AU FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Roof praises Stevens, others

While the atta-boys on the offensive side of the ball were few and far between Sunday, defensive coordinator Ted Roof had no trouble naming names that impressed him this spring.

And, as it did at the onset of spring practice, it all started with junior linebacker Craig Stevens.

“I was real pleased with Craig Stevens. He had an outstanding spring,” Roof said. “There’s a lot of guys that did a lot of good things.”

Also on the list were senior Antonio Coleman, “who became a force at the end of spring,” middle linebacker Josh Bynes, who “had a steady spring” and safety Mike McNeil, who “was really trying to get to where he wasn’t thinking so much and was just reacting” before he broke his leg in the second spring scrimmage.

Cornerbacks Neiko Thorpe and Walt McFadden and junior-college transfer linebacker Eltoro Freeman also made Roof’s impromptu list.

“Once (Freeman) became more comfortable with the new terminology and new words and new ways of doing things, once he got into a groove, I really saw him get better,” Roof said.

Roof’s major area of concern heading into the summer lies at the linebacker position. His first-team group of Bynes, Stevens and Freeman appears solid, but from there it’s thin and uncertain.

“We’re going to have to continue to recruit and develop some players in order to have some depth there,” Roof said. “In order to be successful in this league you can’t fall off the cliff when somebody gets injured. It’s going to be inevitable that somebody’s going to get hurt — or some bodies are going to get hurt.”

On offense, Malzahn said it wouldn’t be fair to single out players because “as a group, every one of those guys have bought into what we’re doing and they’ve improved each practice.”

Neat and tidy
The Tigers committed just three penalties for 26 yards in Saturday’s A-Day game — only one of which was committed by the offense.

“For us, right now, we always talk about how we’re not good enough offensively to overcome penalties and turnovers,” Coach Gene Chizik said. “We’re just not good enough to do that. So that’s a high, high priority for us every time we step on the field.”

Auburn averaged six penalties for 47.3 yards per game in 2008.

“Penalties are just not acceptable at all,” Chizik said. “That means you’re undisciplined. A lot of penalties are ones of aggression, but senseless penalties…really aren’t tolerable. Those are just lazy discipline mistakes, so I was happy to see we didn’t have a lot of those.”

No R&R yet
Chizik was asked jokingly Sunday if he’d have some time to go to the beach with his family now that spring practice is over.

He responded with a serious “No.”

“There’s really no down time,” Chizik said. “It’s just kind of a cycle that never ends.”

The next few months’ agenda includes constant reevaluation of film cut-ups from the spring and the neverending recruiting of prospective Auburn players.

Auburn’s coaches have until the end of May to log four weeks on the road. Per NCAA rules, Chizik is not allowed to travel during this recruiting period.

“Everybody is going to be on the road for us at one point or another,” Chizik said. “Obviously, we can have seven guys out, so you’ve got to strategically plan where you want to go and where you want the coordinators to go and see guys.”

Chizik said he does not have a set number of commits he’d like to acquire in the early goings-on.

“It’d be nice if they’re the nice ones and the ones you want,” Chizik said. “I don’t know how many we’ll have. There are so many guys that we’re recruiting that can go anywhere in the country; West coast, East coast and everywhere in between.”

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