Auburn's secondary has much to prove after a mediocre 2012 season. With only one starter gone, the group has a lot of experience returning with the cornerback spot being a strength of the unit.

Like the linebackers last season, the secondary went through a lot of growing pains with injuries and tackling problems. The pass defense ranked No. 48 in the country and No. 8 in the SEC. It surrendered over 220 yards per game through the air. For a group that didn't make an interception in 2012, cornerbacks coach Melvin Smith has made creating more turnovers a top priority since coming to Auburn after spending the previous seven seasons at Mississippi State. This past season, Smith's defensive backs had 16 interceptions. With the 4-2-5 defense brought in by defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson, Auburn's two cornerbacks will play mostly zone coverage and a lot of 3-deep zone coverage which should produce more interceptions in the fall. Chris Davis (Photo courtesy of AUTigers.com) Led by Chris Davis and Jonathon Mincy in the spring, the cornerbacks surprised the coaches by making picks in practice every day. Both Davis and Mincy played with the first-team at cornerback throughout the spring and will start there in the fall. Davis has made 125 career tackles with 16 career starts. Mincy has 15 career starts and looks to continue last season's success after making 57 tackles with four passes broken up. Co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach Charlie Harbison spent the last four years at Clemson coaching the defensive backs and also worked with Johnson at Alabama in 2000 and Mississippi State in 2007. Harbison and Johnson used spring practice to evaluate Auburn's returning safeties and to find the best fit for the three safeties in Johnson's base defense. Justin Garrett (Photo courtesy of AUTigers.com) The player with the most important role in the 4-2-5 defense is the Star safety, a hybrid safety-linebacker who has the ability to handle a linebacker's responsibilities against the running game and enough speed to cover players on the outside. Former strong-side linebacker Justin Garrett made the move to Star at the beginning of spring and instantly became the best player on the field. With most of his playing time in 2012 coming on special teams, Garrett's impressive spring earned him the No. 1 spot at Star. Robenson Therezie, a former cornerback, made the move to Star and will likely stay there as Garrett's backup. Therezie is better suited at Star because of his speed and physical nature. The starter at boundary safety is Josh Holsey. As boundary safety, Holsey's job is to play on the short side of the field and roll down into the box at times to stack the line of scrimmage against the run. Despite making only six starts last season, Holsey made 30 tackles, two tackles-for-loss and broke up a team-leading six passes. Trent Fisher had a good spring before missing time with an ankle injury. Last season, he started two games, made 16 tackles and had the one interception for Auburn's secondary. He will serve as a backup to Holsey. Jermaine Whitehead, the only returning defensive player to start every game in 2012, gets the nod at field safety and will be responsible for lining up on the wide side and playing deep in the middle against the pass. Last season, he recorded 86 tackles including four for loss with one sack and five pass breakups. Ryan Smith will be the backup at field safety after recording 27 tackles in just four games in 2012. Phil Marion Next week: Special Teams Quarterbacks and Wide Receivers Running Backs Offensive Line Defensive Line Linebackers