News of the day, 3/2
Hey everyone. I just left Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, where the women beat Arkansas by 13 points to capture the No. 6 seed in the SEC Tournament. I know you're geeked.Football practice lasted 90 minutes or so and ended around 6 p.m. They were in shorts. You can peep a full report below.
A pre-notebook note:
Charles Goldberg, the Birmingham News' Auburn ace and would-be haberdasher, commented earlier that ``the weather is nice" and said I could quote him. So I did.
Antonio Coleman attended the final stage of practice as a spectator. He's wearing a neck brace, though it's pretty clear that he'll be back on the field before long. It's clear to me now that Lee Ziemba played a significant role in Coleman's injury as some HOTTIES have asserted both here and via email. Sen'Derrick Marks, one of Coleman's best friends on the team, said Ziemba called Coleman last night and apologized. Marks said he and Ziemba are planning to meet with Coleman later tonight for a face-to-face chat. It's fair to say a significant number of players were upset with Ziemba for his role in the situation.Here's a quote from Marks, though you have to understand that Marks is among the most congenial guys on the team: "There aren't any bad feelings against Lee. Everyone knows Lee goes one speed. He goes full speed, walk-through, practice, game, that's just the speed he goes. He's always trying to do everything right."
QB DeRon Furr suffered a bruised/strained shoulder during the scrimmage and didn't throw on Sunday. Offensive coordinator Tony Franklin said he was impressed with Furr's dynamic play in the scrimmage and said: ``I'm not going to let him get beat up again like that."A few guys missed practice altogether on Sunday. TB Mario Fannin (left shoulder) was wearing a sling and was dressed in sweats. TB Ben Tate (ankle/hamstring) participated in some conditioning drills, but didn't take any practice reps. QB Chris Todd (right shoulder) didn't throw. That was his third consecutive no-throw appearance. TB Tristan Davis (right foot) didn't practice.Coach Tommy Tuberville said all four are headed to Birmingham tomorrow for more detailed medical analyses.
Franklin provided some interesting insight into his evaluation process tonight. Though he graded each quarterback's performance in Saturday's scrimmage, he doesn't place the same value on that number than his predecessor. Franklin said he relies more on his own intuition and determining which player is more likely to win.``When I was in college, I had a new coach come in and I graded out the entire spring at 90 to 95 percent. The other guy graded out at 28," Franklin said. ``The other guy was the starter and I was his backup. The other guy was the Player of the Year in the league and I was watching from the sideline."
I talked with Hugh Nall tonight a little bit about those one-on-one blocking drills I love noting on the blog. He made the point, a good one, that the drill is designed in a way that the defense has an advantage. They don't have to worry about anything other than "teeing off" on the man ahead. I respect the man's opinion and ask that you take that into consideration before condemning these OLs -- or savoring the DLs -- based on how they perform in that drill.Questions? Comments? You can email me at jgtate@gannett.com or post a comment directly to the blog.
Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University
posted by Jay G. Tate at
4:45 PM
22 Comments:
Good reporting Jay. That's what I'm talking about.
Our dynamos are beat up. Which, for some reason, brings me to this point once again. Why is there a spring practice instead of a month earlier fall practice? Besides all the weather stuff, I'm looking for good reasoning.
Heard some folks commenting, guesssing rather, about what happene between Merrill Johnso and Furr. Merrill pushed Furr. Furr responded by slamming Johnson to the ground and then they fought uselessly (pads and helmets). Furr is very strong. He's a lean, mean, bull.
This incident occurred across the field from me, but Furr absolutely body-slammed Merrill onto his back. I couldn't see what happened after that. The mass of on-rushing players blocked my view.
Furr is a big boy. He can fight his own battles out there.
I didn't expect Furr to be that big. He's got some pipes for a 12th grader.
It is interesting that all of our injuries have been on the offensive side of the ball so far. Could that be a byproduct of having people spead out, creating less chance for injury from gang tackles? At any rate, it seems that the concerns about the spread making our defense less physical can be put to rest for now.
Marks
He seems like a level headed guy, Jay. He's the guy you want the media to talk to. When these guys are quoted, are they legitimately quoted? Or do you have to edit things to make them make sense?
Sometimes it's hard for me to believe guys like Marks, based on how they came up, can be so articulate and wise at that age. I'm not saying they're writing a thesis out there. But some of them speak in a way that's light years more mature than some of the general college population you talk to.
Comment 1)
What's up crudup? Mr. Jay G?
Crudup - I think if they had this level of practice a month before fall practice, we probably wouldn't be able to make it through the season. The entire team would be in casts, slings, or on cruthces.
Deron Furr - I know he's a QB, but I think he should have a place on the KO return unit or something. Just get him out there.
I didn't buy that whole defense-might-go-soft argument. If they're tough, they're tough.
Furr has a long way to go with footwork and all. He's one tough hombre, though.
aubigcat, I think the concerns are still there for the defense. They'll definitely be better conditioned. But will they be tough enough to go toe to toe in the trenches with the bigs of the SEC? I don't see how Auburn can have time to ditch the spread and run a basic physical offense just to prep the defensive side of the ball.
Would it be worth using a year's eligibility for Furr to play special teams? If he's not going to play QB he does need the ball in his hands. He would be a big target and dynamic with the ball.
On the quotes thing ... most of them speak more carefully when they know a recorder is chronicling their words.
Sen is a good example of how writers might "clean up" something he says.
Tonight, for example, he said this verbatim: "There were two or three fights the whole entire day through the scrimmage. I guess it just came up badder than it was expecting to be."
Had I used that quote in the newspaper, it would have read: "I guess it just came up (worse) than it was expecting to be."
That's how I operate.
Cool. I thought you would have to do that. I guess things are as they are perceived. That's a good thing.
Jay, you haven't heard any bad buzz on Lester's academics have you? He and Tristan Davis are always ones to watch.
And Jay G passes another integrity test...
Sorry, Jay. That was a bad question.
I'd be really surprised if Lester lets academics undermine his eligibility again. He got lax, he paid the price. Another misstep probably all but ends whatever professional dreams he has.
Jay, can you elaborate on what went on b/t big Lee and AC before AC was injured?
I cannot elaborate on that because, seriously, I don't know. I didn't see enough of the exchange first-hand because there is so much going on each snap.
I tried to get my eyes on the coaches' film, but I didn't make meaningful progress on that front. They don't really want reporters to see that.
I tried to talk with a couple of my most trusted players about it. They didn't want to reveal anything, which is fine. They could look like snitches for talking about the incident in detail with the media.
It is a somewhat big deal that Coleman's injury may have been due to unnecessarily aggressive play on Ziemba's part. I do not think it's important at this stage to determine exactly what Ziemba did.
That's where I stand on the issue.
Comment 2:
I'm not sure it is all that big of a deal. They probably got a little carried away and somebody got hurt. Now they know why they shouldn't get carried away. It's a rough sport. Things happen. This is an example of what coaches mean when they say, "Save it for the next play."
But I LOVE the way the players handle things like this. What a testimony to the "Family Atmoshpere" that Auburn swears by. Marks involvement is an example of that philosophy in action.
Phred,
I was talking about this earlier on Phil Marshall's blog and a lot of people had the same response as you. but as i said there, it wasn't a "normal" practice fight at all.
i saw Big Lee put AC in a headlock and throw him to the ground, it was above and beyond anything like "agressiveness" or whatever.
As an Auburn fan, i wish our coaches would practice accountability, even if it means punishing lee. No one even means for someone to get hurt, but th efact is AC could have gotten hurt very, very easily, and it was the result of dirty play AFTER the whistle by Big Lee. That's not right, and it's not football, and it's not even "toughness."
obbern I saw Lee throw AC down as well but that was about the same time that the whistle blew. Our coaching staff has been very accountable for the actions of our players.
I'm a reasonably skeptical guy as a rule, you old-timers know this, but I think the coaches do a passable job of holding their players accountable for their actions.
I'm sure there is plenty of politicking and conversation going on among teammates right now. Ziemba is receiving plenty of internal scrutiny, which probably is a more fearsome fine that anything a newspaper could report.
Comment 2 - restating my earlier position.
I don't disagree with any of you. I don't believe there should be any fighting going on at practice period. I think discipline should be practiced as much as football.
I do however, notice a serious double standard being applied here.
Deron Furr body slams Merrill Johnson. Nobody got hurt and everybody thinks it's GREAT!
Lee Ziemba does basically the same thing. Antonio Coleman gets hurt and Ziemba is made into a villan.
Phred, let's make one thing clear.
It was NOT the same thing. Take it from the people who were there. It wasn't the same thing at all. not even close. i think JGTate would agrree with me.
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