Hugh Freeze, Auburn Tigers<\/h3>\n![\"SEC](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/07\/USATSI_24838264_168400536_lowres-1024x679.jpg\")
Photo courtesy:\u00a0 John Reed-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHow\u2019s your golf game?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nHave you seen Auburn’s new golf facility? Golf Digest gave us a bird’s eye view last week of the Jack Key practice facility<\/a>. In addition to showcasing one of the finest facilities in the SEC, Golf Digest also had questions about Freeze’s recruiting. You may be asking, Why are we talking about golf? This is SEC Media Days. Well, Golf Digest sent out an X (tweet?) that said, “The Auburn football program is having recruiting issues that some are blaming on its coach for playing too much golf. \ud83d\ude33”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe summer has not been kind to recruiting on The Plains. Auburn has had four players decommit in the past month. They lost a pair of four-star wide receivers. Denairius Gray flipped his commitment to Kentucky<\/a>, and Devin Carter flipped from Auburn to Florida State.\u00a0Tavaris Dice, a four-star offensive tackle, flipped to\u00a0Florida,<\/a> and four-star linebacker JaMichael Garrett decommitted as well.<\/span><\/p>\nThe decommitments have caused a free fall in the recruiting rankings. 247Sports has the Tigers at 86 and On3 has them at 87. Neither of the scores looks good on a golf scorecard or your recruiting ranking in the SEC. At least, we know Freeze’s golf game is good. He tweeted out last weekend, “Great time at 1st annual Ryder Cup between MMCC and BCC at Sage Valley. The Cup comes home to Auburn this year!! Great times!!” Perhaps we (and Freeze) should skip the golf question and focus more on recruiting…<\/p>\n
Josh Heupel, Tennessee Volunteers<\/h3>\nWho is QB1? <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nJosh Heupel has been good at Tennessee. Heupel is 37-15 overall. The Vols are 2-1 against South Carolina, 2-2 against Florida and Alabama, and undefeated against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. We won’t bring up Georgia (not great, 0-4). Heupel also led the Vols to the College Football Playoff last year. Despite the Vol Navy coming out in full force in Columbus, the Buckeyes made quick work of the Vols and sent them back to Knoxville.<\/p>\n
Heupel and the Vols were looking to make a push for an SEC Championship, their first since 1998 in the Spring. They had a returning quarterback in Nico Iamaleava and were looking to take the next step. Then Iamaleava didn’t show up for the last two Spring practices, and then hit the Transfer Portal, hoping to hold the Vols hostage for more money. Good on Heupel and the Vols for letting Iamaleava walk (and taking less money to play at UCLA). The void leaves an open quarterback competition in Knoxville.\u00a0 The biggest question for Heupel at SEC Media Days will be, Who is QB1? While he may not answer, it is currently a three-man competition.<\/p>\n
\n- Joey Aguilar<\/a> comes in from UCLA via the transfer portal. He has a strong arm and ability to put up impressive passing numbers, holding several single-season records at Appalachian State. That bodes well for Heupel’s offense.<\/li>\n
- Jake Merklinger<\/a> is the cagey veteran on the Vols’ roster. The Redshirt Freshman was 6 of 9 last year for 48 yards.<\/li>\n
- George MacIntyre: the new new guy. MacInyre is an early enrollee in the Class of 2025. MacIntyre was the No. 1 overall recruit in the Volunteer State.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs<\/h3>\nDid you miss your window?<\/em> How will your team handle going 7-5 in 2025?<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Georgia beat writer has to poke, but in all seriousness, Georgia has not been talked about much in the preseason. Texas and Arch Manning, whom we will get to in a moment, have received plenty of love. Austin is the new “hot girl” in the SEC. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Smart and Georgia were supposed to take over the throne when Lord Saban retired from Alabama. As we mentioned earlier, 2024 was a good year. An SEC Championship and appearance in the College Football Playoff. But two double-digit losses and getting housed by 20+ points in the first half against Alabama make for a bad taste in your mouth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo, did Georgia miss their window? Manning passed over Georgia and decided to go to Austin two years ago. Gunner Stockton is now QB1 in Athens. Additionally, Georgia has three massive home games this season: Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas. They went just 1-2 against those teams in 2024, albeit on the road, but those are statement games. Does Smart still have the pulse of this Georgia team, or has Texas really passed them by? Smart likes to play the underdog and the \u201cnobody believed in us\u201d card. Perhaps this question provides a rallying point or a key quote to ponder as we patiently await the kickoff in 2025. <\/span><\/p>\nSteve Sarkisian, Texas Longhorns<\/h3>\nIs Arch the missing piece?