It's the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. trash talk chat. You also get an ad-free version of your favorite locked on show and a whole lot more. You can check it out by tapping the everyday or club link in the show notes. Jeremiah Cobb is primed to be a top five back in the SEC, but there are some obstacles here. You are locked on Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers, Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on in to Locked On Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast. I'm your host, Zach Blackerby, and thank you so much for making Locked On Auburn your first listen every single day. This is a bonus edition of the show. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with us multiple times every single day. The room is going to impact Jeremiah Cobb. The offense is going to impact Jeremiah Cobb. dub dub of course but i do think there should be more chatter throughout the sec and throughout college football than there currently is about auburn running back jeremiah cobb for a few reasons one the production is certainly certainly there when you look at the returning production and what they were able to do last season throughout the sec you're returning guys. There are some good ones, and there's a lot of them. Five of the top six most productive backs on the ground last year are returning. Ahmaud Hardy, still at Missouri, led the way. Kiwan Lacy, still at Ole Miss. Jaden Baugh, still at Florida. Auburn will host him in the third game of the season. Deshaun Bishop, still at Tennessee. We'll check him out when we go to Knoxville a few weeks after that. Mike Washington Jr., he's gone. He was at the scouting combine this past week. Actually kind of got emotional after his 40 time. Pretty cool story. Check that out if you missed it. But then there's Jeremiah Cobb. Those top five guys all reached 1,000. Jeremiah Cobb, as we all know, was on the outside looking in at 969 yards rushing. Still a nice season, but would have liked a little bit more pop just to kind of get him over that awesome milestone. And we all kind of look at it like, okay, well, he just had 175 carries, which is, by the way, the same amount that Byron Brown had last season at South Florida. And that's going to be a part of this conversation. But when you look at average yards per carry, Jeremiah Cobb had five and a half, more than Jaden Baugh's 5.3, more than Kiwan Lacy's 5.1. And everybody wants to talk about how great Kiwan Lacy is. He is great. He's very, very good. He's also in an offense that's really set everyone up for success. Jeremiah Cobb has not really played in an offense that has set everyone up for success until now. Now, and you look at what they've been able to do at South Florida, and even when Golish was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee, you've started to see, oh, production. They use the running game to stretch the field. They make defenses, make decisions, and they go where guys aren't. Great. Awesome. And we all heard Goalish eloquently say how they going to run the football And that is important And Jeremiah Cobb should absolutely absolutely be a part of that There are some interesting aspects to this, though, where I don't want to necessarily talk about the room getting in the way of this, but I do want to talk about the scheme. Because we all know that the room is deep. Jeremiah Cobb, Bryson Washington, Nikai Davenport, Omar Mabson, Tay Meadows, Alvin Henderson. Like all those guys, like them all for different reasons, but as a unit, makes a ton of sense for Auburn staff to want to run the football with this. But you got to ask the questions. Okay, great. How many touches is Jeremiah Cobb realistically going to get? Because when you look at what they did at South Florida, Last year, Byron Brown had 175 carries. Okay. Davenport had 98. They had a running back named Sam Franklin. Get 80 carries. Alvin Isaac got 73. Norton got 32. Okay. Like, not a ton of action there. But Byron Brown was the leading rusher, right? Totally reasonable thing. But Byron Brown's on this team. Will Byron Brown be the leading rusher for Auburn in 2026? I think there's two arguments to that. You could say, well, yeah, that's what Byron Brown does. Or you could say, well, they got to acclimate and play differently against SEC defenses. You've got a deep running back room. Rely on them. I think both of those make sense. We'll get to the room aspect of this in a second. But even if you go back to 2024, and this was the year Byron Brown missed a ton of the season with an injury. kelly joiner was their main running back he had 121 carries for 799 yards remember jeremiah cobb who we all felt like they didn't use enough at 175 last season just just pointing out context naquan wright this is two years ago usf when byron brown was heard had 109 carries hey Ron Keith had 78 Bryce Archie no that was quarterback excuse me and then Yassius Young had 16 so when Byram was banged up they used their backup quarterback to run it some but they did have a heavier one-two punch than another season they're pretty even 121 109 let's go back a little bit further. Let's go back to 2021, the season with Hendon Hooker, because now, okay, this is what Golish did in the SEC. And when I think Hendon Hooker, I think of a balanced quarterback that could do both. Jabari Small for Tennessee that year. Once again, we're talking about the best offense in college football this season. Jabari Small had 140 carries for 792. Hinton Hooker had 167 carries, but had significantly less yardage