In researching my story for today's paper about penalties, I catalogued all of Auburn's penalties last season -- all 97 of them, which resulted in 847 yards of penalties, the second most in the SEC.

Somehow, my total kept adding up to 851 yards when I typed everything out, so I've tacked on 4 yards to one of these penalties. But the numbers are close enough that I think they give you a good idea of where Auburn's penalty yardage came from:

Offense (46 penalties for 350 yards)

• False start 18-90
• Holding, offense 9-90
• Illegal block 3-40
• Delay of game 4-20
• Personal foul, offense 2-30
• Face mask 2-30
• Illegal shift/motion 3-15
• Illegal formation 2-10
• Tripping 1-15
• Ineligible downfield 1-5
• Substitution infraction 1-5

Defense (41 penalties for 416 yards)

• Personal foul, defense 7-105
• Pass interference 10-94
• Face mask, defense 7-89
• Offsides 10-51
• Roughing the passer 2-30
• Unsportsmanlike conduct 2-30
• Holding, defense 2-12
• Sideline interference 1-5

Special teams (10 penalties for 85)

• Holding 3-30
• Illegal block 2-25
• Delay of game 2-10
• Roughing the kicker 1-10
• Personal foul 1-5
• Illegal formation 1-5

And here's Auburn's penalty breakdown by quarter:

• 1st: 34
• 2nd: 19
• 3rd: 23
• 4th: 20
• OT: 1

Lastly, here are some other interesting facts I came across when breaking things down:

• The Tigers committed nine penalties them that were declined.

• LT Lee Ziemba and RT Andrew McCain tied for the team lead in false start penalties, with five apiece. That's not surprising, considering they're on the outside and it's hard to be in a stance like that and still hear the snap count.

• What was interesting, though, was that Ziemba didn't have any holding calls against him. Now, there was one holding penalty against the offense that was not labeled, and Auburn had two unidentified holding penalties against the offense that were declined, so those might have been against Ziemba. But for all the flak he catches about procedure penalties, it's pretty remarkable how few holds he commits, especially at a position like left tackle.

• Least penalized lineman? Center Ryan Pugh, who had one penalty, an illegal block against Tennessee that cost Auburn 15 yards.

• The most penalized Auburn player? CB Walt McFadden, who drew six flags. Four were for pass interference, although I think I remember at least one of those being a borderline call.

• Impressive stat: fellow CB Neiko Thorpe had only one pass interference penalty and two overall, getting hit with a holding call on another occasion.

• I forgot that Chris Todd got a holding penalty last year. Makes you wonder how a quarterback gets a flag like that.

• TE Tommy Trott had a few costly penalties but not as many as you would think. He had one false start, two holds and a face mask that came after an interception.

• Who had the most personal foul/unsportsmanlike conduct fouls? Safety Zac Etheridge, who had three, although DE Michael Goggans would have had three if one wasn't negating for being an offsetting penalty.

Auburn's back at practice tonight, so we'll have an update as soon as the open viewing session begins at 4:40 p.m. CT. In the meantime, enjoy this story on the Tigers' penalty problems from last year, which they're making it a point to address this preseason. Here's how it starts:

AUBURN, Ala. -- Auburn’s offense had just put 82 points on the board during a scrimmage, as thorough a bashing of the defense as there’s been this August.

Yet offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn remained displeased afterward, the few penalties his group committed gnawing away at his even-keeled temperament.

“That ain’t good enough,” the perfectionist said, unable to forgive or forget the mistakes.

Tigers coaches have beaten the drum all offseason -- eliminate the penalties that were so damaging last year.

Auburn committed 97 penalties for 847 yards last season, ranking 103rd nationally. That’s 65.5 yards per game. Of the teams in the SEC, only Georgia committed more penalties for more yards.

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Cam Newton's comments the other night got us to thinking: just how is Auburn perceived by the national media heading into the season? The Tigers are No. 22 in the Associated Press poll and No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches' poll, but what about the specifics?

