Marcus Davis assesses the Auburn receivers during spring camp, focusing on 'the little things'
AUBURN — Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze singled out the wide receiver position as one of the positions with a “long way to go” when he discussed the progress of spring camp earlier this week. And later that same week, new wide receivers coach Marcus Davis echoed that sentiment.
“When you’re getting into a new scheme and doing things you haven’t been asked to do before, there’s always going to be an adjustment with that,” Davis said.
Freeze and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery’s new offense is heavy on “RPO” elements. RPO, of course, stands for “run-pass option.” That specific element, plus tempo, have impacted the early development of the wide receivers according to Freeze and Davis.
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“It’s getting the guys used to be playing with tempo, playing fast. It’s the little things right now. We’re big on the RPO deal, big on taking shots down the field,” Davis said. “Any RPO or any new offense in general, it’s about reps. It’s like doing anything. From a standpoint of progression with the guys, I feel confident we’ll get better the more reps we get at it.
“The best thing about the group is they are buying in and they are hungry. They want to do right, it’s just teaching them on the ‘how.’ The first thing you can ask for is guys wanting to be hungry. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
In addition to a new offense and everything it brings, you also have an ongoing quarterback battle that hasn’t exactly yielded great results through nearly three weeks of practice, with Freeze saying he wishes the quarterbacks were further along. But that won’t be an excuse for Davis when it comes to evaluating his position group or setting expectations.
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“It all starts back to fundamentals and technique. It’s about being where you are supposed to be, no matter what else is going on,” Davis said. “If there’s an opportunity to make a play, you make a play. It’s keeping it simple as that. Do the little things right. That’s the game of football. You can evaluate on alignment, assignment and fundamentals. If you’re doing what you’re supposed to do and being where you’re supposed to be, that solves half of the problem anyway.”
As Marcus Davis said, spring camp is about fundamentals, the little things. That’s the message that Davis is hammering home right now.
“The biggest thing, what I’m stressing is attitude and effort,” he said. “How you do anything is how you do everything. It’s getting them to do the little things right day by day, day in and day out. Everything will come along the further you get into spring. No matter what the case may be, stay consistent and do the little things better. That will bring the room further along when you continue to buy in and do those things.”
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 took the week of March 5-11 off for spring break.
