Latest / SEC Football Addiction / COMPLETE Guide to Auburn Tigers vs Baylor Bears | SEC | Big 12
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Let's talk for a few minutes about an sec big
- 0:04Speaker 1: 12 game, but your mark licking his chops on this
- 0:06Speaker 1: one to, to try and get a first year head
- 0:08Speaker 1: coach with Auburn and Baylor in a game that.
- 0:13Speaker 2: I believe that's in Waco, right? That's in a, that's
- 0:15Speaker 2: in Texas.
- 0:16Speaker 3: It's a, it's in Atlanta.
- 0:18Speaker 2: Oh, this is a, this is, oh, this is a
- 0:19Speaker 2: kickoff game. Yeah. In Atlanta, Auburn and Baylor.
- 0:25Speaker 1: We'll give some love to price picks here in a
- 0:26Speaker 1: few minutes. I'll cut in and do something, but yeah,
- 0:30Speaker 1: On this one, how much are you a believer, big
- 0:33Speaker 1: picture before we talk about the matchup, how much are
- 0:36Speaker 1: you a.
- 0:36Speaker 2: Believer in.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Alex Golish being able to bring a lot of USF
- 0:41Speaker 1: kids to Auburn and it working in the SEC?
- 0:44Speaker 3: I guess it depends on how you define working. I've
- 0:50Speaker 3: always liked Golish a lot. I mean, I think he's sharp.
- 0:55Speaker 3: He is sharp. He was really good at Tennessee basketball.
- 0:59Speaker 3: And that was sort of the nadir of the Josh
- 1:01Speaker 3: Heifel era, in my opinion. So, like, I think that
- 1:07Speaker 3: compared to, like, Auburn hasn't had a winning season in, what,
- 1:10Speaker 3: like five years or something crazy like that since they
- 1:12Speaker 3: fired Gus in 2020. So, I think that in that framework,
- 1:20Speaker 3: I'm a believer. Am I a believer that they're going
- 1:23Speaker 3: to go out and have, you know, he's going to
- 1:25Speaker 3: have a first year like Malzahn did in 2013 where
- 1:27Speaker 3: they're going to, you know, win some crazy games on
- 1:31Speaker 3: the margins and end up in a national title game
- 1:34Speaker 3: with a chance to win in the fourth quarter. No,
- 1:36Speaker 3: I'm not, I'm not, I'm not there, but I do
- 1:39Speaker 3: think that he is a good fit for Auburn. I
- 1:42Speaker 3: think he's doing a lot of things programmatically that needed
- 1:46Speaker 3: to be done there for a while. And I think
- 1:48Speaker 3: that long-term he'll have success, but this season like seven
- 1:53Speaker 3: and five would be a wonderful accomplishment. And I think
- 1:55Speaker 3: that that's within range. And I think they could beat
- 1:58Speaker 3: somebody that they're not supposed to because I think Byron
- 2:00Speaker 3: Brown brings a level of variance to any game that
- 2:05Speaker 3: they could lose. There could be some things that go wrong,
- 2:08Speaker 3: but there could be some things that go really right.
- 2:09Speaker 3: So I like the hire, and I think they'll have
- 2:13Speaker 3: success this year.
- 2:14Speaker 1: Big picture the other way, how much of DJ Lagway's
- 2:16Speaker 1: struggles was on him and how much was on a
- 2:18Speaker 1: staff that is no longer in Gainesville? And follow up
- 2:22Speaker 1: to that, how good can he be for this Baylor
- 2:24Speaker 1: team this year?
- 2:26Speaker 3: Look, there was a scene in that documentary, the SEC
- 2:37Speaker 3: Any Given Saturday documentary on Netflix where DJ Lagway is
- 2:41Speaker 3: kind of talking about the pressure of being a quarterback
- 2:45Speaker 3: at Florida and just sort of the struggles of that,
- 2:49Speaker 3: which I think were very real for him. And look,
- 2:51Speaker 3: I'm not diminishing– that is a ton of pressure to
- 2:54Speaker 3: be the savior of a program like that one, especially
- 2:57Speaker 3: one with a fan base. That's that has high expectations,
- 3:01Speaker 3: but the next scene was like Diego Pavia, like breaking
- 3:05Speaker 3: the door at the weight room. So he could get
- 3:07Speaker 3: there at like three 30 in the morning, you know?
