With Bryan Harsin taking the reins of the Auburn football program and introducing an almost completely new coaching staff, returning players are extremely important to the success of the Tigers in 2021.
Though he could have put his name in for the 2021 NFL Draft, cornerback Roger McCreary elected to return to the Plains for the upcoming season. The most experienced cornerback on the roster, McCreary put up 45 total tackles with 22 tackles for loss in addition to three interceptions and six pass breakups in 2020.
Auburn Undercover reports that his experience has allowed him to step up as a leader during a time of change and adjustment for the Tigers, and cornerbacks coach Zac Etheridge has valued having him around the other guys:
"“His leadership — the guys in the room respect him, the way he learns, the way he practices,” Etheridge said of McCreary. “I leaned on him a lot. Guys like Nehemiah (Pritchett) and Jaylin Simpson, they’ve been around, but they look up to Roger and what he’s done on the field. He doesn’t say much; he leads by example."
According to PFF College, McCreary paired with incoming transfer Dreshun Miller makes for the #3 cornerbacks duo in college football heading into the 2021 season. Falling behind Derek Stingley Jr./Eli Ricks of LSU and Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson/Noah Daniels of TCU, the pair are being billed as top-3 material without ever having played together:
The top-5 CB duos in the country🔒
— PFF College (@PFF_College) July 15, 2021
Who has the most underrated tandem? pic.twitter.com/1s2QIiKxgP
During the 2020 season at WVU, Miller recorded 31 total tackles and one interception along with eight pass breakups. Miller had his Power-5 debut last season with the Mountaineers and finished with the fifth-best forced incompletion rate in the NCAA’s deepest waters, per PFF.
Auburn football has plenty of depth at the cornerback position heading into the fall, and whether it’s Dreshun Miller, Nehemiah Pritchett, or any of the other CBs paired with Roger McCreary, the Tigers should have a formidable duo in the secondary.