Prattville's Derrick Moncrief misses valuable practice time

• Prattville native misses one and a half practices due to sickness

AUBURN – A relative newcomer expected to start in the Tigers secondary was among those to miss valuable practice time this week as Auburn completes the installation of its defense.

Prattville native Derrick Moncrief, who has been at boundary safety with the first team since arriving on campus during the spring, was sick earlier this week, according to defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, and is close to back to full-speed.

"We don't know if he had a little bug mixed in with some dehydration, and he missed a full practice and then another half of a practice; pretty much couldn't go full speed," Johnson said. "He's just now sort of getting back to normal, and he's making steady progress.

"That issue did set him back a little bit because during this heavy installation, you miss one practice that's a lot of reps on some new stuff that you have to try to go back and catch up on, and the train keeps on moving and the day he comes back we've already gone on to new things."

The 6-foot-2 218 pound junior college transfer is in line to start at boundary safety this season after a strong spring. Moncrief, who has not been available for interviews in his more than six months on campus, had a pair of tackles and fumble recovery on A-Day.

"Moncrief is going to be a good one," said Josh Holsey, who started six games at boundary safety last season and has returned to corner. "He's a really big safety. He's smart, and he really works hard. He's going to be one of the good ones to get this defense where it needs to be at boundary safety."

Johnson is at the "tail end" of installing the new aspects of his defense, including a new pass coverage package, and being without Moncrief and cornerback Trovon Reed (hamstring) at times this week has made for a challenging learning process.

"You get two key guys over there on the sideline and somebody doesn't know what they're doing when they get out there, that's the only frustration you have in trying to work that," Johnson said. "It's been a little musical chairs back there just because of losing a guy for a period or losing him for a practice and then getting him back the next day."