Auburn’s quarterbacks were live for at least a portion of Thursday’s half-scrimmage, and the defense put big hits on Neil Caudle and Barrett Trotter that forced them out of action briefly.

“They were scrambling with the ball and somebody got two nice little ones on them,” defensive tackle Mike Blanc said. “They’re OK, though. That’s what our defense has to do. We have attack and swarm.”

Props to The Anniston Star and AuburnSports.com for sticking around for Blanc, the last to arrive at Thursday's interview session.

There was no word on how serious either of the injuries were or if Caudle or Trotter could miss A-Day.

Kodi Burns and redshirt freshman walk-on Brent Poole are the other two available quarterbacks on the roster. Senior Chris Todd is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

Other news and notes from Thursday ...

• Add safety Mike Slade to the infirmary report. He went to see the trainer after suffering an undisclosed injury Thursday. No news on how serious it is or if he would miss A-Day.

• Here's a list of players who won't play Saturday: defensive linemen Antoine Carter (knee), running back Eric Smith (knee), cornerback Aairon Savage (knee), safety Zac Etheridge (shoulder) and safety Mike McNeil (shoulder).

• TE Tommy Trott (knee) and WR Philip Pierre-Louis (knee) have to get the go-ahead from trainers. I wouldn't expect them to be out there much if any. This group seems to be pretty cautious when it comes to rushing people back from ACL tears. As they should be.
  

• Safeties coach Tommy Thigpen was glad to hear McNeil only had a broke leg. “At that time, you hope that it wasn’t a knee,” he said. “A knee injury, a lot of times takes a little bit longer. With the bone, it grows back and most of the time it grows back stronger. I’ve never been so happy about a broken leg.”

• If you're keeping track of healthy safeties on the roster, it's down to scholarship players Drew Cole and Christian Thompson and walk-ons Matthew Sample and Brandon Evans.

• Things have been pretty secretive all spring, with practices closed to the media and public, but head coach Gene Chizik said they will do most of their base stuff on offense and defense on Saturday. “We’ve got to get something out of the practice,” he said. “We’ll run some and throw it some and we won’t do a lot of blitzing and things of that nature, but it will be a good look at the base of all sides and on special teams as well.”

• Spoke with LG Darrell Roseman for the first time today. He sounds like he's doing great after having surgery to correct a chronic problem in his shins and later shoulder surgery that cost him the season. The 6-foot-4, 294-pound junior says he's at 90 percent health-wise and is getting acclimated to offensive line after moving there during two-a-days last August. Throughout it all, he didn’t give up. “It’s been very frustrating, but I’m still here,” he said. “I’m still fighting trying to get on that field.”

• The defense won the scrimmage on Thursday. Blanc said he thought the score was something in the range of 57-24. That makes the defense 3-0 in scrimmages or partial scrimmages that we know about this spring.

• Blanc's prediction on A-Day: "It’s going to be bad every day. We’re going to bring it to them."

• Cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley said he rotated the same four players into the scrimmage Thursday to see how they would react to playing long stretches of physical football. The four were Walt McFadden, Neiko Thorpe, D'Antoine Hood and T'Sharvan Bell.

• Lolley had good things to say about Thorpe, who appears to be locking down a starting position: "He’s done well. He’s still progressing. He always knew he was athletic. He’s always had tremendous confidence. Now, he’s feeling the next part of the game. He’s getting smart with the game. They tried him on what I call a hesitation-and-go, stutter-and-go one time. Immediately his eyes, and he flipped his body, he turned and ran to a point on the field and cut the guy off. Like I tell him, there’s a reason for that. You know they’re going to come back short on you thinking now he’s scared to bite on anything. The very next play they threw one short in front of him and he causes a fumble. That’s the mark of a guy starting to mature a little bit. He’s starting to feel the game, understand the game.Without having to tell him every time, he’s starting to feel that part of the game. Hopefully, it will take him to another level."

• Some offensive highlights included a touchdown catch by Derek Winter and a couple of long runs by Onterio McCalebb that running backs coach Curtis Luper said went about 40 to 50 yards. "It seems like he has a couple every week," Luper said.