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How Auburn football addressed 5 positions of need in the transfer portal

The winter transfer portal window was fruitful for Auburn football.

The Tigers still might not be done, but as Hugh Freeze and the staff put the final touches on Auburn’s pre-spring changes, Auburn’s portal class ranks No. 6 in On3’s transfer portal team rankings.

The class currently includes 15 players, filling a wide range of holes left on Auburn’s roster following the 2024 season.

Here’s how the Tigers addressed five of their biggest positions of need:

Quarterback

Players out (4): Payton Thorne, Hank Brown, Holden Geriner, Walker White

Players in (4): Jackson Arnold, Ashton Daniels, Deuce Knight, Tanner Bailey

What to know

Quarterback was priority No. 1 for Freeze in the portal after losing all four scholarship quarterbacks from the 2024 team.

The first order of business was finding a ready-made starter, something Auburn hopes it found in Arnold, who transferred from Oklahoma. He started for the Sooners in 2024, but had an up-and-down year after being rated a five-star recruit out of high school.

Auburn built around Arnold by adding Daniels (a former Stanford starter that can compete for the job), incoming freshman Deuce Knight and Tanner Bailey, who initially retired from football in January 2024 after spending time at South Carolina, but is coming out of retirement to walk on at Auburn.

The Tigers aren’t technically at the four-scholarship quarterback mark Freeze wanted to hit, but bringing in a quarterback with Southeastern Conference experience like Bailey helps round out the room.

Offensive tackle

Players out (2): Percy Lewis, Ronan Chambers

Players in (3): Xavier Chaplin, Mason Murphy, Broderick Shull

What to know

Auburn wasn’t lacking in numbers on the offensive line, but it was missing a true bookend left tackle. Lewis was supposed to be that in 2024, but his play was inconsistent, eventually causing him to be benched for Dillon Wade, who started the season at left guard.

Chaplin and Murphy both bring Power Four starting experience at tackle and Chaplin is coming off a 2024 season where he allowed just two sacks and 12 pressures at Virginia Tech, according to Pro Football Focus.

Chaplin will likely fill that spot at left tackle for Auburn, and Murphy, a USC transfer, could compete at right tackle with Izavion Miller.

Specialists

Players out (2): Oscar Chapman, Gabe Russo

Players in (3): Hudson Kaak, Connor Gibbs, John Alan McGuire

What to know

Grouping punter and kicker together here, Auburn addressed both spots in the winter portal window, adding Kaak, a former Oklahoma State punter and Gibbs, a former Southern Miss kicker.

Kaak replaces Chapman, who was Auburn’s starting punter since 2021. Gibbs’ addition is interesting, given Auburn already has three kickers that played in 2024.

The question is surrounding Alex McPherson’s health, who only played in one game in 2024. Towns McGough was Auburn’s starting placekicker going into the season, but was benched for Ian Vachon after going 5-for-12 on his field goals.

Gibbs is coming off a season where he went 10-for-13 on field goals, with a long of 59.

Inside linebacker

Players out (6): Dorian Mausi Jr., Eugene Asante, Austin Keys, Fa’Najae Gotay, Laquan Robinson

Players in (4): Xavier Atkins, Jakaleb Faulk, Elijah Melendez, Bryce Deas

What to know

Inside linebacker is a spot where Auburn might still add players during the spring portal window after only adding one so far in the winter.

Atkins was that lone addition, coming to Auburn after spending one season at LSU. While Atkins is seen as a promising player with elite speed, he doesn’t replace the experience Auburn lost with its departures at linebacker.

Auburn also added three freshmen who may see the field early, but it wouldn’t be a shock if the Tigers tried to add some experience to the room in the spring.

Tight end

Players out (3): Rivaldo Fairweather, Luke Deal, Micah Riley

Players in (3): Preston Howard, Hollis Davidson, Ryan Ghea

What to know

The departures of Fairweather and Deal meant Auburn lost its top two contributors at tight end in 2024: One vertical threat and one blocking tight end.

Howard’s transfer from Maryland brings a receiving tight end with Power Four experience to the room, taking some pressure off sixth-year senior Brandon Frazier.

Auburn targeted a couple different blocking tight ends in the portal too but haven’t yet landed any. That could be another position to watch during the spring portal window.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m

General

Damien Harris takes ‘full responsibility’ for nearly costing Alabama national title in 2018

Texas’ missed field goal at the end of regulation in last week’s double-overtime win over Arizona State in the Peach Bowl College Football Playoff semifinal game brought up bad memories for former Alabama running back Damien Harris.

