One of Auburn's key position battles continues to rage on with less than 10 days until the season opener.
The No. 1 punter gig is still being determined by Auburn's coaching staff between Aidan Marshall, the team's starter in 2017, and Oscar Chapman, who hails from the illustrious Prokick Australia program and just arrived last month.
"They both have good advantages about them," Auburn kicker Anders Carlson said Thursday of the punters. "One is more traditional and one has a little more variety in his background. I think that’s an advantage for Auburn, especially if we’re creative."
Gus Malzahn has plenty of recent success with his Aussie pipeline, seeing as Arryn Siposs started at Auburn for two seasons out of Prokick Australia and finished his career with the top punting average (44 yards) in program history.
Prokick Australia has produced five of the past six Ray Guy Award winners and 17 All-Americans at the college level.
Chapman, who committed to the team earlier in the summer on a blueshirt scholarship offer, told AuburnSports.com after his pledge that he was planning to arrive at the start of August. Gus Malzahn later revealed that some travel complications led to a delay for Chapman. After finishing out Auburn's COVID-19 protocol upon his arrival, the punter began practice after Labor Day.
He's transitioned well to American football and his new team, Carlson said, despite suboptimal circumstances.
"He's fit right in," Carlson said of Chapman. "I know it must be hard, coming to the USA during all this time and then joining Zoom class instead of going to class. But I've heard no complaints from him. He's doing real good.
Marshall, a walk-on, has some history with Australian punters, as well. After being beaten out by Siposs at the start of the 2018 season, he opted to leave the program, though he remained enrolled in classes at AU.
The way Carlson sees it, Marshall's familiarity and past success with the Tigers makes him the favorite in the competition, at least while Chapman continues to get his bearings.
"It took about a week, and then he was back like he never left," Carlson said of Marshall. "He's fit right in. He understood the system, and it's his job to win. So I think he's doing very well. I hope he continues to work and gets better every day."
Marshall beat out Ian Shannon near the start of the 2017 season. In 11 games in his Auburn career — 10 starts in 2017 and one game the following season before leaving the team — Marshall holds the program's 10th-best punting average at 39.2 yards per kick.
During Auburn's 2017 SEC championship game run, he placed eight punts inside opponents' 20-yard lines, including kicks that landed at the opposing 16-, 14- and 2-yard lines in Auburn's win over No. 1 Alabama.
His career-long punt is 70 yards, dropped against Texas A&M in 2017 for the sixth-longest boot in Auburn history.
"I don’t know what’s going to happen in the season," Carlson said of the punter battle. "But I think both of the guys are doing great and it provides a big advantage for us having both of those guys.”
Auburn plans on holding its final fall-camp practice Saturday, under the lights in Jordan-Hare Stadium. Malzahn will speak to reporters for the final time this preseason on Friday afternoon.
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