Everything we saw and heard on Day 5 of Auburn fall camp
Payton Thorne's improvement, Bug Thompson's voice and Connor Lew's leadership headline a loaded Tuesday practice notebook.
RB Damari Alston and WR Sam Jackson V (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
Auburn has only been back on the practice field for a few days. But with the start of the regular season just a little over three weeks away, it’s starting to look more and more like real football on the Plains again.
That much was apparent toward the end of just a 20-minute media viewing window Tuesday morning. Pads were popping. Bodies were flying. Coaches were yelling.
“If you come to an Auburn practice, it’s probably gonna be one of the most intense practices you’ve been to,” running back Damari Alston said afterwards. “It's a lot of back and forth between the offense and the defense. I just love it. I just love it. It's a lot of intensity, a lot of competition.”
The pressure is on for the Tigers to snap their streak of consecutive losing seasons, secure another high-level round of crucial talent acquisition and take the next step toward getting the program back to where it belongs.
As Alston noted Tuesday, there are always things to work on. Auburn isn’t an SEC contender on paper — either in overall talent level or preseason expectations. There’s a renewed sense of confidence in camp, but that doesn’t erase the question marks.
That makes every practice an important opportunity, and none of the Tigers can let them go to waste.
“We’re competing real well on both sides of the ball,” safety Jerrin “Bug” Thompson said Tuesday. “We’re going well. First five days of camp have been really good, lots of production going on. We’re getting after it. Still stacking our days.”
After the viewing window and another round of interviews with five more players, here’s everything that we saw and heard on Day 5 of fall camp at the football performance center.
And we’ll start with the most crucial position on the field.
QB Payton Thorne (Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)
Can a confident Payton Thorne be a better Payton Thorne?
During the viewing window Tuesday, the wide receivers went through a circuit of three drills. The first stop worked on hand placement and downfield blocking.
The second and third drills were similar: Go through a chute that emphases proper pad level, and then catch a deep ball thrown by either Payton Thorne or Holden Geriner. (On the other side of the offensive field, Walker White and Hank Brown worked with the running backs and offensive line on rushing plays.)
Granted, the routes were against air, and there was no pressure on the quarterback except for the watchful eyes of the coaching staff. But Thorne was still sharp in the drill, completing all of his deep balls except for one — a clear-cut drop from a receiver.
That’s been an early theme of fall camp for Auburn: Thorne has looked good throwing the ball. There’s a clear difference when he’s passing compared to the backup quarterbacks, and he’s got a stronger command of the offense as the veteran starter.