Q & A with Tommy Thigpen

Hey everyone. Auburn assistant Tommy Thigpen last week sat down with the HABOTN to answer a series of questions. The primary goal was to glean more information about the Tigers' new, aggressive approach to recruited.

As often happens with Thigpen, though, we learned much more.

Thigpen is a go-to guy on technology. The Auburn staff looks to him for guidance on how to manage their social-networking responsibilities and find new ways to connect with recruits.

Here we go.

• On the confluence of recruiting and technology: "The technology part of recruiting puts you together. You can find out about people before you meet people. When you're first meeting someone, you want to already have some things in common. You want to have that outline of what you want to say. The internet has done that for me."
  
  
• On the biggest benefit from that enterprise: "You ask somebody: Why did you choose a place? I'm talking about the 18-year-old kids. They'll tell you "it felt right." Most people say that feeling has a lot to do with people knowing your name and feeling like they have a lot in common. That's where I come in. I know people's names, the mama's name, the uncle's name, the school teacher's name."
  
  
• On if technology can give schools an advantage: "Recruiting used to be a popularity contest. I don't think there were relationships involved. If I was coaching at a school like Southern Miss and Florida State came along and offered a scholarship, that's a wrap. Today, that's harder to do. Technology has changed that. The kid have talked to these coaches. The relationship is built. When the big schools jump in and that relationship already is built, it's a lot harder to break."
  
  
• On difficulties associated with The New Recruiting: "These guys -- especially young, African-American males -- they judge you on a lot of things. It's important that you're up on to date on all the latest fads. The internet is your best friend in that world. I can pull up Facebook and find out what he likes in music, what his hobbies are, his religious background. I look at his pictures. I find out who is closest friends are. How close is he to his mama? It's limitless. You have to keep up."
  
  
• On why his high-school teaching career ended (after one year): ``There was too much work for not enough money. Teachers have it rough. I never knew why tests were always on Friday. It was to give the teachers a break. You could have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. I had a passion for teaching. I didn't have a passion for grading. If I had someone to grade my papers, I'd have been fine. It took too long. It took away from the task."
  
  
• On if Auburn "pushes the envelope" with its recruiting tactics: "There aren't any gimmicks. At the end of the day, it's still about relationships. Kids don't come because of one weekend. We get them to Auburn two times, three times, maybe four times. We try to make every experience better than the last time they were here. That's what sells you.
  
  ``If I'm Big Time Recruit A and I had a great time, I'm socially networking with another big recruit. Have you visited Auburn yet? This is why you should visit Auburn. It's easy for us to say it. When they hear it from their peers, other players they respect, the word travels. That's how we get out there."
  
  
• On why he considers Mack Brown, who coached Thigpen and gave him his first college job, the most important mentor in his life: "He taught me how to talk to people. My parents made me go to Carolina because they liked how Mack talked. Mack was on the cutting edge back then because the norm was to have one minority on a staff of nine. Two was unheard of. At Carolina, we had four and sometimes five on staff.
  
  ``The African-American players, we had role models to look up to. Parents knew their kids would have someone to identify with. If you have one minority, all the (minority players) have to go to that one guy. He might not click with all those guys. Mack had it set up with four or five black coaches. Then a guy like Carl Torbush was great with everybody. It was one of the reasons I wanted to get into coaching -- it was the guys he brought in. They made me a better person. My mentors were all coaches."

Photo credit: University of North Carolina

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.

Definitive word on football attrition

Hey everyone. Just got off the phone with trusted Auburn spokesman Kirk Sampson.

DE JoMarcus Savage is off the team.

LB Christian Thompson is off the team.

S Marcus Jemison is off the team.

DE Cameron Henderson is ON the team and, as far as I can tell, is in good standing. The same goes for WR Philip Pierre-Louis.

TO CLARIFY: PPL and Henderson are on the team.

No explanation has been given about why the three players were booted off the roster.

Your First Official Media Days thread

Hey everyone. The Southeastern Conference today announced the player line-up for the annual shenanigans we like to call "Media Days."

Auburn will be represented by TE Thomas Trott, many of you know him as Tommy, and DE Antonio Coleman of Mobile, Ala.

Here are the statistics considered relevant by the SEC:

TE Tommy Trott (6-5, 237, Sr.)
•Had 20 catches for 201 yards last season.
•SEC All-Freshman Team in 2006.
•Has 34 career catches for 330 yards and two touchdowns.

DE Antonio Coleman (6-3, 257, Sr.)
•Had 46 total tackles with team-high 10.5 behind the line of scrimmage.
•Also had team-high 6 sacks and 13 quarterback pressures.
•1st team All-SEC in 2008.

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.

West Virginia game chatter

Hey everyone. We all knew your Auburn Tigers would play the Mountaineers of West Virginia University on Sept. 19.

Now we know what time that game will occur.

