Running back Eric Smith will surrender to Auburn police Monday after an additional third-degree assault complaint was filed against him stemming from an alleged altercation early Friday morning, according to a report in the Opelika-Auburn News today.

Smith, 19, was arrested for disorderly conduct at 1:42 a.m. Friday morning in the parking lot of the Lexington Hotel on South College St. after police responded to a call about a fight. He was taken to Lee County Detention Center and released on $300 bond.

A warrant for his arrest was issued later Friday, according to the O-A News. According to a victim's report, a 22-year-old male was treated for injuries in the hotel parking lot at the same time. He was taken to East Alabama Medical Center for a laceration over his left eyebrow.

Assault in the third degree is a Class A misdemeanor under Alabama law. Punishment is not more than $6,000 and one year in jail.

Smith did not practice with the team Friday or Saturday and his status with the team remains ambiguous. Head coach Gene Chizik called the incident a "family matter between Eric, myself and our football team." He said is Smith were to be in an Auburn football uniform again, he would have "paid a price."

AUBURN, Ala. — There were no winners or losers in Auburn’s scrimmage Saturday, no convoluted scoring system, no definitive standout players.

Instead the Tigers focused on procedural matters during their third, and perhaps final, scrimmage of the preseason, a minimal contact workout at Jordan-Hare Stadium during which the team practiced specific game situations while trying to hone the communication between staff and players.

“There wasn’t a winner,” cornerback Walt McFadden said. “Everybody had the mindset of knowing what to do. It was a mental thing — trying to get in the right spots.”

Auburn coaches touted the team’s physical nature in its first two scrimmages but pulled back the reins Saturday, instructing players to swarm to the ball but not tackle to the ground.

The focus instead shifted to situational work, the majority of which came against a scout-team look. Head coach Gene Chizik mapped out a variety of scenarios for his team to handle, ranging from standard two-minute drills to what to do when a player goes down with an injury.

“When that comes up in a game, everybody will be calm and relaxed because we’ve done it before,” said quarterback Chris Todd, who got most of the reps Saturday.

Some other notes from the closed scrimmage ...

• The offense worked on hurry-up situations. I'm sure everyone is saying, "Don't they hurry up all the time?" Yes, but this is different. “I think you’ve just got to be aware of the clock and the situations that present (themselves) — if there’s a dead ball, if it’s not a dead ball, how many timeouts,” offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. “That’s the biggest difference. But I think it does help us. We’re used to going fast anyways, so I’d like to think there was not as much panic as there is with some other offenses.”

• Interesting comment from Chizik today about adding plenty of end-game scenarios because he expects Auburn to play in plenty of close games. “Our thing right now, when we win games at Auburn, it’s going to come down to the last two minutes, and that’s the way we’ve got to feel,” he said. “We’ve got to be very efficient at those parts of the game and we’ve got a long way to go in that direction.”

• Defensively, the team focused on boundary awareness and seamlessly getting different personnel on the field. “All those things that could come up,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said. “Substitution things, as a coaching staff, the communication on the headsets, who’s responsible for what. Charting this, charting that, just all the things that go into game day that make up a successful performance.”

• Chizik, and later Malzahn and Roof, said the depth chart is about 90 percent settled.

• Chizik on the scrimmage overall: “We really got a great feel of what we weren’t doing well, which it was very apparent out there that there was a lot that we weren’t doing well,” he said, not going into specifics. “But (we’re creating) teaching tools and I think we got out of today what we wanted.”

• Auburn only plans to have two assistant coaches in the press box this year -- running backs coach Curtis Luper and Phillip Lolley. They were there Saturday, while Chizik, Malzahn, Roof, safeties coach Tommy Thigpen, offensive line coach Jeff Grimes, wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor and special teams coordinator Jay Boulware were on the sideline.

• Malzahn has never coached from the box in his career. “That’s what I’m used to,” he said. “I like being there with that quarterback and looking him in the eye. A lot of times you can really read your quarterback and, for that matter, read your whole offense when you’re down there. And as long as our coaches do our job, we can be very efficient with that.”

• Here are some facts we gleaned from the players and coaches afterward:

• Running back Onterio McCalebb had a long run that didn’t go for a touchdown.

• Todd threw a long touchdown pass. He also led the team on a nice two-minute drill, according to McFadden.

• Freshman wide receiver Anthony Gulley made a one-handed catch. “It was so pretty,” McFadden said. “It was like a post-corner ball. Todd put it out there thinking Gulley was 6-foot-7. He reached out with those long arms and made a great play. It looked like two fingers.”
  

