Auburn Football Practice Observations: August 10th

The Auburn Tigers showed a ton of 11-on-11 during a practice on Saturday.

The Tigers held a practice inside Jordan-Hare Stadium before Fan Day kicked off. While there were some drills and things to see to open the practice, the majority of the day was spent running full 11-on-11, offense vs defense, up and down the field. This is what we saw:

Unless otherwise specified, Payton Thorne ran with the first-team offense.

First drive (first-team)

- Thorne complete on pass to right sideline

- Jarquez Hunter rush up middle

- Thorne incomplete, slant blown up, ball thrown away

- Thorne complete to Sam Jackson V

- Thorne incomplete, Hunter dropped pass on swing

First-team receivers:

Robert Lewis, Cam Coleman, Sam Jackson V, Rivaldo Fairweather

First-team offensive line:

Percy Lewis, Dillon Wade, Connor Lew, Jeremiah Wright, Izavion Miller

Second drive (second-team)

- Holden Geriner sacked

- Jeremiah Cobb rush right side, sweep

- Offsides penalty

- Geriner incomplete, broken up in flat

Second-team receivers:

Caleb Burton, Bryce Cain, Camden Brown, Brandon Frazier

Second-team (?) offensive line:

Tyler Johnson, Bradyn Joiner, Tate Johnson, EJ Harris, Ronan Chambers

- This looks more like the third team OL, but the players around it indicate otherwise.

Third drive (third-team)

- Sean Jackson rush left side

- Walker White incomplete, ball behind Jake Kruse. Could’ve been caught

- White complete to Jackson, wide open after blitz was picked up

- White incomplete, overthrew wide open touchdown to Malcolm Simmons

- White incomplete overthrew a wide open pass over the middle to Cain

- White incomplete, pass broken up

Third-team receivers:

Perry Thompson, Malcolm Simmons, Jake Kruse, Rico Walker

Fourth drive (first-team)

- Hunter rush for short gain

- Thorne complete over the middle to Fairweather, nice catch, first down

- Thorne sacked, either miscommunication or route was blown up again

- Thorne incomplete, intended for Fairweather over the middle

- Thorne complete to Damari Alston, nailed someone going out of bounds, fourth down

Drive Five (from here on out the teams mix and match)

- Hank Brown in at quarterback

- Brown complete over the middle to Cain

- Justin Jones rush for no gain

- Brown complete to Cain, near first down

- Brown complete to Micah Riley, first down

- Justin Jones rush for no gain

- Brown complete to Simmons, third down

- Brown incomplete deep to Perry Thompson, pass interference on JC Hart who drug him down to prevent him from getting the ball

- Brown intercepted in endzone by Kaleb Harris

Drive Six (White at QB)

- Christian Burnette rush for short gain

- White complete to Dylan Gentry, short gain, Gentry was lit up

- White complete for first down, flag brings play back

- White incomplete, errant pass

Drive Seven (Thorne at QB)

- Hunter rush for nice gain

- Hunter rush for short gain

- Thorne complete to Fairweather down right side, first down

- Thorne incomplete intended for Simmons, shot downfield hit the DB in the head

- Thorne complete, first down

- Thorne incomplete, flag, pass interference

- Thorne complete to Simmons on screen for short gain

- Thorne incomplete, had a ton of time, threw it away

- Thorne sacked, had lots of time again

Drive Eight (Brown at QB)

- Brown complete to Thompson down right side, absolute bomb inside the redzone

- Cobb rush up the middle, touchdown

Drive Nine (White at QB)

- Jackson rush left side, near first down

- Jackson rush left side, first down

- Jackson rush up the middle, short gain

- White incomplete, rollout pass intended for Will Upton

- White complete to Jackson on screen, one-handed catch, first down

- White complete to Kruse on comeback route, first down

- White complete to Simmons, deep over the middle, inside the 10-yard line

- White incomplete, circus catch by Thompson out of bounds

- White incomplete

- Jackson rush left side, short gain

- Field goal is good

Drive Nine (Thorne at QB)

