You're looking LIVE at Jordan-Hare Stadium, site of today's A-Day scrimmage. It's gorgeous out. Perfect weather for any kind of outdoor activity.I figure many of you will be at the stadium today, but for those of you who are not and don't get ESPNU(kraine), I'll be live blogging today's game. Here it is:
- 1:09 p.m.: Fear not. The game has not started. They're still giving out awards to last year's players. Antonio Coleman and Ben Tate are here. Still five minutes to kick off.
- 1:10 p.m.: From the looks of it, the blue team has the first-team offense and the white team has the first-team defense for the first half. Interestingly, RT Brandon Mosley is with the blue team, while Roszell Gayden is with the white team.
- 1:13 p.m.: Solid crowd here today. I'd say the lower bowl, sideline seating is pretty well full. The south end zone too. Probably more people here than last year.
- 1:14 p.m.: CB Neiko Thorpe not playing today. He's got some kind of cast on his right wrist.
- 1:15 p.m.: WR Philip Pierre-Louis is still on crutches with a pretty big brace on his left knee. He, obviously, will not be playing today. Not sure on the severity of his injury.
- 1:17 p.m.: First quarterback on the field: Neil Caudle. He's with the second-team offense on the white team.
- 1:21 p.m.: Caudle goes 4-for-6 on first drive for 24 yards. Two drops by Jay Wisner, one on a deep post route, forces the punt.
- 1:22 p.m.: Cam Newton leading the blue, first-team offense. Crowd gives him a hearty applause as he comes into the game.
- 1:23 p.m.: Drew Cole and Mike McNeil are your starting safeties today. T'Sharvan Bell starting in place of Thorpe.
- 1:24 p.m.: LB Craig Stevens looks like he got a little shaken up on the first play. He's kind of rubbing his eyes and shaking his head on the sideline.
- 1:25 p.m.: Newton completes only one pass for 15 yards on his first drive, a nice tight spiral on a crossing route to Darvin Adams. A sack put the blue team in a tough spot. Got stuffed on 4th and 1. Ryan Shoemaker with a 52-yard punt, though. A nice, high one, too.
- 1:26 p.m.: New basketball coach Tony Barbee gets a nice round of applause after being introduced.
- 1:28: Barrett Trotter gets drive No. 2 with the white team.
- 1:32: Trotter with a 50-yard pass to walk-on WR Nathan Taylor. Play-action got the safety to bite. Trotter hit him perfectly in strides. Chandler Brooks' extra points puts white team up 7-0. Trotter was 2-for-2 on the drive for 72 yards, adding another 11 on the ground.
- 1:34: Not really going live on special teams. Mario Fannin had a kick return through a hole about 30 yards wide and they whistled the play dead at the 30.
- 1:35: Stevens back in the game at LB. Neil Caudle directing the first-team offense this time.
- 1:42: End of the first quarter. Blue team drove all the way down to the 2-yard line. Caudle was pretty efficient on the drive, going 6-for-6 for 48 yards. A lot of check down passes and underneath routes. Score: White 7, Blue 0.
- 1:45 p.m.: Fannin just plunged in from 2 yards out for the blue team. Evens the score at 7-7. Capped a 70-yard drive with Caudle running the show.
- 1:47: Leading rusher right now is Fannin, with 20 yards on three carries. Caudle is 10-for-12 for 70 yards so far.
- 1:48: Newton getting his second chance at leading a drive. Directing the white team this time.
- 1:49: Newton lofts a deep ball to Quindarius Carr for 61 yards. Just a little underthrown, but he barely flicked it when he let go of the ball and it went at least 40 yards in the air. Carr was WIDE open, by the way.
- 1:50: A little over-excited, Newton rifles a pass too high in the back of the end zone to a wide open Wisner. That was a gimme touchdown. He's a little strong with the third-down pass too. White team has to settle for a field goal attempt.
- 1:51: Brooks misses a 21-yard field goal. Doinks it off the right upright. Game still tied 7-7.
- 1:53: We have a Terrell Zachery sighting. It was his play -- the end around reverse. He took it up the field for 23 yards. You'd think defenses -- especially Auburn's -- would be wary of that play by now. The Tigers run it for Zachery all the time.
- 1:55: Short pass from Trotter to Zachery, who breaks a few tackles and sprints up the sideline for a 44-yard touchdown. That makes it 14-7 blue team. Trotter now 4-for-5 for 115 yards and two scores.
