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    Auburn Football Practice Report Tigers hold their final practice prior facing Big East opponent West Virginia
    Quarterback Chris Todd

    Quarterback Chris Todd

    Sept. 17, 2009

    AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn football team held its final practice prior to their contest against West Virginia, practicing for about an hour and a half at the practice fields behind the Athletics Complex.

    Thursday's workout gave Auburn a chance to go over final preparations for Saturday's game, as the Tigers conducted a situational practice in shorts and helmets with no contact. The squad went through every aspect of special teams and did more scout team preparation, before concluding with a two-minute drill.

    The Tigers will go through a short walk-through on Friday before hosting West Virginia on Saturday .

    West Virginia is 2-0 this season with wins over Liberty and East Carolina, and are 44-9 in their last 53 contests. The Mountaineers also lead the all-time series against Auburn after defeating the Tigers 34-17 last season in Morgantown.

    "We're going to have to play a much better football game offensively, defensively and on special teams to beat a very good West Virginia team," said Chizik of the upcoming game. "It'll be a great challenge for us. I think this will give us another step in the direction of finding out how good we really are. As I think everybody knows, West Virginia is a very talented football team; they've got great team speed. It's going to be a great challenge for us. So, we've got our work cut out, and we've got to get much better, like I said, at what we do here in Auburn for us to win the game."

    Junior tailback Noel Devine is the BIG EAST's leading returning rusher from a year ago after amassing 1, 289 yards on 206 carries. West Virginia is 8-1 when Devine rushes for more than 100 yards in a contest. The receiving corps are lead by second-team All-BIG EAST selection Jock Sanders, who has 17 receptions on the young season, which ties for third nationally. Quarterback Jarrett Brown ranks eighth nationally in total offense, as the redshirt-senior is averaging 359.5 yards per contest.

    On defense, the Mountaineers have four players listed on the Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List in Scooter Berry, Chris Neild, J.T. Thomas and Reed Williams.

     

     

    Saturday's game against West Virginia will kick off at 6:45 p.m. CT from Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2, while a national broadcast will also be on ESPN Radio.

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