It appears that Auburn football has made another quality improvement on defense for 2025. Former LSU linebacker Xavier Atkins announced on Wednesday that he is transferring, per Hayes Fawcett of On3 Sports.
“BREAKING: LSU transfer LB Xavier Atkins has Committed to Auburn, he tells On3 Sports.
The 6’0 210 LB will have 3 years of eligibility remaining Ranked as the No. 6 LB in the Portal (per On3 Industry)”
Atkins is heading into his second season, and has a lot to build on after recording just three tackles in two appearances as a freshman.
BREAKING: LSU transfer LB Xavier Atkins has Committed to Auburn, he tells @on3sports
The 6’0 210 LB will have 3 years of eligibility remaining
Ranked as the No. 6 LB in the Portal (per On3 Industry)https://t.co/RlUbB6Fk7q pic.twitter.com/A9zp1RHt5I
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) December 19, 2024
Auburn was in need of help at linebacker, after losing Eugene Asante, Austin Keys and Dorian Mausi Jr.
Auburn football continues to make a splash in the portal
The only perk to Auburn's lackluster 5-7 season, is that coach Freeze and his staff can start planning for what is to come. The Tigers have worked to get things rolling for what needs to be redemption shot for Freeze next year. On the offensive side of the football, the program added two talented transfer portal quarterbacks in Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold and Stanford's Ashton Daniels.
“We're going to try to sign a top, best high school class we can first next Wednesday, Freeze said at the end of November, per Hunter De Siver of SI.com. It's very hard to answer that because as you know, you have no idea what your roster will look like a week from now, so it's kind of difficult to answer. But the first priority is let's get this signing class in next Wednesday, and we'll go from there on what's next.”
Defense is what really needed to be addressed by the Tigers, after surrendering 339.0 opponent yards per game in the 2024-25 campaign. They have a crop of quality commits that the program is excited about, along with the incoming playmaker in Atkins who has already played some college snaps.