It is game day eve for the Auburn Tigers as they will hit the road for Atlanta on this Friday to play the Baylor Bears on Saturday in Atlanta, opening up the season and the Alex Golesh era.
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With the final preparations having been made and the boots soon to touch down in the center of Georgia, emotions are riding high as the players and staff are ready to take the field to play someone else for the first time since the end of the 2025 season.
That includes each star played that the Tigers have, and the Auburn Undercover staff has just two spots left to unveil in its Impacting Auburn series, highlighting 20 players who it believes will make a difference this fall.
As a disclaimer, the poll was tabulated by rankings sent in from four people on the Auburn Undercover staff—Tyler Raley, Ryan Bartow, Caleb Jones and Jay Douglas. The rankings each person sent in were averaged, with the lowest score going at the top of the list.
Elijah Melendez was revealed on Thursday in the No. 3 spot, and his partner in crime, Xavier Atkins is up next at No. 2. Atkins was the star of the Auburn defense last year, and now he looks to do just the same, and even more.
General information:
Year: Junior
Position: Linebacker
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 210 pounds
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Performance in 2025:
There was a lot of excitement surrounding the potential of Atkins after he announced he committed to the Tigers out of the transfer portal. The linebacker played at LSU during his freshman season.
The hype was certainly verified, as Atkins played and started in all 12 games at the linebacker position, not wasting any time in going to work.
For the year, Atkins totaled 84 tackles, 17 tackles for loss, nine sacks, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception. The total tackles and sacks were each the most on the team in 2025, something that stood out about his game.
Atkins got on the stat sheet in each of the 12 games, tallying tackles in the double digits in nine of those. His most productive game of the year came in a road win at Arkansas, when he put up 13 tackles to go along with two sacks and one forced fumble. The game was one of three in which he had double-digit tackles, with the others coming against Texas A&M and Missouri.
As a result of his play, Atkins received Second Team All-America honors by the American Football Coaches Association, Phil Steele and Walter Camp, while also being named to the 2025 First Team All-SEC and a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award.
Preseason camp intel:
It is a reasonable statement to make that the linebacker room might be the best on the team in the 2026 season, and Atkins will once again be leading the charge in their efforts.
Going into his junior season, Atkins and the rest of the linebackers have been encouraged by Golesh to be more vocal and showcase their leadership.
That encouragement has worked, as Atkins was in the midst of a long list of players that Golesh called out in Monday’s press conference as ones that are coming out of their shell.
It was never within doubt that Atkins was going to be one of the clear starters for this defense as the season progresses along after his performance a year ago. The depth chart for the opener against Baylor does not physically signify that he is a starter, but he will get significant playing time.
Atkins has been in the first team reps throughout the entirety of the preseason, taking them alongside Melendez, who is looking to have a breakout sophomore campaign.
With all of the experience that Atkins has had in the system, he has sensed a quicker speed in his play and a natural instinct to know what is going to happen next, which has helped him this preseason and will stand a good chance of helping out as the year begins.
Impacting Auburn ranking
No. 2 - Xavier Atkins
No. 3 - Elijah Melendez
No. 4 - Jeremiah Cobb
No. 5 - Jared Smith
No. 6 - Keshaun Singleton
No. 7 - Cody Sigler
No. 8 - Champ Anthony
No. 9 - Dallas Walker IV
No. 10 - Stanton Ramil
No. 11 - Jeremiah Koger
No. 12 - Da’Shawn Womack
No. 13 - Rayshawn Pleasant
No. 14 - Alex McPherson
No. 15 - Cole Best
No. 16 - Eric Winters
No. 17 - AnQuon Fegans
No. 18 - Omar Mabson II
No. 19 - Jake Johnson
No. 20 - Sylvester Smith-Reed
What do you say? Leave your thoughts on our board below.
Auburn Undercover is an independent Auburn sports media company covering Auburn athletics, recruiting and insider news.
