Auburn's special teams got a bit of a bad rap last year. Everything seemed to focus on Byrum's inability to find any consistency as a place-kicker, but if you look at the rest of the Tigers' special teams, they were pretty good. Punt coverage was solid, although kick coverage left some to be desired. Robert Dunn took a few punts to the house. Tristan Davis was one of the nation's best at kick returns. And Durst finished the season 26th nationally in punting. New special teams coach Jay Boulware has been quick to chastise the media when we harp on the special teams breakdowns instead of highlighting the many good things that happened last year. But as any Auburn fan would be quick to point out, the thing that sticks out, the thing that turned the tide in two or three of Auburn's game last season was misses in the kicking game, plain and simple, leaving that as the No. 1 priority in the offseason.

Byrum looked better. After briefly losing his place atop the depth chart to Brooks, the walk-on with yellow shoes, Byrum re-established himself as Auburn's go-to guy on field goals, working on his mechanics and finding some consistency by the end of camp. He made a 46-yarder in the spring game and just came up short from 51 yards, both good signs, but I also saw him miss the net from 2 yards away duringwarmups on the sideline, sending the ball into the hedges near the crowd, so maybe it's too soon to declare Byrum "fixed" for next season. Durst, after leaving the team briefly this offseason in a failed ploy to earn a scholarship, did his penance and has seized control of the punting job. Boulware called him "a better punter" and a "better technician" than Shoemaker by the end of spring drills. Hull has shown some life to his leg on kickoffs. And Auburn has no shortage of athletic return men, although the number of live drills they did during the spring limits what coaches could learn about their return skills. The ones remaining on the list at punt return are simply the ones that could catch the ball.

At the beginning of spring drills, the leaders in the clubhouse at the three specialty positions were Brooks (kicker), Durst (punter) and Harris (deep snapper), three walk-ons, while Auburn's three scholarship specialists — Byrum, Dellenbach and Shoemaker — lagged well behind. Only Byrum has snagged his starting spot back (mostly because of a Brooks injury), which means the Tigers have two scholarships being used on specialists who don't even play. In the long term, that's a problem, one the new coaching staff inherited from the old one.

Auburn has a stable of athletes in its 2009 class who you could be part of the return units. Junior college transfer Demond Washington figures to be one of them. He returned five punts for touchdowns at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College last year. Anthony Gulley is another player with returning experience, finishing with four punt and kick returns for touchdowns his senior season at Brantley (Ala.) High. Those are the two with the best resumes, although I'm sure there are a handful of incoming players who could be in the mix as well. At the kicking positions there's nobody, unless you count Cody Parkey, a place-kicker commit for 2010, which I won't. I'm sure some walk-ons will appear during fall camp, but I can't imagine they would be much of a factor.

When you're the fastest person on the team and can get a block or two on a kick return, good things happen. That's why I like McCalebb in that spot. The freshman transfer from Hargrave has legitimate speed; everyone on the team is in agreement about that. There seems to be a report of him breaking off a long run in every practice, and he's a candidate to return kicks on a unit that opened up enough room for Davis to take several to the house last year. I like this situation for him.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't think Byrum is all the way back quite yet. Boulware noted that Byrum moving to the top of the depth chart at place-kicker coincided with an undisclosed injury to Brooks, a walk-on who stormed to a quick lead early in spring drills. Rarely does a player lose his spot because of injury, especially when there is still an entire two-a-days to endure. I think this battle will drag on throughout August, with Brooks very much in contention for the job.

“I know him as Brooks — the kid with the yellow shoes."

— Boulware on Brooks and his distinctive footwear

3 — special teams categories last year in which Auburn ranked in the top-20 nationally (kick returns, punt returns and net punting)

Despite the perception, Auburn was strong on special teams last year, something it should be again this season. The Tigers will add a new spread punt formation to help its coverage down the field, something that was slightly unveiled during A-Day. There appears to be no shortage of dynamic players on both the punt and kick return units. And Durst is back in the fold and kicking better than ever. The only hang-up is the kicking game. And while Byrum has looked good in practice, he looked good during practices last season. It was the games where his mechanics went out the window. There is no good way to approximate game pressure in practice, so Auburn fans might have to wait until the season actually starts to see if the junior has corrected past problems.