Practice Observations: What we saw from Auburn's QBs and more
It might be an "open competition" for Auburn's starting job vs. UK, but it didn't look — or sound — like it during Tuesday's practice.
AUBURN — For the first time in far too long, Auburn football got to hit the practice field Tuesday with the energy and excitement that can only come from a victory.
Auburn’s comeback road win over a collapsing Arkansas team wasn’t always pretty, and the Tigers know this season hasn’t lived up to expectations in the least.
“I think the guys are just hungry to come out here and continue to compete and go out there and win games,” quarterback Ashton Daniels said after practice. “Right now, we’re in a crunch mode. Those four losses hurt, but it’s where your feet are now, and that’s Kentucky. And the guys are hungry to go out there and get another SEC win.”
Auburn beat Arkansas with a lot from its defense and special teams — specifically, every single point except for the opening-drive touchdown.
But the Tigers stayed the course and didn’t let the issues on offense keep them from getting a chance at victory. And, to Hugh Freeze and his team’s credit, that’s been a theme for this team throughout his tenure.
“At the end of the day, we’re one,” defensive back Kensley Louidor-Faustin said. “Coach Freeze is always saying we’re a family. The defense has got the offense’s back, offense got defenses back and special teams got both of our backs. We just got to stay together.
“If we start pointing fingers, that’s when we lose. Start blaming other people for our mistakes, that’s when we lose. So we just stay together.”
Auburn will try to ride the momentum from its road win back home Saturday night against Kentucky, which also hasn’t won an SEC game this season. The Tigers are favored by a little more than a touchdown, needing a win like this to put them on track to achieve bowl eligibility again.
The state of the quarterback position, along with some injury updates to a pair of important offensive players, took full attention Tuesday in practice.
But there was also a sense that, even though Auburn’s production is pretty imbalanced at the moment, it’s not going to derail this team right now.
“We don’t really trip about that,” defensive tackle Bobby Jamison-Travis said. “We know we’ve got the offense’s back, no matter what. We’re a team, at the end of the day. Really, we just stick together. No matter what the offense does, we’ve got their back.
“They can have a real bad game and guess what? We’re still gonna be there with them.”
Here is everything we saw and heard during Tuesday’s practice at the football performance center, starting with the quarterback “competition.”
What we saw and heard during Tuesday’s practice
Ashton Daniels was the first quarterback up in almost every drill during Tuesday’s viewing window. Freeze said Monday that Daniels would split reps with Jackson Arnold throughout the week, and the staff would make a decision after an “open competition.”