there. Other running backs, Tyon Evans had 81. Jalen Wright had 85. So in 2021 at Tennessee, Small was their main guy, had 140. Still wasn't as many as Hinton Hooker, but there was a sizable difference. There was RB1 and then RB2A and RB2B. can that be what happens with jeremiah cobb this season can he be 1a and then you have washington and mabson be 2a and 2b or washington and tay meadows or washington and davenport or i mean you can make any combination here i do think washington will be part of this so i think i leading to think it be him and someone else but I do think these are all questions worth asking And I do think the role of these backs will come into play to some extent. Let's jump into that in just a moment, right here on locked on Auburn today's show brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. Fandle is America's number one sports book. Right now, Fandles, they realize that this is kind of the peak of college basketball. This is March. And right now, as I record this, there is no lines for Auburn LSU yet. You can bet on the women's SEC tournament. You can bet on Auburn plus 30,000 to win the SEC tournament for women's basketball. If you believe in the Auburn Tigers. FanDuel is also giving you profit boost to boost your college basketball parlays. So check all that out at FanDuel.com to get started. That is FanDuel.com. FanDuel, play your game. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Indeed. Hiring folks can be a pain. It can absolutely be a pain and it can also like take a lot of your time. Indeed will help you make it take less of your time and make it less of a pain. They've got all this technology. They've got on the copy. 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Or excuse me, not audio-free, ad-free audio feed. Sorry. anyway. So Jeremiah Cobb, he's going to be impacted by the room just because I think they're going to spread the ball around more so than what we've seen in the past at Auburn. And I don't think that's a bad thing, but I do think his total yardage, like if I had to guess if Auburn has a thousand yard rusher, I'm having a hard time with that. I don't think it's going to be because they can run the ball I just think is going to need to be a way that we discuss Jeremiah Cobb and any elite Auburn running back We could put Washington in there I think Omar Mabson will be one of the studs of the SEC probably next season in 2027. And I just think you're going to have to look at it by average. I think the average yards per touch for a lot of these backs are going to be really good. But is Auburn going to have a top three back when it comes to rushing yards? I'm not saying it's impossible. And I think you can make the case that Cobb is going to be one of the best, if not the best running back that Goalish has coached. No disrespect to Jabari Small in 2021. I thought he was pretty good at Tennessee, but I do think Jeremiah Cobb is better. And so when you talk about success for a running back, typically we tie that to stats. we tie that specifically to production on the ground. And that usually is that benchmark of, was it a thousand yard season or not? And I'm not ready to predict if Jeremiah Cobb will have a thousand yard season or not. He may have less opportunities this upcoming season, just because of the nature of the roster and the nature of the offense. And I think that's okay, but I do think Jeremiah Cobb from an efficiency standpoint is primed to have the best season of his college career. I understand those two ideas are clashing just a little bit, but that's, that's my takeaway when you look at some, what some of these numbers are. I mean, the only person that was really hitting 175 carries, which once again, that's what Byram had last year, South Florida. And that's what Jeremiah Cobb had at Auburn. this past season. I don't think either of them will hit that number this season. And so then what does that mean? Because I think Auburn is going to run more plays this season than in previous seasons. So what does that mean? It means other guys are going to get touches too. And so will Auburn have a thousand yard receiver? If I had to guess right now, just talking through this, I would say no. But man, what if they have multiple 600 yard receivers? What if they have two 600 yard receivers and a, or running backs, excuse me, 600-yard running backs. What if Cobb rushes for 680? What if Washington rushes for 620? And then what if Davenport or Mabson, they run for 500? I don't think that means anything less of Jeremiah Cobb. I just think we have a coach now that historically up to this point has found a way to use his entire roster on the offensive side of the football. and I think that should be exciting. I think that should be exciting. So I was asked to give love to Jeremiah Cobb, and I am, but I also want to say he can have an even better season, but he may get less yards. Once again, weird, conflicting ideas here, but that's kind of when I look at the stats and look at the numbers from what goalish offenses have done in the past, that's what's standing out to me. Would love to continue this discussion. What do you guys think about this? Join the Locked On Everydayer Club. locked on auburn.supercast.com. Hop in this discord, push back. Hey, do a show on this. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear from you. Please like the video. Please subscribe. We'll see you next time. This has been Locked on Auburn. Sometimes you just want a little boost in something that tastes fun. 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