Footage, a few observations from 1st day of camp

[aubiefifty 18,231]

1. Auburn Football

Footage, a few observations from Auburn’s 1st day of fall camp

Today 7:05 AM

Footage from Day 1 of Auburn's fall camp

 

 

By Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Day 1 of fall camp came and went for Auburn on Monday. For the Tigers -- since spring practice was canceled due to COVID-19 -- it was their first full practice since the end of December, when they wrapped up preparations for the Outback Bowl.

Auburn shared about 7 minutes of footage from Monday’s practice, and while it wasn’t much, it provided one of the few early glimpses of the Tigers we will get over the next six weeks before they open the season Sept. 26 against Kentucky. After all, with the pandemic still ongoing, practices this year are fully closed to the media and public, whereas years past the media was provided with a handful of viewing windows early on during fall camp.

It’s difficult (and, really, unwise) to make sweeping assumptions from the first day of practice, but here are a few observations AL.com gleaned from the 7-plus minutes of Monday’s practice footage, which can be viewed at the top of this story:

 

-- Running back Mark-Antony Richards, who missed all of last season after undergoing a leg procedure during fall camp a year ago, looks healthy and appears to be moving well now that he’s fully cleared and back on the field. Richards, a redshirt freshman who will vie for touches at running back this season -- and push for the starting job -- is seen in the footage making a couple of receptions against linebackers during a series of drills. On the first one, Richards make a snag on an angle route between two linebackers, while on the second one, Richards make a deep catch down the sideline on a wheel route against senior linebacker K.J. Britt.

-- Sophomore running back D.J. Williams was in an orange non-contact jersey during Monday’s practice. It is unclear if he is dealing with a minor injury or if the jersey was precautionary.

 

-- Left tackle Austin Troxell looked to be moving well and is fully cleared after his latest ACL tear last year.

 

-- An offensive line consisting of grad transfer Brandon Council at left tackle, Tashawn Manning at left guard, Nick Brahms at center, Keiondre Jones at right guard and Brodarious Hamm at right tackle. Could that be a potential starting unit? Possibly. Brahms, of course, is the only returning starter along the offensive line this season.

 

-- Bo Nix was seen at quarterback with the above mentioned offensive line, and junior Shaun Shivers was working at running back with that grouping.

 

-- The footage also gave us our first glimpse of Bowling Green grad transfer quarterback Grant Loy in an Auburn uniform. Loy could be in line to be Nix’s backup this season, given his starting experience. Developing depth, given the uncertainties presented by coronavirus and potential in-season quarantines for players, is particularly important this season -- especially at the most vital position on the field.

-- All coaches and players are seen either wearing masks or neck gaiters. Players had the gaiters around their necks while in helmets, but those who weren’t in helmets had the gaiters in use as face coverings.

 

-- We also got some early looks at key returning players like wide receiver Seth Williams (seen making a couple catches during position drills), defensive end Big Kat Bryant and defensive tackle Tyrone Truesdell during line drills, and safety Smoke Monday in coverage.

 

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

 

 

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[Barnacle 9,107]

Nix is noticably bigger. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

22 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

-- Running back Mark-Antony Richards, who missed all of last season after undergoing a leg procedure during fall camp a year ago, looks healthy and appears to be moving well now that he’s fully cleared and back on the field. Richards, a redshirt freshman who will vie for touches at running back this season -- and push for the starting job -- is seen in the footage making a couple of receptions against linebackers during a series of drills. On the first one, Richards make a snag on an angle route between two linebackers, while on the second one, Richards make a deep catch down the sideline on a wheel route against senior linebacker K.J. Britt.

Andre Ellington, except with help?

[McLoofus 35,182]

5 minutes ago, Barnacle said:

Nix is noticably bigger. 

Thought same. Got a solid trunk on him. (As in tree, not as in car, jeez guys.)

[Gowebb11 9,871]

No Auburn practice video is legit until Coach Garner is dogging his d-linemen. 

[gr82be 14,910]

3 hours ago, McLoofus said:

Thought same. Got a solid trunk on him. (As in tree, not as in car, jeez guys.)

Now if you said that about a player across the state I might be thinking you meant nose. Clarification is good. 

[AUEngineer2016 407]

My thoughts on the limited film:

• Nix (10 orange) definitely bulked up over the offseason, hopefully that will help his durability in the QB run game.
• We were definitely practicing more coverage identification than I've ever seen before. At one point, a coach (I think it was Morris, but hard to tell with the face mask covering his mouth) says "Alright, we got a zone look right here, zone look", and Nix adjusts his pass (quicker release)
• On Nix's release - It looks like we were practicing shorter drops. I never saw Nix take even a 3-step drop, it was almost always a "hot read" throw. Morris reiterates a couple of times "hop, step, and go" to emphasize that.
• MAR (21 blue) looked comfortable running out there. I'm expecting big things from him this season, especially so in the pass game
• Trox (68 blue) looked good, hopefully he's able to come back from the ACL tears
• Big Kat's (1 white) arms are really defined, he definitely looks like he added muscle mass over over the offseason, hopefully to help step into the Marlon Davidson role on the Dl.
• Speaking of DL, both Coynis Miller (8 white) and Tyrone Truesdell (94 white) looked like quick off the line, with Coynis having the edge.
• OP (0 white) got chewed out by T-Will for over pursuing the outside cut from MAR on the Angle route, but he may have just been a little hyped up for the first practice. Hopefully that will be cleaned up in the next couple of practices.
•  Britt (33 white) did as much as he could be asked to do when covering MAR on the wheel route- carried him up the sidelines and took away the under. A safety should be able to take away the over the top pass.
• WR's looked like they were practicing the bubble action on RSO ("Run/Screen Option"), which has always been a staple of the Morris offense. Personally, I prefer the smoke (or "flash") action to the bubble, but both should be available.

