Auburn’s four most-experienced linebackers from last season are currently getting ready for NFL training camps, so adding experience at the position was one of the Tigers’ objectives in the most recent transfer portal window.

Auburn found just such a player in Maryland transfer Caleb Wheatland, who signed with the Tigers last month. The Virginia native totaled 100 tackles and 7.5 sacks in three seasons with the Terrapins, posting 42 tackles and four sacks in 2024.

Speaking to reporters prior to the First Light Community of Mobile Football Preview Dinner and Mobile Sports Hall of Fame banquet on Tuesday night, Durkin said Wheatland will fit in well in an Auburn linebacker room that lost Jalen McLeod, Dorian Mausi, Eugene Asante and Austin Keys after last season. The Tigers return young veterans Demarcus Riddick and Robert Woodyard for 2025, and added LSU transfer Xavier Atkins in December.

“We have some talent, some young talent,” Durkin said. “To me, (the key) was finding an experienced guy. Wheatland is a two-year starter, and really almost a three-year starter from where he was at playing in the Big Ten. And so just that element of, that guy’s played a lot of football, and I think there’s a calming influence when you have a veteran guy in that room, especially a middle linebacker.

“It’s kind of the quarterback of the defense, and so just having someone that’s been in the fire before, can communicate, help other guys get lined up, it provides a sense of calm to the rest of the defense when you have a guy that can do that. So I think that’s where it’ll really help us.”

Mausi, McLeod and Asante finished one, three and four on the Auburn team in tackles last season, while Keys was seventh. McLeod was a sixth-round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars in April, with Mausi (Minnesota Vikings), Keys (also Vikings) and Asante (Miami Dolphins) all signing free-agent deals.

First Light Community of Mobile (formerly known as L’Arche), states as its mission that men and women with and without intellectual disabilities share life. The organization operates six homes and an activity center in the Mobile area. For more information, visit FirstLightCommunity.org.

Auburn opens the 2025 season Aug. 29 at Baylor.

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