AUBURN | D.J. James played 757 snaps last season.Nehemiah Pritchett played 676 and Marcus Harris 546.
There were a lot of high snap counts for Auburn’s players last season. That’s changing under the new coaching staff.
“I want my room to be competitive for a reason,” said defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett. “I want guys to walk in and, ‘OK, there’s a guy behind me or beside me or next to me that can take my spot any given day.’ I want it like that.
“At the same time, I want them to know, ‘Guys, I’m going to play a bunch of y’all, so I’m looking for a reason to play you. I’m not looking for a reason not to play you; I want to play you.’ So I tell those guys to get in their playbook and learn it, and they’re all smiling, and they know; they saw my track record form last year and how I rotated a bunch of guys, playing eight, nine guys a game. I believe in that.”
It's the same strategy throughout a defense that puts an emphasis on creating havoc under first-year coordinator Ron Roberts.
“Linebackers and safeties usually make up most of your special teams. So I’ve always had the philosophy if you’re playing as hard as you can, you can’t play every snap,” said linebackers coach Josh Aldridge. “I‘m really trying to have about five or six guys.
“You usually have about two or three that are playing about the same number of snaps in a game, 45ish, and you have a couple more that are probably playing close to 25-30ish and you probably have that one guy playing 10-15. That’s how it’s been in the past for me.”
Even the offense is planning to rotate more. That doesn’t necessarily work at quarterback or offensive line, but it could certainly be impactful for a large group of talented running backs.
"I think we’ve got guys in there that all kind of feed off each other,” said offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery. “I think there’s a good battle going on in there, yet I think they also understand, especially in the world of college football, it’s probably going to be some version of a rotation that’s going to happen in the backfield. I think being able to keep a guy healthy throughout the season is important for us.
“I think they’ve got a chance to have a really special season when we all get it going in the right direction and they’re going to be a vital, vital, vital part of what we are.”
