Auburn’s WR room is ‘beat up’ heading into A-Day. Who’s injured and who might play?
After being the subject of lots of buzz throughout spring camp, Auburn’s wide receiver corps may not be in full force for Saturday’s A-Day spring game.
In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze revealed the Tigers’ wide receiver room is dealing with a handful of injuries.
“We’ve been beat up considerably at the receiver position. That’s caused us some slow down in some of the things we’re trying to do, but other than that, we’re pretty healthy,” Freeze said.
And most of those injuries have been suffered by Auburn’s returning receivers as Freeze said the Tigers have been without Camden Brown, Caleb Burton, Jay Fair and Koy Moore “for the better part of the last two weeks.”
Together, that quartet of returners logged a combined 60 receptions for 679 yards and two touchdowns.
As of Tuesday’s press conference, Freeze sounded confident that Burton and Fair could get back to action in time for Saturday’s spring game but wasn’t sure about Brown and Moore.
Should some of Auburn’s returning wide receivers be unable to go Saturday, it opens the door up for the news faces in the room to get plenty of reps.
And between the pair of transfers in Georgia State transfer Robert Lewis and Cal transfer Sam Jackson V, as well as the freshmen in Bryce Cain and Cam Coleman, there’s no shortage of new wide receivers on Auburn’s roster.
Lewis and Jackson are two guys Freeze has been pleased with, though he admits Jackson hasn’t been 100% throughout the spring as he continues to bounce back from undergoing shoulder surgery in the offseason.
“He and Robert, I think they’re going to add quality depth to us,” Freeze said of Jackson and Lewis.
Freeze also continued with the trend of gushing about the Tigers’ pair early enrollee freshman pass catchers in Cain and Coleman.
“Bryce is going to be a talented, talented kid,” Freeze said, adding that he’s not yet sure what Cain’s role will look like in Year 1.
“Very few people are just ready-made and walk in and play in this league and I want our young men to understand that and that doesn’t mean they’re not really, really good,” Freeze said.
However, it doesn’t sound like that applies to Coleman.
“Cam, on the other hand, is a different cat,” Freeze said. “He’s going to have to play and he proved he can when he knows what to do.”
By the sounds of it, while unfortunate that some of the receivers on the Tigers’ roster are injured, Auburn fans will have a good opportunity to see the new talent Freeze and his coaching staff added to the room of pass catchers when Auburn’s A-Day spring game gets underway Saturday at 1 p.m. from Jordan-Hare Stadium.