Auburn Football Practice Report - AuburnTigers.com - Auburn University Official Athletic Site

Auburn Football Practice Report Tigers dodge the rain while working in full pads for the first time.

Aairon Savage

March 28, 2009

AUBURN - Inclement weather passed through East Alabama through much of the night and into the morning, but the Auburn football team was fortunate to dodge severe storms as the Tigers worked for two hours Saturday morning on the Athletic Complex practice fields. The 21-period session was the first in full pads for Auburn during spring drills.

The Tigers began the practice with special teams and moved to individual positions, before working on skelly drills and finishing with team periods.

"Today was our first day of any sort of contact, so it was interesting to say the least," Auburn head coach Gene Chizik said. "I thought we did some good things in practice. I thought at times we showed signs of being physical, but we certainly didn't make a habit of it today, which is what we have to get back to. They showed signs of having it in them, but at the end of the day, it wasn't nearly enough."

Chizik was pleased with the squad's effort, but emphasized the need to be physical through the entirety of practice and not just it small doses.

"I thought we did some nice things at times," Chizik said. "When we were physical offensively, we were able to run it and when we were physical defensively, we were able to stop the run. It was a good first day, but there's a ton of room for improvement. I liked their effort. They really tried hard."

Auburn will complete its first week of spring practice Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. CT on the Athletic Complex practice fields. Sunday's practice will be the Tigers' fourth of 15 over the next month.