Auburn fall camp practice observations: August 17th

Auburn football had practice immediately following Hugh Freeze's press conference with the media on Thursday afternoon.

Freeze allowed us to stay for the entire duration of practice. Here's what we saw.

There was a lot of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 for the first, second and third team offenses. I took note of Thorne and Ashford's passes between both drills and added them up below, along with notes of explosive plays and touchdowns. I did not add up the throws with the receivers against air, but did add some notes on those as well.

I had to run back inside twice to try and get a pen and paper to take notes, so I'm sure I missed a few throws.

Here's how the quarterbacks looked:

Payton Thorne: 14-of-23, 1 TD

One of Thorne's first passes of the 7-on-7 was a beautiful deep ball to Tyler Fromm down the seam.

He also had a nice pass to Rivaldo Fairweather down the left side of the field later on. Fairweather just boxed out his man and borderline mossed him for the catch.

Thorne had three passes broken up and one dropped by Damari Alston. Pritchett had an excellent breakup near the endzone and Mosiah Nasili-Kite had one at the line of scrimmage.

In the throws against air, Thorne looked really good with some of the longer throws to the sideline and to the middle of the field.

During a drill against air where the receivers had to run comeback routes after creating separation with a trainer, Thorne threw to Nick Mardner and Shane Hooks first. Thorne was on time, accurate, and was the only one to consistently deliver the ball right where it needed to be for all routes against air.

His lone touchdown pass of the day came on a slant to Nick Mardner in the redzone.

Robby Ashford: 7-of-11, 1 TD

Auburn ran more run plays with Ashford but still threw a little with him. Ashford had three or four swing pass type of plays that I waffled on counting, and some I didn't.

That being said, he had arguably the best throw of the day with a corner strike to Camden Brown in the 7-on-7 that ended up being a 25 to 30-yard gain. He missed a throw down the left sideline to Will Upton, throwing the ball just a step past him.

He was good during the throws against air despite a couple of hiccups, one of which was on a intermediate in route that he mistimed and sailed out of the endzone.

During a drill against air where the receivers had to run comeback routes after creating separation with a trainer, Ashford threw to Camden Brown and Jyaire Shorter first.

Ashford had a big run up the middle, one he bounced outside, and one touchdown run that he stretched to the corner inside the five-yard line.

Running backs

Alston had a pair of big runs, as well as a touchdown run close to the endzone on a sweep.

Sean Jackson had a big run down the right side that almost went for a touchdown.

Two-minute drill

Auburn ran a two-minute drill at the end of practice. 1:32 left, 75-yard drive, touchdown needed. Only one timeout to work with.

Here's how the drive broke down:

- Thorne scrambles to his right, first down.

- Pass complete to Shane Hooks on a dig route.

- Run for short gain, first down.

- Checkdown complete to Jarquez Hunter for a big gain, first down.

- Thorne scrambles out of bounds, first down. 24 seconds left.

- Pass incomplete to Rivaldo Fairweather. Fade into the endzone. 19 seconds left.

- Pass complete to Rivaldo Fairweather, dig down to the two-yard line. 11 seconds left.

- Timeout.

- Pass incomplete out of back of endzone. Thorne had a lot of time and couldn't find anyone open. five seconds left.

- Pass complete to Shane Hooks, touchdown. Slant pass to Hooks working inside from right.

- Penalty... either an illegal shift, false start, illegal man down field, not sure. Would have been a 10-second run off and the end of the half/game, but Freeze allowed them to play it back from the six-yard line with five seconds again.

- Pass incomplete to Rivaldo Fairweather, broken up by Jaylin Simpson. Turnover on downs. Could have called pass interference on Simpson, but they let it go.

Other notes

Auburn played Gunner Britton, who has been the Tigers' primary first-team right tackle, at left guard a little bit today.

Elijah McAllister got in on a pair of sacks.

They played swag surf during practice and the players loved it.

When Auburn was backed up to their own goal line on offense during the 11-on-11, the defense brought a lot of pressure, making things difficult for Thorne and the offense.

There were drills with the receivers ran underneath bars out of their breaks, catching inside and outside shoulder passes. Burton, Fair, Hooks, Mardner all looked good. Jake Kruse continues to impress me during practice.

Walk-on Jackson Barkley had some really nice throws against air downfield. He looked good. All quarterbacks had solid moments.