The Auburn defense appears to be picking up right where they left off last season, as they won the line of scrimmage and forced five turnovers in the Tigers' first scrimmage of the spring.
The scrimmage took place inside Jordan-Hare Stadium and lasted about 100 plays. It included live special teams reps in addition to the offense vs. defense plays.
“The defense really stood out to me today,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “They won the line of scrimmage and forced five turnovers, which is good from a defensive standpoint. Offensively, they need to do a better job of protecting the football.”
With Jarrett Stidham still out with a shoulder injury, Malik Willis took snaps with the first-team at quarterback. Four of the five turnovers were interceptions, and Malzahn continued to stress the importance of protecting the football.
“[Willis] did okay. Our expectations for him are pretty high due to the fact that he’s been here before,” Malzahn said. “Offensively, the big takeaway is we need to protect the ball better. There wasn’t a lot of penalties like there would normally be when you play everybody on offense. The penalties were down, but the negative was protecting the football.”
Daniel Thomas stood out on defense as the junior defensive back had at least one interception. Malzahn was impressed with Thomas as he looks to take the next step in his third season on the Plains.
“Daniel is a guy that, he’s got a lot of experience and he is starting to turn into a veteran,” Malzahn said. “You can kind of just sense it out there when you’re going 11-on-11. So expectations are very high for him.”
As Auburn looks to rebuild their offensive line in 2018, Saturday’s scrimmage was an important step as the Tigers continue to evaluate that position.
“It’s very valuable. [Offensive line coach J.B. Grimes] rotated some of the guys with the [first and second team offense]. He wanted to see how some guys would react with the first group. So we did a little bit more of that than we’ve done the first six practices, but that was by design. [Grimes] just wanted to create some competition.”
As is common in the first scrimmage, Malzahn said the offense ran the ball 75-80% of the time and each of Auburn’s six running backs got a chance to carry the ball.
“{Running the ball that much] is by design. That’s the way we usually start out,” Malzahn said. “They rotated the backs pretty evenly. Kam Martin, Devan Barrett, JaTarvious “Boobie” Whitlow, Asa Martin, Malik Miller, and C.J. Tolbert all got between 5-10 carries. We wanted to really give those guys a chance.”
The kicking game was another bright spot for the Tigers as Anders Carlson went 3-for-3 on field goals with a long of 52 yards.
Auburn will likely have two more scrimmages this spring, including the A day spring game on April 7. The Tigers will open the 2018 season on September 1st against Washington at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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