Auburn offense shows off

AUBURN — Gene Chizik’s modified scoring system wasn’t exactly in the Auburn offense’s favor heading into Saturday’s A-Day game, but the new head coach gave the beleaguered unit quite a gift for the end-of-spring culmination.

When Auburn’s first-team offensive linemen looked up from their stance, they looked into eyes of players who rarely stepped inside the white lines of Jordan-Hare Stadium last season. The wide receivers matched up against a couple underclassmen and darted through a linebacking unit and secondary littered with walk-ons.

The final result matched what would be expected to happen considering the lopsided matchups. Auburn’s offense won its final scrimmage of the spring, 57-31,
before a record 45,381 fans with all but one of its touchdowns coming when the first-team offense lined up against second- and third-teamers.

Chizik’s decision came two days after what players described as a highly physical scrimmage in which quarterback Neil Caudle sustained a minor injury and
Barrett Trotter hurt his anterior cruciate ligament.

Saturday was neither the time nor the place to test what have been unusually unkind injury gods one last time.

“It’s been a real physical spring, and that’s all we’ve done all spring, more than usual,” Chizik said. “I don’t think most people subscribe to that theory and
that’s all we’ve done pretty much for 13 previous days.”

The off-balance matchup, of course, didn’t help much in clearing up a quarterback competition that will now drag on through the summer.

Kodi Burns and Caudle each looked like All-SEC quarterbacks running the first team. With the second-team, both had their weaknesses exposed.

Caudle finished with the better stat line — 11-for-16, 161 yards, two touchdowns — but Burns had better production around him when he ran the group in the
first half.

Less than two minutes of running clock into the game, Ben Tate, the game’s Offensive MVP, scored on a 46-yard touchdown run. Terrell Zachery took a
reverse on the first-team’s third and final offensive drive of the first half 70 yards for a touchdown.

Forty-one of Burns’ 45 passing yards came on a deep pass that went through the hands of defensive back Brandon Evans to Mario Fannin.

“We were scoring so quick, that’s just kind of the way things worked out,” said Burns, who ended up throwing half as many passes as Caudle.

“I’m not upset about it at all. It just worked out that way. That’s good. We scored pretty quick. It keeps the ball out of my hands and gets it to the playmakers.”

Those playmakers continued to thrive in the second half, when Caudle took over.

Caudle connected with Darvin Adams on gains of 21 and 45 yards within a minute of each other. He immediately followed the Carr pass with a smooth screen
to Fannin for a touchdown.

Caudle ended his last series with a 34-yard touchdown pass to Adams.

“I know the defense is banged up a little bit and they didn’t have all their guys, but it’s a big confidence booster for us to be out there and put up 50 points,”
Caudle said.

Offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn remained his trademark vanilla when discussing the two quarterbacks and said the battle would re-commence at the start of
fall camp.

“I think both of them had success,” Malzahn said. “They did what they were coached to do. Both of them made some plays, and that was good to see.

“We’re not ready to make any decisions right now. When we get to fall camp, we’ll start that thing going.”

Onterio McCalebb provided one of the few sparks from the second-team offense, as he bolted 70 yards on his second and final carry of the day for a second-
half touchdown.

Auburn’s offense finished with 501 yards (280 rushing, 221 passing) on 55 plays. The defense picked up just two sacks (Defensive MVP Michael Goggans on
back-to-back plays against the second-team offensive line) and did not force a turnover.

“The big thing is our mindset,” Malzahn said. “We’re trying to get a physical, hard-edged mindset, and I think our guys are buying into that in each practice.”