BMatt’s Monday musings

AUBURN | Auburn will make its appearance at SEC Media Days in Dallas Thursday afternoon.

I’m not sure Hugh Freeze could have selected three better player representatives for Auburn than Keldric Faulk, Eugene Asante and Peyton Thorne.

It’s a player that’s creating an impressive Auburn story, another that’s putting the finishing touches on an incredible comeback story and a third that can turn his Auburn story on its heels with a productive sixth year.

Faulk is the first true sophomore to represent Auburn at SEC Media Days. And it’s not like AU’s roster isn’t stacked with juniors and seniors, plenty of which will play important roles this season.

But just short of 18 months into his Auburn career, Faulk has already established himself as a key starter on the defensive line and as an important team leader, especially for a group of talented young players brought in by Freeze and his staff in the last two classes.

He’s just starting out on what should be a great career in football and life.

Asante transferred from North Carolina and put himself on the scout team during his first season in 2022. He could have quit football or transferred to another school, but instead stayed and pushed himself to become a better player.

A year and a new coaching staff later, he became one of AU’s best players, leading the team in tackles in 2023. He enters this season as a potential All-SEC linebacker and one of the Auburn’s most important leaders.

Another transfer, Thorne had a tough first season as Auburn’s starting quarterback completing 162 of 265 passes (61.1 percent) for 1,755 yards with 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

But instead of replacing Thorne, Freeze doubled-down and worked to build a better offense around him. Thorne will enter 2024 with a better and more explosive receiving corps, a deeper and more experienced offensive line and an offensive system that every coach on the staff is fully behind.

A coach that believes in a player and a player that’s determined to finish his college career on a high note can be a dangerously good combination.

All three already have compelling stories to share with the potential of even bigger and better to come this fall.

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In today’s musical journey, we go back 12 years to the download of a music video that became the most watched in history. On July 15, 2012, South Korean K-pop star Psy posted “Gangnam Style” on YouTube. It passed Justin Bieber’s “Baby” to become the most viewed in YouTube history and surpassed a billion views on Nov. 24, 2012. It was finally surpassed in 2017 by Wiz Khalifa’s “See You Again” and currently ranks 10th with “Baby Shark Dance” holding the top spot with over 14.6 billion views. The song spent 31 weeks on the Billboard 100, peaking at No. 2 on Oct. 6, 2012. It hit No. 1 in more than 30 countries including the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. Psy wrote “Gangnam Style” as a parody of the all the new wealth in South Korea, especially the district of Gangnam, which is known as the Beverly Hills of Seoul. The music and dancing style from the video became widely popular and spawned a number of parodies. The song helped launch K-Pop music such as BTS, which was the world’s top-selling musical group in 2021, and Seventeen and Stray Kids, which trailed only Taylor Swift in 2023.

Pae Jae-sang was born in the Gangnam district of Seoul on New Year’s Eve in 1977. His father was an executive of a semiconductor manufacturer and mother owned several restaurants. He was know as the class clown in school and didn’t really take up music until watching a Queen concert at Wembley stadium on T.V. He came to the U.S. in 1996 to study business at Boston University with plans to take over for his father, but quickly dropped out and used his remaining money to purchase music equipment including a keyboard. He spent time a Berklee, a private musical college in Boston, before returning to South Korea to pursue a career in music. He caught his first break when South Korean rapper zoPD included him on a song in 1999 and then he appeared on national T.V. the following year. He came up with his stage name, Psy, based on being “slightly psycho.” In 2001, Psy released his first album and a second album came in 2002, which included his first hit single, “Champion.” He served a couple of stints in the military due to South Korea’s mandatory military service in 2003 and 2008-09. He also released two more albums as his popularity grew in South Korea and Asia. His sixth album, Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1, was released in 2012 and included “Gangnam Style.” An appearance on the Today Show on Sept. 14, 2012 and Saturday Night Live the following day helped drive the popularity of the song and video. He’s gone on to produce seven total albums, had five No. 1 hits in South Korea and founded his own entertainment company, P Nation, in 2018. He’s also appeared in three films and eight T.V. shows. He has a net worth of approximately $60 million.