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Really recapping everything that happened yesterday on campus for Auburn football. Several things that Gholish said during practice that I liked as well as some of the things that we saw. But I think the biggest thing that fans are really running with Darrell is that there's an iron bowl period in practice where they're blaring down. Dixieland delight because of course the iron bowl is in Tuscaloosa and they will indeed be blaring Dixieland delight. And Auburn fans are loving this because it shows yet another detail. Or Alex Gholish kind of finding as many details to lean into as humanly possible. There are a lot of facets to this to kind of get into the game. There are a lot of facets to this to kind of uncover and unravel. First of all, I do like the fact that he's so intentional and purposeful that he is already kind of, I don't know, premeditating and putting that in the back. I know that there have been other coaches. Now look, here's what's going to happen predictably. Let's predict the future. There's going to be a contingent of people across the state that really Auburn fans don't need to concern themselves with. That's going to say it's obsessive. It's a little brother attitude. But understand that Saban and other coaches have played fight songs from other teams at practice for years to try to, I don't know, integrate to try to get that in your mind. What this tells me is he's very intentional. He doesn't want to run away or shy away from the rivalry and meeting it head on. There will be no intimidation factor. If you're good enough, you're good enough. If you're not, you're not, but you're not going to go in there weak minded and weak knees like little sisters of the poor with this streak that's going on. It's attacking it head on. It's putting it at the forefront in your psyche. And look, let me give you an example of something I think this is like. I remember watching a documentary on Jim Valvano, the coach that passed away from cancer when he first got to North Carolina State. He had a practice where all they did was practice cutting down the nets and people mocked him and laughed at him for that and said, that's arrogant, that's stupid. Why did you do it? He said, I wanted them to visualize winning the national championship. And oh, by the way, two or three years later, they did. I'm not saying anything other as far as drawing the comparison. It's that it's a vision visualization technique, an audible technique to get you used to focused and to say, oh, by the way, we ain't scared. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad that you mentioned the whole obsessive thing because I do think the other side of this. Is that like, okay, you're already thinking about the iron bowl. Well, you're going to play 11 other games before the iron bowl rolls around. That's why I was a little surprised by it. I have no issue with prepping for specific teams, which I think this is a minor part of that. I mean, playing a song that you'll hear in their stadium like obviously there's going to be a lot more to prepping for Alabama than that. But my biggest thing about it is, okay, you know, all of this. You know, everything with college football right now, it's so like transitive, right? Like, okay, this is so many guys first year here, obviously all the South Florida guys coming up, including this coaching staff. It's not like truly entrenched guys where you get here as a freshman and then everybody knows you and you're such a key part of the culture by the time you graduate or even if you leave after three years to go to the draft. And I don't know if I said this on the show or if it was talking to a friend, but I asked someone at some point just to get a little bit of a break. I asked someone at some point just hypothetically like or rhetorically. I wonder how long it takes till Alex Gholish like hates Alabama. Like how long until you know Auburn is so in his blood where he just hates anything crimson. And then the next time we have access to a viewing window, it's like, oh, there's an iron ball period and they're already thinking about it. And it's like, okay. Yeah, he may not like truly do his core hate Alabama yet. Sure, like that's fine. And that's honestly expected. But I love that he knows he's supposed to. And I think that's important. Not just interesting. This is timely. And this is a great segue into why something that Kyle and I talked about last Sunday where he said what responsibility is it of the other coaches to pick up the slack and take the lead. Pick up the slack and pick up the mantle to end this crap against your rivals when currently you're 0 and 6 against them. At what point is it another coach's responsibility to say enough of this, you know what, I'm going to wear this. I'm going to lean into this. And oh, by the way, don't underestimate the fact that Gholish has already played Alabama and has already gotten a taste of that Alabama experience. Yeah, almost beat him. It's South Florida. I have some inherent things of when Alabama won that game. Fan interaction. Who knows. But I don't think there's anything wrong with this and meeting this. There is no obsessive piece of this when you're 0 and 6 against your rivals currently right now this calendar year. He may be sending a message that I'm meeting this head on. Let's go. I'm not shying away from it. I'm not I'm not sweeping it under the rug. I'm embracing it. I'm leaning into it. And we talked about wanting a coach from another sport to do that and say, does it matter that baseball just got swept? Does it matter? Is it my turn to carry the mantle to end this stuff against the rival? Who knows? I may be reading way too much into it. But by God, I do love it. I love it. I love when I heard that Dixieland Delight was getting played at practice. I loved it. And I don't care about what people think about it. Yeah. Yeah, I initially didn't love it. I was like, is this corny? Is this cheesy? And then I was thinking back to the conversation that I had. It was like, no, no, no, he knows he's supposed to hate that other team in the state. He knows that and who knows if he actually does yet or not, but he knows he's supposed to. And I'm glad that you drew the parallel to the fact that Auburn's 0-1-6 against Alabama in the three major sports this academic year. And you just know, goal is just the type of guy who's like, I got it. I got it. I don't know if that's why. I mean, it sounds like they were doing it. I don't think today's the first day they were doing it based on the way Eric Winters was talking about it. So not because of the 0-1-6 thing before baseball this weekend, but still placing an importance on it. I think it's good. And also, like, I think it kind of unites you as a common goal. Like, I mean, similar to the parallel you just said about, all right, let's all visualize, you know, cutting down the nets together. Let's all visualize, okay, this is a long way from now. But if we want the iron ball to be important, we got to overachieve. We got to lean over our skis a little bit. So let's, let's start thinking about that. I like it. I want to say one more thing too. And don't, don't anybody allow your friends, your relatives, anybody else on the other side of the state to play the condescending card that that's something little brother does because Darrell Dapritch keeps receipts and has a long memory. And I remember in the Alabama meeting room for a whole year, a sign being posted that said never again after the kick six. Who were they referring to? They're, Auburn was on their mind. Don't, don't try to make this like, oh, it's just the thing that Auburn would do. No, they, they were focused. They did it with Florida when Tebow beat them. Great Macaulay talks about it. So again, because we're talking about Alabama because it is Alabama that's been this fight, the songs being played. They did it. They were singly focused on Auburn for a whole year because they felt like they let one slip away. Yeah, it's no different. No different. All right. Goal is, heard him yelling the same word over and over again. And man, do we need this? That's next right here unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Robin Hood. What a sports were traded like markets. Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robin Hood prediction markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robin Hood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So when a momentum shifts, you can move with it. You're no longer just a spectator play by play. You decide straight every play with Robin Hood now available across the U S. That was the Robin Hood app now to begin today. Show also brought to you by TurboTax. It's tax time. But for a lot of us, the old way of doing tax is a lot trying to book an appointment. That's not the most convenient sitting in a waiting room with a stack of papers, emailing back and forth and wondering if they really get your situation. But this year, you're getting a major upgrade into it. TurboTax now has in person locations nationwide. You can meet face to face with a real tax expert and your documents get uploaded straight to your TurboTax app on the spot. It's the relief of walking in and meeting a real person and walking out knowing your taxes are being handled right. Head to TurboTax.com local to find a store near you and book your appointment today. Thank you so much for making Locked On Auburn your first listen every single day. If you've been on the fence, go ahead and head over to lockedonaubern.supercast.com. Join the everyday club. You get access to an exclusive discord where you can ask me questions and make topic recommendations for the show. As well as listen to the show on audio ad free. Darrell spent a lot of time watching the defensive line yesterday. And I love watching Von Traul King Williams coach. I love the intensity. I love the passion. And I also love that this that all of those players, they hang on every word Von Traul says. They