- 3:09Speaker 3: And I was just like, wow, that's so that's very different.
- 3:12Speaker 3: I think Lagway might find his level in the big 12.
- 3:15Speaker 3: And I don't mean that like disparagingly. I just think
- 3:18Speaker 3: that perhaps that level of spotlight and like, conversation around
- 3:23Speaker 3: him and that kind of size place could be a
- 3:28Speaker 3: good fit for him. I was at Elite 11 the
- 3:32Speaker 3: year that Lagoway was out there. I thought he was
- 3:35Speaker 3: the best prospect there in terms of like at the
- 3:38Speaker 3: time he was really accurate in short intermediate throws with
- 3:44Speaker 3: all of those dual threat abilities, right? Like he had
- 3:48Speaker 3: a lot to offer. So I'm not giving up on
- 3:50Speaker 3: DJ Lagway. Like I think he could have a Spencer
- 3:53Speaker 3: Rattler type arc at Baylor, you know, the way that
- 3:56Speaker 3: he did that, that Rattler did from Oklahoma to South Carolina. Like,
- 4:00Speaker 3: I think this could work out for him in the
- 4:02Speaker 3: long term.
- 4:03Speaker 1: When you think about this matchup, I don't, Baylor is
- 4:07Speaker 1: a middling big 12 team. Auburn is, a middling to
- 4:12Speaker 1: below average, you know, sec team. But again, calling, we
- 4:15Speaker 1: talked about with LSU a lot TBD because we haven't
- 4:18Speaker 1: seen this team play in, you know, burn orange and
- 4:22Speaker 1: dark blue yet.
- 4:23Speaker 2: So, how does that, how does that match up?
- 4:28Speaker 1: Like an average as easy team, typically going to take
- 4:30Speaker 1: down an average big, big 12 team, but it was
- 4:32Speaker 1: so much turnover on both of these programs, new quarterback, new,
- 4:36Speaker 1: new systems, you know, new coach, new quarterback there. Like
- 4:39Speaker 1: just how do you start to evaluate a game like
- 4:42Speaker 1: this where there are so many unknowns on both sides?
- 4:45Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, not to sound like a broken record
- 4:47Speaker 3: because we just said all this same stuff about Clemson LSU.
- 4:49Speaker 3: It's a really hard game to handicap. It is. And, uh,
- 4:54Speaker 3: that doesn't mean that we're not going to try. Right.
- 4:56Speaker 3: But like, I, I do think it's, it's hard to know.
