We finish our discussion with observations about Johni Broome’s potential for the season, the starting QB job being more wide open than fans want it to be, and the potential of big receiving numbers from an Auburn offense for the first time in a long time.
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Auburn Basketball Tidbits And Football Projections
I haven’t had a chance to see this, any of the game. I don’t know if you guys have, but people would love it.
I agree with the second half of this statement, though. Better touch around the basket. Walker Kessler was raw offensively and got better as the season went along. Broome, if you watched him play at all, then you know he has a good offensive game. He’s got a soft touch on his mid-range. He finishes well around the basket. He’s more put together offensively than Walker Kessler was. The difference between the two is Walker Kessler is probably a little faster. He’s slimmer, faster, probably a better shot blocker because of his arm length.
Kessler jumps a little bit higher, but Broome has good timing. He knows how to do body positioning well. Again, he finishes well around the basket. He is, to me, a more complete basketball player now than Walker Kessler was to start the season. I like Johni Broome. I like his game. Looking forward to what he’s going to do in this offense.
To me, the key to how well Broome is going to play scoring-wise is how well he’s going to be able to stay out of foul trouble, get offensive points and lastly because I don’t think he needs to touch the ball consistently to stay engaged in games. How well or how much better we’re going to do with post-entry? We were terrible at post-entry passes. If they can get him the ball in the post and he can go to work, he’s going to do well.
He got a rebound in this game, back to the basket and hit him with a little shoulder thing. Nice touch. Nothing but net about five-six feet from the basket. It was good-looking. I’m looking forward to seeing what he could do on the court. He’s got good touch around the hoop.
Let’s move to football with this question. James Burnett asked if we had a game now based off a couple of days of practice, which QB are you sending out?
That’s tough. I haven’t watched a lot of practice stuff to be able to say definitively. Again, I wasn’t here earlier. I know people are going to be upset when they hear me say this and I’ve been saying this. If we were playing a game now, I still think TJ Finley would be the starter. There are a couple of things that make this make so much sense despite what people think about who is the better player. I need you all to erase who you think the better player is out of your brain.
Think about the fact that there is credence to having more experience in the offense and with the players. Like you understand the offense better and you have worked with the personnel more and you’ve got cupcakes to start the season. You don’t have to start game one with the guy who you think is going to be the eventual starter.
There’s no rush to throw them out there when you should physically dominate a team and get plenty of time to look at that guy. It’s not like the other team is going to take their starters out early because you hung 21 up on them in the first quarter. Put a bunch of points up, then put the other guy in there. I still think the guy, if we were doing it now, the person who’s ting out there first is TJ Finley.
You don’t have to start game one with the guy you think will be the eventual starter. There’s no rush to throw them out there.
I would have to agree with that. You’re talking about a lot of things. You’re talking about system, about knowledge of what this coaching staff is trying to do. I like Zach Calzada. I think he’s supremely talented, but he also had some catching up to do in terms of the time that he missed in the spring.
Had Calzada been here in the spring, I might have a different opinion.
We would be having a different conversation. At the end of the day, we have to start to believe that players can get significantly better in the off-season. A lot of people think, “What we’ve seen is what you’re going to be.” They’re way too many examples of that not being the case in college football with guys who maybe didn’t win the job initially.
The guy who won the national championship didn’t win the job in the fall camp. The national championship-winning quarterback did not win the job in fall camp, but they had a guy who they felt like they could turn to. It culminated in a national title. Who knows what their season would’ve been if they had left JT Daniels in there? I think let’s believe in the staff and the development plan over the players even that they know what they’re doing with these guys said. That whoever they put out there, we can have confidence that they’re going to get the job done.
My last point on the whole TJ Finley thing and I know it sounds like I’m caping for TJ Finley and I’m not. He still has yet to start enough games to be the equivalent of a full season in college football. He doesn’t have enough starts to have been a player for an entire season. Regardless of what you feel like you’ve seen from him already, he still has a lot of development that he can do. This is his first time that he was at spring camp at Auburn.
This is his third year, but technically, it’s his third camp. I don’t know if he made the first camp at LSU. He won the backup job his freshman year.
He was at camp.
There’s a lot of development left for TJ Finley to do, regardless of how many years he’s been in college. Again, I can’t get with anybody who feels like year three of the previous starter was going to be some herculean leap, but what is essentially year two for this starter, can’t even. I’m saying essentially the second year of him playing college football, as far as number of starts, he can’t make up ground. Again, I’m not predicting Heisman trophies for TJ Finley if he’s the starter. I’m saying he can get better than the last time you saw him out there. I’m saying he played better in the spring than the last time you saw him play football. Was it enough? No.
Emotionally prepare yourself for whoever the starter is going to be. I did it. I was hoping to see something different, but once they take the field, all that debate is over. Whoever’s out there needs to play well.
Let’s be clear, if he doesn’t play well, I’m going to get on this show and I’m going to do what I do, which is call out the fact that is not it.
