wide receivers

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What Auburn is asking its sophomore wide receivers to do this spring

James Crepea | jcrepea@al.com

The speed of the game is what stood out to Eli Stove in his first year of college.

The wide receiver was a bit of jack of all trades as a true freshman, capable of taking the top off the defense on rare deep passes and given the chance to make plays in the open field on jet sweeps.

"To be honest, it was how fast everything was going," Stove said of what was the biggest adjustment for him last season. "Because in high school, it wasn't really that fast. We just took it slow in high school. Transitioning slow to fast, playing and getting set quicker, that was kind of hard for me. But I got used to it."

Stove had 23 receptions for 224 yards and 11 carries for 131 yards and a touchdown last season. He'll be among the candidates to lead a core of sophomore wide receivers that are expected to see a dramatic increase in production after Auburn's passing game failed to produce a receiver with 500 yards in 2016.

"I have more leadership, I feel," Stove said. "I feel like I can step up and have more confidence in the game plan."

The sophomore group still has questions to answer though, and the rest of spring will be beneficial as Darius Slayton, Auburn's leading returning receiver, is back after being limited during the first two weeks of practice. Nate Craig-Myers is taking his most meaningful reps to date, due in part to the absence of Kyle Davis, who could miss the rest of spring.

"I think the good thing is they're a talented group," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said. "They have experience now. Obviously, they made some mistakes, but all freshmen are going to make some mistakes. They got a year under their belt.

"It's kind of been as a group, (wide receiver coach Kodi) Burns has just challenged them to raise their level as a group. We need to take that next step and make some plays outside the original-type offense."

Junior Ryan Davis feels the receivers are progressing gradually this spring.

"Each day we have a focus on -- coach Burns, he gives us a task at hand, and then we try to focus on that one task each day and try to accomplish it every day," Ryan Davis said. "That's how we know we're progressing or not. Right now, I feel like we're progressing and everyone's coming along, just as we would think."

The largely unproven group is making these strides while undergoing a change in offensive coordinators and integration of two new quarterbacks in Jarrett Stidham and Malik Willis and the increased presence of Woody Barrett compared to his time on scout team.

"They're playing extremely hard right now," Malzahn said. "They've got a good attitude. We're rotating a lot of quarterbacks too, but we like their attitude and they've got a chance to be a good group."

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Hopefully we will see something in the scrimmage Saturday as to how well this group has improved and the chemistry between them and the QB's.