In the handful of interviews with Gene Chizik’s assistant coaches over the past two weeks, specifics regarding current players have been few and far between because, well, they’re still putting names to faces.

Antonio Coleman, however, has been the exception.

“What an impressive young man he is,” defensive coordinator Ted Roof said.

Coleman has emerged as a no-brainer of a leader for the 2009 season.

The tough defensive end opted to return for his senior season instead of pursuing professional options like defensive mates Sen’Derrick Marks, Jerraud Powers and Tray Blackmon. Coleman picked up his bachelor’s degree in the fall and has ambitions to work on a master’s degree over the course of the next two years.

The first-team All-SEC selection was already a vocal leader on the 2008 squad, and it’s tough to find anyone on the team that wore the Tigers’ poor 2008 campaign more than Coleman. During the second half of the season, when the Tigers went 1-5, Coleman’s frustration grew more apparent, as his interviews with reporters would often focus on his disgust with the team’s situation.

“No. 1, it brings leadership to us defensively,” defensive line coach Tracy Rocker said. “When you walk into a program, you always try to find out who your leaders are, so I feel like he is going to be a leader for us defensively.”

Rocker, though, wants something Coleman couldn’t do last season: start every game.

Coleman nursed a number of nagging injuries, including a sore acromioclavicular joint that kept him out of Auburn’s Homecoming game against UT-Martin. At one point during the second half of the season, Coleman said he hadn’t practiced in a month.

“That would be the No.1 goal, see if we can get him through the whole year,” Rocker said. “And playing at a high level from day one, I think he has a lot of energy, he plays hard and just watching him on film, you don’t question that. It’s just a matter now if he can make it down to Amen’s Corner.”

Rocker said there’s nothing complex behind getting Coleman through an entire season unscathed. Weights and better conditioning will certainly help, but ultimately, Coleman will just have to fight through the pain.

“The only time you don’t play hurt is when things you just can’t control; blood and bones,” Rocker said. “Those are the kinds of things you can’t control. You’re going to be nicked up and banged up a little bit, and if you can fight through that, you’ll be OK.”

Coaches cramming
At Oklahoma State, running backs coach Curtis Luper and wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor were just a stone’s throw away from Tulsa and Gus Malzahn’s high-octane offense.

“I was stealing his offense anyway when I was at Oklahoma State,” Taylor said. “Now I don’t have to steal it.”

But he still has to learn it.

Auburn’s coaches have been extending their work hours into the late nights and weekends to learn Malzahn’s quick-hitting, constant-motion offense.

“For us, it’s seven days a week,” Luper said. “Since our families aren’t here, we can kind of do that.”

During Tony Franklin’s brief tenure, a lack of unity among coaches in installing his pass-happy spread attack was apparent, as confusion cropped up game after game before Franklin was fired.

Taylor said the coaches have rallied around Malzahn’s offense and that he was impressed by the offensive coordinator in first meeting him because he refused to call it “The Gus Malzahn offense.”

“His whole deal was it was going to be our offense together as a group to help win championships,” Taylor said. “That was impressive to me.”

Malzahn will inherit a number of speedy, small receivers recruited specifically to be key cogs in Franklin’s offense. Now, the focus will be on how to fit them into it.

“We’re getting into it intimately and seeing where we can put our existing players and how we can plug them into this system,” Luper said. “Now we know how to recruit for it.”

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