Before Auburn's new coaching staff can focus on building a depth chart or establishing a pecking order at any position,

Gus Malzahn

has to get his team used to his own pace.

Malzahn wants the Tigers practicing faster.

Installing Malzahn's hurry-up, no-huddle offense will force both sides of the ball to practice faster as the Tigers cut down the seconds between snaps, but Malzahn wants to raise the intensity everywhere, from positional drills to 11-on-11 work.

"I told our team at the very end of practice, the main thing is that we have to learn how to practice at the pace and intensity and the tempo, both offensively and defensively," Malzahn said. "The X's and O's will come, but the main thing is we have to learn how to practice."

Malzahn had no problems with the Tigers' effort in Wednesday's session, the first practice of the spring. Before Auburn can establish a first or second team, though, Malzahn wants to get the offense installed and put his stamp on practices.

"There's really no such thing as a first unit or second unit," Malzahn said. "There's groups that will go out there first, but you'll see a lot of rotation throughout the spring. We'll use the scrimmages to evaluate our guys and then we'll establish some of the pecking order."

The pace was nowhere near where Malzahn wants it to be.

"We didn't play fast enough today," Malzahn said. "We really weren't even close, but we'll get there."

Under new strength and conditioning coach

Ryan Russell,

Auburn has been preparing for Malzahn's tempo by changing the winter workout program to force players to move from drill to drill without a rest, similar to the pace Malzahn wants the Tigers to practice.

From the standpoint of being physically ready, Auburn's players felt like Russell's system prepared them well.

"From the start, we all saw a difference," linebacker

Kris Frost

said. "It got us all prepared, as well as getting us conditioned. I feel like all that conditioning showed itself today while we were handling Coach Malzahn's offense, and it was fun."

Where the Tigers have to get faster is on the mental side. Malzahn's fast-paced practices don't leave a lot of time to mull over responsibilities in a scheme; players have to be able to learn on the fly.

Adjusting to that style is the first order of business, even for players who have already practiced under Malzahn when he was an offensive coordinator.

Wide receiver

Quan Bray

said Malzahn's first practice of the spring was even faster than he remembered it.

"Tempo, we can't show any weaknesses at all," Bray said. "I did see a lot of heads spinning out there, but it's just Day 1. We'll get much better doing that."

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