Defensive coordinator Will Muschamp spoke with the media on Tuesday, Aug. 11, for the first time since Auburn's first scrimmage of fall camp, which coach Gus Malzahn said was "completely dominated" by the defense.
Muschamp went into detail about the defense's performance in the scrimmage, which he was mostly pleased with.
"I thought we did some nice things," Muschamp said. "As much as anything, we had some good focus and good effort. We tackled well for the first scrimmage. We played well on third down and well in the red zone."
Despite the overall good performance, Muschamp did see some things that still need improvement before Auburn opens the season in the Georgia Dome against Louisville.
"We did not lay the run very well, and that was extremely disappointing," Muschamp said. "We gave up five big runs and we gave up over four yards per carry for the entire scrimmage. I'm extremely concerned about that, especially in [the SEC]."
Facing Malzahn's up-tempo offense and high-powered rushing attack in practice on a day-to-day basis has been a huge help to the defense, providing the unit with experience in many different situations.
"Our offense is doing a great job of giving us some looks and some things that we need to see to prepare for the season," Muschamp said. "We continue to work the situational football ... there's so many things that we're going through and exposing the players to every day, and they've got to have a lot of retention."
According to Malzahn, one of the highlights of the scrimmage was the performance of Carl Lawson, who is returning to action after missing the 2014 season after knee surgery.
Muschamp said he was not surprised by Lawson's quickness and agility on the field, even coming off the injury.
"He's a good football player," Muschamp said. "He's got very good instincts on blocks. He's got good hand placement, good pad level. He does what he's coached to do."
Auburn's next scrimmage will be held on Saturday, Aug. 15, and will feature more work with the passing offense and the secondary.
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