- 4:59Speaker 3: I think in a game like this though, I give
- 5:03Speaker 3: some advantage to Auburn and goalish just like, you know,
- 5:11Speaker 3: this is not an sec defense that Baylor's going to
- 5:13Speaker 3: try it out there. Like this is not Georgia or,
- 5:18Speaker 3: you know, Alabama or pick whoever, like there's, there's not
- 5:22Speaker 3: going to be, I think the biggest difference in some
- 5:24Speaker 3: of those defenses sometimes is the speed of the big
- 5:29Speaker 3: people on the defensive line. And when you've got a
- 5:33Speaker 3: dual-threat quarterback, that really changes their ability to be effective
- 5:38Speaker 3: and break contain. So I expect Byron Brown in a
- 5:41Speaker 3: game like this to be able to do a lot
- 5:43Speaker 3: of the things that we became accustomed to watching him
- 5:46Speaker 3: do while he was at USF. I don't know that
- 5:50Speaker 3: he'll do that over the course of a 12-game season
- 5:53Speaker 3: throughout 2026 at Auburn, but this game, I think, like,
- 5:57Speaker 3: the continuity and the familiarity that Golish and all those
- 6:02Speaker 3: guys that they brought over from South Florida have with
- 6:05Speaker 3: this offense helps Auburn, for sure. But, you know, I mean, Lagway,
- 6:11Speaker 3: I think, like, I've never had the impression that the
- 6:14Speaker 3: issue with Lagway was his ability to grasp a playbook
- 6:17Speaker 3: or install or anything like that, right? Like, I think
- 6:20Speaker 3: that they'll be prepared and that'll be that, but this
- 6:24Speaker 3: Baylor offense was really, you know, kind of good in
- 6:29Speaker 3: certain ways last year. But like, you know, the run
- 6:34Speaker 3: game was the problem for them. And so I think
- 6:38Speaker 3: that is the question that, A, can DJ Lagway help
- 6:41Speaker 3: solve that? Will they actually run him? Because I don't
- 6:44Speaker 3: think Florida ever really used his legs and he was
- 6:47Speaker 3: always kind of hurt there. So like, if you're going
- 6:49Speaker 3: to tell me Baylor's going to come out and they're
- 6:51Speaker 3: going to run some some read-based stuff with the quarterback
- 6:54Speaker 3: and like, he's going to get involved in the run
- 6:56Speaker 3: game and start kind of stretching out that Auburn defensive
- 7:00Speaker 3: line to where they're trying to contain certain things on
- 7:03Speaker 3: the edges and account for the mesh point, then that
- 7:07Speaker 3: could go really well. I think this game could turn
- 7:09Speaker 3: into a shootout genuinely. Like that's sort of how it
- 7:11Speaker 3: feels to me.
- 7:13Speaker 1: I was super high on story Robertson. I thought he
- 7:15Speaker 1: was going to be the best quarterback in the big
- 7:17Speaker 1: 12 last year. Um, you know, it's easy to project
- 7:21Speaker 1: things in the off season, but I will try and
- 7:23Speaker 1: own up to them when I'm not necessarily right about
- 7:26Speaker 1: things in this game. I don't know if you remember
- 7:29Speaker 1: this game from last year, this was a game that
- 7:33Speaker 1: Auburn got out to a big lead, a three score lead,
- 7:35Speaker 1: I think pretty early.
- 7:36Speaker 2: And you know, Baylor struck back some, but it.
- 7:39Speaker 1: Never felt like they were right there. They did cut
- 7:43Speaker 1: it to a seven point game, I think with 10
- 7:45Speaker 1: ish minutes to go. So you get a stop, you
- 7:47Speaker 1: do this and you're in pretty good shape. But they
- 7:50Speaker 1: couldn't get that. Like that, that's not what happened. I
- 7:53Speaker 1: think Auburn had a, yeah, I'm looking at it now.
- 7:54Speaker 1: Auburn had a seven minute touchdown drive to answer that
- 7:58Speaker 1: Baylor score. They cut it to one score and they
- 8:01Speaker 1: went up two scores with four minutes to go. And
- 8:03Speaker 1: that was that I it's so overstated. And I don't
- 8:08Speaker 1: mean to just be the cliche guy with this, Trinches
- 8:12Speaker 1: are typically different in the SEC, and that's what dictated
- 8:14Speaker 1: last year's game, is Auburn did whatever they wanted up front,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and that was a big part of this. I'll get
- 8:19Speaker 1: right back to chatting with Graham, but first I want
- 8:20Speaker 1: to give some love to our friends over at PrizePix.
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- 8:24Speaker 1: different shows, but I do want to emphasize it. We
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- 8:48Speaker 1: this college football season. They've got tons of promos going on.
- 8:51Speaker 1: I'll tell you about more promos coming with them as
- 8:54Speaker 1: we go through the season. But I am excited about
- 8:56Speaker 1: everything that we get to do with the PrizePix app
- 8:58Speaker 1: this year. Again, the code is HMA. Now back to
- 9:01Speaker 1: chatting with Graham. do Auburn trenches look like though? Are
- 9:06Speaker 1: they a mix.
