Cam Coleman injury update: DJ Durkin reveals Auburn WR's status for Mercer game

Auburn is expected to start freshman quarterback Deuce Knight on Saturday against Mercer. It’ll be all hands on deck around him, including star receiver Cam Coleman.

Coleman was banged up during the team’s previous game against Vanderbilt. However, after a week to rest and recover he seems good to go against Mercer.

“Cam’s healthy. He’s great,” interim coach DJ Durkin said. “He’s been practicing, doing well. So he’s full go. I think whatever he was hobbling from from the game, that’s just part of it. He had a lot of touches and made a lot of plays in the game as part of it. We’re excited about what he’s going to continue to do moving forward.”

Cam Coleman is the team’s leading receiver this season, so having him available will be no small deal. He figures to be an excellent release valve for Knight when necessary.

On the season, Coleman has racked up 47 catches for 617 yards and four touchdowns. He’s a big-play threat every time he touches the ball.

That will be needed for Knight, who will need to show he can attack all areas of the field to get the defense off-balance. Mercer figures to be aggressive early on until the freshman shows he can make some plays.

For its part, though, Auburn is confident in Knight. And having Cam Coleman back certainly helps.

“You can see a difference in him. He’s just lit up at practice,” Durkin said of Knight. “For any guy, when you’re out there practicing and not playing much, that becomes a monotonous task, especially with a guy that has played so well and so much as he’s done throughout his career like most guys coming in out of high school. That’s a difficult transition.

“He’s really done a great job these past two weeks of preparing. You can see that it’s really clicked the light on for him. I’m excited to see him get out there and go. He is extremely talented and he’s very coachable. He pays attention to details of things we’re asking of him. The challenge for him, man, is just to go let it loose. Go be you and go play, and I think he’ll do a great job.”

Cam Coleman and Auburn will face off against Mercer on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. The game will air live on SEC Network+.