Aubserver Mailbag 171: Who will be the next national champ?

This week: Projecting a basketball rotation, Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones, special teams, Furiosa, Korean fried chicken and arcade games

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

As Inner Circle member Joe points out, the mailbag on July 28, 2023 — No. 132 — opened with a pair of similar questions: What will be the next sport to win a national championship at Auburn?

“If I had to bank on another team winning a national title at Auburn right now, I’m going with golf,” I wrote that day.

Ten months later, Auburn has already proven me right.

The Auburn men’s golf program just went on the definition of a dream season under head coach Nick Clinard. The Tigers won 10 tournaments, which is an absurd number. Friend of the newsletter Jason Caldwell had an even better stat: Auburn went 182-9-1 against all of their fields, meaning that only nine teams finished ahead of them all season. More than half of them came in the stroke play of the NCAA Championships this week.

It’s one of the most dominant seasons for any sport in Auburn history. Even in the marathon postseason of college golf, the Tigers proved they were the best in the country over and over again. They had the nation’s best player in freshman Jackson Koivun, but capturing both the SEC and national titles was a true team effort. Just look at J.M. Butler, who had the worst score for the Tigers in stroke play but never trailed a single time in match play — clinching the natty in the very final showdown.

The victory marks the sixth different scholarship program at Auburn to win a national championship, joining football, men’s swimming and diving, women’s swimming and diving, women’s outdoor track and field and equestrian. (Apologies to bass fishing.)

Once again, the natural question is now “Who’s next?” And, since I did such a good job calling my shot the first time, let’s try to do it again.

That tees off this week’s mailbag, followed by a few big Auburn basketball questions, along with some Auburn football hypotheticals and more College Football 24 chatter. And, speaking of video games, my question to you this week was about your all-time favorite arcade game.

Thanks for continuing to read, listen and subscribe to the Observer through the early days of a long summer. Let’s go.

Which Auburn program will be the next to win a national title? How does Auburn stack up in the overall sports rankings this year?

Favorite arcade games: Defender and Rampage

John

Hopefully this won’t be too much of a copout: I predict that the next sport to join the first-time national champion list at Auburn will be women’s golf.

It’s hard to find a team in better position to break through than the Auburn women. They finished in the top five of nine of the 12 tournaments they played in this season, including victories at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic and the NCAA Regional they hosted at the University Club. They finished No. 2 in the stroke play portion of the SEC Championships before a surprise exit to Georgia in match play. They advanced to match play at NCAAs, only to fall to eventual national champion and No. 1 Stanford.

While the Tigers will no longer have Megan Schofill — who won the 2023 U.S. Amateur and is currently playing well at the U.S. Open — they’ve currently got their own underclassman phenom in Anna Davis. The former Augusta Women’s Amateur champion was Auburn’s top performer in each of the last four tournaments, and she was only a freshman. The Tigers have also been a recruiting force in recent years under Melissa Luellen, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a run at a national championship in the near future.

If I had to pick a non-golf program, I would lean toward men’s basketball. Auburn is positioned to have a top-10 caliber roster next season under Bruce Pearl, and roster reconstruction has been a strength of the program in his tenure. Winning it all in college basketball takes some timing and a little luck, just due to the nature of the tournament, but if the goal is to “be in position to be in position,” Auburn’s got that.

I’m intrigued by the potential of volleyball under Brent Crouch, as the Tigers have now been to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments and are recruiting quite well. A national championship might still be a far-off dream for the program, but, like football, it’s heading in the right direction. I’ll say the same for women’s basketball under Johnnie Harris, especially if the scoring can come together with that dominant defense. And, although this season was rough, it’s important to note that baseball has gotten into the mix at the College World Series twice under Butch Thompson.

But I’m going to go with golf once again. If you force me to pick another sport, I’ll say the Tigers get hot on the hardwood at just the right time.

Arcade Pick: I’ve only played Defender a couple of times, but I like how it’s a horizontal scroller, because it works better for my brain than the vertical shooters. And Rampage is a perfect example of an idea that was at its peak with the original and should have been left alone. No one needed modern sequels or more movies with The Rock. Come to think of it, none of us need more movies with The Rock.

SF Jahki Howard (Auburn Tigers)

With the late addition of a seemingly high-level scorer in Miles Kelly, how do you see the minutes/playing time being divided?

Do they develop Jakhi Howard slowly, or does he command some minutes as a freshman — and where?

I spent a lot of money on Galaxian and Galaga in my youth.

Bandit