Mike McNeil has been playing football since he was 7. Until the spring of 2009, when he broke his leg, he had never suffered an injury."I've never really had an injury where I had to miss a game before," the Auburn safety said. "So it's pretty tough."
Nearly a a year and a half later, McNeil thinks he's finally all the way back. He had a noticeable limp in the spring, one that got more pronounced during the latter half of practice, but the junior said he felt completely healthy during summer workouts.
While he was injured, he'd watch film with safeties coach Tommy Thigpen, working on recognition and having his eyes in the right spot. Nothing compares to getting on the field, though.
"I'm really excited," McNeil said. "I missed the game. The way I'm going to go out and play this year you'll be able to tell I was missing the game."
McNeil is one of three Auburn safeties returning from career threatening injuries. Zac Etheridge is back after cracking vertebrae in his neck last year. Aairon Savage returns from two year's worth of injuries, an ACL tear and an Achilles' injury.
"It's good competition, competitiveness," McNeil said. "We're veterans who have played in the big games before. Working with coach (Gene) Chizik is really good and challenging because he challenges us every day to become better and to pick each other up and lift the young guys up under us."
Some other notes and quotes from Saturday's round of interviews:
- Chizik thought his team was a little sluggish during Auburn's fourth practice Saturday, the first time the Tigers didn't split into veterans and newcomers. "We tried to push through and increase the tempo a little bit toward the end of practice," Chizik said. "We can’t have days like that. We’ve got to have days where we push forward and practice with a little more energy and excitement. It’s Day 4. We’ll have tomorrow off, come back Monday and start again."
- Auburn has tomorrow off, although the players will still lift, have meetings and do "walkthrough type things," Chizik said. Monday is the first day in pads.
- Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was greeted by reporters asking him if he had a good Saturday night. "It's Saturday night?" he responded. My guess is the days run together for Gus.
- Malzahn thinks quarterback Cam Newton is getting more comfortable in his role. "I can tell a difference in him from the spring," he said. "He's real hard on himself, which is good. He has high expectations, but he's off to a solid start. And he has the right attitude. He realizes he hasn't arrived and continues to work, so that's been good to see."
- All three of the backup quarterbacks -- Neil Caudle, Barrett Trotter and Clint Moseley -- all got reps as well. "The good thing is we're very deep at that position," Malzahn said. "When I say that, I would feel comfortable with three to four of those guys getting in the game and being able to run our offense. So that's a very good thing as far as depth goes."
- Asked if anybody has stood out this August, Malzahn shocked reporters by actually naming someone: tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen. "It's going to be a little bit different (from Tommy Trott), but he's going to be a hand-down tight end guy, but he also gives us the flexibility to do some other things," Malzahn said. "But he's a lot stronger, he's faster, you can tell he's not a freshman anymore. He's a lot more confident."
- Malzahn talked about the value of players like Lutzenkirchen and Eric Smith, who can do a variety of things. He lumped freshman receiver Shaun Kitchens in that group as well. "He's got the capability to do similar things," Malzahn said. "So he's one of those guys that we're checking right now, and he's a big physical kid."
- Malzahn also said he hasn't had a 290-pound running back like Ladarious Phillips before. "Not even close," he said. "We're still learning him, learning about him and his skills. He's a load, now. He's a load and he's got running back feet. Probably needs to lose a little bit of weight, but still, he's very athletic. You can tell that he wants to be good. It's important to him. He's responded well to Coach (Curtis) Luper and he's one of those guys who has a chance. We'll see about how he responds once scrimmages start and all that, but naw, I've never had anybody even close to being that big."
- The closest Malzahn could think of was Peyton Hillis, who was in the 245-250 range at Arkansas.
- Defensive coordinator Ted Roof likes what he sees in cornerback Demond Washington so far. "He's had a good camp," Roof said. "Last year he played a lot of different positions and did a lot of different things and a lot of different jobs for our football team. We've got him at the same spot now. As a result, I think all the reps that he's built up, we're seeing him get better. He's done a good job of leading too. He's done a good job so far."