• Chizik didn't really give a definitive answer on if the team is closer to making a decision on whether or not to burn the redshit on freshman quarterback Tyrik Rollison. “That’s a really delicate situation,” Chizik said. ‘The final thought analysis is, is he ready to help us win games right now? That’s what it’s going to be. Not just him, that’s any redshirt. Where can he contribute right now to help us win games? If we feel there’s two guys or three guys in front of him, obviously he’s not ready to help us win games right now. That’s what’s going to be our measuring stick. That’s for every position, not just quarterback.”

Auburn went through a short, largely procedural scrimmage Saturday morning, working on different situations that might come up throughout a game. There were a lot of two-minute situations and plenty of special teams work.

"I think we got accomplished what we wanted to get accomplished," head coach Gene Chizik said. "We're really going to have good film on what we didn't do well. It was very apparent out there that there was a lot that we weren't doing well. But I think we got out of today what we wanted."

Here are some quick notes before I start delving into interview transcripts ...

• This scrimmage was less physical than the previous two. The team didn't tackle to the ground, instead simply wrapping up ballcarriers.

• Some coaches were in the booth while other were on the field so the team could work on communication.

• Chris Todd got most of the reps today. Tyrik Rollison said he and Neil Caudle got mostly "mental reps."

• Chizk said the depth chart is about 90 percent settled. He did not say what is still unsettled, although we can make some pretty good guesses (backup QB, starting safety).

• I'll have a more detailed report in a little bit.

Since the Eric Smith saga is sure to draw plenty of interest, here's an early look at the story I wrote about it tomorrow.

AUBURN, Ala. — Gene Chizik didn’t say whether or not running back Eric Smith has a future with the Auburn football team after the sophomore was arrested for disorderly conduct in the early hours of Friday morning.

If Smith does, Chizik said, he will have paid a price.

The Auburn head coach refused to go into specifics of Smith’s misdemeanor arrest in the parking lot of a local hotel, calling it a “family matter” between Smith, himself and the team. Smith did not practice Friday and was not on the sidelines watching.

Chizik called a team meeting to discuss the incident prior to Friday’s practice. Although he did not reveal Smith’s punishment publicly, he assured members of the media that the situation had been addressed.

“We have certain expectations of an Auburn man and quite frankly he didn’t live up to that,” Chizik said after practice. “If you see him in an Auburn uniform again, I can guarantee you that he’s paid a price to be an Auburn man and he’ll be a lot better one at that point than he is now.”

Chizik did not clarify Smith’s status with the team, refusing to answer further questions on the subject. He stonewalled four straight questions about the incident before growing irritated, saying to assembled reporters, “If y’all want to talk about football, that’d be a great idea.”

Smith, 19, was arrested Friday morning at 1:42 a.m. outside the Lexington Hotel on South College St., a few miles south of downtown Auburn. He was sober and did not resist arrest, according to a partially redacted report provided by the Auburn Police Department.

Smith was transported to Lee County Detention Center, according to Auburn police Capt. Tom Stofer. He was booked and released on $300 bond, according to the Opelika-Auburn News.

Stofer said Auburn police responded to the Lexington Hotel after receiving a call about a fight. At that point, a different Auburn student was arrested for public drunkenness, the O-A News reported. Smith was arrested for disorderly conduct shortly thereafter.

Smith has a Nov. 5 court date, although his charge can be resolved without going to trial.

A native of Seffner, Fla., just outside of Tampa, Smith has battled Mario Fannin, Onterio McCalebb and Dontae Aycock for carries behind starter Ben Tate. The 5-foot-10, 237-pound tailback ran 21 times for 83 yards as a freshman last year.

“He really understands the system and he’s just a jack-of-all-trades,” running backs coach Curtis Luper said two days ago. “He can do it all. He’s a great pass protector, he has great hands, he can run the football, he can block.”

Chizik specifically cited Smith as being one of the players who stood out during Auburn’s first scrimmage a week and a half ago.

Although Chizik did not reveal Smith’s penalty, he’s been stern with previous punishments. This summer, he dismissed three backup defensive players — linebacker Marcus Jemison, safety Christian Thompson and defensive lineman Jomarcus Savage — for various disciplinary reasons.

Chizik said the team has a curfew policy in place but declined to give specifics.

Head coach Gene Chizik met with assembled reporters today to speak about the Eric Smith situation. He did no provide much information or clarity in an exchange that got testy at times.

(Opening statement)
I want to start out and I want to address a situation that probably most of you are aware of with one of our players, Eric Smith. It was an incident that I've spent a lot of the day fact-finding and doing a lot of research on the incident, and I'm not going to go into any details or specifics on the matter. In my opinion, it's a family matter between Eric, myself and our football team. But I can assure you that is has been addressed. I've met with the young man, I've met with our football team. We have certain expectations of an Auburn man and quite frankly he didn't live up to that. So we've addressed it and if you see him in an Auburn uniform again I can guarantee you that he's paid a price to be an Auburn man and he'll be a lot better one at that point than he is now.

