Whereas Auburn’s offense is characterized by a slew of newcomers under an offensive head coach, the defense will return a significant number of starters from a group that was, as a whole, mediocre last season.

Auburn’s total defense ranked 77th in the nation last year, including 96th against the run.

The idea with new defensive coordinator Ron Roberts is to target that run defense deficiency. Roberts came to Auburn from Baylor, and his scheme is known for focusing first and foremost on suffocating an opponent’s run game.

Can Auburn do that?

Yesterday, AL.com previewed the Auburn offense by position group. Today, we look at the defense.

Defensive line

Improving the run defense starts up front, and Auburn plans to start two players who were key starters up front last season in Jayson Jones and Marcus Harris.

Does starting the same duo mean Auburn will be better against the run? Hard to say. Auburn coaches are hoping the year of experience playing together will mean a better 2023.

But Auburn brought in transfers on the defensive line to help, highlighted by Justin Rogers coming from Kentucky.

So it’s a question of experience at Auburn versus the addition of Rogers and Lawrence Johnson from Purdue who were top interior players at their respective schools.

Auburn didn’t bring in a player of Rogers caliber for him to sit, so there will be a rotation of the top four interior defensive linemen. Harris and Jones will just be first.

And if there isn’t improvement stopping the run inside, then Auburn has options.

Defensive end

The name with all the attention here is true freshman Keldric Faulk who shifted from jack linebacker to defensive end this fall, and had an impressive camp. However, he did deal with an injury going into Auburn’s second scrimmage.

And he’ll start the year as a backup.

Mosiah Nasili-Kite will start at the defensive end spot. He comes to Auburn as a transfer from Maryland and has consistently been the first one out in the defensive end position with the rest of the defensive starters during practices.

While he may not have the same recruiting recognition as Faulk, a former four-star recruit who was the highest-ranked member of Auburn’s freshman class, Nasili-Kite has far more collegiate experience, and is not learning a new position like Faulk is.

Nasili-Kite is a graduate transfer who had nine sacks over three seasons with Maryland.

Thought it wouldn’t be shocking to see Faulk go on to become the starter when he becomes more comfortable and fully healthy.

Jack linebacker

First, a definition of the position. Auburn utilizes a jack linebacker similar to the role of defensive end. They line up on the line of scrimmage alongside the offensive tackles as edge rushers. But unlike a defensive end, a jack linebacker is expected to drop back in coverage.

Auburn brought in three transfers to consider for the position in Elijah McAllister from Vanderbilt, Jalen McLeod from Appalachian State and Stephens Sings V from Libert.

McAllister will get the initial start at jack, with Sings listed second on the depth chart and McLeod third. McAllister is a veteran for leader who was selected as team captain despite not having played a snap at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Auburn was in the bottom half of the SEC in sacks last year. Each of the three jack linebackers have generated a lot of buzz in fall camp and all three will play. They each bring a different skill set to Auburn’s pass rush. McLeod talked about his speed before dealing with an injury in fall camp. He practiced Tuesday in the most recent session to the media.

Regardless, it’s another position where there will be a lot of rotation.

Middle linebacker

Of two starting sports, one has seemed clear. Austin Keys seemed penciled in as a starting linebacker for Auburn when he transferred from Ole Miss this offseason.

Despite dealing with an injury in fall camp, Keys won the starting job. He’ll be a leader for an Auburn defense that no longer as Owen Pappoe as he went on to the NFL.

The more interesting question is who would start next to him.

Conversations throughout fall camp seemed to focus on Euegene Asante and Larry Nixon III, but it was Cam Riley who won the job in a bit of a surprise.

Or, maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise. While Riley’s name hardly came up in fall camp, it’s easy to forget he was second behind Pappoe in total tackles for Auburn last season and was a starter.

And Riley indicated during the preseason that he could be used on the outside in addition to a middle linebacker role.

This will be another group that Auburn will look to for a big step forward with regard to its run defense.

Cornerback

A simple position group to look at. Nehemiah Pritchett, D.J. James and Keionte Scott form an experienced and productive cornerback trio.

Freeze has said each of the top three have All-SEC potential, but he had to call them out for a lack of effort early on in fall camp. The secondary has had tackling issues during fall camp.

But Freeze seemed pleased with the development of his top three, and believes the fact that he could call out Pritchett and James to be indicative to the rest of the team of the work their leaders were doing to hit the standard a new coaching staff is seeking.

Auburn’s depth at the position does appear a question for the future. There are a lot of talented young corners, highlighted by Kayin Lee, Colton Hood and J.D. Rhym.

Rhym is questionable for Auburn’s first game. So is Pritchett, who was not a participant in the period of practice open to media on Tuesday.

Talented, sure, but depth made up of freshmen is of course unproven. Auburn won’t have to force any of the younger pieces in. Auburn’s secondary is a team strength.

Safety

That strength includes the safeties.

Similar to the cornerbacks, there weren’t any position battles to start at safety this fall. Jaylin Simpson and Zion Puckett have been written in pen as Auburn’s starters.

Simpson led Auburn last year in interceptions, except with only two.

Simpson has had a very strong fall camp in periods open to reporters, especially during the 90-minute practice open to media members on Aug. 17.

But that strong camp comes amidst a position change for the former cornerback. It hasn’t taken him much time to adjust.

Graduate transfer from Baylor Griffin Speaks has been a riser at the position, but it’s a group that centers around Puckett and Simpson. Auburn doesn’t have any questions to ask here. The top duo have a lot of starting experience and have appeared to work well together in the fall.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]