Saturday's half practice, half scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium belonged to Auburn's youngsters, one of the final auditions for the members of the freshman class to prove they deserve a spot on the field in any way this season."(We're) just trying to make some final decisions on who we think will help and who can't," head coach Gene Chizik said.
The veterans got light work during the Tigers' fourth scrimmage this August, doing some two-minute drills, but most of the day was set aside to test the youngsters' mettle.
"Nobody wants to get redshirted, so everybody just wants to show what they can do," freshman safety Demetruce McNeal said.
Chizik said a number of players stood out, including McNeal, redshirt freshman Harris Gaston and freshman fullback Ladarious Phillips.
Because Auburn has so few position battles, playing time in the base offense or defense could be hard to come by for the newcomers. But the Tigers expect many of them to play on special teams.
"That's where we've got to fill a bunch of holes," Chizik said. "And that's last year where we had some issues that obviously we're trying to shore up."
"Coach said special teams is going to determine who gets on the field on defense or offense," McNeal said. "Show them what we can do on special teams because then you'll have a chance in coach Chizik's mind about getting on the field."
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Here are some more notes and quotes following today's scrimmage:
Safety Zac Etheridge (neck) went full contact for the first time this August. "I was talking to Aairon Savage walking off the field and I was like, 'Last time I came out here I didn’t walk off the field. I’m just blessed to walk off the field after a scrimmage at the stadium.’"
- On if the injury was in the back of his mind at all. "Not really. When I was out there, I was just having fun. I didn’t think about it at all. I came in up in some piles a little bit. I didn’t hesitate."
- No movement on the right tackle battle. "You know how I am," offensive line coach Jeff Grimes said. "I’m going to hold out as long as I can on that deal because I want those guys keep working, keep battling. Guys are all getting better, and that’s what is most important. We’d like to settle on a guy as soon as we can, but really it’s not the big priority for me. The much bigger priority is getting the best guys ready, and, either way, we’ve got to develop some depth. That’s something we didn’t have last year. We’re starting to develop some depth now, but we need more of it."
- Just in case you think this is Grimes not wanting to tip his hand to the media, it's not. The players are in the dark too. "I don't have a clue, to be honest with you," said A.J. Greene, who is battling John Sullen and Brandon Mosley for the spot.
- Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn hasn't gotten closer to designating a backup quarterback. "No. But all of the other guys got work today," he said. "All four quarterbacks got work. We’ll have a good idea here in the next week."
- Interesting comment by Malzahn about the gap between starter Cam Newton and the rest. "You know, it’s not as big as you think," he said. "We’ve got four quality quarterbacks. Cam’s our starter and if something happens, we’d feel good about putting all of them in. And that’s pretty rare. That’s pretty rare. I’ve never had it before."
- Phillips got an extended look today. It's still odd even for coaches to see a 290-pound running back. "He’s different," Malzahn said. "He doesn’t look like a running back. He looks like a pulling guard."
- How much work did Phillips get? "He was dead tired by the end of it," Malzahn said.
- Linebacker Jake Holland on tackling Phillips: "You definitely have to get low on him or he'll embarrass you."
- Defensive coordinator Ted Roof is never much one for details after these scrimmages, but he offered up this thought of the scrimmage as whole. "It was good to scrimmage our young guys today," he said. "There was more contact speed than the last time we did it. That's what we were looking for -- not worrying about this, that and the other. They just went out and played football. They hit people and hit them at full speed. There wasn't enough of that, but there was more of that today than the last guys."
- McNeal said he was in for two series but had a pass breakup, a big hit near the sideline and a tackle for a loss on a bubble screen to Philip Pierre-Louis. "I only got out there for like two series, but I made the best of it," he said.
- Freshman DE Justin Delaine was back practicing after missing some time with an ankle problem.
- Defensive line coach Tracy Rocker continues to sound impressed by freshmen DT Jeffrey Whitaker and DE Corey Lemonier. "They’ve gotten better every day going against the ones," he said. "They still make mistakes, but we’re able to go back in the film room and they come back and don’t do that same mistake again."
- Rocker on the approach of today's practice: "With the young guys we didn’t want to be doing a whole lot of things with them. We wanted to see if they could take on a block correctly, get off a block and do everything correctly. Let’s learn to play football and take on blocks and see who’s physical enough to play football in this league."
- Rocker doesn't plan on sitting any of the freshmen out this year. "I don’t see any redshirts," he said. "I don’t. I think everyone’s going to have to contribute. With this recruiting class, our selling point was, you’re going to have to come here and play. Don’t come here thinking you’re going to sit and redshirt. We told everyone, you’re going to have to come and help us right now."
8 comments:
Even though I am sure that it is a planned strategy by the coaching staff, it does make me uneasy to repeated see less-than-whole-hearted comments about Newton at QB (the coaches seem to be trying to do that about the whole team. I understand that they do not want to raise expectations and such, but it would be great to see Gus or Gene give us some really good news about Newton.
It does seem like they've been slow-playing him the whole time. I think they want to keep him motivated.
I wouldn't talk big about any QB. Let him prove it on the field not in practice! Newton is gonna be GOOD.
AB - thanks so much for this great report. Not sure anyone else will be able to read it, cause I think I sopped all the text clean off the web page.
THT lol!
With Newton I think the coaches know it's the calm before the storm. Our offense will be explosive and coaches don't want to tip their hats I would say. But Coach Malz has been saying all along he likes all his QBs, that's nothing new.
I think it's safe to say that Ladarius Phillips will be getting on the field this year. How 'BIG' is it to go from playing at Handley High to SEC contributor in one year?!? He'll be playing in front of 85,ooo now. And imagine all the other highly rated 2010 recruits across the country that won't see the playing field this year. War Eagle
Here's an interesting thought to ponder. "What was the total attendance to all the Handley High game for Ladarius Phillips career?" I'll bet it was less than 85,000! How big will the butterflies be when it's first and goal on the Ark State 2 in a couple of weeks?
We had trouble scoring TDs from short yardage last year. With Lutzenkirchen at tight end, Phillips at FB, and Fannin at RB it should be an entirely different story this year.
It's not too surprising. After all, Daren Bates was a two-star guy and he had the biggest impact of any freshman last year.
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