Thankfully, the AP makes its ballots public. They're all on Pollspeak.com, an interesting site if you have some time to kill. Since Auburn is off today and there isn't much football news, let's look at the Tigers' breakdown:

• Auburn was on 41 of 60 ballots.

• The voter who has Auburn the highest is Joe Giglio of the Raleigh News & Observer. He has the Tigers 7th. If you take a look at his ballot, he has many extremes (like Boise State No. 1, which I support).
  

• He's the only one who has the Tigers in the top 10. Bill Cole, Coley Harvey, Desmond Conner, Bob Condotta, Jack Bogaczyk and Kirk Herbstreit have Auburn in the top 15.

• Interestingly, Herbstreit picked Auburn to win the West on SportsCenter last night. He still has Alabama ranked No. 1, however, so his ballot is more of an indication of accomplishment than predicted future success.

• A couple other SEC writers of note have Auburn pretty high:

• Kyle Veazey (Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson) has the Tigers 16th.
• Chip Cosby (Kentucky beat writer for the Lexington Herald-Leader) has them 17th.
• Randy Rosetta (LSU beat writer for the Advocate of Baton Route) has them 17th.
• Wes Rucker (Tennessee beat writer for the Chattanooga Times Free Press) has them 18th.

• Alabama has two voters. Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News has Auburn ranked 20th. Jon Solomon of the Birmingham News has the Tigers unranked.

What does all this mean? Well ... nothing. The polls usually are completely different looking after three or four weeks. Furthermore, none of it is factored into the BCS rankings, so a berth in a major bowl game doesn't ride on them anymore.

As for the national publications, there's nothing too out of the ordinary there. The Sporting News, Phil Steele, ESPN's Blue Ribbon and Game Plan pick Auburn to finish second in the SEC West. Everybody else has Auburn third or fourth, except for one outlier, the Football Outsiders, who pick the Tigers to finish fifth.

What is the blog's conclusion? That the season can't get here quick enough so we don't have to write anything more about this stuff.

Auburn might be ranked heading into the season, but quarterback Cam Newton said the Tigers still feel like underdogs.

"No doubt," Auburn's starting quarterback said. "Any time you turn on the TV or turn on the sports talk radio show or anywhere, they're talking about the other team."

Newton was referring to Alabama, which enters the season ranked No. 1 in the country after winning last season's national championship. Auburn, which went 8-5 in Gene Chizik's first year, is ranked No. 22 in the preseason Associated Press poll and No. 23 in the USA Today Coaches' poll.

"Of course we know that they're an excellent team as well," Newton said. "We feel like we're not being mentioned as we should be."

Newton didn't have an answer for why he thinks that is. But he's not concerned about it.

"We're just going to do what we're coached to do, and our No. 1 thing to do is win," he said. "And I guess if you win games, you'll silence all the critics."

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Here are some more notes and quotes from Sunday night's interviews:

• The Tigers are off Monday before resuming practice Tuesday evening. It will be the first full day of game preparation.

• Chizik thinks the team is itching to get the season started. "They’re tired of playing against each other, that’s for sure," he said. "That two-week window we talked about yesterday. It’s kind of that game. You’re seeing game on TV, you’re seeing NFL every weekend, and it’s time. It’s time to start preparing for the season in terms of opponents. I think they’re ready, they’re excited about it. I know coaching-wise we are."

• Chizik said the team still has not named a starting right tackle among John Sullen, A.J. Greene and Brandon Mosley. "That’ll probably be happening by Tuesday or Wednesday of this week," Chizik said. "I hate to put a deadline on something because there other variables in there, but we’d like to do it as soon as we could."

• Sullen thinks the competition has been healthy. "It just comes down to the point where we’re like, ‘OK, we’re friends and whoever wins the position battle, that’s not going to change that,’" Sullen said. "We’re going to stay friends. But we both have the mentality that coach (Jeff) Grimes is going to pick the best person. So that won’t even play a factor in it."

