week, making his debut in college golf and then in the starting car for Auburn. And, you know, he's a number one junior in the country come out of high school for a reason. And he's pretty mature, kind of beyond his years, maturity wise. And he's quiet, he's reserved. But man, he loves to compete. He loves the game of golf. The sport itself is very, very important to him. And he loves his teammates. And he's very steady when he's out there. You know, he's not a high speed guy, but he plays within himself. And I know he's out of control of the golf ball. And, you know, I think he's gonna have a really big week for us, so to really do. - Yeah. So he and Jackson kind of are on the opposite end of the spectrum as far as personality wise. - Well, Jackson came in a little quiet reserved too. He's kind of coming into his own little bit and growing as a human being. And Jackson didn't come in overly fast either. But, you know, he's gained 17 pounds and gained about seven miles per hour ball speed already. And that's something we probably look for ability to do too. I mean, he's, his size 30 waist shorts kind of fit him a little big. So I told Billy I wore a size 30 when I was in third grade. (laughing) But, listen, I mean, it's just a maturation process. And we're not gonna be very invasive. He's gonna continue to get rid of Starler faster. We're very, very high on Billy. And when he brings to the table, he's a great big player. - Well, as far as Jackson, is that a product of his weight room or 17 pounds is a lot for one season? (laughing) I think I did the same in college, but not for the same reason. - I think I've done it in this job. It makes me gain weight. But I think, you know, it's a product of his eating habits. I think his palate's changed a little bit. He's able to eat more foods. He, I think if that happened in the weight room and what Matt Smith, our performance coach does with the guys, he's done a really, really good job of educating on how to put on good weight versus bad weight. And it's really, really helped him. He's, but his body looks good. I mean, he's, he's mobile and he's, he's powerful. You know, there's certain things that he'll continue to get better at with his hips and everything. But, you know, he's picked up, like I said, he's picked up seven miles per speed, which is roughly 20, 25 yards, which is a lot. - Yeah, it is. You, um, caddied for him almost exclusively last year as a freshman, how are you gonna handle that this year with that continue or will it kind of tail him if this time goes? - I went every shot with him at Inverness and he was. I'm kind of waiting for a bad week, so I get fired, but he hadn't had a lot of those in the last, you know, nine months. So, you know, I don't know. I think, you know, when something's going well and we're playing really good golf, and I think we kind of, kind of big believer in don't, don't rock the boat and keep doing what you're doing. So, we'll probably keep it that way. I think Coach Williams would probably go with Billy's thumb this week just to learn a little bit more about his game and his thought process and kind of navigate around a little bit, you know, throughout the week. And then, 'cause we don't need to be with Carson and Brendan and some of those guys that are fifth year seniors. I mean, they're, they're pretty experienced. They kind of know what they're doing. We trust them. - Yeah. And those guys, Carson, Brendan and also Josiah, had a pretty successful summer. So, what is their upside? What are you expecting out of them this year? - Well, listen, they all have PGA Tour skills set. I mean, I think, you know, Carson's as a grinder, he's worked ethics through the roof and a phenomenal young man. And he had a very successful summer and he's a top 40 amateur player in the world. And yeah, Brendan Valdez is returning the first team while American. That's ranked third in PGA Tour, you know. So he's got a chance to give his PGA Tour card this year. And, you know, he's just very dynamic and make a ton of birdies and shoot some really low scores for us. And, and he's always, you know, he's always in a good mood. And, you know, he's always happy. It was very contagious for the team. And, you know, Josiah Gilber is just, you know, his skill sets the PGA Tour. I mean, he's, he's, he's hit the far. He's got good touch. He's got a good mind for it. He's a good athlete. So, you know, all three of those guys are capable of winning at any time. And I think they just need to keep, you know, we didn't get enough help from them, to be honest. Inverness to probably, you know, to go away and run away and win that tournament. I think they're pretty motivated to not let Jackson keep beating them. I can promise you that. - Is as far as leadership on the team, is Jackson become more of a leader? Or who is, who do you think the leader of this team is? - I think Jackson leads with his clubs. And he's got a high respect because of his golf game. And everybody's really, you know, in his work ethic too is phenomenal. But the captains of the team