TRUE: Radio Host LOVES that Keshaun Singleton has been MORE PRODUCTIVE than Cam Coleman

0:00Keeshawn Singleton goodness, he could be so good this year. You are locked on Auburn, your daily podcast on the Auburn Tigers, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Yes, welcome on into Locked On Auburn, your daily Auburn Tigers podcast on your host, Zach Blackerby. And thank you so much for making Locked On Auburn, your first lesson every single day. Ben Taylor, the host of Auburn Opelike of this morning and the man over at the Auburn Network family of stations, hanging out with us for a few minutes today. Ben Taylor. Can't say Byron Brown, who is your favorite portal addition for the Auburn Tigers so far? It is gotta be Keeshawn Singleton and number one, we lost a lot of receivers. So we needed some receivers in the receiver room. He's one of the last to join up slash signs slash come on board.

1:00And I just like what I've seen out of him and the good news is, is he's coming with his quarterback and people ask they say, how come you like, you know, we need offensive line. And we need probably need some defensive line help. And the reason being is because out of all the woe is me things that have taken place as of late. The two names that you hear are Duce Knight and Cam Coleman are no longer with the program. This is detrimental to Auburn football. I'm going to say it right now, Zach, I think that numbers wise because the numbers for Keeshawn Singleton were actually better than Cam Coleman this past year, I think that can transition into a new role that he may have with Auburn and the Auburn Tigers. And before I start getting raked over the coals as far as the mentions, where you go, oh, that's because Cam Coleman didn't have a quarterback that could get him the ball. Well, guess what? The quarterback, they got Keeshawn Singleton the ball is going to be with him at Auburn.

2:05Right. So I think he makes a big difference. I think he's the difference maker in conjunction with a lot of other receivers that are going to be in the wide receiver room. I think that that is what's possibly not being talked about enough is with all the receivers that jumped the freeze for the freeze five, whatever you want to call it, what they have been replaced with out of this new staff as far as what they have brought in. I think there's an opportunity for this Auburn Tiger team to still have some weapons on the outside. Yeah, a theme of production over potential. So all your four and five star guys out going various places, whether it's Minnesota with Perry or Horatio Fields to Missouri or obviously Cam Coleman to Texas, Malcolm to Texas Tech. You're bringing all these South Florida guys who are used to being productive, which is not really anything that you could say about the previous guys. I mean, Cam Coleman's year wasn't bad. It's just, you know, given the circumstances, but you're right, 708 receiving yards last

3:07year for Cam Coleman, Keeshawn Singleton 877 Cam did have six more catches. It's pretty clear that there were times this year where they were forcing him the football just to kind of give them something. Yeah. But yeah, I do think production at wide receiver ultimately when it comes down to it is all that matters here and because like, and this is something that where I've just been wrong for the last few years, like Auburn's tired of winning on paper. Yeah. Who cares if you went on paper or not anymore? Do what it takes for you to win on the field. And clearly, the staff is doing what they think leads to that. And one thing that I saw out of some of the highlights from South Florida and some of the connections that he had with some of the receivers, not everyone, because when they show highlights, of course, you're seeing what the best of it is. I mean, they're not showing you some of the low lights. We're not, you know, none of that's, none of that's making its way across Twitter and across, across message boards and that kind of thing.

4:08But I'll, I've said before when it came to our receiver room, and I don't know exactly if they had to do with routes, if they had to do with coaching, if that, what they had to do, if they had to do with player personnel, I finally like seeing some highlights where these guys are catching the ball and there's not anybody within 10 yards of them. Auburn never has that happen offensively. We play a lot of teams that get receivers that open that are able to catch it and move it down the field a little bit. However, Auburn doesn't seem to be on the receiving end of that. So yeah, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a wild take to say something like that. But just as you just said, there were times where we were having to forcefully throw the football to Cam Coleman to keep him from entering the transfer portal and clearly that didn't work out. So now he's going to be catching ball from archmaning at Texas and hopefully we've got a heavier receivers and a team of receivers that will be very productive on the outside for the Auburn Tigers. Yeah, the scheme is something that Alex Goliath believes in deeply to his core.