So I don't want to belabor the point and I don't want to again get into specifics or details of the situation. But again, i can assure you, we've addressed it.

(Was he out there today?)
Uh, no he was not.

(Will he be back out at practice?)
Again, we're not going to go into details on any of that.

(What do you tell the team?)
Again, I'm not going into any of the details. Again, that's a family matter.

(Will there be any reprimand?)
Again, I'm not going into the details of any of the specifics at all in the matter.

(Were any other players arrested?)
I'm not going into any of the specifics or details of the matter. If y'all want to talk about football, that'd be a great idea.

(After several football-related questions, the discussion moved back to Smith at the end)

(Do you have a curfew for your players?)
We have a policy in place. The details of that policy right now I'm not going to get into.

(Just to clarify, is Eric Smith still a member of the team?)
I'm not going into any more details.

Less than a day after his misdemeanor arrest for disorderly conduct, running back Eric Smith did not participate in Auburn's practice Friday evening.

Smith, as reported before, was arrested at 1:42 a.m. outside of the Lexington Hotel on South College Street. He posted $300 bond and was released shortly after arriving at the Lee County Detention Center.

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik will meet with reporters after practice today. We'll have more then.

A few other early observations ...

• Safety Mike McNeil was a new addition to the group of players riding exercise bikes during practice, and for once that's a good thing. McNeil, who broke his leg last April, has not done much of anything during Auburn's practices this August.

• Other notable non-participants include OL Byron Isom, WR Terrell Zachery, DB D'Antoine Hood and DL Zac Clayton.

• There were plenty of fumbles during stretching drills today. Coaches took great delight in knocking the ball out at least four times. Today's victims? QB Clint Moseley, RB Ben Tate and QB Tyrik Rollison, twice.

• Auburn did some different special teams work at the start of practice. The Tigers worked on rushing a field goal unit onto the field. Jay Boulware yelled out the situation as such: time is running down, there are no timeouts left, it's fourth down so you can't spike the ball. He yelled out 8.94 seconds as a time it took the line to rush onto the field, set themselves and get a snap off. Apparently it wasn't good enough. "Got to be faster than that," Boulware said.

• The Tigers also ran a fake field goal where the holder flipped the ball over his head to a running Wes Byrum, ala LSU a couple years ago.

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn sophomore running back Eric Smith was arrested for misdemeanor disorderly conduct early Friday morning after a dispute in the parking lot of a local hotel.

Smith, 19, was arrested at 1:42 a.m. outside the Lexington Hotel on South College St., a few miles south of downtown Auburn. He was transported to Lee County Detention Center, Auburn police Capt. Tom Stofer said. Smith was sober and did not resist arrest, according to the police report.

Stofer said another incident occurred at the Lexington Hotel at the same time, although he was not sure if the two events were related. Police responded after receiving a call that a fight was taking place. Auburn police have not released information about that event.

A native of Seffner, Fla., just outside of Tampa, Smith has battled Mario Fannin, Onterio McCalebb and Dontae Aycock for carries behind starter Ben Tate. The 5-foot-10, 237-pound tailback ran 21 times for 83 yards as a freshman last year.

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik is scheduled to meet with reporters after Friday's evening practice.

I wrote a story for the print edition of our newspaper about freshman OL John Sullen. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. — A cold, hard number stared incoming Auburn freshman John Sullen in the face when he stepped on a scale at the end of May.

The offensive lineman had ballooned to 357 pounds, almost 20 more than his playing weight during his senior season at Auburn High last year, a fact he knew would enrage his soon-to-be college coaches.

“They were … whooooooo,” Sullen said, giving a lengthy exhale while shaking his head. “I don’t think I can say some of the things.”

Three months later, Sullen has shed 25 pounds and appears to be making a move in the backup offensive line pecking order. The freshman practiced with the first team at right guard Wednesday in place of the injured Byron Isom.

“It means a lot that coach has the faith to put me in there,” Sullen said. “And I really feel like I’ll be able to help the team soon.”

Read the rest of the story here.

Sullen's an interesting case. It didn't seem like he would be a candidate to play right way, but Auburn's depth problems on the offensive line already make him one of the options as a backup. It'll be interesting to see how Auburn plays things -- if it burns a redshirt on Sullen to use him in a backup role or if it chooses to patch things together in a reserve situation with another veteran player.