• No movement on the backup quarterback either. "I haven’t really put a lot of emphasis on that part of it because all of them have done a great job competing," Chizik said. "That’s something we’re definitely going to talk about because we have to pare those reps down, we know that. I don’t think I’ll use Tuesday as a landmark for that. But we feel really good about that backup position."

• After four injury-plagued seasons and three knee surgeries, senior guard Bart Eddins finally feels healthy. “Physically it’s probably the best I’ve been in two or three years,” he said. Eddins, a fifth-year senior who has appeared in 26 games and started one, has gone more than a year and a half since his last knee surgery, the date of which he can recite in an instant — Jan. 28, 2009. He sat out part of the spring after getting dinged up, but he’s avoided much down time this August. “When practice starts going and it starts bothering me real bad, they usually check up on me,” he said. “Or they say, if it starts to bother you real bad, just let us know. We’ll cut down on stuff. Sometimes I’m just riding the bike in practice. They’ve really helped out with modifying how much my knee gets worked, so therefore it doesn’t really swell up or get real bad.”

• Eddins knows finding playing time on an offensive line that returns four starters, including both guards, will be tough, but he’s fine with that. “My approach was to work hard like I was trying to start,” he said. “And if I didn’t get a starting job to be there and just help teach the younger guys that are coming up and to also be there for the starters if any of them are hurt.”

• Auburn has no established center behind Ryan Pugh, but redshirt freshman Blake Burgess would like to be the guy. Burgess, a redshirt freshman from Vestavia Hills, Ala., has packed on 50 pounds in the last year, going from 230 to 280. “I eat like crazy,” he said. “I’m trying to eat about six to eight times a day.”

• Burgess has worked some at guard to help Auburn create some depth and to get used to pulling, something he never did in high school. He and Jared Cooper have worked at the backup center spot, with an eye on the future. “I really look at it as an opportunity to learn from a senior offensive line that has done it all,” Burgess said. “They’ve been through a lot together, so it’s really inspiring, and I hope that next year if I get a chance to compete for that starting position, that I can draw on what they leave behind.”

• Chizik did another roll call of young players who stood out in Saturday's scrimmage: S Demetruce McNeal, S Ryan Smith, WR/HB Shaun Kitchens, CB Chris Davis and LB Harris Gaston.

• Freshman CB Ryan White, who dabbled at quarterback to start camp, is a little behind. "I think so because of the timing of the move," Chizik said. "But he’s a talented young guy."

• Running back Mario Fannin on his backups, Onterio McCalebb and Michael Dyer. "I feel like they're great backs," he said. "They have a lot of learning to do -- just like I do. Onterio brings speed and Mike brings both -- he's an inside runner and an outside runner. They're both going to help a lot in the long run."

• Fannin doesn't think Dyer, ESPN's top-ranked running back recruit last year, is cocky. "He's just confident," Fannin said. "He should be, especially when you're good and you can help your teammates out."

• There's a lot of talk that Newton's junior college numbers are more a factor of him being physically superior to his opponents. He refuted that idea Sunday. "I wouldn't say that," he said. "I just think there are a lot of players in junior college that have the capability of being Division I players, they just don't have the shot or the opportunity. You get people getting scholarship offers from junior college that they would never have got out of high school, so the coaches still look at junior college players. The talent is there."

• Newton was asked about the talent at Auburn vs. what was at Florida when he was there. He gave a very diplomatic answer while displaying some confidence. "We're not backing down," he said. "This year we've got this type of swagger about us that we're not scared." A reporter mentioned that the Gators aren't on the Tigers' schedule, so he didn't have to hold anything back, to which Newton retorted: "We have a chance to meet them in Atlanta if we do our job."
  

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."

Gene Chizik just stopped by the media room to talk about today's scrimmage. Here's what he said:

• Half-practice, half-scrimmage today. The team worked situations, two-minute drills and special teams.

• Lots of young guys again. The staff is working on making decisions on who can play.