Toe will meet leather at 6:45 p.m. CDT that evening. The event will be televised in HD on ESPN or ESPN2. That decision won't be made until September, but does it really matter to you?

Under terms of the SEC's new television deal, at least 11 of Auburn's 12 games will be televised. Most of them will be on the ESPN family of networks.

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.

Chizik adds an eighth commitment

This may be older news to some of you, but Auburn has landed another commitment to its 2010 recruiting class. This happened last night.

Georgia CB Jonathan Mincy, according to our friends at AuburnSports.com, AuburnUndercover.com and ITAT, has promised to sign with the Tigers in February.

Scout.com and Rivals.com both rate him as a 3-star prospect. They both consider him one of the top 10 cornerbacks available in the Southeast.

Mincy has scholarship offers from ... a whole wad of major programs.

Here's a look at the players Auburn has committed so far:
OL Shon Coleman, Olive Branch, Miss.
LB Jake Holland, Pelham
ATH Shaun Kitchens, Atlanta, Ga.
K Cody Parkey, Jupiter, Fla.
WR Jeremy Richardson, Springville
LB Jawara White, Troy
LB Jessel Curry, Buford, Ga.
CB Jonathan Mincy, Decatur, Ga.

Photo credit: Rivals.com

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.

Coaching spotlight: Phillip Lolley

PHILLIP LOLLEY
Age: 55 (born 5/19/54)
College: B.A. from Livingston aka West Alabama (psychology), 1977; M.A. from Livingston (psychology), 1981.
Playing career: He was a successful pitcher in college. He threw a no-hitter as a freshman in 1974.

Coaching career:
•Auburn, various roles (current)
•North Jackson High, head coach (1988-98)
•Stevenson High, head coach (1984-87)
•Demopolis High, defensive coordinator (1982-83)
•Warrior Academy, head coach (1978-81)
•Choctaw Academy, secondary (1977)

Mentor:
I've never asked him about this. I will.

Previous Auburn experience:
He's been here a while now. He has been a high-school liaison, an NFL liaison and a secondary coach.

Coaching philosophy:
Lolley definitely is a old-school guy. He's the oldest coach on staff and, one could argue, has made the longest trek to get here. He spent the first 21 years of his career coaching high-school ball.

Here's where it gets interesting. During his days at North Jackson High, Lolley was known as one of the most calculating and aggressive coaches in the state. He was paranoid. He went to great lengths searching for ways to annoy opponents. I've never had this corroborated, but Lolley told me he once tried to paint the NJHS visitors' lockers pink. The principal wouldn't allow it.

He was an in-your-face guy back then. In his mind, football wasn't a game for creativity. It's a place where brawn and intensity earn the real rewards. He ran simple sweeps and belly plays. He dared opponents to man up.

He won the 1993 4A state championship using that kind of approach.

Since his arrival at Auburn, though, I think Lolley has evolved in many respects. He's still extremely country and sounds like a drill instructor when he speaks. Lolley doesn't have an "inside" voice. Taping his interviews doesn't require much positioning, you might say.

Still, I don't hear him cuss. I've seen him yell at players many times, but he does it in an instructive way. I don't see him berate people for the joy of crushing a kid's psyche. If reports are true, Lolley had no problem getting negative during his high-school days.

As a secondary coach, Lolley is into intricacies. You know how Jeff Grimes and Curtis Luper examine the big picture with their players? Lolley talks about turning hips too early, placing hands in the correct place, learning to "look off" quarterbacks by looking one way and watching another. He's all about details and repetitions. Like I said: Lolley is old school.

Personality profile:
For all that energy, you know, Lolley still is a pro's pro. I don't hear him cuss. He probably praises his players too much. Any criticisms he has, Lolley preserves them for closed-door sessions with the players themselves.

He lives by what I'd call an armed-forces code. He gets to work early and works through his list of tasks. When those tasks are completed, he works ahead. That's a big reason why Gene Chizik likes Lolley so much. Lolley's hard-edged approach provides an ideal complement to many of the new-school guys Chizik has assembled.

Lolley is respected by high-school coaches throughout the state, which makes him a valuable commodity to the Tigers' recruiting enterprise. There's nothing artificial about Lolley. He worked his way up through the ranks. He's not pious. The conversation he'd hold (and the tone he'd use) would be the same whether it's Jay Gogue or an AISA assistant coach asking for suggestions.

His loyalty also is worth noting. He's not in coaching for the money or the fame. If Lolley finds a place he likes, he stays. He spent 10 seasons at North Jackson. He's now heading into his 11th season with the Tigers.

When Tommy Tuberville was fired resigned in December and his assistants jettisoned, it was Lolley who stuck around and tried to control damage from a recruiting standpoint. Those weren't easy days for him. I suspect he put in some 80-hour weeks just trying to keep guys like Philip Lutzenkirchen and Andre Harris on board.

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.