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Special Teams Kicks Things Up For Season

By Callie Garrett/ Staff Writer | July 16

This year's special teams unit is working together this summer to become more consistent while making sure to get its timing down."In order to get all of the timing down just right, from the snap to the hold to the kick, it just takes a lot of practice and working with each other repetitively," said placekicker Wes Byrum, a junior in business.As a unit they are working mostly on the new protection scheme they have, as well as the new punt formation, said punter Clinton Durst, a red-shirt junior in human resource management.He said the special teams unit has a period of time at the beginning of practice where they do nothing but get everyone on the same page with formations and timing.Josh Harrison, a red-shirt freshmen long snapper, will be playing his first season this fall.

Offensive Linemen Look to Destroy Defenses

By Justin Dorman/Staff Writer | July 9

Bigger, stronger and faster.That is what the Auburn offensive line is looking to become before the start of the football season in the fall.Last season, former offensive coordinator Tony Franklin urged his offensive line to shed some pounds in order to keep up with his fast paced offense.This season, Franklin's replacement at offensive coordinator, Gus Malzahn who runs a similar type of spread offense, has a completely different message for his linemen: Beef up.In order to establish an effective running game, the backfield must be well protected, said Malzahn.

Auburn Football: Running Back Preview

By Justin Dorman/Staff Writer | July 2

The fall semester is on the horizon, and with it comes a brand new football season. Auburn Tigers fans have been anticipating and anxiously awaiting the first football game of the 2009 season on September 5.This year there is even more buzz surrounding the team, which now consists of a completely new coaching staff.Since the Auburn offense is dominated by its running game, the position with the most hype at Auburn is typically running back, where the likes of Bo Jackson, Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown among others have thrived and led Auburn to be appropriately nicknamed "Running Back University."This year looks to be no different as the Offensive Coordinator, Gus Malzahn, said he looks to implement a system that put up over 3,700 rushing yards for the University of Tulsa last season.Eric Smith, an undeclared sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts, has high hopes for this year's offense."It's a lot of fun, a lot of misdirection's, more deep plays, more run plays," Smith said.

It's Been a 'Bodda Getta' Summer

By Justin Dorman/Staff Writer | July 2

Cheerleading falls victim to many common misconceptions. Some people deny it is a sport. Some think that cheerleading is about the football team and nothing else.

Auburn Athletics Named 6th in Football Revenue

By Anna Schierholz/Associate Sports Editor | June 25

Though the Tigers may not have defeated the Tide in the last Iron Bowl battle, they did manage to top their rivals in another way: Revenue.Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal unveiled their Top 10 College Sports revenue list last week.

Football Preview: Auburn 2009 Wide Receivers

By Nick Van Der Linden/Staff Writer | June 25

The time of Ben Obomanu, Devin Aromashodu, and Courtney Taylor, has long come and gone, and it's time for Auburn to forget about past struggles.Players said they were excited about the arrival of wide receiver coach Trooper Taylor, who they said instilled new life into the wide receiver group."It is not important what was said or done last season, it is all about what we have now., Taylor said.The assistant coach said he is excited to say the least about the upcoming season.He said he thinks he made the right decision in coming to Auburn."We're all family here," Taylor said.

Auburn Football Tickets Move to Ignited Cards

By Justin Dorman/Staff Writer | June 18

With the football season fast approaching, Auburn fans already have something to cheer about.In an attempt to promote school spirit, Auburn University has devised a point system called Auburn Ignited in which students are rewarded for regularly attending sporting events in the 2009-10 season.

Kudos Auburn Ticket Office, We Applaud Thee

By The Editorial Board | June 11

For all the students who have reluctantly walked away from that nervous exchange of selling a football ticket to a stranger, wondering if the next Bursar Bill will be flooded with random charges, or if they'll even see that student ID again, worry no more!Beginning with the 2009 season, student football tickets will no longer live inside your student ID, but will be stored in your Auburn Ignited card, and we're pretty thrilled with this decision.Last fall's staff even wrote an editorial expressing its hope that football tickets would be transferred over to something different than our Tiger cards.We believe it's a change that will make the inter-student ticket market a much more convenient business.It's always a pain when you try to utilize one of many on-campus services that require the presentation of your student ID, only to realize you never got yours back from the person you sold it to for the weekend.With football tickets being on Ignited cards, this is no longer a problem, and losing your Ignited card is certainly less severe than losing your student ID.The fear of having someone drain the funds, whatever the amount, on your student ID over the weekend is also alleviated.The only potential problem we can see with the change is even more-prolonged waits at the stadium gates since Ignited cards are typically scanned with handheld devices, rather than students swiping the card themselves.Granted, this would only take a couple seconds longer per student, but that delay multiplied thousands and thousands of times could add up quickly; however, this is surely something that has been acknowledged and will be addressed before the first game.And don't fret if you're not a member of Auburn Ignited.

Time, practice on our side

By Alex Scarborough-Anderson / Managing Editor | April 23

No, those noises emanating from Jordan-Hare Saturday were not drunkards lost from a serious night of Gretchen Wilson/Trace Adkins debauchery at the Sticks concert.There were no tents, cowboy boots, super-sized belt buckles or straw hats at this little get together called A-Day.More than 45, 000 fans packed into the lower decks of the stadium to see a new era begin -- the Gene Chizik era.Whereas Tommy Tuberville would be milling around the broadcast booth, chatting up alums, Chizik was staring down his quarterbacks, firing orders at assistant coaches and coordinators.

Chizik springs into practice

By Wes Sinor / Associate Sports Editor | April 1

Football team, coaches round out first week of practice