like treated as absolute gospel truth. If you were telling me to do something, even if it's a minor change, I trust you. I think it's rare for a coach who hasn't really been doing this that long, but he seems like an elite veteran out there, which I love. But then after seeing them over there, Alex Goules just pops up because that's what he does. He's somehow at every position group during Indy, the entire practice. I don't know how he does it, but he's getting behind these guys and he's clapping. I've posted on social media if you want to go watch it, but he's clapping and he's yelling, Violent, be violent. Every time they go in for the bag. And, you know, we've heard Cody Burns talk about that when getting off of a press for wide receivers when they're doing their Indy drills. This is a message being preached over and over and over again throughout this entire coaching staff. And it comes from the top. It comes from Alex Goules. And this is a team. I don't know if it was with you or with Kyle that we talked about it, but I'm sure you agree with the sentiment regardless. I'm tired of seeing Auburn being the team that's pushed around and Alex Goules is doing everything in his power to make sure Auburn is the team pushing other people around. Violent in every aspect of the game. And that's important. We did talk about it and it's twofold. Number one, it's how he coaches. It's his team. It's his culture. It's his thumbprint. But I, but I also think Zach, that he has seen film, footage, what kind of team Auburn was last year and knows that it needed to change. Like all you had to do was watch Drinkwood stand up on that stand and cheer and mock and taunt and his players do that in the coin toss and Kirby do what he did. And you, you get a perception that that's somewhat soft. Right. Not even the time out. Remember when I'm just, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. So I keep going back to that footage of him shaking hands with Tom Herman, Goulish, and, you know, he's just got an edge to him and he's not going to let somebody come in, Jordan Hare and show you up. And, you know, that's there's a difference between that and getting beaten act like an idiot. Right. Pulling your blazer off and nose budding. An official when your kid just hits the biggest three of his career and you con and do can do in some stupid like Hurley did that. That's false bravado. In my opinion, Goulish just wants physical, genuine intensity and a culture to be it's hard. It's a hard edgy stuff. And if you get beat. Okay. But we played hard. We didn't back down. We didn't let somebody come in here and, you know, run our castle. And that's what happened last year. Right. I was extremely disappointed that that's what all has become. And that's where the violence, the intensity, let them know when they leave this game that they've played. All of them and they've come to Jordan here. Let them know about it. Yeah. So I love sorry. Sorry, Darryl, but I love that messaging. And I love that it's not just in the trenches. It's anytime you make contact with someone else, you hit them and you make them feel it. Doesn't matter if it's a receiver trying to get off the line. Doesn't matter if it's every time at the point of attack with, with, with the defensive front, with the offensive front, it doesn't matter. I mean, they did a drill. This was the iron bowl drill where we saw the receivers go into battle against the defense and the, the drill was favored so much towards the offense. Right. Like it's just the way it's structured. But just seeing him get in there and cheer and talk about, you know, winning at the point of attack. We're talking about receivers and corners. And that to me is if, if you're an offensive lineman and you see a receiver like being a, like unafraid to create contact. I mean, if you're the old lineman, you're like, Oh my goodness, I'm not going to do that. Or you see your tiny corner, you know, getting, you know, going in for the point of attack. And even if he gets body, but he gets the guy down, it's like, okay, it's still, it's sending a message that you're going to get. And you're sending a message that you're looking for violence on every play. And that's not what's happened here. Didn't happen under Hugh. Didn't happen under. Harson really didn't happen under Mouson either. If I'm being 100% honest with you. So love that. Love, love, love that. Before I move on, do you have anything else to add there? Nope. Good. Good to go. Watching the receivers run routes against air with the quarterbacks throwing to them. It looks different. Now, different doesn't always mean better. I think in this case it is, but we can all, you know, like it's against air. So like, I understand what I'm saying here, but the way these receivers are running routes, every like cut or fake cut or hesitation that's part of this route tree is so deliberate and so once again intentional that it's kind of hard to not notice. And I think it's pretty easy to watch and say, if this does look