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Payton Thorne’s impressions of Auburn’s freshman receivers this preseason

‘As a whole, our receiver room is a lot different than it was last year.’

Auburn’s youngsters walked the walk Saturday afternoon.

The talented “Freeze Four” freshman receivers were highly billed as recruits, sure, and have been progressing nicely in practice this preseason, by all accounts. But scrimmages and live practices are where push comes to shove. And three of Auburn’s freshman wideouts flashed their immense potential over the weekend.

Malcolm Simmons and Bryce Cain combined for three touchdowns in the team’s first scrimmage, and Perry Thompson was centimeters from hauling in another. Cam Coleman, who’s been entrenched as a starter since the spring, played limited snaps, was only targeted once, and Payton Thorne was’t looking his way often even when he had one-on-one opportunities on the outside. That underscores the fact that the Tigers were, in fact, practicing and repping specific elements of their offense instead of looking to gain the most yards possible every “play.”

Even with Coleman’s purposeful limitations and Penn State transfer KeAndre Lambert-Smith sitting out with his ankle injury, the first scrimmage was a nice glimpse of Auburn’s new-look receiving corps. And against the second-, third- and fourth-team defense, the youngest members of the group took advantage of their opportunities.

Simmons had been praised for his athleticism all preseason, and he was able to put it on display with a 71-yard touchdown on the final play of the scrimmage — breaking a tackle in the secondary against the third-team defense after securing a throw over the middle from Holden Geriner. Simmons also scored with Thorne and the first-team offense, though, catching a tipped pass by Caleb Wooden in the back of the end zone from about 20 yards out.

“He can fly,” Thorne said Monday of Simmons. “… But you look out there and we’ve got a lot of guys like that. We’ve got a lot of guys that can run in that room. We’ve got a lot of guys that have shake in that room, too, and can run. And that’s a rare combo. And so as a whole, our receiver room is a lot different than it was last year.

“… When you have guys around you that can make plays and sometimes turn a 5-yard gain into 20, that helps a lot.”

Cain hauled in a 30-yard touchdown after a pump fake by Geriner, and he caught a couple slants from Hank Brown and Walker White that he turned into solid gains with his speed. Thompson, meanwhile, was likely close to 100 yards receiving on the day. Brown got the offense humming with a 50-yard shot to Thompson with the second-team offense, and Jeremiah Cobb polished things off the next play with a short touchdown. Thompson later took a quick pass from Walker White about 30 yards, and nearly grabbed a touchdown in the back of the end zone later in the drive, only to be ruled barely out of bounds.

Thompson was a highly rated prospect just like Coleman, but he wasn’t on campus until the summer. Thorne admitted that Thompson had some issues with his fundamentals and needed some things fine-tuned, but he’s been impressed with how quickly the freshman has done so.

“He weighs 220 pounds as a freshman and can run,” Thorne said of Thompson. “I saw him getting cleaned up in two or three weeks, honestly. They’re not really easy things to break the habit of. … He’s quickly materializing it to a guy that will be able to help us this year.”

Hugh Freeze has admitted that, nowadays in college football, it’s not feasible to plan to redshirt any freshmen, especially higher-rated recruits. It’s far too easy for players to jump ship after a season to worry about long-term eligibility.

In that vein, it doesn’t seem likely at this point that any of Auburn’s freshman wideouts will redshirt; even if they can help Auburn for just a few plays per game, that’s enough to put them in.

But as important as they may be to Auburn’s game-planning this fall — even on punt returns, where Thompson, Simmons and Cain have all worked — Thorne often has to remind himself that, at the end of the day, they’re fresh out of high school.