AUBURN | It was quite a weekend for what’s quickly becoming Auburn’s recruiting machine.
In the space of less than 48 hours, the Tigers added two more high school commitments for the 2023 class and four more transfers.
I could say it’s amazing what the right coach with the right attitude can do at Auburn, but I’m not surprised.
Auburn has always been a lot better program than even many of its alumni and fans realize.
The two men in charge of the program — AD John Cohen and head coach Hugh Freeze — certainly knew that and jumped at the opportunity to come here.
Cohen was dead-on with his reinvention of Just Auburn being Auburn (JABA) while Freeze hit the perfect tone with the passion he showed for Auburn’s traditions during his opening press conference.
Those two men already get Auburn at its core and are the leaders this program needs now and for years to come.
As for recruiting, what’s special about the latest haul of talented players is it’s not special. It should be expected. It should be the standard.
It should just be the tip of the iceberg.
The fact that within the span of six weeks a new head coach could recognize a team’s deficiencies and take real steps to address them isn’t a revelation.
It’s a coach doing the job he was hired to do.
It’s not easy by any means. If it was easy, the last coach wouldn’t have failed so spectacularly.
Freeze and the staff he’s built are doing just the opposite. They are winning. And when I say this is the tip of the iceberg, I mean it.
They’re succeeding in scramble mode right now — making evaluations, building relationships and recruiting on the fly.
Imagine what they will do once they get into a full recruiting cycle.
No really, imagine. Because there’s no recent precedent for what’s coming. I’ve seen enough to feel confident.
Maybe you have too. Or maybe you need to see a little more.
Either way, buckle up. Auburn’s finally back in the game.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 24 years to the day a member of one of the greatest bands of all time made his debut on one of the greatest prestige T.V. shows of all time. On Jan. 10, 1999, Steven Van Zandt, the lead guitarist for Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, made his first appearance as a Silvio Dante on HBO’s The Sopranos. Van Zandt had no acting experience but show creator David Chase noticed him during the induction of The Rascals into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and invited him to audition for the role of Tony Soprano, the boss of a New Jersey crime family. Chase chose James Gandolfini for the starring role but hired Van Zandt to play his consignliere, Silvio Dante. Van Zandt’s wife, Maureen Van Zandt, was also cast as his on-screen wife, Gabriella Dante. Van Zandt based Dante’s relationship with Tony Soprano on his real-life relationship with Springsteen. The series lasted six seasons from 1999-2007 winning 21 Emmy Awards and five Golden Globes. The Writer’s Guild of America named it the best-written T.V. series of all time and both the Rolling Stone and TV Guide rank it the best T.V. series of all time.
Van Zandt was born in Winthrop, Mass., in 1950 into an Italian family, moving to New Jersey at age 7. His younger half-brother, Billy Van Zandt, is also an actor. The older Van Zandt began playing guitar at an early age and was partly inspired by seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show and the Rolling Stones on Hollywood Palace in 1964. A car crash as a teenager left scars on his head, which caused him to wear hats and scarves that later became a signature part of his look. Van Zandt grew up around the music scene in New Jersey with Springsteen. They collaborated together several times starting in 1965 but Van Zandt didn’t officially join the E Street band until 1975 for the start of the Born to Run tour. He left the band in 1984 but returned many times including permanently in 1999. He also co-wrote and was a star of the Netflix show, Lilyhammer from 2011-15. Van Zandt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with the E Street Band in 2014. Steven and Maureen have been married since 1982. They have a net worth of more than $80 million.
