Travis Williams tries his best not to look at stars. The number of stars next to a high school recruit’s name is a representation of what other talent evaluators see. Williams would rather form his own opinions.

So when the Auburn linebackers coach first saw Chandler Wooten at a Junior Day workout on campus, he didn’t see a three-star recruit or the No. 21-ranked linebacker in the Class of 2017.

Williams saw a kid he knew almost immediately that he wanted to sign.

“I said, 'You know what, I like this kid,’” Williams said on Auburn’s in-house National Signing Day broadcast on Feb. 1. “I penciled him in and he was the guy I wanted. I wanted Chandler Wooten.”

Williams got him. Wooten committed to Auburn in May, signed in December and enrolled in January. He’s now about halfway through his first spring on the Plains.

And Wooten — who has been working at the outside linebacker spots on the second-team defense — has wasted little time showing the rest of the Tigers what Williams saw in him on that Junior Day all those months ago.

“He made some plays the first two days that don’t look like a freshman getting ready for his prom,” defensive coordinator Kevin Steele said of the linebacker who totaled 124 tackles and 15 tackles for loss as a senior at North Cobb High School in Kennesaw, Georgia.

“I’m very impressed, because he’s still supposed to be in high school. The things he’s doing and learning, picking up on, are very good,” junior linebacker Darrell Williams said. “I kind of think he’s doing better than what I did as a freshman.”

Auburn might be as deep at linebacker as it is anywhere on the field. Tre’ Williams, Deshaun Davis and Darrell Williams return as the top three starters, Montavious Atkinson and Richard McBryde are back as the top reserves, and a there is a talented group of freshmen ready to join them.

But with fellow early enrollee K.J. Britt sidelined this spring due to a leg procedure and heralded recruit T.D. Moultry not arriving until the fall, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Wooten has gotten the first chance to make a push for playing time as a true freshman.

Steele has enjoyed seeing it as much as anyone. “We’re creating some competition that should make us better,” he said.

“He’s a really good linebacker,” Davis said of Wooten. “He’s really just learning the system but I think he’s really getting the hang of it. He’s out there communicating and everything now. You don’t really see a young guy coming in at linebacker and making calls and checks already.

“You can tell he wants to be a student of the game because he’s always around T-Will and in his office. He’s not in the game room. At practice he’s walking beside T-Will or with me and Tre’. I think he has a really high ceiling.”

Just as Travis Williams expected.

“He was a guy I really trusted the evaluation on and off the field,” he said. “Great kid, great family. He's a kid that was raised right. I don't have to chase him to class. He loves football and he's a really, really good football player.”