Auburn not dwelling on last season

AUBURN, Ala. - Tommy Tuberville doesn't think his Auburn Tigers are wasting time basking in last year's glory.

The Tigers had too many other things on their minds when preseason practice began Tuesday to dwell on a 13-0 season. Who has time to think about a potential encore when you're breaking in a new quarterback, replacing two All-Southeastern Conference tailbacks and trying to build competition among the young players?

"They haven't looked back," Tuberville said. "I haven't heard much talk from our football team about last year. They're excited about that. But they understand that that's short-lived and we've got to turn around and play another season and see what we can do this year."

The strength coaches tried to reinforce that mentality with a tougher-than-usual summer workout program.

"We wanted to let them understand that we weren't going to sit back and rest on last year," Tuberville said.

A number of players will be moving around or adapting to new roles over the next few weeks.

-With No. 1 tailback Tre Smith sidelined for the next couple of weeks after having his appendix removed, redshirt freshman defensive back Tristan Davis is working in the offensive backfield. Davis played both positions in high school and could wind up at either position.

Smith, however, expects to be on the field for the opener Sept. 3 against Georgia Tech.

"I'll for sure be out there for the first game," said Smith, who spent much of practice riding a stationary bike. "Unless something goes wrong, I should be back."

-Quarterback Brandon Cox must adjust to life in the spotlight as the new starter.

"There's going to be a lot of attention on Brandon, and I have no doubt that he can handle it," Tuberville said. "But it's going to be one of those wait-and-see deals to see how well he's going to handle each situation."

Cox, a sophomore, won the job outright in the spring.

"It's totally different," he said. "Everybody's looking at the starting quarterback. It's definitely a different feeling coming into today."

Calvin Booker and Blake Field are still battling for the backup job.

-Tuberville said Smith and South Carolina transfer Kenny Irons will essentially be "co-starters" at tailback, a la Carnell Williams and Ronnie Brown last year.

"Tre's a tremendous athlete who's done a lot for our program," Tuberville said. "Kenny's a guy that can take our backfield to another level because he can do so many things. He can play inside, he can play outside, he can block and he can catch. There's not a whole lot of difference other than Kenny's probably a step faster in some situations.

"We're looking for Kenny to be a big-play guy for us, whether it's a pass or a run. He gives us maybe a little bit more speed than we had last year in a backfield that was pretty impressive."

Tuberville said the depth chart is subject to plenty of change after the Tigers scrimmage two or three times.

"We have a depth chart, but it hasn't stopped moving," he said. "We're going to move it around quite a bit for the next few weeks."

TIGER TALES: Punter Kody Bliss, nursing a pulled hamstring, isn't expected to participate in the first few practices. Tuberville said Bliss was injured several months ago... The veterans worked on conditioning Tuesday while the newcomers got some extra time on the field... Auburn's football team ranked fourth in the Student-Athlete Performance Rate, a new national academic study developed to determine top schools athletically and academically.