BMatt’s Monday musings

AUBURN | I know better than to take too much away from an A-Day game, but I did have a couple of observations Saturday that only reinforced what I’ve seen and heard throughout spring drills.

It starts with Cam Coleman and the improvement of the Tigers’ wide receiver position.

I know it’s not fair to put too much of a spotlight, too many expectations, on a true freshman. But it’s impossible to ignore Coleman’s talent.

And when that talent is enhanced by a strong work ethic and team-first attitude, it’s clear Auburn has added a special player to its roster and one that’s going to have an immediate impact this fall.

Coleman’s 49-yard catch in the first quarter and 34-yard touchdown catch in the fourth were both the type of plays AU’s receivers struggled to make last season.

Coleman is just one of the enhancements to the receiver corps. Georgia State transfer Robert Lewis has been a standout all spring and has the look of a starter.

Another transfer, Sam Jackson, and another true freshman, Bryce Cain, both look ready to contribute right away. Junior Camden Brown also deserves praise for his improvement.

One of my favorite moments from spring came after just one practice. In an interview with Payton Thorne, the quarterback was asked about the importance of having receivers that can win 1-on-1 battles and compete for 50/50 balls, and if he’s seeing more of that from the new group.

Thorne smiled, his eyes lit up and he nodded his head several times as he said, “Yes. Quite a bit. Absolutely.”

Thorne knows, and we should all know, the difference having playmakers at receiver can make for an offense and for a quarterback.

On the other side of the ball, the aggressive style of new defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin was evident throughout the game as it has been all spring.

Auburn’s defense combined for 12 tackles-for-loss, four sacks and six pass breakups during A-Day. The offense averaged just 1.1 yards per carry and went 0 for 4 on fourth down attempts.

I thought AU played a pretty aggressive style of defense under Kevin Steele and Durkin certainly has a little Will Muschamp in him. But I’m not sure we’ve seen a defense with this level of raw aggression at Auburn before.

I think it will be popular with fans and be a positive selling-point with recruits. The current players clearly like it.

Just ask senior linebacker Eugene Asante, who is one of the smartest, most introspective and expressive players on the team.

“It just means being violent in everything we do whether it’s block destruction, whether it’s finishing on the ball carrier,” said Asante. “You see receivers go up and make those contested catches and he talks about violent finish on the guy that’s receiving the ball. So just playing through their hands and being violent in that way.

“Aggressive is a great word that we attest to Coach Durkin and it’s certainly something he’s trying to implement in every facet of the game.”

But don’t take that aggression as the sign of a coach who’s just see ball, hit ball. There’s a lot more to Durkin and his defense than that as AU’s defenders learned this spring.

“He’s a brilliant defensive mind,” said Asante. “Certainly somebody that brings energy and intensity every single day. Somebody you love being around and love working with, especially being a linebacker as somebody that brings that much energy and coaches us the way we need to be coached and demands what he demands out of us.”

A more aggressive defense and improved wide receivers probably won’t equate to a spot in the 12-team college football playoffs this season, but that and other offseason improvements should lead to a better and more competitive football team this fall.

And if the trend continues, especially on the recruiting trail, then a team capable of competing for championships won’t be far behind.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 30 years to the release of the best-selling independently released and distributed album of all time, which helped to bring punk rock back into the mainstream. On April 8, 1994, the Offspring released their third studio album, Smash, on the independent label Epitaph Records. It sells over 11 million copies worldwide and peaks at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. The band rose out of relative obscurity after their second album, 1992’s Ignition, sold approximately 15,000 copies. Smash was made on a small budget of $20,000 with the band often waiting to enter Track Record Studios in North Hollywood late at night after other bands had finished their sessions. The albums first single, “Come Out and Play,” was released in March of 1994 and got immediate airplay from Los Angeles Modern Rock station KROQ-FM and peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts in August. The second single, “Self Esteem,” peaked at No. 4 on the Modern Rock charts and the third, “Gotta Get Away,” at No. 6. Guitar World listed Smash at No. 31 on their list of iconic albums that defined 1994. Rock Sound ranks the album sixth on its list of the most essential pop punk albums of all time.

The formation of the Offspring began with guitarist and frontman Bryan “Dexter” Holland and bass guitarist Greg “Greg K” Kriesel playing in a garage as teenagers in Cypress, Calif. They formed a band in 1984 named Manic Subsidal adding drummer James Lilja and guitarist Kevin “Noodles” Wasserman. They changed their name in 1986 after a watching a B-movie called The Offspring: They Were Born to Kill. Lilja was replaced by 16-year old Ron Welty in 1987 and the band collaborated with producer Thom Wilson to produce their first self-titled album in 1989. The second album, Ignition, was released in 1992 and the band followed it up by touring the U.S. and Europe, mainly playing in small clubs. After the success of Smash, Holland and Kriesel created their own label, Nitro Records, and bought back the rights to their first album. The Offspring also signed with Columbia Records in 1996. Their fourth album, 1997’s Ixnay on the Hombre, had one hit in “Gone Away,” but their fifth album, 1998’s Americana, had three big hits in “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” “Why Don’t You Get a Job?” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” The band continued to produce albums and cycled through a couple of members for the next decade having another hit single in 2008’s “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid.” The band remains active today touring and producing their 10th album, Let the Bad Times Roll in 2021. They will begin a U.S. and Europe tour April 25, which includes a stop in Birmingham, Ala., on May 7. The Offspring have sold over 40 million albums worldwide.