Hugh Freeze saw it coming with Auburn Tigers’ surprise breakout defensive star who should help handle tough upcoming SEC schedule
Auburn Tigers stole an elite defender via the transfer portal this year
The Auburn Tigers have started off the season with a bang. 2-0 with statement victories over both Baylor (38-24) and Ball State (42-3). While transfer quarterback Jackson Arnold, his wide receivers, and newfound star running back Jeremiah Cobb have gotten plenty of love, the majority of the success can largely be attributed to the Tigers’ lights out defense.
Why has the defense been so good thus far? Besides the obvious contributions of defensive end Keldric Faulk and the development of veteran edge Keyron Crawford, the biggest surprise breakout defensive star has been Xavier Atkins. And based on his comments this week, Hugh Freeze saw this potential boom season coming.
Xavier Atkins is the surprise breakout defensive star that Hugh Freeze saw coming
For those still unfamiliar, Xavier Atkins is a new redshirt freshman transfer linebacker who came over from LSU this offseason. Through two weeks, Atkins has played more snaps than any other Auburn Tigers linebacker. He’s tallied two sacks. He’s leading the team in tackles. And despite playing 35 coverage snaps, Atkins has only surrendered 19 yards through the air. Just an unbelievably impressive start for a second year player with very little FBS experience. Hugh Freeze couldn’t stop raving about him this week when meeting with the media:
“DJ [Durkin], the defensive guys, and personnel believed he had that potential when we signed him. I became a pretty quick believer throughout spring ball into fall camp–especially fall camp. Just his movement skills, his strength, and explosiveness. I know he’s not the biggest guy–the biggest linebacker–but he packs a pretty good punch and he plays the game the way you want to play it. It’s 100 miles an hour like Eugene Asante–similar. It didn’t take us long to realize that we needed that quick twitch and tackling ability on the defensive side of the field a large portion of time. He continues to produce.”
100 miles an hour is a great way to describe Xavier Atkins’ playing style. At 6’0″, 210 pounds, he’s certainly undersized by SEC standards, but he plays at lightning speed, utilizing his obvious instincts and athleticism on just about every single play. It apparently didn’t matter that Atkins only logged 31 snaps last season for the LSU Tigers prior to the transfer to Auburn. Atkins just gets it when it comes to being in the right place at the right time, virtually all the time. Atkins totaled five tackles, four of them for a loss, and two sacks against Ball State on Saturday alone.
When Auburn lost Eugene Asante, Dorian Mausi, and Austin Keys this offseason to the NFL and graduation, it was clear there might be a massive void at the linebacker position for the Tigers and DJ Durkin’s attacking defense. How could Auburn possibly replace all that experience and variety of skill sets in just one year at the linebacker position? Xavier Atkins, that’s how.
Auburn is still going to need to see continued breakout performances from both Robert Woodyard Jr. and Demarcus Riddick at linebacker this season too, but it’s good to see at least one off-ball defender stepping into stardom already. Atkins will need to prove that he’s big enough to shed tougher SEC blocks and athletic enough to stick with some more speed in coverage, but he certainly looks up to the task so far.
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