Ranking Auburn football's top five position groups ahead of 2023 season
AUBURN — Lincoln Riley changed the game at USC. So did Brian Kelly at LSU, as did Sonny Dykes at TCU. And that's just from last season.
No longer can college coaches come in and use the first year or two of their tenure with a program to rebuild. With the transfer portal in high gear, coaches must win immediately while simultaneously building for the future.
Auburn football's Hugh Freeze knows that. That's why he went out and landed 20 players from the portal this offseason to go along with 19 recruits in the Class of 2023 and three pickups from junior college. By Freeze's own admission, it's too early to tell if the Tigers "closed the gap" on the SEC's best, but the blueprint for success in Year 1 is there.
With Auburn seemingly done making tweaks to its roster, here's how we rank the top position groups heading into next season.
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5. Linebacker
Losing four-year starter Owen Pappoe to the 2023 NFL Draft − the Arizona Cardinals selected him No. 168 overall in April − will sting. His 806 defensive snaps last season led the linebackers by a wide margin, as Cam Riley's 477 put him second. Wesley Steiner was third with 348, per Pro Football Focus.
But both Riley and Steiner return, and Auburn added three transfers at the position in Austin Keys (Ole Miss), Larry Nixon III (North Texas) and DeMario Tolan (LSU). Tolan has three years of eligibility remaining, so he may be more of a project, but Keys and Nixon should come to the Plains and push to make immediate impacts. Keys, along with Steiner, was one of two starters at A-Day in April, and Freeze said in May he expects Nixon to compete for starting reps.
Nixon registered a career-high 105 tackles with the Mean Green in 2022, with 51 of those being solo. For comparison, Pappoe had 91 total tackles and 51 solos last season.
4. Offensive line
In the 2020, 2021 and 2022 recruiting cycles, Auburn brought in a combined nine offensive linemen. The Tigers added nine players at the position this offseason alone.
It's nearly a completely new unit, with three transfers essentially locking up starting spots during spring practice; Gunner Britton, Avery Jones and Dillon Wade seem settled in at right tackle, center and left tackle, respectively. There was also the addition in May of Jaden Muskrat, who teams back up with Wade and offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery after spending a few seasons with them at Tulsa.
Four new faces on the O-line could take time to gel. Luckily for Freeze, the first three games of the season against UMass, Cal and Samford should give them that opportunity.
3. Quarterback
If nothing else, Michigan State transfer quarterback Payton Thorne raises Auburn's floor.
Thorne isn't nearly the athlete incumbent starter Robby Ashford is, but his experience with the Spartans (6,483 passing yards and 49 TDs) gives him an advantage. When and if the Illinois native is eventually named the starter, he stabilizes the QB position and gives the Tigers a level of reliability they may not have previously had.
2. Running back
Freeze admitted after A-Day he was sleeping on backup running back Damari Alston: "I didn't give enough credit to (him) coming into this job, but he's had one heck of a spring for us," Freeze said. But that underestimation may have allowed the coaching staff to go out and land South Florida transfer Brian Battie, who rushed for over 1,100 yards in 2022 and was an All-American kick returner in 2021.
Alston and Battie give the Tigers more-than-capable reserves to play behind Jarquez Hunter, who will be the featured back at Auburn for the first time in his career. There's also four-star freshman Jeremiah Cobb, who rushed for 6,567 yards and 75 touchdowns in 50 games at Montgomery Catholic, according to MaxPreps, and is the No. 3-rated recruit in AU's class.
1. Defensive back
Every projected starter in the secondary for Auburn has already played at least one season with the Tigers, and some more than that.
The group, headlined by cornerback DJ James, also graded out well in 2023. James had a PFF grade of 82.3, which was the fifth-highest rating given to an SEC corner last season behind Mississippi State's Emmanuel Forbes (87.2), Kentucky's Keidron Smith (85.6), Ole Miss' DeShawn Gaddie (84.8) and Alabama's Kool-Aid McKinstry (82.5).
With a question mark at pass rusher − Auburn added a few transfers to go along with highly-touted freshman Keldric Faulk − the Tigers must lean on their experienced secondary in 2023.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.
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