News of the day, 8/8

Hey everyone. Let's get to business.

Lee Ziemba (pictured at left) was moved to first-team offense at right tackle today. He played pretty well. Three players (Antwoin Daniels, Andrew McCain and Oscar Gonzalez) already have come and gone since fall camp started. I think Ziemba will have some struggles. Still not sure what will happen here. Remember that this is Cox's blind side, he's a lefty, so it's critical that Auburn figure out something to keep that right side guarded.

Not to harp on offensive linemen, but the situation at guard is murky. Mike Berry and Leon Hart now are bracketed at right guard. Tyronne Green and redshirt freshman Byron Isom are bracketed at left guard. Green hasn't been as good since Monday's practice. I still think he'll start. He needs to get back in the groove.

Freshman Kyle Coulahan has moved from OL to DL. He was a defensive guy in high school, so this isn't a ground-breaking change. He'll be redshirted.

WR Chris Slaughter said he thinks playing time is a real possibility this season.

Auburn plans to scrimmage on Friday night or Saturday morning. The workout will be closed to fans and the media.

DB Zach Gilbert, WR James Swinton, QB Blake Field and walk-on LB Jacob Shirey spent a while after practice with strength coach Kevin Yoxall doing some extra conditioning. Whatever they did to deserve that, I hope they don't do it again. It was exhausting just to watch.

*Remember that Fan Day is Saturday (3-5 p.m.) at Beard-Eaves.

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OFF-TOPIC RANT

I wanted to say a little something about Bill Walker's passing on Tuesday. My personal dealings with him were almost universally bad. He lied to me at least twice when I was investigating the Jetgate saga (before it broke) and then dodged reporters for a while after the story broke. I was just mentioning Walker the other day when someone asked me about the most loathsome people I've met.

The paper needed me to do an obit on him yesterday. You can imagine my reaction. Still, I took an hour to meet with Auburn's engineering czar, Larry Benefield, who affected me in ways I didn't expect. Benefield acknolwedged that Walker wasn't a cheery guy and didn't try to curry favor. Benefield described his friend as a brilliant engineer who didn't deserve to be remembered only for the Jetgate folly.

I thought about that more on the way home from Auburn. It's pretty amazing how differently people can be perceived. I saw only 1% of Walker's behavior. I'll say this -- the people in engineering loved the guy. Loved him. He busted his butt to make that college better. Sounds like he did one heck of a job with it.

Ok. The end.