AUBURN | With four of five starters to replace, Auburn has made the secondary a priority during preseason camp.

There’s been some key competitions and a lot of depth to build, and with less than two weeks before the opener, most of the positions are filled except for one wide-open battle at cornerback.

Junior Roger McCreary is set to step into the No. 1 cornerback spot after serving as a top backup last season. The battle opposite McCreary is still ongoing with five players remaining in contention — sophomore Nehemiah Pritchett, junior Marco Domio, senior Devan Barrett, sophomore Matthew Hill and redshirt freshman Jaylin Simpson.

It’s a diverse group. Domio is a junior college transfer, Barrett and Hill both played offense before a position change, and Pritchett and Simpson both signed with the Tigers in the 2019 class.

“We’ve kind of got a fun battle going on. I know it sounds like a lot, but it’s factual,” said defensive coordinator Kevin Steele. “With Pritchett, Domio, Devan Barrett, Matthew Hill and Jaylin Simpson, those guys are battling. If you asked me today I couldn’t tell you who would be the starter of that group. That’s how competitive it is. With that we’ve actually gone from having a situation of ‘who’s going to be the starter’ and can we find some backups to having a good competition with five guys not counting Roger.

“The guys are playing at a high level. They’ve all worked with the ones. It has been kind of fun to watch because they’ve all embraced the challenge, like you should. They have played with relentless effort. They have shown mental toughness. They have shown physical toughness. And they’re good tacklers, which is where we start with everything. If we can get that we’ll have a chance. We’ve been very productive in terms of keeping the top on the coverage with those guys in practice. We’ve gone from being a question mark to where we’re actually are in a situation, we haven’t played a game and a game is different, but we feel like we’ve got the right guys in the seats.”

The rest of the secondary is just about set. Juniors Jamien Sherwood and Smoke Monday will start at safety with senior Jordyn Peters as the top backup. Senior Malcolm Askew and true freshman Chris Thompson Jr. will provide further depth.

At nickel, junior Christian Tutt returns as the starter with redshirt freshman Zion Puckett and true freshman Ladarius Tennison as his top backups. Tutt should also continue as Auburn’s punt returner.

McCreary has been singled out as having one of the best camps of any of the veterans and appears ready to step into the role held by Noah Igbinoghene last season, and Jamel Dean and Carlton Davis the years before.

It's something Steele’s anticipated since he helped recruit McCreary out of Williamson High School in Mobile, Ala.

“When we were recruiting Roger, what we saw was a guy who never came off the field—literally,” Steele explained. “He punted, he kicked off, he returned punts, he returned kickoffs, he played defensive back, he played quarterback, he played wide receiver. He never came off the field, so the athleticism was pretty obvious and the development of skill, because he developed a lot of different skills from that way, but the big thing is he is extremely competitive and he can run real fast, and that’s pretty crucial at corner.”

No. 8 Auburn opens the season Sept. 26 against Kentucky. Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on SEC Network.