What Auburn football offensive lineman Kameron Stutts possesses — aka six years on the Plains and experience playing for two head coaches, an interim head coach, and a third full-time HC in Hugh Freeze on the way — is “something becoming more of a commodity” according to AL.com’s Matt Cohen.
“Auburn chose Stutts to go to Nashville because he has something becoming more of a commodity on Auburn’s roster and in college football as a whole: he’s stayed at Auburn through three coaches,” Cohen prefaced before saying, “He hardly saw the field until becoming a starter for most of Auburn’s games last year, his fifth year on the Plains. And on Tuesday he was in Nashville leading his own media round table.”
Stutts was a 3-star Gus Malzahn recruit from just east of Florence, Alabama who didn’t get his chance to start until the final days of the Bryan Harsin era and kept his starting job through a slew of injuries along the Tigers’ offensive line during Cadillac Williams’ four-game interim coaching stint. It’s clear that by being chosen by Freeze to represent the program at SEC Media Days 2023, Stutts will have a role for AU in 2023. Under Freeze, though, that role isn’t likely to be guaranteed unless he earns it.
Auburn football Kameron Stutts on getting no shine as an offensive lineman
While offensive linemen certainly get paid in the NFL, until they get there, rarely is there any recognition in the role — especially at the SEC level, when top-rated high school products face the most intimidating talent in the defensive trenches across any sport. Stutts, in his sixth year, understands that and told reporters that he never looks for recognition.
“You put those things out of your head until they actually happen,” Stutts said on July 18 referencing being invited to SEC Media Days. “Whenever you play offensive line, you get used to not getting recognition and getting to do things like this.”
In some ways, that’s a bummer of a quote. All the preparation and hard work, the blood, sweat, and tears, just to accept that you’re doing it in the shadows…
On the bright side, though, Stutts is excited about how the Tigers have come together after mass migration to and from the transfer portal from East Central Alabama; dialing up the hype for AU to come together and win some football games due to increased chemistry.
“With the new guys just building chemistry has been really big, getting to know each other,” Stutts said. “It’s coming together really well. I think we all mesh well, we really all complement each other.”