Coffee and Magnolia: 13 April 2015

DIAMOND TIGERS

Baseball. The weekend wasn't too fantastic for the baseball team, who traveled to Baton Rouge to take on LSU. Auburn took the Saturday game in the series behind the masterful pitching of Keegan Thompson and ridiculous hitting of Anfernee Grier, but could not win Friday or Sunday's game in spite of some great pitching from the bullpen.

The baseball team has only one won SEC series so far this season, but all is not lost, yet. We'll discuss this more in the next few days I hope, but Auburn has faced some of the top teams in the nation in those series and had chances to win a few of them. Plus, the Tigers sit at 23rd in RPI. Every game counts from here on in, but the post season is still there.

Softball. The ladies continued doing what they've been doing all season long. Knocking the ball out of the park and winning the weekend series. The Tigers have not lost an SEC series yet this season. It wasn't all good this weekend, though. The Tigers were run-ruled for the first time this season in their Saturday loss in Game 1 of a double-header, but took the second game with ease thanks to a Branndi Melero grand slam. Clint Myers' club continues to shatter Auburn records on their march to the post-season. They'll face Samford in Birmingham this week before returning home for the big weekend series against Alabama.

FOOTBALL

Auburn held its second scrimmage of the spring last Saturday. We have a short recap of Gus Malzahn's press conference here.

There isn't a lot of news from the scrimmage, but from the coaches the scrimmage was a "draw" according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. Players say they remember five touchdowns, so since there were about 80 plays, that's a pretty decent rate of scoring for the offense. As for how the quarterbacks played, Gus isn't saying.

Some Tigers did not participate in the scrimmage, as they were held out with injuries. That list doesn't really contain anyone we weren't already tracking on dealing with spring soreness or injuries.

Auburn held a coaching clinic this weekend, which had a few big-time speakers. Auburn's own defensive coordinator Will Muschamp spoke, as did ESPN's Todd Blackledge, and Baylor head coach Art Briles. I can only imaging the discussions Briles and Malzahn had on the attempts to slow down hurry-up offenses.

The Montgomery Advertiser has some good articles on Auburn players dealing with different situations. First, there's Daniel Carlson still trying to get over missing the kick in the Outback Bowl. Hopefully that doesn't affect him going forward. It doesn't sound like it will. Then there's Derrick Moncrief and his adjustments to playing the linebacker position. The position he's playing is actually somewhat similar to the Star position in Ellis Johnson's defense. He's a hybrid Sam/nickel.

The official site looks at Jovon Robinson and his adjustment from Auburn to JUCO and back to Auburn. One fun little side note is to look at his face mask in the picture from that article. It is different from previous pictures of him this spring as the NCAA has banned certain types of face masks.

AL.com takes a look at Stanton Truitt, who is ready to make a big move at the wide receiver position after getting a medical redshirt for last season. I think Truitt caught two passes before his injury. On one he was able to break away for some yards and show a flash of the speed he's known for. He is definitely someone to watch out for on any speed sweep or screen pass roles.

The battle for the Center position is still going strong between Austin Golson and Xavier Dampeer. I don't think there's going to be a bad option for Auburn either way. Both have reportedly been very strong this spring and the Tigers won't miss too much from the loss of four-year starter Reese Dismukes.

In other news, Gus Malzahn was asked about his first coaching job location being folded into another district. The school renamed their football field after Malzahn last summer, even though they haven't fielded a football team in a few years.

Also, Lou Holtz is leaving ESPN, so we briefly noted some of his moments in regards to Auburn. Feel free to fill us in on any others we may have forgotten!