Goodman: Auburnâs We-agle Thorne Birds being overlooked

After the latest preseason practice game down Lee County way, I’m torn between two nicknames for Hugh Freeze’s first Auburn football team.

The leaders out of fall camp are the We-agles and the Thorne Birds.

Just based upon literary heft, I’m partial to the Thorne Birds in honor of new Auburn starting quarterback Payton Thorne. As I mentioned in my weekly newsletter, Thorne is the first quarterback in Auburn history from the great state of Illinois. That makes him unique, and also demonstrates the ability of Freeze to recruit talented quarterbacks to Auburn like maybe never before.

While the bookworms on campus might already be printing up Thorne Birds T-shirts for game day, the traditionalists at Auburn will prefer We-agles.

We-agles works for a couple reasons, but this latest reference to a familiar Auburn turn of phrase comes from something Freeze said over the weekend. It was after the final scrimmage of fall camp. Auburn opens the season on Sept. 2 against UMass, and game prep is already underway. First things first, though. Freeze is preaching unity above all else.

“I told them in the team meeting this morning, man it’s now time to — whether you just got here, whether you’ve been here four years or whatever, it is we,” Freeze said after last Saturday’s closed practice. “It ain’t no old and new. It is we.”

The We-agles. The Thorne Birds. The season will show us a path to a more perfect truth. Personally, I’m just hoping that Auburn wins so many games this season that all the Lee County Wal-Marts run out of toilet paper.

What is football? That’s a complicated question. Freeze gave us his personal definition after Auburn’s two-week-long camp. I loved it.

“A football game to me is a bunch of individual plays … and it’s the culmination of how well you’re able to put the last one behind you and play the next one,” Freeze said. “Are we mentally tough enough to play the whole composition of the 80-play game without the last play affecting us good or bad, so I think that’s where we still have work to do.”

But what about the good news for these We-agle Thorne Birds?

“Positive?” Freeze said. “We’ve been able to run the football, and if you’re able to do that then you’ve got a fighting chance.”

Freeze went on to say that he didn’t know “if that means we’re pretty good at running it, or we’re not very good at stopping it. We’ll see soon.”

Let me end the suspense. Auburn is going to be great at running the ball, and maybe the best in the SEC. This prediction is based on several factors. One, and most importantly, running backs coach Carnell Williams was retained after the team set a series of rushing records while he served as interim head coach to end the 2022 season.

Let’s not forget that Auburn ran over everyone with Cadillac calling the shots, and that included Alabama. The Tigers gashed the Crimson Tide for 318 yards rushing in the Iron Bowl. It was the most yards given up on the ground for an Alabama team coached by Nick Saban. Furthermore, Auburn had two 100-yard rushers in each of its final three games of 2022.

That had never happened before in the history of Auburn football.

Auburn was picked to finish sixth in the SEC West at SEC Media Days. This team seems better than that. The We-agle Thorne Birds are being overlooked, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Auburn’s offense ends up being better than Alabama’s in Freeze’s first season.

Freeze offered keen observers of Auburn football a good laugh after the Tigers’ latest scrimmage. Auburn’s new coach feigned surprise by his team’s ability to run the football. The scrimmage was closed off to fans and reporters, but Freeze offered some insight when he said that freshman Jeremiah Cobb of Montgomery led in carries.

That’s a strong sign knowing Cobb isn’t the projected starter at running back.

Jarquez Hunter is a phenomenal back who can carry a team, but there’s also this to consider. Is Auburn’s backup quarterback better than whoever is going to start for Alabama?

Saban is taking his time in Tuscaloosa. Quarterback Jalen Milroe is the frontrunner based on experience, but we’re now hearing that true freshman Dylan Lonergan might be making some moves. At Auburn, backup quarterback Robby Ashford accounted for three touchdowns against Alabama in the 2022 Iron Bowl, but couldn’t hold onto the starting role after Thorne transferred from Michigan State.

Everyone is talking up Alabama’s running game, but Auburn’s will probably be better. The We-agle Thorne Birds are coming, and they’re bringing a broken family back together.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.