Troxell pushing Ashley at right tackle

[aubiefifty 16,821]

oanow.com

Austin Troxell pushing Calvin Ashley at right tackle | Football

Josh Vitale | AU Writer Follow on Twitter Like on Facebook

3-4 minutes

Austin Troxell never got the chance to do all that much during his first season at Auburn. He spent most of a redshirt year rehabbing a torn ACL suffered early on during his senior season at Madison Academy.

Now that he’s back to full strength, he’s starting to showcase the skill set that made him four-star recruit ranked 18th nationally in the Class of 2017.

“Troxell is good. Troxell is real good,” veteran guard Mike Horton said. “He has a chance to start.”

Many expected that the jewel of Auburn’s 2017 class, former five-star tackle Calvin Ashley, would be the favorite to start at right tackle opposite Prince Tega Wanogho, with Horton and Marquel Harrell at the guard spots and one of Kaleb Kim, Nick Brahms or Tucker Brown at center.

The 6-foot-6, 350-pound Ashley has been with the first-team at practice during every media viewing window so far, with the 6-foot-6, 292-pound Troxell playing behind him on the second team.

During the Tigers’ first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday, though, Gus Malzahn said that offensive line coach J.B. Grimes rotated both redshirt freshmen at that spot with the first-team offense.

“Austin’s got a really good skill set,” the head coach said.

“Troxell, he’s a big guy. He’s like really big,” Harrell said. “He has great leg strength, great upper-body strength and he’s just young. Being young, you can mold it like a pile of clay. You mold the clay and continue to make a sculpture out of it. That’s the thing with young (guys), same thing with Troxell and Calvin — they’re both just so young, so you can get them and mold them to what type of players you want them to be.”

Horton believed Ashley responded well to the push from Troxell, saying “I think he’s really motivated. Whenever you go someone splitting reps with you, that has to motivate you. If it doesn’t you shouldn’t even be playing.”

But it does appear now that that there is a real competition for that starting role.

“I feel like both of those guys are great competitors. I like the way they get after it,” Harrell said. “They just push each other because at the end of the day when we go out there versus Washington, we’re only going to have five offensive linemen, and we only have one right tackle when we go out there. Those guys are going to get the best out of each other and continue to push.”

Josh Vitale is the Auburn beat writer for the Opelika-Auburn News. You can follow him on Twitter at @AUBlog. To reach him by email, click here.

[LKEEL75 2,566]

Well that is good news.  I was under the impression that AT wasn't going to be back at 100% until maybe the fall.

[aubiefifty 16,821]

yessir and i love kids are pushing on a part of the team many of us are worried about.............

[AidiAU 1,270]

2 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

yessir and i love kids are pushing on a part of the team many of us are worried about.............

Exactly. 

[weagl1 1,785]

If everyone in the presumed starting line is pushed it suits the heck out of me.    Competition makes everyone better.  

[McLoofus 35,182]

11 minutes ago, weagl1 said:

If everyone in the presumed starting line is pushed it suits the heck out of me.    Competition makes everyone better.  

I keep waiting for a big update saying that Ashley has begun pushing Trox back. Otherwise, I'm concerned. Trox just out there pushing Ashley around, Calvin not doing anything about it... sad. 

 

[AlaskanFAN 1,666]

AT has missed the last two years. He has a fire in his belly right now that I don’t think anyone could match.  

[WFE12 9,191]

9 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I keep waiting for a big update saying that Ashley has begun pushing Trox back. Otherwise, I'm concerned. Trox just out there pushing Ashley around, Calvin not doing anything about it... sad. 

 

I was worried about this when I saw his high school highlights of him pretty much ragdolling kids...When you play against the big boys you falter and have to adjust. My gosh I don't want him to turn into Byron Cowart. Let us have a 5-star player that produces please. I won't panic yet but Grimes needs to light that fire under his butt.

[McLoofus 35,182]

7 hours ago, WFE12 said:

I was worried about this when I saw his high school highlights of him pretty much ragdolling kids...When you play against the big boys you falter and have to adjust. My gosh I don't want him to turn into Byron Cowart. Let us have a 5-star player that produces please. I won't panic yet but Grimes needs to light that fire under his butt.

I get the feeling that he is already at a fairly high level, but Grimes know there's more there and he's just trying to unlock Ashley's full potential. Just a guess, though. At the time we recruited him, at least one person around here close to the program said he was our most important recruit in many years, even more so than Lawson or Cowart. So even if we only get 80% of him, that's still going to be better than most. But I'm with you. We gotta hope we can get 100% or close to it from him. Not much room for error in his group the next couple years. 

As for 5-stars producing, I say this *only* to make you feel better: Davidson and Brown have produced like 5* guys IMO. 

[WFE12 9,191]

10 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I get the feeling that he is already at a fairly high level, but Grimes know there's more there and he's just trying to unlock Ashley's full potential. Just a guess, though. At the time we recruited him, at least one person around here close to the program said he was our most important recruit in many years, even more so than Lawson or Cowart. So even if we only get 80% of him, that's still going to be better than most. But I'm with you. We gotta hope we can get 100% or close to it from him. Not much room for error in his group the next couple years. 

As for 5-stars producing, I say this *only* to make you feel better: Davidson and Brown have produced like 5* guys IMO. 

I didn't know people were THAT high on him. Oh I'm not saying we haven't had any players produce like that just that I want him to produce like a 5 star. probably should've worded that differently.

[Auburn2Eugene 2,317]

On 3/26/2018 at 9:20 AM, LKEEL75 said:

Well that is good news.  I was under the impression that AT wasn't going to be back at 100% until maybe the fall.

Same here. I KNOW someone who is looked to around here said just that. 

REALLY good to hear about AT. This makes me wonder what's up with the other Prince. The one who most schools recruited as a DL. Not Tega, but Sammons I think is his name. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

On 3/27/2018 at 6:46 PM, WFE12 said:

I didn't know people were THAT high on him. Oh I'm not saying we haven't had any players produce like that just that I want him to produce like a 5 star. probably should've worded that differently.

I ran out of reactions but I hate not acknowledging folks, even if I have nothing intelligent to add, so... word.

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

Anybody have any info as to why Calvin was not at practice?

http://www.oanow.com/sports/college/auburn/football/spring-practice-observations-auburn-down-to-healthy-center/article_e4b381f6-3390-11e8-bef4-9368a936c284.html