AUBURN | Colby Wooden certainly doesn’t look like a freshman when he steps into the field. He doesn’t play like one either.

The redshirt freshman defensive lineman has become one of Auburn’s top players on either side of the ball and currently leads the SEC in tackles-for-loss.

“First of all, he’s a pro at what he does. He is a man,” defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said. “He’s not emotional about things in terms of getting up and down. He comes to work everyday with the same attitude, and attitude is the key. That’s a big starting point. He’s got such a good attitude, and it’s a work ethic attitude. He knows to get where he needs to get and for us to get where we need to get, it’s going to take hard work. He doesn’t shy away from that. So a lot of that’s personality.”

Wooden’s 7.0 tackles-for-loss are impressive, but they’re even more eye-popping when put into context of some of AU’s top defensive linemen over the past 10 years.

Wooden’s average of 1.17 TFL per game is a higher percentage than either Marlon Davidson (1.04) or Derrick Brown (0.96) last season, higher than Carl Lawson (1.04) in 2016, and just below Dee Ford (1.21) in 2013.

Only Nick Fairley (1.71) in 2010 had a significantly higher average, and he won the Lombardi Award and helped the Tigers to the 2010 national championship.

Davidson and Brown were both seniors last season as was Ford in 2013. Lawson and Fairley were juniors.

Steele compares Colby Wooden to Dontavius Russell, who finished with 17.0 career tackles-for-loss, but was best known for being consistent and taking on double-teams that allowed his defensive line teammates to make plays.

“When (Russell) left, there were other guys there were other guys that left that were, how are you going to replace this guy. But that was a hard guy to replace, a hard guy to replace, because he did his job. And it was hard to find snaps on the tape where he did not do his job,” Steele said.

“And Colby is very similar in that regard. He lines up and he knows his job. He knows what his job is and he works extremely hard to do his job, and most of the time he gets his job done. Not surprised at all. Like I said, we talked about it earlier and saw it coming. This is not a surprise. He has a pro mentality.”

In addition to his TFL, Wooden has 29 tackles, 1.5 sacks and three quarterback hurries. He’s also playing both defensive end and defensive tackle, which is another example of his maturity and unusual ability for a freshman.

“It's been huge,” said Auburn coach Gus Malzahn of Wooden’s emergence. “He's a tough guy, too. You know, you see him improving each week. He uses his hands extremely well. He understands blocking schemes. He's just improving each week. That's what we've got to have.”

Auburn returns to action Nov. 14 at Mississippi State. Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on SECN.