DeMario Tolan nearly signed with Auburn out of high school before ultimately sticking with his commitment to LSU. A year later, after a trip into the transfer portal, the former four-star linebacker is now at Auburn and looking to earn a role in the Tigers’ rotation at the position.

There’s still work to be done for him to solidify that role, though.

“It’s just going to take some time, learning what to do, just being new,” linebackers coach Josh Aldridge said. “You know what I mean? I think a lot of people forget — sometimes you take a transfer, and you think you’re getting this seasoned veteran or whatever. But you forget that the kid was only in one semester of college. Just because he played every game as a true freshman at LSU, he’s still a young guy.”

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Tolan appeared in 12 games at LSU as a true freshman and totaled 10 tackles during his season in Baton Rouge, La., before entering the portal and becoming one of six defensive pickups for Auburn with Power 5 experience. Linebacker was a position of need for the Tigers this offseason after losing four-year starter and leading tackler Owen Pappoe, and Tolan was one of two additions at that spot, along with Ole Miss transfer Austin Keys.

Keys brings a bit more experience to the room than Tolan, having played in 23 games across his three seasons with the Rebels, and he — along with returning junior Cam Riley — has received most of the first-team reps at linebacker this spring. Senior Wesley Steiner and redshirt freshman Robert Woodyard Jr. have worked in tandem with the second group most frequently.

Auburn wants to be able to go three-deep at its two inside linebacker spots in Ron Roberts’ defense this season, and as the program’s first spring under new head coach Hugh Freeze winds down (with the A-Day game just days away), Roberts believes the Tigers have five guys they can depend upon at an exceedingly important position in his scheme. The two aforementioned pairings have led the way, while Tolan and former North Carolina transfer Eugene Asante have repped with the third group.

Freeze earlier this week mentioned Asante with the other four while discussing linebacker depth, and it’s clear that Tolan is progressing as well, though he appears to be a rung below those others in the linebacker room at this time.

“There’s a lot on them, and some of the time, it just takes reps and that’ll lead into fall camp,” Freeze said. “I think, truthfully, when I look at the linebacker room, I think Eugene (Asante) and Austin (Keys) and Cam (Riley) and Robert (Woodyard) and Wesley (Steiner), and obviously hopefully (DeMario) Tolan can come along as a young kid, too…. But I really think that Eugene and Austin, Cam, Robert and Wesley are solid players.”

Tolan’s potential is evident. After all, he was rated as the No. 204 overall player in the country coming out of Dr. Phillips High in Orlando, Fla., and he was a top-20 prospect at his position in the 2022 class, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. At LSU, while playing primarily on special teams as a freshman, displayed a knack for “smashing stuff” on return coverage and in his limited snaps on defense.

It’s a trait that has, thus far, been apparent at Auburn as he works to learn the position in Roberts’ system.

“Demario shows a ton of ability,” Roberts said. “He runs exceptionally well. He will strike you. When he pulls his pin, he pulls it about as fast as anybody that can play the game, so he’s got a bright future here at Auburn.”

How soon that future can become Tolan’s present remains to be seen. It’s a process for Tolan, and one that is going to take some time as he transitions from playing in Matt House’s defensive system at LSU to Roberts’ scheme at Auburn. The 6-foot-1, 204-pounder has shown growth in the months since he arrived on campus and over the course of spring practices, though.

Steiner, himself a former four-star recruit, sees some of himself in Tolan. He recalled Wednesday how when he arrived on campus in 2020 as a top-100 prospect nationally, then-Auburn linebackers coach Travis Williams told him that they brought him in to help replace K.J. Britt.

Steiner told Williams that he can’t replace Britt until he understands Auburn’s scheme and his specific role within it. Williams assured Steiner that they’d get him to that point, in due time. Steiner admits that it took him “a while to keep chopping at that tree” and overcome some early struggles as he absorbed what was being asked of him at linebacker.

“Even when these young guys are struggling, he’s going to get it because I got through it,” Steiner said of Tolan. “…I have seen his growth, and I’m excited to see how far he will grow. It’s kind of like bamboo, almost. You have to keep growing bamboo. Bamboo doesn’t grow overnight. It takes a long time to cultivate bamboo, and once it finally matures, it’s very much matured.

“For him, just going to keep watering him just like we’ve all been in the past. We’ve all been watered, and we’ve been loved on and just getting guys on how we’re going to get through it.”

Steiner has been among the veterans who have taken Tolan under their wing this spring, as they’ve tried to help the sophomore transfer get up to speed with a system that, frankly, all of them are learning for the first time together. The biggest mental speedbump for Tolan to this point has been understanding some of the concepts within Roberts’ system, which asks a lot from the two inside linebacker positions.

Steiner believes that once Tolan gets those down pat, his trajectory will take off and he’ll develop into someone Auburn can lean on in a linebacker corps that should see a more even distribution of snaps under Roberts and Aldridge.

“When he knows what to do from a coverage standpoint, he’s a vital piece, man,” Aldridge said. “He’s a guy who can line up in the box. He’s physical enough to line up in the box, but he’s athletic enough to where he moves like a safety out there on the perimeter…. I’m not down on DeMario by any means. He’s doing great. We’ve just got to keep bringing him along. He’ll have a role for us, for sure.”

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