Saturday, March 01, 2008

Scary moments

Auburn’s first scrimmage of spring practice ended on an extremely bad note this morning: Junior defensive end Antonio Coleman was taken off the field in an ambulance after the final play of the scrimmage. It’s not clear what happened on the play: Offensive tackle Lee Ziemba was blocking Coleman, who hit the ground before the end of the play and lay—apparently motionless—for at least 15 minutes. Emergency medical personnel and Auburn’s trainers immobilized Coleman’s neck, lifted him onto a wheeled stretcher and placed him in the ambulance while the fans on hand cheered. A few more minutes passed before the stretcher left for East Alabama Medical Center.

It’s much, much too early to speculate about the injury, its causes or its duration. Coleman didn’t appear to be moving when he was carried to the ambulance, and no Auburn coach or player gave the crowd any kind of thumbs-up or other signal. However, Tommy Tuberville said Coleman was able to move and respond to coaches and medical staff. Obviously, that’s a very, very good sign.

I’ll have an update as soon as any news comes out about Coleman’s condition.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Loose change

Auburn has once again moved up the start of spring practice. The first practice is now scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 24. A-Day is still set for March 29. Here’s the full practice schedule, as released by Auburn media relations today.

Feb. 24 - approx 3:15 p.m. (shells)
Feb. 26 - 7 a.m. (shells)
Feb. 28 - 7 a.m. (First day in pads)
Feb. 29 - 4 p.m.
March 1 - 10 a.m.
March 2 - 4 p.m.
March 4 - 7 a.m.
March 7 - 4 p.m.
March 8 - 10 a.m.
March 11 - 7 a.m.
March 14 - 4 p.m.
March 23 - 5 p.m.
March 25 - 7 a.m.
March 28 - 4 p.m. (shells)
March 29 - A-Day - 1 p.m.

For what it’s worth, this schedule is still listed as tentative.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Spring practice schedule change

Last week and this one are sort of the eye of the hurricane when it comes to Auburn football. Football recruiting wrapped up Feb. 6, National Signing Day. Spring football doesn’t start until next week.

So the middle of February is a calm period—relatively speaking. Auburn’s coaches are already working on 2009 recruiting, of course, identifying the junior prospects they’re most impressed with and sending out a slew of scholarship offers. And a few of last year’s reserves are moving on: Defensive back Lorenzo Ferguson and defensive lineman Bryant Miller are reportedly transferring, and offensive lineman Antwoin Daniels, who has already graduated, won’t play this season. Quarterback Blake Field (Valdosta State) and offensive lineman Oscar Gonzalez (Howard) announced their departures in January.

This week, folks are already looking toward spring practice. There’s good news for fans: They’ll have a slightly shorter wait than expected. An Auburn spokesman told me this afternoon that the start of practice has been moved up to Feb. 26, next Tuesday. It was originally expected to start Feb. 28, Friday.

Keep your eyes open at www.oanow.com and www.AuburnVersus.com for my spring preview series, which will begin this week. And, of course, once practice starts, there’ll be the onslaught of football coverage you all expect and deserve. I know you’re all looking forward to it as much as I am.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

More recruiting excitement

Just got back from Tommy Tuberville’s Signing Day press conference...not much of interest there.

Unsurprisingly, Tuberville says he likes Auburn’s class. (What, I hear you asking, is he supposed to say? Good point.) He also says he’s pleased with AU’s efforts in the state of Alabama, which may surprise some Auburn fans who follow recruiting especially closely: Almost every in-state recruit who received scholarship offers from both Auburn and Alabama chose the Tide. AU has signed 10 Alabamians—counting juco transfer Raven Gray—but many of them weren’t targeted by the Tide.

I’m not saying Auburn’s class is bad—as I said earlier, I think there’s a lot of talent, especially at the offensive skill positions and the defensive backfield. But it’s tough to spin the in-state results as a “W” for AU. Sorry.

