Contributed
(August 12, 2010)

AUBURN - The Auburn football team held its first scrimmage of the season Wednesday evening in Jordan-Hare Stadium, running approximately 70 plays.

"Tonight, for our first scrimmage, there were a lot of good things that happened," said Auburn head coach Gene Chizik. "We really put together back-to-back practices that I was proud of and I think they responded well to what we feel like we need to do to make our football team better.

With a full-speed scrimmage under their belts, Chizik said it was good to see some big plays being made on both sides of the ball.

"Offensively, we had some really nice explosive plays, mostly in the passing game," said Chizik. "Defensively, we did some things as well, but gave up too many big plays, obviously. There were a lot of plays being made on both sides and I really feel that for the first scrimmage there can be a lot of great teaching from this and we are going to come back out Saturday and do it again."

With a senior-laden roster and a lot of experience returning on both sides of the ball, Chizik and his staff also used the scrimmage as an opportunity to evaluate some of the newcomers.

"When you have a lot of seniors, you know what they can do for the most part," said Chizik. "We are trying to get enough reps with the older guys to get our timing right on some different things. But, for the most part, our young guys got a lot of good reps tonight, which is going to be good for us to evaluate and grade. It is going to be a learning experience."

Auburn will return to the practice fields behind the Auburn Athletic Complex at 10 a.m. Thursday for its second two-a-day of the season. All practices are closed to the public.

Auburn opens the 2010 season on Sept. 4 against Arkansas State at 6 p.m. CT in Jordan-Hare Stadium. The game will be televised by Fox Sports Net.

A limited number of season, mini-season and single-game tickets are still available. For more information, please visit www.auburntigers.com or call 1-800-AUB-1957.