Tommy Thigpen has had just two practices and roughly seven hours of on-field interaction with defensive secondary cohort Phillip Lolley, but he’s already noticed an odd change coming over him.

If you were allowed to watch an Auburn spring practice, you’d notice a peculiar beginning and end to the three-or-so-hour session.

Before November 2008, the only “real” injury Tommy Trott could recall was a broken collarbone he suffered in the seventh grade.

Aairon Savage stopped short at calling the injury that kept him off the field for all of 2008 a blessing in disguise.

TUSCALOOSA — Alabama put on pads for the first time this spring Wednesday for a two-hour football practice forced by rain into the Hank Crisp Indoor Facility.

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik paced from field to field, drill to drill, feverishly working over his piece of gum and sizing up his new team in its first practice of the spring.

A number of players, such as quarterback Chris Todd, offensive lineman Lee Ziemba and safety Zac Etheridge, underwent offseason surgery, making it unclear just how ready they would be for spring practice.

Gene Chizik has had exactly 100 days to shore up a recruiting class, hire a nine-man coaching staff and learn the names of his nearly 100-man roster.