This might actually be the most intellectually dishonest answer to “why’d you flip?” ever:
“I’d say probably a month ago, I looked at Nick Saban and Hugh Freeze — Nick Saban is a good coach, all the stuff he’s had through college football. I know he specializes with (defensive backs), and my main position is receiver,” Thompson said. “And Hugh Freeze has got a background of developing receivers at a higher level. Just that, how you get receivers to their highest point.”
Freeze coached tight ends for a year at Ole Miss. The exact same maneuver Charlie used to get Jeff Traylor on staff. In his time as HC at Ole Miss, he produced three draft picks at WR (one first rounder, Treadwell). He produced two at Liberty. His former WR coach at Ole Miss during that time is now at UCF after producing zero NFL picks in five years at Indiana. His current WR coach, who replaced Marion at the dumpster fire that was Hawaii, hasn’t produced a draft pick in his brief three year career.
Saban? He has produced eleven draft picks at the WR position, including EIGHT first round picks. For all the criticism he received on this site earlier this year, Holmon Wiggins has coached six draft picks, including five top-15 selections, and one of those won the Heisman Trophy. Saban may focus on DBs, but even his tangential record on WR development is light years ahead of anything Freeze has done. Those eleven WRs have earned $332 million to this point in their careers. Freeze’s guys have earned $37 million. That’s just the WRs Saban has produced at Bama. If you want to add his previous two stops, that’s six more draft picks and somewhere around $75 million more in career earnings.
I honestly don’t see the immediate downside for Auburn if he just said, “they offered me more money.” But, even if he wanted to give a more tepid response, why not cite the new OC and his proclivity for running the football, or the depth chart/playing time? You really want to reference the most prolific developer of NFL talent in college football history as why you chose NOT to go to Alabama? Did Freeze really convince this dumbfuck that he was responsible for Metcalf and Brown? If so, add three more first rounders and $90 million to Saban’s tab (not including the late Charles Rogers).
I have no idea why I just went down a rabbit hole and dedicated this many words to a post about the Alabama/Auburn rivalry, but that kid’s comment struck me as one of the dumbest bullshit responses I’ve ever read (on par with Jimbo’s “they chose a&m for the world-class education” and “everybody says ‘why go to a program that’s winning all the time?’”). Freeze is an outstanding recruiter, but Thompson is galactically stupid if he actually believes what he said. One final random tidbit I came across—this kid’s hometown of Foley, AL (ironically, the same hometown as Julio Jones) is literally like the Cotton Bowl of the gump state rivalry. It is equidistant (231 mi) between the two schools. Geographically, it might help to think of it more as the asshole of the corpulent body that is Alabama..equidistant from the two sweaty armpits.