are Britain Valdez, Ryan Eshman, and Carson Baca. Those are our leaders. Those are our captains. And they have a lot of experience. And they bring a lot to the table outside of golf as well. - Yeah. I guess speaking of the PGA tour, we can't go without mentioning Patton Kizzier, a winner on the tour last Sunday. What does that mean to Auburn golf? After, of course, you've been in the news with a national championship, but having him win, how much do the guys pay attention to that? And what does that mean? - Oh, no, big time. I was doing a text already about it and even coming down the stretch and some of the guys on the team were texting me and I was just really, really happy for PGA. And I know how hard he works. I know how hard he's worked on his golf swing with, you know, with Justin Parsons and Jane Reeves and those guys at Sea Island. I know how hard he works on his mental game in his body. He's just a phenomenal talent, but he's really developed that talent over the years and just super happy for him and his family. You know, he's put the time, put the effort in and it's nice to see good guys come out on top. - Yep, yep. Well, good luck at the Valerio this week and you've got the colonial coming up the week after that. Will you stay down or come back? - We gotta go back to class. Otherwise, we'd just stay there, but we gotta come back to class and we need to be back. We got a big weekend planned for the Oklahoma weekend and, you know, we're gonna be bearing our national championship and SEC championship ranks to the team and, you know, they better be really, really cool in front of their family and friends and it'll be a special weekend that weekend. - Fantastic. Look forward to seeing that the week after a week from Saturday, I guess, in the Oklahoma game. We'll see you there. - Yeah, sir, we're gonna get a win this weekend against Arkansas and they'll make everything right. - Coach Nick Cliner joining us on the show tonight. I always appreciate him spending time with us as the Tigers go to Texas and it will be nice to get a win over Arkansas this weekend indeed and look forward to seeing the golf team at the Oklahoma game in a little over a week's time. When we come back to Horizon Financial Half-Time Report as we visit with Stu Donald, we'll talk some X's and O's and also tailgating when we come back to you. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Tiger Talk Over Time, presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. To be a part of the show, call the Morgan Bradley Alpha Insurance Tiger Line now, 3-4-3-0-1-0-6. (upbeat music) Now, back to Doug Holton. - It is time now for the Horizon Financial Half-Time Report brought to you by, of course, Horizon Financial. Come with us and experience the Horizon difference. I hope you'll go by and see. Coach Henry Hardy and his crew in Dafti right at the entrance of Timber Creek this week or give 'em a call on the phone and they'll be glad to help you. Talking some Auburn football with Stu Donald now. Wanna welcome Stu to the microphones and Stu, it's time to get it rolling. We've had a few games here. We'll call it the preseason. We dropped one of those, but now it's time for the real deal and the SEC begins this weekend. - Absolutely, man, SEC is here and it's time to rumble. - It is indeed the Arkansas Razorbacks coming to a Jordan hair Saturday afternoon for a 2.30 start, I think, on ESPN. So let's kick it off, I guess. What did you think about last week? The Tiger switch quarter batch with Hank Brown seemed to make a little bit of a difference. They scored some points. Not too sure about what the defense did last week, but I guess they kept the quarterback hemmed in pretty well and got the job done in the end. - Yeah, well, New Mexico had been scoring over 30 points a game, and though they didn't play, you know, Georgia or Alabama in those first two games, they played Montana State, who's a powerhouse FCS team. I wouldn't want 'em on the schedule this year. And Arizona, and they scored over 30 on both of them. And from what I'm hearing, they're gonna have a top 25 offense by the end of the year. They're that good. Arkansas residents, a similar offense with a similar type quarterback, so that's good for us. And a lot of people say, oh, but Arkansas's gonna be a lot better, not a quarterback. I'm gonna be about the same. - Yeah, I watched a guy from Arkansas, Green, a little bit Saturday. I can't remember which half I watch now. But anyway, and then I watched, of course, the Auburn game. And I'm not sure that Green is quite as good as the guy for New Mexico. - He's not as good a passer. He may be as good or a little better at running, more dangerous at running, but he's not accurate at all. He's a turnover machine. - Yeah, anything else catch your attention? Besides Hank getting the starter quarterback last week, what were your thoughts on the game Saturday? - Defensively, I think we went out there with a plan that didn't work. And I don't think the players knew where they were supposed to be. It's why the middle of the field