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    Auburn Football Practice Report Tigers hold first scrimmage in Jordan-Hare Stadium.
    Eric Smith

    Eric Smith

    Aug. 9, 2008

    AUBURN - The Auburn football team held its first scrimmage of the season Saturday morning in Jordan-Hare Stadium, running approximately 100 plays. It marked the first of two scrimmages for the Tigers in preparation for the season opener Aug. 30 against Louisiana-Monroe.

    "It was a good start," said head coach Tommy Tuberville. "We needed some kind of measuring point of where we're at on both sides, and even in the kicking game. When you scrimmage for the first time, normally you don't do that much on either side of the ball, you just look for execution. But we got a lot in on both sides."

    Tuberville was pleased with the overall execution demonstrated by the squad after just eight preseason practices.

    "Overall without looking at the film, I thought we were probably a little bit ahead of schedule," said Tuberville. "But there's going to be some things that we're really going to want to correct after we look at them on film, in terms of steps and assignments, and mental things that we have to get ready before three weeks from tonight."

    The scrimmage simulated game conditions with SEC referees, and gave the Tigers a chance to familiarize themselves with running their offense with the new 40-second play clock.

    "Offensively we didn't hold anything back," said Tuberville. "The quarterbacks looked pretty sharp considering it was the first time in the stadium throwing the ball around. We ran it about half the time and threw it half the time. There were some big plays. I thought we caught the ball well. The biggest thing is we ran the ball well after we caught it. That's something we're really working hard on. We're trying to get better at that and making yards after the catch.

    "We made some yards running the ball. The was good to see knowing that we haven't done a lot towards the running game because half our practices have been non-contact in terms of no shoulder pads."

    Tuberville was most disappointed that fatigue set in set in as the scrimmage progressed, particularly affecting the defense, and noted the team would begin placing more of an emphasis on conditioning during the coming week.

     

     

    "Defensively, there were just a bunch of missed assignments," said Tuberville. "We did miss some tackles. We didn't tackle as well in the open field. But again we were kind of gassed about three-fourths of the way through and it looked like we were running in mud. But that's the reason you practice."

    Prior to the scrimmage, the Tigers conducted individual and group drills and worked on special teams for close to 30 minutes. Including the scrimmage, the workout lasted a total of two hours.

    Four players left the scrimmage early to attend graduation ceremonies. Those graduating Saturday were Tristan Davis, Courtney Harden, Merrill Johnson and James Swinton.

    Auburn will return to the practice fields Sunday at 4:15 p.m. CT at the intramural fields.

    Auburn's season opener is August 30 when the Tigers host Louisiana-Monroe at 6 p.m. at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Single-game tickets are available for the Louisiana-Monroe, Southern Miss, Arkansas and Tennessee-Martin home games. To purchase tickets visit www.auburntigers.com or call 800-AUB-1957.

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