secondary help receivers grow

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Experienced Auburn secondary trying to help young receiving corps 'grow more'

Tom Green | tgreen@al.com

Auburn's secondary is trying to do more this offseason than just adjust to new defensive backs coach Greg Brown. The Tigers' defensive backs are also trying their best to bring along a young corps of receivers.

"We're veterans now," cornerback Carlton Davis said. "It's time to really get after it. We're really trying to help our receivers grow more, because we got a lot of young receivers, but we're experienced guys. We've been there, done that.... By now we've seen a lot. We're just trying to help our teammates grow."

Auburn brings back a wealth of experience in the secondary, albeit the group lacks some depth this offseason. Experienced corners Davis and Javaris Davis are back and expected to start in 2017, and the Tigers also return their top three safeties from a year ago: seniors Tray Matthews, Stephen Roberts and Nick Ruffin.

Those five have combined for 61 career starts at Auburn and 131 appearances, so there's no shortage of experience on the back end of the Tigers' defense.

"We've got a lot of veteran guys who have played on defense and played well," Auburn coach Gus Malzahn said.

The group is hoping to turn that experience into a useful tool for the Tigers' young group of receivers, which includes rising sophomores Nate Craig-Myers, Eli Stove and Kyle Davis (who has been absent this spring while dealing with "personal business), redshirt freshman Marquis McClain, redshirt sophomore Darius Slayton, junior Ryan Davis and seniors Jason Smith and John Franklin III.

 

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None of those receivers have more than 300 yards in a single season, with Slayton's 292 receiving yards in 2016 the most in an individual year among the group. Needless to say, it's no secret that Auburn's receiving corps is short on in-game experience and production heading into 2017.

Auburn's defensive backs are of the belief that going head-to-head against the young receivers in practice -- and scrimmages like the one the team held Saturday in Jordan-Hare Stadium -- will help develop and prepare them for the caliber of defensive backs they will match up against come fall.

As the adage goes: Iron sharpens iron.

"We just got to come to work every day," Carlton Davis said. "When we come to work and we're working them, they're getting better just by going against us. When we play the game, we may be going against a cornerback that's not as good as me or (Javaris Davis), and they might have the edge because they practice against guys like us every day."