AUBURN | Fall camp is over, classes start today and the season-opener against Alabama A&M is only 12 days away.
What should we expect from Hugh Freeze’s second season at Auburn?
Surely a step forward from three consecutive losing seasons is on tap. That’s important for many reasons.
The work Freeze put in during the offseason in making some key changes to his staff and more key additions to the roster is also important for the future of the program.
Here’s how Freeze described it 10 days ago…
“The team's culture is better, the team's chemistry is better, the team's accountability, the effort is better. Our roster is better. I don't know what that means for Year 2, but I enjoy where we are right now.”
I know coaches say a lot of things in the preseason but I’m inclined to agree with Freeze because I’ve seen it with my own eyes when we’ve been allowed to view practice and heard it from the players and assistant coaches throughout camp.
Doesn’t mean the Tigers are winning 10 or more games this fall, but it means this program is on the rise, which is something that’s been hard to say for at least five years.
From listening closely to Freeze over the last couple of weeks, I think he has two main concerns coming out of camp — how physical the team will be and how well it will tackle after limiting full contact, and the consistency of the offensive line.
The physicality concerns are common among most coaches this time of year. Auburn is a rebuilding team with depth concerns at several positions.
So it was smart to be careful in camp, especially when you look at the schedule and the potential to build on that physicality through five consecutive home games with the toughest likely being games four and five.
The O-line is another matter.
If this offense is going to really take off this fall and reach its big-play potential, the offensive line has to take a step forward.
It has to provide more punch in the running game and it has to give Payton Thorne more time to get the ball downfield to a talented receiving corps.
That’s it’s unsettled after nearly three weeks of camp is a concern, but there are solid reasons to expect it to work out.
First of all, Auburn has more depth on the offensive line than it’s had in decades with 16 currently on scholarship. That’s a three-deep plus one.
Most of that group competed in the spring and has now competed through camp. They’ve got another two weeks before the season begins and then three weeks after that before the SEC opener.
They’ve got depth. They’ve got competition. They’ve got time. And they’ve got a coach in Jake Thornton who likes to rotate his linemen and establish depth, especially early in the season.
AU’s starting offensive line in Week 5 could certainly look different than the one that broke camp or starts the first game.
Let’s not forget that the offensive line Thornton spent two years building at Ole Miss helped the Rebels finish third in the SEC in total offense last season.
He’s a talented young coach and if he has to shuffle some pieces now or in the coming weeks, Auburn will be better for it once it reaches the meat of its schedule.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 43 years to a chance meeting at a hi-fi shop in Chelsea, London, which led to the formation of one of the most successful synth-pop duos of all time who were a key part of the Second British Invasion. On Aug. 19, 1981, Chris Lowe and Neil Tennant met for the first time at Chelsea Record Center where they struck up a conversation about a Korg MS-10 synthesizer. They quickly became friends and by early 1982 had formed Pet Shop Boys, which was named after a couple of friends that worked in a nearby pet shop. Their hit song, “West End Girls” was originally released as a single in 1984 and became a club hit in Los Angeles and New York. In 1985, they signed with the Parlophone and recorded their debut album, Please, which included a re-recorded version of “West End Girls” that went to the top of the charts in the U.S., UK and six other countries. Lowe wrote the music and Tennant added the lyrics on “West End Girls,” which was inspired by T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Waste Land, and focused on social class and the differences between the glamorous West End of London and the more working-class East End. The song won a Brit Award for the Best Single and was sung by the Pet Shop Boys at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2020, The Guardian listed “West End Girls” atop their list of the 100 greatest UK No. 1 singles of all time.
The Pet Shop Boys have released 15 studio albums including 2024’s Nonetheless. “West End Girls” was their only single to top the Billboard 100, but they had several other top 10 hits including 1986’s Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money),” 1987’s “It’s a Sin” and “What Have I Done To Deserve This,” a duet with Dusty Springfield, and 1988’s “Always On My Mind.” They’ve won three Brit Award and received seven Grammy nominations. In 2016, Billboard named them the No. 1 dance duo/group since the chart’s inception in 1976. They most recently played on the Unity Tour with New Order in 2022.
