Auburn Tigers OL Coach Jake Thornton Building the Right Way

Auburn Tigers youthful offensive line coach Jake Thornton takes a lunch pail and fishing rod approach to recruitment process.

Auburn Tigers offensive line coach Jake Thornton / Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK

Fans can easily be forgiven for fixating on skill positions for the most part, that's just the nature of the beast. That being said, without a top quality offensive line, you simply won't attract superstar quarterback recruits like Julian "Ju Ju" Lewis. 

It's reassuring that Auburn Tigers offensive line coach Jake Thornton has very much mirrored the approach head Hugh Freeze has taken to breathing life back into the program. After all, buying into the directives and ideology which comes from the very top can't fail to reflected over time in how top quality talent is assembled. 

"That's why I came to Auburn because I believe in coach freeze," Thornton told Jason Caldwell of Auburn Undercover. "We were talking about the job and he said, 'I want to build this thing off high school players.' That's why I jumped at the opportunity. That's why I got into college coaching was to help high school players develop and give them an opportunity to achieve their goals."

Taking the lunch pail to work approach has meant making sure that the crucial open heart surgery that was performed previously on the splintered offensive line happened via the transfer portal. Auburn signed five transfer offensive linemen in 2023, but just one last year.

Fast forward to the here and now,  coach Thornton and Freeze have started to put together quality recruits straight out of high school. Make no bones about it, guys like Tavaris Dice, Tai Buster and Spencer Dowland will prove absolutely fundamental to the future trajectory of the blocking group upfront.

Four high school offensive linemen in total have now committed to Auburn. Furthermore, it's quality additions that are now coming to The Plains, although losing Carde Smith was a significant recent setback.

Amongst the number of potential-new arrivals is also offensive tackle Broderick Shull, and the youngster from Bixby, Okla. paid tribute to just how well Thornton sliced through their obvious differences to find vital common ground during the whole recruitment process.

"I really like that because fishing is one of the main things that calms me down in life," Shull told the Montgomer Advisor. " ... (Thornton) connects with me in different aspects of what my interests are. He connects with me outside of football with nature."

What Thornton does have in the favor is a youthful disposition and overall attitude to his job/life balance. Thornton's love of the outdoors appealed greatly to Shull when he was deciding upon where to play some college ball, and which should also see them enjoy their journey to the rivers and lakes together.

In the final analysis however, it was Thornton's energy and coaching chops which really stood out to Shull - the young blocker is convinced that he's in safe hands.

"Also what impresses me is he's very young for an O-Line coach," Shull said. "Most O-Line coaches, especially in college, are usually in their 40s or something. He's early-30s, but yet he has a good track record. it's pretty impressive, especially for his age. ... He knows exactly what he's doing."

Plenty of due diligence still clearly needs to be done before the final names can be taped on the helmets for practice sessions, but digging deep foundations always makes perfect sense. 

When dragging recruitment building blocks into place, the heavy lifting of assembling the bigger bodies often goes unnoticed.