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re: Portal Extravaganza - Taren up the portal! edition
Posted on 1/16/26 at 9:49 am to awestruck
Posted on 1/16/26 at 9:49 am to awestruck
quote:
second chance wanna-be’s
Well now that isn’t exactly fair. The Ramil kid from Michigan State is a two year starter. Dude played in 11 games and started 8 in the B1G at LT as a redshirt freshman. Then took over as full time starting LT in 2025 before an injury sidelined his season.
The James Madison kid, started all season at LT for a playoff team. Their coach was then hired to be UCLAs coach. He has taken 10 JMU players with him, and absolutely wanted to bring his starting LT who has given up 1 sack in over 1500 snaps.
Best is a top 10 IOL guy in the portal. He can legitimately play OC or OG
I mean the rankings may not be what Auburn expects, but how’s that worked out for us chasing stars since 2017? I care about how they play for Auburn. You don’t have to be an NFL player to be an exceptional college player. And as of right now Auburn is still a “college” team.
So who Fing cares if they are a couple inches shorter than the nfl wants? Who cares if they can’t high jump like the nfl wants? Who cares if their wingspan is an inch or two below nfl minimums?
We need them to excel here at Auburn. What they do after playing for us should be of little concern.
Damn I’m really starting to sound like a sunshine pumper but I certainly am not. I just know this is a new day. This coaching staff has a history of talent evaluation. Not to mention it took until THIS PAST SEASON for the Tennessee offense to recover losing CAG. We have a no nonsense real winner as HC again finally.
This post was edited on 1/16/26 at 9:54 am
2
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:00 am to auburn2eugene
quote:
So who Fing cares if they are a couple inches shorter than the nfl wants? Who cares if they can’t high jump like the nfl wants? Who cares if their wingspan is an inch or two below nfl minimums?
This, my nephew was a bulldozer of a guard and we would have loved to have had him, but he wasn’t versatile or athletic enough for the pros. They only carry from 8-9 OL on their roster and they need to be able to play multiple positions on the line. They had him play some center during camp but he just didn’t have what they needed to keep on. College can afford to carry more OL and if they shine for college games is all we are needing.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:04 am to auburn2eugene
Exactly. Knocking guys for not starting as freshman is insane. We are glad we lost most of the guys we lost, the guys we brought in are an upgrade, almost anything would be. These are not second chance wanna be players, the ones we lost are outside Chaplin. He's a 3rd chance wanna be.
Take a look at our 2010 starting OL. How many of them started 1 game in the NFL?
Take a look at our 2010 starting OL. How many of them started 1 game in the NFL?
This post was edited on 1/16/26 at 10:07 am
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:14 am to Poker Dough
Agreed. I just can't believe people continue to count Chaplin as a loss. I'm not expecting the OL transfers to be superstars..... just mildly coherent would be an improvement over what the last OL coach and players put on the field. If our QB can not hold on to the ball for 4-5 seconds and our offensive coordinator can play to strengths then maybe we can score 21-24 on anyone? That alone could get us to 7-5.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:22 am to Johnnycrane
Who else on D-Line is coming to help AU push for a natty next year?
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:26 am to AU_Nomad
Womack and the UNC DL are probably the main last two we are looking at for DL unless someone surprising pops up last minute. DL room doesn't have that much room left.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:28 am to GoCrazyAuburn
Loading Twitter/X Embed...
If tweet fails to load, click here. Sounds like he left his visit without committing. Not great since Oregon is his other visit
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:30 am to Johnnycrane
quote:
Agreed. I just can't believe people continue to count Chaplin as a loss.
Because he was a loss. He did not live up to the paycheck but he was good enough to do well if we had a decent coaching staff last year. I dont like the word inexcusabe because most people who use seem self-righteous, but it is inexcusable for our staff to not make plans for roadgame environments so that our OTs can hear the cadence or the clap. For the most part when Chaplin was at home he did fine.He had four games I believe where he graded over 90% and one of those games was grading 98% against a good Missourri defense. This guy was a star in the ACC also. So everyone trumping the startiing experience of the guys coming in need to recognize Chaplin was too thus a hole in the argument.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:31 am to Weagle25
If he is visiting Oregon then he is probably gone.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:33 am to Weagle25
I think assuming there was truly a chance he'd do so was completely unrealistic. He's going to take his scheduled visits. We throw a bag at him, no matter the size, he can use that with Oregon to get an even bigger bag if they are willing, and then come back to us and see if we match or commit to ours if Oregon doesn't. He'd be foolish not to take both.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:34 am to jangalang
I think most would agree the OL last year wasn't that good. I think most could agree we might have slightly upgraded on the OL. Those aren't the questions though. The only question that matters is, will they hold up in SEC play and imo that's a mid pack (maybe slightly lower) OL.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:40 am to jt33
As assumed, Kyle Parker to OSU.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:43 am to jt33
It will take this season to answer that question.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 10:54 am to jangalang
jang, your argument in favor of Chaplain has merit, but its highly likely he made his decision to enter the portal long before the season ended
therefore i cant fault the new staff for failing to keep him, or any of our other offensive transfers - i assume most of them figured they’d just as soon start over from scratch someplace new rather than sticking around for another year
therefore i cant fault the new staff for failing to keep him, or any of our other offensive transfers - i assume most of them figured they’d just as soon start over from scratch someplace new rather than sticking around for another year
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:01 am to FearlessFreep
How can we judge any lineman that played under Thornton? Worst OL coach I have seen at the college level.
We couldn’t pass block when we needed to. We couldn’t run block when we needed to. We couldn’t convert in short yardage situations. Total failure of coaching.
We couldn’t pass block when we needed to. We couldn’t run block when we needed to. We couldn’t convert in short yardage situations. Total failure of coaching.
This post was edited on 1/16/26 at 11:02 am
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:02 am to jangalang
My thoughts are the Oline players and Oline coaches were trash the past few years. So if the players are still trash, hopefully the coaches aren’t still trash too. And then we’d still see improvement.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:07 am to CorchJay
quote:
How can we judge any lineman that played under Thornton? Worst OL coach I have seen at the college level.
This is true. I knew Hew needed to go after year 1 when it was clear he needed to fire Thorton and Kent Austin but refused to.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:13 am to jt33
quote:
I think most would agree the OL last year wasn't that good
I agree that we may have slightly upgraded but, to be fair, Jackson Arnold made the OL look worse than they were.
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:27 am to borotiger
Everything was a shite show
Posted on 1/16/26 at 11:27 am to borotiger
Everything was a shite show
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