was wide open so many times. And I don't think we're gonna employ that scheme. I mean, only Russian three and not letting them go more than two yards past the line of scrimmage. - Yeah. - Yeah, I thought that. - I thought the plan last week was to only have a couple of down linemen and keep that guy behind the line of scrimmage and not let him scramble. That was kind of the plan as far as the quarterback. - Yeah, and we held them to 19 points, although it was an ugly performance. I mean, we held them, you know, almost 20 points below their average against teams that quite honestly are about the caliber we are. We may be better at some places than better at some places, or at least as we've been the last few years. - Yeah. - So part of it may be now Arkansas has no idea what we're gonna run against them Saturday 'cause clearly we're not gonna run that. - Yeah, could have been part of the plan too. - Yeah, and now they don't know, you know, maybe they're gonna come in there planning on the edge rushers to drop into coverage for some reason. But when we dropped our blitzers into coverage, I think they were five of six completing to the people they were covering. - Yeah, not a good sign there, huh? But in the corner by their pass rushers, they're not, you know, cover linebackers. - Yeah, the cornerbacks, you know, they were okay, I think last week, and Jaren Thompson came up with an ice interception. - A brilliant interception, mind gosh. - It's just been wanting it more what that was. - And having a little bit of luck pulling it over the top of his helmet there. - Yeah. - Without losing it. - But you know what luck is, man, luck is when preparation and opportunity meet. - Yeah, make the best of your opportunity when you have it. - You don't do tip drills, you're not gonna get tip balls in a game. - Mm-hmm. - So we've got a patch a few things up there on defense for the next couple of weeks here until we get through the Georgia game to the off week. But what did you think of? Hey, his first start as an Auburn Tiger and did pretty well, I thought. - Looked like a Hugh Freeze quarterback. - Yeah. - And, you know, when I played, they always used to preach to us, line, you got to give the quarterback four seconds, four seconds to get the ball off. Well, the average in the SEC now is 2.8 seconds. (laughing) - That was a change. - Hate was the rear of the ball in two seconds flat. And that is the way Hugh Freeze's offense is designed to work. Within two seconds, the quarterback has made his decision and executed what he's gonna do. That's what makes that offense work. - Yes. - I asked decision-making, proper decision-making. And the only thing that was holding Peyton back was he wasn't trusting his decision and executing in two seconds. And I want to say about Peyton Thorne, he gave us his all. He has been a great steward for this university since arriving here. And one day he's going to make a fantastic head football coach, just like his dad. - Yeah, or you never know what can happen. Even at the next level, we wouldn't expect that with Peyton, but we've seen some other guys not finish out their careers or not start in college football or in the SEC and then come on to play in the NFL. So who knows what to happen? - Well, UFL, you know, we got the UFL out there. I always say, real professional football is played in the spring. I'm a Birmingham stallions guy going back to the days when Joe Cribbs was running people over and Cliff Stout was throwin' to Joey Jones. - Yeah, I remember that well. Back in the original days of the USFL. Well, as far as the upside, what do you think for Hank Brown this year as his first year playing at Auburn, what do you see as the upside there? - Just keep doing what he did Saturday. That's enough for us to win. Next year he can start a Heisman campaign if he wants to. - Yeah. - But this year if we get 225, 250 and a couple of touchdowns out of him and protect the ball, which he did masterfully Saturday, I mean, there were a couple of bad decisions that could have gone poorly, but you know, it's his first start and he's a freshman, those should be expected. And he probably will have a few more this year because that's what you do when you're a freshman, when you're a young quarterback, you get a little arrogant or a little, you know, full of yourself. You think you can pull off something that you can't. And he's a gunslinger. Gunslingers do that. They always think they can thread the needle. - Yeah, and speaking of that, the two throws that really caught my attention Saturday that he made the first touchdown, I think to Camden Brown, the slant pattern. Like you said, made the decision, put it right in there, easy touchdown. And then the long ball, I think he came back with to Dre Lambert Smith. Just a perfect strike there. And like Hugh Fries has said, a few times during fall practice, Hank is deadly accurate on those long balls. - Yeah. And the other touchdown to Michael Riley. - Yeah. - He's flushed out of the pocket, had a man bearing down on him and threw a laser. That pass was incredible. - Yeah, I got no on the run too. - Yeah, we're all celebrating the big long balls because they're pretty, but that pass was an absolute rocket. - Fans, here's an event you're going to want to be a part of. Henry Hardy and the team at Horizon Financial have partnered with shows Special Humans Outreach and Wellness to make a positive impact on the lives of individuals with special needs. So Horizon is hosting a golf tournament at Timber Creek in Daphne, September 24th at 1 p.m. Two ways you can get involved, become a sponsor or participate by forming a team for the four-person scramble, which welcomes players of all skill levels to come together, have fun and contribute to a fantastic cause. Proceeds support shows efforts in Baldwin County, which play a vital role in covering cost of life-changing care for individuals with special needs, a cause deeply cherished by the Hardy family and by Horizon Financial. To get involved, call 256-504-8951. That's 256-504-8951. Show your colors with Horizon Financials, September 24th at Timber Creek Golf Club. Back with our conversation with Stu Donald, joining us to talk to Auburn football tonight here on the Horizon Financial Halftime Report. And Stu, before the break, we were talking a little bit about the tight ends with the H-backs for Auburn. Some bad news this week is Brandon Frazier is out with surgery on his foot. But the Tigers are lucky at that position. They have a lot of depth and a lot of quality players that we can plug in. - We do, and I hear they made a new lineman. - Yeah, Musgrad is the emergency, I guess, seventh tight end. - Yeah, I heard Revalda talking about that. - Jumpo package he'll probably put on a different jersey and slide in there or be in a tackle eligible position. And really, we had a great game out of Percy, graded out top in the SEC by PFF last week. And we get two tall back and we got Tyler, let's run an extra tackle when we're on goal line and short yard, it's why not have all three of them on the field at the same time. - Yeah, what do you think they'll do that when they're inside the five or what do you think? - I would, but keep in mind, I came out of a veer option where, you know, if you're inside the five, you're not throwing the football. - Yeah. - We'll run it four times. - Right, right. - You don't see that much to that. - We'll put an extra tackle in there. And I wouldn't mind seeing us do a tackle over, you know, move the left tackle over to the right hand side, because Dylan Wade played left tackle last year. We got a left guard who was a good left tackle. I could see that being, you know, maybe not something to build on the future, but while we've got a left guard who can play left tackle in the SEC, why not run a tackle over? - Yeah. And I was gonna say, usually now in the SEC or the NFL, when you get inside the five, people go to the pass instead of the run. But I think they call the guy Muskie. Is that right? The big guy? - Yeah, these last names Musk are at, Muskie's what they call it. - Yeah, and I heard Revaldo today talking about him and they were asking him, could he catch a pass as well? And he just kind of laughed at that. But it'll be interesting, how do you think they'll line him up? What kind of offensive line do you think? - More probably is an H-back or an extra blocking tight end on goal. I like to say, he's the emergency last three tight end. - Yeah, but like a 12 or 15 type? - Yeah. - Set up? - Yeah, definitely probably a three tight end. For me, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a three tight end formation with him in the backfield as an up-back. - Yeah, yeah. - No receivers. Because if you put fair weather out at one of those tight ends and you get Rico at the other tight end, you got two pass catchers that award Michael Riley. - Yeah. - He's a complete tight end. He can block and he can catch and stretch the field. - Yeah, and you got Luke in there too. - He's going to be a stud next year. - Yeah, yeah. - Well, let's talk a little bit of recruiting. I know we had a little bit of news there last week and this week and we were talking a second ago before we came on the air. Do you think maybe the switch to Hank Brown maybe flipped the switch for some of these guys in recruiting as well? - Yeah, some of them that had doubts 'cause I saw a picture of Deuce, Alvin. And I think the offensive line was Tice, Dice. I'm trying to blink 'cause I'm old. (laughing) And after the game against Cow and none of them looked very happy to be at Auburn. - Right, right. - And I think Hank coming out and us showing, yeah, we're not afraid to play the young guys. We brought you young guys in. We're going to play you young guys. I thought they were like, okay, that's cool. They fixed it from their point of view 'cause they're looking at playing time. They're looking at how they can succeed. - Yeah, and you know, like I said before, these guys are one week they think this and the next week they think that, but. - Yeah, it's like their teenage boys or something. - I know, it's crazy. (laughing) But what do you think? How important is Deuce to the signing class? - Extremely important 'cause we've got a wide receiver coming in Saturday committed to the team over in West Vance. And the talk is if we can get Deuce, the chance of him flipping is pretty darn good. And you call me petty, but I want to flip everyone on their signing class, even if we had to put them on special teams to play them. - Yeah, yeah. - Just because it's the thing. - That's the way it happens a little more with Stu Donald on the way back. Tiger Talk Overtime on a third. So that glad you're with us for the conversation. We'll continue in just a minute. (upbeat music) - Welcome back to Tiger Talk Overtime, presented by Will2, number one in quality and safe work for industry. We're gonna be a part of the show. Call them Morgan Bradley, Alpha Insurance, Tiger Line now, 3, 4, 3, 0, 1, 0, 6. (dramatic music) Now, back to Don Colton. - All right, welcome back to the show everyone. Tiger Talk Overtime on a Thursday night. Glad you're with us. Talking a little college football, a number of great games on tap this weekend. And the biggest one to us is Auburn and Arkansas, a 2.30 game Saturday afternoon at Jordan Hair Stadium on ESPN. It is a stripe out game. And so where your specific colors, if you're going to the stadium this weekend, don't forget to join us all week long for Auburn coverage on our website, WarEagleTV.com. And if you go there, you can go directly to our X page, our Twitter page from the link there, which is @TV_WarEagle. You can go there for all the latest news and updates on the Auburn Tigers. And for our latest videos, you can go to our Rumble page, which is rumble.com/WarEagleTV. So we hope you join us all through the week. Visiting a little bit with Stu Donald tonight here on the show about the game this weekend. And Stu, one of the things we didn't talk about yet is the matchup of coaches this weekend, Bobby Petrino, one of the great offensive minds in the game, whatever you think of him personally. And he'll be matched up on the offensive side for the Auburn Tigers with our head coach, Hugh Freeze, calling the plays this season. And that'll be one of the fun things to watch this weekend, those two going head to head. - Right, and especially having someone like DJ Durkin on our defensive side to go head to head with him, who's got experience with him, coaching at the same school together and knowing what goes through his head and Bobby knowing what goes through DJ's head. - Right, so who has the advantage there? - Yeah, who knows, man, maybe Evil/Connievel can put it together for Arkansas. - Yeah. - But I think he wasn't hired to be the offensive coordinator so much as he was hired to be the interim coach halfway through the season. - Right, right. - They, I honestly don't think that the higher ups that Arkansas football wise care about what he did last time. It was all the other people in the university that said, "This looks bad on us that made 'em get rid of it." - Yeah. - I think it's just like it is in Tuscaloosa or in Oxford. They don't care what baggage the coach has. - Mm-hmm. - Well, and us, I mean, I'm not singling them out. I mean, we help Bruce Pearl rehabilitate his outlook. We're trying to help Hugh Freeze do that. And it's up to those men and Bruce Pearl has done the work, especially when you consider he had a barbecue. That's what he was in trouble for. He threw a barbecue and some of these other coaches out there have just, I mean, have class A felonies in their background. - Yeah. - They're just being ignored, so. - I thought that was interesting this week. The news came out that coach Pearl had hired another. I think he was assistant or what his official slot was. I'm not sure, but maybe a grad assistant, but he has an AAU background. So you can only imagine what coach Pearl is thinking there. - Yeah, some of my players, right? - Yeah. - So. - Especially with Atlanta being that close and then having so much basketball talent. - Yeah, yeah. Well, give me your thoughts too on the SEC overall real quick. A lot of people were thinking before last week, Georgia and Texas at the top of the heap. The dog struggled obviously with Kentucky last week. Texas seems to still be going strong. South Carolina, LSU is interesting. We've got Tennessee. - It's interesting. We still don't know what LSU or South Carolina are. - Not really. - We don't know what Notre Dame is either because the only team they've beaten of significance is LSU and we don't know what LSU is. - Yeah. - But honest in Tennessee-- - Tennessee, Oklahoma, I was gonna mention too this week. - Tennessee, I think Tennessee's better than Texas. - Texas is benefiting from getting one of the easiest SEC schedules ever doled out. I mean, their schedule is cupcake and conversely, Oklahoma could probably complain about their first SEC schedule if Florida wasn't sitting down there going, "We'll take it." I mean, they hammered Oklahoma. Their first SEC game is Tennessee coming to town. Their second, their first road game is at