Saturday marked the first scrimmage of Auburn football this Spring, and to the delight of this writer we have many good points to discuss.
Surprise-Offensive Line warriors....
During Kiehl Frazier's post scrimmage interview some interesting items came up in his comments. The most significant was the mention that Greg (Robinson?) couldn't go and Pat Miller( the LSU switcheroo) and Chad Slade "had to go with both groups sometimes, so they had to play the whole scrimmage out there today, I thought they did really well"
On the defensive side, Keymiya Harrell was singled out by Coach VanGorder for his play, especially late in the scrimmage.
Success-Sammie, Sammie, Sammie....
No matter who is asked, whether it be a defensive back, or any of the QB's, to a man they all have praise for Sammie Coates.
During the same interview we mentioned above, Kiehl was asked whether Sammie has "kinda gotten" his attention out there as a receiver?. Frazier responded with this gem.
"Oh yeah, I mean definitely, he's one of the most athletic guys I have ever seen".
Struggles....
That old menace the "third down defense", or lack thereof, reared it's ugly head in the first scrimmage. Old habits die hard, but this problem is feeling zombie like, it just will not die.
I certainly hope the intensity we keep hearing about from Coach VanGorder gets turned up a couple of notches. This problem has to die, or we'll just have to air mail it to west vance.
VanGorder also mentioned the big plays the offense made Saturday. He did not like that the offense was able to produce big plays.
"We just can not give up big plays, and be a good defense" VanGorder told reporters. Citing that mistakes were made and that it was "still early" in their learning process, did not seem to sooth the noticeable burr those big plays caused Auburn's new defensive coordinator.