- Roof said he's not dwelling on the injury history of his three veteran safeties when it comes to easing them back in the lineup. "We're being smart with what we're asking them to do and how they're practicing," Roof said. "But they need reps, because they need to refine their techniques and their eyes and their assignments and things of that nature, so we've moved forward with them and that's how you have to look I think, but at the same time, I think we've been smart with them."
- Safety Ikeem Means, last spring's star, said he's getting a good deal of reps. He's working behind Aairon Savage, but coaches want him to learn both safety positions. "Because if one of them get hurt, I want to be the first guy to go in any position so I try to learn both," Means said.
- Means realizes the secondary is crowded with veteran players, but he's not conceding anything. "I'm pushing those guys and if I do just get minimum playing time, that's what I'll get," he said. "But I'm fighting to start, too." Means is doing all sorts of special teams work on the kickoff team, the kick return team and punt team.
- Freshman LB Jawara White spoke to the media for the first time. He's a big 'un. Weighs 240 right now, although he'd like to get down to about 235. He's working at Sam linebacker behind Daren Bates and Jessel Curry.
- WR Travante Stallworth's dad is set to deploy for Iraq soon with the Army. Here's how Chizik responded to a question about dealing with players in that sort of situation: "All issues and situations are different. We’ve got 105 guys and everybody’s got different issues with families and things of that nature. We’re always very sensitive to those things. One of the things that’s key is knowing what’s going on with our players. Travante is just one example. We’ve got kids whose parents are sick. We’re always very attuned to those things. We do whatever we can within the rules to comfort them in any way. That’s why we say this is a family. They’re ours. So they’re part of two families. We really mean that. That’s why our wives are involved very heavily. We’re involved very heavily. Anything we can do to ease the pain, we do that."
- Gabe Wright, a highly-ranked defensive end from Carver High in Columbus, said Auburn was at the top of his list, according to AuburnUndercover.com. The 6-foot-3, 273-pound Wright, a four-star recruit, is the No. 8 defensive tackle in the country, according to Rivals.com. He's the No. 7 overall player in Georgia and the No. 92 player in the country.
10 comments:
Wow these freshman really put on the weight this summer. Ra Ra at 240 is impressive. I saw him in Kroger a few months ago and he looked big but not that big.
Hey BigCat!
Andy -great report and great news about Gabe Wright! Thanks!!!
Thanks for the excellent coverage. I have been looking for some McNeil news. With the Etheridge and Savage stories, McNeil sometimes gets overlooked.
hey, what are all you guys doing here?
nice work AB.
good article on Sullen too.
Wow, some of the other beat writers must've mailed it in last night. That's some great work AB, and you're even on a different time zone, ha, ha.
As highly rated as McNeil was coming out of high school, I want to see Chizik coach him up to Jim Thorpe Award status,... liked he did 3 times,...in a row.
Nice job Doc Bitter.
Hey ..what cat drug up all THESE posters?
Dr. Bitter-
What has Ted Roof said about the safeties? How do you envision the position shaking out?
Seems like if McNeil is finally healthy there are three all-conference safeties back there.
Roof is very high on Etheridge and Savage. Not so much on McNeil, who he seems to have a tough time saying anything good about.
My money's on the first two getting the starting nods, with McNeil coming off the bench.
Why doesn't Roof like McNeil? Also, do you think a reserve safety will actually rotate in? It seems like that doesn't happen very often. At least not as often as, say, a defensive tackle.
I'm not sure about Roof and McNeil. I think he's just more all about Etheridge and Savage. It does seem strange, though.
I could see three safeties playing, particularly if Etheridge or Savage play the nickelback position. Auburn used a lot of nickel last year. And it doesn't seem like its backup cornerbacks are locks to be on the field in those situations.
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