Rather abruptly, depth in the secondary has become more than a mild concern for Gus Malzahn and his defensive staff.
Friday we noted that defensive back Kamryn Melton took to Twitter to announce that he has decided to transfer from The Plains. He’s not the only one as, in addition to Melton, Malzahn confirmed that Derrick Moncrief and Joe Turner are exiting his football program as well.
Both those two players are, naturally, defensive backs.
“Kamryn, Derrick and Joe have decided to transfer and purse playing opportunities elsewhere,” the head coach said in a statement. “We thank them for their time at Auburn and wish them well in the future.”
Moncrief was the only one of the three to see the field in 2014, playing in all 13 games after coming to the Tigers in January of 2014 as the No. 1 JUCO safety in the nation. In an interview with the Montgomery Advertiser, Moncrief stated that things simply weren’t working out for him at AU.
“I came in as the No. 1 safety in the country and things are just not going well there,” Moncrief said. “But Auburn was a good place, I just want to thank them for everything, for them recruiting me, and I wish them the best of luck.”
According to Moncrief, AU has restricted him from transferring from any team in the SEC as well as any team on the Tigers’ non-conference schedule the next two years. That means, in addition to league foes, he won’t be permitted to move on to Louisville, Jacksonville State, San Jose State and Idaho (2015 opponents) or Clemson, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe and Alabama A&M (2016 opponents). The paper also wrote that Moncrief stated "[h]e’d like to play at another [Power Five] program, possibly in the ACC, Big Ten or Pac-12.”
To where the other two may transfer is unknown.
With the trio of departures, the Tigers now have just nine defensive backs on their roster, only seven of whom are healthy. They will, though, add at least four defensive backs from this year’s recruiting class in the summer.