Observations: What we saw to start Week 2 of Auburn football spring practice

The Tigers returned from spring break and got back to work — starting with a look at the 1s, 2s and 3s on offense and defense.

OL Izavion Miller (Austin Perryman/Auburn Athletics)

Hugh Freeze must have been feeling generous after his brief vacation.

Auburn football returned to the practice field Monday afternoon, following the first week of spring ball and a full week off for the university’s spring break.

Freeze talked with media members for a few minutes before the start of practice, then announced the decision to let everyone watch almost the entire first hour of drills instead of the usual 20-minute viewing window.

That extended window started with an offense vs. defense walkthrough, where the Tigers showed three different units on both sides of the ball.

Freeze has downplayed the importance of a depth chart in spring practices — this is a stretch where installation and getting everyone up to speed is much more important — but the players have to go in some order during drills.

And Monday gave us a glimpse at where the coaching staff might see the Tigers right now, during the early days of the new era.

Here are some Observations from a nearly hourlong viewing window to start Week 2 of spring practices, starting with the three offenses and defenses that we saw early.

Three waves on offense and defense

Freeze said the Tigers wouldn’t install anything Monday. Instead, the practice was used to reinforce what they learned in the first week of practices — which is important, coming off a week where everybody was off. (That included the coaches, who haven’t had a real break of any kind since they were hired.)

Three units on each side of the ball went through a walkthrough at the beginning of the window, and the offense had a pace period without a defense later in the practice. Let’s start with what we saw from the offense in pace: