mistakes Willis will be eager to correct

[aubiefifty 16,757]

dothaneagle.com

Offense the focus as Auburn football team gets back to work | Auburn University Sports

Josh Vitale jvitale@oanow.com

5-7 minutes

AUBURN – Auburn planned to use Tuesday’s practice to correct mistakes made during Saturday’s scrimmage. Offense will be a focus.

After all, coach Gus Malzahn didn’t seem shy about saying that it was the Tigers’ defense that “really stood out” inside Jordan-Hare Stadium. Kevin Steele’s side of the ball won the line of scrimmage and forced five turnovers.

“Offensively,” the head coach said, “they’ve got to do a better job of protecting the football.”

Part of that falls on quarterback Malik Willis. Malzahn said the sophomore “did OK” operating the first-team offense in place of starter Jarrett Stidham — who did not participate as he continues to work his way back from offseason surgery on his left (non-throwing) shoulder — but he was responsible for at least half of the interceptions.

They’re mistakes Willis will surely be eager to correct.

“As a leader, Malik is steadily growing,” junior guard Marquel Harrell said Saturday. “He realizes he’s with the ones and has an opportunity, but like everybody makes mistakes, so we’re not going to jump down his throat like ‘Oh man, make better throws.’

“I’m going to encourage him to be like, ‘OK, Malik, you’re better than this. You can do it.’ I’m never going to talk down on him because I feel like he’s a great player. It’s just time for him here to continue to grow and continue to get better, so like the interceptions and stuff, it’s natural. I’d rather it happen in practice and scrimmage than in a game.”

Willis would like to make sure the interceptions don't happen in either setting. The sophomore appears to be Auburn’s unquestioned backup quarterback and still at least a year away from truly competing for the starting role after Stidham decided to forgo an opportunity to enter the NFL Draft, but that hasn’t hindered Willis’ work ethic one bit.

The Atlanta native spent his spring break two weeks ago in Miami, but it wasn’t all about the sun and beach: Willis was there as part of Atlanta-based quarterback coach Sean McEvoy’s “QB Takeover” and spent his time there throwing with NFL wide receivers Antonio Brown, Mohammed Sanu and Ricardo Louis.

That wouldn’t have been allowed under former offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, but second-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has been open to his quarterbacks working with outside coaches, and Willis has taken advantaged ever since he arrived on campus before last spring.

[McLoofus 35,182]

3 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

That wouldn’t have been allowed under former offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee, but second-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey has been open to his quarterbacks working with outside coaches

To be clear, those are the writer's words and not @aubiefifty's. Anyway, I think maybe he needs to re-sight his scope. 

Side note: Glad to see Harrell joining Horton as a vocal leader for the team. Maybe it's by default and/or out of necessity in both cases, but it's still good to see. 

And Fifty, keep 'em coming. Really appreciate you hooking us up with the info. 

[auol72 188]

Everyone should also note the quarterbacks were not live so anytime a defender was close it was a sack and a large part of Willis game is escapability and scrambles and zone read runs and when the quarterback is deemed down anytime someone is close that means the defense does not even worry about that. Really makes it difficult to get a true read of what he can do. But that happens when your quarterbacks are never live until the game. Might be part of why it takes three or four games to see what really works. Unfortunately we do not have that luxury this year.

[DAG 33,977]

5 hours ago, auol72 said:

Everyone should also note the quarterbacks were not live so anytime a defender was close it was a sack and a large part of Willis game is escapability and scrambles and zone read runs and when the quarterback is deemed down anytime someone is close that means the defense does not even worry about that. Really makes it difficult to get a true read of what he can do. But that happens when your quarterbacks are never live until the game. Might be part of why it takes three or four games to see what really works. Unfortunately we do not have that luxury this year.

This is the perfect time to work on his passing ability , the same way Lamar Jackson did entering his sophomore year due to the fact Petrino rarely allowed him to scramble. Of course, I hope we get back to more 50-50 ball in scrimmage.

[DAG 33,977]

Another thing I am interested in is what type of plays were called? Were these interceptions where the defense read and baited them or were these plays where the ball was forced into coverage. A lot was made of JS last year due to the fact he refused to force the ball in coverage and quite frankly our guys were covered a lot. 

[WFE12 9,191]

1 hour ago, DAG said:

Another thing I am interested in is what type of plays were called? Were these interceptions where the defense read and baited them or were these plays where the ball was forced into coverage. A lot was made of JS last year due to the fact he refused to force the ball in coverage and quite frankly our guys were covered a lot. 

This is what I want to know also. I've always wondered about this. I want to see our players bait for interceptions and not just get these easy tip picks. I know people will say a picks a pick but to see our guys actually play a route to perfection almost and trick the qb is great to see.