LB Elijah Sullivan bringing 'extreme pop' to the Plains

AUBURN – Elijah Sullivan is quiet and laid back off the field, but is as ferocious as they come on the gridiron.

The three-star linebacker prospect and Auburn commit is "probably is one of the most violent players, in terms of his physicality and explosion" that Tucker coach Bryan Lamar has ever encountered.

"He has extreme pop," Lamar said. "He hits people, he knocks guy's helmets off. He knocks people off their feet."

A long list of Division I players have come through Tucker over the years, including Auburn linebacker Justin Garrett, but Sullivan's "ability to strike" is what make him unique to Lamar.

"Whether he's at fullback blocking people, whether he's at linebacker tackling people, he's extremely explosive and he's really fast and he's strong," Lamar said. "For him to go and squat 400 pounds that's nothing. He's still got some work to do (in his upper body). He's got a naturally strong lower body that causes him to power clean a lot, he can squat a lot, and that transfers over to the field."

One of the earliest commitments to Auburn's 2015 recruiting class, Sullivan was originally being considered for the "star" position by the prior defensive staff but is being looked at as a linebacker, where Auburn has three other commits to this year's class, by the new regime.

"They want me to play more of an inside linebacker type thing," Sullivan said. "It's fine; I've played it before in the past throughout my whole football career. It's not too much of a big change."

Sullivan was part of the massive contingent of recruits to visit campus the weekend of Jan. 16-18 and remains "100 percent" committed to Auburn leading up to National Signing Day.

The 6-foot-1 215 pound Sullivan never wavered during the change in defensive coaches. He knew new Auburn linebackers coach Lance Thompson from when he was recruiting his high school teammate Jonathan Ledbetter, a Georgia commit, and also had a prior relationship with Will Muschamp.

"I got to help them out," Sullivan said, "bring those recruits in."

With Kris Frost and Cassanova McKinzy returning and backups Garrett, Tre' Williams and Anthony Swain also back, it could be a little while before Sullivan sees a lot of reps on defense.

If Sullivan's career starts on special teams that could allow him to showcase the abilities that made a lasting impressing on Lamar.

As a sophomore, Sullivan took the field midway through the season after a leg injury forced him to miss the first five games.

"We put him out there and he would just kill people," Lamar said. "It was like NFL highlights of this guy running down on special teams. He was so relentless and explosive."