Freshmen watch veterans during Auburn's first practice

From a football standpoint, the first day of preseason practice might be the least important as the learning pace is intentionally slow. As far as establishing a foundation, it may be the most critical.

As Auburn held its first practice of the season Tueday, Tigers coach Gus Malzahn gave the incoming freshmen an opportunity to observe the veterans. The coaches made sure the veterans embraced their roles as leaders.

"That's the first day out there. You've got to earn it every day," Malzahn said. "You're competing against other people every day in practice. Just that high level of intensity and attention to detail, really just that want to. You got to get better each practice."

Malzahn said the focus Tuesday was on establishing a "standard of excellence."

"It's great to be back out on the practice field with our players and our coaches," Malzahn said. "Really our focus today was more about our standard. How to practice as far as effort, execution, body language. We let our young guys kind of watch for the early part of practice to kind of get a good understanding of how we do things. We slowed down with those guys. We feel like we have some guys who have a chance to help us this year so we want to make sure we give them a good foundation early in fall camp so they can retain it better because things are going to get going pretty quick here in three or four days."

Auburn is coming off a relatively disappointing season. The Tigers were considered a strong candidate for one of the four slots in the playoffs. But after losses to Mississippi State and Texas A&M, the promising season quickly unraveled. They lost to Georgia and Alabama, then to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl. The 8-5 finish has served as offseason motivation much more than expectations of challenging for the SEC championship.

The Tigers practiced in the late afternoon, but the heat still posed a challenge.

"It was hot out there today, but that's good," Malzahn said. "We need to get used to the heat. We play two of our first three games during the day outside so that will be good for us."

There's definitely a learning curve with the Tigers installing a new defensive scheme under Will Muschamp. But Malzahn noted that there are several new players on offense as well.

"We've got some inexperienced guys who will help us get better. We've got some young guys who I think will help us."

An NCAA rule change allows more contact between the players and coaches. Malzahn said that helped the incoming freshmen adapt quicker after spending the summer working under strength and conditioning coach Ryan Russell

"Physically, they're getting stronger and they're getting faster. More importantly, they're getting used to the standard of Coach Russell's approach," Malzahn said. "So a lot of things we have to worry about when they show up late we've already got it taken care of."

Malzahn would not single out anyone, particularly newcomers. That's largely because it was just one practice without full pads.

"But we've got some guys it looks like could help us," he said. "That's a good thing. I'm not going to point out any one particular guy, but it does look like we have some guys who can help us - which we thought that."

The Tigers began practice relatively healthy. Buck end Carl Lawson, expected to give the Tigers' pass rush a major boost, said he's not feeling any effects from ACL surgery on his knee that sidelined him all of last season. Lawson said he's not being handled with extra care, and he doesn't want to be.

"I need to be out there. I need to get reps. It was real good to get back out there," Lawson said.

Defensive lineman Davonte Lambert, a senior, is recovering from knee surgery after getting hurt in the Samford game last November. Malzahn said Lambert is looking good.

"He was one of our better defensive players last year," Malzahn said. "His rehab went very well. He's worked extremely hard to get back.

" Just to have his presence out there is good. He's a real positive energy guy. He's a leader. His teammates respect him."

This story was originally published August 4, 2015 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Freshmen watch veterans during Auburn's first practice ."