different, like the effort is there, the, the attention to detail is there. They're not just running routes. They're like sprinting through them. And, you know, you can hear the grunts and, you know, the, the, the focus on every type of execution and just the overall effort. And obviously the quarterbacks, you know, it was against air, you know, whatever, but I do think what's being asked of the receivers is different and clearly like our track record with receivers is not good. So the fact that it's different, I mean, and look different than what we saw for the Mouson days, the Harcindays, the freeze days. So once again, different doesn't always mean better, but I do think it is better in this situation. Got to hope so. I mean, since the Mouson era, the biggest problems I've had and we've heard is route tree, route tree, route tree, you know, Mousons was too simplistic. We thought with Bobo, the Harsons was they ran the wrong routes. Well, and this one, this one's going to be simplistic too. But what you're doing based off of the defense, like you've got to sell things for the offense to work. I don't care. It's just that it's not, there were some aspects of what happened the last couple of years where there was lazy with running their routes, the top of their routes. They wouldn't run through to the end of their route. You know what I'm saying? They'd pull up whatever it is. They wouldn't finish their routes. All those things happened. And with Mousons, it was like two guys running this just said two guys out and I think fakes and deeks and, you know, different things with making it a little bit different. Difficult to spot or to catch being a little sneaky. That's fine, especially if you're running more than two out in the pattern. I'm just, I don't know. I'm just being very honest when I say I'm so sick of the issue year after year after year being route running and route trees. Remember how many times we'd watch other teams and we'd go for the love of God, how are they getting so open and Auburn can't. It was like everything that Auburn was covered 50-50 balls. Why are these guys running open in the second? How are they, how are they throwing these guys over? It's like, in theory, we're more talented than them. Like how is this happening? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, scheme matters, coaching matters, especially now in this day and age of NIL where these rosters are closer in count than they ever have been historically. So do we have a guy on offense that can allow these players to be put in situations to succeed? And so far we saw him when he was over the offense at Tennessee and then, you know, overachieving at South Florida. We'll see. We'll see what happens moving forward, but I definitely like how that looks. The offensive line seems close. Like I feel pretty good about our guests now as far as the starting O-line versus Baylor. Is that good or bad? That's next right here. Unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Indeed. Indeed's the best place to hire candidates for your job. Darrell, you use Indeed to fill, to fill spots for your company. Love them. We've knocked it out of the park too with the employees we've gotten. Couldn't be more pleased. So yes, we filled all our recs and we used Indeed and we got them hired rather quickly. Yep. Yep. Hiring multiple people in the span of like a week is what he did a few weeks ago. It's been less time searching, more time actually interviewing candidates who check all the boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. That is Indeed.com slash podcast to support our show by saying that you heard about Indeed right here, unlocked on Auburn. Need to hire. That's a job for Indeed, sponsored jobs. All right. Final few minutes on today's edition of Locked on Auburn. It does seem like we're getting a clearer picture of the offensive line. If I had to guess, and this is pretty much what we saw yesterday except Stanton Ramil, who we're all assuming will be the starting left tackle, you know, not practicing yet. So we saw Wilson's Zerar left tackle the true freshman. I think that'll be Stanton Ramil than everything else that we saw yesterday. I think is my guess right now for the starting offensive line. Derek Plaz, the transfer from Miami at left guard, Cole Best, the South Florida transfer at center, Cole Skinner at right guard, the South Florida transfer. And then a right tackle, Joe Simmons, the transfer from JMU. A few caveats there all that could happen. That's my guess. If I had to guess right now, I do think Ty Buster is competing. I think there are several options at the right guard spot that that spot, I think is the one that's most up for grabs right now. And then there's a chance that they flip the tackles. There's a chance of that. We'll see what happens when a meal comes back. I'm sure they'll try both of those things. But all in all, like, all right, I feel fairly decent about that offensive line. Close to what we thought at the beginning of the year. We