Spring preview: Auburn's safety room has rising star potential
Take a in depth look at the 2026 safety room for Auburn football ahead of A-Day weekend.
Auburn football safety room has some young talent that could take a huge leap in year two after great freshman campaigns. Tim Banks leads the Auburn safety room as the new safeties coach after being hired back in December of 2025. The room that he was given is pretty well stacked with young talent that is ready to take that next step in their development.
Last season the Tigers had two freshman standouts in AnQuon Fegans and Eric Winters that combined for 57 tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, one interception and two pass breakups. Winters was the highest graded run defender (92. 0) by Pro Football Focus in the SEC last season.
Banks and many other expect those two to really evolve into some stars on this Tigers defense. Another one of head coach Alex Golesh's former South Florida players followed in the transfer junior Fred Gaskins. The All-AAC safety had 49 tackles, two pass deflections, two interceptions and a forced fumble.
Auburn does have other returning players to play a veteran role in senior senior Champ Anthony, junior Kaleb Harris, senior Jacoby Matthews and junior Sylvester Smith-Reed. The senior Anthony is coming off severe season ending leg injury that derailed his junior season. So he will have a bit of uphill battle in getting healthy as its not clear when exactly he will be able to return.