Five questions around the Auburn linebacker room

The summer offseason is in full swing, and Auburn Live is trying to survive it with our Position Week breakdowns. By the time all eight units (QB, RB, OL, TE, WR, DT/Edge, LB, DB) at Auburn have been covered, media days will have passed, training camp will have arrived, and the return of football inside Jordan-Hare Stadium will be just around the corner. We’re rolling out our positional weeks with the seventh group up: the Auburn linebackers.

AUBURN — Like the defensive front, the Auburn football linebackers are a position of some uncertainty.

Gone is four-year starter and former five-star Owen Pappoe to the NFL. Gone are Desmond Tisdol and Joko Willis to the NCAA Transfer Portal. Pappoe is the significant loss, finishing his career with 256 tackles, 15 tackles for loss and eight sacks. He finished with 93 tackles in both the 2020 and 2022 seasons, the final two healthy seasons of his career. Tisdol played in every game last season, but recorded just 13 tackles. Willis finished with just four tackles last season.

New to the program are Larry Nixon III from North Texas and Austin Keys from Ole Miss. DeMario Tolan arrived from LSU and participated in spring drills before leaving the team in June. The door could still be open for Tolan to return to the team, but that is yet to be determined according to head coach Hugh Freeze.

Nixon III and Keys join Auburn’s current scholarship linebacker group of Wesley Steiner, Cam Riley, Robert Woodyard, Eugene Asante, Powell Gordon and Jake Levant. Riley and Steiner are the only players with significant snaps returning, as Riley finished with 66 tackles last season, and Steiner finished with 46. Woodyard and Gordon redshirted, while Asante and Levant saw little action.

The Tigers didn’t sign any freshman linebackers. Terrance Love is listed as a linebacker in the On3 Sports player rankings, but plans to start his college career at safety.

For new linebackers coach Josh Aldridge, it was all about effort and setting a foundation in the spring.

“I want them to understand my standard for effort and preparation,” Aldridge said. “A lot of times the linebacker is kind of the quarterback of the defense and that takes a different style of preparation. From the effort standpoint, that’s something that requires no talent. They may know it already, that might be great. But I want them to know in the spring that’s what I want to see, the effort on and off the field.”

Auburn Live is continuing its seventh position week of the summer by asking five questions related to the linebacker room.

Five questions around Auburn’s QB room

Five questions around Auburn’s WR room

Five questions around Auburn’s OL room

Five questions around Auburn’s TE room

Five questions around Auburn’s RB room

Will Woodyard take the next step?

Woodyard was Auburn’s second-highest ranked high school prospect signed in the 2022 class behind only JD Rhym. Ranked the No. 15 linebacker nationally and No. 174 overall prospect, grabbing Woodyard from Mobile, Ala. was a big coup for the Tigers. However, the 6-foot, 234-pound linebacker only played in four games and used his redshirt. That might be good news for the Tigers, as Woodyard now starts his four years of eligibility with a new coaching staff, new position coach and new coordinator. It’s a fresh start, and Aldridge likes what he sees on the hoof of Woodyard.

“It’s hard to tell because he didn’t play yet,” Aldridge said during the spring. “He’s more of a true Mike body, he’s a bigger guy. He’s got a tremendous attitude and is always in the building which is what everybody told me when I got here. He’s a guy that spends a lot of time in the facility. That so far has been really good. He’s pretty mature for a young kid.”

With only two returning linebackers with SEC experience, and two transfers coming in, the development of Woodyard will be an important factor in determining the success of the Auburn linebackers and the defense as a whole.

What to expect from Nixon III and Keys?

While at North Texas, Nixon III racked up 245 tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks in four seasons. In 2022, Nixon III earned first-team All-Conference USA honors with 105 tackles. Meanwhile, Keys racked up 51 tackles in 17 games while at Ole Miss, recording 39 tackles in 13 games during the 2022 season. Nixon III arrived to Auburn after spring camp finished. Being a fifth-year player, learning the defense and adjusting quickly shouldn’t be a huge hurdle. Keys participated in spring ball, with Aldridge saying, “(Austin) really has a developed body. I was looking for guys who had the best combination of experience as well as guys that could be in a locker room for a few years.” Nixon III and Keys fit that bill.

Defensive coordinator Ron Roberts added of Keys, “he’s got the SEC experience, he’s big, he’s physical, he runs exceptionally well, he’s smart, he’s intelligent, he’s picked things up really fast. With him, going forward, I’d like him to be a little more vocal and take some leadership responsibility.”

At minimum, Aldridge added experienced, physically-mature players to a linebacker room in desperate need of playmakers. In reality, given the inconsistent nature of both Riley and Steiner’s play last season and the overall depth issues, earning starting positions could certainly be in both Nixon III and Keys’ future.

What is expected of Auburn’s linebackers in Roberts’ defensive system?

Roberts wants his defense, like any good defense, to play with fundamentals and passion. That means at times, things could be simplified to accomplish that goal. In a perfect world, Roberts’ defense will be multiple, with blitzing and aggression as the trademarks. Roberts said during the spring, “the whole idea is to take kids out of conflict so they can play fast.” As for the linebackers specifically, it starts with odd or four-down fronts, as the Tigers will play both. The multiplicity of the defense will lead to multiple defensive calls being sent at one time to the linebacker organizing the defense. That will be a new ask for the Auburn linebackers, but that’s the nature of college football these days.

In short, between the multiple nature of the defense, coverage expectations, and the importance of blitzing and creating pressure in the backfield, the play of the Tigers’ linebackers will be paramount to the type of success Roberts hopes for.

Can Riley find consistency?

The massive, 6-foot-5, 240-pound linebacker from Evergreen, Ala. racked up 64 tackles last season. Of those 64, 15 came in the opener against Mercer and 12 came in the finale against Alabama. He only cracked the six-tackle mark one other time in nine games. Roberts is allowing Riley to learn the weak side linebacker position, but did dabble with Riley some at the jack position. There’s no reason a player with Riley’s size and athletic ability can’t accomplish big things in the SEC, but 13 combined tackles in a five-game middle-of-the-season stretch against Missouri, Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Mississippi State isn’t going to cut it.

Are the Tigers’ linebackers a top-half SEC unit?

Over the last 20 years or so, the answer to this question is generally, “yes,” without hesitation. But heading into the 2023 season, Auburn finds themselves on the outside looking in according to which set of analysts you believe. Athlon Sports ranks Auburn’s linebackers the 11th-best unit in the league, ahead of only Florida, South Carolina and Texas A&M. The three teams directly ahead of the Tigers are Arkansas, Tennessee and Ole Miss. Auburn’s defensive front has promise, and the secondary returns experience. The top three teams in the SEC this year are Georgia, LSU and Alabama. The top three linebacker units according to Athlon are Georgia, LSU and Alabama. The potential of this fall’s Auburn defense seems to depend largely on the development of the linebackers.

“There’s so much asked of linebackers with the types of offenses you face,” Aldridge said. “You better have a guy that’s really dynamic. “We have to do a great job of identifying and recruiting dynamic athletes to play linebacker.”

Time will tell if Nixon III and Keys are the “dynamic” athletes Auburn needed to join Steiner, Riley, Woodyard and the others, or if Auburn is still another year away from molding a linebacker unit that can elevate itself into the top half of the league’s best groups.

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