Spurrier's Sunday Post-Troy Comments

Steve Spurrier spoke with the media briefly Sunday following the win over Troy ...

On Blake Mitchell:

"Ankle sprain. Swelling. Put in a cast last night. We'll see how he looks Tuesday or Wednesday. He will not practice Monday or Tuesday. Right now he's doubtful (for Auburn)."

"I thought Blake was playing the best since he's been here. Then protection broke down."

"Again, we'll wait until Wednesday or so until we decide. It is his left ankle and if you had to have one sprained that would be the preferrable one."

If Blake can't play then hopefully we'll be able to play with Antonio for the whole game.

"I wish he would learn to take off upfield rather than to the right or left. I think the guy that tackled him sort of rolled him to the right. The Doc said if you have to have a sprain then the left one is the one to sprain."

On whether or not Cade Thomas would be used if Blake is out for any length of time.

"Good question. We could use Brent Nichols to backup Antonio Heffner. We would like to redshirt Cade."

On Antonion Heffner:

"Antonio played fairly well. He's never been a drop back passer. He threw a nice catchable ball last night at times which is encouraging. He was 6 of 9 and the receiver had very easy catches for him. We're going to work with him on his running."

"His grasp of the offense is so so. It's not too bad. But none of our quarterbacks are much into checking off yet. We just can't get to where we check off yet."

On the running game:

"Very average to below average. Sometimes we have a tendancy to make Central Florida and Troy's lineman look above average. Now some plays were blocked well and Mike (Davis) hit the hole well."

"We've got to evaluate that (whether James Thompson will remain a starter). Both guards struggled at times."

On the defense br>
"The defensive coaches will evaluate how everyone played but we did have good effort. And we forced some fumbles thank goodness. Pass defense was pretty good overall."

"The new starters did OK. We were trying to search for who to give a defensive game ball and Brandon Issac earned that."

On Sydney Rice:

"He's got a long way to go. He can catch the ball as well as anyone. His route running needs to improve and we have to get him a little more exact on his route running."

On Auburn:

"Their Athletes look about like Georgia's, Alabama's, LSU's, Tennessee's. If we had trouble blocking those Troy guys then certainly we are going to have problems blocking these guys."

Does the gameplan change with Antonio quarterbacking?

I think that everybody that's watched us knows that Antonio can run the ball. We've got a few plays for Antonio that we do not have for Blake. But we've got to let Antonio throw the ball too.