Auburn. They've got to play Georgia and Alabama, I believe. And the only other people that do that are Auburn. - Yeah. - We could just have those two games every year and still be in the top 15 and strength of schedule. - And again, when you talk about schedule and Auburn schedule, Tennessee, Oklahoma this week, and then we get Oklahoma next week. - Right. - Georgia, Alabama, I think, right before we played Georgia, the week before we played Georgia, so. - Right. - Hopefully those type of things will work out in Auburn's favor in the first half of the season. - Yeah, and then the thing that makes no sense, the way they do Auburn every year on the schedule is the entire month of October, we're not playing at home. The best month for weather and all of that stuff. But also, we get two by weeks this year and we get our first one after game seven. - Yeah. - It's after the Missouri game that we get our first by. - Oh, isn't it? I thought it was after Georgia. - Yeah, I believe it, even if it's after Georgia, we had to play half the season to get the first by. - Mm-hmm. - What's up with that? When you can remember a couple of years ago, we got our only by week when it was one year, by week each year, after game 11, like three years in a row. - Yeah, well, it used to be right before Alabama. - Yeah. - Was the by week. But yeah, you're right. I don't know, it's gonna be fun to watch what happens these next couple of weeks. I think you could play a big part in who is at the top of the SEC at the end of the season and maybe who gets into that 12 team playoff. - Yeah, and I mean, the SEC's looking now, it's seriously maybe having five teams in the 12 team playoff and if they do, get ready for all the other conferences to start belly aching and whining and all I can say is, hey, big 10. You got Ohio State and the teams you just brought in from the pack and nobody else in your conference is top 25 caliber, it's on you. - It is a big week as far as tailgating. I know you're going to the coast a little bit this week, doing a little fishing, but you can't pass up the opportunity to have some pork this week, can you? - No, absolutely not. And I think a great sandwich that's from the South, from our neighbors in Florida. Hey, let's honor them for their sandwich because their two state universities are terrible at football, but it comes from both either Miami or Cuba or Tampa, both of them claim to be the originator of the Cuban sub, which does not oddly enough come from Cuba. But, and they are slightly different. - They are with a cigar. - Yeah, but they are slightly different in the two cities, but very pork centric. And most people who've had a Cubano, as it's really known, a Cuban sub, no, it's ham and roasted pork, pickles, mustard, Swiss cheese. And one of the key elements is you want a nice crusty bread and put it what's called a ploncho or a panini press, or the old fashioned way of doing it's cooking in an iron skillet with another iron skillet sitting on top of it. But you want to coat the outside, the top and the bottom with as much butter as you can put on there. It should drip when you're eating it from the butter on the outside of it. And like I say, in the inside just ham pork loin, usually, but around these parts, we tend to put pulled pork in it and then the Swiss cheese, yellow mustard, dill pickles. And like I said, tampons a little different. They'll add salami to it as well. So which that would give you a third type of pork. And I'm all for feasting on pork Saturday. I would like to eat much pork this Saturday as we did last year when we were up in Fayetteville. - Right. The only question is, do you do it before the game or after the game? - Yes. - And we can do the butter part. I think we can do all the butter we can put on there. But on the pork, I was gonna ask you, do you roast your own or just buy it that way? - You can, like I say, most people around here will just go and get some smoked pulled pork. - Yeah, yeah. - That will give it a nice little Alabama twist. But traditionally, it is a pork loin that is marinated in sour orange, some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlics, marinated overnight, then slow roasted. And when it gets done, you let it cool back down and then you slice it a little thicker than you would for sandwich meat. - Yeah. - You throw it like the planche that I refer to, a flat grill, a grill, throw it on there to heat it in the ham back up and melt the cheese and then put it in the sandwich. Press it down there and just go to town. It's one of my favorite sandwiches in the entire way. - Sounds absolutely delicious, always good to have pork on Arkansas Week and that is this weekend at Jordan Hair Stadium. That's about all the time we have for tonight on the show. Thanks for being with us on Tiger Talk over time here on Thursday night. Again, WarEagleTV.com through the week in our Twitter page @TV_WarEagle. Until next week, I'm Doug Holton saying so long, let's get a big win over the hogs and WarEagle. 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