Ranking AU by position: No. 8
AUBURN | The third in our series of ranking Auburn football by position continues today with linebackers at No. 8. We’ll countdown from 10 to 1 over the next couple of weeks.
WHY NO. 8: Mainly inexperience with Auburn needing to replace three seniors from last season including All-SEC middle linebacker Deshaun Davis. Darrell Williams, Montavious Atkinson and Davis combined to play in 150 games with 73 starts. AU’s returning linebackers have combined for two starts.
OVERVIEW: Even with the depth linebackers coach Travis Williams had the last two seasons, he still managed to get juniors K.J. Britt and Chandler Wooten a fair amount of experience with the two combining to play in 44 games with Wooten starting two.
Britt appears more than ready to step in at middle linebacker. He’s physical, a sure tackler, smart and good leader — many of the traits that made Davis so successful. Wooten worked as Britt’s backup this spring but could start beside him at outside linebacker where he played the last two seasons.
Sophomore Zakoby McClain had a good spring working alongside Britt with the first-team. He played in 13 games last season, another testament to T-Will doing a good job getting players he knows he’ll need to rely on in the future some important experience.
True freshman Owen Pappoe also impressed this spring and should be the fourth linebacker in the rotation. The January enrollee has a ton of athleticism and could play early in passing situations.
The depth at the position will come from redshirt freshmen Josh Marsh and Michael Harris, and true freshmen Octavius Brothers Jr. and Kameron Brown, who will enroll at the end of May. Marsh is another that could fill a key role on passing downs while Harris will serve as a backup in the middle. Brothers and Brown are both versatile, and Brown may even get a look at H-back.
FINAL NOTE: The reports out of spring practice were very positive on the linebacker position with the group performing better than expected. They’ll also be playing behind a very good defensive line, which should help their production. Overall, this group of linebackers could easily exceed expectations and be a higher rated postseason unit.
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9. Quarterbacks