But it wasn’t just because the Longhorns’ Bert Auburn missed a 38-yard field goal as time expired, sending the game to overtime where Texas eventually won 39-31. It was the way Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian spoke to Auburn just before the fateful kick that caught Harris’ attention.

During the Until Saturday podcast this week with David Ubben and Chris Vannini of The Athletic, Harris said he had a similar experience during the January 2018 College Football National Championship Game vs. Georgia. With the game tied 20-20 at the end of regulation, Harris approached Andy Pappanastos and had a similar conversation just before the Alabama kicker took the field to try a 36-yard game-winner (which he also missed).

“As soon as I saw Sark walk up to Bert, I said ‘that’s a mistake,’” Harris said. “… When we played Georgia in the national championship, we had a chip shot to win the game. … And I remember, I walked up to (Pappanastos) the same way Sark walked up to Bert Auburn. And I put my arm around him and said ‘listen dude, you’re about to win us the national championship. How does that feel?’

“You know what he did? And I should have known when he did this, that some s*** was gonna be shaky. He just looked at me and he just gave me a hug. He was like ‘thank you, man.’ And it seemed like I gave him a vote of confidence that he already didn’t have. And he just went out and he f****** botched the kick. I’m taking full responsibility.”

As with Auburn and the Longhorns, Pappanastos’ Alabama teammates bailed him (and Harris) out in overtime. After Georgia kicked a field goal to go up 23-20, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa threw the game-winning touchdown to DeVonta Smith on second-and-26, giving the Crimson Tide a walk-off national championship.

Here’s the video of Harris’ comments (language warning):

Harris, whose Alabama career ended after the 2018 season, played five years in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. In addition to his podcasting work, he’s now a college football analyst for CBS Sports.

General

Urban Alchemy mobilizes team to reach out to Birmingham homeless

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said there are currently 350 homeless people on the streets of the city, and this week many of them are shivering and trying to stay warm.

“They need a lifeline,” Woodfin said. “They need a bridge, and a beacon of hope as they are facing some of life’s most difficult changes.”

To create a response team to work personally with the homeless, Birmingham signed a $1.7 million contract with San Francisco-based Urban Alchemy, which will run a team called Heart Birmingham.

The homeless outreach program is now in effect. “The work of this homeless outreach program reflects the kind of city we want Birmingham to be,” Woodfin said. “One where dignity is upheld for every individual. They’re valued, and where we refuse to turn a blind eye to the struggles of our fellow residents. Truth is, because they need us.”

Instead of police being called to answer complaints about the homeless, the Heart Birmingham Team will respond. That will reduce strain on emergency services and improve public spaces, Woodfin said.

“Tackling homelessness is not just about programs,” Woodfin said. “The most important thing it’s about is people.”

Heart is an acronym for Homeless Engagement Assistance Response Team. The HEART program launched on Jan. 6 and employs nearly 20 people. Teams will respond to calls from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Artie Gilbert, director of operations for Heart Birmingham, said he moved to Birmingham in November. He has been hiring and training a team, teaching them how to compassionately respond to situations involving the homeless.

Gilbert said the team has worked this week with the warming station at the Jimmie Hale Mission, where the city offers emergency shelter during the extreme cold. The team will be working to identify areas that are “hot spots” for homelessness, Gilbert said.

“We meet each situation and person where they are, de-escalate, and do our best to connect them to resources that can help transform their lives,” he said.

“We have a passion, now that I’m a resident, I have even more passion, to be involved to help people find resources, and not just to relocate or remove anyone, but to help them to get adequate resources: housing, something to eat, showers, and those sort of things,” Gilbert said.

“We plan on transforming our communities through empathy and compassion, most of all,” said Heart Birmingham team member Tori Miles.

“Food and shelter are human rights,” Woodfin said. “Instead of dispatching law enforcement officers to address these basic needs, HEART Birmingham’s team of compassionate, specially trained professionals will support our unhoused residents and connect them with resources they desperately need and most certainly deserve.”

General

See how Alabamians explain milk sandwiches, snow panic to curious Canadian transplant

On Tuesday, the skies over Alabama spit a few flakes of snow that melted before they hit the ground. With more snow – with a few inches of accumulation – in the forecast for Friday, Jan. 10, the memes about Southern snow panic and “milk sandwiches” were flying around the internet. Schools and businesses announced closures. People emptied the grocery store shelves.

