Xavier Atkins lands at No. 19 on Top 100 list; should any other Tigers have made it?

Auburn linebacker Xavier Atkins continues to earn national recognition heading into the 2026 season.

Atkins checked in at No. 19 on college football analyst Clark Brooks’ list of the top 100 players in the country, making him Auburn’s lone representative on the list.

Should there have been others from Auburn’s roster represented?

Atkins’ rise is a pretty remarkable rise for a player who arrived at Auburn last year looking for a fresh start and quickly became one of the SEC’s most productive defenders.

“This time last year, Atkins was a disgruntled three-star looking for a fresh start down on the Plains,” Brooks wrote. “Flash forward to today, he’s ripened into On3’s most impactful linebacker in college football.”

Brooks pointed to Atkins’ production as the biggest reason for the ranking. His 10 sacks were the most by an off-ball linebacker since 2023, and his 81 impact plays led all returning linebackers entering the 2026 season.

“But, he wasn’t just compiling counting stats,” Brooks added. “Atkins’ 11.4 percent clip on a per play basis ranked in the top 10 among high volume Power Four defenders.”

Atkins earned second-team All-America honors from multiple outlets in 2025 and was a consensus first-team All-SEC selection. He was also a semifinalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award, earned SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors and was named the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week during the season.

Former Auburn receiver Cam Coleman, now at Texas, landed on the list at No. 7.

As for current Auburn players, it’s fair to wonder if anyone else had a case.

Quarterback Byrum Brown is probably the first name that comes to mind. Brown is one of only a handful of Division I quarterbacks to ever throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards in the same season. On talent and production alone, there’s certainly an argument for him.

At the same time, Brown is making the jump into the SEC. It’s understandable why some national analysts may want to see him do it at this level before putting him among the top 100 players in the sport. For comparison, Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton is the last quarterback to make the Top 100 list.

Beyond Brown, it’s hard to identify another Auburn player who clearly belongs on the list right now.

That doesn’t mean Auburn lacks talent. It just means this is still a roster trying to prove itself nationally after years of inconsistent results and a massive offseason overhaul under first-year coach Alex Golesh.

In some ways, that could work in Auburn’s favor.

The Tigers are getting very little national hype compared to some other programs entering coaching transitions. There aren’t any preseason All-Americans outside of maybe Atkins. There aren’t many players showing up on top-100 lists. Outside of Atkins, Auburn is largely being overlooked.

That’s fine.

Golesh has spent much of the offseason talking about mindset, toughness and building a connected football team. It’s easy to imagine him using lists like this as motivation.

Whether Auburn exceeds expectations this fall remains to be seen. But if the Tigers are going to surprise people, they’ll have plenty of bulletin-board material to work with.