Offense shined early, but defense 'dominated' latter half of Auburn football's first scrimmage
AUBURN — Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze traditionally likes his offenses to move fast.
It's how he found much of his success at Ole Miss, and it's how he helped guide Liberty to a 34-15 overall record from 2019-22. He deployed that tempo for the first half of AU's first scrimmage of the preseason Saturday, which was closed to the media, and the offense excelled because of it.
But then he turned it off. On purpose.
"I'm all about creating adverse situations, and (the defense) struggled stopping our tempo early on," Freeze said. "And I think we can go really fast when we want to. They struggled with that earlier. And then I called that (the tempo) off and wanted to see if we could execute and then the defense pretty much dominated from that point forward."
He added: "I thought the defense dominated the latter part of the scrimmage. I've said this all time, it's hard for me to leave a scrimmage or a practice feeling great because one side does well and well, we're not getting it done on the other side and vice versa."
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A 'mixed bag' at offensive line
A unit that experienced extreme turnover this offseason — the Tigers brought in 10 offensive linemen since Freeze was hired in November — the offensive line will be a crucial piece to Auburn's turnaround efforts in 2023.
"It was a mixed bag," Freeze said of the O-line. "I thought we ran the ball really well early on. Thought the heat got to us a little bit. It's been a hot camp. I'm no excuse-maker at all, but we've gone several days in a row and you can tell they're gassed a bit. ... Pass pro was pretty good too, early on."
One of the key position battles not only on the line, but on the team overall is at the guard spots. Kam Stutts looks to be in pole position to be Auburn's right guard, but the real race is at left guard, with contenders ranging from juniors Tate Johnson and Jeremiah Wright to newcomers like Jaden Muskrat, Connor Lew and Dylan Senda.
“I think you need four or five (guards), so I don’t give a rat’s tail who’s first (or) second team," Freeze said. "I don’t really care. We need all of them. ... We need all of them. We’re rotating them all in there. ... We’re going to need them all before it’s over.”
Secondary must tackle better
Freeze was happy with his running backs, but unhappy with how his defensive backs reacted when the RBs made it to the second level. Sophomore Damari Alston ripped off a big run in the scrimmage, for example.
"I think we’ve got to tackle better," Freeze said. "I do think we’re talented there with our first group. And I think our young kids are going to be good, but they’ve got to come on because we’re going to need them in Year 1.
"But I do think our first group is made up of a solid group of players for an SEC team. Obviously, the corners, I think, are talented. Our safeties are also, but we need depth there and we’ve got to bring those young kids on. But we didn’t tackle well today in the secondary."
Wide receivers take a step back
Auburn's wide receiver corps is home to a few fall camp breakouts. Transfers Shane Hooks, Jyaire Shorter and Caleb Burton III have been making noise, and a returning piece like Jay Fair has created some buzz for himself, too.
But the unit disappointed Saturday.
"(The WRs) had an incredible week, not so much today," Freeze said. "Don't know if it was (that) we had too many MAs (missed assignments) on our RPO routes choosing the wrong option. We've got to look at us as coaches first and see what that was. There was some good plays. ...
"But way too many opportunities in the RPO game that the quarterback made the right decision to throw the ball and a receiver is — again, I haven't watched the film — but he's either loafing, which we can't have, or he chose to run the wrong route. Again, we have to look at us as coaches first on that and be sure we get that cleaned up."
Damari Alston making an impact
Alston, another contributor that's drawn positive reviews this fall, was credited by Freeze with three explosive runs in the scrimmage.
"He’s been one of the leaders," Freeze said. "... He was elected to the culture council unanimously. That speaks as high as any mark you could give when your team says this is a guy that drives the culture that we want."
Injury updates
Not all of these players missed the scrimmage, but Freeze gave an injury update on those who either were absent or limited Saturday. Wesley Steiner has a hamstring issue, Koy Moore's ankle is bothering him, Camden Brown has had "a string of bad luck," Ja'Varrius Johnson had to get some stitches in his mouth and both Malcolm Johnson and Austin Keys have some sort of shoulder injuries.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: How the first scrimmage of the preseason went