5:12And gosh, that'd be so nice. It'd be so nice for an unlead offense to return to Auburn. Goodness gracious. And I think with DJ Dirk and then what they have on the back end, you know, I've got a few issues with the defense as far as the roster goes in depth at edge and all that. But I just trust DJ Dirk and at this point, and I can't wait to get, I can't wait to get to the point where like Alex Goliath proves that it doesn't matter who he's got. He's going to be able to score points because that's what he's done everywhere he's been. I hope I hope that's what happens because man, that would be incredible. He's got a very complimentary running back room and that is going to set up a lot of these guys to be open because there's going to be a lot of focus on that backfield when defense is coming to Jordan here. So if all those guys stay together and all those guys have a productive running game as well because you heard him in his press conference. One thing that he's built to believe in is running the dang ball. So I think he's going to, I think he's going to use the complimentary and I just firmly

6:16believe that this could be a year that even Singleton, he had that decent year last year. And now he's going to have some other weapons around him that he may not have had at South Florida. And so I think he's going to have an opportunity and the defense is going to put him in some good spots. Yeah. As you just said. Yeah. The running back room is interesting. The wider receiver room continues to be interesting. Let's tackle that next right here unlocked on Auburn. Today's show brought to you by our friends at Game Time. Game Time is the best place to buy tickets. It doesn't matter what it's for. There's nothing like being at these live events, whether it's sporting events, whether it's concert. If you're going to see a show, that's what is so great about Game Time. There's all the features within the app and that could be seeing the view from your seat. It could be the zone deals where you pick a section. It tells you the best deal per ticket or per seat in that section, as well as a bunch of other things like the final price being what's shown to you. You're not nickel and domed all the way through like it shows you the final price upfront.

7:21It takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. You can do that with Game Time. Also the Game Time app, green and account, and you just go locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply. Again, that is go locked on college for $20 off download the Game Time app today. Today's show also brought to you by our friends at Wayfair. Wayfair is the absolute best for buying whatever it is you may need because odds are they have it. Look, if you want to freshen up your home in time for spring or just if you're looking around your house, you want to be more organized in 2026, Wayfair has everything you need from mattresses and bedding to stuff that you can organize, help you to organize your home. Get organized, refreshed, and back on track this year for Wayfair. Head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. That is Wayfair.com, W-A-Y-F-A-I-R, Wayfair, every style, every home. In Taylor, a host of Auburn over this morning hanging out with us, hey, if you tune into

8:23Lockdown Auburn all the time, would like to invite you to our every day or club, Lockdown Auburn, your first lesson of the day, check out our every day or club. You can access to an ad free audio feed for Lockdown Auburn, which is compatible with Apple podcast, Spotify, and every other major podcasting app. You also can invite to a member's only Lockdown every day or Discord, which you can tag me and talk to me in the Lockdown Auburn channel there as well. So head over to Lockdown Auburn.supercast.com. It's also in the show notes down below if you're interested in signing up for that today. Ben, I want to pivot to the running back room just because you brought it up a second ago. And something that I think is interesting is obviously Byron Brown led USF last year in Russia, Tamsay and Yardich, that's no surprise. He had 175 carries, which is excessive. I think that number will be lower this year. I hope so. And after that, they had, they had four running backs that had over 30 carries.

9:23Davenport had 98, which down Auburn Tiger, Sam Franklin had 80, Alvin Isaac had 73, and then Norton had 32. Three of those had over 70 carries. And so I just wonder when you look at the running back room, if they keep that same ratio, which I think they're running back. So I'll have a higher percentage of carries because I can't see Byron taking 170 something tackles in the SEC. But Cobb, Washington, Davenport maps, and Henderson, you had to break that down. If you had to say, like, let's assume it's the same. There's a clear cut top three, and then there's a fourth guy that's kind of a little bit farther down, but still gets touched. How would you predict if that gets broken down? Oh, wow. I'm going to go Cobb. Number one is going to be your highest carrier. And I know that he's bringing guys with him, but I still think, and I know that we picked up, you know, the guy from Baylor, but I still think Mapsun has a year, this, a sophomore

10:28year where he gets used a lot more than probably what he did before. Everybody is always high on Mapsun, but yet last year Mapsun, there were times where you had what looked like an injured Cobb out on the field, or at least laboring, and Mapsun was standing on the sideline. And then when he did come in, he did have spurts of, you know, I don't want to say greatness, but picking up seven, eight yards of carry, ain't that bad. Awesome. Right. And so I think Mapsun's probably your number two and overbrized in Washington? Yeah. Yeah, I think Washington is probably your three guy. And then after that, I think it's kind of a fight for that fourth spot. In my opinion, I think that's going to have everything to do with practice because towards the end of the year, Alvin Henderson's the interesting one to me because of what he did in high school, and I told you many, many pods ago, this was going to take a while for him to get adjusted to the game and adjusted to SEC level because nothing gets elbowed, but playing against one and two A competition against division one competitions, two different

11:31things. Towards the end of the year, if you noticed his motor and some of the coverages that he was on as far as kickoff and punk, punk, or punk coverage and that kind of thing, when he got used very little, the speed is there. And I don't know if it's them helping him learn to find the whole quicker or I don't know if he, I don't know, no word is out there. They had a humble problem or anything. So I don't, I don't think that that's a case. So he's going to be interesting when that I wonder if he jumps up and grabs that fourth slot. If not, go ahead and tell you now it looks like he probably would be in the portal by the end of the year. Yeah, I'm a little surprised Henderson didn't portal, but I mean, we heard, we heard reports early on that the staff really likes Alvin Henderson. And so maybe they were able to sell him some sort of future here, just for the sake of, you know, folks know where I stand. I think Cobb, Washington will definitely be the leading two rushers in the running

