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Former Florida coach Will Muschamp’s as close to a perfectionist as a defensive coordinator can get and he likes the progress his unit has made through the first few weeks of spring practice at Auburn.
“I feel like we’re a little further along than most places we’ve been because the guys have spent a lot of time off the field of coming in and meeting with coaches extra and doing a good job of coaching each other,” Muschamp said to AUTigers.com.
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Tabbed by Gus Malzahn to strengthen Auburn’s defensive efforts, Muschamp has installed a new attacking defensive mindset on the Plains during his second stint on staff and says the Tigers’ defenders have benefited from going up against a fast-paced — and talented — offense each practice.
“We’ve got to expose our players to things, offensively, maybe we don’t give them as much of,” Muschamp said. “They’ve got to be able to see those things. So within your package, you’ve got to have enough volume to expose your football team to help your team, because the worst thing you can do is get into a game-week situation and something they’ve never faced before.
“That’s makes it very difficult on either side of the ball.”
Ahead of Auburn’s first scrimmage Saturday, Muschamp noted that monstrous defensive tackle Montravius Adams has a chance to be one of the defense’s most dominant players. Adams made 43 tackles (8 behind the line of scrimmage) and three sacks last season.
Paired with Carl Lawson, DaVonte Lambert and incoming five-star freshman Byron Cowart, Adams gives the Tigers one of the Western Division’s best lineups in the trenches.
“He’s been a guy that just got to consistently get it out of him every snap … he’s got to understand that,” Muschamp said as perhaps a nugget of motivation. “I think he’s gotten to that maturity level to understand we’re going to coach him hard every single snap to get that done. The guy has got a tremendous ability and we’ve got to get him playing hard every snap.
“I’ve been very pleased through seven practices.”
