REACTION: Alex Golesh, Auburn LANDS A STUD, Top Player in the State

0:00Man, Auburn landed a really good in-state defense of Lyman, and they may not be done doing that. You are Lockdown Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. Yes, welcome on into Lockdown Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers Podcast on your host, Zach Blackerby. Thank you so much. Make a Lockdown Auburn, your first lesson, every single day, Brian Smith, host of the Portal Lockdowns Recruiting, Transfer Portal, and IEL Show hanging out with us. As Auburn lands, its second member of its 2027 class, Donovan Moore joins Tank Proctor as Alex Gullich's first full class as Auburn's head coach. Donovan Moore, big six four, 280 pound defensive Lyman from Hueytown, Brian, we've talked

1:03about, but this checks a lot of the boxes of importance, winning in-state recruiting battles, and winning on the defensive line. Those are the two things you talk about more than anything, and Donovan Moore checks both of those boxes. Yeah, this kid I saw last year, and I'll extend the next to him, he'd just scream, South Eastern Conference, 63 plus, he's athletic, he can rush the pass, or even though he's an interior guy, good personality, any plays, Hueytown for those who don't know, that's on the edge of Birmingham. Same program as numerous kids have went on, James Winston included. That's a kid that's probably going to play by a sophomore year at Auburn. You can't have enough 6, 3, 2, 80 plus guys that can move. That never really goes out of style, and he had offers from everybody, arguably the best player in the state, and again, detackle, if you wanted to know how important they are, look at the portal. How many defense attackers were in the portal? One, two, I mean, it's all projects, it's all upside guys, your guys are coming off

2:04knee injury, this and that, they just don't weave, man, people pay them to stay. You have to hit on high school de Lyman, and that's why the top of the board programs really don't change much in college football, because they know that Auburn is, they're recruiting it well. I mean, this is year three or so in a row, like they're getting detackles that changes your program, and he's one of their very best. Yeah, the 247 composite, and then rivals has him as the top player in the state. Do you see him as the top player in the state of Alabama? I don't know who I would rank above him. I mean, Carl was made up there, but I would put more over him, because he's more athletic. I need to see a few more kids to be sure, but like, especially because it's a detackle. I mean, that's who I would take first, if I could just pick right now, I'd have to go through it again. Yeah, if you got, so none of the more at the top is according to rivals, players in the state, Gunnar Rivers, the quarterback from Fairhope, Jiberius Garor, he's committed to

3:11Alabama. Great point. Yeah, Edger Usher, Jitori Williams looks like that's an iron bull battle, but it's an Alabama lead into your office of Lyman, Jalen Scott, who was committed to Alabama. Looks like Oklahoma is leading for him. Cam Pritchett, guy that we've talked about a little bit, he's committed to Oregon, Trent Seaborne, a quarterback that's been well known in the state for a few years now, committed to Alabama. So, I mean, there's some good, there's some studs, but yeah, I mean, as far as positional scarcity goes, especially with Auburn's situation at quarterback elsewhere, when you look at defensive Lyman, he's one, then you got, am I saying that right, Garor committed to Alabama? I'm not absolutely. It's a great thing. It's a great thing. Cam Pritchett committed to Oregon at six, those are your defensive front guys. The kid committed to Alabama and probably more, I think, will be the most highly recruited out of that entire, they're both DeLine, but it's not coincidence.

4:11So, they're, you know, they're both great guys. I've seen them both live, and I would, yeah, flip a coin to which one you want more. Detackles just rare. That's why I said, I mean, talent wise, I don't think there's a whole lot of difference, but detackles again, guys that are 280 and up that can move, they're just not very many of them. So, I, if I only could take one, I would take more. Yeah. Yeah. So, there are other names that Auburn apparently seems interested in and possibly could pop next Carlos May, another talented, another talented in state guy, he's gonna be more of an end, though, correct? Man, he could be a swing guy, could be a detackle. Okay. Yeah. See, it's 4305's what it says, that's larger than the way he moves. I was watching some of this tape earlier, I don't know if it was that big. Raffles has a 14th ranked player in the state, plays it Ramsey up in Birmingham.

