AUBURN | The cancelling of spring practice and missing offseason workouts for several months were certainly setbacks for Auburn and college football teams throughout the country.

But new NCAA guidelines allowed increased walkthroughs leading up to the start of preseason practice, and those three weeks of learning and installations were a big positive for the newcomers when the Tigers lined up for their first scrimmage of fall drills at Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday morning.

“It was really unique from the standpoint that, really, our offense and defense, they’ve put in just about all their base stuff. Even third downs, during the walkthrough — the red zone during walkthroughs,” Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. “So, I think our young guys — I don’t think, I know — they’ve got a better understanding than any other young group has before this early in practice. So that’s the positive.

“You know, the first time you scrimmage, and everybody’s flying around and you get the real speed of the game, I mean obviously that’s a shock to most all the freshmen’s system the first time. But I do think, there wasn’t a whole lot of busts. That was a positive. There wasn’t a whole lot of missed assignments really on either side of the ball. So that kind of is a tribute to the walkthroughs that we had up to this point, so I think that helped the young guys tremendously.”

Auburn signed 26 players in the 2020 class along with adding a couple of transfers during the offseason. Those newcomers were a big part of the first scrimmage as Malzahn incorporated first-, second- and third-team offenses and defenses into the 92-play workout. The offense would line up on its own 30-yard line and either drive for a touchdown or field goal, or punt.

Malzahn has put an emphasis on building a three-deep and putting his players through an extra physical preseason leading up to a 10-game conference-only schedule that begins Sept. 26 against Kentucky.

“We just felt like as quick as we could, put the ball down to evaluate our guys,” Malzahn said. “I guess we’re five weeks away, today, from our first game, which is good. We’ve got plenty of time. But it was more of where we’re at, ‘Alright, here’s where we’re at,’ and we’ve got five weeks to get to where we want to be. So really that was part of the strategy and it played out pretty well and like I said we didn’t have any kind of major injuries or anything like that and that’s always good too.”

Auburn will take off Sunday and Monday before practicing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday next week. The Tigers will hold the second of four scheduled scrimmages next Saturday.

NOTES FROM MALZAHN

** Auburn tested again last Sunday and had zero positive COVID-19 tests for a second consecutive week. Four players were held out of practice due to COVID-19, but all four will return this upcoming week.

** Malzahn said the team had a “pretty good rash” of positive COVID-19 tests four weeks ago, took 4-5 days off to get it under control, and everything has been good since. He said the players, coaches and everybody in the program has to make sacrifices in order to play this season.

** Running back D.J. Williams didn’t participate in Saturday’s scrimmage but is expected to return to practice next week.

** There were no major injuries during the scrimmage according to Malzahn.

** The tight ends caught 4-5 passes during the scrimmage.

** Australian punter Oscar Chapman has arrived in Auburn but will have to go through an acclimatization period before beginning practice.

** In addition to offense and defense, Auburn worked on field goal, field goal block, punt and punt return during Saturday’s scrimmage.