Donalta Hall was curious…and amused. “People were freaking out and saying to stock up and don’t go anywhere. It was just a couple of flurries coming down and everyone’s panicking.”

Hall moved to Huntsville, Ala., from Toronto six months ago with her husband, Daniel, to establish Hall Realty Team, which helps people buy their dream homes or invest in property. The Halls “fell in love with Huntsville” when they passed through while taking a road trip through the U.S. last year. “Everyone is so friendly here,” she said. “People would wave and my husband would say ‘Do you know them?’ But they were just being friendly. Everyone’s so friendly.”

They also loved the mild climate here but this week’s snow panic made her curious. She decided to take her questions to the masses. She posted on Tuesday on the Facebook page What’s Happening in Huntsville to ask for input: “Would love to hear how locals usually prepare and what I should expect. Definitely feels surreal seeing everyone so excited about flurries when that’s just a regular Tuesday back in Toronto!”

For the record, the tone of her post was respectfully curious with no hint of making fun of how we deal with snow. “Back home we’re all set up with snowplows, road salt, and winter tires, but I’m guessing things work pretty differently in Alabama! … Any tips for a snow-experienced Canadian adjusting to how Huntsville does winter?”

As of Thursday morning, more than 350 people had responded. Read them here.

In an interview with AL.com Thursday morning, Hall said she appreciated the explanations and advice. She was happy to have the answer to one of the most important topics: Milk sandwiches.

“I saw the memes and I thought, ‘Oh, a local delicacy. I can’t wait to try it,’” Hall said. “I thought maybe it was something like dipping cookies in milk and I thought ‘I need to understand this.’ I couldn’t fathom it.”

She had a laugh when locals explained milk sandwiches aren’t real – it was a joke stemming from the fact that people stock up on bread and milk whenever snow is forecast.

On a more serious note, Hall said she learned why Southerners close businesses and schools and stay inside when it snows. People explained that cities aren’t well stocked with snowplows because snow happens infrequently here and doesn’t justify the expense. Because plows can’t get to all areas, many streets and highways may be closed – and that’s a problem with insurers.

“I learned that if you crash while driving on a closed road or if somebody hits you on a closed road, some insurance won’t cover it,” Hall said.

Commenters also explained black ice, that thin frozen sheet that often forms under snow here.

“It’s not the fact that it snows,” Hall said she learned. “It’s the freeze overnight that forms a sheet of ice. Black ice is the real issue because you can’t see it.”

The most important thing commenters did was to welcome Hall to Alabama. She and her husband have already made so many friends, she said, and she really appreciates the friendly advice.

“The best advice I got was stocking up on the wine…I forgot about the wine,” she said with a laugh.

General

Walmart recalls popular product sold in Alabama, 1 other state for ‘possible spoilage’

For anyone thinking of cooking up warm soup to stave off the winter cold, there’s an important recall you need to know about.

Walmart has recalled 12,000 units of Great Value Chicken Broth sold in 48-ounce cartons in two states – Alabama and Arkansas. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the recall is due to the “potential for packaging failures that could compromise the sterility of the product, resulting in spoilage.”

The products have a best if used by date of March 25, 2026 with lot code 98F09234. They were sold in aseptic paper cartons and a total of 2,023 cases or 12,138 cartons were included in the recall.

The broth was produced by Tree House Foods Inc. of British Columbia.

The FDA did not assign a risk level to the recall and did not report any incidents involving the products.

People with the broth should return it to Walmart for a refund.

General

Goodman: Alabama’s official guide to football in the snow

This is an opinion column.

____________________

The best thing about pick-up football in the snow is that there are snow rules.

Which is to say, no rules at all.

Anything goes, and I mean AN … E … THANG.

Horse collars, yes.

Leg drops, yes.

Pile ons, yes.

Pile drivers, yes.

Tripping and/or “kagging,” yes to both.

Forearm shivers, yes.

Snowball decoys, yes.

Snowballs to the face, yes.

Forward pass, good luck with socks on your hands, but yes.

Lose teeth? Ignore it until the snow melts.

Tackling children, yes.

Tackling girls, yes.

Tackling after the play, yes.

Tackling before the play, yes.

This is the “Official Alabama Guide to Playing Football in the Snow,” and if you don’t know what “kagging” is then you probably got off pretty easy during your childhood years. For the rest of us, we learned how to time our kag-escaping jumps on the football field before the age of eight years old.

