This time last year, Auburn baseball season was just around the corner.

This year, AU fans will have to wait a little longer.

The Tigers will start the 2008 season Feb. 22 against East Tennessee State. That’s almost three weeks later than the ’07 season, which began Feb. 9, 2007.

And while Auburn coach Tom Slater would rather see the season begin, he knows there’s a silver lining.

The new NCAA rules which pushed the start of the season back to late February also added extra practice time in the fall. Auburn took advantage of that opportunity with more than six weeks of fall practice, including dozens of intra-squad games.

That meant Slater and his assistants headed into the New Year with a much better feel for their roster. When practice started last Friday, the coaches knew what to expect from every player on the roster.

“We were able to be with the team a lot longer,” Slater said. “We were able to implement a lot more things.

“We put in all our defensive stuff, all our offensive stuff, and got these guys a lot more at-bats and get our pitchers a lot more innings.”

Though the NCAA pushed back the start of the season, it didn’t knock any games off the 56-game schedule or extend the season into June. That means AU — and every other program — must cram the same number of games into a shorter period.

The schedule is especially busy before the start of Southeastern Conference play. Thanks to several four-game weekend series and multiple mid-week games, the Tigers will play 16 games in 20 days before starting SEC play at Florida on March 14.

It won’t be easy, especially since Auburn will have to get through at least the first three weeks of the season without ace Paul Burnside.

Burnside broke his collarbone in three places in December, but Slater says his rehab is going well. The right-hander should return “sometime in March,” according to Slater.

While Burnside is sidelined, Auburn plans to rely on a five-man rotation of Luke Greinke, Austin Hubbard, Scott Shuman, Taylor Thompson and freshman Corey Luckie.

The group is young: Greinke, a junior who doubles as an outfielder, has thrown just 36 2/3 career innings, while sophomores Hubbard, Shuman and Thompson combined for 39 appearances — 19 starts — last year.

But Slater thinks the demanding start to the season will be a positive.

“I think the players will enjoy it a lot, because they’re going to play every day, virtually — five days a week — and that’s what they want to do,” he said. “They’re ready to play games.”

Sophomore Joseph Sanders, who hit .333 as a freshman and will begin the season as AU’s starting second baseman, was asked if he’d rather play than practice.

“Without a doubt,” Sanders said with a smile.

In a few weeks, he and his teammates will have plenty of chances to do just that.

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