Okay, Auburn isn’t actually practicing today. It is Christmas, after all. The whole team began heading home Friday and won’t return to Auburn until tomorrow when it will travel together to Nashville for the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30.

So, Auburn’s football team already opened up most of its Christmas gift for this year. With six wins, they bought it for themselves. They got extra practices in advance of the bowl game.

It’s a gift like socks. Not exactly flashy, but always important. And always needed.

Auburn has a developing team going through an offseason of roster turnover. Had Auburn not gotten to the six-win mark and thus a bowl game, the team would have dispersed following the Iron Bowl and not convened to practice again until spring ball.

Head coach Hugh Freeze is only having a handful of practices before the Music City Bowl as to not exhaust his players. But as Freeze said himself, that extra practice time is invaluable. It’s why before he even clinched bowl eligibility, he was already thinking about it.

“Number one, you want to do it for your seniors. Number two, you want to do it for your fans,” Freeze said after beating Vanderbilt on Nov. 4, the fifth win of the year. “But number three, you want the extra practices and another chance to compete for Auburn and to put our kids in that scenario of playing another quality opponent in a bowl game. I did kind of go away and I made it clear that is a goal of ours in Year 1.”

Most of those practices have come and gone now. Auburn opened up bowl practices on Dec. 16. Practices were held throughout the ensuing week until the team broke for the holiday weekend. Once Auburn gets to Nashville, it will hold at least two practices at Vanderbilt before playing the Music City Bowl itself.

The transfer portal and NFL opt-outs have meant for some thing positions on Auburn’s roster and some tired players as a result of the extra practice repetitions.

That’s especially the case among Auburn’s secondary and pass catchers. Both starting cornerbacks DJ James and Nehemiah Pritchett have opted out of the bowl game as they pursue their NFL futures. Nickel cornerback Keionte Scott said Monday that he plans to move into an outside cornerback role and will start for the bowl game. True freshman Kayin Lee figures to slide into the second outside cornerback back spot. He had the most experience playing outside this season on Auburn’s roster outside of James and Pritchett.

On offense, Auburn has lost four wide receivers — Omari Kelly, Jyaire Shorter, Malcolm Johnson Jr. and Ja’Varrius Johnson — to the transfer portal. Tight end Tyler Fromm has also left.

Outside of Ja’Varrius Johnson who has been Auburn’s leading receiver over the last two seasons, Auburn is not losing much production with anyone in that group. But losing that many players will thin out what is left to put on the field.

In the short term, it means coaches have to adjust their depth charts for the bowl game itself.

In the long term, it means expanded responsibility and time for those who may not have had it previously. Largely, that is looking at the younger players on the roster. And for an Auburn team that is still in a developmental stage for the long term, the bowl practices are greatly beneficial for those inexperienced players.

“I just told these young guys, they’re going to get thrown in there,” Freeze said on Auburn’s first day of bowl practices. “Truthfully, you’re going to get those young corners in for sure. It will be good to see how they prepare for a game and then go play a very talented football team. Up front we are a little thin now with Mosiah being out and Marcus choosing not to play. It’s next man up. We’ve got to get some of these young guys in there.”

Freeze mentioned freshman defensive lineman DJ Reed and junior college transfer defensive lineman Quientrail Jamison-Travis as players who he’s focusing on due to the opt-out of NFL-bound DL Marcus Harris and the season-ending injury to former starter Mosiah Nasili-Kite. True freshman Keldric Faulk stepped into Nasili-Kite’s spot over the latter half of the season and continues to improve.

On offense, Freeze noted how thin his wide receivers are. He’s looking for big steps forward from sophomores Jay Fair and Camden Brown. And, in their final college games, Freeze is hoping for good days from Nick Mardner and Shane Hooks.

Veteran Auburn players like tight end Luke Deal, offensive lineman Kam Stutts and Scott all mentioned young players in their position groups who they saw improvement from.

That’s not an improvement that will necessarily shine through in the bowl game. Bowl practices can be the type of Christmas gift that just gets better with age.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]