After fully healing from a shoulder injury suffered Week 2 against Cal, Coleman is using the tail-end of this season to prove he has more to offer.
“The biggest thing I’ve learned about myself is how I handle adversity. Things don’t always go as planned, but it’s the way you respond,” Coleman said.
“I had a couple injuries — I had a shoulder injury — but I bounced back from it. I’m 100% now. It was a little setback, but it’s just about how I responded.”
Currently sitting at 10 catches for 259 yards on the season, Coleman’s touchdown against Missouri was just his second since the season opener against Alabama A&M.
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze talked about the production from the freshman phenom saying he wants to continue to develop the small things in all the young wide receiver’s game.
“Cam, obviously the deep threat has been proven that he’s that. We’ve got to keep him improving the intermediate part of his game, he really should’ve had an opportunity for two other catches, and he did not execute the route properly,” Freeze said.
“The frustrating thing is like; these kids are very talented and they’re the future and foundation of our program. But you see them do it in practice and then the bullets get real, and things change a little bit.”
“[Perry Thompson] had a couple really good weeks, so has [Bryce Cain]. [Malcolm Simmons] is getting better at understanding things and obviously Cam is getting his reps. But we’ve just got to get really a lot more consistent at all of the techniques of running those routes.”
Coleman agreed with his coach saying he wants to improve his route running going into next season.
“I would like to improve some of my route-running and win some more one-on-one matchups,” Coleman said.
“Really it‘s just a learning experience so we can know what to expect next year. I’m taking this year and applying it to next year, so we won’t make the same mistakes twice.”
He added his assessment on the freshman class a whole saying they all have grown.
“I feel like we’ve grown — me, Malcolm, Perry, Bryce — and a lot of the defensive guys starting as freshmen. We’ve all grown and matured throughout the season. We’ve just got to build off of it.”
Auburn’s next matchup will be at Kentucky and televised Saturday on the SEC Network at 6:45 p.m.
