AUBURN – After months of socially remote training, Zoom meetings and guided tours, Auburn was nevertheless able to bring genuine live football practices to players this week. The Tigers finished their fifth of 25 allowed with a scrum at Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday. They are expected to receive Kentucky in the same frame in less than five weeks from today.
“Overall, I think we had a smart week just going back to the track,” coach Gus Malzahn told Zoom on Saturday. “It gave our apprentices a very clever concept of our players’ stage.”
Of course, this is just a partial image of Auburn’s location. On Saturday, the first time players can put on full pads from the U.S. Outback Bowl. January 1: They wore helmets only on Mondays and Tuesdays and shells on Wednesday and Thursday. There’s still a long way to go.
But it looks like the Tigers got off to a smart start. Here are five things we learned in the first week of fall camp:
This has not been the case. Auburn has 33 players and a coach tested positive during the summer, many of whom came here during a series about a month ago. The convening of a Zoom assembly to respond was of sufficient concern. Players discussed how team members were with women and youth who fought cancer, and how temporarily the coronavirus can spread.
The message, ultimately, was for everyone to be responsible, make sacrifices for the sake of their teammates, and hold everyone else accountable. Worked. While some Power Five systems had to temporarily suspend practices due to positive team controls or high rates of infection on campus, the Tigers conducted two sets of Sunday checks (August 9-16) without new cases.
“We’ll have to continue to do it now that there are students returning to campus,” Malzahn said.
Malzahn believes that Auburn has claimed “the toughest schedule in school football” almost every year he has been the head coach, and it’s hard to argue with him: no other team at the convention (or country) has to play in Alabama. Georgia and LSU annually. Half of the Tigers’ 12 regular-season games last year were played against the 15 most sensitive preseason teams.
So, betting two more opposing convention games to Tennessee and South Carolina will scare them. In fact, it’s a less difficult draw than the neutral-based game opposed to Oregon and the roadside game in Florida they played last season.
“Put me in a parking lot with bears and I’ll pass the game. Anyway,” says the main supporter K.J. Britt. “I think our calendar has been preparing us since I was here for a season like this. We spend week after week, year after year, from a complicated schedule to a complicated schedule. I think that’s what Auburn’s used to.
The rookie of the red blouse turns out to appear in each and every video and series of images that Auburn has released from within his well-kept practice bubble. We saw him blow up races in the middle and catch a series of passes out of the backfield.
Of course, this would possibly be just a coincidence: Malzahn said Auburn’s division was also split between Richards, Tank Bigsby, Shaun Shivers and Harold Joiner on Saturday. Dj. Williams, the team’s most productive backup player, did not participate, but is scheduled to return next week.
But the Tigers are incredibly superior to Richards, the former four-star athlete from Wellington, Florida, who has been compared to Kerryon Johnson for his ability to rush and get (and who casually also wears number 21). It turns out that the rookie red blouse is in a position to show what he is capable of after a knee injury left him out of last season.
“Mark comes to paint the same day with that chip on his shoulder,” said junior offensive lineman Brodarious Hamm. “He must be the boy.”
It’s too early to say that something is up front, especially since Malzahn relies on first-year offensive coordinator Chad Morris and current coach Jack Bnellick Jr. to make the final decision. They rotated two depths in the first five practices.
But we were able to have a concept of who those great players are. Hamm, who was part of the right take, and half-shot Nick Brahms, the only starting runner, are two of them. The transfer of graduates from Akron, Brandon Council, has received positive reviews for his delight and ability to play positions (at least left and middle this week). Junior Tashawn Manning and red-shirt rookie Keiondre Jones were the first beginner team escorts to surround Brahms on the first day of practice. Malzahn spoke of Austin Troxell, Kilian Zierer and Alec Jackson as the other players in the combined to play the left shot.
Turns out there’s a clever chance that Auburn’s fifth starter at the front can get out of this eight-year-old organization.
One of the things Malzahn said that marked it on Saturday was how Auburn’s new freshman academics had “a greater understanding than any other youth organization before so early in practice.” The explanation is the weeks of visits in which they were able to participate before the start of the autumn camp, which is exclusive to this year, since COVID-19 cancelled the spring practice and delayed the start-up of the season. .
That may end up being of very important importance, as the Tigers believe they might want to throw players into the chimney right away. Secondary medical protocols are provided for 10 days of quarantine for anyone who tests positive and 14 days for high-risk contract follow-up. Second and third team players should be more prepared than the usual players to play the featured roles if a starter is not available.
It turns out that there is space on the intensity map for many of Auburn’s 21 true new students, especially the ball carrier (Bigsby), the open receiver (Ze’Vian Capers, Elijah Canion, JJ Evans, Kobe Hudson), the tight finish (Brandon Frazier, JJ Pegues), defensive line (Jay Hardy, Zykeivous Walker), supporter (WesleyEr, Desmond Tidol, Cam Riley) and defensive part (Eric Reed Jr. , Chris Thompson Jr., Ladarius Tennison).
“We have to be in a position to have more depths,” Malzahn said. “That’s how we see it.”
Josh Vitale is the editor of Beat Auburn for broadcaster Montgomery. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshVitale. To succeed in it via email, click here. If you enjoy Josh’s coverage, a virtual subscription that will give you access to all of this.