The Tigers will begin training camp in preparation for the 2020 college football season.
Auburn made it official on Saturday: fall camp for the 2020 football season is set.
Per the press release, the Tigers will begin practice on Monday, August 17 as they prepare to play a 10-game, conference-only schedule starting Sept. 26. The opponents for the season have been announced but when the games will be held have not.
Of course, with the COVID-19 pandemic still controlling this nation, it will be quite a different camp for the players, coaches and everyone involved. Testing will be done on a regular basis to make sure that there is no breakout of the virus and interviews with Gus Malzahn and others will only be held through Zoom.
The Tigers will practice Monday-Thursday before having a day off on Friday, August 21.
Jarrett Stidham’s voyage from Stephenville, Texas to Foxborough, Mass. was a long one marked by numerous changes of fortune. When Stidham was nine years old he relocated to central Texas with his mother and older brother. At 18, he left home and …
Jarrett Stidham’s voyage from Stephenville, Texas to Foxborough, Mass. was a long one marked by numerous changes of fortune.
When Stidham was nine years old he relocated to central Texas with his mother and older brother. At 18, he left home and moved in with Matt and Katy Copeland, a Stephenville couple who own several college apparel stores in Iowa, Texas, and Florida. The talented young athlete was not raised int he greatest of circumstances and his personal life is not a topic he divulges on. He relied on football for comfort long before the Copleands accepted him as one of their own. This is where his journey begins.
(Jarrett Stidham and his wife Kennedy pictured with Katy and Matt Copeland in 2018)
“I probably love the kid even more because his home dynamics were so rough,” former Stephenville High School football coach Joseph Gillespie said about Stidham. Before he became The University of Tulsa’s defensive coordinator, Gillespie served as Stephenville’s athletic director and head football coach for seven years. It was during his seven year career at Stephenville that Gillespie realized he had caught lightning in a bottle with Jarrett Stidham.
Stidham began his playing career at Stephenville as a wide receiver. By the time he was a sophomore he’d already received multiple Division I offers to play quarterback. The Yellowjackets went on to win the state championship Stidham’s sophomore year, during which Gillespie said, “Jarrett never complained once. He handled it with grace, and that’s hard to do at that age.”
Stidham earned the starting quarterback job as a senior in 2014. He finished his high school career with 2,934 total passing yards for 35 touchdowns as well as 969 rushing yards for 15 touchdowns. Gillespie credited the Copelands for helping Stidham thrive. The road from wide receiver to starting quarterback wasn’t an easy one, but Gillespie says, “if it weren’t for them it would have been a rougher road.”
By the spring of 2015, Stidham was classified by Rivals.com as the sixth-best dual-threat quarterback in his class which caught the eye of former Stephenville football coach Art Briles who was the head coach of Baylor at the time. By the summer it was official, the 4-star quarterback was leaving Stephenville to play football at Baylor.
At the start of his true freshman season Stidham was playing as the backup to Seth Russell. Stidham saw action in the first seven games before he took over as the starter when Russell suffered a season-ending neck injury. Stidham started for Baylor in three games before an ankle injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
And then all hell broke loose.
In 2016, a scathing report revealed that much of Baylor University’s football staff had failed to take disciplinary action surrounding alleged rape and sexual assault allegations made against three Baylor football players. The scandal saw the end of Briles’ tenure at the school as well as the destruction of the program’s reputation. After all of this and an unsatisfactory freshman season, Stidham left and transferred to McLennan Community College.
Stidham attended McLennan for only one season before he announced he would be transferring to Auburn. McLennan did not have a football program, so to sharpen his skills he asked Midway High School’s football coach Jeff Hulme if it would be okay to sharpen his skills at their practice field. Hulme obliged and Stidham showed up to the field every day before practice began.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound quarterback would’ve liked to have flown under the radar the entire semester, but when a mysterious NFL caliber athlete shows up on a high school practice field in Texas it’s going to cause mass hysteria.
Which it did.
Hulme honored Stidham’s wishes to remain incognito as long as possible, but when school started the coach had to reveal Stidham’s identity to quell any surrounding gossip. After his secret was revealed Stidham continued to practice his skills on Midway’s scout team. It was an experience that proved to be beneficial in readying Stidham for his SEC arrival.
As a redshirt sophomore, Stidham won the starting quarterback job at Auburn. In his first season he went on to win the SEC West after defeating both Georgia and Alabama who were both ranked number one at the time. He finished the season with 3,158 passing yards which places him second all-time behind Dameyune Craig in Auburn’s single season passing leaders.
