| |
 Everyone's welcome Tuberville opens first Auburn spring practice to public
Posted: Friday March 26, 1999 09:29 PM
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- The Tommy Tuberville era began Friday at Auburn when the new Tigers coach prepared to open spring practice for his team -- and open it up to the public. "I have no secrets, everyone is welcome to come," Tuberville said. "Practicing football is no fun. When people are out there watching it, it motivates the players to do better. A small audience always helps." The audience might not be so small when the Tigers hit the practice field on Sunday. At least 3,000 fans will already be on campus for the Auburn-Alabama baseball game and Tuberville said he forgot to take that into account when inviting the public to the practice. "Well, I guess everyone will be welcome, even the Alabama fans," he joked. Tuberville, named the Tigers' newest coach last November after four seasons at Mississippi, is anxious to get on the field. His first few months at Auburn weren't always smooth. Starting with the midseason departure of Terry Bowden, the school found itself embroiled in controversy after controversy. The lowest moments were in February when both Tuberville and the school took a lot of criticism for buying their way out of a season opening game with Florida State. All that was behind Tuberville on Friday, though. "I'm glad we're getting into football," he said. "This is like Christmas for coaches, getting to go out and watch 120 guys we've never seen before." Part of being a new coach means all the players are equal and every job is up for grabs, Tuberville said. That even goes for quarterback Gabe Gross, who started six games last season as a freshman. Gross will have to fight junior Ben Leard, who started the other five games, as well as sophomore Meiko Collier and freshman Jeff Klein. "Everybody's equal, we're starting everyone with a new lease on life," Tuberville said. "Then we'll play the best quarterback, the one who can learn the offense." That might put Gross at an automatic disadvantage. The starting left fielder for Auburn's second-ranked baseball team, Gross will try to play both sports this spring. The plan is for Gross to practice with the football team every day except days the baseball team has a game. He'll also be expected to participate in Saturday scrimmages, with the exception being April 17 when the baseball team plays at South Carolina. "We sat down with his family and [baseball coach Hal] Baird and talked about it and Gabe thinks he can do both," Tuberville said. "It will be hard and it will get tiring for him, but I'm fine with it." Auburn will practice 14 times over four weeks, two of which will be scrimmages, and end the spring season on April 24th with its A-Day game. Tuberville said he hopes to have a depth chart intact by then, but might not. "There are a lot of big question marks because I believe we have 22 open positions right now," Tuberville said. "I'm more concerned with attitude and work ethic than anything else right now." Tuberville and his new staff put together an exhausting winter conditioning program that was designed to rid the team of any players who couldn't hack it. He said Friday he wasn't sure if it worked. "I tried to run a bunch of people off and made it tough purposely," he said. "Everyone was still here when we met the last time, so we'll see who shows up on Sunday. Then on Wednesday we'll strap on pads and separate the men from the boys."
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