- 9:06Speaker 2: Of sec group of five?
- 9:08Speaker 1: Are they, you know, like, so are you kind of
- 9:10Speaker 1: just getting back to that big 12 level if that's
- 9:12Speaker 1: the case? And, and that does make this a little
- 9:14Speaker 1: bit more even because you've brought some guys in, you've
- 9:16Speaker 1: portaled in some of your better players.
- 9:18Speaker 2: Um, you've obviously got some holdovers.
- 9:20Speaker 1: Like what are your thoughts on what the trench matchup
- 9:22Speaker 1: really looks like? Because to me, that's certainly what dictated
- 9:25Speaker 1: it last year.
- 9:26Speaker 3: Yeah, no. And I mean, that's, it's a great point
- 9:28Speaker 3: to that point. Auburn up front on the offensive line,
- 9:32Speaker 3: they are ninth nationally in number of offensive line snaps
- 9:36Speaker 3: portaled in, 3,200. And that's a lot. Now, again, I
- 9:41Speaker 3: think the legs of Byron Brown can help with that
- 9:45Speaker 3: on some level. But, you know, this game a year ago,
- 9:50Speaker 3: how I recall it was– Auburn shrouded out Cam Coleman
- 9:56Speaker 3: and a lot of really talented wide receivers that are
- 9:58Speaker 3: no longer at Auburn. and Baylor kind of over respected
- 10:02Speaker 3: them played like a bunch of three man fronts and
- 10:05Speaker 3: was really kind of conservative defensively and just tried to
- 10:09Speaker 3: stay behind everything and Jackson Arnold would just kind of
- 10:14Speaker 3: sit in the pocket and take off and I think
- 10:17Speaker 3: he ran for like A couple touchdowns.
- 10:20Speaker 2: Yeah, 137. They had 300 yards on the ground. He
- 10:23Speaker 2: had 137 of it.
- 10:25Speaker 3: Right. So, I mean, I– and, look, you know, the
- 10:31Speaker 3: Auburn– who was the Auburn running back in that game?
- 10:33Speaker 3: I'm sorry.
- 10:34Speaker 2: Damari Alston, Jeremiah Cobb, Eric Singleton.
- 10:37Speaker 3: Okay, so they bring back a lot of those guys.
- 10:39Speaker 3: But I do have– yeah, I mean, Auburn's offensive line,
- 10:43Speaker 3: I think they can– gel up you know i mean
- 10:48Speaker 3: like look after everything that's gone on in college football
- 10:51Speaker 3: the last couple years with indiana i'm not gonna sit
- 10:53Speaker 3: here and say like you can't bring guys in and
- 10:56Speaker 3: sort of develop them up front but uh in this
- 11:00Speaker 3: game you know i i do i i would be
- 11:04Speaker 3: sitting here in a lot lying through my teeth i
- 11:06Speaker 3: pretended like i had any idea what we're gonna get
- 11:08Speaker 3: from the auburn offensive.
- 11:10Speaker 2: Line It can be such a mix.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Like we'll talk about FSU SMU in just a few minutes,
- 11:14Speaker 1: but man, Florida state portaled in five new offensive linemen
- 11:17Speaker 1: last year and dominated Alabama in the trenches. And this
- 11:22Speaker 1: year they portaled in four new offensive linemen and have
- 11:24Speaker 1: one homegrown guy in there. And they, I think one,
- 11:27Speaker 1: but didn't win enough against New Mexico state just three
- 11:31Speaker 1: days ago. That is the danger of portaling in that
- 11:35Speaker 1: many guys. You can look great. And I think offensively
- 11:39Speaker 1: on the offensive line, Florida state had a really good
- 11:40Speaker 1: offensive line last year for what they brought in portal
- 11:43Speaker 1: and five guys in, uh, that had never played together
- 11:47Speaker 1: when you can go out and dominate Bama. And I
- 11:49Speaker 1: thought they held up pretty well against Miami, who I
- 11:51Speaker 1: think had the best D line in the country. Um,
- 11:53Speaker 1: they did pretty well against Clemson. They did okay against
- 11:56Speaker 1: Florida at the end of the year. They were banged
- 11:57Speaker 1: up at that point. But, uh, but then you look
- 12:00Speaker 1: at what they've done this year in portal and a
- 12:01Speaker 1: bunch of guys in, and it just doesn't look the
- 12:03Speaker 1: same against pretty inferior opponents.