Former Auburn offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey compared Stidham to former Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and said that Stidham is just “wired the right way,” and that he “ran the gauntlet in the SEC.” As Stidham entered his junior year, many thought he was a first-round draft pick and a potential Heisman contender, but things didn’t quite come together like they should’ve that season. After finishing the year with a convincing bowl win, Stidham declared for the 2019 NFL Draft and was selected by the New England Patriots in the fourth round.
Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn says New England is just the place Stidham wants to be:
“This is what he’s been wanting. He’s been looking forward to the moment. It’s really not any deeper than that. If you’d given Jarrett a choice in the matter, I bet he would have picked New England and hoped to follow Tom Brady.”
Chip Lindsey’s comparison of Stidham to Newton only gets better with the two competing against each other in New England’s quarterback race. ESPN’s Tim Keown details his prediction of Stidham’s future:
“If Stidham doesn’t take over for Brady this season (assuming there is one), there’s a good chance he will in 2021. At just 31, Newton is looking to put together a season that creates one more big contract, which means if he’s good he’ll be too expensive and if he’s bad he’ll be on his own. Which will, one more time, direct the focus back to Stidham.”
Whenever the moment arrives it won’t be one that is too big for Jarrett Stidham. The road he took from Stephenville, Texas hit a road bump at Baylor, took a detour at Midway, and merged onto the expressway in Auburn that would eventually send him 1,173 miles north to Foxborough, Massachusetts. In total Stidham has traveled 2,032 miles to be where he is today.
“The quarterback from Texas” as he is affectionately known by Auburn fans and one dimensional sports broadcasters everywhere is reportedly putting up a tough fight against Newton in the NFL’s most watched quarterback race. New quarterback race developments here.
Fighting for his dreams isn’t a foreign concept to Jarrett Stidham, it’s what he’s been doing all of his life.
The 2020 college football season is already going to be weird so let’s predict some bold and insane things that could happen.
It is already going to be a weird season of college football, so let’s just go ahead and get crazy. Mascot-on-mascot violence? Sure. Coaches losing their minds? Absolutely. Gary Danielson not mentioning Alabama during a SEC on CBS broadcast? Well, we aren’t at that point yet, but I say we celebrate the upcoming season with a look at some things that could possibly but hardly likely to come true in 2020.
Yes, it is that time again for some wackiness so let’s go ahead and list 25 bold and, some would say, downright insane predictions for both the Auburn and SEC football season. Ready? Ready.
Bo Nix will release his much awaited debut rap album titled “Nix’in and Fix’in It.” He will forget to thank his five offensive lineman for their contributions to the album, especially the song “Blocking is Only For The Strong,” resulting in Nix being sacked a record 25 times against LSU.
Also mad about not being included on Nix’s album, Seth Williams will start tipping passes into the air or, as they sometimes call it, the “Georgia secondary method.”
Gus Malzahn will refuse to come out of his dressing room after accidentally being told that his beloved Dubble Bubble gum has been replaced with a cheaper knockoff.
Auburn’s running backs will have no leg strength after doing nothing but leg lifts for six hours after new offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. insults “those puny calves that look like a baby.” Also, in this scenario, Bicknell talks like Hans and Franz from the old Saturday Night Live skit. Look it up, kids.
In a moment of whimsy, Nick Saban will go for the lighter blonde hair coloring instead of the darker version … errr, not that he colors his hair or anything. All natural.
Struggling to put away Kentucky in Jordan-Hare Stadium, Malzahn will employ the secret Jared Harper package at quarterback with the actual Harper taking the snaps. The Wildcats will immediately melt down as the Tigers win by 28.
Anthony Schwartz, feeling unchallenged in track, will challenge a live cheetah to a 100-yard dash. Sensing a predator in the area, the eagles will circle the stadium and attack the cheetah at precisely the same time, resulting in the worst massacre on the field since Brodie Croyle visited in 2006.
Sensing the job security that usually comes with winning a national title, Ed Orgeron will decide to coach via Zoom from a remote island that will be undisclosed. It will turn out that he is actually just bathing in Mike the Tiger’s habitat.
Following the first victory of the season, Chad Morris will be seen hyperventilating beneath the stadium, overwhelmed by the accomplishment of winning a SEC game.
