With Week 1 running back starter Damari Alston officially out for Week 2 due to his shoulder injury, the depth of Auburn's RB room becomes a primary worry just days away from facing Ball State.
In the Tigers' win against Baylor, both Alston and Jeremiah Cobb played a significant role, both scoring a touchdown each. Although Cobb is expected to start this weekend, Alston's absence could cost the squad big time.
That is particularly why Hugh Freeze's latest update of the Tigers' RB room, although being the best update there could be about a freshman RB, was merely a band-aid to a bullet wound.
When Freeze said that freshman RB Omar Mabson was "flashing" during early August practice, he became the one to look out for. And Freeze still thinks of him as an outstanding athlete.
"He's learned, and I have zero worries about him handling a run play. It's just everything with playing that position, you know, in particular, the pass pro. It's just, for a freshman that he hadn't played, and knowing every game there's going to be two blitzes that you haven't seen that they have game planned for us," Freeze said.
However, Freeze's glowing review of him had a big "but" written all over it.
"You know, how he will do in those moments?" Freeze said. "And that's not a knock on him. That's normal as a freshman running back. But excited to see him get some rest."
The primary reason behind that concern was two things: Mabson's inexperience in playing big games and Alston and Cobb's maturity in handling decisive plays in big games.
"You feel better with the guys that have some maturity in a game like that. Definitely has his kind of the same thing," Freeze said. "No problem with the run game. Just being able to do all the things that Damari does comes pretty natural for him and Cobb because they've been in the program for a couple of years and making sure there's a lot of things that happen with old line calls that they have to be aware ofbecause that picture changes on the old line, and if Connor changes a protection, there's a way that he should know that and be locked into that. So that's what we need to see, some approach, and go from there."
All that said, the Tigers will still need someone to bolster them the way Alston did. And they will definitely need him for crucial wins as soon as they start their SEC schedule.
For now Freeze and the fans from the Plains can only keep their fingers crossed about Alston's speedy recovery.