- Alston rush up the middle, decent gain

- Alston rush up the middle, no gain

- Thorne complete to Riley, near first down

- Cobb rush for first down

- Thorne complete to Hunter for short gain

- Cobb rush for short gain

- Thorne scrambles for first down, Thorne begged Frazier to stay in instead of motion out, cause a bit of panic, had to improvise and scrambled for first down at midfield

- Alston rush for decent gain, flag, false start

- Thorne incomplete, circus catch by Coleman but out of bounds

- They went back into the huddle on the sideline and then came back out, not sure if they reset, or if they wanted a timeout

- Thorne complete on screen to Simmons, first down

- Thorne incomplete to Lewis, broken up

Drive Ten (Geriner at QB)

- Geriner complete to Cain, dump-off pass for solid gain

- Jones rush right side, first down

- Geriner complete to Cain, touchdown, Cain was wide open on the left side because of a blown coverage

Drive Eleven (White at QB)

- White complete to Hunter Ousley for no gain, Ousley was popped at the line of scrimmage

- White complete to Ousley for nice gain

- White incomplete for Gentry, beautiful throw down left side dropped, best throw of the day from White and Gentry let it go through his hands and bounce off of his knee

- White incomplete, pass thrown away

- Rush right side for a loss

- White complete to Thompson down right side, wide open, first down

- White incomplete, overthrew open Thompson down right sideline

- Hard rush right side, nice gain

- White complete to Gentry over the middle, first down, very nice throw

- White complete to Ousley for short gain

- Rush dropped for big loss

- White incomplete, pass overthrown out of bounds, somehow threw it over three players out of bounds on the left sideline from the right hash

- Field goal is good

Drive Twelve (Thorne at QB)

- Thorne scramble for nice gain

- Cobb rush right side, near first down

- Cobb rush for first down

- Cobb rush for short gain

- Thorne complete on checkdown, first down, missed an open receiver downfield

- Thorne complete, risky pass, flag, pass interference, first down

- Thorne incomplete, intended for Luke Deal, wide open touchdown overthrown

- Thorne complete (?) to Simmons for touchdown, ball was deflected but caught off the bounce by Simmons, refs said incomplete, but looked like Simmons might have gotten a foot in bounds

- Called a touchdown

Drive Thirteen (Brown at QB)

- Brown throws ball all the way behind Cain on screen out of bounds, called backwards pass, big loss

- Brown incomplete to Rico Walker, flag, pass interference

- Rush for loss

- Brown complete for loss

- Brown sacked

Final Drive (Geriner at QB)

- Rush up the middle for short gain

- Geriner incomplete over the middle, broken up

- Geriner complete to Thompson, first down, flag, offsides penalty

- Play brought back to original line of scrimmage (?)

- Geriner complete to Simmons over the middle, touchdown, Simmons broke a tackle and took off

Final quarterback stats

Payton Thorne

13 of 22, 1 TD, 0 INT

Holden Geriner

4 of 6, 2 TD, 0 INT

Hank Brown

6 of 9, 0 TD, 1 INT

Walker White

11 of 23, 0 TD, 0 INT

Notes

The offense didn't seem very aggressive throughout practice. It was clear Auburn was not operating at full speed. Regardless, the offensive line looked subpar and the quarterback play was inconsistent at times. Numerous touchdown passes missed. Walker White overthrew too many receivers. Defense looked solid for most of the afternoon. I'd say they were the winners of the scrimmage.

The receivers, when given the ball, looked incredible.

Malcolm Simmons, Bryce Cain, and Perry Thompson all stood out. Cain and Simmons really did damage to the second and third-string units. There wasn't anything special that stood out about the Tigers' ground game, but I'm not sure it was the focus heading into today.

There isn't anything of true substance to take away from the practice considering the circumstances. The offense will hopefully look more polished in the weeks to come.