It’s funny, when you listen to Calzada, the interview that we did with Calzada. He talks about the games he didn’t play. He talks about, “I’ve got Arkansas circle. They got me. They tricked me with that zone bull, whatever they were doing. I’m going to be ready for it. The same tricks will not work if I’m starting that game.” I think that if you look at these guys from one year to the next, they will tell you that they have room to improve their game as well. The belief of the fans on whether they can do that is something that I don’t think. To Ike’s point, I don’t understand why we’re willing to give some guys all the rope in the world and then other guys, it’s over. We’ve seen their game.
Football Projections: If you look at these guys from one year to the next, they will tell you they have room to improve their game.
A lot of it is the athleticism piece. TJ Finley could go out there and miss every wide-open throw. If he was more athletic, people would have more leash for him because they would feel like at least he can go make plays with his legs. I understand that a lot of the leash that you give some guys has to do with, “What are the intangibles that he brings?”
You don’t see those intangibles yet from TJ Finley. You don’t see any leadership intangibles. You don’t see any decision-making intangibles. You’re like, “If he is not doing this, then he’s no good.” My point is that based upon what you’ve seen so far, I can’t even be mad at that assessment. My other point is still he’s got room that he can improve because I’ve seen him make great throws. It’s about, “We will beat this horse. It’s probably already dead.” It’s about raising the floor. If he can raise his floor, the expectations of what he can do with his ceiling are pretty good.
I don’t even think TJ Finley’s ceiling is Heisman just because I don’t see enough in the decision-making standpoint from him yet to get me there without a bunch of help. I think that where he is, is a solid quarterback. When you have a great run game, he’s going to be very difficult to game plan for because he’s got a big arm. He’s accurate in the short to intermediate space. He just needs to improve his deep ball accuracy, which will take us to our next chat.
Cousin Eddie says, “Who is the best deep ball QB?”
I think it’s Calzada, hands down.
I think it’s Calzada now, but again, we don’t know that Robb’s deep ball isn’t good, but not to say TJ could not have improved his deep ball. If I had to put money on it, I would put money on what I’ve seen to date. It’s Zach Calzada at this point.
Blake says, “Dawson, 1,000 yards other than Coy because we already know Coy is getting 1,000.” Here’s your hot take. I said it.
That will mean that deep ball we were talking about is working.
Either that or he’s catching a bunch of short routes and taking them long yardages.
What I’m looking forward to maybe seeing this year is more 4 or 5 catches for 130-yard games from these receivers. Do you guys remember during the 2013 season, Sammy Coates led the country, I believe, for a good portion of the season if he did not finish in yards per catch? Something crazy like 22 yards a catch or something. I forget where that stat line ended. I remember during the season. They were like, “He would get to the third level and sit down in these pockets.” Nick Marshall would find him. That’s how you get to a 1,000-yard receiver. You get that guy who makes three catches during the game but three big catches. The deep ball has to come back.
We saw TJ Finley put one on Dawson at that A-day game. Those are the catches that get you 200-yard games as a receiver. You have to make those catches. Otherwise, you cannot count on the volume from the quarterback to get you there, making 7 to 8-yard catches. Like ten reception games for Auburn receivers might not be in the realm of reality. Six catch games, where you’re catching 30-yard passes, maybe. If we can stretch the field vertically, it’s possible for a guy like Dawson to get to a thousand yards if the quarterback is hidden.
If he’s doing that, then that means to all your point, as you all mentioned earlier, that means Tank and Jarquez are going nuts.
They can’t be stopped.
I want to see that. Alex Wilson says, “Put $300 on Auburn to win the Natty real big payout players and coaches are bought in. They’re hungry.”
They are. Don’t bet anything you can’t afford to not have because this is an investment and is a long shot. It’s not because we aren’t prepared. There are other teams who are as talented, if not more talented. Unlike A&M and most of the other schools in SCC, Bama and Georgia also have good coaching to go with the talent. That’s the ceiling we’re working against. We may finally have the coaching to get the attitude and I’m believing too.
My season projection, I see a lot of people say 8, 9 wins. I think eight is our floor. Don’t ask me to pick them. I couldn’t pick them yet. I can’t say which ones. I’m betting the over on the season game. I’m mad that the value is lower now because everybody hammered the over one is five and a half. Now, if you want to get over six, it’s like negative $150. You got to bet $150 to get $100. I want to see if there’s a site I can tease it up and go over seven so I can get that straight up plus $100 value on that bet. I don’t think it’s outlandish to put $100 on Auburn every year. I’m going to put $100 on Auburn every year. Why not?
That’s what I did. I already got the tradition going. The only year I didn’t do it, they won. There’s that story.
Is that why you started?
No, it wasn’t. I was doing it, but then I was living in Vegas when I started the tradition. I moved to New Jersey, and then they outlawed online betting. I didn’t have a good way to put my bed in that year. I was like, “I’ll save the $10-plus this year,” then Cam Newton happened. I was pissed. It still hurts.
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