AUBURN | Malik Blocton starting with the first-team defense in Auburn’s first major scrimmage Saturday doesn’t say everything.

But it certainly says a lot about the future of the true freshman defensive tackle.

“That was based on a rotation. We haven’t gone starters or anything like that yet,” said AU defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin. “Malik has done a great job. He’s had a really good camp.

“He’s had a lot of clips that have shown up, stuff we’ve pointed out to the defense in terms of his physicality and understanding of things. He doesn’t look like a freshman out there.”

At 6-foot-3 and 291 pounds, Blocton already has the size of a veteran SEC defensive lineman. He’s also drawing plenty of comparisons to his older brother, former AU defensive tackle Marcus Harris.

“He’s done a really good job of being a sponge and has taken his technique to another level. He’s going to be a player for us and expecting big things from him,” said defensive line coach Vontrell King-Williams.

“The part about him that is very intriguing is he’s a really smart player. He’s a football junkie. He wants to know everything that’s going on. When you’re asking questions in the meeting room, he’s answering them. And you can coach him – you can coach him hard. Those are the things you see from him that make you like, ‘Wow, this reminds me of someone we had before.’”

King-Williams expects the Tigers could rotate six to seven players on the interior defensive line this fall. Blocton is part of that projected rotation along with Gage Keys and Philip Blidi at defensive tackle, and Isaiah Raikes, Jayson Jones and Trill Carter at noseguard.

Both Keldric Faulk and Zykeivous Walker can rotate from defensive end to tackle.

“I love Malik. He's going to be a real good player,” said Keys. “He’s put in a lot of work from spring to now. Just seeing his development, how seriously he's taken his game over the whole summer. He's going to be a guy who's going to play for us this year, and in the future, be a big-time player, for sure. He's on his way.”

After taking off Wednesday, Auburn returned to the practice fields Thursday morning.