Auburn A-Day Notes

McCalebb scores TD for mother
Onterio McCalebb was already ecstatic that his mother, Stephisa McMillan, made it to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday to see him play football for the first time.

Then he went and made her cry.

McCalebb, on his second and final carry of the day, broke a 70-yard run for a touchdown early in the second half of the offense’s 57-31 A-Day victory.

”It’s wonderful. It’s just wonderful,” McCalebb said. “I turned around one time and saw my mom on the sidelines, and she was just sitting there laughing. It looked like she was crying. I was so excited.”
McCalebb has been separated from McMillan since the fourth grade, when he moved in with his grandmother. McMillan and McCalebb keep in contact sparingly, as McMillan lacks a permanent residence and has been on and off drugs.

McCalebb, a prep-school transfer, worked mostly with the second team Saturday. A hamstring injury hampered him a bit this spring, but he sure looked at 100 percent when he ran for his first touchdown in an Auburn uniform.

“We were in the huddle with the offensive line and they said to me, ‘McCalebb, you’re going to take this one to the house,’” McCalebb said. “So I had to believe in them. I got the ball and I saw the hole and as soon as I got past the line of scrimmage, I knew no one was going to catch me.”

Trotter on crutches
Redshirt freshman Barrett Trotter, who suffered a non-contact ACL injury in Thursday’s practice, was on crutches Saturday with a massive brace on his right knee.

A timetable has not yet been given for Trotter, but he will likely be out for the 2009 season.

“It’s really tough,” quarterback Neil Caudle said. “Barrett’s worked so hard in the offseason and he played so good in the spring. It’s not good for something to happen to that good of a guy, but it’s part of the game. You’ve just got to roll with the punches and get back.”

Trotter was among a number of Auburn players sidelined Saturday because of an injury.

Caudle was nearly one of them. He was banged up in Thursday’s practice as well.

“I got rattled a little bit but I’m fine now,” Caudle said. “I came back today and had a good day.”

Auburn lands 4th commit
Olive Brach, Miss. offensive lineman Shon Coleman committed to the Tigers following the A-Day game, according to AuburnSports.com.

Coleman, a 6-foot-7, 275 pounder, is the first of what Auburn hopes to be many offensive linemen in the class of 2010.

“As far as guys that we feel like we can win a championship with, we’ve certainly got depth issues,” Chizik said. “Just in the number of scholarships that we have right now on the O-line.”

Coleman picked Auburn over offers from Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Southern Miss and Florida International, according to AuburnSports.com.

‘A teaching day’
Gene Chizik described today’s final practice of the spring as a day for learning.

“We’re going to hunker down and try to correct some things that we saw on film today that weren’t good,” Chizik said. “We made some progress, but there’s a lot of things that we’ll see on film that we won’t like.”

Award winners
Before Saturday’s game, a number of current and present Auburn players received awards for their performance in the 2008 season.

Here they are:

Tyronne Green - best lineman and best blocking lineman.

Zac Etheridge - leading tackler.

Jerraud Powers - Zeke Smith Award for most outstanding defensive player.

Mario Fannin - Pat Sullivan Award for most outstanding offensive player.

Tristan Davis - Shug Jordan Award for most outstanding senior

Best of the Day
Best toughness: Mario Fannin caught a tipped ball for a 41-yard gain, but didn’t go down. Then he was hit by four defenders, losing his helmet, and still didn’t go down. The play was finally whistled dead, with Fannin helmet-less but still on his feet.

Best return blown dead: McCalebb took a kickoff return through the crease in the defense and was on his way, untouched, to the end zone. But since kickoffs and punts were not live, the play was blown dead at the 20-yard line.

Best razzle-dazzle: Wide receiver Terrell Zachery took a reverse handoff and went 70 yards to for a touchdown. Left tackle Lee Ziemba threw a crucial, TD-springing block 20 yards down the field.

Worst of the Day
Worst scoring system flaw: Gene Chizik and his staff implemented a different scoring system for A-Day, where both the offense and defense could earn points for performance instead of just touchdowns and field goals. On Ben Tate’s 46-yard touchdown run, the offense only got 6 points for the score and not 8 - 6 for the TD and then 2 for the “explosive 15-yard plus” run.

Worst miss: When warming up for a field goal toward the end of the game, placekicker Wes Byrum missed the net used for catching the balls and booted a ball into the hedges just in front of the play clock in the south end zone by where the recruits sit on gamedays.