Why Auburn football DL coach Jeremy Garrett wants to find 8 linemen to play 3 spots

AUBURN — Before joining Auburn football coach Hugh Freeze's staff at Liberty in 2022, new Tigers defensive line coach Jeremy Garrett was coaching in the NFL.

Garrett, a Mississippi native who also worked under Freeze at Ole Miss, was an assistant defensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns from 2020-21. He had the opportunity to work with one of the league's best pass rushers in Myles Garrett, along with others like Jadeveon Clowney.

He also quickly learned depth isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.

"The NFL is a long season, and you've got to have depth," Garrett said Thursday. "Well, the next step down from the NFL is the SEC."

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Garrett described defensive coordinator Ron Roberts' scheme as a 3-4 front, meaning there are typically three defensive linemen on the field for each play. The positions for those linemen are defensive end, defensive tackle and nose tackle.

The nose, as Garrett described, needs to be "powerful" and "heavy" and have the ability to take on double teams and "hold the point." The defensive tackle should have a bit more prowess as a pass rusher, and the end is simply "a more athletic tackle."

Garrett had four spots on his defensive line with the Flames last year. There were nine players at those positions that finished the season with at least 10 total tackles, including Durell Johnson, who finished with 27.5 tackles for loss and nine sacks from the defensive end spot.

The desire for depth isn't new for Garrett.

"For those three positions, if I can find eight guys that can play, we’re cooking," he said.

The Tigers have added three defensive linemen from the transfer portal with Power 5 experience this offseason − Justin Rodgers (Kentucky), Mosiah Nasili-Kite (Maryland) and Lawrence Johnson (Purdue). They're added to a group that already features Jeffrey M'ba, Marcus Harris, Jayson Jones and Zykeivous Walker, among others.

Garrett explained how many of the players have been practicing at multiple positions this spring, but he listed Harris, M'ba and Tobechi Okoli as a defensive ends, Rogers, Johnson and Walker as nose/defensive tackles and Nasili-Kite as a defensive end/tackle.

Harris, a senior who collected 30 tackles and two sacks in 2022, can also play defensive tackle.

"You never know when you're going to need a guy, so you've got to develop as many guys as you possibly can and rotate them early and often," Garrett said. "Because those − I call it mileage − those plays and that mileage builds up throughout the year.

"So, when you get to Game 7, 8 and 9, you don’t have the same guy you had in Game 1 because they’ve taken on so many reps. ... I believe in getting those guys ready to go, as many as we can, as fresh as we can, and just keep attacking those offensive linemen the whole game.”

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn football: Jeremy Garrett wants to find eight playable linemen