• A lot of veterans didn't do much today. Predominantly young guys.

• Zac Etheridge got some live reps today. "He flew around today," Chizik said.
  

• Demetruce McNeal stood out to Chizik. So did Harris Gaston and Ladarious Phillips.

• Team didn't go live in punt return drills.

• Chizik thinks team has a bunch of holes to fit on special teams. Lots of freshmen will be asked to fill those spots.

• Chizik was not sure if this will be the last scrimmage before the first game.

• "We've got to start getting into preparing for opponents," Chizik said.

• Nothing new on the right tackle and backup quarterback spots.

The Associated Press released its preseason poll today. Auburn comes in at No. 22, one of six SEC teams in the Top 25.

The Tigers are ranked in both major polls to start the season. They were No. 23 in the preseason USA Today coaches' poll.

Auburn finished last season unranked in the AP poll, but it got as high as 19th after starting the season 5-0.

Here's the full poll. First-place votes in parentheses. The final number is points.

1. Alabama (54), 1491
2. Ohio State (3), 1400
3. Boise State (1), 1336
4. Florida, 1237
5. Texas (1), 1223
6. TCU, 1160
7. Oklahoma (1), 1104
8. Nebraska, 1033
9. Iowa, 1007
10. Virginia Tech, 973
11. Oregon, 870
12. Wisconsin, 822
13. Miami (FL), 785
14. USC, 590
15. Pittsburgh, 516
16. Georgia Tech, 511
17. Arkansas, 496
18. North Carolina, 397
19. Penn State 382
20. Florida State, 379
21. LSU, 300
22. AUBURN, 296
23. Georgia, 206
24. Oregon State, 198
25. West Virginia, 184

I put together a video of the highlights of tonight's interviews. It's got wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor, wide receiver Darvin Adams and linebacker Craig Stevens. Enjoy.

That's all for tonight. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon with a scrimmage update.

Safety Zac Etheridge has been cleared by Auburn’s medical staff to go live in Saturday’s scrimmage for the first time since suffering a serious neck injury last fall.

Etheridge, who tore ligaments in his neck and cracked one of his vertebrae last October against Ole Miss, missed all of spring practice and has been held out of full contact drills this August, despite being cleared medically in mid-July.

“I mean, it is a neck. It was a plan we had to work,” Etheridge said. “You can’t just throw me back out there. I’ve been out of the game for like six months, so you’ve got to give me time to get myself ready and physically.”

Etheridge had been given minimal clearance in the first few weeks of camp. He could participate in drills that involved light contact, but nothing major. Teammates could see him itching for contact, however.

“When we’re in skelly or whatever, we’re not supposed to hit, but you’ll see him just nudge somebody every now and then, just like he just wants to get a little bit in while he can,” linebacker Craig Stevens said. “So since he can go all out tomorrow, I’m pretty sure he’s going to let it out.”

Etheridge said he has no apprehension about going live again, nor does he feel like he’s behind in the competition. He’s working at free safety, Mike McNeil at strong safety and Aairon Savage at both.

Who’s first on Etheridge’s hit list?

“Whoever is in the way,” he said. “That’s going to be the first blow.”

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Here are some other notes and quotes from the night's interviews:

• Saturday's scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium will focus on the young guys again. "We tell them, don’t count the days, make the days count," said wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor, who sat in for Gene Chizik during Friday's interviews. "Win every drill, win in every opportunity you have a chance to compete. Because we’re grading."

• Auburn will take a long look at its punt returners in the stadium, going live for some portions so they can get used to catching the ball under pressure. “We’re going to send some live bullets at them,” said Taylor, who oversees the group. “They haven’t been hit.”

• Taylor gave a pecking order at the position as of Friday: Quindarius Carr is at the top, followed by Darvin Adams, Trovon Reed and Jonathon Mincy. “That order could be flipped in a heartbeat,” Taylor said. “The biggest thing you like is that they’re not letting the ball hit the ground. With punt return, it has to be a knack. If you have to teach a guy how to catch a punt, you’re probably down by seven. That’s probably where we were last year.”