The snow is coming to the Deep South, or so they say. It rarely snows in Alabama. If and when it does, God help us all. Something clicks in our brains, and it’s not good. People revert to a primitive state of consciousness ingrained somewhere deep down in our cerebrums from the last ice age.

It’s not our fault, though. That’s just how we were raised.

We’re Southern folks in the snow. Ice is called snow. Freezing rain is called snow. Sleet is called snow. We hoard food, but don’t shovel or plow because we want the white stuff to last as long as possible. We use trash can lids for sleds. We throw snowballs at every moving car including the mail trucks and the cops. We call beanies by their proper Southern names, toboggans. We cover our hands with anything but actual gloves because who the heck owns gloves? We wrap our children in five layers of clothes before letting them step outside. We instinctively make chili and soup and then exclusively live off hot chocolate and whiskey.

But why?

For many of us, the debased savagery of snow rules in the Deep South began with pick-up football games in vacant lots, parks and open fields.

I can’t speak for every enclave and hamlet in Alabama, but back in Irondale the front yards were off limits in the snow. That’s why everyone went to the park. “Messing up” someone’s snow in their front yard was punishable by death.

Who’s front yard would have snow last? That was our biggest concern when we were kids.

When it snowed, the place to be back in Irondale was Beacon Park. That’s where everyone went. I was in eighth grade in 1993, the year for what James Spann calls our generational snow-in.

But we didn’t stay indoors in Irondale. Heck no. We all went to Beacon Park for the most epic game of pick-up snow football in the history of Alabama.

No less than 50 kids, one ball and no rules — football the way it was meant to be played. We were all wrapped in five layers of clothes, so it’s not like any of us could get hurt. I think even some kids from Mountain Brook showed up.

Our friends from the Brook might already have known how to play football, but the Irondale crew taught them how to “kag” that day.

The secret to pick-up football in the snow is don’t even try to pass. Passing is for the uninitiated. Passing is for people who maybe own gloves. We had double socks on our hands and triple socks on our feet. Just full-on power run and maximum fun every play.

And no one keeps score or time in the snow either. Punting? Against the rules. Field goals? No way, nerd.

There’s also no out-of-bounds. Hills are in play and so are streets.

Games last all day and into the night depending on how long the snow sticks around. No one stops to eat. No one stops to rest. Only stop to throw snowballs at the cops. And if you go home to thaw out, then chances are pretty good that your mom isn’t going to let you back outside.

So never go home.

The snow is coming, they say. It’s time for a new generation to earn their stripes. It’s time for pick-up football in the snow all day and into the night.

No video games. No iPhones. No rules. Send your kids outside, moms, and lock the doors. Alabama, make us proud.

If you can’t feel your face or hands at the end of the game, then you did it right.

BE HEARD

Got a question for Joe? Want to get something off your chest? Send Joe an email about what’s on your mind. Let your voice be heard. Ask him anything.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of the book “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s Ultimate Team.”

General

Alabama Baptist group would be exempt from taxes under proposed bill

Alabama Rep. Phillip Ensler, D-Montgomery, has prefiled a bill that would exempt the Alabama State Missionary Baptist Convention, Inc., and each local Baptist association that is a member in good standing of the convention from paying taxes.

While religious organizations are exempt from federal taxes, Ensler said it is currently a more challenging process to exempt them from local taxes.

“In Alabama, we have, what I would say, is an outdated structure or process in which entities have to be granted tax exemption on an individual basis,” he said.

“So, in the Alabama code, there are all sorts of nonprofits that have been exempt over the years.

“Whether it’s been a bill that’s had multiple entities listed at once to grant them tax exempt status or just on an individual basis, it’s just done in that way.”

He said he was surprised when he first found out that the Baptist Convention was not exempt.

“I work closely with their leadership and a lot of their clergy, especially in Montgomery, but also in other parts of the state,” he said.

“I have colleagues in the legislature who are missionary Baptists and attend churches that are part of the convention on it for some time because of their work.”

A few years ago, church leadership reached out to Ensler to request exemption, which he said he was motivated to grant based on the work the group does.

“They just do incredible work throughout the state,” he said.

“They serve people that have food insecurity issues. They serve homeless individuals. They help people that are struggling with their utility bills or with funeral expenses. So, they just do a lot of really good and helpful work, especially for people that are struggling financially.”

“So, by granting them tax exempt status, the money that they’ll save from not paying taxes, they pour that back into the community. They pour that back into helping people.”

Ensler has filed versions of this bill in previous legislative sessions, but it has never made it onto the Senate calendar for a final vote, he said.

