Cal's Justin Wilcox shares passive-aggressive slight to Auburn football QB1 Payton Thorne
Cal head coach Justin Wilcox had compliments for KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Jarquez Hunter, Percy Lewis, one of the members of Auburn football's Freeze Four (it wasn't clear which), Dorian Mausi Jr., Keldric Faulk, Keionte Scott, DJ Durkin, and Hugh Freeze, among others. But when it came to Payton Thorne, Wilcox only noted that he's "played a lot."
Ouch.
“Coach Freeze has always done a great job on offense, but they’re going to do what’s best for them and their players," Wilcox said (h/t AL.com). "So there will be new wrinkles from year to year. But you mention the new players, they’ve got the receiver — the recruit — I mean he’s a phenomenal athlete, No. 8. No. 5, the guy from Penn State, is a very, very productive player. The tackle, the running back is a good player, the QB has played a lot. Defensively, the linebacker from Duke, the defensive end, the edge players are very, very gifted guys. So they’ve got… the corner, who we actually recruited hard, he played nickel for them last year, he’s playing corner for them this year – Keionte Scott is a very good player as well. So they got good players and Coach Durkin is a really good coach, known him a lot time and competed against him a few times way back when. He’s a really good coach. They’ll be prepared and have really good schemes.”
Cal's Justin Wilcox playing chess, not checkers, in shot to Auburn football QB1 Payton Thorne
Wilcox's subtlety, and quite frankly, his comedic timing, were on full display in this brilliant mind game. He had all these beautiful assessments of the Tigers but when it came to talking about the game-manager, the only good thing he had to say was that Thorne "plays a lot."
Remember, Wilcox saw Thorne play during Auburn's 14-10 win over Cal on September 9. He's seen Thorne run the show for the Tigers live and in person.
What makes Wilcox's play so brilliant is the deniability. He didn't say anything bad about Thorne. He just didn't have any notable compliments to share other than Thorne is durable and is now entering his sixth year of eligibility.
A brilliant move of Wilcox's rook. But Thorne can force a checkmate when the two teams play in Week 2 at Jordan-Hare Stadium.