• Adams still sounds like he'll return punts begrudgingly. "You know, I do a little somethin'," he said. "I just try to help the team in any positive way I can. If Coach Troop needs me to go out there and just fair catch the ball, if I need to do that, I would."

• Taylor gave no indication when injured wide receiver DeAngelo Benton (hand) would be back. "I hope so," Taylor said. "He’s really been working hard. The mental side, I’ve been testing him on that. We give him a written test to take home. Obviously he can phone a friend or get some help when he goes back to that dorm, but he’s gotten 100 percent every time. We’re going to see if it carries over to the football field. I don’t really talk to them very much when they’re in the tub, so he thinks right now that he’s on my ill-list. But I love the kid. But, again, you got to have him out there doing it."

• Adams doesn't seem to make many preseason watch lists. Why? "You've got to win," Taylor said. "You win 12, You win 10. That's going to give you the recognition you're looking for. The guy had three catches coming into the season. He did it on the field. First you put yourself out there. Then the next time, that's when you put yourself on the map. That's what we're trying to do now. It's good motivation for all of them."

• Trooper had high praise for Darvin, who happened to walk in to the interview room right when the coach was talking about him. "He'd play if all of us got together and got in the parking lot," Taylor said. "He'd play and try to win. He loves to play. That gives him a chance. If you ever want to see a player practice with the same speed he plays at, come watch Darvin. That's what you're going to get. The defense will tell you. You'd better not go thud or half speed. He's not. Even in shells, I have to slow him down. He's going to full speed. I'd rather say whoa than sick em myself. That doesn't bother me very much. Secondary coaches don't like it very much."

• Now that's he on the radar, Adams probably will get more attention thrown his way by defenses this year. "I don’t think about that," he said. "I just go out and execute the plays. If they do, that will open up somebody else, so that means somebody else will get the ball and I already know we’ve got a lot of play-makers on this team, so it won’t really matter if they double team me or not."

• Sophomore Emory Blake has been working at the "5" position (the slot), along with Kodi Burns, Derek Winter and Jay Wisner. "You just have to recognize things a little quicker, just with certain blitzes," Blake said. "You’ve got to pick them up."

• Stevens seems to think Daren Bates has made the switch to linebacker successfully. "Daren Bates is doing great," he said. "He just had to get used to the footwork that you use in the box, you know, shuffling and things like that. But as far as his running and hitting people and knowing his assignments, he's been picking that up quickly."

• Stevens echoed Ted Roof's statement Thursday that Eltoro Freeman, despite the toe injury, is coming along. "He's been picking up light years ahead of where he was last camp. He knows all the plays. You can hear him in the meeting rooms. Coach asks him a question (and) before he can even get the whole question out, Toro is trying to answer it. He's just ready to get out and prove himself. "

• The offense had a big day against the defense in the last scrimmage, something the latter took as a wake-up call. “All the way up until the last scrimmage we’ve been getting nothing but praise about how good we were and how good we’ve been doing,” Stevens said. “And I guess just having a scrimmage like that just showed us that we’re not invincible. We’re going to have some bad times. It’s just trying to find a way to pull through it.”

Senior Wes Byrum was named to the watch list for the Lou Groza Award, which is given annually to the nation's top kicker.

Byrum was a semifinalist for the award last year, when he set Auburn's single-season place-kicker record for points in a season with 99. He was 15-for-16 on field goals and made all 54 of his extra points.

Byrum enters the season fifth on the school's all-time scoring list with 240 points. He needs 73 to surpass John Vaughn (2003-06) as Auburn's all-time leading scorer.

There are 30 players on the Lou Groza watch list, with 15 semifinalists returning from last year. This year's semifinalists will be announced Oct. 29, with three finalists being selected Nov. 22. The winner will be announced Dec. 9.