 

• Smoke looked like he was playing off of his heels in the one rep I saw, which made it harder for him to jump on the route. He stumbles a little bit, but is athletic enough to recover and make the play. If he kept his feet more underneath him, he could've exploded out of that directly vs having to reset his feet and rely on his core to rebalance himself. He was able to make the play here, but 4Q against Bama or LSU after a long game might be a different story, so why make it more difficult than you have to?
• 

[bigbird 60,939]

10 minutes ago, AUEngineer2016 said:

• Smoke looked like he was playing off of his heels in the one rep I saw, which made it harder for him to jump on the route. He stumbles a little bit, but is athletic enough to recover and make the play. If he kept his feet more underneath him, he could've exploded out of that directly vs having to reset his feet and rely on his core to rebalance himself. He was able to make the play here, but 4Q against Bama or LSU after a long game might be a different story, so why make it more difficult than you have to?
• 

[auskip07 930]

3 hours ago, Barnacle said:

Nix is noticably bigger. 

First thing i thought 

[AUEngineer2016 407]

1 hour ago, bigbird said:

He plays over his toes to start the rep, but as he shuffles back and right, all of his weight shifts to behind his heels. This is just before he starts his break:

 

 

His center of mass is behind his heels at this point, so when he goes to make his break, he has to jump to set his feet behind him so that he can drive on the ball, and it completely throws his rhythm out of whack. Smooth is fast and fast is smooth. Compare that to one of the best Free Safties in the NFL right now, Minkah Fitzpatrick. Look how smooth he is when he drives on the ball during this INT against the Colts last year (around 2:30 into the video)

The angle's not great here, but you can still see how much further forward Minkah's weight distribution is- he's leaning forward and ready to run when the ball is thrown: 

 -->  -->  all in one fluid motion

 

Compare that to Smoke:

 -->   --> 

 

In Image #2, you can see that Smoke has to take this big jump backwards to reset his feet before he can drive on the ballcarrier, which costs him both time and momentum. He has to do that because he needs to shift his weight from behind his feet to in front of them. Minkah on the otherhand already had the weight in front of his feet, which meant he didn't have to do that jump, so it looks smoother and is faster. If Minkah made the same mistake as Smoke, the Colt's would be celebrating a TD because he wouldn't have been able to make a PBU, much less an INT in his own redzone.

Edit: You can also hear the coaching staff emphasizing that point as well, during the rep one of the coaches is saying  "Don't lean back now, don't lean back":

 

[bigbird 60,939]

42 minutes ago, AUEngineer2016 said:

He plays over his toes to start the rep, but as he shuffles back and right, all of his weight shifts to behind his heels. This is just before he starts his break:

 

 

His center of mass is behind his heels at this point, so when he goes to make his break, he has to jump to set his feet behind him so that he can drive on the ball, and it completely throws his rhythm out of whack. Smooth is fast and fast is smooth. Compare that to one of the best Free Safties in the NFL right now, Minkah Fitzpatrick. Look how smooth he is when he drives on the ball during this INT against the Colts last year (around 2:30 into the video)

The angle's not great here, but you can still see how much further forward Minkah's weight distribution is- he's leaning forward and ready to run when the ball is thrown: 

 -->  -->  all in one fluid motion

 

Compare that to Smoke:

 -->   --> 

 

In Image #2, you can see that Smoke has to take this big jump backwards to reset his feet before he can drive on the ballcarrier, which costs him both time and momentum. He has to do that because he needs to shift his weight from behind his feet to in front of them. Minkah on the otherhand already had the weight in front of his feet, which meant he didn't have to do that jump, so it looks smoother and is faster. If Minkah made the same mistake as Smoke, the Colt's would be celebrating a TD because he wouldn't have been able to make a PBU, much less an INT in his own redzone.

Edit: You can also hear the coaching staff emphasizing that point as well, during the rep one of the coaches is saying  "Don't lean back now, don't lean back":

 

Appreciate the breakdown, but my post was in jest since Smoke is my man crush.

[AUEngineer2016 407]

17 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Appreciate the breakdown, but my post was in jest since Smoke is my man crush.

oh no.. it's been so long since I've looked at AUF that my sarcasm detector has regressed to E's levels...

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, AUEngineer2016 said:

oh no.. it's been so long since I've looked at AUF that my sarcasm detector has regressed to E's levels...

I thought engineers were famous for having an excellent sense of humor...

[AUEngineer2016 407]

1 minute ago, McLoofus said:

I thought engineers were famous for having an excellent sense of humor...

/s

[AuburnTiger4Life 2,225]

My man Bo has put on some good muscle. He’s ready 

[twilli13 600]

2 hours ago, AuburnTiger4Life said:

My man Bo has put on some good muscle. He’s ready 

Homeboy better have been working on his mid range passing consistency. We are gonna need it this year.