AUBURN, Ala. (EETV)-- Thousands of people lined up at the gates of Jordan-Hare Stadium Saturday Morning for the annual A-Day festivities. The Auburn family quickly filled the seats to watch the new and improved squad, featuring an all-new quarterback room, tons of wild plays, and a great display of what many hope to be a bright future for the Tigers.
A-Day started off with the Tiger Trail of Auburn Induction ceremony. Steve Wallace, who was an offensive tackle for the Tigers from 1982 to 1985, was in ducted alongside former Auburn center Reese Dismuke, who played from 2011 to 2014. After the induction ceremony, the Tigers then started gearing up for their practice and scrimmage at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Prior to the A-Day practice and scrimmage, several current and former players received honors for their impressive performance last season. Keldric Faulk, Luke Deal, Jeremiah Wright, Dorian Mausi, Jalen McLeod and Jarquez Hunter were all the players to receive honors for the previous season. Afterward, Jarquez got a warm and loud send-off from all the fans to wish him luck in the NFL Draft at the end of April.
Auburn split into two teams, the navy squad (offense) and the white squad (defense), with the players in orange being the quarterbacks. Deuce Knight and John Colvin were the quarterbacks for the Tigers with Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold sitting due to injury. Other leaders for the offense were Cam Coleman and Perry Thompson.
The defense was led by Keldric Faulk and JC Hart. Before the scrimmage, there were seven periods of practice where both sides worked on kick/punt returning and ambush, one-on-one matchups and more.
During the offensive passing drills to warm up, Deuce Knight threw several touchdown passes, connecting with Cam Coleman, Perry Thompson and Malcolm Simmons. Both the receivers and Knight's offseason work shined bright Saturday afternoon. Despite the success the offense had, the defense put up a fair share of stops themselves.
Going into A-Day, Deuce Knight had thrown one interception from his arrival all the way up until the day before. In the A-Day scrimmage, the defense snatched several interceptions, showcasing their precision timing, speed and skill.
When asked about the talent he was able to show in last year's A-Day compared to this year's, head coach Hugh Freeze said, "It's quite different in a good way. When you take over a program of this magnitude with the expectations Auburn has, there's a reason you got it. You have to have top recruiting classes to form an elite roster. I'm optimistic with the two top recruiting classes we've had that we can compete with the elites in our conference this year."
After the conclusion of the scrimmage, fans poured onto the field to meet their favorite players for pictures, autographs, and words of encouragement. Lines trailed all over the field, which goes to show how much Auburn loves its Tigers.
Auburn's future is looking promising, and many are hoping that it comes to fruition. With the skill of the new quarterbacks and the entire offense, the hunger of the defense and the accuracy and power from the special teams unit, Auburn could be a force to be reckoned with in the SEC in the fall.
Kickoff on the Plains will be on September 6th, as the Auburn Tigers play their first home game of the 2025-26 season. They will face off against Ball State with a kickoff time to be determined.