- 12:06Speaker 2: Or a pretty inferior opponent.
- 12:08Speaker 1: So not to spend too much time on them, but yeah,
- 12:10Speaker 1: that's why I think it is such a big question
- 12:11Speaker 1: mark because there's a very specific data point that we
- 12:13Speaker 1: can look at with one team looking night and day
- 12:17Speaker 1: different on the offensive line and attacking it kind of
- 12:20Speaker 1: the same way that Auburn has here. And I think
- 12:24Speaker 1: until the first few snaps are taken, you really won't know.
- 12:28Speaker 1: And maybe not even until the end of the first
- 12:29Speaker 1: quarter to see how guys really hold up with stunts
- 12:32Speaker 1: and twists and things that'll come against a Baylor defense
- 12:35Speaker 1: that I don't think I would have top five in
- 12:38Speaker 1: the big 12, but yeah, probably respectable enough. You know,
- 12:42Speaker 1: it's a powerful unit that, um, yeah, it's not going
- 12:47Speaker 1: to just be a pusher.
- 12:48Speaker 2: It's not going to be a new Mexico state, I
- 12:49Speaker 2: guess is my point.
- 12:50Speaker 3: No. And I mean, like I, I, the thing about
- 12:55Speaker 3: a random that's really interesting in this matchup is like, ironically,
- 13:00Speaker 3: you know, when we talk about guys like Gullish and
- 13:02Speaker 3: the offensive system, they run, um, with these wide splits.
- 13:05Speaker 3: What do we call it? We call it the Baylor offense, right? And,
- 13:09Speaker 3: you know, Aranda was not there during the Bryles trees
- 13:14Speaker 3: time in Waco, but like you, you see a lot
- 13:20Speaker 3: of those offenses in the big 12, or you did
- 13:22Speaker 3: see those offenses in the big 12, a lot more
- 13:26Speaker 3: than you did in the sec until Hypel showed up
- 13:28Speaker 3: and started kind of having success. And he still runs well,
- 13:32Speaker 3: maybe the most like pure distillation of some of that.
- 13:35Speaker 3: But point being, I have always had great respect for
- 13:40Speaker 3: Dave Aranda as a defensive mind, a defensive game planner.
- 13:44Speaker 3: Last year was really odd against Auburn because it was like,
- 13:48Speaker 3: you know, they sort of like in hindsight, knowing everything
- 13:53Speaker 3: that happened with Jackson Arnold at Auburn last year, the
- 13:55Speaker 3: last thing you'd want to do is just let him
- 13:57Speaker 3: sit around in the pocket and run. You would want
- 13:59Speaker 3: to force him to throw the football by any means necessary,
- 14:03Speaker 3: but that's not what happened. So I, I do think
- 14:07Speaker 3: that Baylor will, will have a good approach to playing
- 14:11Speaker 3: USF on the defensive side of the ball. And like,
- 14:15Speaker 3: I kind of think that Baylor has sort of been
- 14:18Speaker 3: a team that they just sort of swing year to
- 14:22Speaker 3: year a lot. Right. And so like, maybe this is
- 14:25Speaker 3: a swing back in a positive direction.
- 14:29Speaker 2: We talked about this so hard to handicap things in
- 14:31Speaker 2: week one.
- 14:33Speaker 1: I've had, I mean, I've had years where I absolutely
- 14:36Speaker 1: crushed it because Vegas is off and I've had years
- 14:38Speaker 1: where I absolutely lost everything because I was off seven
- 14:43Speaker 1: and a half here for Auburn neutral site game in
- 14:46Speaker 1: Atlanta neutral site, but I would expect, you know, what's
- 14:49Speaker 1: Auburn two hours.
