Auburn will face plenty of off-field questions before the season opener Sept. 26, many of which will be directly related to SEC and national decision-making regarding COVID-19 and the fall 2020 season.
Much of those decisions will be out of the Tigers' control, however.
So Gus Malzahn's team will grind away at its own to-do list now that fall camp is in full swing. Likely near the top of the list for Malzahn is replacing two All-American anchors on his defensive front who also provided crucial leadership within his program for years.
Auburn is practicing for the first time without Derrick Brown and Marlon Davidson since 2015. How will the Tigers go about replacing Brown, one of the best defensive players in AU history, and Davidson, a charismatic and relentless worker who earned first team All-SEC accolades last year?
Senior linebacker K.J. Britt is telling his defense not to get ahead of themselves.
"One day at a time, just keep chopping wood," Britt said Tuesday on a Zoom call with reporters. "That’s going to be the way that we have to replace people who left — just going to have to make sure that your job is as important to you as anything else and making sure you do what you have to do and be accountable to your job. That’s the way you replace people. That’s the way you go forth with a season.
"When you had two All-Americans in front of you, you just have to have people step in and do what they have to do."
For Auburn, replacing Brown and Davidson's tangible production and positions at defensive tackle and defensive end, respectively, is met equally by the loss of their steady, veteran guidance for not only Kevin Steele's defense, but the entire Tigers team.
Yes, they were unstoppable at times last season. Brown garnered midseason Heisman buzz with the way he made his presence felt in the trenches every Saturday. Davidson finished the year tied for second in the conference in sacks, with a pair of strip sacks to boot.
Britt knows it's the infectious work ethic they brought to practice for four years that will most be missed this preseason, however. Much of that lost leadership now falls on Britt's shoulders.
"Those guys never really took a day off. Never," Britt said. "They never took a day off. That’s one way to get your leadership across. ... You got to come into work each day, day in, day out, and hold your standard to your room, hold your standard to your defense, hold your standard to guys watching you. That’s going to be the way that you embed it."
Britt will be counted on by Auburn for a big senior season, like Brown and Davidson had, as he's now arguably the team's best player on Steele's side of the ball. A first team All-SEC defender last year, Britt is Auburn's leader in returning tackles, tackles for loss and sacks.
But the middle linebacker doesn't really know who on his defense will have the biggest seasons to fill the voids left by Brown and Davidson's production. And that's a positive, Britt thinks.
It is the preseason, after all. Every player should have superstar aspirations.
"Looking back at this point last year, Marlon and Derrick were great players, but didn’t nobody knew they were going to have the season that they had looking forward," Britt said. "So it’s like, don’t nobody know what we have now. But you can’t predict, you can’t try to replace something that we are unsure about. Just doing your job, that’s the main thing. Just doing your job and taking pride while doing it.
"That’s going to be the biggest thing."
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