Gus Malzahn shares Auburn’s latest injury update following opening season win over Oregon
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Auburn came away from the most exciting game of the weekend with a 27-21 win over Oregon from Arlington relatively healthy but the Tigers are still managing a few injuries heading into the second weekend of the season.
On the positive side, the Tigers unexpectedly got defensive lineman Daquan Newkirk back in time for the game, something that Gus Malzahn did not imagine would happen heading into the season opener.
Noting that he didn’t think he would return to the field until around week four of the season, one pleasant surprise for the Tigers was the return of junior defensive lineman to the field.
“He got cleared, I guess, the middle of last week and really practiced the last two weeks,” Malzahn said of Newkirk on Sunday. “He’s going full throttle. (Defensive back) Jordyn Peters, the same way. Both of them got cleared, both of them played, and we thought they did pretty well.”
The one player Auburn likely missed the most against Oregon was sophomore receiver Anthony Schwartz. According to Malzahn, the team’s fastest player is still working his way back from a broken finger suffered early in training camp.
“I think each week we will have that [evaluated]. He wasn’t really able to practice until Tuesday so it was one of those things that I really wanted to make sure he got his legs underneath him,” he said. “We need to get him back into shape, so we just wanted to get his feet wet against them and did a couple different things. Each week his role will grow and try to get him back to 100 percent and that will really be a good thing for our offense. He’s an impact player and he affects defenses in a lot of different ways.”
Schwartz isn’t the only Auburn receiver dealing with an injury issue, as Will Hasting had to leave the Oregon game and did not return.
“He got a little dinged in the second half, we held him out but I think there’s a decent chance, at this point, I think there’s a decent chance that he will be ready this weekend. We’ll see, I’ll know more Tuesday,” Malzahn noted.
Finally, on defender T.D. Moultry, Auburn’s coach added this comment.
“Yeah, yeah, he had a little injury that kind of happened during the week, and so that kind of set him back and we’re hoping to get him back full speed here in the near future,” Malzahn concluded.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