5:14He's a kid, I feel like we talk about it a good bit. So, Carlos May, what have you seen from him? That's a guy that he could play end in a 3-4, again, this is an SEC body. He's more power, Donovan, I think, is more explosive. This kid, I mean, he could grow into a nose guard, like, when you said, end, I'm like, well, he is pretty good, but it had been 3-4. Yeah. Again, it's just- I realize he was moving that well, way in 3-1. That's what I mean. That's crazy. That's what I mean. Like, the program's up there in Birmingham, they're so good. There's so many guys come out of there, it's not talked about enough to have two of the best detachels in the country in Birmingham for you and I is not shocking, but for people outside the state of Alabama, they don't get it, but like, that's why this state is always producing the D-Liaman, like, the Auburn Alabama one. And Georgia comes like, Georgia's after him, and, you know, guys like that, that man, I think his first two visits are UGA in Auburn, so that kind of puts things in perspective.

6:14Like, if Georgia wants a kid to come in on the first visit weekend, I'm going to take that as a sign. Yeah. Yeah. Then another top 10 guy in the state, according to rivals, Elijah Brown, another kid that this staff really, really likes Von Troke King, Williams, if he gets all through you, these guys, he will be on an absolute heater. Yeah, because this is a prideful Elijah Brown plays a prideful. By the way, he's the small guy out of the group at six one and a half, 280. This state produces a man, it just gets D-Liaman. I'm not saying that I don't know Elijah, like, personal level, but like, I love his film. And he's a guy that's a one gap and go get up the field. He's perfect for the old school, four, three, play three check. Maybe maybe if he gets picked up by one tech, and if you're putting them next to more, you know, you got the most important guy out of the group, in my opinion, already. If you get these three guys, I like how it, the position from a class standpoint is

7:21staggered. So when these guys are all true freshmen, the class that are all true sophomores right now, being juniors, you know, your Malika, your Jordan Crawford, your Darian Smith, like those guys, you know, buddy, math is that you brought from LSU. Those guys will be draft eligible. I don't think they'll all go pro, but even if they do, like, you've got them staggered. So when you're starting having to replace some of those guys, you'll have these guys in theory ready to go. So I think that makes a ton of sense from a roster management standpoint too. If you're not balanced with your O-line D line, Zach, as you know, his phone, Auburn, like, look at their offense, tackle recruiting for Mike. Right. Just before 220 to bring it up. Yes, dark time. Yes. It's just a bring it up. I know. I know. It's amazing. His O tackle is easier to recruit usually than detail on Auburn right now. Like you said, I mean, this is exactly how you want to do it. You'll red shirt one or two of them.

8:21But one of these guys, I don't want to guess. Donovan will play and it'll balance itself out. But if you don't get the bodies on campus, it's just, it's down hill, brother. And that, yeah, by the way, taking these guys from Bama, because I doubt any of them, they're not at least interested or going after offers. All three have Bama offers. I couldn't tell like how much Bama was pursuing them, but they had Bama offers. But, yeah, the whole, is it a committable offer right now? Oh, that stuff drives me bananas. And I wish I could get more clarity, but it changes all the time. It does. It does. And every staff handles that a little bit different. So what does this mean about Alex Gola, and then also you sent me something that I thought was interesting. I actually talked about it earlier in the week. Let's jump into that in just a moment right here, unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends. And indeed, hiring's not just about finding someone who will take the job. It's about finding the right person with the right background who can actually help your business move forward. And if you want candidates who match what you're looking for,

9:24indeed, sponsored jobs is the move because instead of hoping the right person's doubles across your post, indeed, helps you match your job with the folks that fit what you need best. So if you're hiring spend less time interviewing candidates searching through resumes and let indeed handle all that for you listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. All you have to do is go to indeed.com slash podcast, indeed.com slash podcast hiring through the right way with indeed. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Fandall. Fandall is America's number one sportsbook and winter games are on. Fandall's the best place to wager on all of that. Also, Fandall dropped a line for the Auburn basketball game Saturday Saturday night, 730 tip, local time, Arkansas, a five and a half point favorite. That seems, I don't know, kind of generous towards Auburn. I think the way they've been playing, but we'll see what happens