Offensive line coach Jeff Grimes sounds like he'll play whoever is capable of being on the field. And right now that looks like Sullen and walk-on Jorell Bostrom, neither of whom have seen any college action. That's not a good sign for an Auburn offensive line that's hoping nobody in its starting five gets hurt this season, which, as history shows, is an inevitability.

Another late one tonight (don't worry, tomorrow's practice starts at a much more reasonable 4:20 p.m.). So again, bypassing the fancy intro, here are some notes we gleaned from an evening's worth of interviews.

(But first, I'll insert a shameless Twitter plug here)

• Auburn's search for a No. 2 quarterback continues, with Tyrik Rollison, Neil Caudle and Clint Moseley still getting reps. Kodi Burns still does some quarterback work after practice, but the majority of his time is spent at wide receiver.

• There seems to be a lot of debate about whether or not to burn the redshirt year on Rollison. Here's what Malzahn had to say: "You’ve got to really ask yourself, 'Can he really help our team win?’ We’re still trying to figure that out. He’s extremely talented and performed well in scrimmages and seems to be catching on the offense at a pretty good pace. We’re asking a lot of him. We’re just trying to figure out who our No. 2 and No. 3 guy is. I think before the season. Coach (Gene) Chizik and I will sit down and figure out the order. We’ll just have to see how the season plays out. Obviously, you’ve got a talented guy, and if he’s going to play, you’re going to play him."

• When prodded further is there's a plan to play Tyrik, Malzahn said this: "You don’t want to waste anybody, and especially if they’re talented. We’re not even close to that. Coach Chizik and I will sit down and figure that out."

• Chris Todd is not the most fleet-footed quarterback on the roster, but Malzahn thinks he's mobile enough to be effective. "I think you have to have a quarterback who can make plays when things break down," he said. "That doesn’t always mean you have to have great mobility, but you have to be a good decision-maker. We have to put him situations where he can be successful, too."

• WR Terrell Zachery (leg) is expected back soon. "We just want to make sure all of our guys are 100 percent when we get to the first game," Malzahn said.

• Auburn went full pads Thursday, working on mostly situational work. "We had a lot of situations, which is really good for us, especially for our inexperienced guys, even our experienced guys," Malzahn said. "We put our guys in game-type situations that coach Chizik has been talking about, and it was really good for our team."

• There's a scrimmage a-comin' on Saturday, possibly the team's last of the preseason. While the first two were primarily evaluation scrimmages, this one is a little different. "Now, we’ll turn the young guys loose, even the guys we feel like can help us this year, they need experience," Malzahn said. "There’s nothing better than getting that in real scrimmage situations in the stadium."

• Contrary to popular opinion, Auburn DOES have some backup middle linebackers. Harris Gaston and walk-on Wade Christopher have been working there.

• Defensive coordinator Ted Roof on Gaston: "You see the light come on, get a little bit brighter each day. It’s still not a bright light, but you see it get a little bit brighter every day."

• Roof had a good quote about backups needing to be prepared to play. "As a coach you have to plan for every situation that could possibly happen," he said. "At the same time guys that are in backup roles need to understand they’re one ankle away from playing as far as a preparation standpoint. That’s just where we are right now."

• We got a lot of good stuff from DE Nosa Eguae, who's a bright, well-spoken kid for a freshman. I'm planning on doing a feature on him for Saturday's paper so I don't want to spoil too much of it now. He did have this nugget on why a Texas boy would leave Big 12 country to play in the SEC: "Some people questioned it. Some people were like 'Go to (Texas) Tech, go to (Texas) Tech.' Some people were like, (Texas) A&M came in at the last second. When you come here and you see what's in the SEC, I keep telling the boys back home that are being recruited by Auburn right now, it just doesn't compare. I've been in those Big 12 schools, the SEC is the place to be."

Auburn's new coaching staff has been extremely tight-lipped about injuries with us local media, but apparently that's not quite the case when someone like ESPN's Chris Low makes a trip to the Plains.

Low spoke to some coaches today and put the following story up on the Web. Most of it is about depth concerns, which we've covered at great length, but he write a few things about injuries that nobody seems to want to say on the record to us (and to be fair, he didn't quote anybody directly, so he might have gotten this information not for attribution).

Here are two parts:

The Tigers don't expect to have Tim Hawthorne (broken foot) for the first four games, meaning the guys who will start the season atop the receiver rotations are Montez Billings, Terrell Zachery and Darvin Adams.

And ...

Injuries to Aairon Savage and Mike McNeil have put the Tigers in a tough spot at safety. Savage tore his Achilles and is out for the season, while McNeil is still rehabilitating from a broken leg and probably won't be available until midseason at the earliest.

None of that news is particularly surprising, since McNeil and Hawthorne have not done much of anything this August. But I've not seen or heard anything definitive until now about how long they might be out.