All eyes on offense as spring kicks off
Vasha Hunt | Opelika-Auburn News
The Auburn Tigers being spring practice today, the first of 15 practices spread across a month.
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By Collin Mickle
Published: February 24, 2008
Football season is back at Auburn.
Well, not quite. But the Tigers are starting spring football practice today, the next best thing for those who have been missing AU football since the final whistle of the Chick-fil-A Bowl last December.
The wait is over.
The Tigers open spring drills today at 3:15 p.m. with 16 returning starters, two new coordinators and a few burning questions. They’ll have 15 practices stretched over the next month to find the answers.
Auburn’s offense will soak up most of the attention. New coordinator Tony Franklin will spend the spring installing more of his spread scheme, which racked up 423 yards and 23 points in the Tigers’ overtime win in the Chick-fil-A Bowl.
Franklin’s most important task this spring will be finding a new quarterback to replace three-year starter Brandon Cox. The four-man battle is expected to come down to sophomore Kodi Burns and junior-college transfer Chris Todd.
Burns played in 10 games last year as the backup quarterback. He threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, his first game in Franklin’s offense.
Todd played in Franklin’s system in high school and signed with AU shortly after Franklin was hired in December.
Franklin isn’t ruling out a two-quarterback rotation like Cox-Burns combination he employed in the bowl game. Regardless, the quarterback race will be the most closely watched position battle of the spring.
But it isn’t the only key position that heads into spring practice shrouded in uncertainty.
AU must replace two starters on the defensive line and two in the defensive backfield. Franklin is looking for two more starters out of a receiving corps that had little depth last season. And several skill-position players — like tailback-turned-wideout Mario Fannin and tight ends Tommy Trott and Gabe McKenzie — will be moving into different roles starting in the spring.
The wait for football is over.
The work is just beginning.
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