AUBURN, Ala. – It was a beautiful spring afternoon Monday, and emanating from the Auburn football practice fields, you could hear the sound of whistles. You could hear coaches yelling, players grunting, the buzzer going off after each period.
Spring football is back on the Plains.
"Today is going to be a good day," new head coach Bryan Harsin said.
Gallery: (3-15-2021) Practice - March 15. 2021
With Harsin on board, spring might look a little different for the Tigers this year. If nothing else, this will be the first time Harsin and his coaching staff will have the opportunity to work with the players on the field, outside of the weight room and conditioning.
"We'll learn a lot from this first day," Harsin said. "What I believe about anything you get a chance to do the first time, you get one shot to make a first impression. I think that's important for players and coaches and everybody to understand. This is the first time for this staff and this team to be together in real football setting.
"So I hope everybody comes out there and puts their best foot forward and we have a really focused day, we have a day where our effort is high and we get a lot done."
Auburn won't break out the pads until later in the week, but Monday's practice is expected to include various individual drills and circuits before the team gets into offense, defense and 11-on-11 against one another. The Tigers will practice seven times over the next two weeks, take a week off and then return for two more weeks of practice leading up to the spring game on Saturday, April 17.
Over the course of the next month, Harsin and his staff are hoping to begin implementing their systems while also getting to know the players and seeing their skill sets.
There's a sense of newness not only for Harsin going through his first spring practice with Auburn after spending the past seven seasons at Boise State but also for the Auburn players who haven't been through spring practice since 2019 after last year was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The only way to improve in anything is to go out there and actually do it," Harsin said. "So not having a chance to train, not having a chance for spring practices, I think that affected a lot of teams last year. I know there are a lot of teams already in spring practice, there are teams getting ready for spring practice. Every coach and every player in America right now is as happy as can be to go out there and compete and get these practices in."
If the effort and energy in the weight room and in conditioning in the weeks leading up to spring practice were any indication, it should be a spirited and competitive spring for the Tigers.
Harsin mentioned linebackers Owen Pappoe and Zakoby McClain, as well as quarterback Bo Nix, running back Tank Bigsby and offensive lineman Tashawn Manning as guys who have stepped up as leaders – but said it was "more team-driven" in terms of overall improvement.
"We'll see how that translates into practice," Harsin said. "What's the effort going to look like? What's that mentality as we get out there? When we start competing 11-on-11, how are guys going to respond? Are they going to continue to compete or do guys start to pull themselves back a little bit? We don't know yet, but we'll see what that looks like as we get into practice.
"This work in the weight room, the work we're going to get on the field, it is critical, it is vital, and it is something that I know everybody is looking forward to."
WHAT HARSIN IS SAYING…
On the winter conditioning program…
"I think everybody was really trying to make sure that they were doing their best at what it is they were asked to do. So I thought the attitude and effort of the entire team was very good. Early on it was challenging and as they got stronger and they got better – it wasn't so much the workouts got easier, I think our players just got better as the workouts went on."
On Bo Nix learning a new system this spring…
"Right now, where Bo is at, it's his third offense. I remember myself when I played, there were four different head coaches and four different systems. I always appreciate that at the quarterback position – and for all the players on each side of the ball – you've got to learn something new. It's a little different language. You've got to apply it. That takes a lot of time, and I think that's underestimated when there's a change and players have to learn something new. That takes a tremendous amount of time to do that and a lot of energy, a lot of focus and a lot of dedication to have yourself ready."
On how practices will be run…
"We'll compete and we'll have those different tempos in there. But what I want to do early on, and what we've talked about as a staff, is just establish our habits in practice – how we get to the football, how we get off from the sideline to the field, how we transition from drill to drill – and really making sure the expectations of how we practice get installed as much as our systems. The better we do that, I think the more physical we can be in practice – when we want to be."
SPRING INJURY REPORT
- Out: Brandon Council and Shedrick Jackson
- Out/Limited: Ze'Vian Capers, Marco Domio and Zion Puckett
- Limited: Ahmari Harvey and Desmond Tisdol