Auburn Football: Tigers Spring Game Recap

The Auburn football program returned to a true spring game this season. It’s their first under head coach Alex Golesh, and the fans relished in the “A-Day” experience. With an interesting scoring system that Golesh jokingly called stupid, the offense won 66-43. With questions surrounding the offense, and the defense still having an elite showing, a lot was answered for Auburn and where they need to go next. Certain players stood out on offense, and even more stood out on defense than expected. That continues to reinforce the statement that this defense will be elite. Can the offense keep up? How does Byrum Brown translate to the SEC? Which receivers help replace the studs that transferred out? That will hopefully be answered in this Auburn football spring recap.

Auburn Football: Spring Game Recap

Offensive Winners from A-Day

Tristan Ti’ia transferred to Auburn from Oregon State. He had limited playing time with the Beavers, so he was relatively unknown coming into Auburn. Trying not to overreact to A-Day, Ti’ia had a great day.

He was by far the best quarterback with a stat line of 15 completions on 20 attempts, 179 passing yards, with one touchdown and interception. He was also allowed to run and move with the ball (a bit more than Brown). His one touchdown pass was the only passing touchdown in the game. Ti’ia looked competent, giving Auburn fans hope that after Brown graduates, Ti’ia could take over as the starter for multiple seasons. Hopefully, Auburn will beat teams the way they are supposed to and in games that they are blowing teams out, Tristan can then get some playing time this season.

Deshawn Spencer is the next winner. The true freshman wide receiver, who broke all of Ryan Williams’ records at Saraland, looked phenomenal. Spencer had nine receptions on 10 targets and 93 yards receiving. Spencer looked like a player where it doesn’t matter how, but the Tigers need to get the ball in his hands and let him work. For someone who has not built his body in a college weight room yet, Spencer looked like a true weapon on the field. He broke tackles and made consistent, solid catches to help move the chains. If Spencer maintains this level of play, then he will likely be utilized more than expected as a true freshman, and you will hear no complaints from here.

The last winner of A-day on offense is a group. The running backs looked good, showing the ground game will be a strength of Auburn’s this year. Jeremiah Cobb, the presumed starter, had four carries for 47 yards. His longest carry was 33 yards, averaging eight yards per carry on his other attempts.

Transfer running back Nykahi Davenport had 10 carries for 41 yards and a touchdown as the third-string running back. Meanwhile, Omar Mabson had seven carries for 22 yards as the backup to Cobb. Mabson should be a true freshman this year, but played last year as a 17-year-old, and has apparently won the second-string job. Not including quarterbacks, Auburn ran the ball 34 times. This will hopefully be a trend in season as well.

Defensive Winners

Bryce Deas, the true sophomore linebacker, played his tail off. He picked off Byrum Brown (which was impressive in and of itself) and added three tackles and a sack to the interception. Deas was all over the field; with Xavier Atkins and Elijah Melendez as the presumed starter, Deas has made it a luxury to have him and keep him off the field. Deas is possibly the most athletic linebacker Auburn has. Keeping him off the field with the way he played on A-Day is going to be a challenge that Durkin and crew have. However, it is one they will welcome. Durkin has never shied away from playing young players, so Deas will get his fair share of snaps this season.

All spring long, there has been one name that had to be mentioned if Auburn wanted to be a potential riser this season. That name was Jared Smith. Smith is a true sophomore edge rusher. If he plays to his star level, then he will create havoc for other teams offensive lines. He is also a get off the bus monster at 6-foot-6, 260 pounds. He will intimidate other teams on and off the field.

Smith stepped up on A-Day, including what would have been a pick-six on Brown. He officially only had one tackle, but they had a very quick whistle whenever players got close to Brown. With that in mind, it’s safe to assume that Smith, who has been described as unblockable, probably had multiple opportunities for sacks that got blown dead.

Jacoby Matthews, a former five-star defensive back, waited his turn and had the opportunity to leave Auburn after transferring in. He lit up A-Day with five tackles and one interception as well. In a crowded safety room, Matthews made it impossible not to talk about him. He created yet another challenge for Durkin to figure out how to get him on the field. Although he will likely not become a starter, Matthews has a real opportunity to rotate in and help this defense stay fresh.

Auburn Football: A-Day Struggles

Byrum Brown completed only 50-percent of his passes going 7-of-14. On those seven passes, the offense gained 85 yards; but the real kicker was that Brown threw two interceptions. One of those was made by Jared Smith, and that was a freak play. However, the interception by Deas was a bad throw, a bad decision, or both. It looked like there might have been miscommunication with the receiver as well, yet that also falls on the quarterback.

The thing that Auburn fans can hold onto hope with Brown is that he likely would have had 100 yards rushing if it had not been for a quick whistle. This would have led to at least one rushing touchdown for the quarterback. In fact, the play before the Smith interception would have been a rushing touchdown by Brown had the referees not blown the play dead, so there is hope. Other notable quarterbacks for Auburn have had less than stellar spring games as well.

Bryson Washington transferred in from Baylor. When he did so, it was assumed that he would be the second-string running back, and potentially even push Cobb for starter’s carries. However, Washington has been penciled in as the fourth running back all spring. Some of that has recently been revealed as health issues, but Golesh did not hold back.

Speaking to the media, Golesh said that, “Washington needs to get his chubby butt in shape, coming from a chubby butt.”

Hopefully Washington takes this as motivation and pushes himself to get better. He had eight carries for 17 yards, which from an average yards per carry standpoint, was close to the worst on the team. He has room to grow, let’s hope he takes it.

The final player that needs mentioning here is only for minor reasons. Keshaun Singleton was held out of the first quarter. This was for disciplinary reasons. As someone who needs to be a leader on the team and in the wide receiver room, this cannot happen. However, Golesh has known Singleton for a long time. He knows the way to motivate him is by taking playing time away, so hopefully the message lands as intended and we do not see this from Keshaun again.

Overall, the entire Auburn football program was the winner of the A-Day game because they came out with no new injuries. They did not hold anyone out of the game who did not need to be due to injury, and everybody got to play. There was 34,000 people in attendance and it helped initiate some of the players to a game day experience in the SEC. It will not match the full 88,000 in the fall, but it is a good starter. Auburn has some things to work on, but overall the way the game played out was exactly what Auburn fans needed to see.