The Bull Bounces Back?

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/08/auburn_linebacker_eltoro_freem.html

Auburn linebacker Eltoro Freeman says he's ready for a bounce-back season
Published: Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 9:02 AM     Updated: Wednesday, August 11, 2010, 9:03 AM
Charles Goldberg -- The Birmingham News Charles Goldberg -- The Birmingham News

AUBURN - He came in with the cool name and the preseason hype, but the player who is called ``Toro'' by his teammates, and ``The Bull'' by the fans, didn't have the season so many expected last year.

Eltoro Freeman wants to make amends in 2010.

The Auburn linebacker says he has a better attitude, is working within the playbook and is willing to understand that he can't make all the plays all the time. He'll take those concepts to the field, not at middle linebacker, where he started last season; but at weakside linebacker behind Craig Stevens, who played almost every snap last year.

The new Eltoro Freeman will have to wait his turn.

"I'm not into who's going first or who's going second,'' Freeman said. :I'm just into trying to help my team win and trying to get better with my assignments, and to just go out there and play ball.''

Simple enough, but it was a concept that Freeman had trouble embracing last year.

Freeman's season went astray at midseason. He played one play - the first defensive play - at Tennessee, and was left at home the next week when the Tigers played at Arkansas.

"I don't miss games - not unless you're injured,'' he said.

Freeman wasn't injured, not then. But neither did he play. He was, he said, frustrated.

"I felt like I was on the wrong track,'' Freeman said.

He says a conversation with coach Gene Chizik set him straight.

"He was like, 'Eltoro, we're going to be there for you. Just get your mind back together,'<th>'' Freeman said. "That was real big. I told Coach Chiz, `When I come back, I'm going to be ready to play and help Auburn win.''

Chizik still wasn't sure, even by spring practice. When asked if people should read into it that Freeman was still in his doghouse, Chizik said, "I don't know what you want to read into. I don't know if you should or shouldn't.''

Chizik struck a more positive tone Tuesday, so much so that Freeman was allowed to speak to the media Tuesday for the first time since last October.

"Toro,'' Chizik said, ``has done a nice job of working. He's probably stayed healthier up to this point than he's been in the past, which I think has helped.

"It's time for him to step up and play football.''

Freeman says he's back, and says he can now take away some positive things from 2009, even though he made a modest 31 tackles last season, 21 of which came in back-to-back games two weeks after Arkansas. But the weeks that followed were again frustrating. A foot injury and a concussion limited him to three tackles in the final four games.

"I don't think it was a lost year,'' Freeman said. "I learned a lot from the '09 year mentally -- how to handle things.

"I feel like '09 was a great year, and if I could change '09, I wouldn't. I would want it to be the way that it happened. I think that made me the person and the player that I am today.''

The attitude he showed after Tuesday's practice suggested he's ready to perform in this, his second year after spending two years in junior college, even if he's moved from middle linebacker to the outside.

"It hasn't been too bad for me, because now I'm back at my original position,'' Freeman said. "I've been playing that all my life, so it hasn't been a big adjustment at all.''

When asked if he was hungry for a bounce-back season, Freeman gave the perfect answer:

"I'm starving. I'm starving now,'' he said.

Stevens said the old Freeman was so good he good make his own way in high school. The new Freeman says this:

"I thought last year I put a lot of pressure on myself to come in and do this and do that,'' Freeman said. ``Then when things weren't going right, I went about the wrong way of handling things.''

That cost him a trip to Arkansas.

`Coaches were always just talking about, `Toro it's OK, just calm down. You can live to play another day,''' he said. ``If I'd mess up on one assignment in a game, I'm like, `Aw man, I blew it.'

" was just trying to really just get my coaches' trust so much. I'm like, `Coach, I can do this. I know what I'm doing wrong.' Then you go out there and just slip up and you're just like, `Aw man.'''

Freeman's play - and the late-season injury - didn't help Auburn's thin linebacker corps last season. This season, the Tigers have brought in four freshman linebackers who have a chance to play.

"The coaches have raised the bar,'' Freeman said. "All those guys, they're great. If you're not doing what you're supposed to do, somebody will come up and take your position.''

Stevens says Freeman can now hold his own.

"I think he's better now because he knows the plays,'' Stevens said. "I think he's going to be better this season.''

Freeman says he understands the time is now.

"I realized it's not about me, it's about the team,'' he said. "So it doesn't matter if I get 10 tackles or no tackles, as long as we're winning and I'm doing my assignments right.''

[Snaggletiger]

That's a bunch of bull. 

Seriously, what was up with him?  Was he wacked out?

[RWS]

That's a bunch of bull. 

Seriously, what was up with him?  Was he wacked out?

I think he has the tools, just not between the ears. No different than alot of payers, imo.

[Godfather]

He sounds like he has mental problems.....yeah mental problems.

[GH2001]

I think he has the tools, just not between the ears. No different than alot of payers, imo.

Poor man's Tray Blackmon?

[Buzz Killington]

I think he has the tools, just not between the ears. No different than alot of payers, imo.

^^^This^^^

Just like many others, he went from being "The Man" in HS and just running around using his talent to just make things happen to running up against other "The Mans".  He just didn't know how to handle it, but maybe?!? he has learned now.

[JR4AU]

In my short time coaching, and trying to learn the art of it, I've discovered that defensive coaches are a lot like engineers.  They are much, MUCH more meticulous about their scheme's than offensive guys are, and most offensive guys are very hell bent on details.   Defensive coaches are just, well, different.  The funny thing is, IMO, defense is much more about desire and "want to" more so than scheme, and I think defensive coaches, at times, lose site of this and confuse some of the most physically gifted players on the team, albeit not the smartest, with grand schemes and Xs and Os.  That was apparent in the 2007 (I think) UF vs AU game under Muschamp.  When they stopped "scheming" at half and started just playing "kill the man with the ball" they lit UF up.  I think El Toro suffers this too.   He may be dumb as a post, but they can find a way to work him in and not expect more than hard nosed kill the man with the ball play.