tried to speculate. I think I had probably Ellis as a guard. Yes, it was not as high or the unknown of Plaz. Strayer, I thought was going to have maybe a little bit more of a role in this. Yeah, so I think that this is pretty on point and close to what Auburn saw and kind of, I guess, Plaz is the one that kind of came out of nowhere and has kind of been that pleasant surprise. And I like that coming from a power four. You've made the point multiple times. Miami had such an elite offensive line. It's just was hard to crack that lineup. So that benefits Auburn. Yeah. I think there's a few things that they'll try to do. And I'm confident in this. I mean, even in front of us, when we're able to see it, we're seeing guards play tackle. Jacoby Ward was at tackle yesterday for a drill, which is interesting. I mean, Ty Buster is playing all over the place. Golis said in his conversation here on this show that he had six different guys have taken snaps at center, which seems high and aggressive, but glad they're trying different things. So like, I'm not ever going to count out Kenneth McManus at that right guard spot just because the way people talk about Kenneth McManus is extremely high, very respectful and in high regard. Also, I'll never, I'll never shy away from scooting a guy that you feel good about at tackle and moving him inside to guard. That's something I'll never really push back against either. So like, if you wanted to put a Ty Buster at guard, if you really think he's your third tackle and you want to get him playing time, I think that would make sense. But Jack Laier is the guy that we've seen kind of rotating in with Skinner at that right guard spot the most. Yeah. I combined Skinner with Laier and made Strayer, but anyway, yeah, sorry about that. Yeah. No, if you could combine both of them, they'd probably be pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's kind of where we're at. Cole Strand. Is it Cole Strand? Strand. Jacob Strand? I am totally blanking. Jacob Strand. That's what I did. I did Strand and Laier and made Strayer. That's funny. Yeah. The ones from Oregon State, right? Transfer from Oregon State. Yeah. Jacob Strand. So I'm from Stanford. Yeah. And that's Laier is from Stanford. So I love the options. I'm actually shocked at the options if I'm being 100% honest with you. But it's my memory, the kid from Western Kentucky that was good for us. Honor Britain. Now he went from, remember, didn't he go from tackle to guard sometimes back and forth for all? He did because of Dylan Wade. Yep. And then Dylan Wade eventually scooted inside. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been done. Yeah. Oh, scooting inside is fine. It's when you have to scoot out. That's not good. Right. And that's kind of when it gets you. But all in all, like, if you told me that was our starting O-line going into it, I'd feel pretty decent because I'm going to have questions about Ramil and his health until that doesn't happen. Like there's nothing that can happen this off season to make that question go away. Yeah. Until you see him in fall practice and see him start and play a game. And that's the good thing is that you're not getting an inflated, not really good picture by playing a lower level school right out of the gate. You're playing Baylor. And so you'll know if he's ready to go or not. I just love the future of this offensive line as well. You know, Ramil's a junior. He's not like, you know, he's got another year after this season. Yeah. But Ramil, this is after this season. Ramil, Kel Ellis, Kenneth McManus, Derek Plaz, Ty Buster, Jacoby Ward, Wilson Zerrer, Parker Pritchett is a guy that has generated some conversation. So, yeah, I mean, there's, there's a lot to like. There's a lot to like, which is, which is great, which is great. So, Darrell, how can people check out everything you've got going on? Wednesdays and Fridays with you. Now this is going to be a unique week. So let's talk about it. We got tomorrow night. We got the basketball game. We'll go live, back going live with you, the NIT Friday. I will be with you at the press conference at Golis's press conference. And then we're going to do a show at the football complex after that as well. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do it there and I'll try to upload it from the complex as soon as I possibly can. So should be up within 30 minutes of that, of him wrapping up our reaction there. So that'll be, that'll be good. And of course, if Auburn wins their final four game in the NIT on Thursday, they'll play Sunday night on Easter. So we'll go live after that too. I think it's like an 830 tip on Sunday if they win. Is that right? Yeah. That'd be very interesting. Easter night. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be so NIT. It's crazy. Yeah. It is what it is. You said we're going live on Easter, right? Live. That's right. There we go. All right. Please like the video. Please subscribe. We'll see you next time. This has been locked on Auburn.
