Observations: Auburn football's final spring practice before A-Day

Here's nearly 3,000 words of what we saw in almost two whole hours of Thursday's practice, headlined by the passing attack.

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — Most of the attention in Auburn over the past month centered on the Tigers’ men’s basketball team and its run to the Final Four during what can be safely considered the program’s best-ever season.

Because of that, it might be strange to look up and see that spring football is almost over on the Plains already.

But it is Masters weekend, which traditionally means Auburn will head to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday for its annual A-Day. However, between a condensed spring practice schedule and a change to a free practice instead of an actual live scrimmage, things have just felt different to start Hugh Freeze’s third season.

He, and everyone else involved with Auburn football, will hope that leads to different results in the fall. So far, he’s liked what he’s seen.

“I couldn't be more pleased with the energy and effort that our kids have given,” Freeze said Thursday, after Auburn’s penultimate practice of the spring. “It's been some back and forth, for sure. Tuesday was dominated by the defense. Today, I thought the offense came back and did really well in every drill, except for the last one. That was good to see the defense respond.

“But I thought their energy at the end was really fantastic. They're playing hard. You've gotta give credit to the leadership of the team, both the coaches and the players, for that.”

Freeze said Saturday’s practice, which will be open to the public, will be a lot like what Auburn has gone through at the Football Performance Center this spring.

There will be individual position drills, followed by some pass skeleton work. After a live period featuring the younger Tigers, they’ll go through what Freeze calls a live “red-zone lockout” period.

“It's going to be first one to 18 wins,” Freeze said. “So, offense gets the ball on the 25, you score a touchdown and an extra point, that's seven. Defense stops you, you kick a field goal, that's three points for the offense, four for the defense. Miss the field goal, defense gets seven. A stop, somehow, or turnover, they get seven.

“So, first one to 18 wins that, and then end with an overtime period where we practice the overtime stuff.”

Media members got to watch nearly two hours of practice Thursday, when the Tigers showed a lot of the same stuff they’ll put on display for everybody else Saturday.

Here are our big takeaways from what we saw, starting with a modified two-deep look on offense and defense — along with the highlights from the 11-on-11 work:

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

Who stood out in 11-on-11 action