Xavier Atkins Embracing Role on Auburn Defense

The Auburn Tigers’ linebacker room was one of the more intriguing groups on the team entering 2025. Featuring a mix of highly experienced players and incredibly athletic young guns, there were a lot of questions about who would emerge in the room behind star Demarcus Riddick.

After the first two games of the season, though, sophomore Xavier Atkins has stepped into the role in emphatic fashion. Atkins currently leads the Tigers in solo tackles with nine and recorded two sacks in Auburn’s Week 2 game against Ball State. 

The LSU transfer’s high effort play and leadership have drawn praise from the Auburn coaching staff in his short time on The Plains, including from Head Coach Hugh Freeze.

“His movement skills and his strength and explosiveness...I know he’s not the biggest linebacker, but he packs a pretty good punch and plays the game the way you want it played,” Freeze said. “It’s 100 miles an hour like Eugene Asante, and it didn’t take long for us to realize that we needed that quick twitch, tackling ability on the defensive side of the field a large portion of the time, and he continues to produce."

Atkins had a particularly impressive game against Ball State, adding 5 solo tackles and 4 tackles for loss to his 2 sacks. He also made some incredibly big hits on Saturday, forming the other half of the Tigers’ hit-stick duo with safety and fellow sophomore Sylvester Smith.

With Atkins and the other Auburn linebackers manning the second level of the Auburn defense, opposing offenses have had immense difficulty running the ball on the Tigers thus far in 2025. Ball State managed just -3 rushing yards against Auburn, and the Baylor Bears could only muster 64 yards on the ground despite home-field advantage in Waco.

That stout run defense has forced opponents to throw the ball, allowing the Tigers’ pass rushers to go to work. Auburn already has 10 sacks through just two games, tied for No. 1 in the nation in total sacks with Louisville and UTEP.

Although the new look linebacking corps has been highly effective, it would never have been possible without the Auburn coaching staff’s ability to identify talents like Atkins in the portal and bring them to The Plains.

“It was DJ (Durkin) and the defensive guys and personnel who believed he had that potential when we signed him,” Freeze said. “I became a pretty quick believer throughout spring ball into fall camp, especially fall camp.”

If Atkins maintains his current position as Auburn’s leading tackler and a leader of the defense as only a sophomore, he could be regarded as one of the most impactful transfers of the 2025 cycle for not just Auburn but the entire nation.

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