Everything we heard about Auburn football's first fall scrimmage
Both the offense and the defense had their big moments Friday. But there's plenty to improve on for the Tigers with three weeks to go.
AUBURN — Do you really want to hear about one side dominating a scrimmage?
It’s the classic problem when it comes to reacting to a “game” in which a football team plays against itself: If the offense does extremely well, it’s a bad sign for the defense —or vice-versa.
But fans want to hear about touchdowns, big plays and forced turnovers. But is there a magic number? Is there a limit? How much balance do you want to hear about?
The answer is, of course, going to vary for everybody. Still, it’s probably not a bad sign when a team exits its first fall scrimmage with highs and lows for both sides of the ball.
“There were some bright spots, and this is going to sound like coach talk, but there was also some pre-snap stuff that is not how you can function offensively,” Alex Golesh said Friday afternoon. “There were some bright spots on defense ,and then there was some tackling stuff that looked like it was our second time tackling.”
Well, it was the second day tackling. Auburn was in full pads for the first time Wednesday, then it spent Thursday in shells inside to get ready for the scrimmage.
The tackling issues were just part of what was described by Golesh as a day that was far from polished. That might be expected from a team with so many new pieces, but Golesh wasn’t pointing back to that Friday.
“I would walk out and say, overall, sloppy day on both sides,” Golesh said. “Could make an excuse and say ‘first scrimmage.’ We didn’t look like a veteran team. We looked like a team that has highs and lows and is emotional and rides with that — which is the complete opposite of what we want.
“So, a lot to work on. Like, a ton to work on. That’s the truth on that.”
Here’s everything we heard about what happened inside Jordan-Hare Stadium during the Friday scrimmage: