Besides the seemingly unintentional double entendre that became the highlight and headline, Hugh Freeze's fall camp presser was packed with key updates. A crucial one of those was about how he plans on bringing in the freshman players for a smooth transition.
Freeze plans to properly leverage the top 10 recruiting cycle he assembled, which has 26 freshman signees this year.
There are certainly gaps in several positional groups, sure, but Freeze is optimistic about freshman players stepping up and meeting the expectations.
Since he implemented the formula last year and it worked well in terms of talent, Freeze is confident in it working out this season too. He might not have put it ion the exact words, but the Tigers head coach might develop another Cam Coleman or Malcom Simmons.
“Sam Turner has done a heck of a job at receiver, but that room is deep. He’s playing really, really well. Derick Smith is also really, really talented. But, again, there’s some depth there that you would hope you can slowly bring those guys along and not throw people out there until they’re ready," Freeze said Wednesday.
But that's the caveat. The wideout room is already brimming with depth and talent, with Coleman and Simmons having the most preseason hype of them all. If Turner and Smith want to secure a spot, they will have to put up something that can generate a bigger or even equal buzz to that of Simmons and Coleman.
At least that is what their head coach expects.
"The fortunate thing in that is we played a lot of freshmen last year that are talented and will have another year under their belt. You would hope you can get to a point pretty quick after a couple of recruiting classes that the dependence is not on just freshmen like it was somewhat last year at certain spots,” Freeze continued.
Auburn desperately needs all the talent it can get this season. They can only hope the freshman wideouts live up to Freeze's confidence in them.