The season ticket holders in Section 13 will sign a petition asking for the name of the section to be changed as 13 is an unlucky number. Auburn officials will perform the ultimate troll by renaming it Section 2020.
In a moment of hysteria, Associate Athletic Director/Communications Kirk Sampson will announce that he and only he will be answering the media’s questions following games. He will then spend 15 minutes rambling about deep dish pizza.
Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin, forgetting that the Egg Bowl was to be played the next day, have to hire a private charter plane to get back to Mississippi from Key West where they were last seen closing down Flying Monkeys.
Anders Carlson will mock Alabama by kicking field goals barefooted and blindfolded while drinking a cup of hot tea.
Charles Barkley will show up in President Jay Gogue’s box and accidentally call him Dr. Leath. In a moment of irony, it will be Barkley that is thrown out a plate glass window.
Texas A&M’s “12th Man” will be down to nine after three fall ill from a case of preseason hype. The only cure is a mixture of disappointing losses and telling Texas that its song sounds like hell.
Dan Mullen will suddenly retire and take the job he was born to have: a salesman at a Mercedes dealership in South Florida. He WILL sell you on the platinum package, just a deal between you and him.
Patrick Nix will break the record for most shots of a dad in the crowd, formerly held by Archie Manning.
Tired of Auburn settling for a field goal after reaching the red zone, The Voice of the Auburn Tigers Andy Burcham will release a tirade that includes such dirty words as “shucks” and “dang.”
Listening to Gary Danielson call a game for the first time, Tua Tagovailoa will think, “Man, that man needs to shut up about me.”
Smoke Monday will return an interception for a touchdown and then disappear into a literal cloud of smoke, landing him the starring role in the sequel to The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
Georgia will once again fail to win its first national title since 1980. This is neither bold or insane.
Will Muschamp will finally snap for good, interrupting a game by punting the ball into the stands, sacking his own quarterback and escaping the scene via one of the cabooses parked outside the stadium.
Big Kat Bryant will be forced to change his name after Carole Baskin mistakes him for competition and orders a hit on him. Not that she would ever do that. (Wink! Wink!) Wow. Tiger King feels so long ago.
The 2010 National Championship team will be welcomed back at halftime of the LSU game. Pete Thamel will immediately write that the ceremony is an insult to the game of football, nay, the entire world.
Auburn fans will take a loss in measure, seeing that it is only a game and won’t flood message boards and radio call-in shows with “Gus needs to be fired and now!” rants and will definitely not spread rumors about Bob Stoops hiring a realtor in the area because a friend who knows a friend’s brother’s cousin heard it over drinks at The Hound. Nope. That won’t happen at all.
I can’t be the only one who needs a magnifying class to read the small print but that is a pretty good looking letter. That signature of Gus Malzahn? Top notch as well.
College Football News ranked the top SEC head coaches. Where is Georgia football’s Kirby Smart?
Pete Fiutak of College Football News recently released a list ranking the SEC head coaches heading into the 2020 season.
Checking in at No. 3 on the list is Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who trails only Nick Saban (1) and Ed Orgeron (2).
At No. 4 is Dan Mullen and at No. 5 is Gus Malzahn.
As much as I’d love for Smart to be in that No. 2 spot, I do not disagree with Fiutak here.
Smart’s time will come, and within the next five years he may very well occupy that No. 1 spot.
For now, he’s sitting at No. 3 on Fiutak’s list, likely right on the verge of taking over that No. 2 ranking. As long as he keeps winning the SEC East, beating rivals and putting his team in striking distance for the College Football Playoff…he’ll be considered a top-five coach in America.
Orgeron or Smart at No. 2 was likely a somewhat difficult decision. Fiutak went with Coach O since he accomplished something Kirby hasn’t yet, a national championship.
I’ve heard it all – “Anyone could win with that roster.”
Sure, Smart probably would have won it with that roster LSU had last year. But, at the end of the day, he didn’t have that roster. No other way around it.
This might be the best Gus Malzahn impression I have ever seen.
I’m certain that most of us have our own impressions of Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn and his sideline antics, but this might be the best one I have seen yet.
Jaxon Padlo, a student at Jemison High School in Alabama, posted his impressions of the Tigers coach along with Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Will Muschamp, Dan Mullen and Jimbo Fisher to the memorable tune of the SEC on CBS theme.
Williams rushed for 400 yards as a freshman in 2019.
Auburn sophomore D.J. Williams has been named as one of the preseason candidates for the 2020 Doak Walker Award. The SMU PwC Athletic Forum released the list on Wednesday and Williams is one of 76 running backs eyeing the annual award presented to the nation’s top college running back.
As a freshman Williams recorded 400 rushing yards and two touchdowns within the span of eight games. He established himself as a valuable running back against No. 1 LSU when he rushed for a career-high 130 yards.
His freshman year performance ranks him 16th all-time among Auburn freshman running backs. This season he’ll return as Auburn’s top rusher and will lead a talented running back corps consisting of fellow sophomores Shaun Shivers and Harold Joiner, redshirt freshman Mark-Antony Richards, and incoming 5-star freshman “Tank” Bigsby.
The Doak Walker Award was established in 1990, but in its 30 year history no Auburn player has won. In the last 16 years eight Auburn players have qualified as semifinalists including Kerryon Johnson, who is the most recent running back to be nominated (2017).
Per Greg Ostendorf of AuburnTigers.com the procedures behind selecting a winner are as follows:
For this year’s award, the PwC SMU Athletic Forum Board of Directors will name ten semifinalists in November, and three finalists, as voted on by the Doak Walker Award National Selection Committee, will be announced in November. The committee will cast a second vote in December to determine the recipient. The National Selection Committee consists of past recipients, former NFL All-Pro and college All-America running backs, media members and selected special representatives.
The 2020 Doak Walker Award winner will be announced live on The Home Depot College Football Awards.
Will D.J. Williams be the first running back in Auburn history to bring home the Doak Walker Award? More importantly, will Auburn finally have a 1,000 yard rusher again? Tell us your thoughts.
The Auburn head coaching job comes with its plusses and negative.
Let’s face it: being the head coach at Auburn, or any other major college football program, can’t be the easiest thing to handle. You are always going to have critics no matter the success you have on the field and, of course, the next-guy-in-waiting is always going to be the more attractive answer to any problems the program has.
So where does the Auburn job rank in the hierarchy of college football? 247Sports ranks it as the No. 13 best job in the sport and fifth-best in the SEC.
Gus Malzahn has certainly seen his ups and downs at the helm of the Tigers, starting off his tenure with a magical 2013 season and spot in the BCS National Championship Game but, with expectations high for 2014, his team struggled down the stretch.
Who’s ahead of Auburn?
11. Florida State – While this might have been the case five years ago, it is hardly that anymore. The Seminoles struggled mightily under Willie Taggart and new coach Mike Norvell has already come under fire for lying about having sit-down chats with players one-on-one.
10. Texas – All the facilities and money, none of the success that should come with it.
9. Notre Dame – Is it 1988 again or am I missing something? Of course playing a schedule you can create yourself by not belonging to a conference must be nice.
5. Georgia – Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Here is our list of the top-3 quarterbacks Georgia will face this season.
Georgia players arrived on campus this month after the SEC voted to allow student-athletes back on campus for voluntary workouts starting June 8.
There are still concerns for the 2020 college football season revolving around the impact of COVID-19, but as far as we know, all signs point to football being played this fall.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 12-2 season in 2019, where they secured their third-straight SEC East title and dominated Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. Not a bad resume whatsoever, but in most Georgia fans’ minds, without a playoff bid and a blowout loss to LSU in Atlanta, the season was a disappointment.
To reach the college football playoff this season and play for another championship, Georgia will have to make improvements on the offensive side of the ball – and they have. Credit Kirby Smart and the Georgia coaching staff for bringing in former NFL offensive coordinator Todd Monken, and signing Wake Forest transfer quarterback Jamie Newman.
Defensively, Georgia is once again in great hands. The Bulldogs return most players from the record-breaking 2019 unit that was ranked No. 1 in rush defense and No. 1 in scoring defense. That said, the SEC East was not exactly a hot bed for quarterback talent in 2019, and Georgia will be facing more experienced signal callers in 2020. Here are the top-3 SEC quarterbacks the Bulldogs will play this season.
1. Kyle Trask – Florida
2019 Stats: 66.9% passing for 2,941 yards, 25 touchdowns and seven interceptions (63 carries for eight yards and four touchdowns).
Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports
Kyle Trask doesn’t take up much space in Georgia fans’ minds, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t. We all know how well Dan Mullen works with quarterbacks – Tebow, Prescott – so we should expect Trask to make better decisions in 2020 and Florida has plenty of talent to give the Bulldogs a game in Jacksonville.
