Auburn's Fairweather Puts Opponents on Notice: 'Not Going to be able to Stop Us'

Auburn Tigers coaches and players alike are impressed with the freshman crop of receivers on the Plains and the potential-immediate impact they'll have in 2024.

Auburn Tigers freshman receiver Cam Coleman has been wowing since he arrived on campus / Austin Perryman, Auburn University Athletics

Wide receivers, simply because of the very nature of the position, tend to adapt to operating as lone wolves within the mechanics of a team game.

After all, winning vital one-on-one battles is where fame and success are so often found, indeed, it points toward bona-fide NFL DNA.

Auburn Tigers wide receiver Cam Coleman as a 17-year-old (turns 18 on Wednesday) true freshman might be proving he's capable of standing alone, but he is also embracing working in tandem with another audacious young talent in fellow wide receiver Perry Thompson.

"It's awesome to see those guys," wide receiver coach Marcus Davis said of the pairing last week. "Perry hits the ground rolling now because he wasn't here in the spring, and I hear Cam tap him, 'I know how you feel man.' It's just cool to see that. You know that's somebody Perry can lean on just in terms of adjusting and adapting to the playbook, the speed of practice and the speed of college and everything.

"It's been awesome to see those two together, and they feed off each other's energy. Not just them two but the entire room. Everybody is feeding off each other's energy right now."

Coleman spent his time during the spring polishing his craft - now he's handing down some finer points of the offensive system to his explosive colleague. 

Rapid progress is undoubtedly being made by Coleman, his upward trajectory owes much to how he's marrying his prodigious-physical gifts to a diligent-work ethic.

That's not gone unnoticed by Coleman's teammates either. Senior tight end Rivaldo Fairweather is pretty much astounded by the young receivers fast-tracked rate of development.

"Cam, when he first came in, I didn't know he was going to be that good," Fairweather said this week at media availability. "I'm not going to lie to you. Some freshmen come in, and they slowly play their way in and build their way up. But Cam came in ready to play. Malcolm Simmons is actually good, too. He's a sleeper. He's pretty fast out there. Bryce Doss is pretty good. Perry Thompson is a big receiver. He's going to be good. All our receivers are good. We have depth at receiver.  They're not going to be able to stop us."

Heading into the new campaign, head coach Hugh Freeze is bound to be buoyed by what Coleman is doing in both the locker room and on the practice field. Perhaps above all else, it's the sheer depth of game-breaking talent that Fairweather pointed to which will excite Tigers fans the most moving forward.

As much as the Auburn boss has insisted he will proceed with caution when developing his young receiving talent, in reality, it's pretty futile to hold back purebred stallions in their stables.