Auburn football: Experimenting with lineups shows Tigers want to win now

The Auburn football team practiced for the first time this fall on Friday and all the Day 1 feedback has been positive. Here’s the biggest reason to like what’s happening with this team.

When you look at this 2018 Auburn football team, there’s a lot to like and plenty of things to be concerned about as the countdown begins for the Sept. 1 opener in Atlanta against Washington.

• Jarrett Stidham returns as Auburn’s second 3,000-yard passer in program history.
• Chip Lindsey and Kevin Steele return as the team’s coordinators, a rarity for both coordinators to return since Malzahn has been head coach.
• The defensive front is stout. Everyone knows it.
• Recruiting is going well and you can’t look at any spot on the field and think: The cupboard is bare.

On the flip side:

• The offensive line is a work in progress.
• The two backs who received the bulk of Auburn’s carries the last two seasons are gone.
• Two of the team’s fastest and go-to receivers (Eli Stove, Will Hastings) are out indefinitely with ACL injuries.
• The kicking game is getting an overhaul.

But something stood out among Malzahn’s comments Friday.

"“We think that group has a chance to help us. We think that group has a handful of guys who could possibly help us early.”"

Malzahn was talking about the 2018 recruiting class with that comment. That’s not a surprising comment, especially after the first day of practice. After all, if you exclude transfers Jarrett Stidham and Sal Cannella from last year’s signing class, six freshmen saw important playing time last season (T.D. Moultry, Big Kat Bryant, Noah Igbinoghene, Jordyn Peters , Devan Barrett and Malik Willis.

The bigger picture with Malzahn’s comment is this: Auburn is going to put its best football players on the field. It doesn’t matter if that player is a senior, freshman or something in between. It also doesn’t matter the position.

Just look at the offensive line. More often than not, players are recruited to play specific spots on the line — guard, tackle or center. But J.B. Grimes is a believe in cross-training his linemen, preparing them to play different positions on the line. What that means is that if 2017 5-star offensive tackle recruit Calvin Ashley isn’t the best option at right tackle, then someone else will play right tackle. It also means that if Ashley is the best option at right guard, then he’ll play right guard. If center Kaleb Kim isn’t the No. 1 center — the position he was recruited to play — someone else will be., even if they weren’t signed to play center.

Coaches spent the spring working on the best combinations and they’ll continue in the early part of fall camp before locking in on the best five offensive linemen.

This approach will be applied elsewhere.

• Devan Barrett, a 4-star RB, ranked as the 11th-best back in the 2017 class, has moved to receiver where he will step into the role vacated by Stove’s injury.
• The news from practice Friday was also that freshman running back Harold Joiner, the No. 5 RB in the 2018 class, was playing receiver. Coaches have discussed his versatility and the variety of roles he could play at Auburn.
• In the secondary, Javaris Davis, Jamel Dean and Jeremiah Dinson will be primary contributors. But there’s an opportunity to find playing time The players most likely to get that playing time? The most impressive ones in training camp.

Remember when nearly all incoming freshmen would redshirt unless they really, really were needed? Those days are gone. They arrive on campus bigger, faster and more prepared than year’s past. That’s true everywhere.

https://twitter.com/AuburnFootball/status/1025460834829520901

It’s good to see Auburn putting its best players forward with a firm goal in mind: Be great.