Why Auburn football will start spring practice a little later in 2025

Posted by author February 1, 2025 Football

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After beginning its spring practices for 2024 in late February, Auburn football‘s spring start in 2025 will be nearly a month later, Hugh Freeze told reporters Wednesday at the Senior Bowl in Mobile.

This year’s spring practices will start the week after Auburn’s spring break, Freeze said, meaning it’ll be no sooner than the week of March 17. Nathan King of 247Sports reported the official start date as March 25. That’d be a little less than three weeks of practice leading up to the 2025 A-Day game, which will take place April 12.

Freeze indicated it’s an intentional change, saying “I’m going a little shorter.”

“I’m going four days a week, and one day is going to be truly NFL teach, no pads,” he said. “So we’ll go Tuesday, Thursday mornings, Friday afternoons. We’ll do that, and then Saturday, we’ll get after it pretty good.”

It’s also an indication of Freeze’s feelings on spring practices, which he said he’d rather not happen at all.

“I wish we didn’t have spring ball,” Freeze said. “I wish we had OTAs (organized team activies) in June, and let us put shoulder pads on there for ten days when you have everybody there. I wish they could just be with (strength coach) Dom (Studzinski), and work and get their bodies in the best shape of their life, and us do individual and walk throughs. Now, I’m not saying not do any ball, but no hitting.

“I wish we would try that one spring and see if our kids aren’t in a better shape, better health and ready to roll come fall camp. Give us ten days in June, and then get back in the weight room for July where we don’t touch them.”

Adam Cole is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at acole@gannett.com or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @colereporter.