Andy Burcham, the Voice of the Auburn Tigers, tells McElroy & Cubelic what he wants to see from Auburn during fall camp & why he thinks Auburn has seen an uptick in recruiting
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McElroy and Kublik in the morning starts now. All right, welcome back in. McElroy and Kublik in the morning, Tuesday, July 30th, 8 a.m., jocks 94.5. Appreciate you all being a part of the show.

800-239-9569. Way to get into the show. You can also text in 205-834-9450. Follow up on the top three or begin the discussion around Notre Dame a little bit later this hour. Is there our team of the day where we ask the question or tell you why or why not they can make the college football playoff? But we begin our weekly business with Andy Bertram.

Joining us now on the Buyer's Right Hotline and Andy, fall practice set to begin for this Auburn football team tomorrow. When you think about just what's going to need to happen, what you need to try to learn about this football team through fall practice, what do you want to try to be able to come away with before kickoff that you either see, hear about in fall for Hugh Freeze and his team?

Well, I think it's got to start at the quarterback spot. I think that's pretty obvious. I think we all want to see Peyton Thorne take that step forward with what I believe will be an improved offense around him. I think it's going to be an improved offensive line in front of him. No question that there's more talent at the wide receiver spot, albeit they'll be relying on some freshmen, some very talented freshmen there.

And then I like the guys that they brought in, the older pieces at that wide receiver spot, like a Sam Jackson V and Keandre Lambert Smith and Robert Lewis, guys that are in from the transfer portal. It's a better wide receiver room, but it was desperately needed. A tight end room that is back primarily intact, led by Revalvo Fairweather, and then Jarquez Hunter, who should be one of the premier backs

in the Southeastern Conference along with Demaree Alston and Jeremiah Cobb. So I like this offense. To me, the question mark primarily not only is Peyton Ford, does he take that step forward offensively but defensively? How does Auburn play?

respond to the losses that they anticipated up front. And it's new guys up front. Trill Carter and Gage Keys and Isaiah Rikes and Phillip Blady are all guys in from the transfer portal in the middle. Does Keldrick Falk take that step forward in his sophomore year after a freshman All-America first season on the Plains? Is Jayden McLeod finally healthy? I thought he came on for Auburn.

On that other side, for Auburn a year ago, is he healthy? Is he the player that Auburn thought they were getting when he transferred in from Appalachian State last year? So those are a couple questions I think early on to answer with this ball club. And there are others to come, but those are the ones that come to my mind right now.

What about the defense? I feel like so much has been made of the improvement at wide receiver, the improvement and focus on Peyton Thorne's growth and development, continuing to run the ball with an effective clip. But defensively, I don't feel like there's been hardly any conversation. So when you go and you watch the defensive side of practice, where will your eyes be navigating towards? The middle up front, just because they lost so much from a year ago.

And it's brand new. It's brand new names, as mentioned. Carter, Rakes, Keyes, Bleedy, Malik Blockton, Jason Jones is back. But, I mean, it's a cast of new guys at nose tackle to defensive tackle for Auburn. So that's where I'll be watching is that middle up front, Greg. And then, you know, I like the linebackers, but do they have the depth at the linebacker spot? With Austin Keyes and Eugene Asante who return tomorrow,

The late transfer from Fonage Gote from Maryland, who Auburn played against, of course, in the bowl game. What does DeMarcus Riddick do in his freshman season at Auburn? Highly touted out of Chilton County. And, you know, one of those premier recruits that Auburn brought in,

And then in the secondary, you know, you lose a lot in the secondary, and you've got guys like Keontae Scott coming back. But then Caleb Wooden and Champ Anthony, Sylvester Smith, Ken Lee are all guys that played for Auburn a year ago, but they weren't the starters for Auburn a year ago. So I will look up front first, but there are spots all over that defense to see how well this team is rounding into shape as it gets ready for that August 31st opener.

Andy Burcham joining us on the Buyers Rite Hotline. We'll have weekly visits with him all fall discussing this Auburn football team. You've seen the recruiting ramp up the last couple of days just like we have. What do you make of that? Is this just timing? Is it kind of the correlation of guys wanting to make decisions at the same time? Why is it ramped up so much here in the last four or five days?

Well, I think probably a great deal has to do with just the recruiting weekend last weekend. Big Cat weekend started with Gene Chizik on the planes, and I'm not sure they've had a better Big Cat weekend, apparently, than they did this past weekend where they were getting commitments for 24 and certainly, or excuse me, 25 and 26. And you've got to get those guys to December, December of this year, December of next year,

and get those guys signed because we've already seen guys that have committed and then decommitted and then recommitted, and there's a lot of time to go. I think that has a lot to do with it. I just think that this is a good recruiting staff. I think Hugh Freeze is a really good recruiter. I think that's one of the reasons that John Cohen hired Hugh Freeze a year and a half ago on the Plains is because what he can do in the recruiting, and I think he has hired a staff

that has put together a magnificent recruiting class, and it appears that, you know, that 25 class is going to be very, very good. That 26 class may be even better. I just think this team, this staff recruits very, very well. And so I'm not terribly surprised by it, but this is what Hugh Freeze tends to do. And he's done it everywhere he's been, and he's certainly doing it now at Auburn.

