BMatt’s Monday musings
AUBURN | College football’s transfer portal has come under a lot of criticism, especially with the new unlimited transfer rule.
Coaches and college administrators hate it. Alumni and fans haven’t been to keen either.
But it’s been very good for Auburn and has allowed Hugh Freeze and his staff to put their rebuilding job into overdrive.
The Tigers brought in 20 transfers in 2023, which combined to play in 203 games with 104 starts.
The group included starting quarterback Peyton Thorne, Rivaldo Fairweather, who set an AU record with 38 receptions for a tight end, three starters on the offensive line and two more on the defensive line.
The newcomers also included Austin Keys and Larry Nixon, who split the starts at middle linebacker, and Jalen McLeod, who was second on the team with 10.5 tackles-for-loss and 5.5 sacks.
Eight of those players return in 2024 including Thorne, Fairweather, Keys, McLeod and offensive lineman Dillon Wade.
Of the 19 that left the program last year, only seven landed at Power 5 programs and those seven combined to play in 62 games with nine starts.
Some of their highlights include Tar’Varish Dawson catching 14 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown for Colorado before being dismissed from the team in February, and Landen King catching 14 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns at Utah.
Jeffrey M’Ba had 16 tackles and two tackles-for-loss in 12 games at Purdue while Dylan Brooks had five tackles and one tackle-for-loss in seven games at Kansas.
Freeze had a tough first season at Auburn going just 6-7. How manny games would AU have won last year without the transfer portal?
Two, maybe three in my estimation.
There would have been huge holes on both the offensive and defensive lines that would have bogged down the entire enterprise.
Freeze inherited the worst AU roster in about a quarter-century and nearly had a winning record. And he wasn't close to satisfied.
Freeze was critical of AU's overall returns from the portal last season and brought in GM of Player Personnel Will Redmond to boost that part of player acquisition.
Of course, the results of Auburn’s work in the 2024 transfer portal won’t be known until after the season, it looks like Redmond's addition has already paid big dividends.
The Tigers have added 14 players from the portal including Penn State’s leading receiver, KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Georgia State’s leading receiver, Robert Lewis, Mississippi State’s starting left tackle, Percy Lewis, four veteran defensive linemen from Power 5 programs, and Arkansas State’s leading pass rusher, Keyron Crawford.
AU also added linebacker Dorian Mausi, who started 20 games at Duke, and safety Jerrin Thompson, who started 31 games at Texas.
Of the 20 players that have left during the offseason, only eight have landed at Power 5 schools.
Add that to a top 10 recruiting class and Auburn’s roster is returning to respectability and the Tigers should field a much more competitive team in Freeze’s second season.
If the current trend continues with another top 5-10 class and more good work in the portal, AU could be back to competing near the top of the SEC and for a spot in the 12-team playoff in 2025.
None of that would be possible without the portal and unlimited transfers. Scorned by many, it’s been a boon for Freeze and Auburn.
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In today’s musical journey, we go back 20 years to the day the Hip Hop King of the South shot an unauthorized rap video while incarcerated, which resulted in the firing of a jail supervisor. On June 17, 2004, T.I. shot a video, which included prison guards and other inmates, at the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Ga., to be used as an opener before he came out on stage for the Birthday Bash at the Lakewood Amphitheater. That year’s annual radio bash also featured Kanye West, Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz and Bone Crusher. T.I. had been jailed for two months due to a probation violation from a drug conviction in 1997. Sheriff Jackie Barrett fired the jail supervisor and suspended three guards before a judge appointed a custodian to take control of the jail away from Barrett. T.I. is one of the founders of trap music and a leader of Southern hip hop. He has won three Grammy, two American Music and 12 Billboard Music Awards. He has sold over 14 million albums worldwide, helped launch a number of successful artists under his label, Grand Hustle Records, and has starred in more than a dozen films including 2010’s Takers, 2015’s Get Hard and Ant-Man, and 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp. T.I. has also appeared in several of his own reality T.V. shows beginning with 2009’s T.I.’s Road to Redemption, which aired on MTV.
Clifford Joseph Harris was born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1980 and raised by his grandparents in the Center Hill neighborhood of Bankhead. His childhood nickname was Tip, which he shortened to T.I. to avoid any confusion with fellow rapper, Q-Tip. T.I. started rapping at age eight and also sold drugs, leading to several arrests as a teenager. He signed with LaFace Records in 1999 and released his first album, I’m Serious, to little acclaim in 2001. He formed Grand Hustle Records and released his second album, Trap Muzik, in 2003, which included a couple of minor hit singles. His third album, 2004’s Urban Legend, included his first top 10 hit, “Bring Em Out.” He’s gone on to release 11 studio albums and had four No. 1 hits on the Billboard 100 in 2006’s “My Love,” a collaboration with Justin Timberlake, 2008’s “Whatever You Like” and “Live Your Life,” which featured Rihanna, and 2013’s “Blurred Lines,” with Robin Thicke and Pharrell. T.I. announced in 2021 that he was working on his final solo album, which will be called Kill the King.