AUBURN | It’ll be a preseason practice like none Gus Malzahn or his players have experienced before.

It’ll be longer, five weeks instead of four, but more importantly, it will be more intense and more physical.

“We will be doing more 11-on-11. We will be doing more scrimmage reps than we’ve ever done before in fall camp with the fact of not going through spring and evaluating our players. We need to see what the guys can do right now. Who needs more work,” Malzahn said.

Auburn has to prepare for a 10-game conference-only season with one off-week in the middle, which begins Sept. 26 with Kentucky visiting Jordan-Hare Stadium. But it’s the unknown, what could happen if a key player or a group of players including starters have to sit out a week or two due to a positive COVID-19 test, that the Tigers must prepare for by building depth at every position.

“We need to create depth,” Malzahn said. “That’s really going to be a factor, not only for us, but everybody in college football. You’ll hear me talking a whole lot about three-deep when usually you’re talking about two-deep.

“It’s just a new day as far as that’s concerned, but at the same time it’s a great opportunity for our young guys. I really believe the team with the most depth could have the most advantage and that’s really what we’ve been talking about with our players.”

Over the next five weeks, Auburn will practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, take off Friday, and then scrimmage on Saturday.

“Normally we go into, with an offensive line for example, if you’ve got three tackles and three guards and two centers you feel pretty good. It’s completely different now,” Malzahn explained. “We’ve got to get our threes ready. With that, strategically, we’re going to set up practice these next five weeks for more reps and we’re going to get creative with it. There are going to be times when we have two separate deals going just to evaluate our players, let them get more reps than they normally would to evaluate them and get them ready to play.”

And it’s not just the players that may have to sit out during the course of a season.

“At the same time you’ve got to be thinking about the coaches, too,” Malzahn added. “If you have a coach go down you’ve got to have two play-callers, you’ve got to have an assistant for an assistant. We’ll be thinking about all of those things in fall camp and just getting us prepared. It’s all going to be about being flexible. The teams that can overcome adversity and be flexible, I think are going to have a big advantage.”

Auburn’s players have been able to hold extended walkthroughs the last three weeks, but that won’t compare with what Malzahn has in store for them the first couple of days of fall camp, which begins Monday afternoon.

“A walkthrough is a walkthrough. You can get lined up, you can coach somebody up, you can talk somebody through it. But there's nothing like the real thing,” Malzahn said. “I think our guys in the next two days, even with helmets only, will probably learn more in the next two days than the whole time they did during the walkthroughs.”