The Auburn Tigers will head to Athens this weekend without the help of one of their top linebackers, as after much speculation this weekend, Alex Golesh announced on Monday that junior linebacker Xavier Atkins would not be participating in the Tigers’ upcoming matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs.
“We will be without Xavier Atkins this week,” Golesh said. “We'll revisit it next week when we meet again on Monday in here. Keep it in-house in terms of anything beyond that. Really, that would be the only piece of it that I'll be addressing. He won't be with us this week for the game on Saturday, and he won’t be available. We’ll revisit early next week when we meet again here.”
It will be interesting to see how this decision affects the Tigers’ defense, as well as Atkins’ draft stock, since he was expected to be an early-round draft pick at the end of this season. Ideally, this suspension would last just one game, and Atkins would be ready for the LSU game next week.
Atkins, who was a Second-Team All-American last season, will be a notable absence for the Tigers as they take on the No. 1 team in the country this weekend, though the Tigers will have plenty of other linebacker options available.
Leading off that group is Elijah Melendez, a sophomore in the midst of a breakout year. Melendez currently leads the Tigers in total tackles with 43, solo tackles with 28, pass deflections with four and ties Atkins for the lead in sacks with 3.0.
However, after the duo of Melendez and Atkins, there is a pretty sharp drop-off on the stat sheet among the Tigers’ linebackers. Bryce Deas, another sophomore, ranks third on the list, though he’s only accumulated 15 total tackles and eight solo tackles this season.
Then, De’Marcus Riddick, who was a Freshman All-SEC teamer in 2024, ranks fourth among linebackers with five total tackles, four of which were solo tackles. Likely, one or both of Deas or Riddick will need to step up for this matchup if the Tigers want to keep the Dawgs’ strong offense contained, especially without a premier defender like Atkins.
Alex Golesh made it clear that he was not going to shy away from building a strong culture on the Plains in his first year, and he seems to be making the point that no player, regardless of skill, NIL, or accolades, is above reproach in his program. Whatever the reason, it certainly takes guts to bench a player like Atkins– we’ll see how it pays off.
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