Auburn defense dominates scrimmage

AUBURN — Curtis Luper didn’t remember the score, much like the majority of Auburn’s players and coaches, but the running backs coach was able to chuckle about what unit held the major advantage at the Tigers’ second spring scrimmage.

“I bet the defensive guys know,” Luper said. “They handed it to us pretty well today. It was a good old-fashioned whooping.”

One week after it came from behind to nip the offense, the Auburn defense reigned in Saturday’s closed-doors scrimmage with a 61-34 victory.

It was a sound defensive effort, particularly in defending the passes of Auburn’s battling quarterbacks, said the players and bulk of coaches — all except coach Gene Chizik.

“You know, that’s a little premature because you don’t know what’s happening until you go back and watch the film,” Chizik said. “You hesitate right now by
looking at the score that went back-and-forth early on to decide who beat who. I’m a little reluctant to do that.”

The strong effort, though, came with one major bit of somber news.

Safety Mike McNeil went down with an apparent leg injury and was taken away from Jordan-Hare Stadium in an ambulance. Players and coaches alike were
sketchy on the details of the incident, but McNeil is likely out for the remainder of spring and his status could be in doubt for fall practice.

“I made the tackle, and I heard somebody scream. ‘It’s my leg,’ ” cornerback Neiko Thorpe said. “When I saw him go down, it hit me hard.”

McNeil, a junior, finished second on the team in tackles last season and appeared to have a locked-up job at free safety.

“Whether it’s that or whether it’s a guy twisting an ankle, nobody likes to see these guys out here trying really hard and trying to do what we ask them to do
and get hurt,” Chizik said. “That’s part of the game and we don’t like it, but when you’ve got tough guys that love the game, they deal with what comes, and
Michael’s going to do that.”

Auburn’s defense dealt with a heavier dose of passing just fine Saturday.

Chizik and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn made it no secret early in the week that the passing would be upped significantly from the previous week’s 66-
percent rushing scrimmage. And from all indications, they followed through with that plan, though it seemed Auburn’s defense was a bit more conditioned to
the pepped-up pace.

“Today was kind of shocking,” cornerback Walt McFadden said. “They slowed down before us. Usually they’ll just keep pounding it down on us, but today we
were pounding down on it.”

Thorpe, who starts alongside McFadden, intercepted a pass and ran it a “long way” back for a touchdown, a number of players said. Senior defensive end
Antonio Coleman pressured Auburn’s quarterbacks, who were “live” and able to be hit the entire scrimmage, on numerous occasions and picked up a couple
sacks, McFadden said.

“We just got it into our head that we were going to bust it,” Coleman said. “Every time we saw a ball out there, we were going to get it. Guys were just out there having fun, and when you do that, you don’t have to worry about the loafs, none of that.”

The offense, from what players said, did break through a couple times.

Onterio McCalebb had multiple big runs and senior tailback Ben Tate scored a touchdown, players said. Wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor said Tim
Hawthorne caught a deep pass, but didn’t mention who threw it.

As has been standard protocol, Auburn coaches deferred singling out strong or weak player performances until a thorough review of the game tape.

“Our team played with a lot of energy and a lot of excitement and a lot of passion,” Chizik said. “If you can’t do that, you don’t enjoy the game and you’re not
having a lot of fun out there and you don’t have a whole lot of chance to be good.”