Observations: Day 5 of Auburn football spring practices

The pads are now on for the Tigers, who are starting to show some more early personnel movement under a new coaching staff in Week 2.

(Austin Perryman/Auburn Tigers)

AUBURN — There are still five months left before the start of the season, and spring practices can feel more like a football-like substance than anything resembling what we’re going to see on Saturdays in the fall.

But Thursday morning looked more like the real thing, because the pads came on for the Tigers.

Auburn went through its fifth day of spring practice on a sunny Thursday on the Plains. Media members were allowed to watch a handful of early periods of practice before talking to a wide range of players — including a surprise return to the roster.

The Tigers will wrap up their second week of practices Saturday, which will not feature any media availability. However, we’re expecting to be right back out there when Week 3 starts Tuesday morning, right before The Observer plans to head up to Indianapolis for the basketball team’s NIT semifinals.

Here is everything we saw and heard from Thursday’s practice at the football performance center, starting with a familiar face who is back on the team for another season at a position of need.

• Auburn has been looking for any potential late reinforcements it could add at edge rusher, and it’s officially gotten one in a surprise return: Chris Murray. The Sam Houston transfer played 277 snaps for Auburn last season, recording 15 quarterback pressures and 3.5 sacks. Murray showed up for Pro Day on Tuesday and revealed to media members that he had just gotten a waiver from the NCAA for an additional year of eligibility, based on an injury he suffered while at TCU in 2022. He was at practice Thursday, doing conditioning off to the side and ramping up for action again. He should be cleared for full practice soon.

• Murray even talked to reporters after practice: “I was coming to Pro Day, I was going to run my 40. I've been working. Honestly, the past two months was probably the biggest challenge of my life, you know? Because I'm still in school, I graduate this semester. I was literally just in the middle of everything. I had no idea. … Weight off my chest. I'm just so blessed and thankful.”

• The biggest highlight of the practice viewing window was the first look we’ve gotten at a full 11-man pace drill on defense. It appeared to be three different waves of a third-down package. All 11 players ran to “the ball,” hit the ground and then got up to sprint to reset for the next play. At the end, players had to sprint off the field, where assistant coaches were there to make sure they finished the drill.

• Here’s who lined up in the three waves. Keep in mind that a) this is March, b) not every single player is in every single package on defense and c) there is going to be plenty of mixing and matching. For example: Cody Sigler, the defensive tackle transfer who has been the talk of spring ball so far, wasn’t in this drill. Proceed with caution, but enjoy the information nonetheless.