Three-Point Stance: Auburn, Broyles Award, Southeast OTs

Rivals national recruiting analyst Greg Smith talks Auburn and Cam Coleman, the Broyles Award and Southeast offensive tackles in today's Three-Point Stance.

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Last week, one of the questions I pondered in Fact or Fiction was if Auburn was the most dangerous team in the country heading down the stretch to early National Signing Day. My apologies to Tigers fans because I must have been a jinx.

Hugh Freeze’s program hosted a huge group of recruits for its matchup with New Mexico State ... only to get blown out 31-10. If that wasn’t bad enough, Auburn paid $1.85 million to the Aggies to play that game. Ouch.

Among the star-studded list of recruits was Texas A&M five-star wide receiver commit Cam Coleman. The Alabama native would look great on The Plains. Not only is he one of the elite receiver prospects in a loaded year but Auburn is struggling with wide receiver production. Coleman, Perry Thompson and Bryce Cain would make a great trio for Freeze to jumpstart things with.

The question is – will that loss get Coleman looking elsewhere? Or even stick with his pledge to Texas A&M? The sense is that A&M will need to make a splash hire to keep him in the fold. That might not even be enough as Freeze has taken a personal interest in his recruitment. That game certainly didn’t help Auburn’s chances here but I wouldn’t say it is out of it now either.

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I generally wouldn’t be that fired up over the semifinalists for the Broyles Award but for a few reasons it struck a nerve this time around. If you don’t know, the Broyles Award goes to the top assistant coach in the country. But after looking at the list right now, it’s just the top assistant in the country at schools doing more with more:

Alabama OC Tommy Rees

Florida State DC Adam Fuller

Georgia OC Mike Bobo

Iowa DC Phil Parker

James Madison DC Bryant Haines

Louisville DC Ron English

LSU OC Mike Denbrock

Michigan OC Sherrone Moore

Missouri DL Kevin Peoples

Ohio State DC Jim Knowles

Oregon OC Will Stein

Penn State DC Manny Diaz

Texas DC Pete Kwiatkowski

UCLA DC D’Anton Lynn

Washington OC Ryan Grubb

With some exceptions, this list is mainly just blueblood programs' assistants that win recruiting titles and coach elite talent. There’s no love for the staff at schools such as Liberty, NC State or Arizona? Ultimately it may not matter because Iowa’s Phil Parker should be the runaway winner. Parker has to make sure his unit gives up very few points and also chip in points when possible. Iowa being 9-2 with an offense scoring 18.5 points a game should actually get Parker consideration to rename the trophy after him.

Still, we need to dig a little deeper to reward assistants actually doing more with less around the country.

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I talked recently about wide receivers in the Southeast being the top position for the 2024 recruiting cycle. I’ll make a prediction and say that for the 2025 cycle we are going to be talking about offensive tackles in the region.

Georgia commit Micah Debose and Alabama commit Mason Short are the names people are probably most familiar with but there are others to get familiar with.

Josh Petty, Brayden Jacobs, Juan Gaston Jr. and Ziyare Addison are all worthy of being top 25 tackles in the class. There will surely be more players at the position who emerge over the next year.

Tackle is on its way to being back in a big way next cycle which will make college coaches from coast to coast very happy.