- 14:51Speaker 2: Not, not that far.
- 14:52Speaker 1: So I would expect not that Baylor won't show up,
- 14:54Speaker 1: but I would expect this is maybe a little more
- 14:56Speaker 1: of a friendly Auburn crowd than a true split. I
- 15:00Speaker 1: was in the stadium for Argentina and England and saw
- 15:04Speaker 1: Argentina had a bit more of a friendly crowd there.
- 15:06Speaker 1: I would expect that maybe 60, 40 ish Auburn, maybe
- 15:10Speaker 1: a tad more, but.
- 15:11Speaker 3: Probably more, but yeah, I mean, Auburn's close to Atlanta.
- 15:14Speaker 3: I'll just say that.
- 15:16Speaker 1: So with that, Do you think– does that hook scare
- 15:20Speaker 1: you like it did with Clemson and LSU?
- 15:22Speaker 2: Or do you think they can get above a touchdown?
- 15:29Speaker 3: The hook does scare me here. Like, you know, personally,
- 15:37Speaker 3: even with the South Florida continuity, 59.5 is a lot
- 15:42Speaker 3: of points. So, like, that's probably how I'd want to
- 15:45Speaker 3: play this game potentially if I was going to play
- 15:47Speaker 3: it is the 100. but I would go with Auburn
- 15:56Speaker 3: in this game, picking spread, but I'd much rather bet
- 16:01Speaker 3: that Clemson spread, I guess is how I'd put it.
- 16:05Speaker 3: We're making picks, so I'm going to pick Auburn minus
- 16:08Speaker 3: seven and a half, but it's not a line that
- 16:11Speaker 3: I would bet my own money on.
- 16:13Speaker 2: I'm going to take Auburn to win. I'm going to
- 16:15Speaker 2: take Baylor to cover. I do think this is a.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Fun game, kind of back and forth maybe in like
- 16:19Speaker 1: that 27, 24, just slightly under the under, like you
- 16:25Speaker 1: were talking about. Cause it is a big total life
- 16:28Speaker 1: is too short to take under. So I, I don't
- 16:30Speaker 1: typically take them, but I, I think I like Baylor
- 16:36Speaker 1: to cover, but man, that feels like a complete guess. It's,
- 16:39Speaker 1: it's a complete avoid for me. As far as the
- 16:42Speaker 1: line goes on this one, I'll take Auburn to win.
- 16:45Speaker 1: I do trust goalish. I, I am really intrigued to
- 16:49Speaker 1: see DJ Lagway in this. Cause I want to see
- 16:52Speaker 1: what he looks like in, in a little bit better shape,
- 16:54Speaker 1: a little bit better form. Um, he is really intriguing
- 16:57Speaker 1: to me. I'm excited to see Byron Brown. Like, I
- 16:59Speaker 1: think this is a fun game. People are whining and moaning,
- 17:02Speaker 1: complaining about this weekend slate. Like this is like, I can't,
- 17:06Speaker 1: I can't not see right. Like I need to see
- 17:08Speaker 1: this one.
- 17:09Speaker 3: Yeah. One guy that I am excited to watch in
- 17:11Speaker 3: this game too, uh, for Auburn is Eric winners, their safety. Um,
- 17:16Speaker 3: I really liked his game a lot coming out of
- 17:19Speaker 3: high school. And he's kind of got that sort of
- 17:21Speaker 3: ball hawk safety that he'll gamble at times. And that
- 17:27Speaker 3: could create some big plays, but it could also create
- 17:30Speaker 3: a turnover or a pick six the other way or
- 17:33Speaker 3: a forced fumble. So he would be one that might
- 17:37Speaker 3: be worth watching. Can he make those swing plays for
- 17:40Speaker 3: the positive for Auburn versus in the negative?