While he is hopeful that prefiling the bill this year will give it enough time to work its way through the legislature, Ensler said he would like to see an updated process for tax exemption in Alabama in future sessions.

“Long term, what would be helpful is instead of having to go kind of organization by organization, if we had a little bit of a more modern process where maybe all churches or religious nonprofits are exempt or if they reach a certain threshold of how much charitable and community work they do,” he said.

“So that we’re not having to go entity by entity.”

General

Birmingham-Shuttlesworth ‘prepping for all the different scenarios’ ahead of weather

Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport is preparing for Friday’s expected winter weather – whatever it may be.

Friday’s forecast from the National Weather Service calls for winter weather affecting the northern and central portions of Alabama late tonight through Friday evening.

Forecasters say the greatest impact should be near and north of Interstate 20. Snow, freezing rain, a wintery mix and black ice are concerns through Saturday morning.

Airport spokeswoman Kim Hunt said officials there are “prepping for all the different scenarios.”

As the weather forecast for Friday becomes more specific today, workers will begin pretreating runways and taxiways with an agent to help prevent icing.

“We will also pretreat the roadways leading up to the terminal, the top floor of the parking deck, exposed ramps, even the crosswalks,” Hunt said. “As the forecast gets more specific today, that will dictate the timing of our pre-treatment. Particularly with the runways and taxiways – we don’t want to do the pre-treatment too early since aircraft operating tonight could essentially degrade it.”

In addition, the airport operations team will inspect conditions throughout the night and early morning. Snow removal equipment is ready to go, but officials believe the greatest area of concern will be ice forming, or freezing rain.

Hunt said travelers should keep in mind that the winter weather could cause delays in both getting to the airport and for scheduled flights.

“Our best advice is to stay in touch with your airline and check the status of your flights early and often,” she said.

More information is available at the airport website.

Huntsville Airport plans to stay open despite the storm, officials there said.

General

Who killed Kijuan Harrell? Witnesses, clues sought in 2018 killing on Birmingham’s Valley Avenue

More than six years have passed since a 20-year-old man died in a barrage of gunfire on Birmingham’s Valley Avenue, and police and family have not given up hope of finding the killer or killers.

Kijuan Harrell, a 20-year-old graduate of Pinson Valley High School, was shot to death June 23, 2018, while sitting in the front passenger’s seat of a vehicle.

The shots rang out just before 1:30 a.m. that Saturday in the 500 block of Valley Avenue.

The vehicle Harrell was in ended up in a parking spot at the far west end of Fox Valley Apartments.

He was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:13 a.m. from a gunshot wound to the chest.

Another male was in the vehicle at the time of the shooting but was not injured.

Birmingham police investigated the June 23, 2018 shooting death of a 20-year-old man on Valley Avenue.(Carol Robinson)

Police early in the investigation said Harrell may have been a bystander caught in crossfire.

Officer Truman Fitzgerald said Thursday the shots were fired from a black vehicle, believed to be a Nissan Maxima.

“Kijuan was loved by many,’’ his mother, Chiquita Norman Dixon, told AL.com in 2018. “A piece of my soul has been ripped out and is not coming back.”

Dixon previously said she believes those who know what happened are not telling police, or her, the truth about what led to her son’s death.

Harrell graduated from high school with advanced diploma and played basketball.

Anyone with information that will aid our detectives, please contact the Homicide Division directly at 205-254-1764 or remain anonymous by contacting Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.

General

Mike Lindell’s MyPillow ordered to pay DHL nearly $800,000 for unpaid bills

A Minnesota judge has ordered MyPillow to pay nearly $778,000 for unpaid bills and other costs to package delivery service DHL, which had sued the company that’s synonymous with its founder, chief pitchman and election denier Mike Lindell.

The award includes over $48,000 in interest and over $4,800 for DHL’s attorney’s fees. The order, signed last month by Hennepin County Judge Susan Burke, said MyPillow had agreed in October to pay DHL $550,000 but failed to do so and did not send anyone to a hearing last month on DHL’s effort to collect.

DHL’s lawsuit, filed in September, is one of a series of legal and financial disputes involving Chaska, Minnesota-based MyPillow and Lindell, a prominent supporter of President-elect Donald Trump who has helped amplify Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Lindell said after the lawsuit was filed that MyPillow stopped using DHL over a year earlier in a dispute over shipments that he said were DHL’s fault.

The “MyPillow Guy” is also being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies, Dominion Voting Systems in Washington, D.C., and Smartmatic in Minnesota.