The Auburn football defense has demonstrated throughout fall camp that they can bounce back for another winning campaign.
Auburn coach Hugh Freeze and his coaching staff are currently refining their depth chart on that side of the ball with ten days until the Tigers’ season opener against Baylor on August 29.
According to Freeze, [DJ Durkin] and his team have so far done a great job of persuading those individuals to embrace their numerical superiority. Not a single NFL scout has ever asked me how many snaps someone played. As of right now, none of them appear to be impacted by what you do with the ones you do have.
When it comes to rotating players this season, the linebackers and defensive line provide some of the most significant questions.
Only Bobby Jamison-Travis and Malik Blocton from the previous season are back on the defensive line. But the new people in that room are growing up quickly.
AL.com projects Demarcus Riddick (Will) and Robert Woodyard Jr. (Mike) to start in the middle at linebacker. But the reserves—Caleb Wheatland, Xavier Atkins, Bryce Deas, and Elijah Melendez—have been the focus of all the talk around camp.
In fact, I have no idea how the ones and the twos differ from one another. “They actually alternate who goes out there first and who goes out there second every day,” Freeze stated. [Robert Woodyard] has performed admirably. He is playing hard and at a good level, and he can absolutely get us lined up. Now that [Demarcus Riddick] is back, that group has more depth and athleticism.
Those six men—[Elijah Melendez], [Bryce Deas], [Xavier Atkins], and [Caleb Wheatland]—have essentially been interchangeable. “Regardless of which group goes out there first, they are coming and going,” Freeze continued.
Speaking about the linebacker corps, Durkin stated that Auburn’s final scrimmages of the week will be used to determine the depth chart.
Durkin stated, “We’ll scrimmage again this week and start to make those decisions as we get closer because we have great competition in that room and we’re rotating all those guys through.” Assignment, I believe they have been sound. They’ve been tackling well, and I enjoy how fast we are in that position.
AL.com will examine Auburn’s linebacker exercises for a thorough examination of that continuous position fight when Auburn resumes practice on Tuesday morning.
For AL.com, Jerry Humphrey III reports on Auburn athletics. You can email him at [email protected] or follow him on X at @Jerryhump3.
