Auburn to hold scrimmage Saturday

AUBURN — Today’s scrimmage is put-up or shut-up time for Auburn’s true freshmen.

According to head coach Tommy Tuberville, there are “about 16 or 17” rookies who are on the bubble as to whether they’ll play this season or redshirt.

And for three young cornerbacks — Neiko Thorpe, D’Antoine Hood and Harry Adams — the stakes are twice as high.

“A lot of younger guys have worked hard to make a difference in the secondary,” Tuberville said. “Neiko Thorpe and Hood and Harry Adams have done a real good job of trying to pick up as much as they can. Tomorrow will be a big test for those guys.”

The trio has been thrown into action almost since the first day of preseason camp. With an already thin defensive backfield in terms of returning experience, the freshmen knew they would have a chance to play their way into a role.

That chance turned into an almost-certain reality when starting cornerback Aairon Savage injured his knee in the first week of practice, which required season-ending surgery. Throw in the loss of two more freshmen defensive backs — DeRon Furr (transfer) and Marcus Jemison (broken foot) — Auburn’s defensive backfield looked more and more like a M.A.S.H unit.

The Tigers have 11 healthy scholarship defensive backs, and five are true freshmen.

That’s why today’s scrimmage — which begins at 10 a.m. in Jordan-Hare Stadium, but is closed to the public and media — is so vital for the freshmen. As much experience as they can get in a “game-type situation” will go a long way into helping them once the season starts.

“They’ve gotten a lot better,” Tuberville said. “They’re going to have two more weeks.”

And it’s not just the three cornerbacks who will be watched closely.

“We want to look at some guys who are borderline on whether we’re going to play them or put them on the back shelf,” Tuberville said. “This is going to be a big, big day for the 16 or 17 guys we circled on the board.”

Scrimmage also big for QBs, kickers: The race to name a starting quarterback, as well as a third-stringer, is not even close to being over, according to Tuberville.

But today’s scrimmage, he hopes, will go a long way to figuring it out.

So far, junior Chris Todd and sophomore Kodi Burns are neck-and-neck for the No. 1 position, while sophomore Neil Caudle and true freshman Barrett Trotter are battling it out for the third-string job.

“We’re going to play the first two quarterbacks the first half,” Tuberville said. “We’re going to play Neil and Barrett the second half. We’re still looking for a third (quarterback). Obviously, we’re still looking for a guy to take over first.

“But we’re going to be in different situations. We’re going to make the quarterbacks think. We’re going to blitz quite a bit. But we did last week. That’s no different. We blitz everyday in practice.

“We need to take a step up with both quarterbacks this week. We did play pretty good last week. But every week we need to get a little better. And they’ve worked hard.”

The kicking game will also get some work today.

Tuberville expects about half the scrimmage will be dedicated to special teams play.

“We’re going to do quite a bit (of kicking) in the scrimmage … live,” he said. “We’re going to look at first and second-team groups. And work on our kickers a little bit.

“That will be about 30 to 40 minutes of our scrimmage with officials out there, trying to work on alignment and assignment. But it will be live.”
Tuberville also said that some kickoff returns will be full contact, and others won’t.

The scrimmage will last about an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes, according to Tuberville.

“We’re going to run about 80 to 100 plays,” he said, “that’s not including kicking.”

Injury report: Junior running back Ben Tate was back at practice Friday, according to Tuberville, after being held out Thursday as a precaution. Tate got hit in the head by linebacker Chris Evans earlier in the week. But he will participate in today’s scrimmage, Tuberville said.

There will be a few who won’t play today, including senior running back Brad Lester, who Tuberville said will be out because of an ankle.

Fellow senior running back Tristan Davis will also miss today with a foot, said Tuberville.

Sophomore wideout Mario Fannin (hamstring) will also not participate today.

“We wanted to scrimmage Mario Fannin,” Tuberville said. “He was going to scrimmage, but his hamstring’s just tight and we don’t want to get out there and lose him for a couple weeks of practice.”