Auburn Tigers News: Why Alex McPherson will miss A-Day, Payton Thorne on new roster

In today's edition of Auburn Tigers News, we look at why Auburn football's kicker will miss the A-Day game and Payton Thorne talks about the difference in the new roster

A-Day is this weekend, but one of Auburn football's key players will not be taking the field with the rest of the team. According to Auburn Live, kicker Alex McPherson is still taking care of a hamstring injury sustained at the end of last season, and has taken a six week break from kicking.

Will this impact the Tigers this fall? McPherson says no, that he is healthy and will be good to go by the time August rolls around.

“I’m trying to stay healthy, staying consistent with everything I’m doing,” McPherson said. “It’s going good. I’ve had something with my hamstring. I won’t be playing in the A-Day game, unfortunately. My health is good right now. I’m healed, I’m just taking it easy this spring.”

Payton Thorne talks about the difference in the new roster

After the bowl game in December, Rivaldo Fairweather told the media that there were too many "loose leashes" on the team, implying that some players didn't care enough.

Now, reports are spreading that Payton Thorne's confidence is rising, and that the new offense put together by head coach Hugh Freeze and offensive coordinator Derrick Nix is a level up from last year. But that's not the only thing that has changed.

“I was thinking about this yesterday or the day before, like, all the guys that you would get frustrated with, like, ‘Why don’t you want to be here? Why don’t you want to workout?,’ stuff like that, most of those guys are gone,” Thorne told reporters Thursday, per AL.com. “So that has been really refreshing. I feel like most of the guys — almost all of the guys — that are here now want to be here and they want to workout and they want to play well on the field. The energy has been off the charts at practice so far.”

With a new offense, players that are willing to put in the work, and a new attitude seemingly emerging from the Auburn football program, it seems the only direction for the team to go this fall is up.