\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\nSomething tells us that Texas, Sark, and Manning might be a thing on Day 2 of the SEC Media Days. No word yet on if the Minister of Culture, Matthew McConaughey, will make an appearance in Atlanta or on Finebaum. Sarkisian has brought a seriousness to Texas. The Longhorns always got plenty of publicity, but more often than not, their bark was worse than their bite on the field. Things are different now on the 40 acres. As Sarkisian pointed out on the Howdy and Hooke Em podcast:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- Texas is the only school with consecutive College Football Playoff semifinal appearances.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Longhorns won the Big 12 Championship in their last year in the conference and reached the SEC Championship in their first year in the conference.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Texas has the most NFL Draft picks over the past two years (25).<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Longhorns are crushing recruiting; they had the No. 1 class last year, a top-3 class the year before.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The icing on the cake? Their QB1 this year: Arch Manning. The Raising Cane’s superstar and football royalty is ready to take over in Austin. Quinn Ewers was a nice quarterback, but “just” a seventh-round pick, to quote the Old Ball Coach. Manning’s arm and mobility may be the missing piece to unlock Texas’s offense and vault them to the top of college football. <\/span><\/p>\nMain Image: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day two of SEC Media Days is upon us. For those of us not in Atlanta, we should be glued to the SEC Network to see these coaches talk. The pressure is cranking up on The Plains. Hugh Freeze can’t have another bogey at Auburn. Josh Heupel is coming off a Rocky (not in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":75180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35583,2,35587,35576],"tags":[162,65,1546,35294,35293,4586,106,3303,5095,59,204],"class_list":["post-75074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-auburn-tigers","category-featured","category-tennessee-volunteers","category-texas-longhorns","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-jake-merklinger","tag-joey-aguilar","tag-josh-heupel","tag-kirby-smart","tag-sec-media-days","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75074"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75181,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074\/revisions\/75181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
How\u2019s your golf game?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Have you seen Auburn’s new golf facility? Golf Digest gave us a bird’s eye view last week of the Jack Key practice facility<\/a>. In addition to showcasing one of the finest facilities in the SEC, Golf Digest also had questions about Freeze’s recruiting. You may be asking, Why are we talking about golf? This is SEC Media Days. Well, Golf Digest sent out an X (tweet?) that said, “The Auburn football program is having recruiting issues that some are blaming on its coach for playing too much golf. \ud83d\ude33”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The summer has not been kind to recruiting on The Plains. Auburn has had four players decommit in the past month. They lost a pair of four-star wide receivers. Denairius Gray flipped his commitment to Kentucky<\/a>, and Devin Carter flipped from Auburn to Florida State.\u00a0Tavaris Dice, a four-star offensive tackle, flipped to\u00a0Florida,<\/a> and four-star linebacker JaMichael Garrett decommitted as well.<\/span><\/p>\n
The decommitments have caused a free fall in the recruiting rankings. 247Sports has the Tigers at 86 and On3 has them at 87. Neither of the scores looks good on a golf scorecard or your recruiting ranking in the SEC. At least, we know Freeze’s golf game is good. He tweeted out last weekend, “Great time at 1st annual Ryder Cup between MMCC and BCC at Sage Valley. The Cup comes home to Auburn this year!! Great times!!” Perhaps we (and Freeze) should skip the golf question and focus more on recruiting…<\/p>\n
Josh Heupel, Tennessee Volunteers<\/h3>\n
Who is QB1? <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Josh Heupel has been good at Tennessee. Heupel is 37-15 overall. The Vols are 2-1 against South Carolina, 2-2 against Florida and Alabama, and undefeated against Vanderbilt and Kentucky. We won’t bring up Georgia (not great, 0-4). Heupel also led the Vols to the College Football Playoff last year. Despite the Vol Navy coming out in full force in Columbus, the Buckeyes made quick work of the Vols and sent them back to Knoxville.<\/p>\n
Heupel and the Vols were looking to make a push for an SEC Championship, their first since 1998 in the Spring. They had a returning quarterback in Nico Iamaleava and were looking to take the next step. Then Iamaleava didn’t show up for the last two Spring practices, and then hit the Transfer Portal, hoping to hold the Vols hostage for more money. Good on Heupel and the Vols for letting Iamaleava walk (and taking less money to play at UCLA). The void leaves an open quarterback competition in Knoxville.\u00a0 The biggest question for Heupel at SEC Media Days will be, Who is QB1? While he may not answer, it is currently a three-man competition.<\/p>\n
