Auburn to Stay Focused Despite Old Grudge with Cal RB Jaydn Ott

Reviving an old grudge with Cal Bears running back Jaydn Ott seems irrelevant, especially now that the 'Freeze Four' are receiving the star billing.

Payton Thorne and the Auburn Tigers had the last laugh vs. Cal in 2023. / Austin Perryman, Auburn University Athletics

Last season, the Auburn Tigers rather pedestrian 14 - 10 win over the Cal Bears was made more memorable for the pre-match comments made by their star running back, Jadyn Ott.

"There's a lot of focus on the name Auburn," Ott said last September. "But what I see on film is not really in comparison to what their name is. I just want to get into my guys' heads that a name doesn't mean anything."

To be fair, Auburn wasn't very good last year, but those in glass houses...

Saturday's 73-point offensive explosion against Alabama A&M provided a rather-stark contrast to that anemic offensive performance they conjured against Cal last September. They won the game, but managed just-230 yards of total offense.

It was a display that Tigers starting quarterback Payton Thorne has said he felt sorry the fans had to be subjected to.

Cal's rather lackluster opening-day win should position the revived Auburn passing attack to further unleash the explosive quartet which is the "Freeze Four" - things could get interesting. 

Last year, the Bears defense held a far less confident Thorne to under 100 total yards passing, fast forward one calendar year, and Freeze is insistent that the proof is the pudding as how well his quarterback is responding positively to some hard coaching.

"Payton can take the hard coaching," Freeze declared during Tuesday's media availability. "I wish that the camera wasn't on me all of the time. My wife got onto me about one of those, but you know it was a third-own play, and I know how critical those downs are in coming weeks. I expect him to get those right, and I think that's a positive that he should take. If I didn't believe that he could get those right, I wouldn't be quite this upset."

Freeze has also been preaching about feeling confident all week, and that's been to the far reaches of his youthful program. All told, putting up 73-points on the board has slightly more significance than re-igniting any potential beef with Ott.

Unsurprisingly, after their big win, Auburn has been installed as early 13.0-point favorites.

As for Ott, the runner limped out of the Bears 31 - 13 win over UC Davis with an ankle injury, but he's listed as probable to play this weekend. For as fast as Ott's lips moved last year, it's the speed of his legs and ability to break tackles that Freeze is guarding against, as he explained during his visit with the Tiger Talk radio show.

"He's concerning. He is one of the better tailbacks in the country, without a doubt," Freeze noted about Ott during the radio broadcast. "We anticipate he's playing and he is one of the best backs in the country. We'll have to tackle really well." 

Tigers fans will be hoping the Bears talented 21-year-old tailback is fit enough to hit the field on Saturday, it certainly will spice things up.

After all, notorious trash talkers tend to receive a special kind of welcome down on the Plains.