Igbinoghene at corner

[aubiefifty 16,766]

Football

Noah Igbinoghene 'has the toughness' to succeed at cornerback in Auburn's secondary

Updated 2:30 PM; Posted 2:35 PM

Auburn receiver Noah Igbinoghene has been working mostly at cornerback this spring, and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has been impressed with the sophomore's toughness. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)(Julie Bennett)

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By Tom Green

tgreen@al.com

In light of the recent injuries to Auburn's receiving corps, Chip Lindsey wouldn't mind having Noah Igbinoghene back on the offensive side of the ball this spring, but the sophomore appears to be settling in well at his new position on defense.

While Igbinoghene has split some time between receiver and corner this week, the versatile sophomore has taken quickly to his spot in Auburn's secondary -- and defensive coordinator Kevin Steele believes he has what it takes to not only contribute on that side of the ball, but be successful as a defensive back as well in 2018.

"Noah is obviously very fast, and historically there's been a lot of corners in this league come in be wide receivers, running backs, quarterbacks and more over -- that's historically in this league," Steele said. "So he moved over. The thing that's giving him an advantage is he's got the skillset; that's pretty obvious, but he has the toughness. That's something that sometimes you're unsure about when you move a guy over."

To be sure, Steele wasn't saying that a player needs to be tougher to play on the defensive side of the ball, but there's certainly a distinct difference when it comes to tackling -- especially when offensive players don't have much experience in that aspect of the game.

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"Tackling is different, and he's been really good at that," Steele said.

Igbinoghene looks "natural" at cornerback this spring

The Auburn sophomore, who is also a member of the track and field team, has made a seamless transition from receiver to cornerback

Igbinoghene has had just nine practices to adjust to defensive back after signing with Auburn as a receiver and spending his freshman season on that side of the ball in 2017. Igbinoghene had six catches for 24 yards last season and added an 11-yard carry. His primary role, however, was as Auburn's No. 1 kick returner, averaging 23.79 yards per return on 24 kickoffs.

Although he has spent some time going back and forth between offense and defense this week -- partially by design and partially out of necessity following ACL injuries to Eli Stove and Will Hastings -- Igbinoghene has quickly risen up the depth chart at cornerback, working behind returning starter Javaris Davis at field corner.

"He's a talented guy," Lindsey said. "He's done well over there at DB, too. I think Noah's approach is kind of like mine: Whatever's best for our football team. I know we lost a really good corner last year, and he's done well over there, for sure. We'll see how it turns out."

Both Lindsey and head coach Gus Malzahn have not ruled out the possibility of Igbinoghene seeing time on both sides of the ball this fall, but his exact role will be determined once the Tigers wrap up spring practices.

"Maybe it's too early to tell," Lindsey said when asked if Igbinoghene can be a two-way player. "I think that's really hard to do in the SEC, for sure. I think for us, it was just a matter of how -- we tried to evaluate him. Can he really do that? Because our team's got a need there (at corner), especially before we had the injuries (at receiver). We'll probably reevaluate everything after the spring."

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.

[corchjay 5,311]

That was my only question about Iggy.  He answered the toughness question for me on special teams last year.  

[WFE12 9,191]

If he can truly play both positions I'd love to see it. The last guy I remember that did it successfully as far as wr/cb goes is Adoree Jackson from a few years back. If he stays at cb I believe Shed and the other freshmen can hold it down.