What's spring practice like

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al.com

What's spring practice like at Auburn without practice?

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

7-8 minutes

Gus Malzahn is still adapting to this new normal.

The nearly 30-year coaching veteran still isn’t accustomed to these uncertain times in the age of the coronavirus. At this time of year, with Auburn deep into spring practices, he’s used to getting up before the sun rises and being at Auburn’s athletics complex by 6 a.m. and not returning home until late at night, repeating that routine again and again through A-Day.

That’s not the case this spring, with COVID-19 having a significant impact on college athletics. Players are back home. Coaches are working remotely. Spring games have been canceled.

We’re now in Week 3 of this quarantine period — what would have been the midway point of Auburn’s spring season — and Malzahn is still acclimating to this unprecedented climate.

“I’m still working on it; I’ll tell you that right now,” Malzahn said this week during a sit-down interview with Voice of the Tigers Andy Burcham, which the program released Thursday. “It’s a little bit more natural today than it was two Mondays ago, but it’s still something new. You’re finding out new information every day, whether it’s through the President or the university or the SEC office. There’s a routine now, but you have to be able to adjust. We’ve adjusted on a weekly basis, sometimes on a daily basis.”

From a football standpoint, that has meant adjusting to how the Tigers have gone about spring practices without — well, any actual practices.

Malzahn and his staff have had to learn how to go about this on the fly, as have other teams throughout the country. As Auburn athletics director Allen Greene put it a couple weeks ago, it’s like flying an airplane while still building it.

As the time has gone on, and Malzahn and the coaches have shifted from first ensuring all their players are safe to now putting some of that focus on the actual X’s and O’s, the Tigers have learned to adapt to their circumstances. Malzahn, during his conversation with Burcham, discussed what things have been like for the team this spring, especially this week as they reached an important milestone, with the SEC permitting coaches to give virtual instruction through video-conference apps.

“I’m not a big technology guy, but I’m getting to where I can operate a staff meeting on Zoom, getting more comfortable with it, more used to it,” Malzahn said. “It looks like we’re going to be doing that for a while, so just getting used to how to operate all that.”

Malzahn has been conducting twice-weekly meetings with his coaching staff, at 9 a.m. Mondays and Fridays—the same times the staff would typically meet during this time of year with a normal spring season. Monday’s meeting includes a checklist of items to go over, including how the program will operate for that week as it tries to maintain a sense of normalcy during an uncertain time. They touch base again on Friday morning and then hold a 90-minute meeting to discuss and plan for recruiting, which remains in full virtual swing despite the NCAA dead period being extended through the end of May.

After the Monday staff meeting, the entire team hold a virtual conference call, with Malzahn at the athletics complex and going down to the team meeting room in the auditorium of the building. That meeting, which is filmed, includes weekly updates, safety measures and tips from team doctor Michael Goodlett, conversations about the week ahead, including a presentation by strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell regarding the expectations for the players.

This week, along with the usual meetings, Auburn began its virtual install of its offense and defense. Offensive coordinator Chad Morris and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele each met with their respective players on Monday and Wednesday to begin going over installation, while position coaches held 30-minute meetings with their specific groups to wrap up the week of instruction.

It’s no different than how the staff would normally go about business—except there’s no practice the following day to get physical reps of the plays and formations. It’s something Malzahn said Morris and Steele are “very excited” about, and it’s certainly better than the alternative of not being able to do any sort of remote instruction while on lockdown.

“Just to get them in a routine, get used to hearing their assignment, what their expectations are—and on their own, they can go out and do some of the drills that go with it,” Malzahn said. “We’ll install it just like it’s our 15-day practice during the spring.”

The hope, he said, is to make things more seamless despite the disruption of the normal spring routine so that, when players are finally cleared to return to campus and practices for the 2020 season commence—perhaps by the end of the summer—that Auburn “can hit the ground running.”

Along with the installation and instruction from coordinators and position coaches, players at the beginning of each week are given home workout routines from Russell so that they can remain in shape during this downtime despite not having access to weight rooms. Most of the workouts, according to Malzahn, are body-weight exercises and running drills, though adjustments are made for the players who do have some free-weights at their disposal back home.

“That’s one of the biggest challenges,” Malzahn said. “… We’re making sure the social distancing—you’re by yourself, you’re doing it, you’re operating it. So, each week, Coach Russell on Monday has given them a plan. We’ll continue that until weight rooms start to open up.”

Just when that will be remains to be seen. Until then, Malzahn and his team will continue to adapt and adjust as they navigate their way through a world devoid of actual sports.

“I think we all need to be thinking positive thoughts,” Malzahn said. “Any time you’re going through something new, like we are, it’s all different. We’re out of our routines. But I really think we need to be thinking positive. And then, at the same time, if you’re able to spend time with your family — I know for me, this is the longest I’ve spent with my family in a long time. That’s a true blessing. Really, I hope that once this is all over, we can look back and we can grow, and we can be better people.

“Any time you face adversity, it gives you the opportunity to grow. We’re facing major adversity in a lot of different ways right now, and I’m just hopeful that our perspective, when we get through this, will help everybody live their life and the way they approach life.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

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