AUBURN, Ala. – Before the beginning of fall camp, there was a team meal where some of the older players sat down with the freshman wide receivers and told that group that they need to step up this season. With injuries to Eli Stove and Will Hastings in the spring, there's a need for playmakers to emerge at that position.
If the first scrimmage of fall camp was any indication, they received the message.
(8/9/2018) Football Practice - Aug. 9, 2018
According to Auburn head coach Gus Malzahn and quarterback Jarrett Stidham, all four of the freshmen – Matthew Hill, Shedrick Jackson, Anthony Schwartz and Seth Williams – made a play for the offense at one point or another.
Per Stidham, Jackson made a nice catch on a back-shoulder throw. Hill ran a good tunnel screen. Schwartz picked up 20 or 25 yards on an end-around. And Williams, the tallest of the bunch, caught a slant and took it 60 or 70 yards to the house for a touchdown.
"Those guys can play," Stidham said. "They're picking up everything really quick. They've obviously never played college football, so they have to get used to it, get the tempo down and that sort of thing. But I think they're coming along really, really well, and it was good to see them in a live setting make some really good plays."
The emergence of those freshmen doesn't take away from the importance of the three veterans – Ryan Davis, Darius Slayton and Nate Craig-Myers – who have all had a good camp thus far. If anything, that trio will play a major role in how the freshmen develop.
After each drive Thursday, you likely would've seen Stidham or one of those three older receivers talking to the freshmen and helping them along.
"Collectively, between myself and the veteran receivers, we're talking to all of them, teaching them the fundamentals of routes and plays and just how to play college football in general," Stidham said. "It's really good, and I think it's going to be a really positive thing for us that we may not have had too much of that in the last few years."
As for the quarterbacks, Malzahn said Stidham got all the reps with the first-team offense. Malik Willis received the majority of reps with the twos, though Joey Gatewood also got reps with the twos and split time with Cord Sandberg with the threes.
Gatewood was the only one of the four who went live during the scrimmage.
"That really made a difference with his overall confidence," Malzahn said. "He showed some really good things today, standing out with that."
The emphasis for the defense this whole offseason has been creating more turnovers, and they delivered Thursday with three interceptions. One from JayVaughn Myers, another from John Broussard, and the third from Traivon Leonard.
"I thought we did pretty well," linebacker Deshaun Davis said of the defense. "Of course there are some things we've got to fix, but the bright side of it was one of the things going into fall camp we wanted to emphasize was turnovers and we had three turnovers today. That was pretty good. We stopped the run pretty well."
Auburn will return to practice Friday, and then Fan Day festivities are set to take place Saturday after practice from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the indoor practice facility.
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @greg_ostendorf