Observations: Day 7 of Auburn Football Fall Camp
The Tigers opened the second week of camp by going full pads for the first time — and it featured a surprise 11-on-11 drill with a major highlight.
AUBURN — The second week of “fall” camp at Auburn was under a heat advisory.
There was simply no hiding from the grind Wednesday morning at the football complex. Not only was it blazing hot, even well before noon, it was the first day of full pads on the Plains. It’s a level of work that you’ve gotta embrace — or else.
“It feels amazing,” running back Omar Mabson II said. “We finally get contact.”
Auburn had a surprise move to full-contact, 11-on-11 action early in practice. It ended practice the same way, with the offense and defense going full speed at each other. This time, crowd noise was pumped into the speakers, trying to simulate some of the atmosphere that the Tigers will finally get to hear in a few weeks in their first game.
Like any practice, there were highs and there were lows. Everything seemed more amplified with the presence of full pads and real contact between anyone not sidelined or not wearing an orange protective jersey.
“It was spirited,” running backs coach Larry Porter said afterwards. “Obviously some mistakes, but we could appreciate the intentional act with our players — in terms of just being focused and putting themselves in position to truly try to thrive in the moment where it got a little tougher for them.”
Media members were allowed to watch around the first 40 minutes of practice in the most eventful viewing window we’ve seen so far under head coach Alex Golesh. Afterwards, both Porter and special teams coordinator Jacob Bronowski talked about their respective units in interviews, along with several players from both sets.
Here’s everything we saw and heard on a hot Wednesday on the Plains. The Tigers will return to the field Thursday for a similar practice with a similar availability, followed by their first scrimmage of the fall Friday in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
And let’s start with the biggest highlight of fall camp’s viewing windows to date…
Early in the second period of practice, when the units were going through individual drills, a horn rang out and the clock was stopped. Every group dropped what they were doing and sprinted over to the defensive field, where they quickly transitioned into a surprise 11-on-11 offense versus defense drill.
No one seemed to know this was coming other than Golesh. Assistant coaches even looked surprised. “Enter Sandman” started playing over the speakers.
Here’s how the first-choice units lined up during this drill: