Auburn kicked off practice this morning at the University of Tampa in surprisingly chilly weather. Temperatures hovered around 53 degrees, the sky was overcast and there was a slight breeze, leaving more than one beat writer who failed to bring a coat shivering for the duration of the open period of practice.

We didn't get to see much other than the team stretching, but here a few observations anyway ...

• Did I mention it was chilly? Head coach Gene Chizik wore a winter hat, as did most of the coaches. Defensive coordinator Ted Roof was in shorts. He did have a hooded sweatshirt, though.

• The Tigers are practicing at the University of Tampa's Art & Polly Pepin Stadium, a soccer field that hosted the 2009 Division II men's and women's championships and can seat as many as 1,500. The Spartans have won NCAA Division II titles in men's soccer in 1981, 1994 and 2001, while the women's team won in 2007. Tampa has no football team, as this passage from Wikipedia explains:

• UT fielded a men's football team from 1933 to 1974, and was the original team playing in Tampa Stadium. The team officially moved up to Division I in 1971 and defeated the Miami Hurricanes in 1970 and 1972. Several of its players went to the NFL and it won the Tangerine Bowl. However attendance lagged. President B.D. Owens said that the program lost $755,000 in its three years of Division I and said at that rate the program would bankrupt the school. The program was terminated at the end of the 1974 season.

• The University of Tampa (or possibly the Outback Bowl) spray painted an AU logo on the side of the practice field to make the Tigers feel more at home. Nice touch, although the colors looked a little more fluorescent than Auburn's blue and orange. Look at the picture. Doesn't that look like Miami Dolphins colors?

• Lee Ziemba wore Andrew McCain's No. 75 jersey and McCain wore Ziemba's No. 73. I have no reason why.

• The family of holder Clayton Crofoot was in attendance (the Crofeet?). Crofoot, a senior, is from Orlando, Fla.

• Your angry exchange of the day: We were standing near the sidelines watching Onterio McCalebb returning some kicks. He didn't have any tape on his ankles. A trainer noticed this and in no uncertain terms told him to get his ankles taped. "You've had ankle problems all year and you don't have them taped? That's stupid," he more or less said (a few colorful words were omitted for the children who read this blog). Needless to say, McCalebb went and got his ankles taped.

• I'll be back later with a post-practice update. Follow the blog on Twitter for instant updates every time I post something.

• I'll leave you with a few photos I snapped with my iPhone at practice showing just how bleak out it was: