Prattville's Derrick Moncrief in line to start at boundary safety for Auburn

AUBURN – Just three days into preseason practice, several of the personnel questions facing the Auburn defense are already being answered.

With Josh Holsey returning to the lineup at boundary cornerback and Jonathon Mincy moving back to field corner, former Prattville star Derrick Moncrief is in position to take over as the starting boundary safety for the Tigers.

"That's kind of how we want it to work out," Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson said of keeping Holsey at corner and Moncrief at safety. "But hey, if another player can beat (Holsey) out, so be it. That's kind of where we feel like we'd love for it to fall. We feel like we have the experience level and the skill sets that we want."

Junior college transfers are expected to contribute early in their careers and Moncrief looks like he'll have the chance to do just that.

After enrolling in January, the 6-foot-2, 218-pound Moncrief practiced with the first team defense all spring and has remained in the role through the first three practices. Moncrief had two tackles, a pass breakup and recovered a fumble on A-Day.

"I love him. I love the emotion he brings," linebacker Cassanova McKinzy said. "He's catching on real fast, he's learning, really, real fast. Safety wise, I feel like he's a go-getter. He's more the type of player that don't want the interception, he wants to hit. I want an interception, but I like players who play with a lot of emotion and he plays with a lot of emotion."

During his two seasons at Mississippi Gulf Coast C.C., Moncrief had 66 tackles and three interceptions.

Moving Holsey, who started six games at boundary safety before tearing his ACL last season, back to boundary corner also shores up the field corner, where Mincy started all 14 games last season.

"He had cover skills and corner skills, and we wanted to get him back out there and see if he could be that boundary corner," Johnson said. "Mincy played there all during the spring, but frankly, it made us really thin over on the field side, and he had done such a great job for us over on the field corner, we felt like we were moving too many people to solve one problem."