Contributed
(September 1, 2010)

TUSCALOOSA – The Alabama football team practiced for two hours in full pads Tuesday afternoon at the Thomas-Drew Practice Fields in preparation for Saturday’s season opener against San Jose State.

“It shows a great deal of what our coaching staff has done in recruiting and what we’ve been doing as a team to sell this program to recruits,” junior center William Vlachos said on not skipping a beat after the injury to Mark Ingram. “We are extremely fortunate to have guys behind him that are going to rise to the opportunity.”

The Crimson Tide will start the season without star running back and 2009 Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram. Ingram suffered an injury to his left knee during Monday’s practice and underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair the knee Tuesday morning in Birmingham. Ingram’s status will be handled on a week-to-week basis after this week.

“It’s different not having (Ingram) out there,” sophomore running back Trent Richardson said. “We’re not losing Mark; he’s still going to be out there. We know we have to do what we have to do. Mark will support us and we will support Mark too.”

Alabama kicks off its 116th season of college football on Saturday, Sept. 4, against the Spartans. The game is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start and will be televised on a pay-per-view basis by the Crimson Tide Sports Network. The game will also be simulcast on ESPN3.com.

Chizik upbeat as  opener approaches

AUBURN - The Auburn football team returned to the practice fields Tuesday evening, working out in full pads for more than two hours on the Athletics Complex practice fields.

The Tigers continued to emphasize scout team work as the squad prepares for Saturday’s season opener against Arkansas State. The team also worked on all aspects of special teams and conducted individual and position drills early in the workout.

The final portion of practice saw the first- and second-team units work against each other, before the workout wrapped up with a two-minute drill.

With the season opener just four days away, offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said he saw some positives from his offense on Tuesday.

"There were some good things," said Malzahn. "Every time you’re being very specific you have high expectations. We need a couple more days of practice, though, before Saturday gets here."

The Tigers will face an Arkansas State squad Saturday that finished 4-8 in 2009, including a 3-5 record in the Sun Belt Conference. The Red Wolves return 25 players that started at least one game last season, and were picked to finish third in the Sun Belt this season in the league’s preseason coaches poll.

The Arkansas State defense, led by preseason Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year Bryan Hall, was ranked No. 1 in the conference in both 2009 and 2007, and No. 2 in 2008. Quarterback Ryan Alpin started three of the final four games for the Red Wolves’ offense last season, and set a school freshman record with 362 yards of offense in a victory over North Texas.

“We’re excited,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. “It’s obviously game week, it’s finally here and I know our players are excited, our coaches are very excited. It’s been a good camp. The last week we’ve had some really good upbeat, high-energy practices. I think that they could kind of feel that game week was rolling around. Now that it’s here, we’ll start again today and truly go into our game week prep that we do every Tuesday and get ready to play Arkansas State, a good football team. It’ll be fun and we’re all looking forward to it."

Prognostications have Auburn as low as fourth and a few have said Auburn could be in the SEC Championship Game. Chizik has heard the talk but he wants more consistency this season.

"I don’t know that I can put a tag on what is going to make us better,” Chizik said. “The point that I’ve been trying to bring home to our football team every week is consistency on what we’re trying to do. That’s everywhere. Again, going back to last year, too many highs and too many lows. If you were going to ask me what would make us a better football team or what the expectation is of better, that’s what I would tell you. For us to be better, it’s more along the level of when we were playing at a high level. Are we maintaining that more often than we did last year? That’s really what it is.

“There were times last year when I felt like at all phases, we played at a high level. Looking back on it, I just don’t feel like we were consistent enough at that. That would make us a better football team. Those are the things that we’ve been stressing since day one and those are the things we’re trying to get started this Saturday."