- 1:58: Caudle getting another drive. I think it's safe to eliminate Moseley from the quarterback contention right now. He's only been on the field as a holder for field goals.
- 1:59: Caudle completes a short pass to Carr, who breaks free up the sidelines and out-runs the defenders 70 yards to the end zone. Ties game up at 14.
- 2:03: Three-and-out for a Newton-led blue team. He was going against a mostly first-team defense, except for the linebackers.
- 2:04: Shoemaker's second punt not so great. Shanks it off the side of his foot for a 19-yard punt.
- 2:05: Announced crowd of "63,217." I'm not only declaring shenanigans, I'm second the motion and passing it by myself. It's a good crowd, but there's no way it's that big.
- 2:11: Chris Humphries with a sack for the blue team off the left edge. Ends a drive led by Trotter. Another so-so punt by Shoemaker.
- 2:14: Michael Goggans gets credit for a sack after Caudle runs into the right tackle, Mosley. I think the refs mistakenly thought Mosley was a defender.
- 2:15: Goggans and Antoine Carter sandwich Caudle from the bookends for a drive-ending sack. And this was against the first-team offensive line.
- 2:18: Three-and-out for Newton. Couple of deep passes to the sideline that didn't hit. A little over a minute left until halftime.
- 2:19: Good news. Not a single muffed punt today. Of course, there aren't any gunners racing down on the punt returners either, so I wouldn't make too big of news out of that.
- 2:20: Trotter looks like he completed a long pass to DeAngelo Benton, but the refs blew the play dead on a sack by Carter.
- 2:21: That's halftime: 14-14 tie.
- 2:39: Some halftime quarterback numbers: Trotter 7-8, 154 yards, 2 TD; Caudle 12-15, 157 yards, 1 TD; Newton 3-9, 80 yards, 0 TD.
- 2:40: Carr has three catches for 139 yards and a score. Adams has three for 42.
- 2:41: A Clint Moseley sighting! It's offense vs. defense in the second half and, thankfully, a running clock.
- 2:43: Nice 52-yard pass from Moseley to Wisner. Looked like a go pattern down the middle and Moseley put it on the mark.
- 2:44: Just noticed that Gayden is not dressed for the game. Hadn't even noticed that did not play in the first half. He's been nicked up this spring.
- 2:45: Wes Byurm nails a 50-yard field goal. Puts White team up 17-14.
- 2:48: It should be noted that Auburn has had no turnovers yet today. That was a point of emphasis this spring. There was a fumble on the last drive, but the offense recovered.
- 2:53: That's the end of the third quarter. White team up 17-14. A Caudle-led drive is down near the goal line. Now, if they score in the fourth quarter, does the points apparently go to the blue team. That's weird.
- 2:56: Dontae Aycock with a 6-yard touchdown run. Sure enough, points go to the Blue team. Now 21-17 Blue team.
- 2:57: I must say, this running clock is great.
- 2:58: All right, we're going to call that a wrap for the live blog. I'm heading down to the field.
5 comments:
Thanks, Andy!
Thank you, Andy, for the excellent live blog for those of us who couldn't watch the game.
Please update us on final stats, and MVPs. Also your take on the QB situation, and the shortcomings on defense/tackling would be appreciated.
Most of the stats are in the post above this one. MVPs were Quindarius Carr (offense), Antoine Carter (defense) and Wes Byrum (special teams).
Carr had four catches for 152 yards and a touchdown. Carter had 2.5 sacks and 3.5 TFLs. Byrum nailed a 50-yard field goal.
Re QBs: I think the coaches just want to keep everyone motivated through the summer. I wouldn't expect a decision until August again.
Re: Defense/tackling: Auburn looked a little sketchy on this front. I don't know how much you can read into this on A-Day, but it's not reassuring if you're an Auburn fan after last year's troubles.
I don't know what you were seeing but I was there and know for sure that the bottom bowl was almost full. Also, unless there is another #78, Gayden played most of the first half.
Gayden told us he played two series. Honestly, I wasn't watching the offensive line rotation too much.
As for the lower bowl, the East and West sides were fairly full, as was the South end zone. But the North end zone had a bunch of empty seats. I'd put the crowd at 45,000, 50 tops. But 63,000 is an outright lie.
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