logo
SEC Network's Roman Harper sees two key flaws Auburn football must fix in 2025

SEC Network's Roman Harper sees two key flaws Auburn football must fix in 2025

USA Today2 days ago
The SEC Network analyst reveals how close Auburn is to becoming one of the SEC's best teams.
Auburn football aims to post its first winning season since 2020 this season. How high are the chances for Auburn to make that dream a reality? One SEC Network analyst believes Auburn's recent troubles can be quickly fixed.
During a recent interview with local radio show Sportscall at SEC football media days, SEC Network analyst Roman Harper identified two areas that hurt Auburn during the 2024 season, and, if fixed, could lead Auburn to success in 2025. One factor that Harper mentioned is turnovers, a column where Auburn was one of the SEC's worst teams by losing 22 turnovers. Harper feels that the Tigers' offense can limit turnovers by communicating more effectively.
"Turning the ball over at a high rate is going to make you lose the game. Auburn turned the ball over week after week after week, and it's just simple mistakes, bad reads, not being on the same page offensively. Somebody is throwing a hitch and some the quarterbacks throwing a go-route. Like, little things like this are just simple giveaways that Auburn continued to struggle with all year long. When they got that cleaned up, they actually competed and played hard."
Having more experienced players on offense should help Auburn correct its turnover issues. The Tigers will have two sophomore receivers in Cam Coleman and Malcolm Simmons, with one year under their belt, a transfer quarterback with high upside, and an offensive line filled with upperclassmen. Harper mentioned improved execution can do wonders for Auburn, especially in games where they are not favored.
"Auburn is playing hard. They are not quitting on the coach. You can see that on tape. They are just mis-executing. It comes down to execution, especially when you're not more talented than the teams you are playing against. You gotta be able to out-execute (your opponents)."
Check out the full interview between Sportscall and Roman Harper from SEC Media Days below.
Contact/Follow us @TheAuburnWire on X (Twitter), and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Auburn news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter @TaylorJones__
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

SEC football media days: Live updates for Day 4. Texas A&M, Missouri to speak
SEC football media days: Live updates for Day 4. Texas A&M, Missouri to speak

USA Today

time18 minutes ago

  • USA Today

SEC football media days: Live updates for Day 4. Texas A&M, Missouri to speak

SEC football media days come to a close Thursday with Day 4 of press conferences and media availabilities in Atlanta. Expected to take the podium on the final day of "talking season" in the SEC are Missouri's Eliah Drinkwitz, Kentucky's Mark Stoops, Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Texas A&M's Mike Elko — as well as three players from each team scheduled to speak with reporters in side breakouts. Following a late-season collapse — which consisted of going 1-4 after starting 7-1; falling out of the top 10; and removing itself from College Football Playoff contention — Texas A&M enters the 2025 college football season with considerable pressure to bounce back. Sophomore quarterback Marcel Reed is expected to enter his first full season as the Aggies' starting quarterback. Watch SEC Media Days live with Fubo (free trial) Missouri retooled its roster heavily through the portal with 22 transfers, which included landing former Penn State dual-threat quarterback Beau Pribula and former Georgia five-star EDGE rusher Damon Wilson III. Elsewhere, Arkansas looks to build off its strong 2024 campaign and Kentucky looks to improve from an underwhelming 4-8 season. USA TODAY Sports has live updates and coverage from the final day of SEC football media days in Atlanta, follow below: SEC football media days: Day 4 speakers schedule Here's a look at the schedule for Day 4 speakers at SEC football media days: All times Eastern Where are SEC football media days in 2025? The 2025 SEC Football Media Days are being held at the College Football Hall of Fame and the Omni Atlanta Hotel at Centennial Park in Atlanta. What channel is SEC media days on? SEC Network will nationally broadcast Day 4 of SEC football media days across the network's "SEC Now" and "The Paul Finebaum Show." ESPN2 will air one hour of the proceedings, from 8 p.m. ET until 9 p.m. ET. Streaming options include the ESPN app (requires a TV provider login) and ESPN+, which requires a subscription. Another option is Fubo, which carries the ESPN family of networks and offers a free trial to potential subscribers

Brent Venables, Oklahoma Sooners won't shy away from expectations in 2025
Brent Venables, Oklahoma Sooners won't shy away from expectations in 2025

USA Today

timean hour ago

  • USA Today

Brent Venables, Oklahoma Sooners won't shy away from expectations in 2025

The Oklahoma Sooners attended SEC Media Days on Wednesday, which meant fourth-year head coach Brent Venables was at the podium to talk about his 2025 team heading into the program's second season in the Southeastern Conference. Venables dove into plenty of topics in his address to the media. One of those topics was the weight of the expectations of coaching and playing at a place like Oklahoma. In true Brent Venables fashion, he didn't back down from the expectations or the challenges. "Couldn't be more excited about what I've seen up to this point in time," Venables said. "This is a team I love to be in the building with every single day. I believe they have what it takes to claw our back to where I believe Oklahoma belongs. The expectations here and in the locker room are to win at the very highest level and to compete for a championship. That's always been the way it is here at the University of Oklahoma. We embrace those standards and expectations of excellence. You choose to come to Oklahoma to coach or to play on the biggest stage, in the biggest games, and you accept everything that comes with that. In the new era of college football, we expect to be a program that is a year in, year out consistently a College Football Playoff contender. I believe the sum of all of our parts with this football team, the 2025 version, gives us a chance to have a really good football team." It's no secret that the Sooners haven't exactly played up to their own lofty standards in Venables' three years at the helm. A 6-7 season in 2022 was followed up by a bounce-back 10-3 season in 2023. But in 2024, Oklahoma sank back down to 6-7. After a 22-year streak of zero losing seasons from 1999 to 2021, OU has produced two losing seasons in the last three years, all under Venables. The last losing year before Venables' arrival was under head coach John Blake in his final season in 1998. Additionally, the standard in Norman isn't just to have a winning season. The standard is to win conference championships, make the CFP, and win national championships. Oklahoma hasn't been close to that in two of Venables' three years. To his credit, Venables has never shied away from that, even when things got tough. That's a significant part of the reason why he was selected as OU's next head coach in December 2021 and why he still holds the job despite underwhelming returns so far. Venables also talked about the many changes the program has seen this offseason, detailing plenty of "new" inside the Switzer Center this summer. "We've had a lot of changes since January," Venables said. "I'm sure that most coaches stood up here and talked about a lot of changes. That's the environment we're at today between a portal, recruiting, new coaches, new offense, a new GM structure. We've also had tremendous retention, which foundationally for me is what it's all about. Continuity, guys returning with experience and are highly invested in the locker room. They're attracted to the vision of the program. That's incredibly important to me. No doubt we've improved our roster. Again, I believe that we've created a better overall staff with the additions that we've brought in. Top to bottom we've made great gains in the weight room with building more mass, improving our strength, point of attack. We needed to do that. We had a lot of freshmen that played a year ago. Our bowl game, our top 48 players on the offense, defense, two deep, 24 of them were freshmen. We needed to become more functionally strong and be a better point-of-attack team." But the changes didn't stop there, as the coaching staff has some new faces, and of course, new general manager Jim Nagy entered the fold this offseason. "Got five new coaches," Venables said. "Coach (Ben) Arbuckle, Coach (John) Kuceyeski, Coach (Kevin) Wilson, a former offensive coordinator at Oklahoma, and former head coach at both Indiana and Tulsa, offensive coordinator for a good while at Ohio State. A great friend of mine. Really successful coach. One of the best play callers that I've ever been around. He's also on our staff. I hired two linebacker coaches, an outside linebacker coach that's been a coordinator at an elite level (Wes Goodwin). He'll be my outside linebacker coach. Then coach Nate Dreiling, who will coach our inside linebackers. Also been a really good coordinator as well. All these coaches along with our new front office staff, (general manager) Jim Nagy, the depth of people he's brought into the building as well. Hit the ground running. Ton of fun. I love their energy, their buy-in, the things that they've added to our culture day in, day out. It's been fantastic. A change as we all know is inevitable. Nothing ever stays the same. Every year my job and my focus is on how to move the program together, move it forward, face the new challenges, the headwinds that are a part of all of it that you experience every year, but maintaining our mission during that process and not flinching even when maybe a lot of people are." Venables dug even deeper on Nagy's impact and his impact on the program, just in the short time he's been at OU. "We're literally just kind of starting the root system," Venables said. "He hired his last few guys just several weeks ago. Went through our very first cycle that was halfway done when he jumped in. I think you'll really see the fruits of the labor of the vision of what we want to do and what we want to become through that space over the next couple of cycles recruiting. They love it. What I love about Jim and his staff is they're really passionate about what they do. They care about people. They love building things. They work well together. They've got those types of skills." Clearly, "change" has been one of the biggest themes of this offseason for the Sooners. Venables knew it was needed after last season's disappointment. The program has made so many moves to prevent another embarrassing year like 2024 from happening again. "Talking season" is almost over in Oklahoma. In six weeks, the Sooners will put it all on the field. The most pivotal season in Brent Venables' head coaching tenure is about to begin. Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @Aaron_Gelvin.

USC Legend Calls Out 'Irony' Involving National Title Contender
USC Legend Calls Out 'Irony' Involving National Title Contender

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

USC Legend Calls Out 'Irony' Involving National Title Contender

USC Legend Calls Out 'Irony' Involving National Title Contender originally appeared on Athlon Sports. One USC Trojans legend didn't hesitate to call out some "irony" involving a national championship contender. All following the head coach's stance on a new money-driven model for college football. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian denied that the Longhorns turn to NIL and money to coax recruits. "Sark" dropped that claim during SEC Media Days. However, past USC star Su'a Cravens fired off an honest response. More so after catching a video involving Texas: The Longhorns rolling out Lamborghinis at Darnell K. Royal Stadium during an official visit weekend in June. Cravens took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to call out Sarkisian and Texas. "Texas - 'We don't want kids that are only coming here for the money anyway.' Also Texas - *Lines up 6 Lambo's on the football field the day of official visits," Cravens posted. "Just found the irony funny is all." Sarkisian, again, told reporters that Texas isn't centering on money when it comes to winning over recruits. "We don't talk about NIL, or revenue sharing, or publicity rights until the very end, and that may hurt us on some kids. But if the kid is coming to Texas for that reason, we don't want him anyway," Sarkisian said during the SEC Media Days. The verbose Cravens still didn't hesitate to point out any hypocrisy he came across. Ironically, the star USC safety from 2013 to 2015 called out the school now led by his former college coach. Sarkisian spent 2014 and '15 with Cravens in the Land of Troy. Cravens, however, watched his head coach leave his post after five games. Eventually giving way to Clay Helton. Calling out Texas wasn't the only social media rant from Cravens this week. He ripped On3/Rivals for changing the star ranking of prized 2026 tight end commit Mark Bowman. Cravens blasted the popular recruiting site for showing favoritism toward schools not named USC. This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store