12:32back room as far as carries go. I'm kind of curious if we see Davenport and maps that if they're going to have a battle or if maybe like last, last year, USF, there were three guys that had a big drop off the fourth or do you see one in two that a big drop off the three and four similar? Be curious to see what that looks like. Davenport has the age Davenport knows the system, I think a lot of indications would point towards Davenport over Mabson, but man, I think next year, like, I think Mabson is in this offense and has a chance to lead the SC in rushing next year in 2027. That's that's kind of what I'm waiting on with Omar Mabson. See, when you say that too, when you say next year has a chance to lead the SEC in rushing, I'm being a little dramatic there because we're going to have to see, you know, who's the quarterback and all that, but I just, I'm with you, like, I believe so much in Omar Mabson. And we got to see, you know, what the upside for this, like a running back, an individual

13:35running back can be in the system because if he's going to rotate guys like that every year, then you can't lead the SCC in rushing. You're playing too many guys, you don't get enough touches, right? Yeah. We don't know what that looks like. If he feel like Davenport and the rest of those guys last year are pretty equal. And so that's why or if it's Cobb and Washington that he feels like those two guys are way better than the other two. And then maybe he sees Davenport as the guy next year, you know, have a one, two punch with him and Mabson, that would make sense as well. I'm going to be so interested because goalish in the staff talked about how much tape they've watched, how much they've seen tape. And spring rolls around, and spring ball rolls around an 8-8 just being announced, you know, earlier today. I'm going to be interested from what they saw on tape to then when they get side by side with these guys and they get to see, you know, the bird's eye view, you and I have in this same conversation after spring is over and we see where that, where we think the line

14:39up may be because I think that Cobb proved what he could do on the field via tape. And I think that they know that just when he walked in the room, they probably just looked at him in a t-shirt and thought, yep, this is our guy, like we don't need to lose him. Yeah, so I'm sorry, I'm with you, I still think Mabson with the potential of what he can do next year. I think he sneaks in there and gets a lot of touches at the end of the season. Yeah, I love, I love Omar Mabson's game. Looking at what they did in 2024 and this is when Byron Brown missed a good chunk of the season. They had a guy named Kelly Joyner, he had a hundred and twenty one touches. Nick Juan Wright had a hundred and nine touches and then there was a bit of a drop off there. Tyron Keith had seventy eight and then the two quarterbacks Byron Brown had sixty eight and then the back up Bryce Archie had sixty eight and then there's another guy was sixteen. So it was pretty much three running backs two years ago, one twenty one one, one

15:40nine seventy eight when it comes to touches kind of wonder if that's what it could be this year or I don't know, I'm interested to see how the running backroom shakes up because then like in 2023 Byron Brown had two hundred and three rushes, which is insane, but then Nick Juan Wright had a hundred and eighty and then there was a big drop off to a guy named Duke's and then Powell, they had sixty three and sixty one. So it was like one oh eight then the other guys had a third. So we've kind of seen him do a bunch of different things. So as how they use the running backs, I don't know, I don't think anybody know. I think it's if you're if you're staying with the program, you're staying with the team. I think you need to be have your your head high thinking, you know what? I got an opportunity here to prove something that clearly the previous staff may not have seen in me. And and then again, I mean, clearly they like what they saw out of Washington and otherwise

16:43they wouldn't have gone and got it because that was in my opinion and just from an outsider looking in that was kind of a random that decided to join a thought man, this route, this running backroom is getting stacked because we already knew what we had in carbon maps and just because of what we've seen and then for him to add a couple more, you're sitting there going home. Yeah, also got to assume that he wasn't the cheapest option either. No, I wouldn't think you was. I thought they were going to go with an older back that was fine being a backup. I don't I don't know if Bryson Washington screams guy who wants to be a backup with what he's done. Once again, production over potential Washington has both. So yeah, exciting stuff. Ben Taylor, how can people check out everything you've got going on? Hey, you network.com or download the radio Alabama app we would love to have you. We do sports each and every morning just after seven. So click on all those logos and come see us. We would love to have you. Hey, please like the video. Please subscribe. Please give Ben Taylor some love on socials. And once again, if you're on every day and you listen to locked on Auburn every single day,

17:45consider joining the everyday club. Just go to locked on Auburn dot supercast dot com or check out the link in the episode description would appreciate it a ton. We'll see you next time. This has been locked on Auburn.