\n
- Joey Aguilar<\/a> comes in from UCLA via the transfer portal. He has a strong arm and ability to put up impressive passing numbers, holding several single-season records at Appalachian State. That bodes well for Heupel’s offense.<\/li>\n
- Jake Merklinger<\/a> is the cagey veteran on the Vols’ roster. The Redshirt Freshman was 6 of 9 last year for 48 yards.<\/li>\n
- George MacIntyre: the new new guy. MacInyre is an early enrollee in the Class of 2025. MacIntyre was the No. 1 overall recruit in the Volunteer State.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Kirby Smart, Georgia Bulldogs<\/h3>\n
Did you miss your window?<\/em> How will your team handle going 7-5 in 2025?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Georgia beat writer has to poke, but in all seriousness, Georgia has not been talked about much in the preseason. Texas and Arch Manning, whom we will get to in a moment, have received plenty of love. Austin is the new “hot girl” in the SEC. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Smart and Georgia were supposed to take over the throne when Lord Saban retired from Alabama. As we mentioned earlier, 2024 was a good year. An SEC Championship and appearance in the College Football Playoff. But two double-digit losses and getting housed by 20+ points in the first half against Alabama make for a bad taste in your mouth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
So, did Georgia miss their window? Manning passed over Georgia and decided to go to Austin two years ago. Gunner Stockton is now QB1 in Athens. Additionally, Georgia has three massive home games this season: Alabama, Ole Miss, and Texas. They went just 1-2 against those teams in 2024, albeit on the road, but those are statement games. Does Smart still have the pulse of this Georgia team, or has Texas really passed them by? Smart likes to play the underdog and the \u201cnobody believed in us\u201d card. Perhaps this question provides a rallying point or a key quote to ponder as we patiently await the kickoff in 2025. <\/span><\/p>\n
Steve Sarkisian, Texas Longhorns<\/h3>\n
Is Arch the missing piece?\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Something tells us that Texas, Sark, and Manning might be a thing on Day 2 of the SEC Media Days. No word yet on if the Minister of Culture, Matthew McConaughey, will make an appearance in Atlanta or on Finebaum. Sarkisian has brought a seriousness to Texas. The Longhorns always got plenty of publicity, but more often than not, their bark was worse than their bite on the field. Things are different now on the 40 acres. As Sarkisian pointed out on the Howdy and Hooke Em podcast:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
- Texas is the only school with consecutive College Football Playoff semifinal appearances.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Longhorns won the Big 12 Championship in their last year in the conference and reached the SEC Championship in their first year in the conference.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Texas has the most NFL Draft picks over the past two years (25).<\/span><\/li>\n
- The Longhorns are crushing recruiting; they had the No. 1 class last year, a top-3 class the year before.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The icing on the cake? Their QB1 this year: Arch Manning. The Raising Cane’s superstar and football royalty is ready to take over in Austin. Quinn Ewers was a nice quarterback, but “just” a seventh-round pick, to quote the Old Ball Coach. Manning’s arm and mobility may be the missing piece to unlock Texas’s offense and vault them to the top of college football. <\/span><\/p>\n
Main Image: Dale Zanine-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day two of SEC Media Days is upon us. For those of us not in Atlanta, we should be glued to the SEC Network to see these coaches talk. The pressure is cranking up on The Plains. Hugh Freeze can’t have another bogey at Auburn. Josh Heupel is coming off a Rocky (not in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4424,"featured_media":75180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35583,2,35587,35576],"tags":[162,65,1546,35294,35293,4586,106,3303,5095,59,204],"class_list":["post-75074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-auburn-tigers","category-featured","category-tennessee-volunteers","category-texas-longhorns","tag-auburn-tigers","tag-georgia-bulldogs","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-jake-merklinger","tag-joey-aguilar","tag-josh-heupel","tag-kirby-smart","tag-sec-media-days","tag-steve-sarkisian","tag-tennessee-volunteers","tag-texas-longhorns"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4424"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75074"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75181,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074\/revisions\/75181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}