A very pleasant Wednesday morning to you.
So, yesterday, Auburn scrimmaged. Duke Williams posted, then immediately took down this video that is awesome. Sammie Coates is justifiably excited about his fellow receivers and the attention they could draw away from him.
The scrimmage at Jordan-Hare was mostly focused on giving newcomers a chance to show the coaches what they can contribute, and for the special teams picture to come into a bit more focus. Gus Malzahn said of the scrimmage, "It was really good work and we gained a lot of valuable information."
The Worldwide Leader in Sports' SEC blog discussed Auburn's five promising running backs trying to replace the production that left with Tre Mason.
Brandon Marcello also hit on the running back position, saying freshman Roc Thomas was a highlight of the scrimmage, as was the work on special teams.
Also in the backfield there's Peyton Barber being described as "a big play waiting to happen," and one of the elders, Corey Grant, earning a spot at No. 7 in Jay Tate's '40 for 2014' countdown.
Malzahn was asked about redshirt freshman kicker Daniel Carlson being in the four deep mix for the punting job. While his coach said it's still up in the air, the kicker says he's confident he'd be a good punter.
Phillip Marshall posted video of a couple of player interviews (JUCO transfer center Xavier Dampeer and sophomore receiver Tony Stevens), and has some notes on the day at practice and JHS. He also recorded a podcast with C&M contributor Blake Ells.
Some bad injury news did come out of Tuesday's presser, as Gus left the question of sophomore H-back Gage Batten's health for the season open-ended. Patton was competing for a leading role as a blocker in short yardage situations. Also, freshman safety Markell Boston's right foot has been in a boot, but Gus says his injury isn't very serious.
In some other news:
- Former Tiger Ronnie Brown has signed a deal with the Houston Texans, hoping to extend his ten year stay in the league.
- Auburn fans bought out every single season ticket offered this season - more than 60,000 - and the games against LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M are already sold out completely.
- We lost out on the nation's number two prospect to Georgia.
- But we won a pretty good one on the baseball diamond.
Finally, take a look at Mississippi State's better-than-most-minor-league-fields plans for a new baseball stadium.