10:25in that one. So if you feel like Auburn can sweep Arkansas, pull an upset, take the Tigers. If not, maybe you want to go the other way. Money lines and Tyson, if you think Auburn can win at a plus two 30. So get it on the action with Fandall. That's America's number one sportsbook. Brian Smith, host of the portal, hanging out with us. Coaches are obviously going to be judged, critiqued by their first full class. We saw Hugh Freeze absolutely knock out of the park with his first full class. Alex Goulish, he's kind of talented himself as a hard worker. The guy's going to get after it regardless of what it is. And I mean, he's been great at recruiting against his peers or whatever level of competition he's been at. Only two commit so far, but it does seem like the ball is starting to roll and they're starting

11:28to get some momentum. I don't think the amount of commits you have at this point in the season with this new athletic calendar matters as much as it used to Brian. Am I looking at this through orange and blue glasses or do you agree with me? You're muted. But I know whatever you're about to say is in Tyson. Here we go, an electric. I don't think it's that big a deal. I think the more important data point, how many kids are you getting on campus committed or otherwise in February and March? Junior days, basketball games, weekend visit, because that's when your OVs get set. Like we just talked about Carlos May is set up a visit to the Harvard Tigers. They've had him on campus multiple times. Well, that helps. Elijah Brown only lives down basically in Montgomery. I'm sure he's been to campus several times. It's not that hard to get these guys up. And if you do, you'll reap the benefits. If you don't, you got to ask, okay, what's going on? Like this kid was an hour away.

12:29So those are the questions that I have. And then whether they're committed or not, they're probably going to take visits. Do I think Donovan Moore is not going to take any visits? Probably not. I mean, I'm sure he's going to take something. So are you getting him on campus this spring to help solidify his commitment? That's really the only thing I'm looking at. Well, you know who could commit to the Auburn Tiger soon? Which one is that? Carlos May commit soon. If he does, that would be a boom because then you would have nothing for the pun there. Carlos May commits nothing for the pun. I don't get anything for that. Not even going to acknowledge it. No, I'm not going to do it. Not even going to acknowledge it. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah. So I mean, these three guys in state are certainly guys to look at. We'll see, you know, kind of what happens at quarterback. In fact, you and I were supposed to talk about quarterbacks, but Donovan committed, which is great. We'd much rather talk about a commitment than hypotheticals. But we'll jump into the quarterback situation next week, Brian. As far as something you sent me earlier in the week, I actually had Jake Cranon to talk about their

13:30list of the top toughest schedules this upcoming season. Auburn came in as the fifth ranked toughest schedule according to those guys. I mean, that has to have an impact. And there was kind of an asterisk next to when they go to Oxford and when they go to Knoxville, the trend of that stuff has worked itself out. I think actually the agglar stuff is happening in court today as we record this on Friday. So we'll see maybe what happens with that. But Trinidad got eligible. So he will host the Auburn Tigers not do tonight unless something happens. But so like that game is as tough as it looks on paper with Trinidad getting his eligibility back. Yeah, I think they're going to be a top five team. They should be. Yeah. I mean, we're worse like top eight. So yeah, that's that game became totally different. We're trying to add coming back into the fold. But the game that you and I have talked about prior that I think is still the one that's most important. You're the first one to report this. So Kudos,

14:33it's not what Auburn's final record is. It's a how they look, perception matters, and B, how did you do against the other first year coaches? And that Florida game is the one I've got circle. Like no offense to him. But I'm not scared of Aaron Vila. You know, I'm the best Florida quarterback that followed him over from Georgia Tech. Yeah, Buster Faulkner really good offense coordinator. He recruited this kid. He played at a very small school in Georgia and he killed it. But he's never really played many stabs. Now you're going to be the most likely at least starting quarterback for the Florida Gator. That's a lot of pressure. What is the game week three or something like that? They go to Auburn. So that game to me is just really for both program, not just for Auburn, but for Florida, those two coaches, like they ended up at the opposite schools. A lot of people thought they were going to end up all kinds of stuff. There's weird stuff to look at from that. But yeah, no, they're going to be tied together for sure. For sure. And there's going to be both of them like psychopaths when it comes to

15:36being competitive like yes, or that one's going to be important for both of them for sure. For sure. So Brian, how can people check out everything you've got going on? The portal podcast, the same way you consume locked on Auburn, you can consume the portal podcast, Spotify, Apple pod being YouTube and everywhere else, check out the portal podcast. Please like the video. Please subscribe. We'll see you next time. This has been locked on Auburn.