What about you reference him being a really good class? Do you think that was a priority when Hugh Freeze started to put staff together and being able to bring in Nix, who's a known commodity as a recruiter, being able to bring in DJ Durkin, also a guy that's had a lot of success on the recruiting front for many, many years? How much of a priority do you think that was when they were putting the staff together? I think it's a huge emphasis. And add Charles Kelly.

to that mix who you know has been at florida state and alabama and just most recently at colorado when when when the season ended it was a disappointing end last year i'm losing to maryland in the music city bowl i was talking with coach freeze and he made mention and it wasn't just to me he mentioned he mentioned this to to his his staff he's mentioned this to the media listen that first class when he got here a year and a half ago he had to fill out a roster

And so it was transfer portal heavy. And I'm not saying that the transfer portal is always going to be a factor, I think, for the foreseeable future. I don't think unless the rules change with regard to the portal. But he made a conscious effort with this current class, this 24 class, and has maintained it through 25 and 26, that he is going to build, rebuild this team,

from the high school level up. Now, it doesn't mean that they're not going to go to the portal, because obviously they have, and they had to, especially up front defensively this year. But he wants to build it from a high school student athlete up and then fill in with the transfer portal. And that's the concentration that they've had, and big measure to the 24 class, and that's when you see a Perry Thompson, a Cam Coleman, a Bryce Kane, a Demarcus Riddick,

Amaris Williams, those guys that are going to play a great deal as true freshmen at Auburn. I think that that will continue for the years to come, and I think we're continuing to see that as you read about

the various commitments that Auburn is getting in this day. It's primarily out of the high school ranks right now. And then they will fill in, I think, they will fill in the JUCO ranks and the transfer portal. But I think they want to go high school heavy in rebuilding this program at this point.

Andy, we always appreciate the time. Looking forward to visiting with you throughout the course of the fall and beyond. And I hope you have a great rest of the week. Next time we catch up with you, we'll be talking actual players on the field in pads. So looking forward to that. Looking forward to it. Looking forward to it, guys. Have a great day. War Eagle. War Eagle. Thank you, Andy. Andy Bertram joining us on the Buyer's Right Hotline for all your insurance needs. Look to Buyer's Right Insurance, a member of the WRM group where relationships matter. You go back to that defense, G-Mac, and I'm with you. A lot of questions that I have there.

I did feel like Hugh Freeze had some confidence at SEC Media Days when we talked about the middle of that defense and I asked him about it. It's an area of concern for me. I just don't know how disruptive the individuals at Auburn are. Good news is

You have some real numbers to at least be able to choose from. Justin Hokanson joined us yesterday. If you missed that podcast, available jocksfm.com. Jason Jones, he has every bit of talent, ability, size, frame to be a big-time interior defensive lineman. Hasn't turned on consistently yet. We've seen Isaiah Rakes at A&M be a pretty good player.

uh, true Carter gauge keys come in from power five programs that could help add some numbers, um, and give you some guys that are, that are worthy of being inside on an sec defense. It might not be a dominant group, but I do think that with Eugene Asante, Austin keys, you bring in Dorian Moussey from Duke. You have some numbers at linebackers. If you can protect that group, maybe that can sort of become one of the strengths of the defense, uh, with Celtic talk up front also. So I've,

anxious to see kind of i guess really and truly sort of where dj durkin's going to steer it and who he's going to try to lean on as as a as a group part of that defense position group that can maybe be the most dominant well i think if you have enough good pieces up there though like i think bleeding is a good ad i think they've had some good additions in the portal they've gotten mature they've obviously been solid for a while now at linebacker so i'm not super concerned about that position group but now in this group and in this league frankly uh

You don't have to have complete takeover the game difference makers at D-Tackle, but you got to have a bunch of guys that can kind of weather the storm that can give you 30 good snaps. Because most good players are going to be able to play at a pretty high level for 30 some odd snaps. You get to 40 in some cases, maybe. But it starts to drop off pretty significantly, and the less talented you are, the more you have to strain on those plays.

that you're out there on the field. So I just hope there's adequate depth. I think they've done a pretty good job of addressing that, but I don't know a team in the league that doesn't have concerns about their defensive tackle spot. That's why it's not as big a concern for me with Auburn because they're one of about 10 that are concerned about that position group. So look, if it might not be your best position group on the team, but how is it relative to the other teams in the league that are also struggling at the exact same position group? So I,

I don't know. That's not the position group that concerns me for whatever reason. I'm a little more concerned about the back end, but that's only because I feel like they've been really solid there for quite a while, and I think the weapons that they're going to face based on the schedules that they're going to play are going to be a real challenge. But you could put a great secondary back there, and they're still probably going to have their hands full. So I'm just curious to see how that group kind of comes together as things move along.

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