Freshman Tre' Williams makes strong first impression

AUBURN -- Heralded freshman Tre' Williams did enough in his first month of practice to be the No. 4 linebacker on the roster, a rare feat for such a young player.

It doesn't ensure Williams, a five-star recruit and one of the top-ranked linebackers in last year's class, will play when Auburn takes on Arkansas on Saturday though. Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson is going to rely on established players in an SEC game and not necessarily throw Williams into the proverbial fire quite yet.

"Doing a good job," Johnson said. "I'm going to be careful, our very first ballgame being an SEC opponent, a 100-degree heat factor, and about 80-something-thousand people, I'm going to err on the side of the veterans. But I'd say, if I graded him out, he's probably about the 4th-best linebacker I've got, and the other three in front of him have played in SEC football games before.

"So until things kind of get flowing and we get into the game, I'm going to make sure he knows what's going on out there before I put a true freshman in that environment. ... I'd rather go with experience, especially early in the game, and then we'll so how it goes."

Williams, who is playing on the weak side, is behind starters Cassanova McKinzy and Kris Frost, and backup Anthony Swain.Cameron Toney, Kenny Flowers and JaViere Mitchell are also in the mix at linebacker.

Johnson was particularly pleased with what he saw from Williams, who has not been available for interviews, during Auburn's two fall camp scrimmages.

"Tre' had two really good scrimmages, very good production picking up the scheme pretty quickly," Johnson said. "He just seemed real comfortable out there."