Tuberville also pointed out that Auburn’s cupboard is rather full—the Tigers have had good classes the last few years, and unless you’re Florida, LSU, USC or Notre Dame, it’s hard to sign top-10 classes every year. A lot of schools had a lot of playing time to offer; Auburn didn’t, except at defensive back and defensive line, where the Tigers had some pretty good results. That’s not spin: That’s a fact.

I’ll have more from Tuberville in my story for tomorrow’s paper.

Signing Day Surprises

National Signing Day is in full swing. As of right now (1:36 p.m. Central), Auburn has received National Letters of Intent from 28 players. AU will probably sign close to 30, knowing that a few won’t qualify. Here’s who’s in so far:

WR Darvin Adams
WR Harry Adams
TE Ken Adams
CB T’Sharvan Bell
LB Deshaun Barnes
DB Drew Cole
DS Dax Dellenbach
QB DeRon Furr
DE Raven Gray
DE Cameron Henderson
CB D’Antoine Hood
RB Reggie Hunt
DB Marcus Jemison
OL Jermaine Johnson
DB Neiko Lipscomb
DE Derrick Lykes
RB Onterrio McCalebb
WR Philip Pierre-Louis
LB Spencer Pybus
DE Jomarcus Savage
RB Eric Smith
TE Vance Smith
DL Freddie Smooth
DB Christian Thompson
QB Chris Todd
QB Barrett Trotter
DE Andre Wadley
WR Derek Winter

Barnes, Furr, Gray and Todd are already enrolled. Gray and Todd signed with AU out of junior colleges in December. Furr graduated early from Columbus, Ga.’s Carver High to enroll at Auburn for the spring. Barnes graduated from high school last year, signed with Tennessee, didn’t qualify, sat out a year and signed with AU, where he enrolled in time for this semester.

Meanwhile, Auburn is currently 0-for-4 on the five uncommitted prospects it was hoping to hear from today: WR Jarmon Fortson, as expected, chose FSU; DE Robert Quinn picked North Carolina over Alabama and Auburn; DB George Baker chose South Florida and prep-school star RB Enrique Davis signed with Ole Miss.

Davis is the biggest blow there; he signed with AU last year before going to Hargrave Military Academy for prep school, and most prep-school guys don’t switch schools the next year. Plus, Davis committed to Auburn during the ‘07 season before de-committing in January because of doubts about Tony Franklin’s offense. He’s a five-star prospect, according to Rivals, and he was Auburn’s top offensive target this year. Make no mistake: This is a big, big loss for AU, even with the tailback depth the Tigers already have. And having to play against him every year doesn’t exactly make it better, I’m guessing.

Auburn is still waiting to hear from Gadsden LB Jerrell Harris (Auburn and Bama). By all accounts, Harris is expected to choose the Tide.

If Auburn misses out on all five—combined with the high-profile de-commitments of the last few weeks and the repeated head-to-head recruiting losses in-state to Alabama—this is a dark, dark day for the Tigers.

Still, the current class has some playmakers, though quite a few of them reportedly have work to do to qualify academically. Auburn fans should definitely be excited about guys like WR Darvin Adams, RBs Eric Smith and Reggie Hunt, QBs Chris Todd, Barrett Trotter and DeRon Furr and DEs Raven Gray and Jomarcus Savage, all of whom are either already in school or likely to qualify academically. I’m especially impressed by Smith and Hunt, who look like big-time players on the game film available on the Rivals and Scout.com networks.

Guys like Ken Adams, Onterrio McCalebb and Brandon Smith, meanwhile, will probably have to start their college careers in junior college, but they’ve got talent too. Keep your eyes peeled for those guys come Signing Day 2012.

WR Damion Allen, who’s already enrolled in junior college, hasn’t been officially announced as a signee. Neither has Mobile ATH Brandon Smith, though he’s been a longtime commitment. There’s a chance Auburn won’t officially announce either player as a signee.

Barring a totally unexpected post-Signing Day surprise, this could be it for Auburn’s ‘08 recruiting class.