| Auburn's Gene Chizik takes a look at scrimmage No. 3 |
AUBURN -- Cam Newton said Auburn's offense is beginning to hit its stride, and a big showing in Tuesday's scrimmage in Jordan-Hare Stadium seemed to support his claim.
The Tigers' new quarterback threw three touchdown passes and the offense scored 82 points in Auburn's third scrimmage in the last six days.
"I think we're on the right track," Newton said.
It was a confidence builder, Newton said. It was also a chance for freshman running back Michael Dyer, who was purposely given plenty of
Newton threw two TD passes to Kodi Burns and said Mario Fannin turned a screen pass into a long score.
Coach Gene Chizik said the offense was moving quickly.
"The offense tried to work the pace a little bit more. We tried to get a fast pace going, which was very effective," Chizik said.
"Cam had a good night. A lot of the quarterbacks had a good night."
Chizik designated Burns, the former quarterback who is in his second year at receiver, as the post-scrimmage star for his receiving night and his willingness to
"I've got to give Kodi Burns a lot of credit. He's taken it as a personal thing on special teams," Chizik said. "I'm really proud of him. He's just a very selfless guy."
Burns was making the switch from quarterback to receiver a year ago.
"Last year that was my position, but I really wasn't seasoned at it," Burns said. "Now that I've had a chance to work at it for a year, I feel a lot more comfortable and I'm really going to be able to help this team out."
Auburn didn't release any statistics from the scrimmage that was closed to the public and the media, but the players and coaches acknowledged the offense did well, and the scoreboard said it was 82-25.
"We didn't respond," said linebacker Craig Stevens. "We've got to find a way to pick it up."
Stevens said the first team played about half the time.
"But both defenses were off and on," he said.
Defensive coordinator Ted Roof said, ``we gave up some big plays and we've got to get that corrected.
"It wasn't any one position. It was across the board. And we've got to get better in a hurry. In a hurry.''
Auburn is off today, but the coaches will spend the day filling out their depth chart. They have plenty of game tape to study from the scrimmages.
Much of that will feature Auburn's 30 newcomers.
"We'll make some more decisions in the next few days on who will help us," Chizik said.
The scrimmages were designed for that.
"We should have the information to have an idea on who's ready to play and use these last two weeks to get them ready to play," said offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn.
The 80-plus-play scrimmage was also designed to give Dyer plenty of work. He had 10-15 carries -- the most he has had this preseason -- and said he had several good runs.
Chizik said Dyer is "one of those young guys we're trying to figure out right now. We're trying to figure out how he fits on game day. It's going to be a continuing learning process for him. He's doing well. We'll continue to work him, and he needs the work."
Still, Chizik said he had expected the offense to "have run it a little bit more than we did. Being physical up front, and dominating the line of scrimmage, I don't think we're there."
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