A look ahead to Auburn’s EDGE position before spring practice
Roc Bellantoni, who spent last year as a defensive analyst for Auburn football, will spend his first season as Auburn's outside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator in 2022. After his promotion, Bellantoni now gets to coach one of the best position groups on the team in the edge rushers.
Let's take a look at this really top-heavy room of guys and break them down.
Derick Hall (Senior)
Why he will start?
Derick Hall returning for this senior season was one of the biggest gets for Auburn this year. Someone once told me getting a guy like that back for their senior year is like getting a 6-star recruit, and they could not have been more accurate with that. Hall is a two-year returning starter at the former “buck” position. Hall earned All-SEC second team in 2021 while recording 52 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 9.0 sacks, and two forced fumbles.
Hall had his best game of the year in the 4OT loss in the Iron Bowl in the last game of the regular season where he recorded six total tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and three sacks on eventual Heisman trophy winner Bryce Young.
The star edge rusher also had one of his best games in Auburn's first win in Baton Rouge against LSU in 22 years recording a career-high eight tackles and 1.5 sacks.
What to expect from him?
I expect Hall to be one of the major leaders if not one of the team captains this year for the tigers. Hall will start at EDGE and will hopefully make a huge impact in the pass rush game. I believe Hall has a chance to have one of the better seasons Auburn has seen from a pass rusher since a guy like Jeff Holland.
Eku Leota (Super Senior-Grad Transfer)
Why could he start?
The grad transfer from Northwestern, Eku Leota provided anything and everything you could've asked for from a backup edge rusher in his first season with the tigers in 2021. Leota recorded 23 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, seven sacks, and a forced fumble in his 2021 transfer year.
Leota has decided to run it back and use the COVID year he was given to return to Auburn and play for the Tigers again in 2022.
What to expect from him?
I’d expect Leota to have around the same role as he did in 2021 with maybe a few more snaps with the loss of a guy like Romello Height. The pass rusher role for him fit him extremely well in 2021 and we hope to see that continue as he keeps improving.
Dylan Brooks (Redshirt-Freshman)
How can he make an impact?
The former 4-star top 80 player in the country and the number six edge rusher in the country in the 2021 class, Dylan Brooks, was redshirted his freshman year last year for the Tigers. But how could he see the field and make an impact in 2022?
Brooks is a longer and taller edge defender listed at 6-foot-4 and has tremendous upside to his game. Brooks switched his commitment to Auburn from Tennessee after signing his letter of intent there and was able to come to The Plains as chaos was happening in Knoxville.
With only three guys currently listed as EDGE defenders on Auburn's roster, I would also expect to see guys like Cam Riley and UNC transfer Eugene Asante work out at that position in the spring.
The edge rushers and pass rushers have been vital parts of Auburn’s defensive success in recent memory and this group has a chance to continue that in 2022.
