Any praise Auburn’s coaching staff has doled out during the first week of spring practice has come with a disclaimer: do it once we go live.The Tigers will have a chance to make an impression Saturday in a full scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium lasting 90 to 110 plays, according to head coach Gene Chizik.
“What we plan on doing right now is playing it as much like a game-like situation as we can,” Chizik said. “We’ve been doing so much situational in practice right now — putting them in different situations that they’re going to run into on Saturday — so now we’d like to see them without coaches on the field.”
The scrimmage comes on the heels of a mostly instructional practice Thursday, when Auburn spent half of its time outdoors and half in the John H. Watson Fieldhouse after rains moved through the area. The Tigers worked in shells — shorts, helmets and shoulder pads — during the two-hour practice, their sixth of the spring.
“It was productive,” Chizik said. “We made it work.”
Still, the coaches have looked forward to a full 11-on-11 scrimmage and the contact it promises. The NCAA limits schools to three designated scrimmages in the spring, defined as when tackling takes place in more than 50 percent of the practice.
“I hope to see consistency,” defensive line coach Tracy Rocker said. “Two, is great effort and guys that are trying to fight and take a stand. ... You know you’re going to have missed assignments. You’re going to have some things maybe break down. But the substitute of that is effort.”
Some other news and notes ...
- We got to speak to all of the kickers and punters today. We got clarification that the walk-on kicker is indeed Chandler Brooks, not Chris, as listed on the team roster. Here's his story: He kicked with East Mississippi Community College his freshman year ("It wasn't my best year," he admitted) before coming to Auburn, where his stepdad, James Brooks, was a linebacker in the early '90s. "I wanted to follow in his footsteps," Chandler said. "It was always my intention to come down here and play football." He took last year off, failing to make the team as a walk-on, before making the squad during tryouts this February. Now he might be the front-runner for the place-kicking job. Quite a story.
- Wes Byrum (you know, last year's kicker) hasn't gone away. He claims he's not hitting the ball his best right now, on the heels of a season during which he was 11-for-19 on field goal attempts. "I kind of got lost with all my technique," he said. "I started changing around, fooling around with stuff that didn't need to be fooled around with. Once I started to change too many different things, I came apart. I've been working on the offseason on getting back to how I know I can do it."
- We spoke to punter Clinton Durst for the first time since his offseason ploy to get a scholarship, when he briefly left the team, only to return a few weeks later. He's still not on scholarship, so it sounds like that didn't work. "I’d rather not comment on it," he said. "I made a few mistakes."
- Ryan Shoemaker, who Durst beat out last year for the job, doesn't look back in anger at last season. "At first it was, but it was a time to step out of the spotlight and work on your technique and work on your own punting by yourself," he said. "It really I think helped me a little bit that I needed to work on some technique issues and I think I’ve gotten better since then."
- Both Durst and Shoemaker had good things to say about special teams coach Jay Boulware. "He’s unbelievable," Durst said. "He knows more than anybody than I’ve ever talked to. He watches video of us — I don’t know how many hours — and he pinpoints what we need to do." Shoemaker was complimentary as well. "He really is a hands-on coach," he said. "He likes to dissect film. He watches our technique. He dissects everything we do. It’s worked out very well for us. I think it really has helped out in some things. We’ve had technique issues and I like the way it’s going."
- Auburn plans to do more directional punting. Shoemaker says they've also been working on doing a spread formation, with three personal protectors in front of the punter.
- Rocker said there's been a three-man rotation at tackle and end. Mike Blanc, Jake Ricks and Zach Clayton are working on the inside. Antonio Coleman, Antoine Carter and Michael Goggans are rotating at ends.
- DL Cam Henderson is nursing a sore ankle, Rocker said.
- Running backs coach Curtis Luper has been especially impressed with sophomore Eric Smith, a bruiser who weighs in at 234 pounds and had 21 carries for 84 yards last year. “He’s a load,” Luper said. “He’s not easy to tackle. Ask (safety) Mike McNeil. He hasn’t tackled him all spring.”
- Ben Tate and Smith have rotated with the ones at tailback.
- Five players have been working at returning kicks this spring — cornerbacks Neiko Thorpe Walt McFadden, Fannin, Tate and McCalebb.
- Cornerbacks coach Phillip Lolley is still taking it easy with Aairon Savage, who tore his ACL last August and missed the season. Savage won't play in Saturday's scrimmage. "I let Aairon get certain drills and I'm sure he could do more but it's like why at this point," Lolley said. "I've backed him off the receivers a lot. I'm letting him play off coverage, some man-to-man stuff, but I'm not putting him up there pressing right now because I know he's going to compete and he's going to bust his tail. The thing is, when one of those guys makes those quick moves on him, he's not going to want to take it easy on it. That quick movement scares me at this point."
- McFadden and Thorpe are working with the ones at corner in practice. Redshirt freshman T'Sharvan Bell, who suffered a knee injury that kept him out last year, is working with the twos, with D'Antoine Hood and Harry Adams rotating at the other spot.
- Lolley had very good things to say of Bell. "You know he's smart," Lolley said. "He was hurt last year and I knew he had that kind of ability because I'd seen him in camp several years. I knew he had that type of ability. He was a quarterback in high school and he knows what offenses will try. He sees things that a lot of guys don't see because of what he was asked to do in high school; option, attacks, play action. He understands when guys cut their splits down, what routes they might try to be, progressing too and he's just a smart kid. He just picks up things very quickly. Has very good quickness, instincts. Sometimes you can try coaching those things, but it sure helps if you have them."
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