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Going to spend a lot of time talking about Jack Layers' comments, the Auburn transfer offensive linemen, what he said to media after practice yesterday, because I think it's signs of things truly being different. We've heard Alex Gholish from The Jump talk about culture, talk about doing the right things, and now we've seen through actions. And because he continues to say it on different shows like he did here, the importance of being intentional about every single little thing, which is such a dramatic shift from what we've seen over the past few seasons. Jack Layers speaking to the media at Auburn for the first time, and he's asked about how practice went. In this first clip, I'm going to play for you. He's asked about how practice went. And then, I mean, I think his answer is exactly what Alex Gholish is preaching. I mean, you tell me. Let's listen. I'm not out here every day with a mentality to attack. I think we've got to finish. That's going to be our main priority is coming out here and finishing at the end of practice. Got a lot of young guys, a lot of guys that haven't played in the SEC. There's a different speed here. And I think that's something that has to be learned at the end of practice. Coming in starting strong, but really matters about the finish. Finishing. That's exactly what we heard from Alex Gholish after the first practice of spring. He said, you know, kind of got tired there towards the end and gave us an opportunity to coach through it. These players know these players so that they've got to play through it. Jack Layers out of breath. I guess they were doing sprints right before this to finish off that conditioning to finish strong, which is great. Awesome. Love that. That's what you need to do in spring. But the intentionality of saying, yes, just practicing for the first 90% of the day is not good enough. It's the last 10% that really, really matters. And I mean, think about all the losses, all the losses that we've suffered in the most dramatic and horrendous ways possible over the past few seasons. They've come late. Most of them have come late with something traumatic happening. And it usually happened because something else bad happened that we couldn't overcome it. I mean, that's really the story of all the bad losses during the Hugh Freese era is, oh, as soon as you get punched in the mouth, bad things happen and then you get a chance at the end of the game and you cannot finish. But Auburn's not special in that regard. That's how a lot of teams lose. Now granted to go over like Auburn did over the last few years, that's unfortunate and probably a little extreme and maybe to some extent unlucky, but it doesn't matter. You couldn't overcome it when it mattered most. Lair continues to talk about something else that Alex Gull, she said multiple times when talking to us after spring practices so far where, okay, it's not just about finishing and it's not just about being good. You can be really good, but it's about consistency. Here's Jack Lair. I thought it could have been a lot better. Got a lot of guys out there that are showing great stuff on film, but consistency is the main game and off its line. It's the only sport in football where you have your back to the ball the whole time. No one really cares about what's going on up front. They just care about what happens in the backfield and how far we get the ball downfield. That's why we take pride in the position. I think in that, that level of pride comes from consistency. Consistency. Consistency. Yeah, it doesn't matter how good you are. Can you be consistent? I mean, think of some of the best players during the previous era of Auburn football. They still weren't consistent. They weren't. They weren't. I mean, you can make incredible catches, but if you fumble when the game's on the line against your arch rivals, like that's not consistent. It's just not. Same with offensive line play, clearly, which is what Jack Lair is talking about here. If you make the right blocks most of the time, but if it's third and six, then the game's on the line or you're in the red zone and you don't block the right guy. Consistency matters. It only takes one time to not do it. And Golis has talked about this with the offensive line. He's talked about this with, you know, certain guys looking good, but none of them had been consistent, which is him calling his guys out saying like, that's our next step here. Be consistent. And I just think the overall take here with layer is what Golis is preaching is being heard and not only heard by the players, but they're choosing to be intentional, not intentional, but intentional about their actions throughout practice. And they understand why it's important. You didn't hear this type of messaging from players or from the coach in the previous regime. And I think that is important. I want to touch more on just the offensive line as a whole since we're talking about Jack layer and where he fits into all this next right here unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Robinhood. What is sports for traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood 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. You can use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robinhood prediction markets changes the game. It's people moving the action. So momentum shifts. You can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator. 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But we'll hear about him throughout summer workout to then obviously in the fall. We'll see him at left tackle. I think it's going to be Derek Plas. The transfer from Miami has done nothing but went over the staff. We heard Gholish talk about it on the show Monday. Really, really high on Derek Plas. Talk about how he's getting better every single day, being intentional about everything he's done to get on the field. And he must have done something impressive in the workouts leading up to it because there's no film on this guy. He didn't really play at Miami. It's not like a Kenneth McManus who played a lot at Akron or somebody who've played with them under at South Florida, like a cold best or a cold skinner. He didn't really have any tape. So I think that's intriguing as far as, you know, what Derek Plas has done in a short amount of time to say, yes, I am worthy of the spot. But I think he's the favorite to start at left guard right now at center. We will go with cold best here. I think this one's a no brainer. Even the way even the way Gholish was talking about cold best throughout the off season, he'll start at center, of course, to transfer from South Florida. Right guard. I think it gets a little interesting. I think this is the most open spot of the five, but I do think cold skinner will end up getting the job here when it's all said and done. Jack layers competing for this spot. I think I wouldn't hate seeing a tie buster in this role as well. If tie busters, your third tackle or fourth tackle and you feel good about the future with tie buster and you want to scoot him inside, which I think a lot of a lot of us thought he would be a guard going through the recruitment process anyway. So curious to see if we see any other names pop up there, but I think they're going to try different things without right guard spot. I don't think kill Ellis is out of it either. So take that for what it's worth. And then a right tackle, Joe Simmons, who I think has been absolutely rock solid so far this spring as Gholish has said. And as Jack layer said yesterday after practice, we just heard it needs to be more consistent. You know, that's how you take the jump from JMU to being a, you know, a high quality SEC offensive tackle that'll hear his name called in the NFL draft is to focus on consistency. It's been a lot of time, the last few windows watching Simmons specifically just watching the tackles in general. He keeps a wide base with his feet, no wasted movement with his feet could get a little bit more violent with his hands. You hear this coaching staff yelling, be violent all the time. But I think Joe Simmons can be a really, really good player in this league. I do want to add the caveat. I mentioned this a little bit on this morning's edition of locked on Auburn, but I wouldn't be shocked if they switched the tackles at times throughout fall camp, one stand remills back at a hundred percent. If they just see what we're mill would look like at right tackle and Joe Simmons at left tackle. Just a quick reminder, essentially all of remills snaps at Michigan State where it left tackle and all of Joe Simmons snaps last year at JMU where it left tackle. And so both those guys got added through the portal and around the same time. And we all had the conversation like, okay, well, which one's which, you know, I said from the get go, I liked, I liked Joe Simmons more at left tackle than remill. I was kind of on an island there. That seems to be kind of what the plan is, but still I'm doubling down on that. I would not be shocked if they tried that once for a mill was back. We saw Simmons get reps at left tackle early in spring. They're moving a lot of guys around. I mean, Gholish talked about in the interview that we dropped Monday morning, six different guys have taken, have snapped the ball at center. They're moving guys around a ton. I don't think it's a bad thing. That's what you do in spring and fall. I think we'll see less of that, but I do expect them still to play around with that tackle spot to see, okay, who really does give us the best chance to win at left tackle and at right tackle. So there you go. There you go. All right. I just wanted to drop a quick bonus edition of the show because I thought Jack Layers' comments were important and interesting and we didn't get a chance to talk about them on this morning's show. Please like the video. Please subscribe. And we'll see you next time. This has been locked on Auburn.
