Hugh Freeze 'optimistic' after Day One of Auburn football spring camp
AUBURN — There will be no sweeping judgments made after day one by Hugh Freeze. No depth charts, as Freeze emphatically stated during his post-practice press conference. For Freeze, spring camp, especially his first spring camp at Auburn, is all about one thing: the details.
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“I really believe is people like to think the main thing is X, Y or Z. I think the main thing is the little things,” he said. “They way we break the huddle, the way we get to the football, the tempo to which we play with, the attention to the ball, the attention to detail, starting this morning all the way through class attendance.
“Until you’ve been a part of that, it’s a mental grind. It takes mental toughness. That doesn’t come natural to a lot of people, not just football players. That’s the number one thing that I want to get out of spring ball, that we would understand the little things truly are the main thing. I thought we got the effort part right today.”
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It’s still February, but the feeling around the practice fields on Monday could have fooled Freeze.
“When you start fall camp, there’s a different level of excitement, but this was one of the best days of spring ball in a long, long time. I felt a sense of that fall camp feeling as we start to build a program here,” Freeze said. “It was exciting. Good day. Our coaches were well prepared for the time we had. In the future, I’d like to have more time — but that’s the schedule we have. We were well prepared and practice went smooth.
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“Incredible, beautiful, exciting time for the coaches, and I think the players. They had really good energy. We don’t know what we’re doing yet, or how to do it, but they brought a great energy to practice one. If we can repeat that through practice 14, we will certainly be better.
“I’m leaving today’s practice feeling optimistic.”
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Auburn practiced for around two hours on the new football fields behind the brand-new Woltosz Performance Center. Freeze said no players missed day one of practice, adding only three players having to miss the “team” portion of practice. The Tigers will practice twice without pads, put the pads on during Friday’s practice, then take spring break off. The first “scrimmage situation” will be practice “six,” according to Freeze.
Auburn will return to the practice fields on Wednesday.
The Tigers will practice every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the most part leading into the April 8 spring game inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. Here’s the schedule of practices: February 27, March 1, 3, 13, 15, 17, 20, 22, 24, 27, 29, April 3, 5, 7 and 8. Auburn will take the week of March 5-11 off for spring break.
