History suggests Muschamp won't hesitate to play freshmen this season

By foxsports
Published

During their offseason transition to new defensive coordinator Will Muschamp, the Auburn Tigers suffered a large number of defections in their secondary. While they did gain a likely starter in Michigan graduate transfer Blake Countess, the Tigers will likely turn to several freshmen to round out their secondary this season. 

But don't get too concerned Auburn fans, while playing freshmen in the back end of the defense may not seem ideal, Muschamp has proven in his past he knows how to get the most out of young players in his secondary. 

"The further your position is away from the ball, the easier it is to play as a freshman because your athleticism takes over more than it does when you're playing defensive tackle. It's a much faster, bigger, complex game inside," Muschamp said to AL.com. "It's easier - I'm not saying it's easy, none of this is easy — but I'm saying if you want to play wide out or running back as a freshman or an instinctive position as opposed to playing on the offensive line or defensive tackle or playing linebacker, there's a lot more on your plate."

Reading the list of names Muschamp has played in the secondary as freshmen is impressive. Vernon Hargreaves and Jalen Tabor at Florida, both of whom turned out to be All-American corners, as well as Earl Thomas at Texas, who in case you don't follow the NFL, is now the professional game's best safety. 

Senior cornerback Josh Holsey echoed Muschamp's sentiments, as he sees plenty of talent in Auburn's freshmen corp of DB's - Javaris Davis, Carlton Davis and Jeremiah Dinson

"(Javaris Davis) is really fast, (Dinson) really learns quickly and Carlton has really great technique and he's really long," Holsey said. "They sit the meetings with us and really pick up and watch what we do. They learn really quickly. When they got here for the captain's practice we threw them out in that fire and (said), 'y'all go do this so y'all can pick up and learn what we're doing.'"

So while Auburn may be young in the backend, don't necessarily rule that as a weakness. You never know which of these players may turn out to be Muschamp's next All-American creation.

(h/t AL.com)